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What's your favorite "lesser known" band discovery?


Guest pirateflynn

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Guest pirateflynn

Mine is Hookfoot. Just grrreat! I don't know anybody else who knows of them though. How 'bout Willie G. Moseley ...... do you know about Hookfoot?

They only released two albums: Hookfoot and Communication.

Caleb Quaye and Ian Duck are the songwriters and main players. Check them out if you can find their albums........really!

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I was going to post my own thread about this, but this will work just as well:

My favorite unknown band is Glossary and they are offering their brand new album for FREE via download on their website. You don't have to register or give any of your information, but they do request people to sign up for their mailing list.

Before anyone says they hopped on the Radiohead bandwagon, to be fair Glossary announced their plan to make the new record available for free via download three weeks ago. Maybe Radiohead hopped on the Glossary bandwagon! Yeah, I know, probably not.

Anyway, Glossary is a band from Murfreesboro, TN with a very alt-country / Southern rock sound I absolutely die for. If you like Drive By Truckers, Lucero, Two Cow Garage, The Drams, Centro-matic, etc. then these guys will be right up your alley. In fact, when I saw Patterson Hood performing solo at the Austin City Limits Music Festival a couple of weeks ago, he was wearing a Glossary t-shirt. The band is highly respected within the genre and last year's For What I Don't Become was my favorite 2006 release. Joey Kneiser's smokey vocals combined with Bingham Barnes' rock solid foundation and Todd Beene's occasional pedal steel make for a sublime combination.

Download the new album, The Better Angles of Our Nature, for free here: http://www.glossary.us/the-better-angels-o...-free-download/

It's available as medium or high quality MP3s or AACs. The physical CD will be released in three weeks and they'll be doing some shows with The Drams, Grand Champeen and Two Cow Garage in November. If you like the new record, go to a show and/or buy the CD when it comes out.

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Well, this could take two different tacks: historical and present-day, and I could only make observations on the historical facet, and to some extent, it involves having heard performances rather than albums:

1. Touch: A '68 band that had what could arguably be considered one of the earliest progressive rock albums ever (the Vanilla Fudge not considered, since they specialized in unique covers). The cover of Touch's album had 'em appearing to be floating in space and there was a great song thereon called "Miss Teach". Seems like I recall they might've been from Seattle.

2. Potliquor: Ca. 1970 Louisiana swamp rock at its finest. "Cheer" got a tiny bit of airplay

3. The Guild: A great bar band I heard in Champaign-Urbana in 1970; unsure what they ever recorded but they did a terrific cover of Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air".

4. Snow: Another pro bar band that performed THE WALL dead-on, completely thru. Jeezus.

5. The Twangbangers: Recent players' supergroup that included Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert, as well as singer Dallas Wayne.

Hope this fits the format...may think of some others later.

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God, I have several...

- New England. Saw them open for Kiss in 1979 and really liked the stuff. I still love the first album. Just got it off CD Baby, along with a live album that covers a lot of the first album. I also have a promo 12" that has six cuts from that album live, done around that time.

- Iron Horse. A buddy turned me on to them. Randy Bachman, post-BTO. Only two albums, as far as I know. I need to do a needle drop on them.

- Uncle Bonsai. Two girls and a guy from Seattle. Discovered them because the local morning show played a couple of their novelty cuts - "Penis Envy" was the biggie. Picked up a couple of their albums - they did a really cool doo-wop version of the national anthem, and a gorgeous tear-jerker called "Silent Night".

- Planet P. Discovered by the previously mentioned buddy's buddy. Tony Carey's band. Kind of a sci-fi concept debut album, followed by a concept double album. Released a third concept album for free as MP3s a few years back, and there was supposed to be another album coming, but I haven't looked for it for a while.

- City Boy. Now, these guys may be more well-known in some circles, but pretty much no one I know has heard of them unless I've told them. I love "The Day The Earth Caught Fire" - possibly the best 25-cent album I ever bought.

