A recent issue of Rolling Stone listed the top 100 pop songs and I was dismayed to see that I own all of the albums upon which they appear.
I need to expand my musical taste. What’s your favorite under-appreciated musician or group?
A couple of Erik Satie CDs have recently found their way into my CD collection. That’s as far away from pop as I’ve gotten, recently.
Well, I always advocate looking back beyond rock to the great popular composers. People like Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, Warren (listen to him at http://www.harrywarren.org – you’re bound to find some familiar titles), Kern, etc. Also the great Broadway composers – Rodgers and Hammerstein, Adler and Ross, Kander and Ebb (just saw Cabaret last night 
), Frank Loesser, etc. The songs are more melodic than rock, of course, and much more sophisticated in both technique and lyrics.
Now, if you’re talking rock music, my favorites are hard to find. People like The Bonzo Dog Band, Kak, Renaissance (not that Renaissance, the other one), Siegel Schwall Band, Lambert Hendricks and Ross (jazz, actually). Of course, I have no idea where you might find any of these.
The Ides of March. Remember “Vehicle”? It’s off an album of the same name, released in ‘69 on Warner Bros. The vast majority of albums and CDs have one or two decent songs buried in lots of filler. “Vehicle” is one of the relatively few exceptions. Only the title cut was a hit, but nearly every other song on the album is first rate. In particular, “Factory Band”, “Bald Medusa”, “Home”, “Aire of Good Feeling”, and “One Woman Man” are all excellent. It also includes two covers. “Eleanor Rigby” doesn’t translate too well to the Ides’ style and is no match for the Beatles original, but their astounding remake of “Wooden Ships” renders the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young version incredibly lame - like they forgot to play half the music.
This album is sadly out of print. An EMI Music France CD release called "Vehicle +3" with 3 extra tracks can be had from some import dealers on the web. Sadly, the sonic quality is poor - it sounds mushy, as though no effort was made to re-master for CD. Still, the songs are so good I was thrilled to finally get a copy after years of searching, as my original cassette had become brittle and broken twice.I think that listening to the radio is the best and cheapest way to be introduced to new music. Try some stations you don’t normally listen to.
Do you like rock? If so, there’s a ton of great bands with original material that are underappreciated. My favorite is the BottleRockets. Good ole unapologetic southern rock -can’t beat it. Napster has several of their tunes - Radar Love, Slow Toms, 24 Hours, I’ll be Coming Around.
Kick ass stuff. But hey, I’m a newbie - WTF do I know?
Well, I don’t know if he’s universally under-appreciated, but I had never even heard of Robert Wyatt until recently. I am now amazed by his music but even more amazed that, somehow, I had been unaware of his stuff even though it came out in the early 70’s.
Try his album entitled Rock Bottom.
Also good is Robert Wyatt’s old band, the Soft Machine.
Furthermore, I highly recommend hot new band out of Baltimore called Static Automatic. I must admit, though, that I’m biased because I’m in the band. Support local music!
I am the only person I know who owns the album In Loving Memory Of… by Big Wreck, but it’s really fantastic. It didn’t leave my CD player for like 6 or 7 months after I got it. Their radio single was “The Oaf” but I only ever heard it a few times on the local rock station.
Also, if you like the R&B thing, Jill Scott’s album Who is Jill Scott? is crazy good. Jazzy as hell. She’s starting to build steam as more and more people realize how damned talented she is.
The Cardigans used to be pop geniuses. But no one seems to be able to see past the sweetness. This is not Britney Spears!!!
Sparks
L.A.-German-intelligent-satrical-pop-dance-synth band. They had a minor hit with “Cool Places”, but other than that, nada.
Get “Sparks in Outer Space” first. An absolute gem all the way through. I particulary love “Pretending to be Drunk”, but they are all good. YMMV.
Also the Georgia Satellites. For my money the best bar band ever. Tight, knowedgable, LOUD, smart and funny. hedra has heard me rave often about their killer show-ending rendition of “the Jeffersons theme”. Get their first album (called, I think, “the Georgia Satellites”, and “In the Land of Salvation and Sin”. I also have a tape of a concert they did in Atlantic City for WMMR that was broadcast on the radio. Superb. Changed my life (well, a little)
Kyomara, I totally agree. I love The Cardigans. The music is fantastic when you actually take the effort to listen to all of it, not just Love Fool.
Maybe if you could give us some idea of the type of stuff you like out of your collection, we could target your tastes a little better. Maybe list your personal favorite songs, albums, etc.
Meantime, I’ve been discovering a number of great bands out there, thanks to Napster. I recommend:
Dirty Three (Melancholy, heartbreaking violin-based instrumentals)
Spinanes (Highly unconventional, clever pop)
Josh Rouse (Amazing songwriter)
Trembling Blue Stars (Wistful brit-pop)
The Delgados (Great, sweeping yet simple rock)
I disagree with the radio comment; radio is way too safe these days, playing only the hits of today and yesterday, and never anything that hasn’t been market-tested and massively promoted. That’s what’s got Canthearya into this situation in the first place.
