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View Full Version : Could've Been A Contender.......bands that could've been / should have been



The Grand Wazoo
01-05-2009, 17:32
I seem to be drawn to many bands who were great, but not widely recognised as such.

I guess this is because I've got most of the obvious stuff & for a long time have had to search harder & wider for new music - and unavoidably ending up cruising the backwaters & dark alleys of recorded sound.

I've not got much time at the moment but here's one band that are special to me:

Big Star http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC0Wa3P_dO0&feature=related

More later.............


By the way:
Cover versions are a good place to start. It's an easy way in & gives you something familiar to grab onto when getting into a new band.

'The Covers Project' is a handy tool - a database of cover versions. Each band/artist is listed with covers they've done, as well as songs of theirs that others have covered. http://www.coversproject.com/

Beechwoods
01-05-2009, 17:47
Big Star seemed to flash brightly in the late 80's when everyone fell in love with Teenage Fanclub and realised that Bandwagonesque sounded just like Big Star. Alex Chilton came out of retirement and they toured for a while. I've never checked them out personally, mind...

Here's a few thoughts...

Dinosaur Jr should have been bigger than Nirvana.
Pale Saints should have been bigger than My Bloody Valentine.
Mick Softley should have been bigger than Donovan.
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come should have been bigger than The Crazy World...
The Shamen with without Mr C should have been bigger than The Shamen with Mr C :lol:

Not sure if this was what you had in mind, but it's an interesting theme to explore!

The Grand Wazoo
03-05-2009, 00:09
.......................so what about ..................

The Screaming Trees deserved to be so much bigger than they were............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJIEZx-_T74http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNnS3hBIkSI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k_WpATmbvY&feature=related

Michelle Shocked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hffcyJ1GAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cJZyjF9PlQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q15PlMFQdMg&feature=related

Gene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmRv4PY9pg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZZHcENtkxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjXqyH3Fiz0&feature=related

The Faith Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKCg0Yq2o0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHlh96tmhgo&feature=related
-'please 'scuse the videos ............I know, I know, there are only so many shots you can take of an album cover before it gets boring (......and that number would be 2)..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhjOhsamFU&feature=related

....and Beechy, I was going to mention Teenage Fanclub!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAMqJP4VvdE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM-u1NKr578&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5FVm5fhGH8&feature=related

The Jayhawks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GYZtO61fC4&feature=PlayList&p=ECF7AB19F44A0EEA&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=36
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xp_tIlV47o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FCLqM5dIHk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsjdD5FNm64&feature=related

The thing about all those performers & songwriters above is that they have a knack of writing stuff that you feel you already know.

I haven't even sighted the shores of obscuredom yet!! Much more to come.

The Grand Wazoo
03-05-2009, 13:47
Ron Sexsmith....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oNFRWXDSA8

John
03-05-2009, 19:04
Tommy Emmanuel A truly amazing guitar player
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZNJf-h7F8s&feature=related

The Grand Wazoo
03-05-2009, 23:07
Martin Stephenson (both with & without) The Daintees


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ4hHB5Wb4w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TYh7Hlr_5k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNgjP7ItJU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdV4J0Ssj88&feature=related

aquapiranha
03-05-2009, 23:41
Martin Stephenson (both with & without) The Daintees


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ4hHB5Wb4w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TYh7Hlr_5k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNgjP7ItJU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdV4J0Ssj88&feature=related

Chris, Wholly humble heart is in my top 10 all time greatest tracks. I do agree, very underrated as you say.

aquapiranha
03-05-2009, 23:56
Midlake - a totally overlooked band, just check out some of these tracks... follow the links from this one..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtpSidPN3jQ&feature=related

http://midlake.net/blog/

Beechwoods
04-05-2009, 06:15
I love the Jasmine Minks, they should have been bigger than they were... 'Cut Me Deep' is a beautiful song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38xbRxrnwqk

Murrumbidgee Whalers released on self-financed 7" in 1988 which is classic indie-guitar record. One side of this was featured on a fanzine 7" I have ('Giving Way To Trains', free on a 7" with House Of Dolls magazine issue 10). Strangely I can't find any online samples of this, but VinylTap have a copy of the fanzine EP for no money so check it out!

