Ten Bands or Artists You Don't Know

**Tiddler** · **08-09-07, 02:23 PM**

Every now and then I get tired of the mainstream music offerings and go looking for something different. A new member, "Johnny Jack" (jtmjnow), just inspired me with his list of eclectic musical tastes to start this thread.

Here is the idea. List as many artists or bands that you think we won't know that you think are worth a listen. There is a certain assumption here that your tastes may be as scattered as my own. That having been said these are suggestions based on the fact that I liked them. Where possible I will provide links to sample some music.

Caroline Lavelle, "Spirit"
Jacqui Naylor, "Shelter"
Jem, "Finally Woken"
Gretchen Lieberum, "Brand New Morning"
Rachael Yamagata, "Happenstance "
Prefab Sprout, "Two Wheels Good"
Audience, "House On The Hill" (sounds like Axel only better)
Delerium, "Poem"
Beautiful World, "...In Existence "
Stabbing Westward, "Darkest Days", "Wither Blister Burn & Peel"

I am assuming you have all heard of the great Canadian bands like: Lighthouse, Tea Party, Sarah McLachlan, Gino Vannelli. There are some other older bands that should be revisited occasionally like Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson, Humble Pie, the original Grand Funk Railroad. I would also assume you folks have all heard of Thomas Dolby, Eh!

**Tiddler** · **08-09-07, 07:55 PM**

I was hoping to get some leads on new music to look out for.

Just looking for ideas that may be off the beaten path.

The one thing the internet has really done for me is provide a way to find music I would never hear on the radio or the music video channels. There is a music video show on BRAVO! that introduces some interesting and off beat music. Another source for interesting music is the Ambient Music channel on Rogers cable.

**Sonnie** · **08-09-07, 08:17 PM**

This is really a tough one... it may require too much leg work.

I can think of a few that I don't think too many folks would know, but I'm sure some will.

Yello
Flim & the BB's
Billy Cobham
Bob James

**JCD** · **08-09-07, 08:36 PM**

Love your idea.. I'm ALWAYS looking for something new and good. The following list includes some bands you may have heard of, but just in case, I threw them in there:

Flogging Molly -- similar to The Pogues. Could be my favorite band right now. Within a Mile of Home is the best album so far (to me)
Swamp Zombies -- out of print, but can be found on Amazon used. Fink was my favorite album. Similar to (sorta) the Violent Femmes
Pink Martini -- I've only heard one of the songs off their latest album (Hey Eugene/City of Night). It's got a very "cool/groovy" vibe to me.
The Queers -- Sophomoric punk band. Don't take them too seriously and have a good time. Love Songs for the Retarded would be where I'd start.
Clannad -- Enya's sister is the lead singer of this one.
The Bogmen -- Bought this in the cheap bin at my local used record store. I really really like it.
G Love & Special Sauce -- Laid back bluesy rock sorta band.
Hellvis -- Big time guitar hard rock/punkish band. The CD I have (Dixie Fried Hillbilly) is no longer in print, but its a guitar monster.
Oysterhead -- Trey Anasticio from Phish, Les Clapool and Sterwart Copeland did a one off album. Way out there on them (Les is in the band after all). Totally dig it as I like off center stuff.
Rufus Wainwright - I've heard them described as a Band's band. I only have Want One so I can't say anything about the rest of the CD's. The CD overall is pretty good, but Oh What A World is awesome.
TV on the Radio -- The other band that is in the running for my favorite band. I only have their latest CD, but I like or love every song.
Warrior Soul -- I only have their first album, but it's another one I like or love every song. Pretty much a hard rock/semi punk band that was around in the 80's. One of my favorite tracks on the CD is a recitation of a poem.
Nekromantix -- I have a Pyschobilly CD sampler. They were my favorite on the disk. I keep meaning to get one of their CD's.

JCD

**rcarlton** · **08-09-07, 09:35 PM**

Quote:

Sonnie wrote:

This is really a tough one... it may require too much leg work.

I can think of a few that I don't think too many folks would know, but I'm sure some will.

Yello
Flim & the BB's
Billy Cobham
Bob James

I second Yello and Flim & the BB's.

