Well nobody appears to have mentioned The Only Ones, so I will.

The Quads – There must be thousands. Great one ‘hit’ wonder.
The Colours Out of Time – Rock Section. Still one of my go to blasts of noise. The closest anyone has got to channelling the spirit of Search and Destroy.

The New Originals.

Good Lord – page 4 and no-one has mentioned the Long Ryders –

Gachet Free Member
Live – Throwing copper. This has been mentioned several times and is a fantastic alternative rock album. I enjoyed all their other albums to.

I discovered them through the massive amounts of radio play they got with their Throwing Copper singles. Saw them live in the 2000s, maybe touring Songs from Black Mountain, they were pretty good. At that point label pressure seemed to be affecting their albums a bit, their 2000s albums felt more mainstream and less interesting than their earlier offerings.

It all seemed to go weird for them at some point after I saw them, the singer seemed to go on an ego trip and the rest of the band fell out with him (despite them all having been mates since high school). There was a bunch of litigation, and the band went off to do another album under a different name with a different singer, then another Live album with a different singer, while the original singer had a bit of a solo career.

In the past few years the band and the singer appear to have buried the hatchet and reunited, but I don’t know if they’ve done any new music since that happened.

Round at my folks helping them clear their loft of my old teenage junk and spotted a CD of the Llama Farmers. Still have a soft spot for them and Yellow is my favourite song.

JJ72 – JJ72. Had an interesting sound and vocal style, but only made two albums.

They made three. Record company buggering around with releasing the third precipitated their break up.

I wonder at at times like these what and why are the ‘rules’ of liking music? I like making music and learning about music. I love to listen to music and have since a young child (about 8 yrs old I had my first tape player), but most of all I only like music that I like.

There shouldn’t be any ‘rules’, only music you like, and music you don’t like, or possibly are completely indifferent to, which in my case is practically everything that gets played on Radio One and every British commercial radio station. I know whereof I speak, because now I’m in the workshop at work, I’m forced to listen to whatever happens to be on the radio, which is usually Radio One, and it’s sodding tedious, I genuinely cannot tell one artist from another, except they’ve been playing this exciting new bands latest single, ‘Chaise Lounge’, by Wet Leg – which 6Music was playing months ago!

I have a quote from Aldous Huxley tattooed on my arm, “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music”, which sums up my attitude to music; there are loads of popular and highly regarded bands and artists who I just don’t like, mostly just because there’s a quality to a voice that just doesn’t appeal to me, it’s as simple as that. Having said that, there have been plenty who I didn’t like, but then grew to really appreciate, like Richard Thompson, and others, who I’m no longer enjoying, like Black Sabbath.

Anyway, as I’ve usually got my phone on shuffle, there’s always something that pops up that makes me think of this thread, as well as on the radio while I’m commuting and several recently in particular, like:

Black Mountain

Pretty Girls Make Graves

The Colorblind James Experience

The Watchmen

Miranda Sex Garden

The Civil Wars

Husker Dü

The Delgados

Mudhoney

The Dears

Sunny Day Sets Fire

This Mortal Coil

Gnidrolog

The Groundhogs

The Shirts

Black Moth

It’s too late to go digging around to try to find videos for all those, but if they stir up a spot of, “bloody hell, I’d forgotten them!”, then great.

Glad that someone not only remembered Beckett, but has a cassette! 😳

I’ll throw in the Blue Aeroplanes, the Bristol based band with the crazy Polish dancer Wotjec. Never quite hit the heights they deserved.

They still do the occasional gig, usually a Christmas one at The Fleece in Bristol, ‘cos they own it!

Yesterday I pulled out all my old records from storage and sorted them. Found a fair few from a band called Moose, uk 90’s shoegaze stuff, so they are getting a spin today. Hadn’t totally forgot about them, I think I have one track on a playlist somewhere, but I would appear to have bought an album and a number of 12″ records bitd. Hidden gem category might be pushing it though.

I’ll throw in the Blue Aeroplanes, the Bristol based band with the crazy Polish dancer Wotjec. Never quite hit the heights they deserved.

They own The Fleece in Bristol! They do a gig there around Christmas every year.

@p7eaven – there’s nothing odd about how you approach and appreciate music, it’s exactly the same as me. I can’t understand people who find music they like in their teens and twenties, then just never move on! Discovering new music is almost obsessive with me, and I’m not restricted to any particular genre, although, having said that I’m not a fan of jazz, although I do like jazz-influenced music, like a lot of early Prog, and bands like Steely Dan and Pentangle. Not keen on most current pop, as played on Radio 1, Kiss, and other commercial radio, and Country and Western.

The early years of BBC 6Music introduced me to a lot of Canadian artists and bands that I never knew existed, all I knew of Canadian musicians was Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and one or two others, so discovering the likes of Stars, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Feist, The Postal Service, Arcade Fire, The Dears, The Stills, and very recently I’ve belatedly discovered The Most Serene Republic.
Then there’s Death Cab For Cutie, named after a Smiths song, and Pretty Girls Make Graves, also named after a Smiths song.

Other recent discoveries are Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band, Sinéad O Brien, and Pit Pony, and DakhaBrakha, a Ukrainian folk quartet.

Some more little known bands and artists I really like –

Little Green Cars

Dubstar

Amyl and The Sniffers

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

Andrew Bird

Bellatrix

Black Moth

Blonde Readhead

The Cardigans

Found a fair few from a band called Moose, uk 90’s shoegaze stuff, so they are getting a spin today. Hadn’t totally forgot about them, I think I have one track on a playlist somewhere, but I would appear to have bought an album and a number of 12″ records bitd. Hidden gem category might be pushing it though.

