With the industry as it is these days, many bands are genuinely struggling to survive financially.
(We Are)Augsutines being a casing point. Great band, superb lyrics, BIG sound, Springsteen’esque vibe and live performances that’ll blow your socks right off – They have a small army of loyal fans whom all know just how good this band really are – and how well known they should’ve been.
Yet, the industry is no longer willing to back anything other than a sure thing, and the public essentially want free music.
The Augustines split last month for financial reasons.

Another act that I enjoy for entirely different reasons, yet are to play their final ever gig in Feb is Hackney’s finest – ‘Bad Guys’.
Crazy riffs, brilliant front man – lyrics that make me spit my cornflakes all over the shop.

So ladies and gents, I give you two of my favourite acts that you’ve probably never heard of – but probably should have. (OK, Bad Guys is a stretch).

[video]https://youtu.be/sY-W0A8eDjI[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/zsw4Xp8Fl3A[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/NrpFddBWMrw[/video]

My greatest musical discoveries over the last 3 or 4 years have all been by word of mouth – so do share your diamonds.

2 bands ive followed for 20 years or more but never seemed to quite make it. six by seven, and …..and you will know us by the trail of dead. TOD blew my mind first time i saw them in nottingham, guitarist and drummer kept swapping around, they both seemed just as happy doing either, then at the end they smashed all the kit up, threw it into the crowd, the singer ended up under a table at the back of the hall, the roadies put everything back together again and they carried on playing. yeah i know, doesnt take much to impress me 🙂 i just wasnt expecting it tho, id only gone to see them on the off chance that they may be ok and ended up being one of my best gigs.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0UpsbZNlrI[/video]

and

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlDGiOJni0M[/video]

Bloody love Trail of Dead.

I’m tipping this lot as big as a nearly-40-year-old is allowed to tip a new band… This is far from their best track but they lack decent online content at the moment. Terrible name and they over-reference other bands (literally using Biffy and ASIWYFA lyrics) but the potential there’s ridiculous.

https://megalomatic.bandcamp.com/track/knees-crushed-by-an-electric-circus

Never understood why She Keeps Bees aren’t bigger. Maybe it’s the name!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eClQ-H-T9w[/video]

Two more bands from Nottingham- Amusement Parks On Fire and Spotlight Kid, the latter featuring Six By Seven’s drummer. If you like dreamy shoegazey stuff.

The Gaslight Anthem

Long identical thread last week

Milk Kan.
Excellent in a Chas And Dave kind of way.

Saw …Trail Of The Dead years ago, great band, and six by seven; another great band that never got the recognition they really deserved was Dark Star, very loud, powerful band, released one official album, 20:20 Sound, and unofficially a second, ‘Zurich’, which was an unfinished mix, but still very good.
Their drummer is a teacher in Bristol, I believe.
Only man I’ve ever seen use a pair of maracas as drumsticks!
There is another band who’ve hijacked Dark Star as a name, but they’re not a patch on the original.

Die Ärzte. First saw them in a film in the 80s. Originally a punk band they can play just about any style with a large dose of humour and self derision. The lyrics are thought provoking – very often a serious subject dealt with in a less than serious manner. The videos are worth watch even if you aren’t a fan of the music, this one doesn’t have an under 18 warning but some do and one song was banned which is rare in Germany.

Don’t press play if you’re at work or super sensitive, I think it’s within STW rules but if you are super sensitive, daft enough to ignore the warning and find it objectionable, report to a mod obviously:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOb-EjyXRPQ[/video]

Howlin’ Rain

Chavez. New EP out in Jan (first new material in 22 years, you know)

She Drew the Gun…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15_m1XEdAI[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGIgvLUNkWk[/video]

😉 & 😆

Two bands/artists that I missed until recently are Datach’i and clipping.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdE53EHdusw[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2GozE6XEqg[/video]

Bonus modular on the roof

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5Z0R9DS4u0[/video]

Trail of dead one of my faves of all time. Seem to be one of those perpetually underground but popular bands. Bit like Seafood before them. Now sadly defunct, Seafood were one of those bands that never made it but I always bumped into other people who adored them.

I am a big fan of Scott Weiland (apart from his Xmas songs, just don’t go there). His last band before he passed away was Art of Anarchy. Brilliant stuff
[video]https://youtu.be/HFT1tW3XsL4[/video]

LEJ

[video]https://youtu.be/lvoz-fSze8s[/video]

Otherwise The Warning.

Some Mexican young girls doing Heavy Metal and various other styles.

Worth watching if they don’t get screwed over by the industry.

[video]https://youtu.be/yjDkAnaTVVY[/video]

Long identical thread last week

What’s their best track?

Also big fan of Trail of Dead…seems like they had a few fans after all. Cable would be another underrated band in my opinion the Live at Brixton Prison ep is epic.

Cable are one of my favourites. If you haven’t listened to them, give them a go.

Wo Fat

Excellent combination of Led Zep, ZZ Top and some crazier bits. Found them by accident on You Tube. Played little else for the last few weeks.

Also getting into All Them Witches.

Sunhouse with one of the best musicians of all time Gavin Clark. Massive critical acclaim at the time. One album and split up. Gavin did go on to make more records (and at least one track in every Shane Meadows film) with clayhill and sons solo stuff. He sadly died earlier this year. He’d been working on some new material which was posthumously released by Toydrum

Basically all Craig B’s bands. He has music has got quieter as time has got on but has always been amazing for me.

All of Aerogramme, The Unwinding hours and A Mote of Dust have passed by pretty well unnoticed. Previous members of Aerogramme and the The Unwinding Hours have went on to have some acclaim with Chvches, who are good but do kinda a similar thing as The Unwinding Hours but not nearly as well imo which is a shame.

[ video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLpD9k3093g[/video ]

[ video]https://youtu.be/KpXIwFcZMYk?list=PLjUsW0LOdLRXHsT5gOZTQJGiLV2tnQOy-[/video ]