Actually, there have been at least 23 threads about underrated music. I’ve bookmarked them all. I love them - they all serve me well in my continual quest to find new music.
I don’t know about most underrated, but I think Alice In Chains was pretty damn creative and interesting and smart and unique and they were never really huge or anything. I still dig AIC a lot.
I have to say Bright Eyes is most underrated and who, while not a band, has a continously rotating musical band around lead singer/songwriter Conor Oberest. He is seriously the best songwriter I’ve ever heard, even better than Mr. Zimmerman, who I adore.
Another underrated, albeit disbanded, band is Neutral Milk Hotel. They are poppy in an alternative, romantic sort of way. The lead singer, if I’m not mistaken, then went on to join And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead…
–greenphan
Depends on how you define the threshold for “really huge”. AIC did get a lot of airplay on radio and MTV in the heyday of the “grunge movement”–songs including Angry Chair, Would, The Rooster. Granted, they always seemed to get somewhat less recognition than Nirvana and Pearl Jam. (Geez, how many Eddie Vedder clones have we heard in the past decade?)
In response to the OP, XTC.
Extreme, whose concept album III Sides to Every Story was the most underrated rock album of the 1990s. Made this old Yes fan sigh with joy.
Concrete Blonde
I’m glad I was able to get past Joey to find out what a great singer Johnette really is.
Rigel
There are loads upon loads of bands who make fantastic music but will never get mainstream attention, because “making it big” these days is largely dependent upon looks and luck. The most underrated band ever is, almost by definition, someone none of us have ever heard of.
My personal vote: Frank Black and the Catholics.
I always felt the Replacements should have been much more popular than they were.
The Afghan Whigs also should have got more acclaim.
Agree on the Afghan Whigs and XTC.
Disagree on Wilco. Everyone critic and their grandma named Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as the best album of last year. I can’t pick up any music magazine at all without hearing about how great they are. That’s not to say that I dislike them (I actually have no opinion of them at all), it’s just saying that I think they are overrated, if anything.
In response to the OP. my vote would have to go to The Minutemen. They blew the doors off of what was happening in punk rock at the time by working in a jazzy feel and (arguably) having more talent than any of their peers. Their music just gets better as it ages.
I agree that Frank Black in all his incarnations (except the Pixies, who did rock but got plenty of attention) is highly underrated.
99% of people don’t know that the Violent Femmes have a lot of material besides Blister in the Sun, and it’s all great.
Nerf Herder, Atom and His Package, Wall of Voodoo, Carbon Leaf, Fountains of Wayne, the Rugburns, Marcy Playground, and especially Ozma are other bands either wrongfully written off as half-hit wonders or not known at all.
Hey Walloon…have you checked out The Flower Kings and/or Spock’s Beard? Some Yes grooves in there, along with Genesis, King Crimson, Gentle Giant…
I always felt sorry for The Kinks. They were at least as good as The Who (and I love The Who) and were probably more widely ripped off, but never matched The Who’s success or that of many other less deserving British Invasion-era groups.
By definition, isn’t the most underrated band going to one that nobody has ever heard of?
Only if that band deserves to be heard of. Generally, if no one has heard of a band there’s a good reason for it.
They had two #1 albums, both of which debuted on the chart at #1, which is still a significant accomplishment in this day and age.
Game Theory / Loud Family.
Some of the most perfect intelligent pop ever played.
I think it all depends on the context…
A band like Bright Eyes, maybe underated in the context of mainstream music, but is mostly definetly NOT overated in the indie/emo community, everybody knows who they are, and they other hate em or love em…
Now a band that is underated no matter what context is used, would probably be…Gridlock. These guys have had 2 brilliant idm albums and their drum and bass project Dryft, is light years ahead of the curve…yet they get little recoginition in the genre, where bands like Autechre and Boards of Canada dominate…
Can. There are very few people who hav heard of it. The ones that have adore it.
Genesis. Everybody remenbers the awfull 80’s period when they should remenber the great early 70’s one.
What was awful about it?
The fact that they didn’t have Peter Gabriel prancing around stage in yet another outrageously silly looking costume?
The fact that they God Forbid, actually had a number of songs which were Top Ten hits?
The fact that they had their first and only #1 album in the 1980’s?
Or do you think they “sold out”?
I don’t think Genesis sold out, I just think that the stuff they did early on was much more interesting than the stuff they did later. While I don’t think they were awful post-Gabriel, I do think they were pretty boring. But that’s just my opinion. I’m sure a lot of folks would find some of the stuff I do like boring as well.