Bands you've never heard

Cecil Taylor Unit is quite good too. Found it on Dodax who've since folded

As someone who is currently writing a book on Cecil Taylor, I would argue that maybe you should start with solo recordings. I recommend Air Above Mountains and Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! - the former is long but sounds like romantic classical a lot of the time; the latter is a bunch of shorter pieces.

After that, try his early stuff on albums like Looking Ahead, Love For Sale, and The World Of Cecil Taylor - you'll be able to hear the links to conventional jazz, particularly Thelonious Monk.

One album that's not super well known but great is Winged Serpent - Sliding Quadrants; it almost sounds like Ellington at times. Unit Structures and Conquistador are also excellent mid-sized ensemble records.

I really, really love the six-piece band (trumpet, sax, violin, piano, bass, drums) he had in 1978, which can be heard on the albums The Cecil Taylor Unit, 3 Phasis, Live In The Black Forest, and One Too Many Salty Swift And Not Goodbye.

@dow, no worries, I was jk. There's a lot of music -- nearly everyone has blindspots. I am probably on the younger side on the board in my mid-30s and didn't start listening to music seriously until I was in college. For most of my music listening life, I over-indexed toward keeping up with new music vs. educating myself about the past. Now I am getting to that age where my music tastes are solidifying and it's harder and harder to do either vs. listening to an album I know I already love. But that's why I keep my spreadsheet, and when the time is right, I pluck a name or album from it and give it a go. A lot of my listening now is done while working, which presents a different challenge: I know I have put on Cecil Taylor and Captain Beefheart before and immediately turned them off because I knew I wouldn't be able to multi-task.

@Chris L, I'm not sure -- don't think so...I appreciate the recommendation.

For Elevators, try Easter Everywhere first
BB&THC: Cheap Thrills
CB&TMG: Doc At The Radar Station or Safe As Milk for a more basic
DAC: The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy
Howlin' Wolf: AKA Chester Burnett or His Best
Meat Puppets: Meat Puppets II or Up On The Sun

I had grown up with Cecil Taylor being a mythic figure for a couple of things.
1) a story of him being asked to work in a friend's piano in the flat the friend was living in. & playing so hard that the friend who was lying on the bed on the far side of the room was having to dodge piano keys flying across the room

2) him having earned a living from chess hustling in Tompkins Square park. Where he would bet chess players that he could beat them and live on the proceeds. Seems like a really great aptitude to have.

NOt sure what my intro was maybe the double live lp with Max Roach from the turn of the 80s. & probably him appearing in the Freedom Principle or As Serious As Your Life or both., That & appearances in the NMEs my elder brother had left behind when he went off to University. A pile from the early years of the 80s

Van Der Graaf (sp?) Generator
Faust
Gentle Giant

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

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee)

i mean this is all like prog rock shit basically, don't worry about it unless you need to hear more prog

him having earned a living from chess hustling in Tompkins Square park. Where he would bet chess players that he could beat them and live on the proceeds. Seems like a really great aptitude to have.

Not true; this was Anthony Braxton.

Faust IV is fun to listen to, and kind of stands on its own without worrying about their earlier stuff (cool as it is)

Word, but also like Kate said. Although Faust vs. Dalek omg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqcuLsdnRU8

That is still thee hat-grabber.

Faust, "So Far", is pretty accessible, by their standards.

The Capitaine is a Yes fan iirc? VdGG were really good!

him having earned a living from chess hustling in Tompkins Square park. Where he would bet chess players that he could beat them and live on the proceeds. Seems like a really great aptitude to have.

Not true; this was Anthony Braxton.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, September 19, 2022 5:45 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That was what I had heard at teh time. I was thinking as I wrote that that I had heard Braxton did that so wondered if they both did or if that was who that was actually true of . But it contributed to him being a mythic figure for me in my late teens.

Van Der Graaf (sp?) Generator
Faust
Gentle Giant

Check out "Yeti" by Amon Düül II before this batch imo.

Maybe they've heard it.

xp
I think all of those are pretty good in places, JUst got off a week of listening to the first disc of the BBC recordings by VDGG which might be a good overview. LOve So Far by Faust, Octopus by GG too and the earlier lps are pretty great. Faust's 70s stuff is all pretty great I think.

