Bands that *should* have made it

A have, the Bell rays. I saw them several years ago at Sleazefest in Chapel Hill. The MC5 fronted by a female Rob Tyner. It was a hell of a show. I immediately bought their cd from the merch table. Great band.

 

I haven't heard anyone talk about Tommy Conwell in a long time. Saw them play in Delaware -- they had a pretty big following in the University of Delaware/Philly area in the late 80's

 

Teenage Head:



Popular in their native Canada, got signed to MCA (who insisted on a name change to "Teenage Heads"). MCA bungled the whole thing trying to market them as a "new-wave" type act.

 

Lone Justice
Green on Red
The Dream Syndicate

 

The problem with Free Design might have been the label they were with. Signed to someone like Warner Brothers, I don't see how they miss.

 

Local heavy metal band called Helstar. Formed in the early '80s and could easily hold their own against the thrash big 4 in terms of power and speed and were solid musicians in their own right. They were in between power and thrash metal, and one of the first in the power metal genre.

They had 4 great albums in the '80s, but too many lineup changes and lack of promotion from the label (ostensibly due to the former, which made the execs leery about the band's internal stability) doomed the band from being bigger than what they should have. Singer James Rivera is an excellent vocalist and is a bit more well known than the band he fronts as he also fronted Seven Witches and a few other projects.

 

Frogpond.

 

I was thinking of throwing Trip Shakespeare into this discussion, even though they had a few major label releases that really went nowhere. To this day, I think "Lulu" is one of the best albums I have ever heard in my life, and every time I listen to it I appreciate it more.

 

Eastern Bloc
Grootna

 

Jellyfish. Still blows my mind that they didn't.

 

salty dog yes

 

Jim Carroll Band
Sully (from Canada)
Alphastates
The Frauds
Negative Tendencies
Sugarplum Fairies
Cased
Petland
The Fair Saints
Biography of Ferns
Fyrefly
Minipop
Via Audio
Simon Wilcox
Stealing Venus
The Hermit Crabs
The Poems
The Volts