Favourite 'obscure' band?

Heartfeltdawn

lasermonkey said:

I'm guessing that not many people have heard of Spc Eco, who are comprised of Dean Garcia from Curve and his daughter Rose in vocals. They're ace.

 Also, Lucky, a band from Northampton who are one of the best new bands I've heard in ages.

 Although a few people on here have heard of them, Besnard Lakes aren't exactly a household name. Oh, and I'm getting quite into Black Mountain at the moment too.

Heard of them, seen them, and one of their many contributors (Joey Levenson) was a regular at HCFX. Good stuff

The Heavy Blinkers would be my favourite close to unknown band. Nicole Atkins would be another. Her performance on Letterman is worth a million Adeles. 

Moominpapa

starwarsnosebleed said:

Love May Blitz @Reverend ;;Lots of proto-stoner in there.
Have you heard Sir Lord Baltimore? ...And High tide-Sea shanties LP? Id imagine you have, but if not, they're great albums and would be right up your street i reckon.

Another May Blitz fan here. Re the topic of the thread, back in the day I used to judge the usefulness of those 3" thick LP listing books by whether they mentioned May Blitz: my thinking was that if they didn't list the MB albums then they hadn't really done their homework.

There are so many bands on YouTube now that the whole concept of 'obscure' has become almost meaningless, but I'll throw out Wo Fat as a band that I love but who I never see mentioned anywhere except on the channels I follow.

djspecialist

I also love Jellyfish.  Back when I was at Uni, I used to rent CDs from the city library (no Spotify in them days, nippers) - that's how I came across Spilt Milk.

Favourite not-so-well-known band now: Wave Pictures.  Well worth checking out, particularly live.  They're soon back in the UK after a European tour - hopefully they will come back to Cambridge soon.

Philly_Q

Moominpapa said:

There are so many bands on YouTube now that the whole concept of 'obscure' has become almost meaningless

That's a very good point.  It's easier to get music "out there" than ever before, but presumably as difficult as ever - maybe more difficult in some ways - to make money from it. 

I stumble upon new stuff on YouTube or Spotify and I have no absolutely idea whether those bands have a following, sell records or make a living from their music.  There may have been just as many bands in the 70s and 80s as there are now, but most of them we'd simply never have heard of unless they had an "underground" reputation or played locally.

Grunfeld

lasermonkey said:

I'm guessing that not many people have heard of Spc Eco, who are comprised of Dean Garcia from Curve and his daughter Rose in vocals. They're ace.

@lasermonkey -- another fan of Dean Garcia here.  I've followed what he's done for ages.  He's interesting to me:  he gets incredible sounds and I think it's the atmospheres he creates which I like best; the actual songs are fine but in reality I don't listen to them that much.  But I really like the sounds he gets.

My obscure suggestion No. 1 is perhaps not so obscure.  A guitarist, Vini Reilly.  The Durutti Column. 

The Durutti Column, "Gun"

builttospill

Do Fugazi qualify for this?

Built To Spill
Wheat
American Football
Grown Ups

builttospill

And this from 1982 bloody love this song!

dogload

Went to see The Comet Is Coming last night (are they obscure as well? Anyway...) anr they were supported by Henge, who were superb.

eSully

stimpsonslostson said:

ANOTHER Jellyfish fan here.

The first band that sprang to my mind are Reuben. One of my favourite bands, I know there are a few fans on here, but if you're into heavy punky alt-rock have a listen. 

Wis for Rueben, such a good band.

When I saw the thread title I thought of Matson Jones, heard them on last.fm radio when you used to be able to stream a radio station by favorite band. I think they've broken up long ago now, 2 cellos, bass and drums. Their album and Ep are really good and worth checking out if you like the song below:



More similar to Rueben, I really like Max Raptor - great running music

Budgie

I'm not sure if any of these are particularly obscure but really liking Chin of Britain, Lea Porcelain and CTMF at the moment

Sporky

I quite like Solar Powered Sun Destroyer. Their pwn stuff is quite decent, but their cover of Hum's "Stars" is magnificent.



And The Geraldine Fibbers. Mmm, swampy.

scrumhalf

Can a band be truly obscure if they are on youtube?

Philly_Q

scrumhalf said:

Can a band be truly obscure if they are on youtube?

I think so.  Anyone can put a video on YouTube.  They might only have 3 people watch it.

ToneControl

not a band:
Michael Brook

dogload

Philly_Q said:

scrumhalf said:

Can a band be truly obscure if they are on youtube?

I think so.  Anyone can put a video on YouTube.  They might only have 3 people watch it.

That's true. We have several videos on YouTube and nobody asks for my autograph

Reverend

scrumhalf said:

Can a band be truly obscure if they are on youtube?

That's often the best place to find obscure bands. I often follow the YouTube rabbit hole to find old Swedish or German metal bands. 

fields5069

I can't remember the name of the band, I think they were quite popular at one stage as they were on Later. The lead singer had a beard at least some of the time, and was very intense. They did very Talkings Heads-esque music and I would love to remember the bloody name of the band so I could Deezer the buggers.

Reverend

fields5069 said:

I can't remember the name of the band, I think they were quite popular at one stage as they were on Later. The lead singer had a beard at least some of the time, and was very intense. They did very Talkings Heads-esque music and I would love to remember the bloody name of the band so I could Deezer the buggers.

So obscure you don't even know the name?  A smart move for a band that wants the hipster crowd

fields5069

Reverend said:

fields5069 said:

I can't remember the name of the band, I think they were quite popular at one stage as they were on Later. The lead singer had a beard at least some of the time, and was very intense. They did very Talkings Heads-esque music and I would love to remember the bloody name of the band so I could Deezer the buggers.

So obscure you don't even know the name?  A smart move for a band that wants the hipster crowd

It was a while back, and I never followed up on some Youtube exploration, and I am getting on and forget things from time to time.

DarnWeight

The Forms



Down to just a duo right now.  Albini-produced and very chummy with The National.  Their second S/T album was released about ten years ago now, and it's probably my favourite album of the '00s.