Music: Who are the most underappreciated bands ever?

[Xelebes]

How about this one: Manuel Göttsching.

There are people who will stan for Can or Neu! but those bands do not have the distinction of the Krautrock artists who would define the post-nazi German sound. The only band in competition is Kraftwerk. However Kraftwerk's pursuit for such sounds fell towards making a more American sound once again, failing the project of krautrock. Manuel Göttsching has the genesis of German trance and techno to his credit as a Krautrock artist, both a significant and independent development away from rock.

 

[Mike C]

The Animals both had that sound and are underappreciated.


Donovan is certainly underappreciated stateside too.

Donovan....GREAT call

Randomly....

Jethro Tull, Hall and Oates, Graham Parker, Greg Kihn Band, Falco, Humble Pie,John Hiatt, Kurt Vile, The Outlaws,Poco,Patty Smith, Simple Minds, Tame Impala, Curtis Mayfield, Nick Lowe, The Radiators,Material Issue, DC Talk, The Clash

For my Canadian friends,

The Hip, Matthew Good, Sam Roberts, Stars, The Band, Justin Nozuka, Half Moon Run, Hollerado, Two Hours Traffic, The Darcys, Bob Moses, Billy Talent, The Beaches

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

thin lizzy
ratt
big country
billy squier
nightwish
rockpile
faces

there may come a time though when for examples black sabbath, zep, the who, will be the most underappreciated, joining the lists above as posted by everyone here. say 25-50 years later there's a strong possibility that not a lot of people will be listening to any of those bands.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Re: Can: I suppose, but I think they should be even more appreciated. Like at the level of The Beatles, The Kinks, or The Beach Boys.

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I too would take Can before Beatles/Kinks/Beach Boys. Wouldn't particularly hesitate either. They were utterly fantastic.

I think Can just won the most overappreciated band ever title! I'm surprised I haven't seen Velvet Underground mentioned yet, they tend to be too.

(I mean, I appreciate both bands, but people tend to overdo it a little)

Tom Waits

Now you're talking. That's the better answer in this thread. With the quantity, and the level of quality he maintained, the man should be considered as one of (if not) the best American musician. I tend to prefer Zappa, but I'd have to admit Waits is probably better overall.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Now you're talking. That's the better answer in this thread. With the quantity, and the level of quality he maintained, the man should be considered as one of (if not) the best American musician. I tend to prefer Zappa, but I'd have to admit Waits is probably better overall.

You can't compare Waits with Zappa. They are soooo different. It's like if you say you prefer garlic to oranges, or convertible small car to big van diesel truck. They exist for different reasons.

But that's ok. I prefer Zappa. He did so many different albums. I think the very best are Hot Rats, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe and Overnite Sensation. Many people never listened the Grand Wazoo, it's quite a complex piece of work. Lot of horns and a long solo of trombone. It's one of his most jazzy tune and it swings. It's long, 13 minutes.


The Hollies did an psychedic album in the genre of Sgt Pepper. It was mostly the work of Graham Nash who had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted. The Hollies didn't pursue in that genre, maybe the record sales were not that good, they came back to more commercial music or I would say their comfort zone. But a good song remain of that album and it really sounds like it's a Beatle song from Sgt Pepper or Magical Mystery tour.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

You can't compare Waits with Zappa. They are soooo different. It's like if you say you prefer garlic to oranges, or convertible small car to big van diesel truck. They exist for different reasons.

But that's ok. I prefer Zappa. He did so many different albums. I think the very best are Hot Rats, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe and Overnite Sensation. Many people never listened the Grand Wazoo, it's quite a complex piece of work. Lot of horns and a long solo of trombone. It's one of his most jazzy tune and it swings. It's long, 13 minutes.

As I said, I tend to prefer Zappa too (and my favorite album is Weasels Ripped My Flesh - ok, that's MOI), and I was not saying they were comparable in terms of style at all. In terms of overall quality, Waits is more consistent, never crapped anything as weak as Jazz From Hell, for example - and most importantly here, Waits is never presented as a musical genius, whereas Zappa always is.

 

[93gilmour93]

Faith no More

 

[Mike C]

thin lizzy
ratt
big country
billy squier
nightwish
rockpile
faces

there may come a time though when for examples black sabbath, zep, the who, will be the most underappreciated, joining the lists above as posted by everyone here. say 25-50 years later there's a strong possibility that not a lot of people will be listening to any of those bands.

i saw Ratt open for Squier one time at the Meadowlands in NJ.....in between sets, the music over the P.A. comes on with "8 days a week" these teeny bops behind us drool out "the Beatles man....good English head bangin' music"

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

As I said, I tend to prefer Zappa too (and my favorite album is Weasels Ripped My Flesh - ok, that's MOI), and I was not saying they were comparable in terms of style at all. In terms of overall quality, Waits is more consistent, never crapped anything as weak as Jazz From Hell, for example - and most importantly here, Waits is never presented as a musical genius, whereas Zappa always is.

