Mike Viola/Candy Butchers Ivy
― ellaguru, Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Is this the Eddy Grant disc you're referring to?
Yes! The thirteen minute Living on the Frontline is completely insane.
― J0hn D., Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Morphine
― Shin Oliva Suzuki, Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:09 (sixteen years ago) link
<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.
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:52 (sixteen years ago) link
And good call on the Plasmatics!!!
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:54 (sixteen years ago) link
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!
― J0hn D., Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link
McFly
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 29 November 2007 13:57 (sixteen years ago) link
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".
― Mark Clemente, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:52 (sixteen years ago) link
Grateful Dead, underrated-even hated-around here.
― Bill Magill, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link
Bill that's like not even true, there are a bunch of Dead fans around here
― J0hn D., Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:24 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― MacDara, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:29 (sixteen years ago) link
"...there are a bunch of Dead fans around here"
Probably true, but outweighed by all the tiresome "dirty hippie" bullshit.
― Bill Magill, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah all those dirty hippie threads. . . .HUH???
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:34 (sixteen years ago) link
c'mon, everyone loves nickalicious
― mookieproof, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:52 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Bill Magill, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Happy & Artie Traum The Shadow Ring
I LOVE THE GRATEFUL DEAD.
― ian, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
^^^ 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.
― ian, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:59 (sixteen years ago) link
i love the dead too. at least a decent chunk of it.
― Mark Clemente, Thursday, 29 November 2007 15:59 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:01 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Euler, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link
I stand corrected! And the multi-millionaire surviving members of the Dead surely don't need me to carry their water for them.
― Bill Magill, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:20 (sixteen years ago) link
For a few seconds, I read this thread title as "Your Favorite Underrate Racists."
― Binjominia, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Also:
Young Fresh Fellows The Handsome Family Andre Ethier / Deadly Snakes Freakwater
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Blake Babies
― swinburningforyou, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:30 (sixteen years ago) link
sloan
― 6335, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:33 (sixteen years ago) link
here in the U.S., anyway
― 6335, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:34 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― electricsound, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:38 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― will, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
or three, at least (re Libs)
― will, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:42 (sixteen years ago) link
i just bought a catherine wheel cd at goodwill for 99 cents because i nver heard it,its from th yr 2000
― danbunny, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
^ 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.
― stephen, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:49 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― stephen, Friday, 30 November 2007 00:58 (sixteen years ago) link
i loved that chrome album,,and some mid 90s stuff so bug guitar cords big ghutar coirhds
― danbunny, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:02 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Cliftonb, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:05 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Chelvis, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:19 (sixteen years ago) link
nah
― electricsound, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:21 (sixteen years ago) link
wrong
― W4LTER, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:24 (sixteen years ago) link
http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/troll.jpg
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:26 (sixteen years ago) link
does kenickie qualify? they're highly rated among their fans, but everyone else is pretty "wtbd, another dollar bin britpop waste"
― winston, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:28 (sixteen years ago) link
sure
― electricsound, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:28 (sixteen years ago) link
It's just how I feel about those bands. I never liked the Pixies either. I'm not trying to upset folks..
― Chelvis, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:30 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.trollforest.com/story/small5.jpg
― winston, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:31 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm outraged
― swinburningforyou, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:32 (sixteen years ago) link
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!
― Just got offed, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:35 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:37 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― dlp9001, Friday, 30 November 2007 01:59 (sixteen years ago) link