[Closed] Genuinely underrated bands

countzero, hit enter twice every now and again! 😆

I saw Gun in some sweaty dive in Southend, before they released Swagger. Mid way through the set, a huge riff started a new track and Rankin began...

Yo, pretty ladies around the world
Got a weird thing to show you so tell all the boys and girls
Tell your brother, your sister and your mama too
'Cause we're about to throw down and you'll know just what to do

The place erupted.

The Reads

Nobody seems to have heard of them...

I saw Gun in some sweaty dive in Southend, before they released Swagger. Mid way through the set, a huge riff started a new track and Rankin began...

I'm not surprised. Back in my clubbing days I'd get to the second "E" of the opening guitar "EEEeeeeeeee......" riff before I was on the floor, and I still take extreme pleasure in telling my mate that the Korn version is the second best cover of that track ever.

To my eternal chagrin I never saw them whilst Mark was fronting. I've seen them subsequently though with Toby Jepson (Little Angels) as frontman, and a few times later still where Dante's stepped up to the plate. He's really found his groove now, they're well worth a revisit if you get chance. Properly good fun.

Magnum. Currently touring and have a new album which got into the top ten rock albums. Also features the drummer Harry James from Thunder.

Oh, that's interesting. I thought GaryHarry had retired.

Magnum are good fun, once you get past Bob Whatsisface's ego.

That's what underrated bloody well means in my book!

For anyone who hasn't come across it already, the Twisted Sister doc on Netflix is a great story of a band be underrated / underapreciated whether you like them or not!

Catatonia, thinking about it.
Musically, they were genuinely tight with great ear for a hook.
Lyrically way ahead of most of thier peers, with a nice line in self depreciating honesty.
Saw them supporting the Manics in Blackburn, excellent live too.

And The Beautiful South.
One of the most misunderstood bands going.
Absolute genius.

I still take extreme pleasure in telling my mate that the Korn version is the second best cover of that track ever.

Third best version. One behind Cameo.

I know they had success early on, but since the demise of emi We Are Scientists have been very overlooked. Saw them a couple of times in the last 12 months and they've been fantastic, made all the better by the fact they were in sweaty dive clubs. We met them last month too and they are also genuinely nice guys.

Even more overlooked were Aereogramme, and another fantastic Scottish band called Stapleton.

I need to properly check out Paws on WAS recommendation, they're Scottish too. There's a theme here...

Blue Aeroplanes. Saw them live many times in the 80's and later, always brilliant. Not everyone's cup of tea though...

And come to that, The Beat. Successful but not sure they got the recognition they deserved, and the later stuff when career crashed was brilliant (LP Special Beat Service full of great songwriting - one of my favourite forgotten LPs).

Forgetting about The Creepshow

Bit of classic phsycobilly...

Suuns dEUS Subtle the Uncluded Sisyphus Breton La Shark Liars Blonde Redhead Forest Swords Dalek Culprate Teengirl Fantasy Pudge The Shoes Ringo Deathstarr The Oscillation Viet Cong We Have Band All We Are Young the Giant The Busy Signals Louis XIV Jaguar Ma

Best.Bandname.Ever 🙂

That Petrol Emotion should have been HUGE!!!
A bit of me's glad they weren't though.

She even has a film director friend see a story running through an album she was writing and recording, and promptly went and made a very successful movie, starring Tom Cruise, based on that album, Batchelor #9, the film is Magnolia

Wise Up from that film soundtrack is a favourite song of mine.

Shawn Smith.

When I'm feeling sh1t his stuff lifts me. Always loved his output for years. Songs that feel alive and full of positive meaning. Yeah, he's underrated!

I'm always surprised how few people know of Efterklang, even though they have really passionate fans and are without doubt the most fantastic live band I've ever seen. And powerfuly moustached

Not a band, but DJ scotch egg.
He's a bloody genius.
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Also not a band, but Current Value never seems to get enough appreciation.
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can't do videos[/url]

Finally, a real band. Atheist.
[url= https://youtu.be/DnUZ5xpcKHw ]nuff said[/url]

choppersquad - Member
That Petrol Emotion should have been HUGE!!!
A bit of me's glad they weren't though.

Chemicrazy is an amazingly good pop album.

Second cokie with The Cat Empire. Seen them more times than I can count, get shivers down my spine reach and every time.

See also The Tallest Man on Earth.

@bigjim They are glorious!! I have never heard of them before and boy do I likey.

[i]Not a band[/i]
oh, if we're going there I've got an even bigger list for that.

+1 for the Guillemots and Shack.

Also Malcolm Middleton and Arab Strap.

Another Blyth Power fan here. Better to Bat is played most weeks....what a tune

New Model Army. Obviously. Keeping it real for 35 years, and still packing out massive venues like the Robin in Bilston.

Yo La Tengo

Love them, but I thought they were a US indie institution and rated very highly. They were even in The Simpsons IIRC.

My nominations...

Almost the definition of an underrated musical genius...

@bigjim They are glorious!! I have never heard of them before and boy do I likey.

Excellent! Their albums are fantastic but they're just so much better live, especially with an orchestra. They've also done a film which is quite good fun called The ghost of piramida

Unfortunately I don't know if you'll ever get to see them live as efterklang, they are currently touring as Liima with a percussionist but although some of their songs are excellent I prefer their efterklang stuff.

As Aerogramme rightly got a mention I have to add in The Unwinding Hours. Great that Some of the people from the Aerogramme day have achieved some notability with Chuvches but it's amazing how The Unwinding Hours slipped by almost totally unnoticed, even less so even than Aerogramme.

seen no mention of my two favourite bands yet, hence they either must be vastly underrated or er..... sh1t 😀

Howlin' Rain.

seen no mention of my two favourite bands yet, hence they either must be vastly underrated or er..... sh1t

I'm sorry, Trail of Dead are certainly not underrated. 10/10 for source tags on Pitchfork. So, so good. 😆

I'm sorry, Trail of Dead are certainly not underrated. 10/10 for source tags on Pitchfork. So, so good.

Did they used to be called ...and You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead? I quite liked em back then, but it was ages ago.

Did they used to be called ...and You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead? I quite liked em back then, but it was ages ago.

Led Zeppelin.

So good, no matter how exalted their status becomes, they'll still be underrated.

Same goes for Enya.

Magnum - wouldn't have said they were necessarily underrated, love them, still played every so often at the local Friday night 'rock disco' and know a few who are quite into them.
The opposite applies to IGNITE, AUTHORITY ZERO and ANTI FLAG. No-one seems to have heard of them, they never get played anywhere yet they are some of the music that whenever I fire up Spotify they are the first artists I go to...

Listening to Blyth Power now...hmm, interesting, maybe not 'hard' enough for me but willing to give them a go 🙂

Ian, try this:

It's an early demo release.
Still the best thing they've ever done.
Possibly the best thing anyone has ever done.
😀
All hail the internet.
🙂

I never understood why Amusement Parks On Fire couldn't make the necessary leap to wider recognition. Michael Feerick has made some of my favourite music of the last few years. Spotlight Kid are a cracking live band who seem to be going backwards in terms of venue size too. Both from Nottingham which may have something to do with it as far as interest from the music press and A & R goes. Don't suppose anyone on here has a clue who I'm on about.

Little Angels

Thunder

Would agree with them and Gun.

Would also nominate Boysetsfire. I guess they alienated a lot of the hardcore scene by mixing things up a bit.

Cosmic Rough Riders. Only really one guy and one album by him under the name with a proper release.

Puressence. The biggest band that never were.
(Apart from in Greece)
Glad i got to see them before they finally split. In otley courthouse, of all places, on a warm up gig before their last stadium tour of Greece.

Earl Brutus perhaps?
and Owter Zeds of course

Rusty, thats class, thank you 🙂

This band popped up on my pod the other day, seen them a number of times over the years, and they're still only playing four to five hundred capacity venues, when they ought to be playing much larger halls.
Great band, Australian but UK based:

Howling Bells [i]Cities Burning Down[/i]

Loads of bands I remember here...Deus , Six by Seven , Puressence etc.
That Petrol Emotion - "End of the Millennium Psychosis blues" was ahead of it's time imo.
Chemicrazy is perfection.
I like the Howling Bells too. 🙂

My nominations are Sabres of Paradise......& The Dears.