Countdown 100: Bands that got megahyped that failed spectacularly...

Double plus ungood...

I remember from back in my one-stop days hearing about the biggest advance ever given: to Lone Justice. Think they may have sold a few records here and there but nothing to justify the million bucks or whatever it was they were handed in the mid-'80s, when that was a fair amount of money.

I acquired a huge collection of 80s Rolling Stone magazines back when I worked at a public library and they were going to get rid of them -- there were a *lot* of articles devoted to hyping Lone Justice.

chaps getting nostalgic for those vids i posted, i can tell. He's digging out his Symposium & Midget cds as we speak.

23. Kenickie

26. The Flys
25. Adema
24. Oleander

Yeah, I mainly bought Metal Hammer cos it was bigger. And I must admit I'm tempted to dig out some Therapy?

Yeah, Nicole, Lone Justice (specifically Maria McKee, I guess, really) had unfuckwithable L.A. credentials when that actually meant something to A&R guys. And it was of course Geffen who doled out the bucks.

23. Mink Lungs
22. Lady Sovereign

Frickin' Lone Justice.

Some ILX talk on this thread about them a while back. Great post by Alfred following up on it.

Seeing ellaguru's post about Lone Justice made me think of Johnny Winter. His Columbia contract was at the time the biggest for a new act, but--while he did alright--he probably didn't pay commercially like the next Hendrix or Clapton like they thought he would.

Mind Funk

I remember them being pretty hyped - can anyone confirm?

yes

20. Northern Line

i guess veruca salt belong here too?

"Seether" was inescapable.

Mind Funk LOL OMG

I'm sure there was a slew of post-Spice Girls under-performing girl groups, but I'm struggling to remember any.

Replace one Northern Uproar with The Railway Children to keep the numbering in line.

Alan McGee had a whole string of overhyped nomarks - kind of glad I can't remember any of them.

Does Velvet Revolver count?
Jesse Camp and the Lower East Side dumbasses or whatever?

xxxp: I dunno - maybe they were good, but I saw a lot of advertisements for them and was almost convinced, but never bit the bullet.

19. Zwan

18. Macy Gray

Good call on Zwan. "Billy Corgan, that chick from A Perfect Circle, some guy from an indie band--how can they lose?"

Anyone remember the major label boyband response to Britpop called "Catch"?

To date, Gray has released five studio albums, one compilation album, and one live album, with her fifth studio album, The Sellout, released on June 22, 2010; and has received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues and Idlewild.

not sure what bit of that is failing spectacularly.

I bet even the lex doesn't
xp

Catch had a truly terrible song called "Bingo" didn't they? c.1997?

yeah that's them. cant even resemble the song tbh

McGee and Horne could fill this whole thread with blagged flops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33SjUj4J5BU

not sure what bit of that is failing spectacularly.

see e.g.

http://www.cleveland.com/homegrown/index.ssf?/homegrown/more/macy/grayarea.html

and no single has cracked the US top 100 since the debut.

xpost -- That is one ugly freezeframe.

Northside

xxxp Ugh. That track was on what seemed like constantly when I had a summer job in an industrial laundry in Bristol. Great days.

20. Northern Line

Ziggy did pretty well on Big Brother.

Thanks Herman, I had successfully suppressed all memories of that Catch song.

18 Wheeler (lol david keenan)

maybe these, maybe not exactly "mega-hyped", but
17. Biff Naked
16. Fiona
15. Phranc

14. Jonathan Fire*Eater

13. Sammy

12. Nellie McKay

Oh God, the Medicine label.

13. Kelly Osbourne

and no single has cracked the US top 100 since the debut.

She's had more success in Europe, where the first three albums charted well. She still gets a good bit of press when she has a new release. I can appreciate from a singles point of view that she's a one hit wonder but she's been 'successful' enough to keep doing what she does. I don't think anyone in Northern Uproar made five studio albums. Even the link you posted has her opening for Bowie 5 years after her spectacular failure.

12. Los Lobos

11. Mind Over Four

Northern Uproar reminded me a band i saw on the same NME tour

12 Fluffy

Make that

10 Fluffy

9. the firm (jimmy page and paul rodgers' 80s-collaboration)

8. 60 ft dolls