that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

like it's fucking WEIRD how popular M Doughty of Soul Coughing and Michael Franti of Spearhead still are

― i'm a fucking walking pair of Docs (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:32 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark

i was talking to an excitable young person the other day about michael franti and was like 'oh yeah, spearhead, i remember them' and this person had no idea what i was talking about.

not sure how the whole "soul coughing is HUGE in mpls but not anywhere else" thing fits into this, but i'm sure it plays a part. like how certain acts can stay fat and happy touring japan and europe while they slide into obscurity at home

Daft Punk

the minneapolis soul coughing effect plays into it.

also:

a friend of mine who knows says that factoring in international sales, the amount of units moved by like mid-level pop punk bands on fat wreck would BLOW your mind

Decemberists.

I saw a huge billboard outside of atlantic city advertising a concert by them. it seemed weird. but i guess i am very out of touch

arcade fire is probably at or going to be at this stage very soon

Kid Cudi is shaping up to be this kind of act, it kind of blew my mind the other day to see what size venues he's headlining right now

Black Keys

otm

Muse

Mars Volta

Michael Franti had a big fluke pop hit a couple years ago that kind of made everyone notice he's still going at it, but he definitely would've fit this thread to a T in the years leading up to that

i think everyone who knows who Muse and Black Keys are are aware that they're bigger than ever. Mars Volta has definitely had a weird unpredictable rise.

Gorillaz

drum and bass in 2002/03

arcade fire is probably at or going to be at this stage very soon

i don't know if you were responding to my post or just commenting on the thread in general, but anyhow that's what kind of confused me. i would expect to see a huge billboard advertising them at this point but i didn't even realize the decemberists were still together

this is sorta like the dream rocker retirement plan, though, isn't it? keep on doing yr thing, financial security and no media spotlight bullshit

Death Cab for Cutie

del i was just responding to the thread in general

but yeah decemberists is OTM there's a couple guys at work who love them now, very non-hipster musical tastes (they love they might be giants) and they don't even know of "her majesty the decemberists" which i remember being their buzz album

The Frames

this is sorta like the dream rocker retirement plan, though, isn't it? keep on doing yr thing, financial security and no media spotlight bullshit

― cop a cute abdomen (gbx), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:47 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean we're mainly being snarky but for the most part i feel like these kinds of acts have really just had admirable career arcs, catering to a fanbase that stuck with them well after the tastemakers and the industry machinery kind of forgot they existed

yeah otm i think it's great, probably the only real form of "success" left imo

Death Cab are sorta like this, although they're still pretty high profile.

I can't speak to precise sales numbers (and have a meeting to run to so I can't look them up now) but conceptually I'd think The Postal Service was more a candidate here than Death Cab

arcade fire is probably at or going to be at this stage very soon

I think everyone knows the Arcade Fire is huge. Hold Steady and My Morning Jacket otm though. MMJ played Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve one year. yikes.

i always look at the summer lineup for the big venue near me (red rocks) and wonder who is buying tickets for a lot of these shows. but the bands playing must be successful beyond mere buzz, which is pretty admirable. buzz must be overrated. i mean red rocks is a 9,000-seat amphitheatre and here are just a few of the bands playing: blues traveler, thievery corp., death cab, kings of leon, big head fucking todd...someone buys tickets for this stuff!

Paul Oakenfold

Wilco

I can't speak to precise sales numbers (and have a meeting to run to so I can't look them up now) but conceptually I'd think The Postal Service was more a candidate here than Death Cab

― I HAVE ISSUES (DJP), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:59 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

if Postal Service had released a note of music or toured in the last 7 years or whatever i'm sure they'd be huge, and i'm sure in some ways Death Cab's popularity is kind of a placeholder for PS (as is Owl City). but their existence as a current act is kind of hypothetical at this point.

think that wilco have really done the best job in terms of a long term career -- they've got pitchforky cred, oldsters, jam bandsters, dad rockers. WHO DOESN'T LOVE WILCO.

