Bands you've never heard

Morrisp, in these instances I just use the ILX hive mind to determine the best regarded album from a particular artist I might be interested in, then listen to only that. If I like it, I'll check other albums out.

You need to listen to ABC's Lexicon of Love. It's great. Also check out Gary Newman's Pleasure Principal, OMD's Architecture and Morality, and Human League's Dare! Others may disagree with these choices, but they're entitled to be wrong.

xp those are 4 acts with one obvious single everyone* in the UK has heard a great deal.

Sparks - This Town Ain't Big Enough...
Ultravox - Vienna
ABC - The Look of Love
Heaven 17- Temptation

Black Flag. I’ll read anything about them but committing to the music always escapes me.

morris- melvins suck. don't waste your time.

xpost to controversial opinions

Also on the subject of UK-related ignorance, don’t think I’ve heard Paul Weller or any of his bands…

It works both ways, believe me!

Looking at the Top Artists of All-Time on Acclaimed Music, I have never listened to an album by these artists in the Top 100:

65 Daft Punk
70 Beyoncé
84 Vampire Weekend
92 Arctic Monkeys

I know a couple of songs each from the first two, don't think I've heard a note of the latter two.

Sparks - they sound interesting, but I wouldn’t know how to begin with a band that has 25+ albums.

There are a few compilations around - Sparks sound like themselves more than they sound like the times around them. I started with the universally disparaged Interior Design in 1988 and became a fan anyway!

Still haven’t heard Chat Pile

Kimono My House is where most people start with Sparks, they’ve got a lot of great ones but you really can’t go wrong with this one. If you don’t like it then they ain’t for you

Thanks, I’ll try that out. Already dipped into a few others named above this morning…

Re: Paul Weller — I’ve definitely heard this song “In the City,” by The Jam. Great song! I think I thought it was the Clash.

!

Checking that Acclaimed Music list, there are three acts between 101-200 that I don’t recall ever having heard: Charles Mingus, The Replacements and Soundgarden.

and from 201 to 400 (it’s ok I’ll stop now): Fugazi, Bill Evans, X, Wu-Tang Clan (!), Eric Dolphy, Flying Burrito Brothers, Built To Spill, Liz Phair, Slayer, Cecil Taylor, System Of A Down. Bloody hell, Wu-Tang Clan, how has that never happened…

Flying Burrito Brothers do a fine version of 'Dark End of the Street' that you might enjoy mike

Yes, that is indeed a great version.

Fugazi, X, Built to Spill, Liz Phair and System of a Down I've never heard either.

There's far too many American indie/alternative rock bands to list though tbh.

Yeah, US alt-rock/grunge/nu-metal are my biggest areas of deficit, followed by blues.

Back on US shores – today’s Pitchfork review reminds me that the Melvins are another active band with a 25-album discography whom I’ve never heard (and it seems too late to start).

The bulk of the Melvins discography is eminently skippable. Lysol is good, but it's only got six tracks and two of them are covers; (A Senile) Animal (the first album with two drummers) is great, and so is the live album with that lineup, but the other two studio albums are subject to diminishing returns; and honestly I don't think they've made a good record in a decade. Every one is based around some stupid gimmick now (remix album! acoustic album! look, we've brought back all our old bass players! look, it's a dude from the Butthole Surfers!).

Ultravox, ABC (to my knowledge), Heaven 17(?)
― Obviously Five Beliebers (morrisp), Sunday, September 18, 2022

John Foxx era ultravox >>> Midge Ure era ultravox. Start with the song "Saturday Night in the City of the Dead", or maybe "Quiet Men" off of Systems of Romance.

Heaven 17 - Start with "Let Me Go" or "Come Live With Me".

ABC - I can't believe that you haven't heard this something from Lexicon of Love without realizing who it is. But if not, start with" "All Of My Heart".

