I have to put in my two cent’s worth for Rick Danko’s self-titled first, and I believe only, album. Songs like New Mexicoe and Tired of Waiting illustrate just how good a songwriter he was (with help of course from Bobby Charles and J. Atkinson). And that incredible voice and loping bass. I would bet that a lot of Band lovers have never heard this album, and I highly recommend it.
I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying Willis Alan Ramsey’s first and only album. Every song is a little gem, and the performance is charming, easygoing, and occasionally edgy.
Discover America by Van Dyke Parks. Great calypso music interpretations.
Soul of a City Boy by Jesse Colin Young. Out of print (or whatever you call it), currently asking $89 at Amazon. Much better than anything he did with The Youngbloods.
Fotheringay. Recently back in print. One of the best British folk rock albums ever. “Banks of the Nile” alone is worth the purchase; a deep dark song that should only be played after 2:00am.
I know that the only positive response I’m likely to get will be from people already familiar with their work via anime (that’s how I found them), but…
Anything by Yoko Kanno. She’s a songwriter/composer who mostly works on soundtracks (mostly known in the US for the various anime she’s scored). I’d go out on a limb and say she’s hands-down better than any Hollywood composer I can think of (save Danny Elfman) in terms of both the excellence of her work, and the mind-boggling variety of styles she can put out. From J-pop, to rap, to country, to blues, to faux-classical, to grandiose operatic themes, to new age (tribal/world/whatchamacallit), to trance-techno… You get the idea.
She’s probably most recognizeable here in the states for scoring everything in Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, and the Ghost in the Shell TV series (Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig). You can easily get her stuff on Amazon. As good jumping off points I’d recommend The Vision of Escaflowne: Original Soundtrack 2 or "-3 (often seen as OST#) and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST1 .
Also, the Pillows. This is a Japanese band producing a fairly straight-forward alternative rock/punk rock sound. They’re best-known internationally because the FLCL anime series’ soundtrack was basically a best-of of their first 10-12 years. I highly recommend seeking out either FLCL OST (but especially the first one, the second has a bunch of bonus tracks of the Japanese voice-actors playing out non-canon scenes between characters, though the booklet does have translations). They’re one of the best-sounding bands in this genre, and I find myself constantly being able to listen through both albums without ever getting tired of it. Be warned, iTunes lists a band named Pillows that are completely unrelated, so don’t confuse the two.
Lastly, although this is kind of cheating because they aren’t really very obscure, the Hives ! I cannot say enough about them. I absolutely love this punk/indie rock band from Sweden. If you’re familiar with them, it’s probably for “Hate to say I told you so,” “Two-timing touch and broken bones,” or “See idiot walk.” Or for their retro music videos where they’re dressed up like a band performing on a late-night show in the '60’s (think Mod, not Hippy
AtahualpaRitmo & Sabor
Possum Dixon - New Sheets
Ryan Shupe and The RubberBand’s * Dream Big* album.
Kick-ass bluegrass fusion.
With the understanding that this is why so many of my (non-musician) friends refuse to talk music with me (and that “obscure” is a relative term):
Abraxas Pool This is the same band (more or less) that recorded Abraxas minus Carlos Santana. If you liked that, you’ll like this.
Allgood - Kickin’ And Screamin’ good live CD by a (now defunct) jam band
Animal Logic Stanley Clarke and Stewart Copeland playing on some chick’s album. 
i kid, i kid. Try “Someone to come home to”
Automatic Man space/rock + jazz/funk, from 1976
Bellaphon - Firefly I don’t know anything about this Japanese prog(?) band, but I like this a lot.
Randall Bramblett - No More Mr. Lucky first call sax player makes a great solo album
Doyle Branhall II - Welcome You may know this guitarist from his other job, second guitarist in Eric Clapton’d touring band
Captain Beyond How can you go wrong with a CD containing a song called “Dancing madly backwards on a sea of air”?