Pavement is a band I've never heard but don't recommend anything because I'm not really interested in hearing them.

I guess people are no longer constrained by what lp they chance on first these days since there are going to be tracks by a lot of these artists on a lot of platforms. Weird being that far away from having to get the records or know somebody with them to hear them.

JUst that there is less of a chance element as to what you have access to hearing. BUt presumably need to be directed to hearing things by something one is doing. Doesn't help familiarise oneself to the individual bands as much though.
Still going to have time constraints and some chance elements to what one does get to hear.

I'm loathe to tell anyone that any artist, any record or song is "essential". If someone is already invested in an artist or genre, then I might say "you'd enjoy this" or "here's a record that will connect the dots"

i mean this is all like prog rock shit basically, don't worry about it unless you need to hear more prog

Sure, but no more than David Allen Coe is "country shit" and Gang Starr is "rap shit" and Misfits is "punk shit". I know you're a fan of the genre, but we don't do progressive rock any favours by acting as if the records we like are just there to tick some formalist boxes. I mean Gentle Giant could tell a listener as much about life-in-general as anyone else mentioned so far. But at the same time I'm not going to mandate listening to Acquiring the Taste as a benchmark of musical knowledge.

yeah telling me to listen to something because it’s essential or whatever is like a homework assignment, just get to know me and rec me things you’d think I’d like

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQbGiTNbRGxqDgTzWMjeci0CF289JgZ_97fAvOn8kvoteNTjnr0JMK0g5QgVIRUpvh2iM8&usqp=CAU

Status Quo is another band I've never knowingly heard that seems to be important in Britain.

Unlike the others I mentioned, I feel like there's an outside chance I could enjoy them.

VdGG, Gentle Giant, and Faust are all great. I guess I could see how GG seem a little like a homework assignment though, there is definitely something very academic/band class to what they do. VdGG on the other hand strike me as a prog band that even those who don't like the genre may dig. it's kind of like the Cardiacs thing. and Faust are just plain weird but some of those 70s albums are real classics. I recommend all three.

I've never heard the Cardiacs, fwiw (and I think have only heard *of* them on ILM).

I'm not going to mandate listening to Acquiring the Taste as a benchmark of musical knowledge

in a glass house, though...

Van Der Graaf Generator are horror-movie prog. There are some genuinely unnerving moments on their albums — I'm thinking specifically of the song "Darkness (11/11)" from The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other, where it's all going along relatively normally when out of nowhere a second voice just whispers in your ear in the right-hand speaker, and on headphones it'll make you jump right off the couch. Plus Peter Hammill has one of the great barely-holding-on-to-sanity voices in rock at all times, no matter the song. There's a lot of free jazz sax, too, and the drummer is an Animal-from-the-Muppets level maniac. I don't recommend their music to people who aren't in the mood for intensity.

I haven't seen anyone actually recommended any Gang Starr so I'd say the Full Clip comp if you want an overview, or the extremely solid albums Hard to Earn and Moment of Truth.

there's a moment like that on Faust So Far too, during last track an announcement comes in which sounds like it's coming from behind you. spooked the hell out of me the first time I heard it.

otm re: gang starr tho they do have a few very solid proper albums

also re: other old school hiphop- first albums by epmd and eric b+rakim very representative and good gauges for the rest of their catalogues.

(tho i would say let the rhythm hit 'em is e+r's best overall)

I don't really 'get' the popularity of Status Quo in the UK. They neither have a decent singer nor a strong lead guitarist, and the latter especially seems like a pretty important thing for a 12 bar boogie band to have? I guess they just made boogie their mission, or identity, and that must be key to their appeal.

First 4 albums are kind of interesting, tho not essential- first one is sloppy nuggets psych, second one is Bee Gees pop, third and fourth are rudderless as they're transitioning into a boogie band... but their reputation in the UK is not based on those albums.

Of the boogie stuff "Rain" is really buttrockin'

Sure, but no more than David Allen Coe is "country shit" and Gang Starr is "rap shit" and Misfits is "punk shit". I know you're a fan of the genre, but we don't do progressive rock any favours by acting as if the records we like are just there to tick some formalist boxes. I mean Gentle Giant could tell a listener as much about life-in-general as anyone else mentioned so far. But at the same time I'm not going to mandate listening to Acquiring the Taste as a benchmark of musical knowledge.

― Halfway there but for you

i mean that makes sense, the entire thing of "bands you've never heard" is maybe kinda based in that "oh you NEED to hear this" idea and nobody _needs_ to hear anything really. it's good music and all but it's so _old_. if you're like "hey i should listen to more prog-rock music from the 1970s" then definitely, though i think RPI is relatively slept-on when it comes to prog compared to VDGG. i mean VDGG was a huge influence on a lot of RPI as well so i guess there's that.

I don't really 'get' the popularity of Status Quo in the UK. They neither have a decent singer nor a strong lead guitarist, and the latter especially seems like a pretty important thing for a 12 bar boogie band to have? I guess they just made boogie their mission, or identity, and that must be key to their appeal.

Agree 100%. I love knuckle-draggin' 70s blooze, but I tried their double live album and there was just nothing there at all, as far as I could hear.

Although props to Quo for titling one of their albums In Search of the Fourth Chord. That's funny!

They had catchy singles.

Which is more than most boogie/blues rock band who aren't Canned Heat can manage.

this thread is fun and has got me thinking about bands i've never heard. i'm sure there's quite a few that would be considered "IMPORTANT" but none are really coming to mind presently.

which is not to say that i'm a know-it-all, but rather a curmudgeon. my biggest blind spots are metal and post-2000 pop.

geez folks show me one person who's not having a good time here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-8K8Hj8bxE

yeah telling me to listen to something because it’s essential or whatever is like a homework assignment, just get to know me and rec me things you’d think I’d like

― brimstead, Monday, September 19, 2022 1:48 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk some stuff is just really damn good, i love Johnny cash tho he's hardly in my wheelhouse but dgaf about 13th fl elevators who are "totally my thing on paper"

Is there a bad place to start with Faust? I feel like you really can't go wrong. The Tony Conrad collab was my entry point.

As someone who is currently writing a book on Cecil Taylor, I would argue that maybe you should start with solo recordings

yeah def

I am listening to Status Quo Live! (1977) which I'm sure is the first time I've ever heard them other than "Pictures of Matchstick Men." I'm a pretty recent convert to the joys of Foghat and ZZ Top, but I'm finding this pretty leaden and nondescript. Wiki:

Guitarist and singer Francis Rossi described Live! as "the worst album we ever made", continuing, "I always thought we were better than that.

Is there a bad place to start with Faust? I feel like you really can't go wrong. The Tony Conrad collab was my entry point.

I heard the Tony Conrad collaboration (still my favorite thing they ever did) first, then Rien, which is "not really a Faust album" but kinda rules for whatever it is, and then heard the canonical/classic stuff later. Honestly, their "real" albums never did it for me, but the Conrad record continues to rule, especially the two-CD deluxe edition.

Quo were the UK's missing link between CCR, Neu!, The Pirates and Canned Heat, if you want to push a theory to its absolute limits. And yes their singles were catchy. Also they weren't as simplistic as everything thinks. "Quo" is the best album to start with, but the whole run from Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon to Blue For You is pretty unimpeachable. After that they fell of a cliff artistically and got a lot more popular as a result.

Where this thread needs to go: Everyone posts their Discords so we can rip each other to shreds over the massive gaps in our respective collections.

Also y'all can laugh at the Sunny Day Real Estate CD I have which I never really listen to but can't seem to part with.

honest: pls hmu on discord and recommend stuff. i like to jam all the jams.

who am i kidding i never check my discord

wait there's an ILX discord

Ugh I meant Discogs. Way to ruin my own bit...

will gladly post my discogs with the important detail that it does not represent my actual collection at all. very incomplete.

i had a minor revelation about gentle giant the other day in as much as i only just realised that the bass player was the same ray shulman that went on to produce the sundays, the sugarcubes, ar kane, cranes, bang bang machine etc. wtf who knew?