Zappa was so experimental that it's obvious he would not be constant. I didn't like his albums after One Size Fits All. I liked Sheik Yerbouti quite a bit. It was funny and my friend who was a drummer was crazy about the drums on that album. You are what you is and Tinseltown Rebellion had good tracks but the quality was going down, so my interest. It's hard to do better than Moving to Montana.

edit : forget about Jazz from Hell or his other bad stuff. It's not an hyperbole to claim Zappa was a genius, he really was.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Zappa was so experimental that it's obvious he would not be constant. I didn't like his albums after One Size Fits All. I liked Sheik Yerbouti quite a bit. It was funny and my friend who was a drummer was crazy about the drums on that album. You are what you is and Tinseltown Rebellion had good tracks but the quality was going down, so my interest. It's hard to do better than Moving to Montana.

edit : forget about Jazz from Hell or his other bad stuff. It's not an hyperbole to claim Zappa was a genius, he really was.

Again, not saying he wasn't.

 

[TheAngryHank]

The word underappreciated could be interpreted many ways, so my choices are bands who would be in my top 100, but are not, and likely never will be in the Rock Hall of Fame, bands you'd never see on a Rolling Stone best-of-list, and bands who were never big on the charts except for maybe one or two songs:

Bands
BlackCrowes
Blue Oyster Cult
Concrete Blonde
Divinyls
Faith No More
Fetchin Bones
Living Colour
Los Lobos
Pavement
Replacements
Sonic Youth
Squeeze
Urge Overkill
Waterboys (have lots of great songs beside just Whole Of The Moon)
X (on my all-time top 10 bands list)
Yo La Tengo
10000 Maniacs

Solo Artists
Tori Amos
Steve Earle (his output holds up well against Springsteen, Mellencamp, Petty or Seger)
PJ Harvey (best singer/songwriter of last 30 years)
John Hiatt
Chris Isaak
Joe Jackson
Daniel Lanois
Maria McKee
Graham Parker
Liz Phair

Canadians
Blue Rodeo
Bruce Cockburn
Cowboy Junkies
Grapes Of Wrath
Jr. Gone Wild
National Velvet
Jane Siberry
Sloan
Tragically Hip (underappreciated outside Canada)

Black crows did a Denver show a long time ago , Singer went to get beer after hours and the woman cashier said we can't sell beer , so dude pulls " don't you know who I am" lady didn't know and didn't care it's illegal to sell after hours..So dude spits in her face... f*** that dude. Hated them ever since.

 

[Voight]

TV on the Radio.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

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I think Can just won the most overappreciated band ever title! I'm surprised I haven't seen Velvet Underground mentioned yet, they tend to be too.

(I mean, I appreciate both bands, but people tend to overdo it a little)



Now you're talking. That's the better answer in this thread. With the quantity, and the level of quality he maintained, the man should be considered as one of (if not) the best American musician. I tend to prefer Zappa, but I'd have to admit Waits is probably better overall.

I'd say that Velvet Underground are way too massive in popular culture to be named here. They may have been a great answer during their original run but they're one of the most famous bands in rock at this point.

Tom Waits strikes me as a strange answer here too. He's incredibly famous.

 

[Hippasus]

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I think Can just won the most overappreciated band ever title! I'm surprised I haven't seen Velvet Underground mentioned yet, they tend to be too.

(I mean, I appreciate both bands, but people tend to overdo it a little)



Now you're talking. That's the better answer in this thread. With the quantity, and the level of quality he maintained, the man should be considered as one of (if not) the best American musician. I tend to prefer Zappa, but I'd have to admit Waits is probably better overall.

I never really understood the allure of Zappa. Might just not be the style I tend to like in music.

I guess Can might not be a good answer for this thread since they've gained a lot of recognition after they ceased being a band, over the years.

Waits just seems underrated to me. He has very good lyricism and seems quite original for a singer-songwriter type. But to say he's the, or one of the great American musicians might be a bit farfetched when one considers how many great quality singer-songwriters have been produced in the U.S. Then again, I'm having trouble thinking of who *does* qualify.

EDIT: Maybe Neil Young, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Crosby Stills Nash, or even The Eagles.

 

[Hippasus]

I'd say that Velvet Underground are way too massive in popular culture to be named here. They may have been a great answer during their original run but they're one of the most famous bands in rock at this point.

Tom Waits strikes me as a strange answer here too. He's incredibly famous.

He seems like he gets lost in the shuffle a lot and isn't mentioned as a great musician that much. He has a distinctive sound, some classic songs or albums, and doesn't seem that critically renowned. Though I could be wrong on that last point.

 

[Lshap]

The Animals both had that sound and are underappreciated.

True. If we were ranking the most under-appreciated instrument, my vote would go to the keyboard. Everyone has their list of best guitarists. How many debates do we have over best keyboardist? In fact, is there even such a thing as a keyboard-god?

We're not talking about secondary sounds like harmonicas or tambourines. Keyboards have a central role to play in rock, but maybe because the keyboardist is hidden behind it they don't get the adulation reserved for the guitar player.