**Fincave** · **08-10-07, 01:06 AM**

A bit difficult coming up with ten bands but here goes,

Apocalyptica: Finnish band, four classically trained cellists playing very heavy music, albums to look out for would be Plays Metallica by four cellos, and Inquisition Symphony which features some of their own stuff.

The Stranglers: Sort of punk band, not all that unheard of.

Joy Division: Also kind of punk band, when the singer died they became New Order.

Grinderman: Nick Cave's new band, quite a departure from his usual stuff.

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleroes: World music (Strummer was the singer for The Clash)

PJ Harvey: Not unheard of but a bit off the beaten path.

Mark Lanegan: Also probably not unheard of, used to sing for The Screaming Trees.

The Men They Couldn't Hang: Waiting for Bonaparte is a great album.

Agro: South-African metal band.

Wolfmother: Australian band similar sounding to the White Stripes, will probably be a known band, on the soundtrack of the latest Shrek film.

Herman Brood: Dutch singer, basic rock 'n roll.

**jvc** · **08-10-07, 11:15 AM**

I don't know 10 different ones.
The main one I know of is a band named Tranquility. Their album, called "Silver", is excellent (to me). I posted the album cover in the "Right This Minute" thread (page 9). The album is from 1972, if I remember correctly. Vinyl album is the only way to buy this (MAYBE on cassette too, but not sure). Probably from a used album store, is where you'll find it. I made a cd from my album. I figured that was the only way it would be on cd.

Another one that some of you older guys should know, and you younger ones should check out, is Harry Nilsson. You younger guys may not know his name, but will know some of his songs. One song he's best known for, he didn't write, but did one of a job singing it, was "Without You". Several people did that song, but he's best known for it. Heart did that song on their Magazine album, and also did a very good job of it!

If I think of any more, I'll post them later.

**Tiddler** · **08-10-07, 11:21 AM**

Quote:

Sonnie wrote:

This is really a tough one... it may require too much leg work.

I can think of a few that I don't think too many folks would know, but I'm sure some will.

Yello
Flim & the BB's
Billy Cobham
Bob James

A very interesting collection of artists Sonnie. Unfortunately the quality of the Amazon sampling is not very good so to really judge the audio quality and range is difficult.

First impressions of Yello, Flim & the BB's, and Billy Cobham were that this music was different (for me) and warranted a closer listen. The Bob James I found immediately intriguing and I will have to explore their work further for sure.

Thanks for the suggestions.

**Tiddler** · **08-10-07, 11:57 AM**

Quote:

jvc wrote:

I don't know 10 different ones.
The main one I know of is a band named Tranquility. Their album, called "Silver", is excellent (to me). I posted the album cover in the "Right This Minute" thread (page 9). The album is from 1972, if I remember correctly. Vinyl album is the only way to buy this (MAYBE on cassette too, but not sure). Probably from a used album store, is where you'll find it. I made a cd from my album. I figured that was the only way it would be on cd.

Another one that some of you older guys should know, and you younger ones should check out, is Harry Nilsson. You younger guys may not know his name, but will know some of his songs. One song he's best known for, he didn't write, but did one of a job singing it, was "Without You". Several people did that song, but he's best known for it. Heart did that song on their Magazine album, and also did a very good job of it!

If I think of any more, I'll post them later.

Thanks for the memories jvc!

"Coconut" and "Jump Into The Fire" made me feel like a teenager again. Just sittin in the shade listening to the transistor radio.

**jvc** · **08-10-07, 12:30 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

Thanks for the memories jvc!

"Coconut" and "Jump Into The Fire" made me feel like a teenager again. Just sittin in the shade listening to the transistor radio.

Glad to help out!

I put in his Greatest Hits cd now and then, and have some nice memories too, of better times.
Nilsson was great! I miss him a lot. He did some classic stuff.
The Point album was played a lot, on my old stereo system. Nilsson Schmilsson, and Son of Schmilsson, were a couple of favorite albums too. You're Breaking My Heart, used to crack me up, every time I heard it. Everybody's Talking (theme to Midnight Cowboy) was another favorite song of mine. Me and My Arrow, etc........ I could go on and on. I think I'll put an album on now!