Beechwoods
29-05-2009, 20:05
I've just rediscovered The Chesterfields http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbu1iVoLVoE great indie pop that should have gone places.

The Brilliant Corners http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4FaAipULzg - not the best sound on this, but it's a fantastic jangly guitar sound, with superb song titles... like 'Why Do You Have To Go Out With Him When You Could Go Out With Me' :)

The Darling Buds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyZMhaaPEUc - this bunch set up their band with a grant from The Princes Trust! Great tunes and a foxy singer to boot. Joyous stuff!

Pop Will Eat Itself... they were contenders to be honest. Indie royalty where I came from. But they only got big after they got crap. Def Con One was their zenith :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Wm4qXC_j4

REM
30-05-2009, 12:27
Deaf School
:carrot::carrot::carrot::carrot:


Ralph

Joe
31-05-2009, 21:40
Big Star seemed to flash brightly in the late 80's when everyone fell in love with Teenage Fanclub and realised that Bandwagonesque sounded just like Big Star. Alex Chilton came out of retirement and they toured for a while. I've never checked them out personally, mind...



You should; they're great. I have an Alex Chilton solo LP 'Like Flies on Sherbet' which is one of the strangest records ever made. Mostly left-field cover versions, it includes a drunken take on "Boogie Shoes' that makes me smile every time I hear it.

My own 'nearly men' would be The Flamin' Groovies. 'Shake Some Action' should have been mega.

The Grand Wazoo
31-05-2009, 22:01
You should; they're great. I have an Alex Chilton solo LP 'Like Flies on Sherbet' which is one of the strangest records ever made. Mostly left-field cover versions, it includes a drunken take on "Boogie Shoes' that makes me smile every time I hear it.

My own 'nearly men' would be The Flamin' Groovies. 'Shake Some Action' should have been mega.

Joe, your taste in music seems to have many parallels to mine!!

I've just discovered The Flamin Groovies, having recently got hold of a copy of 'Teenage Head'. I always liked 'Shake Some Action', but I think the earlier stuff even much better - I'll be buying more!

Alex Chilton's solo stuff is a bit odd and very patchy, I feel.

aquapiranha
31-05-2009, 22:15
Deaf School
:carrot::carrot::carrot::carrot:


Ralph

I remember hearing about this ages ago, I meant to have a look for a Cd and now just found this...

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/137198/What-A-Way-To-End-It-All-Anthology/Product.html

Lots of Peel session stuff there too! thanks for the reminder!

The Grand Wazoo
23-07-2009, 19:19
The Only Ones

I'm listening to 'Baby's Got a Gun' at the moment, but their first album is a complete triumph: seedy rock music with thoughful, romantically inclined lyrics. It got lumped in with punk - that's the trouble with pigeon-holing.

My sister used to have a blue vinyl 12" copy of 'Out There in the Night' - I wish I'd snagged that when I had the chance! A song about a cat that got lost(!!) I haven't heard it for yonks.....1979 seems like a loooooooong time ago.

Note to self - Gotta get a copy of 'From Here to Eternity'

DanJennings
23-07-2009, 20:09
XTC, I'm fairly obviously going to say, because they're my favourite band, one of the greatest english pop groups ever, and nobody's really heard of them. Shame.

Jellyfish: Released two unbelievably gorgeous albums, then split up. Think pet sounds era beach boys, with paul mccartney singing and louder guitars.

One Minute Silence: The metal version of Rage Against the machine?

Drongos For Europe: still going, as good as any of the original english punk bands.

Van Der Graaf Generator: One of the more original prog rock bands, one of the least well known

The Chrysanthemums: Mad quirky lofi pop, with daft but amusing lyrics and very strange instrumentation.

Martin Newell, excellent poet, that's made some great records, one of them was produced by Andy Partridge you know ;)

NRG
23-07-2009, 22:16
The Vulgar Boatmen

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vulgar+boatmen&search_type=&aq=f

:gig:

The Grand Wazoo
31-07-2009, 18:03
I’ve had the day off work today & have been idly noodling around on the information superbridleway in between getting some things done & I stumbled across a reference to Brenda Holloway & ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’

I remembered that there had been loads of cover versions of this song & so I have been playing different versions of it all afternoon:
Spencer Davis,
Small Faces,
Robert Plant,
Alisha Keys,
The Clash,
The Jam

…….. I particularly enjoyed a quite recent video clip of The Spencer Davis Group playing it.
RnpK-zunm0U

The guitarist was Miller Anderson, who I used to see quite a bit playing in a little band called Woodbine in various towns in Sussex, years ago, brought about because we had mutual friends. Miller has played in a huge number of bands in the past – I knew a few of them, but discovered today the full extent of his promiscuousness!

