Who Is The Most Obscure Artist You Listen To?

I am not sure how to answer this. Does the OP mean listen to regularly or simply have it and listen once in a blue moon?

Listen

Shuttah

Akira Ishikawa and Count Buffaloes

Grannie

Bang

Blues Creation

Euclid

Irish Coffee

More common groups, Toe Fat and Patto.

 

I have a separate collection for my Hong Kong pop music and I'd think almost all of those artists would be considered obscure here.

How about The Graces? It was an early 90s trio that featured Charlotte Caffey (of the Go-Go's) and a pre "Bitch" Meredith Brooks.

 

Mmm...
Fool's Garden - for Canada, I guess, obscure enough, except the song "Lemon tree" probably.
Harry Chapin - died long time ago, no big hits so far except "Cat's In The Cradle".
Kim Carnes - the only hit I occasionally heard on the radio was "Bette Davis Eyes".
Herman's Hermits

 

Lately it's been The Lemon Drops (group out of Chicago in the 60's), Rusty Evans (psych pioneer from the 60's), Olivia Tremor Control (90's), Rodriguez, and Lee Hazlewood (not sure if he's that obscure though).

 

Could list a bunch of Dutch bands but that wouldn't be fair . But I guess most people here haven't heard of Black Heat, Ernie Hines or Side Effect.

 

I also LOVE The Pursuit of Happiness!!

 

Scout Niblett

 

TISM (This is Serious Mum)

 

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre - made a couple of albums on John Peel's Dandelion Records in the late 60's - early 70's.

Basil's Balls Up Band. Great live club band, mainly in London area, now resident in North Devon.

 

Roadmaster, when I'm not listening to The Pursuit of Happiness or the Hello People

 

Probably "Soar".. hugely underrated singer-songwriters from Australia. Lots of acoustic guitars and harmonies.

 

I know of Jack Hardy because one of my favorite folksingers, Lui Collins (probably my best entry into this thread BTW) recorded his song "The Tinker's Coin," which is beautiful. I've never heard any of his own recordings - guess I should do something about that!

Some others I could name: Bob Franke (huge among folkies, unknown among everyone else, it seems), Tony Bird (white folk-rocker from Malawi, only three albums to his name but they're all five-star classics), The Badlees (folk-rock group from Northeast Pennsylvania, had one minor national hit in the 90s that they never managed to capitalize on), Ben Andrews (country-blues guitarist from DC, apparently passed away recently...he was my gateway to Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell) and a long list of bands I don't consider obscure but I never see mentioned here like Over the Rhine and Black 47.

Impressive list so far...the only ones I've seen mentioned that I'm familiar with besides Jack Hardy are Esquirita, The Bottle Rockets and Jonathan Richman (whom I wouldn't call obscure, but that's just my hipper-than-I-sometimes-think view. )
ETA: And of course I've heard of Harry Chapin (who is playing on my iTunes as we speak), but I definitely don't consider him obscure.

 

I really like a rock band from the 90s called Isle of Q, none of my friends have heard of them before I mention them.

 

Not very obscure, TRB had many hit singles in the UK, and The Monks are probably one of the most famous garage bands ever (unless you mean the two blokes from The Strawbs who pretended they were "punk"!)

 

Mogwai

 

Age Are

My brother's the drummer. They put out one album that you can't buy in normal shops.
The teenagers in our region know of them and they have a small, but quite loyal fanbase.
Let's see how loyal they are, because they're switching genres for their newer material.

And then there is "Der Familie Popolski", half-comedy act, half-serious music.
They pretend to be polish and present many famous hits in a polka style. It's very funny and
the guitarist is really good. This is not your average polka. It has a rockier edge to it and most songs aren't really in a polka style, but just the rhythm. Their version of "Dance To The Music" trumps the original for me.

 

A friend of mine who made a bunch of hilarious childhood recordings with his cousins. He made an anthology of the songs for me and I'm the only one outside of his family who has ever heard them.

 

Jack had loads and loads of great songs. One of the advantages of not having much of a career was that he had ample time to write. And write he did. Usually a song a week. Most of Jack's music can be found on the cheap I would guess (not sure, never looked) but my favorite releases of his are, in no particular order:

The Hunter
The Cauldron
Bandolier
Civil Wars
Through
Omens

 

Hampton Grease Band

 

Alzo(Affronti)-(1947-2005)- "Looking For You" and "Takin' So Long". Both cds recorded in '72.

 

Tom Robinson Band had zero hits in the USA, I play the debut a few times a year. Apart from this board nobody here knows them. Same with The Monks. No point in picking bands that sold 100 copies to extreme fans that maybe you and a few friends are aware of.

I picked my four choices based on bands I love that I think others should or could get into. Remember we have guest on here all the time. Maybe they'll look at my list and say hey I think I'll check one of those bands out because apple-richard thinks they're worthy.

 

If it is obscure to the mainstream, probably half my collection.

 

Hard to define obscure. Is it obscure because it's likely out of the range of this classic-rock leaning board?

For what it's worth, here's some possibly obscure stuff I've been recently listening to:

Mass - Labour Of Love: 1981 post-punk album by a band whose members later went on to separately form The Wolfgang Press and Renegade Soundwave.

Seahawks - Aqua Disco: Late 70's and early 80's easy-listening/yacht-rock influenced electronic vibes.

Born Blonde - What The Desert Taught You: My favorite debut of 2012, this is a young Brit-pop influenced London band that probably won't ever get the attention I think they deserve.

RZA & Harold Drossin - The Man With The Iron Fists Original Film Score: The Wu Tang Clan's beatmaker teams with a film composer for a very cool film score that's awesome for driving around too fast at night.

 

Triptides- psychedelic surf music from Indinana
Jack of Heart
Bare Wires
Outer Minds
Mind Spiders
The Soundcarriers
The People's Temple
Fungi Girls
Growing
Sian Alice Group
Outrageous Cherry
Vetiver
Lords of Altamont
A Sunny Day in Glasgow

That's some of the active/recently disbanded groups I'm into. Had a couple of others but they've been mentioned already, so they can't be too obscure. I'm sure some of these aren't very obscure either in their home land or home city. I have to say I haven't heard of most of what's been mentioned in this thread.

 

Probably Ben Kweller.

Why one of his songs hasn't hit is beyond me. So gifted.


Rock Stamberg