King Curtis - Live at Fillmore West This was the backing band on Aretha’s Live At The Fillmore album
Dreams One of the first jazz/rock bands (1970) Billy Cobham and the Brecker brothers
Electromagnets Eric Johnson and his band before he went solo and got famous (what do you mean “who’s Eric Johnson”?)
Endangered Species One of Jimmy Herring’s projects (see, Eric Johnson don’t seem so obscure now, does he?)
Focus - III Not the album with “Hocus-Pocus”, the one with “Sylvia”
**Freddy Jones Band ** - Mile High Live another now defunct jam band worth salvaging
Danny Gatton - 88 Elmira St. amazing guitarist who (like Roy Buchanan) was too much unappreciated
(Stomu Yamashta’s) Go - <self-titled> as well as Live From Paris (collected together along with Go:Too on one CD called The Go Sessions) Space rock with Al DiMeola, Michael Shrieve, Pat Thrall, Klaus Schultze and Steve Winwood helping to realise Stomu Yamashta’s vision.
Boris Grebenshikov - Radio Silence Post Iron-Curtain-Collapse Russian rock
Gypsy - <eponymous> as well as Antithesis Not as obscure as I once thought. Mid-western rock and roll.
Pete Haycock - Guitar and Son Instrumental album from Climax Blues Band guitarist. Nothing like Climax Blues Band.
**Warren Haynes ** - Tales Of Ordinary Madness Every home should have a copy of this.
Hughes-Thrall well crafted mid-80’s rock from Deep Purple bass/vocalist and Pat Traver’s other guitarist
If - *Forgotten Roads * (best of) “trumpet-playing” band
The Indians - Indianism well crafted pop album (not my favorite kind of music, but I like this).
**Jazz Is Dead ** - (three albums, all good) rotating line-up of Very Good Musicians playing jazz(ish) arrangements of Grateful Dead songs
Alphonse Mouzon - Mind Transplant late 70’s fusion with Tommy Bolin on guitar
Nektar - Remember The Future and Down To Earth German band, followers of Pink Floyd
Nuclear Valdez - Dream Another Dream interesting album from Florida Cuban-American band
Ozric Tentacles - (most anything but especially) Jurrassic Shift I don’t know how to describe (and do justice to) this band, but I’ve bought a lot of their Cds and one DVD
Greg Rolie - Roots founding member of Santana and Journey. If you like Abraxas Pool, you’ll like this.
Screaming Cheetah Wheelies - Magnolia yet another defunct jamband
**Sky ** - 2 Classical/rock band (as opposed to classic rock band)
Storyville - Bluest Eyes This is what Double Trouble did after Stevie died. Completely different kind of music, very soulful.
Izzy Stradlin and the Juju Hounds What Izzy did after Guns ‘N’ Roses. Reminds me of Sticky Fingers era Stones
Strangefolk - Weightless In Water another defunct jamband (I’m seeing a theme)
The Tangent - the music that died alone (and the other two, too) There is a new kind of prog-rock in the world and this band is part of it.
Transatlantic - Bridge Across Forever And this band is one of it’s super-groups. Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard), Roine Stolt (Flower Kings), Pete Trawavas (Marillion) and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater and arguably the best drummer alive) Not For Mass Consumption (more’s the pity)
Trapeze - Medusa Is this really obscure?
**The Why Store ** - Welcome To … fairly recent band
Wide Mouthed Mason as is this one
**Wishbone Ash ** - Nouveau Calls another instrumental album from the same series as the Pete Haycock album
Zakk Wylde - Book Of Shadows I don’t really like ‘Shredders" and Zakk is very much one. He was in Ozzy’s band for cryin’ out loud. But I really like this CD. Not necessarily for fans of Black Label Society (Zakk’s current band).