Ha! I’ve seen Moose, not the band, but the bloke who gave the band their name. He’s now in a band called Piroshka, with his wife Miki Berenyi from Lush, Justin Welch, drummer with Elastica, (also with the reformed Lush in 2015), and Michael Conroy, bassist with Modern English. Seen them a couple of times, they’ve got a couple of albums out on Bella Union. Saw Lush three times back in the 90’s, and three times in 2015.

Had a browse through the cd’s tonight and found a disc from a band called Top, seems they didn’t do much after the album but I’ll give it a whirl also. I don’t think it will be in the hidden gem category either.

Sounds amazing if you enjoy taking a stroll around midnight:

U.S. of indie:

Television the twin guitar band to rule them all

Ozric Tentacles. Was at Glastonbury 1993 the only big music festival I ever went to. They weren’t on my radar that much had them on cassette that only got played from time to time. This hot weather though makes me want to listen 🙂

https://youtu.be/pjRepfNezTs

The Darling Buds was one group I liked a lot. I also think that Reef and Feeder were very underrated and did some great stuff.

@jivehoneyjive Spin Doctors are a good shout, did you see the lockdown video they did?

This thread inspired me to dig out some old cassettes. Some Holy Toledos take me back to Christchurch in the early 90’s.

I came across David Holmes’ Let’s get Killed whilst thumbing through my record collection a few weeks ago. I’d forgotten how good it is.

This feeling – Puressence

Only Forever was a pretty damn good album

@scruffywelder, love that not listened to that in a while.

I dip in and out of this regularly

This popped up on my Stotfiy play list yesterday

That David Holmes album is an absolute gem…as is ‘XCNN’ by XCNN and I’d be massively surprised if more than one person has ever heard of them.

I can’t understand people who find music they like in their teens and twenties, then just never move on!

And then post on Facebook about how good music basically ended in 1990, and it’s all crap these days.

That said I might have a listen to the Darling Buds in a minute, saw them a few times back in the day 🙂

c_g approves of Johnny Winter.

choppersquad – XCNN is a fantastic album. Also it was recorded at a studio I was working at in Huddersfield

^^^ Excellent!
Will be cranking up ‘Young Stupid And White’ at work tomorrow.

I’d be massively surprised if more than one person has ever heard of them.

Be surprised. I’ve still got the CNN singles and the XCNN album 🙂

^^ Me not heard of them. I find that odd considering I know of Tim Bricheno from All about Eve & the Sisters of Mercy (although I’d fallen out out love with the sisters by the time Tim joined).. I’ll give them a listen.

Tim Bricheno

Oh yeah, he’s got a writing credit n most of the songs. Surprised cos I couldn’t stand All About Eve. (Or the Sisters of Mercy.)

How about from a few years later, the lovely aggro of Earl Brutus. One of the best sleeves ever:


Ere you, you think you’re something you!

while we’re rockin

Ah shit.. just found out Cathal Coughlan died in May 🙁
Saw Fatima Mansions at the tiny Joiners. Blew me ‘ead off. RIP

Death Cab For Cutie, named after a Smiths song

or even a Bonzo Dog song

Screaming trees. I completely forgot about them but on the revisit, absolutely awesome.

screaming trees

BR
JeZ

Random 90s dance:

Espiritu, Los Americanos

@The-Beard – just noticed your post about Sandy Dillon, who I’d never heard of. Downloaded The Electric Chair after a quick listen to the title track, and your comparison to Tom Waits is spot on. I may be downloading more of her stuff in the future, I’m a huge, long-time fan of Tom, since I was given a white label copy of Closing Time.

Taking advantage of my first of five days off, and lounging out in the garden under a big sunshade with my new headphones on and my phones music library on shuffle, one of this bands songs popped up, which reminded me of the first song of theirs I heard, on 6Music:

I noticed a mention of The Incredible String Band, who could be described as ‘quirky’, and that reminded me of String Driven Thing. They had a single out in 1973 which I loved to bits, it got a lot of radio play, but didn’t get anywhere. Then it became a chart hit covered by some teeny bopper band who wore baggy trousers with lots of tartan… 😖

Television the twin guitar band to rule them all

Damned right! I saw them in Bristol on the Marquee Moon tour, supported by Blondie and The Cortinas, a Bristol Band.

Seen them a couple of times since, once in London, and again in Bristol – they do seem to have very extended breaks between tours.

Or indeed albums! I believe they’re playing Cardiff at some point in the future. It would be nice if a new album surfaced sometime…

or even a Bonzo Dog song

Bugger, yes, you’re right, I keep forgetting that! A very unlikely band to get a band name from, especially from that part of North America. Apparently it just started as a solo project by Ben Gibbard, but proved successful enough to expand into a band. Something he’s got a habit of doing, see The Postal Srvice

A very unlikely band to get a band name from, especially from that part of North America.

they perform the song in the Beatles ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film (McCartney was a fan and produced ‘I’m the Urban Spaceman’ under a pseudonym) so its a song you’d be likely to come across as a Beatles fan rather than a Bonzo one.

Earl Brutus…..now there’s an awesome band from the past.

Can I also add Scarfo to the list especially ‘Cosmonaut No 7’.

The wait is over. Available now on cd for about £12, or £3.99 on iTunes: