Richard Thompson
Maybe I’m showing my age but…
XTC
Supergrass
Marshall Crenshaw (again)
The Soundtrack of Our Lives
Her Space Holiday
The High Llamas
I caught this band on HBO’s Reverb, and they blew me away …
The North Mississippi Allstars.
I never heard of them before I saw them on that show.
(I love Flogging Molly too, just by the way)
The The (a.k.a. Matt Johnson) has always enjoyed a cult following and had widespread radioplay of his earlier club-friendly hits from the early '80’s. In the '90’s his sound got (even) more serious, and his popularity transitioned to college stations (“The Beaten Generation,” from Mind Bomb).
But what happened with his most recent original album (2000’s NakedSelf)? I happen to think it’s terrific – hard rocking, ideologically and emotionally trenchant, and musically diverse in its influences (think Jeff Buckley and Jim Thirwell) – but when he went on tour to support the album in early 1991, the Jersey Shore concert had to be cancelled for lack of interest. I keep finding the album in area cut-out bins, often marked down to $1 or $2. So depressing…
And then 9/11 happened. Remember the big all-star, preponderantly New-York-talent fundraising concert that followed? Well, Matt Johnson has been living in Chinatown in lower Manhattan for years. His apartment is only about 1 1/2 miles from Ground Zero – just another reason to add him to the lineup, especially with songs like “Love Is Stronger Than Death” and “Slow Emotion Replay” (both off of his 1993 album Dusk) to choose from. Maybe he wasn’t available or maybe he didn’t want to do it, but I would bet that he was simply overlooked by the concert organizers.
To this day I can’t understand how The Replacements never hit it big.
One time that I saw them, the Goo Goo Dolls (whom I had never heard of at the time) opened for them. Fairly decent thrash band I thought.
Then a couple years later I hear this catchy Replacements song on the radio, only it turns out it wasn’t the 'Mats. It was the Goo Goo Dolls doing the most blatant Paul Westerberg sound-alike I had ever heard.
And they wind up the ones with the hit record. Life just aint fair.
The The’s Infected has always been one of my favorite songs.
Although they did get some minor recognition for Banditos and Down together, I thought The Refreshments were an excellent band, just behind the Gin Blossoms in representing the Tempe music scene. Their Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy CD is one of the best I’ve ever heard. Intelligent lyrics with just a touch of humor.
Res (pronounced “Reese”) has a kick-ass debut album in circulation, recording her 2nd. I caught her video for “They Say Vision” on MTV’s Buzzworthy, and that is the only single I’ve heard on the radio, even though the whole CD rocks. My girlfriend and I also saw her in the mud at Atlanta’s Music Midtown last summer, but I am surprised that she isn’t making more of an impact.
I’ll third (fourth?) Fountains of Wayne.
And while we’re talking about semi-famous bands, I’ll bring up The Odds. While more semi-famous than FoW since they had two radio hits, they were absolutely the best new group in that genre* in the 90s. Nest is a masterpiece, the most perfect album this side of Pink Floyd.
*bands like Squeeze, Costello, Fastball, the Housemartins, etc.
I only post about once a year for some reason, but I can’t resist taking this opportunity to bring up Tegan and Sara, identical twins from Canada who’ve been writing music since they were about 15. They’ve had three albums and have toured the US, Canada, and a bit in Europe, but they’ve gone without much recognition. They consistently write the sort of songs that end up stuck in your head for half a week. I saw them in Boston two weeks ago and the show was excellent. They’re two of the wittiest and most genuine people ever to be in a band, to the point where you could almost wish the tickets weren’t so cheap so you could feel like you were contributing more by going to the show.
Anyway, a few of their songs are available as streaming audio on their site, so I recommend giving them a try.
WORD on Tegan and Sara LiveOctopus. They’re pretty young, and I expect that they’ll take the music world by storm before long. Their sound is unique, but poppy enough to be appealing to the masses.
I also wish Sleater-Kinney were a household name. They get a lot of recognition from the critics, but I think everyone should give them a try. Tight, musically and lyrically clever songs with a healthy dose of attitude and politics. 
Gosh, I just can’t understand why the Dixie Chicks aren’t more popular. 
I can’t believe that The Bears are bigger than they are. The Bears were Adrian Belew’s first band before he left to hit the big time. When he went tback home for a visit, he found that they were still together and still struggling so he rejoined them. These guys just pure and simply rock!
I have to add my voice to the Fountains of Wayne - this is practically an appreciation thread for them. Utopia Parkway is such a great album - I try to turn people onto it whenever I can.
Have you heard of the Merrymakers?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000I0P9/qid=1048120713/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-7512008-7933538?v=glance&s=music
They are a Swedish band that do power pop - they are produced by a guy from Jellyfish - yet another under-appreciated band in the FoW power pop vein. Really, really great stuff.
Okay, it’s just a single - I don’t know enough about the band to recommend them - but this single just rocks. Look, I am not a disco fan at all, but this is a dance classic that I can not believe didn’t get more attention - have you heard “Don’t Call me Baby” by Madison Avenue - could her vocals be sexier? could the beat be easier to dance to? Check it out!
If I ruled the universe Husker Du and X would have been as popular as REM and U2.
Supergrass are becoming my current faves. They’re sort of retro sounding, but it’s not derivative. Find a time machine for these guys and they’ll be huge.
XTC has some great pop songs and some bizarre pop songs too. Too smart for radio though. Andy Partridge and Dave Gregory were the best rhythm guitar tag team ever. Period. And Colin Moulding is a vastly underrated bassist.
Back in the 70’s Crack the Sky was infamous for getting dropped off of tours 'cause they kept upstaging the headliners. Their debut album won Rolling Stone’s 1976 album of the year, but their record label dropped the ball and left them in obscurity. They were a bit strange, very tight, funny and inventive. IMHO they went downhill after the original band broke up (though Safety in Numbers and that concurrent live album was very cool). I believe that there are some compilation CD’s out there and there is an occasional show in Baltimore.
The Scrivener good call on The The. I only stumbled upon them by reading a rave review of their concert in Paris, and subsequently picking up Dusk when I happened to stumble over it at a store. That was just a few months ago, and I’ve since bought Soul Mining, Infected, and Mind Bomb. They’re all great, though Dusk is still my favorite. I’ll check out the new one you mentioned.
Also, someone mentioned the version of the song Torn by Ednaswap in another thread, so I picked up their CD Wacko Magneto. WHY isn’t this band more popular? Excellent, excellent, from the first couple listens I’ve given it.
I guess I’ll throw Sixteen Horsepower into the fray since I’m here posting again. I don’t know much about the band, but their new album Folklore blew me away (with exception of the track Single Girl). Think O’ Brother, Where art Thou? soundtrack on 'luudes and whiskey.
Dave Alvin, Dan Bern, Iris DeMent, Martin Sexton, Tommy Castro
**Mucky Pup
Stiffed
Avail**
Lorna Vallings is sort of a cross between Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin and Sheryl Crow… sort of… aw, heck, it’s hard to describe other than good songwriting. Her website has samples though so go figure it out for yourself.
She had a song in the Joshua Jackson movie The Skulls so you’d think “a-ha! finally emerging” but she still seems to be overlooked by distributors – particulalry in Canada where she’s been an indie player for awhile now.