- Rebecca Timmons. Gorgeous singer from Toronto, did two albums, only one of which I could actually obtain.

I could come up with more, but I'm wearing out my welcome, and I'm starting to veer towards artists who are somewhat known in certain circles but not in the mainstream.

Alan

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The Grind/Ex-Action Figures. Madison WI "group". Ultra low-fi powerpop, some of the best songwriting ever and they put out a bunch of albums as the Grind (around 10) and a few as EAF.

-Austin

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Directions in Groove. Aussie Acid Jazz outfit, only made a couple of discs that I've ever heard of. No longer together as far as I know.

Ozomatli - Salsa+HipHop+World = kick ass.

I Mother Earth - Great groove rock.

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Since Willie G. cited bands from 1968 and 1970, I'll add another: Glass Harp.

They were a very early semi-psychedlic power trio headed by Phil Keaggy before he went totally contemporary Christian. He had a '50s sunburst Les Paul and was a master of the swell. He could (and still can) seriously rip.

They had 3 albums on Decca: self-titled (Keaggy and drummer Sferra were 19 when they made that one), Synergy, and It Makes Me Glad. They've gotten together a few times in the 35 years since they broke up to do a few reunion concerts.

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the obsessed/spirit caravan - 2 heavy trios from the 90's, both fronted by scott "wino" weinrich (gtr/vocals/tunes). well known in the stoner rock/doom scene. very sabbathy heavy w/ distinctive melodic vocals. not for everyone, but i dig them. like alot of bands, their stuff is hit or miss, but at least 2 albums are classics for me, "the church within" & "jug fulla sun". wino went on to less inspired stuff w/ place of skulls and hidden hand.

t.j. kirk - neo jazz supergroup w/ charlie hunter, will bernard, john schott, & scott amendola. they juxtapose the music of james brown, thelonious monk, and roland kirk (hence the name). funky, jazzy stuff w/ a sense of humor. never got as popular in the jazz scene as MMW, charlie hunter, or recent scofield releases, but should have. my fave disc is "if four was one". also, will bernards solo stuff is in the same vien and is very good, check out "motherbug" and "party hats".

going back to the late 70's/early 80's, there was a band called lightning, from the dallas area, who were very good live, my pal played drums for them the last few years. their guitarist rocky athas has been w/ black oak arkansas for the last ~20 years.

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dada was a great unknown band that I really enjoy. I used to work for Strawberries music chain in their headquarters. Every year they held a convention on Cape Cod and got a few acts to play and the record companies would send folks in and hand out stuff. Well, I got a dada cd and later during that convention all 3 guys were there signing autographs. No one knew who they were and they wound up having a small hit DizKneeLand. I gave the disc a listen and was like, lame, and shelved it. I somehow wound up giving it another listen sometime later and was blown away. Killer strat sounds and awesome harmonies. I then had to track down their out of print releases.

Somehow they landed an opening slot on a Sting tour and I remember some local DJs saying 'who are these guys?' After the show they were raving, but they never got a lot of air play and IRS records tanked so that didn't help the band either.

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- New England. Saw them open for Kiss in 1979 and really liked the stuff. I still love the first album. Just got it off CD Baby, along with a live album that covers a lot of the first album. I also have a promo 12" that has six cuts from that album live, done around that time.

Great band - their drummer lives here in town and our daughters went to high school together.

My current favorite unknown band is Waltham: http://walthamtheband.com/

Some of the older ones I liked were Head East, The Hooters, Honeymoon Suite, and the Vapors

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Great band - their drummer lives here in town and our daughters went to high school together.

Hirsch? If so, I bought my first Boogie head and a coupla guitars from him years ago. Super nice guy.

My favorite lesser known band is Comes With The Fall. Their singer is moonlighting right now as Layne's replacement in AIC.

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the obsessed/spirit caravan - 2 heavy trios from the 90's, both fronted by scott "wino" weinrich (gtr/vocals/tunes). well known in the stoner rock/doom scene. very sabbathy heavy w/ distinctive melodic vocals. not for everyone, but i dig them. like alot of bands, their stuff is hit or miss, but at least 2 albums are classics for me, "the church within" & "jug fulla sun". wino went on to less inspired stuff w/ place of skulls and hidden hand.

t.j. kirk - neo jazz supergroup w/ charlie hunter, will bernard, john schott, & scott amendola. they juxtapose the music of james brown, thelonious monk, and roland kirk (hence the name). funky, jazzy stuff w/ a sense of humor. never got as popular in the jazz scene as MMW, charlie hunter, or recent scofield releases, but should have. my fave disc is "if four was one". also, will bernards solo stuff is in the same vien and is very good, check out "motherbug" and "party hats".

going back to the late 70's/early 80's, there was a band called lightning, from the dallas area, who were very good live, my pal played drums for them the last few years. their guitarist rocky athas has been w/ black oak arkansas for the last ~20 years.

Brooks you like a lot of the same stuff I like. Have you heard The Hidden Hand is done? Wino's new project is called Shrinebuilder and has members of OM (Sleep) and Neurosis. Should be incredible.

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A big +1 (or is it +2) on Dada and Waltham. Dada personifies the Strat sound better than Mark Knopfler does IMHO. Killer. The ONLY negative I can think about Waltham (wonder who told me about them? ;P) is that on iTunes, I keep forgetting how loud the recording is so they blast out my eardrums when they pop up.

Other ones are:

The Shazam (My absolute favorite band)

The Posies (some minor radio airplay w/"Dream All Day")

The Ataris (a recent discovery)

Teenage Fanclub (again, people outside of the US know 'em-virtually invisible here), and

Superdrag (competes well with the Shazam in spots).

All great guitar-based power pop.

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+ 1K on Dada. I just missed them here in DC last month, sadly. Best Strat sounds ever recorded.

Also add Sloan to the mix.

The Jellybricks are another great band that never seemed to break out despite an amazing catalog of great power pop rockers.

I'm also a huge fan of TFC and Ash, but nobody in the States seems to know about these bands. Don't know why that is - they both kick righteous ass in my book.

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+ 1K on Dada. I just missed them here in DC last month, sadly. Best Strat sounds ever recorded.

Also add Sloan to the mix.

The Jellybricks are another great band that never seemed to break out despite an amazing catalog of great power pop rockers.

I'm also a huge fan of TFC and Ash, but nobody in the States seems to know about these bands. Don't know why that is - they both kick righteous ass in my book.

Forgot about Sloan and Ash!

Jellybricks are very cool both live and on record-I got to open for them a few times in the mid-90s.

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Opeth!!!

A great progressive metal band. 8 cd's and 15 years of playing around the world!! Their music ranges from beautiful soaring rock ballads to terrifying death metal with growling vocals - often in the same 10 minute songs!! Lovely!!!

They were one of the reasons I started to buy Hamer guitars, because I got so inspired as to start making my own rock/metal-songs... and I then needed high quality instuments with well defined sounds!! (They use mostly some nice PRS's but I can't stand playing those.)

Start listening to the Ghost Reveries or Blackwater Park albums, but don't dismiss them until you've listened to several whole songs. They are one of the best bands in the history of "rock"!! Nothing for the faint-at-heart, though!

.

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The ONLY negative I can think about Waltham (wonder who told me about them? ;P) is that on iTunes, I keep forgetting how loud the recording is so they blast out my eardrums when they pop up.

They are a perfect example of over-compressed blast-mastering. Probably the worst I've seen. I have to roll off the bass in my car in order to listen to them. Great band but bad production on the CD.

I agree Steve - the Ataris "So Long Astoria" is in my CD player right now. Energetic young chaps, aren't they? :blink:

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