Glad you enjoy him too.........

If anyone here is familiar with Tranquility, I'd like to know.
There were two big name bands, that had concerts in Wilmington (NC), back in '71 or '72. They were Goose Creek Symphony and Savoy Brown. I forget which was which, but Tranquility was the warm-up band for one of the concerts. They blew everybody away, in the audience! They were better than the band they were warming the audience up for. The warm-up band (no one had ever heard of) for the other concert, went on to become very BIG in the business.............Steely Dan. They were also better than the band they warmed up for.

**Tiddler** · **08-10-07, 01:06 PM**

Having sifted through a lot of the suggested artist's music, that I could find online, I am prompted to try and explain a theory I have about how people listen to music and why some music appeals to one one person and may not appeal to another.

I think some people listen to the singer and the music is just there to support the singer. For those people the words and their meaning is the most important part of the music. The music needs to reflect the emotion of the music and of course be played well but is secondary.

I am more attracted to the whole sonic experience. As a matter of fact I find I tend to prefer the work of artists before their heads swell too much. For example, if you listen to Sarah McLachlan's earlier CDs you will be presented with music that incorporates very interesting instrumental accompaniment that could well stand on it's own. Sarah's voice is first and foremost another instrument functioning as part of a collective sonic presentation. In many cases I don't even know what the words are to many of her songs that I love to listen to. Her latest album demonstrates what happens when a singer becomes convinced that they alone are what was magical about their past offerings.

Now for other people Sarah's latest album may be her best effort. For me I miss the whole musical sonic experience of her voice surrounded and a part of this interesting music performed by very skill musicians.

Now I'm going to go out on a limb here. Based on the suggestions above I would guess that Sonnie tends to listen to music the way I do while JCD is more interested in the song content. Fincave I'm not sure about. I suspect the lyrics must mean something to him but the sound heavy sound of punk and metal bands is also appealing. JVC is difficult to read due to the fact that I could not find the Tranquility music on the net and that only left Nilsson to guess by. Nilsson's music is definately lyric driven but also presented in a sonically entertaining way.

So, assuming my general description of lyrical listeners and sonic listeners makes any sense to you, which do you think you are? A good indicator would be if you can think of pieces of music that you really like that you either don't know what the lyrics are or don't care they could sing words out of the dictionary and you would still love the music.

By-the-way, there are a few songs that have lyrics that do hold some special meaning for me but overall it is the total sonic experience that attracts me. In many cases that sonic experience will evoke emotions within me that may or may not have anything to do with the song lyrics.

So here are a couple of examples of pieces of music that I find appealing but the actual lyrical content is irelevant to me.

Dadawa "Sister Drum" Track 2, Sister Drum

Stabbing Westward, "Darkest Days", Track 6, Save Yourself

Sarah McLachlan "Solace", Tracks 3, 10 The Path of Thorns, Mercy

Julee Cruise "Floating into the Night", Track 1, Floating

There are a few other good examples of pieces I really like that are instrumental or in languages other than English. They are on a disc called Escapes but I can't find any links. There is a Mexican band B-Tribe that does a song called "You Won't See Me Cry" and a piece composed by Johann Pachelbel called Kanon I think.

There are songs that the lyrics mean something to me like "I Will Not Forget You" by Sarah McLachlan also on the Solace album. From Surfacing "Angel" and from rarities and B Sides there is "I Will Remember You" all have some lyrical connection for me as well as being beautiful music to listen to.

Anyway that's my weird take on the different ways we listen to music.

**jvc** · **08-10-07, 01:34 PM**

Quote:

JVC is difficult to read due to the fact that I could not find the Tranquility music on the net and that only left Nilsson to guess by. Nilsson's music is definately lyric driven but also presented in a sonically entertaining way.

Some other folks I listen to a lot is:
Norah Jones
Diana Krall
George Winston
Spyro Gyra
Led Zeppelin
Steely Dan
Jimmy Buffet
Beatles
Alice In Chains (acoustic)
Pink Floyd
Allison Krauss
just to give you an idea of my varied tastes in music.
Also see my thread about Favorite Live Concert.....

