... Mark Mulcahy?

He's not a band, but he is a singer songwriter with a fantastically warm voice, a lovely way with a lyric and the ability to craft two or three minute gems that worm their way into your subconscious and become as familiar and welcoming as old friends.

I am constantly amazed that he's not better known and would advise anyone curious to start with the following songs: cookie jar, hey self defeater, tempted and hurry, please hurry. Give them a bit of time and they will massively repay your patience.

If I can't have a solo artist, then I'll go for Polaris, one of Mulcahy's numerous side projects.

How about Six By Seven? A late-90's, early 00's band (4 piece I think) who made a slow-burning gem of an album called The Things We Make. IMO they've never surpassed that although subsequent records have contained some top choons. I've yet to meet anyone who has even heard of them!

Stiff Little Fingers
Alternative Ulster

Henry Priestman
Don't You Love Me No More

The Gents
Revenge

I've loved them since I first heard 'Dennis'. They had a little bit of popularity a year or so back but still ended up getting dropped.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mysteryjets?blend=7&ob=4#p/c/6D91E3B96A71ADF...

called The Soundtrack of Our Lives? I did? What, are you sure...that many times...?!

Their previous incarnation Union Carbide Productions should have been huge here too.

Fronted by the estimable Dan Michaelson with a voice so deep and low it's picked up by seismometers and a world-view so weary he's like a Bezzerides character for the 21st Century.

...but can I get my friends, or indeed more than about 3 members of the Massive to like The Hold Steady? Can I 'eck as like.

or The Muttonbirds

Fond memories

Whenever I mention them to anyone I get a 'uhh' noise and a confused look as if they've misheard me asking them to remove their underpants. That said, I've been listening to them a lot recently and my almost-2 year old loves this first track. The second is my current favourite of theirs...

It's 19 years old, but it's more relevant than ever. It's angry, articulate and just about one of the best set of state-of-the-nation lyrics I know.
(Don't watch the vid, but do listen to the tune!)

mightier than the combined forces of EatB, U2 and Simple MInds

Gawd I still adore this band!

more than Goth also rans, the great Play Dead

The Walkabouts and The Green Pajamas

Wonderful Songs,so much talent it scares me. Should be massive but aren't. Live,they recently covered the whole Zuma album. It was ace. Quite popular here in Spain though.

Clem Snide covers Journey

Brilliant, hasn't dated in the slightest. How was this not a hit?

Richmond Fontaine

No. Come back. Richard Jobson's The Armoury Show. Best 80's band never remembered. The guitar from about 3.15 in is great.

As I said on the below link, Beulah were the greatest rock band Ireland & Britain (or indeed the world) never embraced as the best of all time. I love every single tiny piece of everything they ever produced, from music to t-shirts to websites and posters.
Unlike most indie boys, I wish the whole world would embrace them, it would be a better place if it did.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/i-wish-everyone-would-love-much-i-...

They could have been the new Prefab Sprout. Signed to EMI but soon dropped amid their big clear out. Seek out their marvellous LP 'This is Hazelville'. There is a 2nd LP for EMI which was never released, am tempted to start a record label and release it myself.

Gov't Mule with Joe Bonamassa guesting. I simply love these guys but almost everyone I know is a bit sniffy about them, declaring their music to be too old school.

There's nothing wrong with that. I could listen to Warren Haynes and Joe Bonamassa all day, every day.

Never met anyone else who liked them - was obsessed by Here Comes The Snakes for a while.

I'm yet to meet anyone else who's even heard of them, let alone heard them. Maybe the fact that they looked like a bunch of dockers on a Saturday night razzle looking for a fight didn't help.

Three albums admittedly showed diminishing returns (especially after their sole songwiter quit after the second!), but Liam McKahey's Scott Walker croon and their general Divine Comedy & Tindersticks vibe went a long way for me, and a self-compiled "Best-of" playlist on my iPod is one of my most-played things.

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/the-band-that-only-i-get

As you can see, I went with the Innocence Mission and the Concretes. I could also nominate the Mummers - did manage to convert the missus, but why their album didn't do much better is a mystery to me.

Scooter.
No one else understands.
They're quite simply the happiest, most honest band there ever was. They don't give a monkeys what anyone thinks, and have ploughed this furrow for nearly 20 years.

I mean, you can't listen to Autechre all the time eh?

ZZ top meets Can

I never understood why this band never made it big in the early 90s. I saw them at a one-off gig for which they'd reformed to support a 'greatest hits' album about 5 years ago; the lead singer seemed to think that their sound had been adopted by many of the biggest bands of the moment - Coldplay, Snow patrol et al - so they were essentially before their time.

Don't let that put you off though - this tune is wonderful.

I saw them live while visiting my wife's family in Cape Town. They are very big over there, and very very good, but largely unknown here.

- Although being Mercury nominated for their third album, The Delgados never really got the attention I felt they deserved. Uncut gave the remarkable Hate 2 stars FFS! This is from album no.2 Peleton.

- The Czars. Where were all you John Grant worshippers a before 2004? :)
(not a proper vid i know but the song is beautiful)

- The Boyfriends. Came across these in Finland at a Suede tribute night. Their bassist David Barnett was responsible for the official Suede biography. I took an instant shine to them and ended up seeing them 23 times - more than I'd seen any other act. At one of their gigs at the Metro Club, Oxford Street, a certain Steven Patrick Morrissey turned up and was suitably impressed enough to invite them to support him on his European tour. Sadly, this was to be the highlight of their career - they split up shortly after the release of their debut album. This isn't their best song but they don't have much on YT.

Rachels. Beautiful chamber post-rock. Non-official vid here:

and dozens more!

Bikini Beach Band

The sort of band who make ALBUMS. They're very popular in America where they have had two number one albums. For some reason though they seem to have no media coverage at all. The music is tuneless and obtuse. Eventually after about ten listens some sort of a tune does emerge. The thing that I love about them is their "churn". All metal bands have a default churning sound when nothing much apart from general heaviness is happening. It's at those moments that you get the real measure of a metal band. Their churn is by far the best of anyone and just hits me with 100% satisfaction in the gut.

The drums are tribal, the guitar sheets of tuneless rhythm, the bass is whatever bass does and the singer can actually sing. Very heavy, very difficult and very nasty and misanthropic.

------------------

Aenima lyrics, the most misanthropic song I know:

"Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this

Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

It's a
Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will cuz
I sure could use a vacation from this

STUPID shit, silly shit, stupid shit...

One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.

Mum's gonna fix it all soon.
Mum's comin' round to put it back the way it ought to be.

Learn to swim.

Fuck L Ron Hubbard and
Fuck all his clones.
Fuck all these gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes.

Learn to swim.

Fuck retro anything.
Fuck your tattoos.
Fuck all you junkies and
Fuck your short memory.

Learn to swim.

Fuck smiley glad-hands,
With hidden agendas.
Fuck these dysfunctional,
Insecure actresses.

Learn to swim.

Cuz I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way.
I wanna watch it all go down.
Mum please flush it all away.
I wanna see it go right in and down.
I wanna watch it go right in.
Watch you flush it all away.

Time to bring it down again.
Don't just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend.

I wanna see it come down.
Come down.
Suck it down.
Flush it down."

Khaled ? Rachid Taha ?
Both fantastic, in different ways.
And you might have heard me go on ( and on, and on ) about a certain mr Taj Mahal...
If you like swedish hippies, try The Amazing. Not quite living up to their name yet, but halfway there at least.

I love this band though when I finally got to see them play live recently it was surprisingly disappointing.

And I also love the Raveonettetes !

I trucking love these band's first albums. No-one else seemed to though.

The Church. Shimmering guitars............

The Skin of Their Yellow Country Teeth is their finest song; I never tire of it.

Back in April we did something similar with albums. Of the three bands I suggested then, one (The Delgados) has already been mentioned above. More than them, though, I keep coming back to Jets Overhead, a Canadian combo I first found on the Word CD in 2006.

Beautiful, languid, luscious, and northern in a slightly different way from some of the Swedish bands suggested already.

New Fast Automatic Daffodils seemed to suffer a bit from the twin hits of a "wacky" name and being seen as part of the end of the whole baggy stuff, but "Stockholm" has some of the most barbed and spiteful lyrics ever: "You'll soon be dust, your deeds already are".

More sufferers from Silly Name Syndrome

Relatively speaking, "Jets To Brazil" (taken from a background poster in "Breakfast At Tiffanys") is a perfectly sensible name

Not many duds in their catalog, but rarely mentioned by anyone.

I've dropped these fellas in several different threads with the same sodding clip to prove how good they are..
Can somebody,anybody respond even if its just to let me know that it was "nice" or that they "quite enjoyed it".

Persevere..it gets going..honest

Thanks in advance.

I love shiny toy guns... just cuz they're awsome. Also Kiss, ACDC and the Wallflowers. All some of my faves.
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always go back to is 'Uh! Tears Baby' by Win. No one i know has heard of them but they were a great little band.

..I've always had a soft spot for this lot...

..great use of melodica, maximum pop melody and some hilariously ridiculous haircuts and lyrics... what's not to like??

(also great for getting up the noses of any Crass fans out there - given the Twins blatant elbowing of anarcho culture once they got a whiff of some serious cash)

Swedish songstress and her band "When This Was The Future" was one of my favourite albums of last year. From which "The Party"

when we've posted badly?

Judging from the zero reaction to me posting that Blue Rodeo are once again touring in the UK the other week, I guess that I'm more or less alone here (although I do recall that someone else likes their early stuff only from another thread).

How about Dreadzone ?? - wonderful band. Good on record, but fabulous live.

I am sure other members of the massive would have seen them .....

......... Surely ??

Crippled Black Phoenix

The For Carnation

Had a nifty little tune back in the day "Children Wonder Why". Had a 12" copy which got lost in The Great Cellar Flood of 07

I thought I was the only one who had heard of it - but some other soul has too and has what's more - uploaded it to t' web

And by the miracle of You Tube - here 'tis

"We're the biggest cult band in the world" - Geddy Lee.

For too long umm'd and ah'd upon by decades of some rock critics due to perceived certain overtones and the use of the Dixie flag, that sadly led some away from the quite fantastic music...

The trio of guitarists, the quite fantastic rhythm section and backing singers, all marshalled in old fashioned band leader style by Ronnie van Zandt. The band the Allman's wanted to be...

first saw these on the Chart Show indie chart, no one seems to remember them

I'm really in the meringue place, here's further proof

Fred Neil - legend, wrote Everybody's Talkin', gave Dylan, John Sebastian and David Crosby some early breaks, no one seems to like him but me.

This is Dolphins. Covered by Tim Buckley as well by the way

Masters Of Reality. Ginger Baker was the drummer for a while. Main man, Chris Goss is the producer for Queens Of The Stone Age and other like minded souls.

Lastly New Kingdom. 90's rappers who sounded like Jimi Hendrix being shagged by Tom Waits. I thought they were brilliant.

Naff? No! Beyond the music I've collected fanclub material, music press, promo items, etc, over the years, but admittedly know few with a similar affliction. Just a great band IMHO. Gratuitous double-neck action to follow (and, er, 'Diddy' Hamilton...).

I first heard a track from the Swedish art-pop band Komeda on late-night Scrawn and Lard back in the late nineties and have never heard them played publicly since. Although I think they've gone their separate ways now and I've bought their other stuff on Amazon, I keep returning to the first two albums I heard: 'The Genius Of...' and 'What Makes It Go?'
None of my mates have heard of them, but they never fail to cheer me up. Just terrific pop, bit Stereolab but less inclined to drone on. (Don't get me wrong, I do love The 'Lab!)

Forget The Driving Beat or whatever their hit was called. Instead check out The Game's Up. A perfect album that no one ever cites. Except me at every opportunity.

Who I discovered only because they were on the give-away CD of the first Word I ever bought

Can't understand why this guy has never broken through. He tours in the UK regularly and always brings great musicians with him.

I love every song on every album (and an EP). Such a pity their touring schedule never seems to take them outside the midwest of the USA.

The Massive's love of Prefab Sprout is well documented, and I am no exception. I'm also a fan of other acts of that ilk that came to prominence in the mid to late 80's and who have been mentioned in these pages (Stephen Duffy/The Lilac Time, Danny Wilson, Nick Heyward).

But there are some that never seem to crop up. Some are surprising, because they sold enough records to give the impression that somebody other than me likes them (The Dream Academy, Frazier Chorus, The Blow Monkeys), but some are artists that I've never met anybody else who has heard of them, never mind like them (Andy Pawlak, Bill Pritchard, The Big Dish).

Come on, tell me I'm not alone...

May not sound like the kind of band/project to take its name from Evil Dead, but who am I to judge?

The gorgeous Everytime You Move was re-released last year and indeed reviewed in this organ but no real increase in profile has followed. Their earlier album though also had some gems. For example:

Unamerican? One great album and then disappeared without, as far as I am aware, a trace

I'm pretty keen on the Blue Aeroplanes (especially the run of albums "Swagger" to "Rough Music") but whenever I mention them, people just go "Who?".

Maybe I should keep better company.

Named after an obscure part of East Manchester. A Morrissey favourite, probably because it sounds quite like him. Top song, though, and a great band. Saw them a few times in the late 80's

Late 80's, early 90's US west coast band. Just lovely. Sunny, melodic, smart. Makes you happy. Bizarrely, their drummer had been in UK early punkers The Cortinas. Yes, I thought that would make you interested.

I would like to nominate Gary Wright - He of Spooky Tooth Fame - for his early (and continuing) pioneering 'Electronic' work.

Check out the major Stateside (and minor UK) hit 'Dream Weaver' for starters. then try 'Silent Fury' and 'Phantom Writer' from his early work for fab lead synth, and 'Arawa' from his Electric/Africa 'album 'First signs Of Life' for simply one of the best chillout tunes ever!

For concert veterans, he was support for Peter Frampton at Wembley in the 70's during the Frampton Comes Alive tour

mention of a band called 'Birth', they had a cd out about 10 years ago called 'gotten bold', a lovely record. Not seen anything else by them since then. It's available for less than a pound at Amazon, much like.....

Octopus and their only album, 'from a to b', a lovely english psychedelic pop album, released at the fag end of brit pop, and inexplicably lumped with said pop scene, the band Blur could have been.

Think i mentioned in the previous thread, my 2 favourite bands no one else gets/likes/knows,but i'll mention them again, Tuxedomoon and The Triffids

fed up seeing The Ravonettes lassy and the outta focus bloke when the check this thread?
just wondered...

Red Guitars
The Planet Wilson
The Bolshoi
Balaam & The Angel
Do Re Mi
L7
Other Star People
The Lucy Show
Dramatis

Deerhoof: Japanese/American band that have been going for a decade without any major exposure.

Imitation Electric Piano: Stereolab-related band with nu-folkie Mary Hampton on vocals. "Blow it Up, Burn it Down, Kick It till it Bleeds" is one of my favourite albums of recent years.

Pale Saints: indie darlings of 1990 whose first album on 4AD is actually an art-pop treasure

Kaleidoscope (David Lindley's US band, not the UK psych group): superb set of recordings, but usually overlooked

(arrows to the Blue Aeroplanes, mentioned above!)

Diesel Park West
Pierce Tuner
The Katydids
Superstar

I like "Imitation Electric Piano" too! I've never me anyone else who likes them. I think "Leave Her Johnny" is the best example of an indie/ English folk crossover featuring a Moog synthesizer that I've ever heard.

To Paul Wad - I liked Bill Pritchard enough in about 1991 to buy a Cd of his..."Jolie" - I must dig it out and play it. I was amazed at the time that he wasn't bigger.

They released one beautiful record - "The First Album" - about five or six years ago and as far as I know haven't been heard from since. They made gorgeous, bewitching music: dustbowl Americana with a sprinkling of pyschedelia, like Mark Linkous backed by Mercury Rev. I was surprised to discover they were actually from Liverpool.

All I know about them is that their ukulele and cornet player went on to play Iggle Piggle in In the Night Garden. Can anyone else shed any light?

Great response to the first thread I've started on here. The brilliant thing about it is that for every one who added to it no-one has agreed with me about The Raveonettes. Proving my point exactly!

Gene
Regarded by many as sub Smiths copyists I have always held them in high regard, Drawn to the Deep End is a very very good album indeed. Consistently high quality across their albums and now gone. Much missed in my house but seemingly not many others.

Fischer Z
What can I say, cracking tunes, sardonic lyrics, white reggae before The Police did it...... about 4 people liked them including friends and family.

David Baerwald.
And the Odds (well, who likes them outside Canada).
And Grant Lee Buffalo.
And Guadalcanal Diary (Flip Flop is brilliant).

formerly The Nits. Dutch. 20 something albums to their (admittedly awful)name.

Rich with sonic detail and surreal lyrics. One for fans of Crowded House, 'Jordan' era Prefab Sprout, music informed by Reich et al... oh the usual razor sharp offenders with a full consignment of tunes packed and no two albums the same ...