Countdown to Ned post in 10, 9, 8...

Weird Al

here's another show at red rocks this summer that might just take the cake here: Unity Tour 2011: 311 and Sublime with Rome

Weird Al has had a surprisingly long shelf life but his chart/media presence is high enough that his popularity hasn't really escaped anyone's notice

ICP kinda fit the bill before the Gathering trailer and the "Miracles" video went viral

xpost. Ha, Thievery Corporation. Never would have believed the makers of "2001: A Spliff Odyssey" would still be around, let alone popular.

Sade is playing the 20,000-capacity 02 Arena in London soon, she's probably bigger than ever.

she also had one of the biggest albums of 2010 and nobody was under the impression that she wasn't popular anymore

The New Deal became kind of weirdly successful

Guess I missed that then

xpost

here's another show at red rocks this summer that might just take the cake here: Unity Tour 2011: 311 and Sublime with Rome

― tylerw, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:16 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one of the hosts of the "power trip morning show" in minneapolis (the morning show of the local sports talk station) is like OBSESSED with 311, he talks about them all the time, and actually traveled from mpls to see them at red rocks, crazy

yeah, they have a really devoted fanbase. i mean, they've been around for like 15 years now, right? i hate being snobby, but people who like them are truly savages.

ICP kinda fit the bill before the Gathering trailer and the "Miracles" video went viral

I was about to argue this but yeah, OTM; they got HUGE media attention circa The Great Milenko and then everyone sort of forgot they were still around, even though they still kept selling way more albums than they really should. (I think you could plausibly argue that they haven't matched their Milenko/Jeckel Brothers album sales in subsequent years but again, I have no facts behind that.)

yeah like he calls them the greatest band of all time and means it, it's mental illness

omaha stylee

P-NUT!

http://brigade311.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/060900_pnut.jpg

yeah, it's like people who go to 311 shows have ~experiences~ and they become fans for life. i dunno, maybe they're amazing live. look at that guy.

let's all watch this together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsw7yaFGNQw

guys, stop trying to make 311 happen to us again

couldn't do it. "amber is the color of your energy" lol

Black Keys

― solitary posts that effortlessly summarize the spirit of ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:42 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark

srsly i saw these dudes in like 2004, "rubber factory" was one of the first CDs i ever burned, and then i forgot all about them for most of a decade and suddenly they're everywhere

also re: My Morning Jacket, this band is partially responsible for me "getting" American Dad

311 are staples @ the "Classic Alternative" station here.

so weird that "classic alternative" is a thing now

so weird that its standard-bearer is 311

Just found out that at the end of the month Greta Van Fleet is headlining Toyota Center in Houston, a venue that recently hosted/will host Springsteen, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Bad Bunny, and Paramore.

lead singer came out last month, was talked about a bit

That alone doesn't get you into touring basketball arenas.

Like, Paramore is a way more popular band, and even they are having some issues filling up that place.

GVF has that big boomer dollar

GVF has a bafflingly huge fanbase somehow.

Joe Bonamassa fans ready to step up to something a bit more fresh and exciting.

Tame Impala is playing Toyota Center (Basketball arena) in Houston next summer.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, December 9, 2019 4:47 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This show didn't happen for obvious reasons, and when they did return to Houston in '21, they played The Lawn At White Oak Music Hall, the same place they played at here in 2019.

I checked out GVF in Houston on Setlist.fm, and in their two prior appearances they headlined '18 at the House of Blues and graduated the next year to Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land (huge suburban theatre that hosts a lotta Classic Rock/Nostalgia Alternative/rising Pop acts, plus lol Bonamassa).

