Golden Days by King Pleasure - sort of beatnik vocalese. People love it when I play this stuff.
Obscure in the US, popular in the UK:
Massive Attack- Blue Lines
Asian Dub Foundation- Rafi’s Revenge
Just obscure:
Lucky 7- Miss Fortune (fantastic unsigned pop punk band)
Hmm… I’ve got a few good obscure CD’s -
Route 66 by Eddie Tigner - Eddie plays with a blues band called Chicken Shack in Atlanta, GA. He’s 78 and put out his first cd a couple of years ago. He’s awesome.
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2001-03-07/earshot2.html
Sweetback, self-titled, I think. They’re Sade’s band, without Sade. Actually, I like this album better than any of hers. There are one or two songs that Maxwell provides vocals on.
There are lots of good recommendations here.
Someone on page 1 mentioned Iron Prostate, which makes this as good a time as any to share these immortal lyrics from their composition entitled “Gilligan”:
For the progenitors of feminist punk rock, how 'bout giving a spin to:
X-Ray Specs Germ-Free Adolescents – all the way back from 1978, but damn this record is fresh. And it even has a punky saxophone to boot. I’m a big fan of bands like Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre (try their self-titled album if you haven’t heard it), and Bikini Kill, but the first time I heard Germ-Free Adolescents, I had to concede these other bands pale in comparison.
For something a little more baroque pop, try The Left Banke’s compilation “There’s Gonna Be a Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966-1969.” If you like the Zombies Odyssey and Oracle, then chances are you’ll enjoy this record. It’s worth it for the two pop gems: “Walk Away Renee” and “Pretty Ballerina” alone.
My brother turned me on to these guys a while back. That’s some great stuff.
Glen Phillips. He was the lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket, my favorite band of all time. I’ll also throw their first two albums Bread and Circus and Pale. They have an incredible youthful passion and wonderfully emotional music.
Glen Phillips is my favorite lyricist ever, and he doesn’t lose it with his solo stuff. His live stuff is usually solo acoustic guitar type stuff, but he gets more experimental in the studio.
He currently has one studio album out called Abulum and a live one. He’s releasing another album later this year. He also recorded one with Nickel Creek under the name Mutual Admiration Society, but that one’s caught in some record label trouble.
There’s an amazing amount of legal, free downloads of his music at http://www.comebackdownload.com**, http://www.toadfans.com, and http://www.archive.org. I highly recommend the song Easier.
I just adore this music.
Yello, especially their albums The Eye (most recent), Stella, and Zebra. I’m also a big fan of Pocket Universe.
-Experimental, all the way. Yello consists of two guys, Boris Blank and Dieter Meier. Blank works the music, Meier does the vocals, and Jesus, what a voice. They do jazzy tunes, electronica, occasionally straight rock, mellow, trippy kinda stuff. The song Who’s Gone, or maybe Domingo, kick major ass indeed.
Stew, and his band The Negro Problem: Guest Host, Naked Dutch Painter, Welcome Black, and Post-Minstrel Syndrome.
-A very bluesy, jazzy kind of sound, mostly, but they go all over the place, from folk to rock to pop, with a little experimental thrown in. Stew’s lyrics are exceptional, very poetic and strong. The song Re-hab is just wonderful in its irony.
I mentioned **crooked fingers ** earlier in the thread, and will do it again.
Time to add Rancid Yak Butter Tea Party. Very heavy at times, but seriously different.
Not too sure if this is obscure, but it is not mainstream either. “Don’t Smoke In Bed” by the Holly Cole Trio is fantastic.
Their first two albums are amazing. Their latest, “Visions of Gandhi”, is butt-awful. Avoid at all costs.
Another vote for The New Pornographers and Neko Case. Also Limblifter (feat the drummer from t.n.p.), Bocephus King and the Rigalattos “The Blue Sickness”, a mix of bluegrass & blues. Good stuff.
Here are a few of my choices:
Porcupine Tree - *Lightbulb Sun, Stupid Dream, In Absentia * - This is my favorite band right now. They blend some of the laid back textures of Pink Floyd with the heavy guitar of Opeth, King Crimson, Radiohead, and Tool. The songs vary in tone and the albums work well together in conveying a mood. *In Absentia * is widely available in stores but the other two albums can be located on the WWW.
