Your Favorite Underrated Artists

The Mendoza Line

Herb Alpert

all of my favourite artists are underrated

Lord Finesse, Cappadonna

I have always felt that 108 was amazing, brutal, jaw-dropping hardcore with murderous and huge guitars. Religious zealots make really powerful music, y'know. I really think that all that *spooky* scandinavian death and black metal has nothing on 108, and Converge, in terms of intensity. It's trendy to talk about Venom, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, all that long-hair silly stuff. 108 was honestly and deadly serious, threefold misery especially.

Juliana Hatfield

Possum Dixon

Too Much Joy had a decent following on the club circuit and mixed reviews. I've always been of the opinion that they should have sold out arenas and won the Nobel Prize or something.

The Mendoza Line

Yes. And The Glands, too. And RPJ, who is so much more than Ghostbusters, people.

I can do this MUCH better with movies.

I can do this better with albums than artists

Oh I really dig that first Gay Dad album. Apparently people really loathe the thing.

it's patchy but there's lots of great stuff on it. prefer the single version of oh jim though

Cardiacs
Belfegore
Cop Shoot Cop
The Wedding Present
Talk Talk

Alex everybody on the planet loves Talk Talk

Yeah, must try harder there!

I'm trying to think of someone underrated but not obscure, since I think that meets John's intent best. I honestly don't know who I would choose offhand as a result.

afghan whigs
karl hendricks

the Libertines
Luther Vandross

junior kimbrough? while he was alive, anyway

j0hn have you heard the Equals, Eddy Grant's first band??

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P9Jz8MjYyR0

is Rites of Spring underrated? I dig them big haired punks.
I've never met another Steeleye Span fan, but I dig it.

the Libertines

I personally think this is OTM as though they're massively famous nobody gives them respect and their best jams are like really fucking good

I've been wanting to hear the Equals but didn't think to look on YouTube, thanks Mr. Que!

Alex everybody on the planet loves Talk Talk.

Everybody on Planet ILX, maybe.

http://www.cirithungol.chaos-lords.de/cover020.jpg

holy shit everything about that Equals footage is amazing

Quite. I haven't kept track of the Libertines' escapades and various solo projects, but their first two albums are full of coiled rockers. One of the few bands whose leaders write songs about and for each other without turning into massive bores.

Fat Larry's Band

blink-182!!

Karen Carpenter: tragically underrated

yah roight whatevs she had a movie and like 3240923409 tribute songs. Cirith Ungol roolz this thread.

not more underrated than Eddy Grant though, that dude is a monster

but Cirith Ungol is still too slept on by people, so for that matter is Sadist from Italy who had clearly listened to their Cirith Ungol records

no, y'see, I was making a weak anorexia joke, playing off the similarity between the words "underate" and...awnevermind

I nominate Connie Smith, Altered Images, and The Walkabouts

You mean Eddy Grant who sang Electric Avenue?

Is this the Eddy Grant disc you're referring to?

Hahaha, goddammit, I was going to suggest the Walkabouts as well but thought they just weren't well known enough to count as underrated. But lord god almighty are they still one of my most favorite bands anywhere, ever.

One day -- maybe years from now -- the appeal of the Libertines will make itself known to me, perhaps. Distance might be the only answer. I have trouble hearing them now as anything else but a long-tapped-out vein.

Diddy

I like to imagine the Walkabouts topping the pop charts and filling stadiums in tiny Eastern European countries like Slovenia and Montenegro. Of course the reality is that they had one or two minor hits in Germany or somewhere thereabouts, which makes them semi-obscure in Europe as opposed to flat-out unknown in the US. Better than nothing, but they deserve better...

Oh another - The Plasmatics! Absolutely adored them as a junior high schooler. On my English folder, I wrote every song title of theirs AND every spoken intro. The spoken intros were circled so you could tell the difference. Still love the shit outta them. Where punk and camp meet (which didn't happen too often...maybe that Streets comp counts). Avoid newish DVD on MVD (in fact, avoid ALL MVD DVDs).

i thought of one - ups & downs. vastly better than 95% of the australian stuff that gets all the attention. prefer them to the church any day, for example

Animals That Swim !!

their albums are long out of print as far as i know which makes me sad because they deserve more attention than they got

I kinda agree with Diddy and Blink 182

I want to add: Transplants!

Their first album is bananas, man.

DeBarge despite pockets of love around here.

Animals That Swim

Heh, still have two of their albums around.

I've never met another Steeleye Span fan, but I dig it.

loooove steeleye span, all the way through all around my hat.

i think BIG COUNTRY is underrated, to the extent anyone rates them. first album at least. second album too really.

(big country's rhythm section is especially underrated)

^ Oh, third album too. And everyone loves teh drums on Love, so half of the rhythm section is only underrated in context.

i like the 3rd album (kate bush!) but i wasn't gonna force the issue.

I just looked at the tracklist and I think I can still hum at least half of it.

In the spirit of J0hn's post, I'll nominate Billy Squier. Usually mentioned only as a punchline, but Don't Say No is classic, the Emotions In Motion singles kick, and dude gave a rhythm track to half of all hip-hop.

my favorite thing about billy squier is the possibly-apocryphal story that he wrote "everybody wants you" after a flight stuck in first class with an insufferable maurice gibb. (i think maurice was the story. maybe barry...)

I love that story but I think the only place I've actually heard it was here: Billy Squire: Classic of Dud?

i know. i heard it from a friend in high school who said he heard it in a billy squier interview on the radio (wcmf) so with that kind of sourcing how can you doubt?

Candlemass

Daniel Belanger (outside of Quebec), Autour de Lucie, southpacific, Len (still patiently waiting for their next one), and I will happily second Juliana Hatfield.

iain matthews/matthews southern comfort

have trouble hearing them now as anything else but a long-tapped-out vein.

Hiss!

I need to hear more Eddy Grant. As it turns out, I heard the "Romancing the Stone" theme a few weeks ago -- not bad.

Campag Velocet

Puressence

Wot no Darkwave?

Mike Viola/Candy Butchers
Ivy

Is this the Eddy Grant disc you're referring to?

Yes! The thirteen minute Living on the Frontline is completely insane.

Morphine

<i>the Libertines
Luther Vandross</i>

I get called out for citing Talk Talk and you let these fly?? Hell, my MOM knows both of these artists. Ask your average Joe on the street (i.e. not an ILX head or music snob) about Talk Talk and *MAYBE* they'll hum "It's My Life" at you. By and large, <i>Spirit of Eden</i> and <i>Laughing Stock</i> are wholly undiscovered by the majority.

And good call on the Plasmatics!!!

I didn't what to say about Luther Vandross, that one I don't get. But when do you ever hear anybody say anything favorable about the Libertines? They're famous, but everybody always says how bad they suck. Talk Talk, on the other hand: anybody who ever has anything to say about them says how godlike they are, how the two albums you cite are masterpieces, etc. If you look up "critics' favorite" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Talk Talk there. So underappreciated/not known at a level commensurate with their aesthetic accomplishment, maybe - underrated? Everyone who rates them does so highly!

McFly

underrated but not obscure

my pick is probably just obscure, but does anyone remember the band duster? late 90s lo-fi space rock band? they put out 3 albums, but the only one i've heard is "stratosphere." but "stratosphere" seriously one of my favorite albums ever. i guess they were just forgotten, or else brushed off as just another drone/post-rock band. but anytime i want to hear something like this i always reach for "stratosphere".

Grateful Dead, underrated-even hated-around here.

Bill that's like not even true, there are a bunch of Dead fans around here

Re: Big Country, More4 showed a 24-year-old episode of The Tube recently with Big Country playing, and they were pretty awesome. Far better than what I remembered from absorbing Top of the Pops at al as a toddler.

"...there are a bunch of Dead fans around here"

Probably true, but outweighed by all the tiresome "dirty hippie" bullshit.

yeah all those dirty hippie threads. . . .HUH???

c'mon, everyone loves nickalicious

I wasn't kidding about Ray Parker Jr.

And even though there's a sizable Wichita Lineman fanbase around here, the great Glen Campbell is utterly underrated.

Not individual threads, but that seems to be the response whenever the Dead are mentioned. I don't really give enough of a shit to go back and find the old Dead threads.

