Share recommendations for music others have probably not heard.
One rule, not THAT obscure. It has to be available for streaming somewhere, somehow.
I will recommend a Bay Area trio called Parish Hall. I heard about it in a youtube video called 20 hard rock albums you probably never heard of.
Parish Hall released one album in 1970, then faded into obscurity. It has a horrible, HORRIBLE cover. Looks like it may be a religious album, complete with a church drawing in the upper left corner.
But it is a great album. Rock, blues, kind of cross between Jimi Hendrix and Kings X .
If you run across a copy of the album, turns out it is collectors item. Worth a couple hundred bucks.
Given your avatar, you’ve probably worn out your vinyl versions of the Born Bad compilations of songs the Cramps revived, but for anyone who wants to explore groovy, muddy garage rock, often by bands that only had the one release, then someone has helpfully pulled all 8 compilation LPs into a Youtube playlist:
Its probably also a good time to mention Julian Cope [formerly of Teardrop Explodes], who is one of the more interesting humans on Earth. He has a site specifically for reviewing and bringing to light obscure but worthy music called Head Heritage:
It has decades of reviews, with an especial focus on British and Euro psych and rock. It used to just be Cope’s reviews but now its open to contributors.
One of my personal favs, but never caught on big: Fanny. Probably not that obscure here, as I post them every few months. The first all-female band to record and release an album for a major label (they had four in all). They toured American and Europe, opening for many famous act of the time, but never headlining their own major tour.
And finally, their cover of, " Ain’t That Peculiar." I like the guitar on this one. Lowell George from Little Feat taught her how to play slide guitar.
People may remember a gentleman named Vance DeGeneres (yes, Ellen’s brother) on the American Idol panel a few years back. Vance had played bass in a New Orleans-area power-pop band in the early 1980s called The Cold. They were very close to making it nationally, but didn’t quite get there.
Here’s some 80’s semi-obscure, or at least semi-forgotten, rock.
Here’s Planet P Project’s, “Why Me?” Planet P Project is Tony Carey’s pseudonym for his sci-fi/prog-rock music. Tony Carey had some minor success in the 80’s under his own name with, “The First Day of Summer.” I remember the video for this playing on MTV, though I don’t recall it getting any local radio airplay.
Here’s one from Church of the Cosmic Skull, a British psychedelic band that started in 2017 and presents itself as being a New Age cult whose members dress in matching white outfits. I got to see them live on their first US tour last month and it was an amazing show.
Fotomaker was one of the first “super groups” with members from other popular bands like The Young Rascals, Raspberries, and The Rascals. They cranked out 3 albums in under 2 years (all with odd/creepy album covers).
Even with the well known musicians none of the albums sold very well and none of the singles charted in the top 40. Very little radio play and few supporting concerts.
Several well known musicians (at the time) and yet hardly anyone noticed.
But for some reason they gained a bit of a cult following even 42+ years after giving up the ghost.
“Game Theory was a 1980s power pop band, founded by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics.”
I can’t sum it up any better than that. They and their successor band The Loud Family emerged from Northern California and have a nationwide cult following. Their back catalog ranges from Beatlesque and radio-friendly to ninth-dimension experimental.
