And don’t forget Buck Satan and His Six Six Six Shooters.
Actually, Southern Culture on the Skids had a song that got a lot of radio airplay some time ago. Doesn’t that automatically disqualify them for participation in this thread? 
Have I ever mentioned how much I love these ‘obscure band’ threads? I tend to use them to find new music, so I’d appreciate if people didn’t just post lists of band names but told a bit about them, too.
and the Pixies are so obscure in the UK that it took them less than 10 minutes to sell out 4 nights at Brixton Academy in June :rolleyes:
The God Machine
Come , or they were certainly obscure here anyways.
1000 Yard Stare
Swervedriver both from the early nineties. had some pretty rocking songs. then utterly disappeared. hmmm.
For witty punk: Welsh noiseniks Mclusky
For gritty funk: Japanese groovers Zoobombs
oh and yeah, I saw a whisper in the noise last Thursday supporting Shellac. they were excellent, but i’m not sure how good they sound without Albini sorting their sound out, if the streaming on their websites owt to go by.
The Lowest of the Low
Ron Hawkins & The Rusty Nails
Ron Hawkins (NOT Rockin’ Ronnie Hawkins from the 60’s, but a younger guy) is a Toronto-based musician, and these are two bands he’s been in.
Great rock’n’roll, with a Gen-X sensibility and a wry sense of humour.
thwartme
I believe they’re Finnish, actually.
My usual additions to these types of threads:
Thanks to Gravity - New Hampshire violin rock
Ashley MacIsaac - Scottish-canadian fiddle rock.
For those looking for unsigned new music, head on over to www.cdbaby.com They have a huge selection of music, and every cd they sell has at least two tracks that you can listen to online. I’ve found lots of great stuff there (and a bunch of crap, too). Here’s a good one:
T. Griffin: Described as “porch techno – hushed, intense story songs with an electronic junk-store vibe.” Really cool stuff. Kind of a mix between Sparklehorse (which may or may not qualify for this thread) and early to mid life Tom Waits.
The Asylum Street Spankers should qualify here. At least, none of my friends have heard of them. They’re kind of hard to describe, but here’s their site. Enjoy!
Hem www.rabbitsongs.com
Andrea Perry www.andreaperry.com This is a very cool website. Check it out.
I’ll second Jim Carroll and Southern Culture on the Skids.
But my two favorites are
Emmet Swimming - named for Emmet Till, grossly enough. They’ve released several kick ass CD that mostly appeal to a certain group of people in the Washington DC area. Todd Watts is a brilliant song writer.
and…of all time…
Cowboy Mouth - simply the greatest live band there has ever been. Fronted by a short troll of a drummer with so much stage presence that you have no choice but to worship him when he’s on stage. Part rock and roll band part revival they’re brilliant. They had a light hit with ‘Jenny Says’ back in 97, I think but that’s it. They survive by relentlessly touring.
Tussle Not sure how to describe them, other than they mave me want to move.
!!! Dance punk, vaguely reminiscent of The Clash’s poppier stuff.
Two great ska bands not enough people listen to: The Slackers and Hepcat. Really good stuff. You can listen to The Slackers on NPR here as well. The interview’s good, but the sound quality’s awful.
never heard of 'em…if I like Ministry and the like, is this in the same vein?
Yeah, they’re from my neck of the woods - very cool!
How 'bout:
Sonya (sp?) Dada - not sure how to describe them, but their music is fun and they have great accapella vocals on some of their tracks.
Pepe and the Bottle Blondes - sort of Latin, but with a modern, funky twist.
And one of my favorites: Danny Wilson. A Scottish band from the 80’s, they broke up, but I managed to find 2 CDs of theirs, which I love.
The Plastic People Of The Universe!
Trespassers William. Great little band, and the lead singer/songwriter works at the local Border’s!! 
Let me posit The Mad Capsule Markets: Japanese um… electro-industrial rock music… I dunno! I don’t know how to describe them, I’m not much good with music categories.
I once shouted at an HMV customer service person when they asked what type of music a band played (I couldn’t find their CD). I said, ‘It’s music dammit, with instruments and some singing and stuff… And it’s on a CD… And they have people who do… music! …Dammit!’ The customer service dude couldn’t comprehend that I didn’t know how to classify and sub-classify a band. actually, it still cheeses me off! Why isn’t it all in one big room labelled, ‘MUSIC’ and everything is in alphabetic order! (and should this be in the pit?)…
Um… anyway, The Mad Capsule Markets have been known to release Kubrick action figures with their 3" CD singles! Very cute, very cool! And the figures are characters from their (often animated) video clips. In fact, the band also recently released a large toy car based on a 10-second clip from one of their videos!
They’re s’posed to be quite popular in Japan, but I have no idea how popular they are there or in the outside world.
Oh, and can I plug Popland? A local S’pore band. I did their last album cover (the album is called ‘Action’, released in the US on ZIP records).
The music isn’t really my cuppa, but the guys in the band are nice, and did I mention, I DID THE COVER ART!!! cheesy grin
Definitely not industrial, much more progressive. A different-flavored Dream Theater, sort of.
But hell, among the power-prog crowd, Symphony X are godlike. If you want obscure, try Pagan’s Mind, from Norway. Another power-prog band, and was originally described to me as “Like Symphony X, but heavier.” Their most recent album, Celestial Entrance turns out to be one of the best I’ve heard in a long time, very highly recommended for progressive metal fans.
I’d mention Einherjer, a “traditional” Viking metal outfit (also from Norway), but they broke up recently.
I’d also mention Dimmu Borgir, whose recent album Death Cult Armageddon is surprisingly good for Black Metal (which is usually too “Bleah! Bleah! Aren’t We Evil and Scary!” for my tastes), but now that they’ve had two of their songs featured in the Hellboy trailer (#1), next thing you know we’re gonna have Dimmu Borgir action figures and kids going to school with Dimmu Borgir lunch boxes.
D
I was going to mention Dimmu Borgir, but I figured they were just on the edge of obscurity. Kind of the same reason I didn’t mention Mindless Self Indulgence or Negativland. But yeah, Dimmu Borgir is quite good. They make good use of synth-organ.
Darn tootin’.
I’ve loved this band from the time I first heard “Christine” back in the late 80’s.
Although, I’d give them credit for more than two hits. At least in the San Francisco area.