Selected highlights are:
Keef Hartley Band (1968 - 1971)
Savoy Brown (1974)
Blood Sweat and Tears (1975)
T.Rex (1976- 1977)
Donovan (1977 - 1978)
Stan Webb's Speedway (1982)
Chicken Shack (1984)
Mountain (1985)
Spencer Davis Group (1985 to now)
Jon Lord Band
Deep Purple (Concerto for Group & Orchestra gigs)
Roger Chapman
Maggie Bell
Zoot Money

He has what guitarists call 'great tone'
So why has almost nobody heard of him?

Alex_UK
24-10-2010, 23:31
As I requested the exhumation, I guess I'd better be the first to post on the resurrection...

Chris has already mentioned The Jayhawks (which was how I found this thread, as I wondered if anyone else was a fan.) Most of my music collection could perhaps be described as "bands that could've / should have been" but one in particular springs to mind, a band that I thought were going to be huge, but doesn't look that way... at the time (early 2006) I though they would fit right in with their 80's revival electropop sound, and a cute singer, which never hurts... Anyway, so my first nomination goes to The Modern - although for various reasons, they changed their name to The Matinee Club then back again, and as far as I can tell, disappeared into obscurity. Actually, how can you disappear into obscurity, when you're already obscure...? Anyway, I give you - The Modern - Industry could've, should've, wasn't... http://vimeo.com/90047

Another one that springs to mind is Mazzy Star - maybe I spent the 90's under a rock, but I'd never heard of them until I joined this esteemed forum... (well, not as a band, having heard Hope Sandaval appearing in a couple of records but not realising her heritage.) They had moderate success with Fade Into You - an absolutely awesome song, (see below) and I quickly snapped up their 3 albums (on CD, not on vinyl, I'm not made of money...) - it really is a crime that they didn't achieve commercial success, IMHO, of course!

IWvEXChflEE

Sure there will be others to add that I will think of now I know this thread exists!

Jason P
25-10-2010, 18:10
Oohh, some good ones here. Love Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, have followed him for years...

Of the same sort of age, but from a different perspective, I always thought TheThe never got the credit or fame they/he rightly deserved... all the more relevant today...

cHzOG4mJ0PA

dz50N2_tCCg

On a more contemporary note, this chap should, if there is any justice in the world, be massive...

r3PtqLf3xUQ

Yq-O2fatZ2M
And yes, he does look like Tim Minchin!

Beechwoods
25-10-2010, 19:00
I'm trying to get hold of some stuff by this lot, sadly overlooked indie-pop from 1990

7InI1zIQBt0

Then there's (The) Cardiacs. Epic pop and a great video from 1988.

mUDLA1LAzDo

I may have mentioned The Plague Monkeys before, but here's the video from their most amazing track... this lot should have been huge. Very Cocteau's.

tSiAQcCvGvE

MartinT
26-10-2010, 00:18
Anyone remember Skin Games? I have an album and a few singles of theirs. The singer was a kind of Kate Bush sound-alike and they wrote some catchy and unusual songs. I went to see them live at some club in North London and there were a total of about six people there. Half the band came and sat at our table afterwards for a chat!

Welder
26-10-2010, 10:35
I’m going to nominate this band for the list.
T0TCiLleYGM
zhrYsXBWEa8

michaelhigh
06-11-2010, 01:33
Big Star seemed to flash brightly in the late 80's when everyone fell in love with Teenage Fanclub and realised that Bandwagonesque sounded just like Big Star. Alex Chilton came out of retirement and they toured for a while. I've never checked them out personally, mind...

Here's a few thoughts...

Dinosaur Jr should have been bigger than Nirvana.
Pale Saints should have been bigger than My Bloody Valentine.
Mick Softley should have been bigger than Donovan.
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come should have been bigger than The Crazy World...
The Shamen with without Mr C should have been bigger than The Shamen with Mr C :lol:

Not sure if this was what you had in mind, but it's an interesting theme to explore!

Chilton passed this year, so that's likely the last from them. They did an album in the 80's "Live in Columbia" (Missouri) that was pretty cool. Their first 2 were the best output from them, IMO. Very unique and super-catchy. I sure wish more groups sounded like them.

Rare Bird
08-11-2010, 13:45
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come should have been bigger than The Crazy World...



Part of the attraction for me is being more underground. 'Galactic Zoo Dossier' & 'Kingdom Come' are superb albums.

The Grand Wazoo
17-11-2010, 19:45
Elliott Smith

A sadly relatively unknown singer/songwriter. Why do so many of the breed lead such tragic lives? Depression/alcohol/drugs & then finally died from stab wounds.

He left some great music behind though.....

2tsLfPsYOXQhHDbCC0OngsFQrhA6QtWOM

Five fully formed albums and one almost finished when he died, then released posthumously, another double made up from unreleased recordings and a best of 'Introduction to....'

Give him a go if you haven't already

Barry
17-11-2010, 20:06
Hi Chris - welcome back.

Elliot Smith is new to me: sad and thoughtful. He reminds me in some ways of 'Brighteyes'. I was surprised to see so much of his stuff lodged on YouTube. Not sure if I'll invesigate him further, but logging on to YouTube did provide a pleasant diversion: there were several Nico tracks listed, so I listened to some of those as well. ;)

Regards

The Grand Wazoo
17-11-2010, 20:18
Hi Barry it's nice to be back here!
Bejeezus there's some stuff to plough through since I've been gone though!

I love the Elliott Smith albums - his guitar playing reminds me a little of early Paul Simon and 'The Marble Index' by Nico was one of his favourite albums - he's said to have played it exclusively for months!

Pete The Cat
20-11-2010, 11:10
Silver Sun.

Like the Beach Boys meeting the Ramones. And miles better than Weezer.

Pete

The Grand Wazoo
20-11-2010, 11:46
hmm .........yes, nice one Pete, I think I'll be playing some Silver Sun later today, thanks for the reminder.

Macca
20-11-2010, 11:48
http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac233/Macca_photos_2009/220px-Mind_Funk_ST.jpg

Mind Funk - Mind Funk

Anyone got or remember this corking hard rock debut from about 1991?
Lent my copy out and never got it back, now it's not available anywhere I've looked. Great band - they did a follow up a couple of years later then vanished.

Edit - just found a used copy on Amazon - $246.99!!! It's not that good!

Alex_UK
11-05-2011, 15:28
Neil Dalek and I were discussing Inaura in the Spinning Today thread... which made me think for some reason of Captain - who had a fantastic debut album This is Hazelville (http://open.spotify.com/album/2AtKlDFnzrMlURTgcSYvUB) - produced by Trevor Horn, every track had an intro which was in itself a masterpiece IMO. For some reason, despite recording their follow up album they were dropped by EMI and subsequently broke up, never to be seen again... :(

Beechwoods
11-05-2011, 16:43
I came across The Passions a while back, their first single was great, then *poof* obscurity!

http://open.spotify.com/track/48kVaSoo7HvvBSLepYvEGX

WAD62
12-05-2011, 10:58
The appallingly named 'Bedlam A Go Go'...

Leeds answer to the happy mondays in attitude, sonically a bit of a massive attack & asian dub foundation mixture...one excellent album 'Estate Style Entertainment' and that was that, worth getting just for the opening track 'Northern Lights' using the Ruts original Babylon's Burning riff to very good effect!

They're probably all incarcerated ;)

This is about the best I could find on youtube...

I3s7o-SeXd4

The album's on amazon for 74 pence!!!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00002513W/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&qid=1305198625&sr=8-1&condition=new

Beechwoods
12-05-2011, 12:31
Their LP was good too! The main guy went on to perform solo under the name LSK. They had a fab single called 'Roots' - check it on YouTube. The girl in the video is his sister and she's lovely :eyebrows: ;)

WAD62
12-05-2011, 12:57
Their LP was good too! The main guy went on to perform solo under the name LSK. They had a fab single called 'Roots' - check it on YouTube. The girl in the video is his sister and she's lovely :eyebrows: ;)

Cheers for that, they probably realised they needed a name change too...;)