Is there an obscure band, musician, song that you love? Share with us. Post it on this thread..

1981. The Suburbs. Labelmates (Twin/Tone) of The Replacements, Soul Asylum and a bunch more. The Suburbs were the midwest's answer to Talking Heads and late-era Roxy Music, with quirky lyrics and alternating lead vocals and songwriting by Blaine John 'Beej' Chaney and Chan Poling. They were a brilliant band who were unfortunately signed to Mercury Records, where they failed to thrive. Cuz Mercury Poisoning. They packed 'em in at First Avenue and turned the dance floor into a writhing mass of sweaty bodies whenever they played live.

 

David Werner

 

How about checking out "songs from truleigh hill" by Brighton UK based Milk and Honey Band ( Bob White)
Streamable in canada at least via apple music and spotify...
Think Nick Drake, Morning Phase era Beck and I think lovely sparseness like Paul Buchanan!
Previous albums were more pop this is more organic lovely.
Nick Bourne at www.onophonic.com can hook you up! Would love to see some stateside reviews! A lovely album!!!

 

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, "Grass"

 

Good to see The Roches mentioned here. Three songwriter/singer/musician sisters with great talent and who made great music that seemed to float under the popular music radar all of their career.

RIP Maggie.

 

The Delgados never got the respect they deserved while they were an active band, which is why they had to stop in 2005. One of the great tragedies of modern music.

 

My favourite metal band Disillusion (and favourite album Back to Times of Splendor) did not break into the mainstream and deserves much more appreciation in my opinion. They are German and prog/death/Opeth-ish.
Their second full album Gloria was a radical stylistic departure but is a rare thing in music, something that is totally unique and beautiful.
Their incredible comeback album (The Liberation) in 2019 means for me they are the most important active band [only because NY&CH seems somewhat off the boil these days!].



A song from the first album live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCQUpy_cIBY

 

Katell Keineg - O Seasons O Castles
Breton/Welsh singer-songwriter. Probably not for everyone but it never fails to move me.

 

Flairck - Variaties op een dame (Variations on a lady)
Acoustic Prog-Jazz-Folk? I'm not sure how to pigeon-hole this, but I love it. Violin, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass guitar, flute. Total virtuoso musicians. If you like this, check out the albums Variaties op een dame and Gevecht met de engel (Battle with the angel). They never surpassed those two first albums imo.

 

Not sure how obscure Gus Dapperton is but I really dig his voice and his song writing has depth and emotion in it. Video below is Post Humorous, from the album Orca (also pretty amazing

 

Tell The Truth - Jude Cole

YouTube Music

 

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This is a Donna Lewis side project called QueenTown. The songs are quite good! Here are two, Beautiful Sun and Delete Delete.


https://youtu.be/92exuJvur_U


Dan

 

Hey Steve, is it OK to post a link here to a newly released YouTube video once it's been posted there by the rights holders?

 

The Pleasure Club is the best rock band you may have never heard of. Check out "Here Comes The Trick" or "The Fugitive Kind".

 

Reina Del Cid has 4 albums floating around, she tours and posts a Sunday morning Youtube video.
Here's "Suffer" from her 3rd album "Rerun City"

 

“Jury” by the 1970s band Trapeze. The band isn’t that well-known, although the musicians themselves (Hughes, Galley, Holland) achieved fame in other bands.

 

Queen are certainly well-known, but "White Queen" really isn't.

 

Henri Bowane • Kotiya zolo te

I've been delighting in the original single disc release various artists compilation for ages; later expanded to this double CD edition (pairing volumes one and two) that I recommend to everyone I know who loves music—
Roots Of Rumba Rock (Congo Classics 1953-1955) (2006, CD)

 

One band that I feel deserved more recognition are ‘The Bicycles’. Their 2006 album, ‘The Good, The Bad, And The Cuddly”. It’s hard to recommend a particular song from the album since nearly each song is stylistically different than the rest.

Here’s the opening track:


And a link to the rest of the album on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nXNYVNySob_FmYsHKhfZRHfe7jOvlAE0Y

And a link to review of the album on AllMusic:
The Good the Bad and the Cuddly - The Bicycles | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic

It can eloquently state why this album is so good better than I could.

 

Back in 2004, I took my younger sister to see the band ‘Rooney’ perform. She really liked the band but it was the opening act, ‘The Redwalls’ that stole the show. They were simply amazing and gave off serious Beatles vibes with their harmonies and sharing the mic à la John and Paul. Not too long after that I saw their upcoming album advertised on the side of the Capitol Records building in LA and read of a planned performance on Conan. I was convinced they were going to be big. I was wrong. And it still doesn’t seem right. Anyhow, here’s the single performed on Conan along with a couple of rockers:



https://youtu.be/jJvtXTs8PO0

https://youtu.be/Mc7tDPayEfc

 

Here is another great song from Trapeze:

BLACK CLOUD TRAPEZE - YouTube

Trapeze received a good amount of airplay in the midwest in the early 1970's -- particularly on KSHE-95 where I heard them.

 

The Darkness...

 

Honeybus! A great band from the 1960s that hardly anybody has heard of, at least in the US. They never recorded a bad song, including the unreleased gems that keep appearing on Youtube.