Happy & Artie Traum
The Shadow Ring

I LOVE THE GRATEFUL DEAD.

^^^ happy now Bill?

oh, and also M Coleman on the mark re Ian Matthew. his fan club is, what, you and me and scott s? a couple of the guys i work with love him too though, so maybe that's why he didn't register in my mind as underrated.

i love the dead too. at least a decent chunk of it.

i think i've mentioned my love for Epic Soundtracks on this board before -- he might have a tiny tiny tiny following, but I never hear him mentioned very much. All of his albums (even the outtakes collections) are fab.
also, the Moore Brothers. Though Joanna Newsom has been talking them up, so maybe they're not underrated anymore.

The Lovin' Spoonful
The Rascals
The Turtles

sure they get their play on oldies stations, but like with Eddy Grant (the best example so far) you don't run into a lot of folks who are like "man I'm a big Rascals fan"...but these bands are fabulous

I stand corrected! And the multi-millionaire surviving members of the Dead surely don't need me to carry their water for them.

For a few seconds, I read this thread title as "Your Favorite Underrate Racists."

underrated

based on a search I have realized my real answer to this is ALEC EMPIRE
seriously there's like one thread about ATR and I don't think that's even actually about ATR

Also:

Young Fresh Fellows
The Handsome Family
Andre Ethier / Deadly Snakes
Freakwater

Blake Babies

sloan

here in the U.S., anyway

i remember duster, very cool

the cannanes are totally underrated

also outrageous cherry should be huge but aren't. i'd love to see them do a gbv but i can't see it happening

J0hn completely and totally OTM about the Libertines. I don't think I've ever read (on nerdy msg boards, that is) or heard a single positive thing about them and they've got 4 or 5 really great tunes that I've been able to download illegally.

The Equals have at least 4 or 5 really great tunes that I ripped from my lady friend's greatest hits CD. The rest is a bit lackluster...

Deadly Snakes = a good one, too.

or three, at least (re Libs)

i just bought a catherine wheel cd at goodwill for 99 cents because i nver heard it,its from th yr 2000

^ well that's Wishville, and it's the worst Catherine Wheel album. Adam and Eve is fantastic though, and the Ferment-Chrome 1-2 albums punch is also worth checking out. Great band overall, and yes, underrated - a nice counterpart to Ride, and other '90s British stuff with massive, gorgeous guitar noise and melody.

as for my pick for underrated artist(s): Bedhead/The New Year.

okay i take that back. Wishville is at least as good as, if not better than, Happy Days, which aside from "Heal" and maybe one other song is fucking awful, especially compared to the genius of the first two records.

i loved that chrome album,,and some mid 90s stuff so bug guitar cords big ghutar coirhds

Efterklang is in my opinion is sorely underrated - not just on ILM, but everywhere (Mirador=greatest track of 2007)

others include

Joe henry
Tahiti 80
Pinetop Seven
Tronzo
Nujabes
Archer Prewitt

King Crimson's modern improvs - The ProjeKCts (1 - 4 + X). I am possibly the biggest crimhead this side of Alpha Centuri an believe this is the pinacle of their existence.

How about totally overrated artists, especially the critically adored overrated artists like:

Tom Waits: Cooky-monster-voiced parody of folksy americana for the coffee shop set. I'm embarrassed for him just listening to it alone. Come on: http://www.seeqpod.com/music/?plid=89932ffdbb

Suede: flaccid glam rock

A Certain Ratio: Half as good as ESG (who only had a few cool songs to begin with).

The Fall: Nobody cared about this band until sometime in mid-2001, when the critics had run out of classic overlooked 80's English bands to tout Midlands spastics for people merely looking to expand their record collections.

Fela Kuti: It's basically the same song with slight variations throughout the entire catalog. Interesting life, but musically unadventurous. I can take about 1 or 2 songs a month.

nah

wrong

http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/troll.jpg

does kenickie qualify? they're highly rated among their fans, but everyone else is pretty "wtbd, another dollar bin britpop waste"

sure

It's just how I feel about those bands. I never liked the Pixies either. I'm not trying to upset folks..

http://www.trollforest.com/story/small5.jpg

i'm outraged

Adam and Eve is fantastic though

Happy Days, which aside from "Heal" and maybe one other song is fucking awful

OTM!! I've said this before: Happy Days -> Adam & Eve is the most stunning upturn in quality I've EVER heard in ANY musical career arc. Happy Days is absolutely bereft of anything (even Heal gets dull eventually), but then Dickinson and the gang get their Talk Talk on in earnest, this time also remembering to write some (brilliant) songs. It's a phenomenal record, full of texture, depth, emotion, surprise, space and flow. Buy!