Ghost of an American Airman - Skin - This was a pop/hard rock album that came out in the 90’s that wasn’t awesome but leaves me with a sense of longing. There is some southern rock influence, especially in the vocals. It may be hard to find since I am pretty sure it is out of print.
Marillion - Brave - The last great album IMO of this English band that only had one hit in the US “Kayleigh” in the 1980s but was big in England and Europe during that time. This album features their second vocalist Steve Hogarth formerly of The The on vocals and piano and it is a brilliantly powerful concept album about a lost girl on the streets. There is lots of moody and dynamic music and the vocals are sung with such passion. I believe it came out in 1994 and I played the hell out of it, especially when personal relationships were going south.
I have to agree with the earlier post about Fate’s Warning’s Paler Shade of Grey which is a great album.
Mike
Tin Hat Trio - The Rodeo Eroded. Three musicians, playing mostly-instrumental music. Spooky, quiet, occasionally dissonant, but for rock or folk fans, more accessible than (for example) the noodling of the Grateful Dead’s Dark Star or Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.
The instruments are combined in very interesting arrangements. For instance, O.N.E.O. is a toy piano, a cello, a violin, a harmonica, something that sounds like a plastic ukulele, and a soprano singing. There is sparse percussion (occasional cymbals or tambourine shakes), but the left hand on the piano holds the beat. The tone color of the instruments combined with the generally minor chords remind me of a worn-out music box in many places, with slightly atonal clashes and very very strange flavors of sound.
For those of you who have recently been picking up everything Johnny Cash has recorded (or if you’re trying to make a mix comprised only of his “side projects”), this disc includes a recording of Willow Weep for Me with the late Johnny Cash on vocals.
Kings of Convenience - Quiet is the New Loud. Absolutely gorgeous mellow album for background and winding down. I’ve heard them compared to Belle and Sebastian, Nick Drake, and Simon and Garfunkle. They’re definitely acoustic euro-pop.
Schascle/Twinkle’s Gemini (no, not just Twinkle, thats another artist.)
An indescribable genre-bender, Schascle/Twinkle is a mixture of blues, rock, soul, and vocal jazz. Many have compared her to Arethra Franklin and Janis Joplin, but frankly, she kicks their ass. Think of her as the energy and feeling of those two artists along with the virtuosity of a jazz diva or 90s pop diva.
Sadly, this does not capture the energy of her live shows (and she is much better known as a live act than her recordings are,) so if you are at all into vocal blues/soul see her.
Hearts of Oak and The Tyranny of Distance - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I have to say, I am totally 100% in love with Ted Leo. He writes pop/rock music that’s not only catchy as hell but also very intelligent. Hearts of Oak is his second cd with the Pharmacists, and I like it a little better than the first, The Tyranny of Distance. But all of the songs are impressive, and the range of musical styles he incorporates into his music is very impressive, particularly in The Tyranny of Distance, with everything from the lyrical “The Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree,” to the Mellencamp-like “Timorous Me.” I also thought his new EP “Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead” was very good. His cover of “Ghosts” by the Jam is particularly wonderful.
(You can download a few of his songs at his label’s site. I particularly recommend “The High Party” and “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?” off Hearts of Oak and “Under the Hedge” off The Tyranny of Distance.)
The Silos, a from New York CIty by way of Florida and Cuba. The band is fronted by Walter Salas-Humara, and they should be much better known than they are. A stripped down roots-rock sound that’s great on their albums and better live.
And a small hijack - Talon Karrde, I think I just finished a simleague with you. I’m done, at least - you’re still rolling. My team was the Sierra Grizzlies.
Maggie Estep Love is a Dog From Hell - some of it’s spoken-word, some of it’s sung, most of it is funny, and all of it is strange. It’s also the reason I read Geek Love, a truly fantastic book. The best tracks are probably “I’m an Emotional Idiot,” “Stalk Me,” and “Fireater.”
“In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel
I just heard a review on “All Things Considered” last week of a new CD that I’m going to try to pick up. I haven’t listened to the entire thing, but at the very least it sounded interesting, it’s called “Soviet Kitsch” by Regina Spektor.