IMHO, unless you have a good community, college, or pirate radio station in your area, radio is nothing new or exciting.
I’ll second The Delgados and the Cardigans.
Television, Tom Tom Club, and Jonathan Richman are some of my favorites. And although they’re not exactly obscure, I love Van Morrison, Eddie Cochran, and the Stooges; they’re kinda ignored by critics and fans, and underrated.
I’ll mention Red Snapper, because I always do in these threads, and Air, who aren’t exactly obscure over here but I don’t know if they ever did much in the US. I’ve also recently been getting into a very good Belgian indie band called Soulwax, who are far cooler than most people have a right to be.
Oooh, here’s my recs:
Rock: Tracy Bonham. Had that hit “Mother, Mother” that you may recognize but she is much more than just that song. Incredible songwriter, with songs you want to sing along to. Good rock chick type stuff. Very talented.
Jazz: Diana Krall, Diane Reeves Both fabulous, they are my favorites.
Classical: Buy a CD of Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ works. I just got one and its so cool! Crank up the volume and feel that bass!
Napster is excellent for giving bands you don’t know a trial run.
Oh, one more that I really enjoy:
R&B: Aaliyah. She’s got a great voice and I enjoy her stuff.
‘The Feelies’ was a great band. All of their CD’s are at least good, and “Crazy Rythyms” and “time for a witness” are great.
My perennial nominee in this category is Kirsty MacColl, who was killed in an accident while diving in Cozumel with her family about a month ago. Fabulous voice, great songwriter, matchless attitude. Listen to “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis”, or “My Affair” from Electric Landlady, or “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby” (a Smiths cover on the CD version of Kite) or “In These Shoes” from her last album, Tropical Brainstorm, and then tell me you don’t love her.
Everyone else I’d nominate in the pop/rock realm is ancient history by now, and without knowing more of your tastes, it’d be kind of pointless.
I second RealityChuck’s suggestion that you plunge into the great American pop standards; Ella Fitzgerald’s Songbook series of recordings cover most of this territory. If you have to actually buy instead of borrowing, you could start with The First Lady of Song, which is a handy three-CD set that’s a good overview of both Ella and most of the great songwriters. You could do worse than follow up his Lambert, Hendricks and Ross recommendation as well; Rhino has an excellent “best of” disc called Twisted: The Best of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. If you’re interested in a review of the jazz landscape for the last half-century, one decent choice would be The Verve Story, 1944-1994, which has performances by many great jazz artists (and doesn’t suffer from the pernicious influence of Wynton Marsalis that Ken Burns’ PBS series and related CD releases do).
We did a similar thread here , but I always enjoy these types of things, so I’ll post again here. I’ll stick with Husker Du, my choice in that thread, but I’ll add some more. First, I’ll agree with Sleazey on the Feelies. In a similar “alternative rock” vein, I’d recommend The Replacements, Gang of Four, the Minutemen and the Pogues (though the latter are really kind of Irish Folk/punk). For pure pop, I’ll nominate The dB’s, Marshall Crenshaw, and the Go-Betweens. For modern “underground” stuff, I like The Divine Comedy (kind of swinging 60’s/Burt Bacharach-ish pop), Belle & Sebastian (caustic folk/pop, kinda like the Smiths), The Magnetic Fields (hodgepodge; try 69 Love Songs), Yo La Tengo (good indie-rock guitar band) and Luna (ditto). Elliott Smith is also decent, if somewhat spotty. I think that’s about it for now.
Bikini Kill/Julie Ruin/Le Tigre-Kind of harsh, lo-fi garage punk. Immensely enjoyable if you take time to deciper the lyrics.
Sleater-Kinney - Similar to above, except better musically. They’re relatively popular within their ‘scene,’ but barely register on mainstream scales.
Portishead-Great trip-hop. Not really as obscure as some of the others, but definetly underappreciated.
Heather Nova-Just general alternative, but with very powerful lyrics. Her latest album was a bit of a disappointment though…
Are you sure that was Rolling Stone and not VH1? The RS website has a top 50 of '00, but no top 100…
Gotta go with XTC, best band in the history of, like, ever. Twenty years of wonderful pop rock to go through, with a dozen albums, all gems. Start off with “Upsy Daisy Assortment” which samples most of their albums and hits a lot of non-single tracks. If you like half the tracks on it, you’ll love the rest.
John Wesley Harding. “Folk noir”, if you will. Sounds something like Elvis Costello on a really good day. A highly talented singer/songwriter who sounds just as good by himself as he does with a full band. Opened for Springsteen on one of his tours.
Chameleons UK. Good, powerful stuff. “Strange Times” is a great album with two songs that in a better world would have been massive hits.
I’d also like to second that Sparks recommendation, though not necessarily that album. I’m much much more fond of “Angst in my Pants”, which is silly, exquisitely crafted, and downright hummable.
Voice of the Beehive is really really good. I seem to be the only one whose ever heard of 'em. Their first two albums, “Let it Bee” and “Honey Lingers” are delightful.
But not knowing what you’ve already got in your collection makes recommendations a dicey. Still, you can’t go wrong with just about anything from XTC.