Ok,what's an obscure band or artist do you love?

What type of music and why do you love it.

I like a band called Lake back in the early eighties,it may have been the time,but I don't think they ever made it. Another band from back then was City Boy.

Check em out, their new album is called "The Meadowlands" and it's a masterpiece.

I'll look them up.

"The Meadowlands" is an EXCELLENT album! :thumbsup:

The Smugglers

They're the BEST.

Rah, rah, sis boom bah! Well, I love Vancouver, Vancouver is my hometown...

Vancouver B.C., Vancouver, B.C. ...

It's that kinda wow that makes it great!

Although there are bound to be some hipsters at DU that know how important they were.

Guilty Pleasure Obscure Band: Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies. Not "important", not groundbreaking, but they still kick ass (in a bar-band sort of way)

They had the sound of every pop/rock group of the 90s but back in the 80s.

They do a kick ass rendition of "Seasons in the Sun". :)

I'm finally going to break down and order it from them. I don't think the local indy record store is ever going to get it in.

PS: They were brilliant in the 90s, too.

Former lead singer from Wall of Voodoo (remember Mexican Radio?). His solo stuff is just wonderful - clever lyrics and unusual, rich, orchestral arrangements. A lot of his songs are stories. He's definitely my favorite.

I just love Wall of Voodoo. I have their obscure EP releases.

Mike Keneally - Sort of a pop/rock, atonal, jazz, fusion, singer/songwriter progressive thing. He used to play with Frank Zappa. Hell of a nice guy. www.keneally.com

Stuart Davis - The originator of post-apocalyptic punk-folk. Songs about Zen, sex and death in perfect three-minute pop ditties. www.stuartdavis.com

Mieka Pauley - Female singer/songwriter out of Boston. I've heard a lot of this sort of thing...but there's something different about her. www.mieka.com

Kevin Gilbert - Wrote all of Sheryl Crow's good stuff from the first album, which she then took credit for. The genius behind Toy Matinee and 2 1/2 brilliant solo albums. Sadly no longer with us, but the man's music was absolute perfection. It makes me want to leap about with joy and weep with sadness at the same time. www.kevingilbert.com

He played a really serious dive of a club in Cincinnati. Had some technical problems, but overall it was a good show. He seemed happy enough with it, and the crowd was only middling but very responsive. My ex used to have a copy of 'hat' that we listened to quite a lot, though I never bought any more of his stuff.

I have three local/regional bands most people won't have heard of:

The Raisins
The Bears
psychodots

Bonus if anybody knows which Zappa alumnus was in one of these bands.

Who I also used to really like, before he got all full of himself. I have the vinyl LPs that got compiled as Desire of the Rhino King, and they're all quite amazing. Then he decided he wanted to be a pop star.

Remember the name of the place or the date?

fronted by Kim Shattuck formerly of The Pandoras-- pop-punk growling at its feminine finest.

at hitting it big. They just ended up releasing too much slow, sub-par material as time went on. Their early stuff is phenomenal though.

Did they break up?

since Alert Today, Alive Tommorow is a fairly slow and introspective album, especially when compared to their earlier stuff. But I don't find it odd that they haven't hit it big time, their sound isn't abrasive enough for young punks and too rough edged for popsters-- plus they're all in their 30's now and Kim doesn't wrestle naked with boa constrictors or pole dance in her skivvies.

They're still together-- Kim made an album with some friends including the singer from Cub-- a great Canadian cuddle-core band. But she's now working on a new Muffs album.

Going to my first Clark meetup tonight-- will be blasting Happy Birthday to Me on the drive out!

Fun, fun band that just plays....weird music.

They're from Long Island, that's why I know them.

<eom>

though. I'm betting none of you has heard of them.

:D

Yeah. They were pretty cool. Kind of like a pop version of Black Oak Arkansa minus the Jim Dandy histrionics.

Pennywise is pretty obscure I guess

Son Volt kinda is

Helmet is not really obscure but very underrated.

Orange 9mm

North Mississippi Allstars

I got some more...I think...hmm...I'll get back to you. :)

Great name, a great band. Started in LA in 1972 and their first single was "He's Waiting" by the Sonics b/w "Light Bulb Blues" by the Shadows of Knight. Just so out of place for 1972, but freaking brilliant.

They put out four singles through the '70s, then an EP two albums in the '80s, then did some not-so-great stuff later on, but I love them for sticking to what they believe in and for their devotion to DIY music back when it was pretty hard to get people to hear your stuff. I always like to give them a plug whenever I can.

DJs and producers extraordinaire. Experts in downtempo and dub n bass. Their K & D Sessions LP is a must have.

Wide, wide river is so "au courant"

Love those Fugs!

He's a great guy and a great poet. On another thread, I proposed him for White House Chief of Staff.

and the juliana theory

Wookie Foot is local to Minneapolis. Thay play at the Quest when they're home. Weird, not ground breaking just weird. DKM is from Boston, punk and Irish folk as punk. "Rocky Road to Dublin" as punk, fun stuff.

"Wookie Foot and Dropkick Murphys"

You should send that one to Dave Barry.

http://www.davebarry.blogspot.com

He collects clever band names.

you rock, you rock you rock

they are amazing:)

Wonderful voices all.

I love him because he takes a classic Americana genre and writes soe badass tunes with great musicians

"Guyana Punch, oh, oh, oh, oh."

"All the pretty girls, in high school
All the pretty girls, in high school
Make me SICK"

Punk/New Wavey coolness.
http://www.thejudys.com/

Mojo

:shrug:

Both Scottish indie bands.

met her and she is wonderful, as is her music.

she's a great songwriter too

Awesome!

maybe not officially 'obscure', but off the path for sure.

--snip--
b. 1955, Paris, France. Although of African descent, Walter Badarou was born in France, where his physician parents were educated (his father later became ambassador to France from the family's West African homeland, Benin - formerly known as Dahomey). <...>His keyboard playing was crucial to M's worldwide hit, "Pop Musik", in 1979, and he also collaborated with Joe Cocker, Herbie Hancock, Grace Jones, Level 42 and Black Uhuru. Flushed by a steady flow of session work, particularly with Level 42, with whom he also produced, he opened his own studio in Nassau, Bahamas. He subsequently composed film scores, the best known of which is Kiss Of The Spider Woman. Here his expressive use of synthesizers belied the instrument's reputation for frigidity by invoking the warmth of his African heritage and Caribbean home with easy, rhythmic passages. These happy musical narratives were further expressed on two albums recorded for Island Records in the late 80s, although the second of these showed his classical background and had a slightly more restrained mood.
--snip-
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/badarou_wally/bio.jhtml

Folksy type stuff from way back. They did the song "Monkeys on the Moon". My parents used to sing that one to my sister and I when we were wee lasses.

...The Gourds, The Long Winters, Bobby Bare, Jr...

Love the New Pornographers, great band. You like Zumpano, Carl Newmann's last band? They were FANTASTIC!

I saw the Pornographers back in August. It was a GREAT show.

not all their songs, but a few are exceptional.

An instrumental surf-rock quartet from my homestate of Connecticut. They've actually made quite a name for themselves regionally, and have released four CDs since 1998. But since their music only ever gets played on college radio, I think it's safe to say that 9th Wave is obscure!

Check out their web site: http://www.9thwavesurf.com

An old British rock band. Solid sound and great vocals by Jenny Haan. I had 3 or 4 vinyl albums they produced in the 1970s.

Mark E Smith ranting mancunian nonsense over a bunch of great guitar noise. And awesome drumming.

Especially the boss mid-eighties stuff, like "This Nation's Saving Grace." "Cruiser's Creek!" is definitely one of my all-time top twenty tunes.

Recently they've been putting out reams of semi-official live albums; too many to keep track of. But that eighties material is immortal. Byron Coley, the critic, once called Mark E Smith "The finest philosopher to emerge from post-war Britain," and I can't disagree with that.

Yeah, that and "Slates" were the first Fall records I ever bought. That's a great one; so lo-fi! They invented Pavement with that record.


"He-e-e-e-e is not....appreeeeeciated...."

NO! You don't, do you? I win. That's it, I just win.

:D

That's great though that there are other Fall fans on DU!

Dude, I gots me some Soft Machine BOOTLEGS, muthascratcha! I'm the biggest Robert Wyatt fan in Nashville. I even like the Mike Ratledge-led lineup, up until "Sixth," anyway.

Tomorrow? Steve Howe's first band? "My White Bicycle?" Never got into them enough to purchase any of their reissues.

Caravan: "Land of Pink and Grey" is an okay prog album, but not one of my favorite bands of that genre.

How about Van Der Graaf Generator, huh? "Godbluff" and "The Quiet Zone" are some killer albums.

Hatfield and the North? "Let's Eat (Real Soon)" is a song I put on almost every mix tape I make, no matter who it's for.

Man, I'm all abouts da Canterbury/prog obscurites, nephew.

Hatfield and the North was my second favorite group ever, and the one I most wish I could have played in. (My absolute favorite was Henry Cow, and I never had the chops to play their material!)

The closest I got was, I booked a solo gig for bassist/singer Richard Sinclair about ten years ago, and I had just purchased a marimba that I was interested in showing off to the world. Richard was intrigued at my idea that one could play Canterbury on marimba, so we worked out a brief duo set, which included "Nan's True Hole," "Felafel Shuffle," and an unrecorded tune he was messing about with over the course of the tour. The silly part was that for the marimba to be audible at all we had to mic it real close, and that meant I kept bumping into the mic with the mallets.

Richard still plays all his songs from Land of Gray and Pink. They hold up quite well over time. Do you have his indie CDs, and/or the semi-authorized release of his demos with Hugh Hopper? Why I like his stuff is that, while his melodies are intricate and his harmonies are difficult, the vibe he projects is warm and inviting and droll. It's like Richard has this elaborate tune constantly evolving in his head, and every so often he chops off chunks of it and makes a record.

Hopper's post-Softs stuff is all over the map too, my favorite of these being the Caveman Hughscore material with Fred Chalenor-- who himself used to play with the very excellent Amy Denio in Tone Dogs.

I would suggest Curlew's A Beautiful Western Saddle, with Amy Denio singing, as my favorite obscurity, except (a) somehow I suspect you already have it, and (b) we lost everybody else about three posts ago.

Great spacey band from the mid 70s with Steve Hillage on guitar.

I know, I always plug ARU.... :7

Seriously, the CDs are out of print. PM me and I'll swap some burns...

:toast:

We actually have a CD of ARU's previous incarnation Hampton Grease Band. Really trippy and funny, people say Hampton used to play in Piedmont Park and sing onstage naked standing on a pizza. :-)

If you only knew how many times Bruce has switched gears.




Honestly, PM me and I'll burn you an OOP CD....


:toast:

"Music to Eat" by the HGB. Fantastic album to get stoned to.

They kick some serious ass, big fan of alt-hip-hop...J5, DJ Shadow, etc.

Thanks for reminding me, I have been wanting to get the CD since I heard it on the radio on the way to the airport.

(quote)+||emerson||+(endquote)

Great mix of hardcore, emo and punk.

I describe the music that I like best as: 'ethereal wall-of-sound'...Lush and Catherine Wheel generally fall into this category.

Listen here
Nice web site.

The best way to describe them is "folkadelic". They're from the late 1960's, and managed, somehow, to fuse Scottish folk and "raga rock".

Renaissance, Kaleidescope (either the Turkish-American or UK bands by that name), Spirit (less obscure, but few people have heard their whole albums), and The Move are my current non-major band favorites, although they were significantly bigger in their age (Led Zeppelin used to open for Spirit, providing Jimmy Page plenty of opportunity to rip off Randy California's guitar passage from Taurus to use as the opeining to Stairway).

Alphaville is probably a little better known ("Forever Young") but I just love Wolfsheim. Both bands are from Germany and both would have been classified as "modern" rock in the 1980s. Alphaville is a little more commercial. Wolfsheim is brilliant, the band Depeche Mode could have been, with beautifully dark music. Anyone that has heard "Once in a Lifetime" knows what I'm talking about.

The Pursuit of Happiness - out of Toronto. Moe Berg is a great songwriter.

http://www.kimmitchell.ca/

I just love Kim Mitchell. Kind of a guilty pleasure, I guess.

but most of what I listen to is obscure. Recently have been getting into obscure 60's bands like Love.

Lee "Scratch Perry

http://www.upsetter.net/scratch/

"Do it Hank! Do it Frank! From Bank to Bank!"

I like his productions with the Upsetters from the late sixties, and his later stufbefore he burned down the Black Ark. And "Heart of the Congoes" is one of my favorite Reggae albums, esp. the reish mix that cmae out 'round 96. Man, what a lo-fi mix! Sounds like it was recorded on a four track, then intentionally bumped down eight generations....

If it's available anywhere, be sure to check out the issue of Grand Royal (The BEastie Boys magazine) from 95 with the interview/feature with Scratch. It's dope, as the kids say.

If you ever get a chance to see him live, go because it will one of the best live shows you ever see. Talk about the low fi dub, it swirls around you.. My personal fav (besides Black Ark stuff) is "Sounds From Yard".

Imagine how music would be different without the presence of the Upsetter.

First identifiable shift from ska to reggae, a Lee Perry song.

All that great stuff he did with Marley, Tosh and Bunny Wailer in the true revolutionary spirit of sneaking them into the studio in the middle of the night so they didn't have to pay for rental.

One of the founders of dub, perhaps even the inventor of it depending on who you ask.

and his nickname was "Scratch" long before rap appeared.

is one of my all-time favorite tunes. I absolutely love Lee "Scratch" Perry. I have never seen him live.

http://www.daxo.de/

One of the weirdest and coolest musicians on the planet.

Stanton Moore,
Dramarama,
JFA,
Meat Puppets,
Sergeant Garcia,

OK. Enough. That covers quite a few genres there, at any rate.

Junior Mance,
Wayne Horvitz,
Bireli Lagrene,
Pearl Django,
Suba,
Arthur H,

OK. I'll stop now. I swear.

King Missile; Terry Allen; Camper Van Beethoven....

Saw them live a few months back, though, and they are a much better recording band than live.

God I miss the tour and the boys and they deserved more recognition then they got.

They were one of the best bands.

Never much liked that singer though.

One time I taped the cover of Mad Magazine on his door and put his name under it and said dressing room. Everyone started calling him Alfred E. after that.
He got so pissed off because he thought that he was good looking.

The Schenker brothers were very attractive and they are musicians.

I don't know if they qualify under this category....

I used to like them until Uli Roth left - though he really never fit the band very well. Unbelievable guitar player. And I always really liked Klause M's voice. Lost interest a couple years before they hit the charts in the usa.

So Corarose what did you do in the music business again? I think I remember you posting about that, but I can't remember what you wrote.

You worked with UFO? You didn't care for Phil Mogg either? He had a terrible vibrato, awful lyrics, and he always sang behind the beat.

I got bitched out one time by John Knowels(?) for putting the picture on Phil Moogs door.

Another time I picked up Petes bottle of JD or JW Black or Red it was some strong shit and I took a swing out of it and he went nuts because you didn't touch Petes booze.

My Ex worked for the Pretenders, Simple Minds, Adam Ant and the bands that were connected to those groups.


The Scorpions use to hire Road Crew from I believe Hamburg and one time this good looking roadie tried to CHAT me up and he didn't speak English and he kept calling me Frauline and I can't forget that because as I was walking away from his I tripped over a curtian and it came open and I was standing behind them onstage. I ended up going to the Bus and talking to this guy that worked for Iron Maiden or Metillca(?).

Great music to party hard too.

rules all of your asses.

if I hadn't mentioned Captain Beyond yesterday. HA! IN YOUR FACE!

If you ever get a chance to see them, by all means, do. Founded by Cody and Luther Dickinson (sons of the legendary Jim Dickinson). They've been featured on HBO's "Reverb" and they tour all over the country. Great music, and they are a lot of fun to watch. Catch them if you can.

This is one of the best live acts in music right now. I alos really like the first two CDs by these guys, but Polaris sucks IMO.

you've never heard of, is:::

http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Distortion_Plus/

Rock on

...

No Exit is, in my humble opinion, the single most underrated album of the 80's.


MDN

Plays mostly in the midwest. "Song of Crazy Horse" is his major work -- about a thirty-minute riff on Native American history. But "Flushed You From the Toilets of My Heart" is pretty good, too.

For a while there, I though Blackfoot was dead. But he's apparently still out there.

Spongetones!
Spongetones!

...called The Spy. ( www.1053thespy.com <--listen live) They play a lot of obscure bands and while some of them suck, a lot of them are wonderful. Right now I love it when the band Jen comes on singing "It's Just a Ride."
Duckie

Alabama 3,

Poi Dog Pondering

They only recorded one hit that I know of, Moonlight Feels Right. But I love them and have their CD. Anybody else remember them?

out of North Florida. THeir first album from a few years ago is one of the best Soul/R&B albums released in years IMO. These guys have been touring with Robert Randolph and/or The North Mississippi All-Stars lately. If you get a chance check them out, they will equal or better the headline acts.

Martin Newell is Wivenhoe's Renaissance man. Gardener, poet, musician, film maker, comedian, festival organiser, drinker....

Here are some snips from Trouser Press:

"Martin Newell is resident poet with the Independent and the most published contemporary poet in England today."

"If you need some insightful lyrical wisdom, look no further, as Britain’s most published poet returns with his first newly recorded album for many a year. Martin Newell is one of a unique, very rare breed of really gifted English songwriters in the mould of Ray Davies and Nick Drake."



That's Martin on the left in the top hat. The bloke in the red beret is Captain Sensible, I believe.

Going to see them on New Years eve, can't wait.

BBQ Killers and the Killkenney Kats as well from the Athen's scene.

Five Eight?

Anybody besides me like 'em?

from that whole weird English scene that produced Monty Python, the Rutles. I think they also had something to do with Magical Mystery Tour.
seen this web page?
http://www.iankitching.me.uk/music/bonzos/

"... and looking very relaxed, Adolph Hitler on vibes ..."

my pink half of the drainpipe! trouser press! tent! can blue men sing the whites! bad blood! big shot!

Viv Stanshell was one of the most underappreciated geniuses of his time.

The first time I met my (future) wife, she turned to me and said, "You got a light, Mack?" I replied, "No, but I've got a dark brown overcoat." It was love......

Didn't mind his stuff...

Gibson Bros., Great Plains, anything featuring Jim Shepard (Vertical Slit, V-3, etc.), Gaunt, Bassholes, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Jenny Mae, Them Wranch...

The list goes on and on.

Per Somnia, Sunless, The Endparty. They're related, and all are produced by the same company.

Dark, soft, sweet with tones of goth and punk, but melodic and harmonic. Rock for classical music lovers. And the vocal artists they find.... Oh my....

They were at mp3.com. Now you have to go to their website.

Politicat

A Celtic Rock band that writes absolutely haunting music.

I'm also still a huge fan of *Country Joe and the Fish*, *Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen* and *Kinky Friedman and his Texas Jew-Boys*.

Okay. I already know that I'm weird.

British folk rock from the 60's. Basket of Light is an kickarse album. Anyone heard of them?

Interesting combination of folk, early music and jazz. Their live album (Was it Basket of Light?) was incredible. They made music well into the 70s. I had a bunch of their albums on tape. Fairport Convention and the Silly sisters were good too. I love Maddy Prior and June Tabor who are both still recording.

"Switchin to Glide"

Theyre a local band that has a huge following in Kentucky.

Great band. Does punkesque cover tunes.

First album covered 70's singer songwriters type tunes.
1. Danny's Song
2. Leaving On A Jet Plane
3. Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard
4. One Tin Soldier
5. Uptown Girl
6. I Am A Rock
7. Sweet Caroline
8. Seasons In The Sun
9. Fire And Rain
10. Nobody Does It Better
11. Mandy
12. Rocket Man

Second album showtunes.
Third album tunes of the late '50's and '60's
Fourth album Motown / R&B hits.


If you got the cash, buy them all. You won't regret it!

"alternative" rock, the lyrics are amazing, the sound is brutal (i heard "eject" when i was just getting into real music, about a decade ago - hear it if you get the chance)

Pretty forceful live, one of those bands that was doomed to be less successful than their imitators.

Kings of Convenience, Placebo, Rufus Wainwright, the Postal Service, and hundreds more.

sagged mid-career. Placebo got big enough in Canada for me to see them in a 1,500 capacity hall.

They were really popular in upstate NY from about '72 to the early 80's. I must have seen them play more than 50 times. They were a bizarre mix of Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, and John Coltrane. Their music was the soundtrack to my life from my late teens to mid twenties.

David Torn, their guitarist, went on to a successful career in the music biz, most recently playing on David Bowie's "Heathen" album. He's better known for his jazz and experimental work; also a lot of work on movie soundtracks.