Not exactly lesser known in music circles, but definitely with wider audiences, but I’d suggest the band Television.
They played a big influence on the post-punk and art-rock scene (which ultimately became what we refer today as alternative) of the late 70s and 80s coming out of New York.
Even less well known, but equally influential on post-punk and art-rock, is Television’s contemporary, Suicide.
I have the East Side Digital Pebbles albums; #2 had a few non-US acts like Lea Riders Group and The Id. IMO the Pebbles series is superior to Nuggets, although the first few Nuggets releases are fantastic.
In way, it was. I don’t know most of the bands from that Pebbles album, but the Lords and the Rattles stick out. The Lords were one of the first German beat bands, with atrocious haircuts and even worse “English” lyrics, but they were one of the first German rock bands. The Rattles were from Hamburg, which was THE center of rock in Germany in the early sixties (everybody knows about the Beatles playing the Kaiserkeller and the Star Club, but it’s amazing which American and British pioneers of rock all played back then in Hamburg), so they were more of the real thing than the Lords. Their founder and lead singer Achim Reichel had a diverse later career which included important albums you can call kraut rock, and of course Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dreams are legends.
As for the influence of the Monks on kraut rock: they began as band of GIs stationed in Germany, bound to entertain the troops with the usual rock and r’n’b repertoire those bands had back then (a 15 year old Van Morrison cut his teeth with the Monarchs at the same time in that circuit, as many others), but they fell into the hands of adventurous German producers who gave them an experimental and avantgarde edge, a unique German approach that differed from the anglo-american tradition. And that’s exactly what the kraut rock bands a few years later built on, “rock” in a way with mostly rock instrumentation (and of course a short time later with electronic instruments) , but avoiding typical rock cliches. There’s not much blues in kraut rock. (not that that’s a quality per se, mind you, I love the blues, but it’s just a different approach)
This is probably Scritti Politti’s best song. It’s definitely one of the best videos ever made.
Lots of alt-rockers name Pylon and Let’s Active as major influences. My own personal opinion of both bands is that they have a few good songs and the rest is filler. Let’s Active morphed into Flat Duo Jets, which didn’t impress me either but is also named as an ongoing influence.
Pylon does have a bunch of great songs, but their live performances were the stuff of legend. Vanessa was just insane, bouncing all over the stage (actually bouncing; she was like a pogo goddess) all the time while the band held down this unbelievably rock-steady foundation for her. Michael was fun to watch too; he interacted with the crowd quite a bit.
Threadjack (and not as big as it would be on other boards): Patapar is still manufactured and sold. You can buy it on Amazon.
There still is; two summer weekends are devoted to his memory. One is a 7-mile road race and the other is a jazz festival.
They’re being held virtually this year.
There is also a small museum composed entirely of Bix memorabilia, and related items. I visited it when they had their soft opening with free admission, and pointed out something nobody else seemed to notice: that there was a picture of some musicians where one room’s floor, composed of small tiles, had swastikas on it. I pointed it out to the curator, who was there, and told him that I personally didn’t find it offensive - this was a photo from the 1920s - and certainly didn’t want it taken down, but a disclaimer might be a good idea. Don’t know if they’ve done that.
ETA: The museum was almost destroyed last year, when a levee was breached and much of downtown Davenport was under water. They saw it coming, and were able to salvage the items.
Thanks for this; I’m glad it’s still going on.
Good one.
Unlikely to be a Nazi swastika if it was a photo from the 1920’s. It was a common symbol in architectural tiles (more commonly left-facing before Hitler co-opted it) and in fact was a decorative theme in the mosaic floor tiles at my mother’s turn-of-the-century Italianate apartment building swimming pool in Chicago.
I agree. He and I agreed that it was probably just a pattern they laid down, and variations of the swastika have long been used as symbols in some Native American and Hindu/Buddhist (correct me if I’m wrong) branches.
A.R. Kane came up on my playlist today, and I was reminded that they’ve been cited as an influence by lots of the shoegaze-type bands that followed. Hell, they invented the term dreampop.
Ry Cooder is another artist that many people have heard of, but few people have actually heard his music.
Be Bop Deluxe/Bill Nelson is another obscure artist often named as an influence.
Wendy O Williams, leader of the trailblazing Punk band, The Plasmatics gained way more headlines than ticket sales mainly due to Wendy’s calculated shock rock antics. Brought an extremely over the top Punk attitude that became part of the popular consciousness, Also delved into thrash metal, working with Lemmy and Kiss. Wendy might be the opposite of the OP, as I think she’s probably more famous than but a less recognized but in my opinion significant influence. Though the real sleeper here might be Yale MFA, Rod Swenson, who created and managed The Plasmatics and was the lifelong romantic partner of WOW. He brought theatre to punk.
I was maced by security at a Plasmatics concert in 1983.
Forming just before The Monks (by months, in '64?), was the band Them, fronted by a 19-year-old Van Morrison. Their biggest hit “Gloria” has been covered trillions of times, but they also helped establish that foundation for garage bands as well.
Too many (somewhat heavier) bands from the early 70s onwards that you can shake a rubber chicken at have listed Blue Cheer as an influence.
Have Einstürzende Neubauten been mentioned yet as a major industrial influence (heh - along with the dulcet tones of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music)?
Perry Como, pioneering the sleepy shit.
Aye; EN are right up there with Laibach and Front 242 for solid, influential industrial music that most people have never heard of.
If Leadbelly is one, then Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon probably are too. Without Robert Johnson’s voice, there would not have been Eric Clapton and likely not the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin or any other blues-inspired musician.
And Willie Dixon wrote all the blues songs. Without him, Chicago Blues would still have existed, but wouldn’t have been as influential. No covers of “Spoonful” or “Little Red Rooster”; definitely no “Whole Lotta Love”.
For blues I’ll say Charley Patton. Biographies of blues musicians often tell who influenced whom. It creates a sort of family tree, and if you follow it down to the root, it leads to Patton. He’s a seminal figure, but few people today have heard any of his music. One reason is that he recorded for Paramount, a label that’s notorious among collectors for bad sound. If I didn’t know better I’d think that, instead of using shellac, the Paramount company pressed their records in chunks of pavement.