Bill Macgill was off with his Grateful Dead suggestion, but would it be off to suggest Brent Mydland?

1980s Dead is roundly disliked by ~75 percent of their fanbase. Many of those people blame the band's decline on the addition of keyboard player Brent: he was kinda yacht-rock; he introduced synths to the band; he brought some dark tunes to the table; he had a distinctive voice that tended to rise above the other guys; and there are those who say he played a big part in enabling Jerry's addiction.

I can really get behind the first 4 of those, ya know?

I take "underrated" as meaning "people know of the band (or at least one of their songs) but don't properly appreciate them" and using that, I tend to go with Men Without Hats and The Vapors.

The Fall were well known (relatively speaking) well before 2001. xpost. I'd say that by Nation's Saving Grace they were hardly obscure. I got Bend Sinister at a non-hipster store in NJ off of Route 22 when it came out.

con-funk-shun
red sovine
carolyn mark
freakwater/catherine irwin/janet bean
american death ray

dlp2001, you may be right re: The Fall. All I remember is that in 2001 or so, all of a sudden a bunch of people were playing their records, there were interviews with Mark E Smith everywhere, and hipster records shops were stocked with a bunch of Fall Cds and records seemingly overnight. It was as if all Hipsterdom decided en masse that they were the latest hip-find-that-we've-been-into-for-years,-duh, (maybe because 2001 was another shitty year for music in the US), but in the 90s I never saw their name anywhere.

As far as bands that are well-known, i still say (I've already ranted on other threads) that the Buzzcocks and The Stranglers don't get enough worship. They are both big names, but I never hear them get the kind of star treatment that a band like The Clash gets. Buzzcocks are sorta remembered by a lot of people as cutesy pop punkers or something and Stranglers are remembered for being old and bearded and sexist or something. If Stranglers were from Germany they would get Can/Neu levels of praise. And Buzzcocks are simply one of the greatest rock bands of the 70's. I mean, how many years do I have to read about the genius of Television. Fuck Television! Buzzcocks were all kinds of genius.

Plus, just in case anyone forgot how great The Cramps were, don't forget how great The Cramps were. Okay? I spent a night watching Cramps on youtube and even I almost forgot how godly they could be. They deserve a medal at the very least. (not that i've heard much Cramps music since, like, a date with elvis, but still...)

good point - fuck Television.

Oh yeah, and Wall of Voodoo

WOV OTM

my list ain't much of a secret, I'm always babbling about them here...

live skull
9353
kilslug
christoph de babalon
gore
monitor

kilslug has reformed, btw

My top two nominees for this are definitely the Plugz and the Screaming Blue Messiahs. Every Messiahs album has moments of brilliance, but Bikini Red is fucking godlike from first note to last, yes even including "I Wanna Be A Flintstone." And the Plugz' debut, Electrify Me, is one of the top five L.A. punk albums, period. (The other four are Damaged, Los Angeles, Wild Gift and Fear's The Record. The surviving Germs, and their frontactor, can suck my taint.)

I didn't what to say about Luther Vandross, that one I don't get

I don't read many threads debating the merits of Give Me The Reason versus Any Love.

Plus, just in case anyone forgot how great The Cramps were, don't forget how great The Cramps were. Okay? I spent a night watching Cramps on youtube and even I almost forgot how godly they could be. They deserve a medal at the very least. (not that i've heard much Cramps music since, like, a date with elvis, but still...)

Yessss...

In defense of 80s Dead, Reckoning is one of their finest albums, probably in my Dead top three. I guess that's stretching it a bit, it was recorded 79/90, right?

And I love a lot of Jerry's 90s stuff w/ Grisman.