And this is not even considering the many overlooked or underappreciated albums by mainstream people, such as
Argent - Circus
Allman Brothers - Enlightened Rogues
Blue Oyster Cult - On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Tommy Bolin - <everything, really>
Deep Purple - Come Taste The Band (Bolin) and Purpendicular (Steve Morse)
(Dixie) Dregs - their entire career
James Gang - both Miami and Bang (yeah I like Tommy Bolin. Why do you ask?)
Loggins and Messina - Mother Lode Yeah, I said it! Loggins and Messina. You wanna make somethin’ of it?
Marshall Tucker Band - Together Forever
**moe. ** How does Phish get famous but nobody’s heard of moe.? (not that they are alike)
Montrose - Warner Brothers Presents…
Santana - Welcome and Lotus and Borboletta and…
Sea Level Okay, I understand why they were overlooked by the mainstream, but worth revisiting
Stephen Stills - Manassas (except that country side, we can overlook that, I don’t mind.)
Traffic - When The Eagle Flies Everybody luuurves Traffic, right? So how come nobody ever knows this one?
Johnny Winter - Saints and Sinners Like the Traffic album, this one seems to have come in under the radar, but how can you not like “Feedback on Highway 101” or “Blinded By Love”?
Now, aren’t you glad you asked?
I wonder how “obscure” you want to go. Stuff that I consider overplayed and overexposed in my circle, like the Arcade Fire or TV on the Radio would be completely obscure to someone that’s only a casual music listener.
Here are some records that don’t get enough love and attention from even people that listen to obscure stuff and keep up with music:
Hackamore Brick - One kiss leads to another - Recorded around the same time and in the same studio with the same engineer as the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, this is a near-perfect slice of peacefully druggy, jangly NYC sixties/seventies transfer rock. The songs are astonishingly great and sometimes have loopy lyrics and themes (“i watched you rhumba” and “oh, those sweet bananas” spring to mind), but they manage to be completely heartbreaking at the same time in the way that only the Velvets did on their last record and maybe Big Star on their first (while being sonically cut from the same cloth). I don’t think that this has been released on CD, and that’s a crime.
**Chris Bell ** - I am the cosmos - Chris Bell was half of the songwriting team in Big Star; that band is legendary, but Alex Chilton is the name that most people associate with the band because 1) he’s still alive and 2) he went on to head the band after Bell’s leaving. This is sort of a solo album and sort of a compilation of stuff that Bell did on his own, and it’s totally amazing. Especially the title track.
Jackson C. Frank - Blues run the game - Though he was friends with a young Art Garfunkel and a young Nick Drake and recorded this album at the same time that those guys were doing their best work, Frank never had the success that they did. This record is one of my favorites of all time; think of Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen at their absolute darkest, then make it a few shades darker. Immaculately recorded late-sixties english folk from the depths of despair - incredible songwriting.
Young Marble Giants - Collossal Youth - This is one of those albums that’s absolutely legendary to people that know it, and completely unheard of to most people, even hipsters that usually keep up with this stuff or at least feign attempts to. Late-seventies/early eighties minimal, melancholy pop songs made from little more than organ, dinky drum machine, and singer Alison Statten’s Nico-as-little girl vocals. “The man amplifier,” “N.I.T.A.,” “Credit in the straight world,” “Wurlitzer Jukebox” - insta-classic songs.
Mother Lode is one of my favorite albums of all time. I’m going to go listen to it now. Thanks!
Masayoshi Takanaka- Rainbow Goblin Story: Live at Budokan Old Japanese guy in a trenchcoat performs a jazz-fusion opera based on a children’s book. If you can, get the VHS and watch it; the visuals make it even better.
Kak by Kak – Great little psychedelic rock group with one excellent album out.
Emitt Rhodes by Emitt Rhodes – Billed, with some justification, as “the American Paul McCartney” – sounds a lot like Paul, and did his album all by himself at the same time McCartney was doing it. Very catchy pop songs that are never cliched.
Renaissance by Renaissance – No, not the group that did “Ashes are Burning.” This was their original incarnation, a spinoff of the Yardbirds. One of the best ever meldings of classical and rock.
Delaney and Bonnie and Friends on Tour with Eric Clapton. Great little blues-rock group that was the genesis for Derek and the Dominoes.
Child is Father to the Man by Blood Sweat and Tears. No, not the David Clayton-Thomas group. This was their original incarnation, headed by Al Kooper. Excellent blues based rock, with jazz horns nicely integrated.
Flash and the Pan and Lights in the Night by Flash and the Pan. Apocalyptic minor-key rock, filled with menace, from the original members of the Easybeats.
It’s a Beautiful Day by It’s a Beautiful Day. “White Bird” is a classic, but the entire album is filled with great music. One of the few groups to highlight a violin rather a guitar.
Basket of Light by Pentangle. British folk rock at its very best.
White African by Otis Taylor. Taylor is an amazing blues musician, with probably the darkest vision of the blues around.
Third by Soft Machine – jazz fusion pioneers. “Third” has been called the best rock album of all time.
YEAH!!!
Also…
Countdown Quartet - by the Countdown Quartet. A little jazz band out of Chapel Hill, NC that pretty much plays parties and weddings (and the Flying Burrito) but they swing really hard. Their lead singer is a God Among Men with trombone chops of steel.
Oh! The Grandeur! - by Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. Ok more jazz. Some people on the SDMB have heard of Bird. This is the band’s second album, and the first one is awesome too but this one is even better. Fiddle-based jazz with a crooning frontman. Difference here is that Bird writes great lyrics that you don’t usually find in jazz.
Heretic Blues - by Kevin O’Donnell’s Quality Six. Also a jazz outfit. It’s a backwards mix (meaning the drummer has his name on the band) of Bowl of Fire but Andrew Bird is still the crooner and he kicks some major ass. It’s a beautiful album!
Yes! Great stuff.
I’d like to put in a plug for one of my favorite bands, Poster Children. They’ve been around for almost 20 years, making great postpunk albums in the style of early Talking Heads or XTC. They signed to a major label in the mid '90s, made a couple of alternative/grunge albums that didn’t go anywhere, then got back to self-releasing wonderful postpunk albums every couple of years. Start with DDD.
Too bad Keith tried to play guitar in the tub. This incarnation could have been superb with a little development. I always liked Jane’s voice, too.
Marrying Maiden is better, IMO.
Oh, yeah.
For the lovers of the truly obscure, dig up Letting Go by Lori Lieberman. She did Killing Me Softly before Roberta Flack, and better.
: Second that. “Live” is, IMO, one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded. I don’t know how this guy avoided being big.
Speaking of pop, I wanted to mention “All Our Own Work,” by Sandy Denny and the Strawbs. While the artists aren’t obscure, this album always seems to slip through the cracks. It has the original recording of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” but my favorite song is “On My Way.” Given what the Strawbs got into, it’s surprising how pop they started out.
Before RealityChuck nails me, I guess I’d better mention that “Live” is not on “Emitt Rhodes.” It was done by his band, “The Merry Go Round,” and can be found on “Listen, Listen: The Best of Emitt Rhodes.”
Check out http://www.anthologyrecordings.com. A small but wonderful selection of obscure stuff that deserves to be preserved.
I especially like the Fresh Maggots album, Hatched.
Schnauser - Kill All Humans. Apparently this band is based in Armenia, though its members are British. That site compares it to early Zappa and the Beatles, which I think are accurate, but their sound is very unique and not readily comparable to anything else. You can hear a lot of their songs on their website.
Dale Hawkins, L.A., Memphis and Tyler, Texas. I bought this a couple of months ago and have since been playing it quite a bit, I think it’s very good swamp rock/blues. Hawkins cut the album, only his second, in 1969 in the three legendary studios of Joe Osborne’s in L.A., Ardent in Memphis and Robin Hood Brians’ in Tyler. James Burton, Ry Cooder, Spooner Oldham, Dan Penn, Wayne Jackson and Mouse and the Traps make contributions.