Underrated/Obscure Bands

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I'm trying to listen to more bands. I will provide a list ofsome underrated/obscure bands, and some of you are welcome to do the same.

Bloodhound Gang (Comedy Rock, Rap)
Recommended Songs: Along Comes Mary, Fire Water Burn, Pennsylvania, Ralph Wiggum, The Bad Touch.

Reel Big Fish (Ska-Punk, Pop-Rock)
Recommended Songs: Beer, The Fire, Don't Start A Band, Dateless Losers, Valerie, I Want Your Girlfriend, Imaginary Friend.

Mindless Self Indulgence (Industrial Rock)
Recommended Songs: Prom, BS, Stupid MF, Revenge, Prescription, fa***t

Tsunami Bomb (Punk, Alt Rock)
Recommended Songs: Dawn On A Funeral Day, Tetanus Shot, Marionette, The Invasion From Within, The Simple Truth

Kutless (Christian Rock)
Recommended Songs: Strong Tower, What Faith Can Do, Take Me In

Zolof The Rock And Roll Destroyer (Power-Pop)
Recommended Songs: Argh I'm A Pirate, Moment, Briskness

Vitamin String Quartet (Orchestra)
Did covers of hundreds of popular rock songs

Feel free to add to the list

Basically all progressive rock bands from the 70's are obscure by today's standards.

Check out

King Crimson
Yes
Genesis (early Peter Gabriel)
Captain Beefheart
Can
Return to Forever
Tangerine Dream

Just to name a few

I can agree with the early prog acts, but I can also add some more underrated/obscure bands in general

Arcturus (Avant-Garde/Black metal)
Frank Zappa
Liquid Tension Experiment (Prog-rock/metal)
Spock's Beard (Prog-rock/metal)
Still Life Decay (Industrial Metal/Avant-Garde)
Fountain Of Tears (Prog-Rock/Gothic)
Shadow Gallery (Prog Rock/Metal)
Powerman 5000 (Metal/Rap-metal/Industrial Metal) I dont care for the album releases after Tonight! The Stars Revolt.
Ulver (Black Metal/Avant-garde, they are now 99% ambient though)

rachels
godspeed you black emperor
mazzy star
over the rhine
dinosaur jr
Venetian Snares (tho hes just 1 person lol)
bright eyes (though probably not underrated anymore)
atreyu

I use to love Genesis when I was a kid, omg the memories!

Karnivool - best Australian band in existence IMO.
Camel - The best Canterbury band of the 70's.
Gong - Trippiest music you'll ever hear, also dominant in the 70's.
Porcupine Tree - less obscure now than they used to be, but the name ain't helping. Just amazing. Anything by Steven Wilson in fact.
King Crimson - Just so ridiculously under-appreciated nowadays, should be equally as well known as Floyd. Pioneers in the truest sense of the word.

Triarii (martial industrial Metal, German band)

Virgin Steele - Best power metal band ever.
Enchant - Great melodic prog rock.
Honeymoon Suite - The only pop band that doesn't suck.
Eloy - Once you listen to this band you will wonder why anybody likes Pink Floyd when you could be listening to Eloy instead.

A friend got me into them last week. I saw a few videos on YouTube, they're hilarious. "Along Comes Mary" was a neat cover, didn't really do the original by The Association much justice with the monotone singing, but still neat seeing as how I've always been a fan of that song.

A few of my favorites from the world of obscurity are:

Badfinger (One I know knows about this band, it's a shame, they were brilliant)
Saxon
The Zombies ("The Zombies? Oh wait... you mean White Zombie!!")

VNV Nation
L'Ame Immortelle
Punto Omega
Covenant

Last edited by thannick on 09 Mar 2010, 12:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

Porcupine Tree anyone?
Kutless is another good Christian rock band and they are quite mainstream. Downhere is another good band too. I saw them a few weeks ago in Abilene and loved it.

Voltaire
VAST
Cadaveria

some more other than what has been mentioned...

Thereon (sometimes I describe it as Opera-Metal)
Ayreon (Folk Metal/Rock, Prog Metal/Rock. Has a shedload of guest performers.)
White Skull (Power Metal, has a female lead who I think is pretty damn good looking)
Ministry (Industrial. Their Obscureness/Underratedness is debatable however.)
Hammerfall (power Metal)

LFO (Techno/Acid)
Zero 7 (Chillout)
Echo and the bunnymen (Post punk)
Front 242 (Industrial)
Ozric Tentacles (Space rock)

Swans, anything Michael Gira has pretty much been involved with.

Portion Control, London based 80's electronic group that reformed a few years ago supporting skinny puppy. Cracking stuff

Jesu, formed by several members of the band Godflesh

Godspeed you black emperor, Montreal based orchestra/electronic band quite awesome stuff though there songs are vast and quite intense to listen too

Silver Mount Zion, same as above but differnt act

Winterkalte, Fantastic I think I couldn't hear properly for 2 weeks after seeing them in nottingham a few years ago

Feindflug, Probably getting more popular and known about now but they are fantastic, they need to release a new album soon

Heck yes!

This, although I wouldn't call them underrated/obscure, as they're pretty big in their genre/scene.

I would also recommend:
- Paavoharju (Finnish band, could be called modern psych-folk, but it truly transcends any label I can come up with at the moment.)
- Machinefabriek (Dutch sound artist, known for his melancholic ambient/drone pieces.)
- Sun Ra (Not really unknown, but he's a great start if you want to get into free jazz.)
- Circle Takes the Square (Emotional hardcore oriented, probably greatly surpasses any "emo" act you know, pay attention to their lyricism and their way of changing mood and tempo in a matter of seconds.)
- Datach'i (Glitch/breakcore/IDM or whatever you want to call it, his work gets my vote for the most mind-numbling music their is available.)
- Grouper (Drone/shoegaze music; in my opinion, best to be described with the literary term "spleen".)
- Pink & Brown (Don't try this if you don't like noise rock, if you do, you even might need a few listens to get into it, it's pretty rewarding afterward.)
- Lightning Bolt (Noise rock of a more entry-level band to get into the genre.)
- Lydia Lunch (Next to Jarboe from Swans, probably the most important female front runner from the 70's post-punk scene.)
- Mùm (Icelandic post-rock from a different level then the more known Sigur Rós, look or the early recordings that include Kría Brekkan in the line-up.)
- Pocahaunted (Two girls making the folklore-like drone music, can't give a better description.)
- Zu (Avant-garde free jazz music, what more could you wish?)

I could go on for a while, bringing obscure music to light, is one of the few things I've stayed really passionate about over several years. Don't want to overdo it here though.