79/80, i mean

The Walkmen are always lumped in with early 2000s nu-NME, Strokes, etc. but their first album is really fucking awesome

I mean, it transcends its NYC hipster stereotype

or whatever. sorry, too stoned

first Walkmen album's good, second one's better, still waiting for another decent one though...

Today my favourite underrated artists are In Camera.

"No-one listened to the Fall before 2001" is one of the most WTF things I've ever read on this board. Who are these "Midlands spastics" anyway?

All of my favourite artists are underrated (maybe save for The Beatles who are neither over- or underrated, and only underrated by younger generations)

are you sure about that?

I'll say Jim Guthrie, Red Red Meat, Nada Surf and Grifters and second Sloan and Archer Prewitt. Tons of bands in weird or lesser listened to genres are underrated (grifters and red red meat).

and unless I'm wrong cuz I don't get out much. Quasi, King Creosote, and Pigeon John don't get enough love. I think a lot of the bands I've mentioned here and above might be somewhat popular? I mean a good crowd showed up for the Nada Surf and Sloan concerts I went to but all in all most people don't know who they are. It's hard to draw the line with underrated artists and I guess I should have stuck with only the one that is clearly underrated - Jim Guthrie.

I think there's moderately-strong positive correlation between popularity and overratedness

Also Blue Oyster Cult is greviously underrated. People only know them for three tunes-Reaper, Godzilla and Burnin for You. They had much better songs than that, and I think they were truly genius.

Jason Falkner

The Fall: Nobody cared about this band until sometime in mid-2001, when the critics had run out of classic overlooked 80's English bands to tout Midlands spastics for people merely looking to expand their record collections.

I almost agree with you, although speaking from experience during my college years, nobody actually cared about this band until sometime in 1994 when the critics had run out of classic overlooked '70s English bands.

Bill I'd say a pretty hefty chunk of critic types know & love BOC all the way through Fire of Unknown Origin

I still wanna know what "to tout Midlands spastics" refers to cos I have no idea WTF they were on about!

Probably true, I'm talking more general public types and radio programmers. I don't think I've ever heard an Eric Bloom sung BOC song on the radio, and he was their de facto lead singer.

xpost

still wanna know what "to tout Midlands spastics" refers to cos I have no idea WTF they were on about!

Yeah, I ignored that part cuz I had no idea myself...

Where is the LOVE for all these Christian rock acts who are ripe for hipster reappraisal?

Rank & File - just the first two albums, anyway.

Another vote for Nada Surf. The best power pop band in the world.

Jason Falkner-- MC, Friday, 30 November 2007 15:18 (1 hour ago)

I'd totally agree - but that new record isn't going to win any new fans ... nine years between full length records for that - ugh!

The Fall: Nobody cared about this band until sometime in mid-2001, when the critics had run out of classic overlooked 80's English bands to tout Midlands spastics for people merely looking to expand their record collections.

this is crap, every generation discovers the fall eventually.

"still wanna know what "to tout Midlands spastics" refers to cos I have no idea WTF they were on about!"

that was a lack of proofreading and clarity of expression, that is what that was about. I should have been clearer:

The Fall: Nobody cared about this band until sometime in mid-2001, when the critics had run out of classic overlooked 80's English bands to tout. The Fall were just spastics from the Midlands, and their records were for people merely looking to expand their record collections.

I sincerely hope that one day I will listen to the Fall and hear the genius that others seem to hear, and that I'm wrong on this.

Also, dang, I hate Tom Waits so much.

Uh, the Fall were not from the Midlands.

Any more bullshit for us? :)

it took me six years of hearing and disliking random things by the fall before I "got" them.

so don't give up on the fall, however, you may want to pause before hitting the "submit response" button in the future.

I think Falkner's new album is pretty good. Not too different stylistically from the past, so is your problem with the level of the tunes? "This Time," "NYC," "The Knew," "Anondah," and "I Don't Mind" are all quality IMO.

Speaking of underrated power pop, I agree on Nada Surf (being underrated, not the "best")

For best underrated, I'd go with Superdrag, Sloan, The Shazam, or even Falkner if you throw him in there.

Actually, underrated... power pop... you could even say Cheap Trick, but I don't think we want to have that conversation on ILM yet again.

"King Crimson's modern improvs - The ProjeKCts (1 - 4 + X). I am possibly the biggest crimhead this side of Alpha Centuri an believe this is the pinacle of their existence.

I dunno man. I bought the first Project and all I could hear was the terrible V-drum presets that Belew was playing. He even talks in the liner notes about getting the drums in the mail, unwrapping the box, plugging them in, and recording. That is not the proper use of any sort of synthetic instrument.

***

The Fall -- I saw the Middle Class Revolt tour (Brix was back!). Just an awesome show. And a great (UNDER-RATED) album. Mark Smith paced the stage glaring at his bandmates, kicking the mic out of the kickdrum, away from the bass amp, and eventually stormed off stage. Brix finished the set for him. Could have been preconceived. Didn't matter.

People don't seem to take Three Dog Night very seriously. It's
not all walrus mustaches and chest fever...they had such a great run of singles. And they chose the best songwriters of the time. Eli's Coming is so frenetic and creepy.

Cher and Cass Elliott are eternally underrated. Also, Joe South is a lot more interesting to me than most of the new Dylans types who came after him. Except Loudon Wainwright, whose sad songs aren't given as much attention as his goofy/witty ones, I don't think, which is a shame cause they're so much better.

As for things a bit more obscure,I think Marilyn's album Despite Straight Lines sounds really great. He tried so hard w/the Was Not Was people and all.

The Pulsars record from 1997 is my favorite synthpop record since the mid Eighties.

Blue Hippos -- Late-80s Twintone trio.

Spastic and angularly hepped-up joints and r-rated rants

Binary Star

Claude Delcloo

hot 8 brass band
rebirth brass band
new birth brass band
free agents brass band
soul rebels brass band

NO-MAN

Nortt

hell yeah on the eddy grant love.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a359/ettiem/killerontherampage.jpg
good tunes, great legs!

hell yeah, too, on the ray parker jr. love. been picking up raydio records on sight the last year or so. evey one has at least a few fantastic tunes. favorite at the moment is "more than one way to love a woman." the chorus is almost steve millerish.

"Michael & His Slipper Tree" rules!...one of those tunes that burrows into your head after just one listen...

my fave underrated artist is Scott 4...(the band, not the LP)...motorik country/western, don't know how they slipped through the cracks...

Ashlee Simpson

Guns N' Roses (very underrated on ILX)

Buckethead

Nate Carson, Tuesday, 4 December 2007 02:59 (Yesterday)

I'll admit, Projekct 2 is my least favorite of them all. 3 and 4, on teh other hand stand out especially to me considering it sounds like nothing they've done previously and was only touched upon on THE POWER TO BELIEVE. Projekct One is excellent but is reminiscent of some of their previous work.

I hear Tony's back in the band so I'll see how it goes from here.

Guns N' Roses (very underrated on ILX)

In some strange alternate universe, maybe.

this will probably cause an explosion of laughter but I really liked the one New Radicals album

Suzy Mangion, as well as her band George.

early Piano Magic.

" 'Guns N' Roses (very underrated on ILX)
In some strange alternate universe, maybe."

they're evaluated fairly in the posts from 5+ years ago, but not now. The response to the leaked Chinese Democracy tracks is particulary bad (maybe I should have listed nuGNR as underrated too).

eX-Girl
Smile Like Dog
Salk Vacchin
Luminous Orange

Monroe Mustang particularly their first album on Trance Syndicate.
Silkworm
Unwound

I found Killer On The Rampage by Eddy Grant in a Scope shop a month or 2 ago :)

I like eX-Girl. That's a good one.

THAT FIRST URBAN VERBS RECORD IS SO FRIGGIN' GOOD. IT'S LIKE A DOLLAR RECORD.

SAME WITH HUMAN SEXUAL RESPONSE RECORDS. SO GREAT AND SO UNDERRATED OR WHATEVER.

SAME WITH THAT FIRST TRANSLATOR ALBUM. PEOPLE MIGHT REMEMBER EVERYWHERE THAT I'M NOT BUT THAT ALBUM IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT.

BUT THAT URBAN VERBS RECORD, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR...ROCKS SO GOOD.