Ok, that Burritos version of “Dark End” is flat out gorgeous, thanks for the tip!

glad you liked it! :)

xxp Thanx for the tips! I listened to the first three or four tracks of Lexicon this morning, it didn’t sound familiar (and is pretty wild stuff)… didn’t get to "All of My Heart,” will listen more later.

Dunno if this counts but I've never listened to the No New York comp. I understand this is a big hole.

Imo No New York is more important than it is listenable. I do like Arto Lindsay's stuff though.

ghost club otm.

morris- don't sleep on the style council for paul weller stuff. it's his r+b band. this is a good one.

ha, my fave No New York act by far is The Contortions tracks, although I do appreciate the TJ&TJ tracks in their original mixes. I much prefer later DNA and Dark Day stuff,and never got Mars at all

add me to the "never heard Wu-Tang" list, I do plan on hearing the debut before I die, someday, and I do have a couple of related items (Cuban Linx, Bulletproof Wallets) that I have barely listened to

Just to muddy the waters – Mars is my favorite of the NNY bands, and the one that I ended up exploring deeper. (I really like the John Gavanti album, if you know what that is)

omg you've never heard Wu-Tang drop everything and listen to them right now.

Ditto Cecil Taylor and Eric Dolphy.

Fuck Paul Weller.

enh, wu-tang is kind of a 'you had to be there'* kind of thing at this point. definitely some classic songs in there, but even wu-tang forever is non-essential by now.

i was there and wasn't totally enamoured by the whole thing. more xpost to controp thread?

The bulk of the Melvins discography is eminently skippable.

The best Melvins album isn't a Melvins album - it's the Crystal Fairy s/t with Buzz & Dale + Omar from Mars Volta + Teri Gender-Bender from Le Butcherettes.

I listened to Arctic monkeys for the first time tonight, because of this thread. I listened to all of the songs that have over 500M streams. I feel horrible

I feel completely alienated

What are we even doing here, all together? What is the fucking point

lol arctic monkeys suck

How did they get so huge? I remember when I first heard of them I thought they were some edgy guitar band?? Am I mixing them up with the libertines

karl you should listen to their song with dizzee rascal.

libertines also quite terrible.

Honestly the first 5-6 of their songs I heard were so horrible that I’m no longer in a neutral place to listen to them. The dizzee part of that, I could see listening to more of that, maybe without the Arctic Monkeys playing along

Arctic Monkeys do not suck and like fine wine are getting even better with age. This is there brand new song and one of the most beautiful songs from 2022, absolutely stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY5CAz6S9kE

many xp but love me a good "Dark End of the Street"

I do like that quite a bit more! Maybe there’s something to these Arctic Monkeys

No! Don't say that Karl, please stay in the Arctic Monkeys suck crew!

Van Der Graaf (sp?) Generator
Faust
Gentle Giant

so many bands I haven’t listened to and will
probably never get to!

Throbbing Gristle, been holding out on that one for years and intend to go to my grave never having heard them
Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams etc, pretty much any doe-eyed singer-songwriter crap with a subtext of sexual harassment
Drake
Any drill artists

enh, wu-tang is kind of a 'you had to be there'* kind of thing at this point. definitely some classic songs in there, but even wu-tang forever is non-essential by now.

― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Sunday, September 18, 2022 10:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

ok now I feel old

but I don't know anyone who considers Wu-Tang Forever their most essential album fwiw

yeah, would think the first run of Wu tang and solo lps by the members were all pretty great. Forever was the first one I got hold of and i haven't listened to in a couple of decades. But still enjoy that first wave of releases.

90s alt-rock was/is very much my bag and I have also managed to never hear a Melvins album. I have always had a hunch they were overrated and the comments above bolster that suspicion.

I have also never knowingly heard Bad Bunny, or most hip-hop that your average teenager would like (artists like Kendrick are probably already considered "old").

There's some classic/legendary hip-hop I've never heard, outside of clips in documentaries (Eric B. & Rakim come to mind)... I should rectify that.

All those British 90s/00s(?) bands that ilxors used to complain about like the Stereophonics, Toploader, Dodgy, Travis.