**Tiddler** · **08-10-07, 01:55 PM**

Quote:

jvc wrote:

If anyone here is familiar with Tranquility, I'd like to know.
There were two big name bands, that had concerts in Wilmington (NC), back in '71 or '72. They were Goose Creek Symphony and Savoy Brown. I forget which was which, but Tranquility was the warm-up band for one of the concerts. They blew everybody away, in the audience! They were better than the band they were warming the audience up for. The warm-up band (no one had ever heard of) for the other concert, went on to become very BIG in the business.............Steely Dan. They were also better than the band they warmed up for.

Is this the band Tranquility by Tranquility. original release 1972

**Tiddler** · **08-10-07, 02:03 PM**

Someone I did not mention that I really like is Ivana Santilli. I particularly like the Brown album. There are a couple of songs I like off of Corduroy Boogie but she went off in a direction that does not appeal to me.

**Tiddler** · **08-10-07, 02:13 PM**

Well this has turned out to be a fruitfully exercise for me. There is a lot of music for me to go and check out more closely. Thanks for the input folks.

It is interesting that so many of us seem to have a wide taste in music. I wonder what that may be a function of? Home Theater Shack members, or maybe regular active forum participants? Our general age group? We are caught between generations? Hmmmm?

**JCD** · **08-10-07, 02:24 PM**

Sonic experience vs Song Content..

Hmm, I think you've probably got me pegged.

As a general rule, I don't like instrumentals or foreign language songs. There are of course exceptions -- I do like to listen to classical music and will occasionally listen to some opera -- but pretty much any mixed cd I make is songs with lyrics in english. I also can sing along to almost every song I really like. The CD I currently have in my car has ~160 songs on it (MP3's at a low bit rate) and I can probably sing along to every one of them. The other CD has another 120 songs. Again, I'm sure I can sing along to every one on it as well.

For a song to be something I like, I still have to like the instrumentals -- I will never like country despite country songs having some really clever lyrics.

Interesting theory.. I'll be curious to see what others think.

JCD

**JCD** · **08-10-07, 02:31 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

Well this has turned out to be a fruitfully exercise for me. There is a lot of music for me to go and check out more closely. Thanks for the input folks.

It is interesting that so many of us seem to have a wide taste in music. I wonder what that may be a function of? Home Theater Shack members, or maybe regular active forum participants? Our general age group? We are caught between generations? Hmmmm?

I'd think that it has to do with us being an AV forum member in general. I think anyone who takes the "construction" of music seriously in any way (which, if you're here, indicates you probably do) is going to like music.. period. So, as a result, your average forum member will have a varied taste in music. I'm not sure if that thought is clearly laid out, but hopefully there's enough there for you to piece together what I'm thinking .

Anyway, just a quick thought.

Oh, and I'll be curious which bands you investigate further. You definitely have a lot choices in there.

JCD

**Fincave** · **08-10-07, 02:40 PM**

Not sure for the reason in a wide range in music listed. For me personally I like good and or unusual lyrics, especially when accompanied by a slightly different or powerful voice, think Gordon Gano, Robert Plant, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Tori Amos, Marianne Faithfull, Daivid Bowie, Jack White, Bob Dylan etc. I still need to like the music but foremost would be lyrics. There is some stuff I like purely for the sound or attitude but even then the importance of the lyrics becomes evident, bands like Dead Kennedys and Sex Pistols come to mind, noisy as can be but still with something to say. As to age or caught between generations, cannot honestly say but for the record I am 35, born in 1971 and have at times wished that I was born a decade or two earlier.

**jvc** · **08-10-07, 05:17 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

Is this the band Tranquility by Tranquility. original release 1972

Well, I'll be..............!
Yes, that's them. That's their first album. Silver was their second, and my favorite. I have both.

Did you listen to the samples?

**no. 5** · **08-10-07, 10:47 PM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

Having sifted through a lot of the suggested artist's music, that I could find online, I am prompted to try and explain a theory I have about how people listen to music and why some music appeals to one one person and may not appeal to another.

I think some people listen to the singer and the music is just there to support the singer. For those people the words and their meaning is the most important part of the music. The music needs to reflect the emotion of the music and of course be played well but is secondary.

I am more attracted to the whole sonic experience. As a matter of fact I find I tend to prefer the work of artists before their heads swell too much. For example, if you listen to Sarah McLachlan's earlier CDs you will be presented with music that incorporates very interesting instrumental accompaniment that could well stand on it's own. Sarah's voice is first and foremost another instrument functioning as part of a collective sonic presentation. In many cases I don't even know what the words are to many of her songs that I love to listen to. Her latest album demonstrates what happens when a singer becomes convinced that they alone are what was magical about their past offerings.

Now for other people Sarah's latest album may be her best effort. For me I miss the whole musical sonic experience of her voice surrounded and a part of this interesting music performed by very skill musicians.

....

So, assuming my general description of lyrical listeners and sonic listeners makes any sense to you, which do you think you are? A good indicator would be if you can think of pieces of music that you really like that you either don't know what the lyrics are or don't care they could sing words out of the dictionary and you would still love the music.

By-the-way, there are a few songs that have lyrics that do hold some special meaning for me but overall it is the total sonic experience that attracts me. In many cases that sonic experience will evoke emotions within me that may or may not have anything to do with the song lyrics.

....

Anyway that's my weird take on the different ways we listen to music.

I'm a bit late to this but, wow, I totally and completely agree with that! Personally, I've always thought of a singers voice as just another instrument, just another part and dimension of the music.

I came to the same conclusion some time ago, that some people listen to the lyrics, and some to the...uh, "emotional content"? "musicalness"? (

).

And to take it a step further, I think you can tell which group a musician falls into by their music and lyrics; as an example, KT Tunstall has said that 'a male voice can be part of the music, but a female voice always sits on top of the music', and I think her songs reflect that attitude, the lyrics aren't all that special (to me, but I don't really listen to lyrics anyway

), but her songs...

Anyway, back to the point of the thread, it's more likely that one of you will know ten I don't know than the opposite, but I'll give it a shot;
Gerald De Palmas
Max Pezzali
Goran Kralj
The Benjy Davis Project today
Remy Zero
Natalie MacMaster

Well, that's all I feel like typing for now...

**Fincave** · **08-11-07, 02:31 AM**

Quote:

tiddler wrote:

Fincave I'm not sure about. I suspect the lyrics must mean something to him but the sound heavy sound of punk and metal bands is also appealing.

As stated a bit earlier it really is the lyrics that attract me to most music. When I listen to music I basically switch off to every thing else around me, I often enough find myself getting goose bumps listening to songs like 'God is in the House' by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Johnny Cash doing 'Hurt' has actually brought tears to my eyes, music is normally a very emotional experience for me. My fondness for punk probably stems from growing up in South-Africa, we had very heavy censorship on all media. Buying a punk album you could hear someone using naughty words, criticising governments and me being around 16 at the time, it was NOISY!! I actually do not listen to metal, the heaviest I normally listen to would be AC/DC, I do also have one Metallica album. I included the band Agro as I kind of guessed that it would be something that nobody had heard of before, I also went to school with quite a few members of the band and was good friends with the singer, were it not for that connection I would probably not listen to them as musically it is ok but the singing is pretty horrible I am sorry to say. Apocalyptica is something that I really like, the early stuff, before they added drums and a singer. Very powerful sounding music and quite amazing the sound that four cellos can produce. Apocalyptica even made a positive impression on my brother and we really do not share similar music tastes, he has trained as a classical pianist for many years, also played bagpipes for a big band at some stage but he still liked Apocalyptica, musically!

**Mitch G** · **08-13-07, 05:40 PM**

Interesting list. I'll have to check out some of these bands.

Some lesser known groups that I think people should check out are:

Ditty Bops - acoustic, songs range from 1920's sounding ditties to blue grassy to more rock pop bits.

Jenny Lewis (and the Watson Twins) - acoustic, alt bluegrass might be a classification

Peter, Bjorn and John - pop, the song Young Folks was used for a jeans commercial so may be familiar to some

Mitch

**rcarlton** · **08-13-07, 06:31 PM**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmwhYW50lu0
The

Big Phat Band

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