Cigarettes After Sex are a slowcore/dream pop band on an indie label and they have crazy high streaming numbers - it feels like a lot of people don't notice they're this big? their top song is no one's idea of commercial but it's closing in on a billion streams on Spotify pic.twitter.com/Oa4vSpcUai

— Matthew Perpetua (@perpetua) July 13, 2023

heard of them through my mom and david lynch

Pitchfork gave their 2017 album a 7.4, but their 2019 album got a 4.0--a sign that the buzz is over.

the band name vaguely rings a bell. Listening to the top track (Apocalypse) now and not really my thing but I guess I see the appeal, has a real dreamy melancholic easy listening vibe.

the buzz is over
you were with me all the while

This doesn't quite fit here, but my friend is seeing Jimmy Eat World next week in an outdoor theater, and the opening act is a band called "Manchester Orchestra"... I had never heard of them, and looked them up (b/c their name is so odd); turns out they've been around since 2004, have released 6 albums, made numerous TV appearances, "curate" an annual music fest, and have had a bunch of songs featured in films, TV, and video games.

iirc Manchester Orchestra has a few big ilxor fans, I really like a few of their records

I've also been baffled by Manchester Orchestra. A chronically ordinary band, they've been getting main stage placements at festivals for the past decade.

I got sent an email about that tour a few days ago, apparently they played Montana (NOBODY plays Montana) this week.

yeah ilm has 4 threads about them, including:

thread of best rock album of year 2017, 'a black mile to the surface' by manchester orchestra (started by ToddBonzalez (BradNelson) on board I Love Music on Jul 28, 2017)

Gen Z kids love My Bloody Valentine.

Also, reunion bias kinda distorts this question for me:

The last time I saw Pavement (peak) was in 2/97 in a tiny bar in San Francisco (<200 people).

I skipped their TT tour and 2010 reunion shows for various reasons but then I was able to see their most recent reunion shows in this enormous music venue (3 sold out nights at ~3500 seats).

little more of a nuanced example, but in my "trying to keep up with the goons" days of hip hop listening, I got into Jellyroll through the collaboration with Haystak, the Strictly Business album, which got some positive recognition in hip hop zines and HipHopDx. I enjoyed it, it was a solid album. Jellyroll had also had that one song with Lil Wyte that blew up minorly in 2010, "Pop Another Pill", so I thought maybe he'd start getting more big features but then he kinda resumed being more of an undie rapper again and doing low rent mixtapes and I forgot all about him for years.

so I go to Welcome to Rockville in 2021, and I hear a familiar voice at one of the smaller stages, and it's JellyRoll! and people are flocking to the stage quickly, but like it's still one of the smaller stages at the festival.

apparently he blew the fuck up shortly after that, like....dude just won three CMT awards! I was blown away. my friend was talking about him and I was like "the little known rapper that used to collabo with Haystak and Lil Wyte?" and she's like "nah he sings now, he's on TV and has performed at the Grand Ole Opry"

he was on the cover of billboard

in his undies

yea I love the jelly roll story lol

hes come a long way from the days of goon classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNi0zDTPgOc

There are a ton of artists I've never heard of that have songs doing streaming numbers in the hundreds of millions. Tik Tok, I assume?

Rag'n'Bone Man 852 million
Hotel Ugly 394 m
Roar 432 m
TV Girl 382 m
Falling in Reverse 271 m
David Kushner 351 m
JVKE 732 m
ThxSoMch 295 m
Bakar 323 m
Rainbow Kitten Surprise 262 m

Rag'n'Bone Man is big in the UK I think. At least in a "see his record advertised on the tube" way, never actually heard him.

He looks like Jelly Roll's British equivalent

I hear Rag'n'Bone Man all the time on the radio here (in Montreal).

(xxp) You're not missing much.

Yes, he is very very popular.

Hozier is back for more! We can’t wait to see Hozier at #MyXEC on August 17 on his Unreal Unearth Tour 2024.

Tickets go on sale Friday, November 17, 2023. pic.twitter.com/WWf0dbK9lg

— Xcel Energy Center (@XcelEnergyCtr) November 9, 2023

I recently noticed he had several albums currently on the Billboard 200

Mt. Joy is playing Madison Square Garden next year.

Discovering The Wombats were not only still at it but quite big in the States was jaw-dropping