 

[Ben Grimm]

... Keyboards have a central role to play in rock, but maybe because the keyboardist is hidden behind it they don't get the adulation reserved for the guitar player.

I believe that if was possible to objectively identify the best Blues and Rock ever, at least 51% of it would feature an instrument besides guitars and drums. Keyboards (including pianos), harmonicas (they're not a secondary instrument in the Blues, the greatest classic Blues feature Little Walter), horn sections, sax, trumpet, etc.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

View attachment 733645​

I don't mean critically. My personal top 4 are my all-time favorite punk band The Cramps ^, D.C.'s Bad Brains, Minnesota's Husker Du, and Milwaukee's Violent Femmes.

Some suggestions I got from Yardbarker are Anvil, April Wine, Black 47, Blue Cheer, Boogie Down Productions, Cinderella, Exodus, Little Feat, Living Colour (Cult of Personality is my favorite MTV video), Melvins, Naked Raygun, Screaming Trees, Social Distortion, Ten Years After (Alvin Lee is a great guitarist), UFO, and Wishbone Ash. Does @Hockey Outsider appreciate Wishbone Ash? We'll see what he says. I hope @GKJ posts.

Definitely. I really like Wishbone Ash's first five albums. "Argus" is one of my top ten favourite albums all-time (and has held that spot for probably 15+ years now). They were one of a few bands from the 1970's that pioneered dual lead guitars (along with Thin Lizzy and UFO).

They're still touring (Andy Powell got the "official" Wishbone Ash name, and Martin Turner - who was arguably the more important member - tours under his own name). I saw Powell's edition play at a bar in upstate New York on a cold, snowy night this past March. It was a great show (I was glad they played five of the seven songs from "Argus").

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

True. If we were ranking the most under-appreciated instrument, my vote would go to the keyboard. Everyone has their list of best guitarists. How many debates do we have over best keyboardist? In fact, is there even such a thing as a keyboard-god?

We're not talking about secondary sounds like harmonicas or tambourines. Keyboards have a central role to play in rock, but maybe because the keyboardist is hidden behind it they don't get the adulation reserved for the guitar player.

keyboard heroes in rock off the top of my head:

rick wakeman
keith emerson
elton john
billly joel
don airey
john paul jones
paul mccartney
jon lord

 

[Hippasus]

keyboard heroes in rock off the top of my head:

rick wakeman
keith emerson
elton john
billly joel
don airey
john paul jones
paul mccartney
jon lord

Irmin Schmidt (Can), Brian Eno, Simon Brenner (Talk Talk), Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Lol Tolhurst / Simon Gallup / Mathieu Hartley (The Cure).

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Tom Waits strikes me as a strange answer here too. He's incredibly famous.

Weird, I haven't heard about him in quite some time. Mid-90s, Black Rider got the avant-garde scene and people's attention (including me), and for a little while afterwards, here and there, but he's never mentioned as a big boss of American music - which IMO he should.

I never really understood the allure of Zappa. Might just not be the style I tend to like in music.

I guess Can might not be a good answer for this thread since they've gained a lot of recognition after they ceased being a band, over the years.

Waits just seems underrated to me. He has very good lyricism and seems quite original for a singer-songwriter type. But to say he's the, or one of the great American musicians might be a bit farfetched when one considers how many great quality singer-songwriters have been produced in the U.S. Then again, I'm having trouble thinking of who *does* qualify.

EDIT: Maybe Neil Young, Bob Seger, or even The Eagles.

I completely understand that some people don't really like Zappa. His production is really uneven, and it's easy to lose sense of when he is being serious and when he is being ironic (but even then, you listen to Cruising With Ruben & the Jets, a very stupid pastiche album, and his talent is obvious through the mockery). There's also a few of his later albums - like Jazz From Hell or Francesco Zappa - that just sound like crap, partly because of poor and dated production, so it's easy to miss on the great ideas they still contain.

I think that listening to his better songs (I'd suggest Trouble Every Day) followed by some of his more serious compositions (let's say Questi Cazzi Di Piccione from The Yellow Shark, an album one has to be aware of to understand the depth of his talent), you can only admit that he was on a musical plane that's out of reach to most. And then, if you're into more abstract/experimental stuff, he's your man too. But yeah, even then, not underrated or underappreciated.

As for Waits, yeah, many many quality American musicians, but I still think he should be considered among the higher top-tiers, and don't think he is.

 

[Xelebes]

Irmin Schmidt (Can), Brian Eno, Simon Brenner (Talk Talk), Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Lol Tolhurst / Simon Gallup / Mathieu Hartley (The Cure).

Klaus Schulz, Jerry Lee Lewis, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John

 

[TheAngryHank]

Pretenders.
Super tramp

 

[Mescaleroman]

band - Grateful Dead
solo artist - Jelly Roll






seriously though

band - Pere Ubu
solo artist - Phil Ochs

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

The Animals both had that sound and are underappreciated.


Donovan is certainly underappreciated stateside too.

Eric Burdon never gets enough credit for how good he was as a frontman. The stuff he did with War was top notch. Spill the Wine is one of my favorite songs ever: