I’m here in NZ and I love Social D. And Fugazi put on some of the best live shows I’ve ever seen when they toured down here.
SF Bay Area, '80s era: Eddie & the Tide. Saw them a few times with my GF. Fond memories whenever I hear one of their songs (playlist - never on the radio).
How, how could you omit the Slickee Boys.
Really good surf inspired 70’s pop punk.
I’d have said that Faith No More were a pretty big deal; I have three of their albums, and I’m not even a huge fan. The Real Thing seemed to playing at every party I was at in about 1990, and Angel Dust was a terrific album, just awesomely dark, heavy and nasty.
Around here, I think most people would only have been aware of “Epic.” As a band, I would say they were reasonably known by name, but as far as their music goes, I don’t think most could have named a song beyond “Epic” back in the late 80s. “We Care A Lot” is the only other one I may have known at the time. Oh, wait, there was also “Easy” that I keep forgetting was by them (but that was '92).
Oh, wow, that takes me back to college. I saw them I want to say at the Metro here in Chicago with the Toasters and some other ska bands beck in the mid-90s. 95? 96? Something like that. Tail end of third-wave ska. Never owned an album of theirs, but they were fun. (The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are the only ska band of that generation whose albums I owned.)
For me, one of my favorite bands in high school and college was a local pop rock band called The Bad Examples. The album “Bad Is Beautiful” was pretty much the soundtrack to my senior year in high school. Them along with Material Issue, but Material Issue had some songs that spread beyond this geographic area.
Good band and good album—good enough that they could have been a lot bigger. I think I first heard of them when I ran across (and borrowed) Bad Is Beautiful in the CD racks at the public library in Springfield, IL, and later saw them live when they were playing one of the beer tents at the Illinois State Fair, sometime in the 90s.
Yep, I opened for them on their last trip through town here. It was a great experience, and yeah, the record is great. They’re nice, sociable guys, too. They certainly don’t get all the credit they deserve.
Other than that, it’s a big question of “Where the hell do I start?” If I love your band, I’m sorry, but you’re probably not going to be a millionaire off of it. If anything, I’m surprised that people on this very board sometimes recognize and like my heroes.
Two of my heroes I opened for ages ago at the same show:
Steel Pole Bath Tub - Bee Sting (caution, simulated Marsha Brady orgasm), SF psychedelic punk. Amazing band. That’s pretty much exactly what they sounded like live.
Killdozer - Man Vs. Nature. They had the most swagger per note of any band that ever walked the earth. You ever hear another song that showcased the work of Irwin Allen? I didn’t think so.
Also, Crust. The unholy, completely lovely Crust. A great deal of their songs were played on handcrafted instruments made of screen door springs pumped through half stacks. I don’t know of a Crust song that’s really SFW, so I’ll spoiler these.
Diet Tray (hey! partially regular instruments!)
Chemical Patty (Loooong intro on that one, but I think it’s worth it. Yes, he would improvise it differently each time live.)
Travel With Berlitz
Bumblebee
Now, one might say, “Scabpicker, if you didn’t listen primarily to disorganized noise that would only satisfy the sensibilities of a gerbil, that wouldn’t be true.” But Hah! I bring you scabpicker’s favorite country/americana artists you’ve never heard of! Easily comprehended via roman numeral analysis, and artfully crafted:
Slobberbone - Bright Eyes Darkened (one of my wife’s favorite songs) Pinball Song, Lazy Guy, Placemat Blues. Heck, those are all off the wonderful “Everything You Knew Was Right Was Wrong Today”. Other records of theirs have things like I Can Tell Your Love Was Waining (there’s an album track, but the take on this comp is better). If one could expect justice in the world, that song would be in everyone’s collection just because of the chorus.* But you just can’t expect that, can you?
Centro-Matic - Cool That You Showed Us How and Blisters May Come. I was in a band with that singer, even though he was the drummer of that band, I was sure he knew what was up. They put out a few good records, but never hit big.
Thelonious Monster - Try, Michael Jordan, and Lookin’ To the West.
Seriously, I could go on all night. You should invite me over for dinner.
*I could tell your love is waining,
From the looks and the smell of it
Like getting caught behind a cattle truck
And ALL YOU SMELL IS SHIT
“We Care A Lot” became the “Dirty Jobs” theme, and apparently was a big concert favorite.
Many local bands want to stay local, for any number of reasons, no matter how good they are.
Two bands that immediately come to mind for me are King’s X, whom I described as “my other favorite band” in the early 1990s, and Starcastle, who were from my region and I stumbled onto some “Deep Tracks” that I heard as a late 1970s tween on my album rock station late at night while surfing You Tube a couple years ago, and finally found out who actually did them 40 years after they were released. There was also a Canadian power-pop band called Prism that made a bit of a ripple, and Saga were basically a one-hit wonder in the U.S., whereas they’ve long been a major act in Canada.
Heh, I just realized the link I provided to I Can Tell Your Love Was Waining was to the beginning of the comp. Please accept my apologies for the unexpected metal and follow the updated link.
Oh, and I can provide an example of my tastes that in itself exemplifies and explains why my tastes should be shunned: I love German Cars Vs. American Homes. If I was the Tsar of All Musicians, that song would be the song you’d be most likely to hear on your morning drive. The guy behind it, James Call, did an acapella version of “I Can’t Go For That” that I can’t find fo what I assume is copyright reasons. It was genius.
Enigma Records would sign just about anything. A lot of up-and-coming bands met their death knell when that company collapsed. I heard that they overly promoted a band that didn’t make it, and it bankrupted the company.
Count me in as someone else who immediately thought of Crack The Sky upon reading the thread title. Yes, I grew up in Baltimore.
I also liked Kix. They’re still touring! I saw them out here in Los Angeles, headlining the Whisky A Go Go, a year or so ago, so they obviously have had some reach outside Baltimore. The place was pretty crowded, although judging by the not one but two people I saw wearing Hammerjacks t-shirts, I clearly wasn’t the only transplant there.
We saw Donna The Buffalo last night. It was a great show. Before the show started, a friend described the band to someone who had never heard of them as a “jam band”. I corrected him, explaining that the band is actually considered a “jelly band”.
So,we were all high af, and my friend admitted that he wasn’t aware of the “jelly band” genre and asked how it differed from a “jam band”. This led to a 20 minute discussion of the difference between jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves, compotes, etc.
I just now got a text from my friend asking what the deal was with “jelly bands”.
Boston, late 80s : loved the Jon Butcher Axis. Fantastic live, saw them alot at clubs & colleges. Got some airplay, had a minor hit w ‘Don’t Say Goodnight’, toured with some bigger names, but never really got big the way we’d thought they would. Similiarly for the Stompers & the Fools. The Del Fuegoes were probably the best known of that place & era & sorta broke nationally, but didn’t hold together very long.
Late 60s, early 70s, SF Bay: Joy of Cooking
I was shocked to discover a couple years ago that Oingo Boingo never got big outside CA, and that Danny Elfman is known better as a composer than as their frontman.
So many 80s/90s alternative acts that deserved bigger splashes…they made decent ripples in the fringey alternative circuits but deserved bigger. It was a talent-dense period with not enough audience to give everybody Nirvana-level success.
Mary’s Danish
Velocity Girl
The Wonder Stuff
Sky Cries Mary
Belly
Luscious Jackson
I’d certainly heard of them in the Midwest, though I suppose that they never really got “big.” “Dead Man’s Party” and “Weird Science” both got a fair amount of airplay, and they appeared in a couple of movies, including “Back to School.”
When Elfman started doing movie soundtracks, I certainly thought of it as, “the guy from Oingo Boingo is now composing soundtracks.” 
Cool Rays! These guys played in a nightclub I worked at in the summers. Never hit the big time.
Closest any band came to “success” was Steel Breeze. Had a song on MTV. A total Head East rip-off, if you ask me.