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Bands Nobody’s heard of that are very successful


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I was thinking about awesome bands that are under the radar that are killin it in a radically shifting landscape, but still touring, putting out records, selling crazy merch and really being successful.

First up:

Reckless Kelly from Austin Texas. I tour with a band that opened a few shows in theaters for these guys in VA and DC and I was very impressed with their whole operation. The video is a homage to Cool Hand Luke, one of my favorite movies, and shows they don’t take themselves too seriously. The guitarist Dave Abeyta produced the next album for the aforementioned band, and doesn’t get much room to shine on the singles but stretches out live- check out their live version of Romeo and Juliet, and 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. Super solid band playing solid songs and led by two brothers. They play nice places for nice money. May not be your cup of tea, but these guys are killin it:

 

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Next up,

Lettuce. Originally formed in Boston by the drummer Adam Deitch and my old pal Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff who grew up in Hastings NY not far from me. He was the first kid I knew that got a PRS when we were teenagers. He went to Berkelee and the band started by asking “Let Us Play” everywhere they went in Boston. There’s a documentary about them out there. An unbelievably tight band, and they are killin it out there.

 

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And next,

Flogging Molly, formed by Irish expatriates in Los Angeles. I play in a touring Irish band that did some festivals where they knocked me out. Plenty of albums, a long career and killin it out there.

 

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I learned about the existence of Lettuce while looking for modern funk bands during my relatively recent funky explorations —this was around three years ago. I got me their “Crush” album (2015, I think), plus an early live album which was recorded in Japan. I found this band extremely appealing. Thanks for the reminder, as I had completely forgotten I had them in my collection. Awesome band, indeed!

As of the other two bands, never heard of them. I listened to what you just shared and I can see quality is certainly there. They didn’t move me at all though —both are too country-ish/folkish to my tastes. Nonetheless, I’m sure some of us here will like them.

Thanks again for sharing!

ETA: Just saw Lettuce is on Spotify. Now I can foresee several hours my side of musical pleasure. ;) Thanks once again, Geoff!

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2 hours ago, mudshark said:

 

Love the couple skipping and dancing down the street the first minute of the video.  I've always maintained that if you're feeling depressed, start listening to Dixieland.  

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4 hours ago, zorrow said:

 

ETA: Just saw Lettuce is on Spotify. Now I can foresee several hours my side of musical pleasure. ;) Thanks once again, Geoff!

As you venture down that funky rabbit hole, check out The New Mastersounds, The Bamboos, Orgone, Galactic, Cookin on 3 Burners, Speedometer, The Diplomats of Solid Sound, Lack of Afro, Lefties Soul Connection, The Pimps of Joytime, The Quantic Soul Orchestra, Soulive, Stanton Moore, Swoop Unit, Third Coast Kings, The Sound Stylistics and Robert Walter. All fantastic yet relatively unknown Funk bands that are out there killin it these days. 

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The first band that came to mind for me is The Paperboys out of Vancouver BC. They are a Celtic rock band that are on the road a lot including tours in Europe. I've seen them a couple of times and they put on a great show.

 

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Successful as in making a living playing to 100,000’s of paying customers a year, then, and not so much record sales?

String Cheese Incident

Slightly Stoopid

Iration (safe, inoffensive white-guy reggae from Hawaii). That’s not meant as a dis; they’re really good at what they do, they’re fans LOVE them.

Drive-by Truckers. That’s kinda pushing it, but they seem to do well on tour.

 

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Don't know if he's really famous, but The Blessing hit me like a freight train in 1991. The had a big hit with highway 5, did another album, then dissapeared.

Their lead singer William Topley has had a decent solo career since. He's absolutely brilliant. But only musicians get how great this really is.

 

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10 hours ago, geoff_hartwell said:

Mudshark, these are interesting entries, but are they really killing it?

A fair amount of these bands are scraping by at best.

I respect that and that’s awesome, but not the point.

I'll be happy to delete them.

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