Jake's Awesome List of Criminally Unappreciated Bands!

[Jacob Kobryn]

THESE ARE BANDS THAT ARE STUPIDLY OBSCURE AND ARE DEEPLY DESERVING OF MORE RECOGNITION!!! PLEASE ACTUALLY LISTEN TO SOME OF THESE BANDS, I SPENT HOURS TYPING AND THEN RE-TYPING THIS NOTE!!!

Actually some of these are quite well known here...

I determined obscurity through the amount of listeners on Last.FM. Really anything under 500,000 listeners is pretty obscure, but for the purpose of this note I limited the amount of listeners to 55,000. As you can see some are much more obscure than others, but they are all equally deserving of support! I annotated a sub-genre for further classification. Note: there are many cross-overs in the genre lists so I'm sorry if my placement is slightly controversial, I don't want arguments like, "Hey that bands so not metal!" or whatever... Also, I could list much more but I don't really have the time so I just picked my favorites. I'm sorry for not listing website or album information, you have to just look these guys up. I know for sure that albums by all of them are available on various parts of the web (to buy of course though some are out-of-print and/or very, very hard to find). If you have a certain request then ask me.

Rock

Änglagård (32,382 listeners | Progressive Rock | Sweden)
Alcest (25,153 listeners | Shoegaze | France)
Amon Düül II (54,474 listeners | Krautrock | Germany)
Anekdoten (50,267 listeners | Progressive Rock | Sweden)
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso (24,704 listeners | Progressive Rock | Italy)
Crippled Black Phoenix (46,761 listeners | Post-Rock | UK)
Earthless (11,546 listeners | Pure Facemelting Awesomeness! | USA)
Il Bacio Della Medusa (1,262 listeners | Progressive Rock | Italy)
Indukti (20,780 listeners | Progressive Hard Rock | Poland)
Mothlite (1,163 listeners | Post-Rock | UK)
Premiata Forneria Marconi (39,534 listeners | Progressive Rock | Italy)
sleepmakeswaves (11,665 listeners | Post-Rock | Australia)
Three (6,325 listeners |Progressive Pop/Rock | USA)

Metal

A Forest of Stars (4,029 listeners | Prog/Ambient/Post-Black Metal | UK)
Amesoeurs (15,599 listeners | Shoegaze Meta | France)
Antaeus (16,493 listeners | Black Metal | France)
Atheist (50,692 listeners | Jazz Metal | USA)
Deathspell Omega (21,178 listeners | Technical/Avant-Garde Black Metal | France)
Esoteric (20,845 listeners | Funeral Doom Metal | UK)
Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects (17,671 listeners | Math Metal | Sweden)
Giant Squid (14,877 listeners | Post-Metal | USA)
Ikuinen Kaamos (3,595 listeners | Progresssive Black Metal | Finland)
In The Woods... (26,525 listeners | Avant-Garde Metal | Norway)
Nachtmystium (17,753 listeners | Progressive/Psychedelic Black Metal | USA)
Ne Obliviscaris (2,709 listeners | Progressive Black Metal | Australia)
Negură Bunget (7,868 listeners | Progressive/Spiritual Black Metal | Romania)
The Pax Cecilia (8,793 listeners | Post-Metal | USA)
Ved Buens Ende (4,982 listeners | Avant-Garde Black Metal | Norway)
Wolves in the Throne Room (32,888 listeners | Atmospheric/Post-Black Metal | USA)
maudlin of the Well (11,496 listeners | Avant-Garde Metal | USA)
uneXpect (23,299 listeners | Avant-Garde Metal | French Canada)

Jazz

Bar Kokhba Sextet (1,625 listeners | Klezmer | USA)
Exivious (1,662 listeners | Prog-Metal/Jazz Fusion | Norway)

Folk

Comus (21,401 listeners | Avant-Garde/Acid-Folk | UK)
Tenhi (34,684 listeners | Neo-Folk | Finland)

Ambient

Æthenor (2,611 listeners | Ambient/Drone | Multi-National)
Jääportit (6,327 listeners | Cold... | Finland)
Jacaszek (8,103 listeners | Modern-Classical/Ambient | Poland)
Lustmord (39,581 listeners | Dark Ambient | USA)

Other

Asva (8,504 listeners | Drone | USA)
Dün (937 listeners | Zeuhl | France)
Kayo Dot (27,686 listeners | Avant-Garde Post-Metal... arguably | USA)
Magma (40,086 listeners | Zeuhl | France)
Secret Chiefs 3 (43,836 listeners | Middle Eastern, Surf Rock, Western Movie Soundtrack, Grindcore, Electronic, and more all in one! | USA)
Shub-Niggurath (347 listeners | Zeuhl | France)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (42,757 listeners | Avant-Garde Rock/Metal | USA)
Univers Zéro (8,195 listeners | Rock-In-Opposition/Avant-G
arde | Denmark)

Jake

p.s. I think there's a trend if you look on here... The French just make damn awesome music!

[Jacob Kobryn]

Updated... 8)

[hippl5]

Metal:

Melechesh (22,732 listeners)

Other:

Stuart Chatwood (9,323 listeners)

Jesper Kyd (29,304 listeners)

UfegItscO3g

[Jacob Kobryn]

High on Fire is not underrated, and they have over 50,000 listeners... Plus I met Matt Pike when he was piss drunk and he was GROSS!!!

[hippl5]

High on Fire is not underrated, and they have over 50,000 listeners... Plus I met Matt Pike when he was piss drunk and he was GROSS!!!

Alright then, I'll edit. Tell more about the Matt pike story.

[Jacob Kobryn]

I met Mike Patt after a Mastodon concert (which he was in the audience for) and he was soooooo wasted. I told him that I saw them recently with Opeth and he leaned on me and said into my ear "I'm so glad you could make it to the show... it means so much to have your support"... I think he thought he had just come from a High on Fire gig hahaha. He kept saying to me "don't judge me like this man". But yeah, he was drenched in sweat and was rubbing himself all over me... it was nasty!

[hippl5]

i met mike patt after a mastodon concert (which he was in the audience for) and he was soooooo wasted.!

high on fire is not underrated, and they have over 50,000 listeners... Plus i met matt pike when he was piss drunk and he was gross!!!


which one is it????

[Jacob Kobryn]

Lol Matt Pike sorry... I'm dilsexic... :P

[Ian Barker]

Any band with 500,000 listeners is pretty effing huge. For example, Arcade Fire and Phoenix have around that many. 50,000 is a bit more obscure, but still pretty well known. Anyways, here's some to add to the list (tags taken from lastfm, there's a lot of "experimental," but all that means is people are too lazy to classify it more specifically).

Clann Zu - 22,058 listeners (irish experimental alt rock)
Club of the Sons - 81 listeners (funk, glam, soul)
James Blackshaw - 19,835 listeners (folk accoustic, instrumental)
Animals as Leaders - 2,388 listeners (progressive metal, jazz-fusion, Jake, if you like Exivious you'll like this group)
Hecq - 13,164 listeners (dark ambient, idm, experimental)
Ametsub - 2,225 listeners (idm, glitch)
Giuseppe Lelasi - 2,935 listeners (experimental, ambient, glitch)
The Antlers - 16,433 listeners (indie rock, slow core)
Karl Sanders - 11,647 listeners (dark ambient, instrumental folk, experimental)
Sir Richard Bishop - 13,176 listeners (folk, experimental, guitar, instrumental)
Allen Toussaint - 22,073 listeners (new orleans, rythym & blues, funk)
Black Cock - 372 listeners (experimental rock)
Nels Cline - 4,558 listeners (free jazz, guitar)
Sholi - 3,593 listeners (psychadelic, indie, math rock)

this list goes on and on :/

[Fallout]

Here are a bunch of bands/artists/albums everyone must check out -

The Deviants - Ptooff!
Wackier than hawkwind, frank zappa and captain beefheart combined, a punkish band from the 1960s..yeah much much before the pistols!

Dr. John - Gris-Gris
I think he used to be pretty popular, but long forgotten now. If anyone is interested in a voodoo version of tom waits, this is it!

Jean-Claude Vannier - L'enfant assassin des mouches
The guy who did all the arrangements on melody nelson, umm...well...just listen and be stunned by the creepiness. Goodluck finding it though :p

Glenn Branca - The Ascension
Along with every other no-wave band, just get the No New York compilation.

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries
I don't think anyone could come even close to mastering the acoustic as this man.

Moondog - S/T
What's cooler than a viking who lived on the STREETS of new york, playing an awesome mix of classical, viking and jazz?! Of course, nothing!

I do have quite a few more wacky, obscure stuff but no one in the right mind would listen to it, so nvm :P

[Zaxser]

I think more people should listen to nursehella, (http://www.myspace.com/nursehella) (1,578 listeners, nerdcore) Bôa, (http://www.last.fm/music/Bôa) (9,113 listeners, alternative) and susumu hirasawa (http://www.last.fm/music/Susumu+Hirasawa). (22,863 listeners, anime soundtrack guy)

EDIT: angela aki (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTWy5SSngjk) (18,370 listeners, above average j pop) kotoko (http://www.last.fm/search?m=all&q=kotoko) (46,663 listeners, j pop)

[Straight Edge Ryan]

Swedish Crust Punk band Skitsystem

6koUToEDGnU

will probably think of more later

[REGNIRUTH]

Michigan has some pretty wild metal acts that no one seems to care about...

but I'll list them anyways, two of my favorites

Sauron (Blackened Thrash metal w/ LOTR themes of morder and Poser-bashing)
www.myspace.com/sauron666

Wastelander (Apocalyptic Mad Max metal punx)
http://www.myspace.com/thewastelander

enjoy!

[ErikStorstein]

this thread needs more:

The Ghost Orchid, ambient (3400 listeners on last.fm)
http://www.myspace.com/theghostorchid

Gazpacho, Prog-Rock (28000 listeners)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9jIC3gMWDg

Moving Mountains, Post-Rock (35000 listeners, can't believe they don't have more)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97GXQ97rvic

and something different:
Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family, folk (2600 listeners)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWWl0_vMX3U

[Jacob Kobryn]

Oh yeah, I forgot Gazpacho! They're absolutely amazing!

[Zaxser]

Hey Jake, did you know Power Quest has only 33,517 listeners?

So wrong.

[Dorkthrone]

The only one I can think of right now is Secret Chiefs 3.

Jake already mentioned them in the OP, but I think they deserve more credit than they're being given. It's like Mr. Bungle all over again, but better somehow.

[velderia]

I don't think this one really counts as obscure, but they're so obscure I haven't talked to one person that I became friends with that has heard of them other than a song on the Titan A.E. soundtrack. Half of them didn't even know any of their songs. Sadly, they aren't together anymore after fighting with their label:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashdown_(band)

The singer from Splashdown is now doing this: http://www.myspace.com/universalhallpass which is far, far more underrated than Splashdown and Kasson Crooker is still with Freezepop and his Symbion Project.

Not as obscure, but still worth noting I think. They are going to be playing live near me in a couple of days and sadly I can't really go: http://www.myspace.com/abneypark

I hope these guys come out with a new CD: http://www.myspace.com/lourds

Nice young Jazz band: http://www.myspace.com/loesmusic Profile Views: 58710

If you think the mainstream hip hop artists are doing a good job of attempting to blend hip hop and rock - think again: http://www.myspace.com/4thavenuejones Seriously. The first song I listened to was "Stereo". I highly recommend it. This is a perfect blend of rock and hip hop, and maybe even some more influences. There's a violin in some songs I believe.

And that's all I can think of right now.

Oh, and I also like this one: http://www.myspace.com/chasepagan

[Yngling]

Apart from those that have already been mentioned, I'd like to add a few myself. These are all bands that have made at least one album that I found perfectly enjoyable, if for different reasons:

Nektar (28,734 listeners) Some kind of psychedelic/progressive rock from the seventies. I only know one of their albums, A Tab in the Ocean, but it's worth a listen.

Trettioariga Kriget (2,938 listeners) Prog rock from Sweden, with vocals in Swedish! Their first albums are best, and their recent album Elden av Ar isn't bad either.

Gordian Knot (36,856 listeners) A nice all-instrumental Progressive Metal/Rock band, and while it's pretty technical playing all around, it's not sterile at all. Their songs have a pleasant atmosphere to them.

Aphrodite's Child (43,276 listeners) Greek prog band from the early seventies, former band of now-famous Vangelis and Demis Roussos. The album 666 is a great concept album about the Book of Revelations.

Eloy (60,738 listeners) Progressive/Space rock band from Germany. Yes, it is cheesy as hell, yes, the singer has a terrible German accent, but I can't help but love it! If unashamed epicness and heavy synths are your thing, you might just like this.

Kingston Wall (46,924 listeners) Psychedelick rock from Finland. Relatively simple, straightfoward music for my taste, but oh so addictive. The guitarist is great, and the drummer as well. Their songs are full of energy, and never fail to cheer me up.

Arena (43,531 listeners) Symphonic Neo-prog. The style is a bit like Marillion, though a quite a bit harder at times. Again, heavy on synths. I find the music 'theatrical', for lack of a better description.

I'd also like to thank Jake for listing some of my favourites, can't believe some of them have so few listeners (Anekdoten? Kayo Dot? SGM?)

And a big applause for Maudlin of the Well, which I discovered very recently and is absolutely AMAZING. You can download their latest album for free at the website! -----> http://www.maudlinofthewell.net/

So yeah, I like Progressive Rock, is it obvious? Maybe I can find more if I dig around a bit, I'm constantly discovering new gems, and I will check some here in this thread.

[Dorkthrone]

Zechs Marquise (http://www.last.fm/music/Zechs+Marquise) (1,392 listeners)- Saw them live just a few days ago at a RX Bandits concert. Great soundscapes. I think someone from the Mars Volta is in it.
1KYl-lTjn2I

[chriskot]

Proto-Kaw (http://www.myspace.com/protokaw) (1,160 listeners):
One of my all-time favourite bands. A progressive rock group spun off of Kansas around 2004 (or 1973, depending on your point of view) and only recently dissolved. Many of them very recently became part of a newly-formed folk-rock band called Native Window (http://www.myspace.com/nativewindow) (only 32 listeners so far!), which is also pretty good, but not in the same way.

Steve Walsh (http://www.last.fm/music/Steve+Walsh) (1,006 listeners):
The lead singer and keyboardist of Kansas, who went solo in the 80's and again in 2001. I'd just call him a hard rock musician, although he mixes all sorts of progressive rock, metal, dance, pop, and electronic influences into many of his songs. I highly recommend his album "Glossolalia (http://www.last.fm/music/Steve+Walsh/Glossolalia)" although most of the songs don't even seem to fit the same genre.

Tally Hall (http://www.tallyhall.com/) (29,054 listeners):
Not exactly SERIOUS music, but occasionally amusing nonetheless. Sort of like They Might Be Giants.

April Wine (http://www.last.fm/music/April+Wine) (30,969 listeners):
Pretty standard classic rock band, but I like them. I was genuinely surprised that they have so few listeners. They get plenty of airtime on the classic rock stations around here.

Triumph (http://www.last.fm/music/Triumph) (47,502 listeners):
Same situation as above, although leaning slightly more in an 80's hard rock/metal sort of direction. How do they have so few listeners?

[tobbA]

Should mention Loudness here

Really great classic heavy metal from Japan :)

They were appearantly pretty big in the west in the 80s/90s but fell out of favor for some reason and retreated to japan...

A few of their songs:

Like Hell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRJ4Re8jKWU) -This is their earlier sound

Soldier of Fortune (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqET8E7h_Ns&feature=related) - After singer change...

Metal Mad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjt3W3u1UKk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lastfm.se%2Fmusic%2FLoudness %2F_%2FMETAL%2BMAD&feature=player_embedded) - After singer came back. Although their earlier stuff is still the best

[Dorkthrone]

Andrew Jackson Jihad (http://www.last.fm/music/Andrew+Jackson+Jihad)-(22,353 listeners)
Awesome folk/Americana band.

The Deserts of Träun (http://www.last.fm/music/The+Deserts+of+Träun)-(2,173 listeners)

[LORD M]

Here's a band that now got over 100 000 listeners, but when they started they were a completely different band with a whole other kind of music, they're currently known as Korpiklaani, but back then they were known as Shaman - and played Sami Metal, a mix of traditional sami people yoik and traditional instruments and metal, something that not many at all listen to. Most of the ones who listen to them today have no idea that Shaman existed and thereby not many listen to the old songs. Somehow I think that some of their older Shaman songs are better then the current ones they make today.

http://www.lastfm.se/music/Shaman - Btw, lastfm shows 2 bands, the one that's a bit more famous and now called SHaaman and Shaman now known as Korpiklaani. I don't know what the amount of listeners are, because it seems to count both bands together.


Here's some samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dCyrBIWsfk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG0J_O6JxWE



And thanks a lot for making this thread!

[Jovian M]

Any I could think of have now blown up to be stupidly famous.

[Crass]

Swedish psychadelic insturmental punk band URAN, no wonder nobody listens to them though, as it's impossible to find any information on them and the only material they have out is a self produced EP that's been sold out for two years. Still, they're pretty damn awesome. We're talking ZERO listeners on these guys, they're not even ON last.fm.

ZeM8UbF7RgE
tEiWrhpWZPk

http://www.myspace.com/urangbg

[GriNGo]

URAN sounds amazing Crass... thanks for the share.

[LORD M]

Nox Arcana (http://www.lastfm.se/music/Nox+Arcana) (21 331 listeners)


znntsqPkCV0

1r4J7UZ2Kik

[Yngling]

Here's one I've only come across lately, but I like it very much. The band is called 35007, and they're a Dutch psychedelic space-rock band. They have only 5,582 listeners on Last.fm, and it's only by sheer chance that I found out about them. I'm always a sucker for these kind of things.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xOnM4C4VTY0&hl=nl&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xOnM4C4VTY0&hl=nl&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[Cryoxzonomony]

ESOTERIC ESOTERIC ESOTERIC, so esoteric no mass cant understand. I KNOW some mayb unappreciated or unknown.

Aborym (Industrial Black metal or Hard-alien-industrial as they call it, dont know if really underrated)

Sprawlcosm (Cyber black metal, deceased some years ago, released only one album which is really hard to get outside germany/austria but recently found the albulm Cybionic black art on some site from google where can be downloaded lawls. uses lots of progressive elements and such)

Raices Torcidas (Industrial death metal from El Salvador, honestly i havnt heard anyone talking about this band, stuff relates to man vs machines stuff kinda like in Terminator. Prob i think this band isnt even much known in the metal underground)

Clutch Mental Hospital (Finnish goregrind what uses themes from dental stuff and improvises everything, brooooooootal)

metalmetalmetalmetal

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ocXRThvtTVw&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ocXRThvtTVw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5lg9HnmXlZk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5lg9HnmXlZk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>