In the midst of a music industry that has reached total lameness, there is nothing more refreshing than a band that has balls.

This breed of band just doesn’t care what the labels say, basically sending a big “fuck you” to the whole music industry.

Pearl Jam is the ballsiest band around, and it has been giving the finger to record executives since 1993 when it stopped making videos for its singles.

It has once again turned the heads of the suits and fans alike by releasing recordings of every show from their recent European tour. At $13 apiece, these double-disc albums have different song lists and are the band’s attempt to thwart bootleggers.

The band recently announced it will also be releasing recordings from the dates of the upcoming U.S. tour.

A move like this takes balls.

First off, all Pearl Jam fans aren’t going to buy every single one of these records even if it is cheap. So it’s not like the band is making a killing off these, which means its label, Sony, isn’t making any money either. And labels don’t like it when it doesn’t make money.

Also, Pearl Jam put out a live CD in 1998, so its fans have already captured the band on a live disc; it’s not like a live Pearl Jam record is in high demand.

But a move like this is refreshing, and it says that Pearl Jam wants to satisfy any fans it can – then band just doesn’t care what the critics say.

Another band that has shown a fearless move is the Offspring. It has expressed its love for Napster and proclaim the file sharing service to be great for the music industry. Following this thinking, it wanted to release its next album for free on the Internet.

Unlike the Pearl Jam situation, the Offspring’s label, also Sony, decided to intervene by threatening a law suit. The band still managed to release its new single on the Internet.

For obvious financial reasons, offering to release the record for free took guts, and it showed that the Offspring love its fans and aren’t overly concerned about making money.

Limp Bizkit’s recent stunt of releasing two singles at the same time, including two “TRL”-bound videos, has also raised some eyebrows.

Sure, this is Fred Durst at his finest – an attention-hungry media-whore who will do anything to make a headline, including doing a duet with pop star Christina Aguilera.

But whether or not you like Durst or Limp Bizkit, the band took a risk, and it could lose or make many fans.

Zebrahead is another band who may be making headlines soon as it plans to release a copy of the latest single, “Playmate of the Year,” with the actual playmate of the year issue of Playboy magazine.

This is a band who has a pretty large female fan-base, and a brave move like this may offend some of those fans – not to mention the video for the single was shot at the Playboy mansion, and actual playmates are featured on the band’s latest album cover and in the liner notes.

Teaming up with a widely-read magazine like Playboy could easily mean Zebrahead will be exposed to a larger audience, which is cool. But some fans who don’t quite know the meaning of the word sellout may accuse it of doing so.

Bands such as Rage Against the Machine have taken an aggressive political stance. Its latest video for “Testify” is filled with political issues, and it uses clever imagery to bash the two-party system and show support for Green party contender Ralph Nader.

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is also pushing for the third-party candidate and will once again perform in support of him at a Madison Square Garden Nader rally on Oct. 13.

Political moves such as this could very easily offend fans of these artists, but it’s all about the band taking a stand for what it believes in, despite the consequences. That’s pretty brave.

Then there’s Metallica, a band with one of the most loyal fan-base ever, who must have thought it would be cool to rat out 300,000 fans for using file-sharing Napster to trade Metallica music. But now those fans are removed from the service, and I’m sure they have removed themselves from being Metallica fans.

This didn’t show audacity; it showed lameness. People let them know at the MTV Video Music Awards when drummer Lars Ulrich was booed on stage.

There are only a couple ways to keep a strong reputation for yourself in the music industry. Artists such as Madonna, 311 and the Deftones do it by reinventing itself musically from record to record.

Or you can do it by pulling a ballsy move. Both of these approaches are actually quite daring – it could completely backfire or it could make you even bigger than you were before.

Either way, these are the people who keep the industry interesting, providing just enough excitement to keep the die-hard music fan coming back for more.