Listening Post

There's a pretty good chance you've never heard of Platinum Weird.

They were a one-off project put together by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics in 2004 that was known largely for the clever hoax concocted to sell the band to an audience that was guaranteed to know nothing about them. (Obviously it didn't work that well.) Stewart devised a plan in which Platinum Weird would be promoted as a band that was actually created back in the 70s and had performed one legendary gig at Mick Jagger's house before dropping off the face of the earth. The reason they'd supposedly broken up was that their mystical female lead singer had suddenly vanished. The joke was that the one gig the band played wound up influencing everyone from the Stones to Elton John to Fleetwood Mac, and Stewart even put together an elaborate back story on the internet that included film clips on YouTube of today's singers talking about how inspired they were by the music of Platinum Weird. According to the fictional story, Stewart eventually met a young singer in New York who, strangely, knew the words to even unreleased Platinum Weird material, supposedly because she'd wound up living next to the band's original elusive frontwoman for several years; he ultimately put the band back together with her as vocalist.

Of course these days, the most famous thing about Platinum Weird is the identity of that young singer and songwriter -- the one who actually recorded with Stewart and had worked with him on the project from the very beginning.

Kara DioGuardi.

Sure she talks a lot about her storied career as a songwriter while judging on American Idol, but if you've ever been curious to actually hear her in action, now's your chance.

Here's Platinum Weird -- Will You Be Around.