# Bands with hit singles that were not hit singles



## Smackpixi (Jun 26, 2022)

So this is a thread for obscure or sort of obscure bands that should have been popular but were not.  That did a song that you can’t believe more people don’t know about.


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## Smackpixi (Jun 26, 2022)

I’ll start with….Monday or Forever by Ruston Mire.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

Follow For Now:


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

Course of Empire

(I wanted to post a live vid to show they used 2 drummers, which was sooooo powerful to experience.)


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

MC 900 Ft Jesus


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

Dynamic Syncopation


Their lack of success is somewhat their own fault, IMHO.  That video is a remix- the original _does not_ touch it.  And AFAIK, this particular  remix and funky video only showed up on a skateboarding/BMX/skating show on deep cable.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

Urban Dance Squad’s first single…


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

Fanny, covering The Beatles

They were one of the first all-female rock bands.  Bowie was a fan.  They just didn’t catch fire.  But there’s a movie about them coming out soon, so everyone will be able to contemplate the “what might have beens”.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 26, 2022)

Budgie

The Welsh power trio whose music Metallica made famous.  They fell into the valley between Rush and Black Sabbath.  Seriously underrated.


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## Jahydin (Jun 26, 2022)

My favorite album to gift to my music friends cause no one's heard of this group. 

Very dark, dreamy, and sad, it recounts the "other world" the singer used to visit as a kid.

It's in French, but here's the lyrics in English:


> Where I come from, time doesn't exist
> Seconds turn into hours
> The years are short moment, immediately gone
> And our deceiving words are replaced
> ...


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## Jahydin (Jun 26, 2022)

Okay, it has over a million views now, but this gem of an album still deserves so much more.

For those that don't know the backstory:
Death was a proto-punk band that formed in 1971. They had a hard time getting signed (the name didn't help), so shelved their music and moved on with their lives. In 2008, the music resurfaced digitally, and Drag City Records contacted the members and asked if they were interested in finally putting it out.

So made in 1976, released in 2009, lol!

Really awesome documentary was put out and worth a watch.


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## Jahydin (Jun 26, 2022)

_*Parental Advisory*_*: Explicit Content*


Downset is such an interesting group. Devout Christians surrounded in gang culture made for some interesting songs. What stuck with me for so long though was how progressive they were at the time. As a kid, it was my introduction to civil rights issues, rape culture, and poverty struggles. 

Oh, and the killer guitar tones and clever rap flows are a treat too!


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## Ryujin (Jun 26, 2022)

Passion Puppets - "Like Dust"


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## payn (Jun 26, 2022)

Ramsay Midwood

Rockthrow


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 27, 2022)

Here’s one:

Not the rappers of Outkast…_their backing band._

They started off in D/FW as a funk/punk fusion band when RHCP, FNM and Fishbone were really getting major attention.  They had a bad rep here- too good to follow, and too unprofessional to be dependable on their start/stop times on gigs.  When I saw them at SXSW in the early 1990s, their killer performance absolutely destroyed the audience.

But they didn’t get signed to a major label, and eventually faded into obscurity.

HOWEVER, as the embers of their band were dying here, they decided to take one more shot, and moved to Atlanta.  That’s where Big Boi and Andre 3000 found them and made them into Outkast’s backing band.

So they didn’t make it under their own name, but they still kinda made it.

With the breakup of Outkast, the band’s principles returned to D/FW, and they still gig in bars and clubs.


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## Zardnaar (Jun 27, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Here’s one:
> 
> Not the rappers of Outkast…_their backing band._
> 
> ...




 I now have that catch song they did stuck in my head. Cheers.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 2, 2022)

Jahydin said:


> Okay, it has over a million views now, but this gem of an album still deserves so much more.
> 
> For those that don't know the backstory:
> Formed in 1971, Death could be considered the first punk band. They had a hard time getting signed (the name didn't help), so shelved their music and moved on with their lives. In 2008, the music resurfaced digitally, and Drag City Records contacted the members and asked if they were interested in finally putting it out.
> ...



The stooges were around in 1969, I don’t get these other first punk rock band ideas.  And really, the kinks…or even the Kingsman Louie Louie.  They’re cool and all but not first punk rock band.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 2, 2022)

What if Fugazi’s 13 songs came out in 1994 instead of 1989?  Like alongside offspring and green Day?  Wow, they’d would have been huge.  Like also Story of My Life by social distortion, came out in 1990, but if it came out in 1994? Wow.


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## jdrakeh (Jul 2, 2022)

Trust, the French band, should have been popular internationally, but they never really caught on outside of France to my knowledge. Notably, in America, they're almost unknown except for their song Antisocial, which didn't gain a lot of traction until American heavy metal band Anthrax covered it in English. But the original version of Antisocial and several of their other songs are _AMAZING_.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 2, 2022)

Yazoo/Yaz:


This song was huge back in the day.  The intro to this song was used for all kinds of New Wave themed ads, radio alerts, and so forth.  There are bands that cited the debut album as THE reason they got into electronic music.

But internal tensions broke the duo in twain after the second album.  Each musician has had long, successful careers with other bands.  They did eventually bury the hatchet and have performed together live in 2014 as I recall, but no new recordings have even been hinted at.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 2, 2022)

jdrakeh said:


> Trust, the French band, should have been popular internationally, but they never really caught on outside of France to my knowledge. Notably, in America, they're almost unknown except for their song Antisocial, which didn't gain a lot of traction until American heavy metal band Anthrax covered it in English. But the original version of Antisocial and several of their other songs are _AMAZING_.



I know of a few French metal bands- Satan Jokers!- but I don’t think we’d have Gojira without Trust.  An underrated band, for certain.


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## Raduin711 (Jul 2, 2022)

This song was one of my favorites growing up in the 90's. Blue Moon Ghetto was local to where I lived, and the female vocalist on the song was a local radio personality, Nikki Boulay. I don't know if they deserved to hit it bigger, But I think many people wondered what could have been.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 2, 2022)

Jeff Buckley


He was tremendously talented, as his decade-long career as a session guitarist and the title track (above) from his debut album shows.  Alas, it was also his only album- he drowned swimming in the Mississippi River, fully clothed, at night.

A lot of musicians have also based their covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on Buckley’s version of it.


Despite the quality of the music, Grace didn’t hit Gold status until 2002- 9 years after its release and 6 years after his death.


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## Jahydin (Jul 2, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> The stooges were around in 1969, I don’t get these other first punk rock band ideas.  And really, the kinks…or even the Kingsman Louie Louie.  They’re cool and all but not first punk rock band.



Yeah, you're totally right. I was just quickly grabbing a description of them off the web real quick without thinking about it. Will fix...


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## Ryujin (Jul 2, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Yazoo/Yaz:
> 
> 
> This song was huge back in the day.  The intro to this song was used for all kinds of New Wave themed ads, radio alerts, and so forth.  There are bands that cited the debut album as THE reason they got into electronic music.
> ...



"Only You" also got a lot of play up here but, again, only on College radio and that one station I've mentioned elsewhere.


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## Sabathius42 (Jul 2, 2022)

I've got a good addition to this list.  It's an odd pairing of two 90s era "popular enough" artists that merged to make a combined band that made songs that sound exactly like what you would think they would sound like.

Presidents of the USA (Lump)+Sir-Mix-A-Lot (Baby Got Back) formed a combined duo group called Subset.

They recorded at least one album and toured around performing songs from that album....but the album was never released for sale.  Thanks to the internet you can hear it, though.

Subset is my favorite band that never released an album.  It's almost like something from an alternate earth that leaked into our reality.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 3, 2022)

Thanks for that! 

I always wondered what Subset sounded like.  I was curious as to where they fit in the rock-rap fusion trend that was going on back then.  Most of the stuff I know of was on the heavier side, especially the Anthrax/Public Enemy release and the Judgement Night soundtrack.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 4, 2022)

Vigil were an American new wave band that had a pretty solid debut album…musically at least.



Between those tracks and some others, they got enough buzz to land on the soundtrack to the 4th Nightmare on Elm Street movie, _Dream Master.  _That track (below) was supposed to be on their second album, but they were unceremoniously dropped by their label, and that album never got released.  AFAIK, none of the musicians did anything else of note in the biz.


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## Lord Mhoram (Jul 4, 2022)

As much as I love it, this song isn't perfect, but I wish the band had more success.


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## Lord Mhoram (Jul 4, 2022)

These guys had the unfortunate timing to start to get noticed right before grunge. Bit of trivia - one of the singers is the person who sang the Buck Rodgers theme song from the TV show.


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## Lord Mhoram (Jul 4, 2022)

Canadian hip hop artist that dips into other genres. I wish he had been huge.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 4, 2022)

Chilliwack did pretty well in MTV’s battle of the bands contest.  Got signed.  Never did get much popularity outside of their native Canada.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 4, 2022)

Zebra.  Thought these guys were going to be huge.  But it wasn’t to be.  They had a few solid albums, but never got a lot of traction after their first single:


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 4, 2022)

David + David had a debut album many of the people I was hanging with should have been in contention for album of the year.  It wasn’t.  The two studio musicians then parted ways for the most part.  They reunited to do some good stuff for Sheryl Crow.


Baerwald tried his hand at doing his own stuff again, with a damn good solo album.


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## Ryujin (Jul 4, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Chilliwack did pretty well in MTV’s battle of the bands contest.  Got signed.  Never did get much popularity outside of their native Canada.



Due to the CanCon (Canadian Content) rules in Canadian broadcasting, however, they did remarkably well up here.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 4, 2022)

Jane Child…

Her first single was in heavy rotation when I got BRUTALLY shot down asking for a date.  How heavy?  I went running errands with my roomie an hour later and it came on the radio.  I changed the channel.  It came on a few seconds later.  I changed to a third channel.  It came on; I turned off the radio.  My roomie said,  “The universe hates you.”


This was off the second album.  Again, got significant play, but no commercial success.  More than a decade later, she released a third album.  Nothing.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 4, 2022)

Wendy & Lisa, aka Girl Brothers- what a duo!


They were protégés of Prince, and appear in several of his early videos.  They had a couple of moderately successful albums, but never really had a breakthrough.  However, like a lot of talented musicians, they have been in demand for soundtrack/scoring for TV and film.

Side note: music is in Wendy’s blood: dad Mike Melvoin was a pianist and member of studio musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, brother Jonathan Melvoin was a touring keyboardist with the Smashing Pumpkins, and her twin sister is singer and composer Susannah Melvoin.


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## payn (Jul 4, 2022)

Chameleon? Prog rock band with Yanni?


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## Lanefan (Jul 4, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Chilliwack did pretty well in MTV’s battle of the bands contest.  Got signed.  Never did get much popularity outside of their native Canada.



Meanwhile here in Canada they've been overplayed on the radio for the last 4 or 5 decades...


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 5, 2022)

payn said:


> Chameleon? Prog rock band with Yanni?



I remember that MTV video.  As I recall, Basement Tapes was what broke Chilliwack and/or Zebra in the USA.  The story reminds me a little bit of how Vangelis got his big break.

He started of in Aphrodite’s Child, a prog band started with members of his family.  Their song “The Four Horsemen” from the double album _666: The Number of the Beast is _a staple for “deep cut“ classic rock stations, and you can clearly hear traces of his unmistakeable style.


Note: Portions of this song were “sampled“ without credit by The Verve on the same album that gave us “Bittersweet Symphony”.


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## Ryujin (Jul 5, 2022)

The previous comments about Chilliwack made me wonder if Americans also missed out on Strange Advance; a group from Vancouver, British Columbia. This was their biggest song up here but they also did a song called "Nor Crystal Tears" that is based on one of my favourite SciFi books, by Alan Dean Foster.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 5, 2022)

New to me!

After looking at the video, I did a little research:

1) they’re baaaaaack!


			https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6430337
		


2) the keyboardist looked familiar.  I don’t see him having any major breakthroughs to give me that impression, EXCEPT he worked on SEVERAL Aerosmith albums (so he might have been in the background of some videos),  He also worked for Yes as a keyboard tech, so it’s unlikely he’s on film playing with them.


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## Ryujin (Jul 5, 2022)

"We Run" was the other big single from their first album and got a lot of mainstream airplay in Canada.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 5, 2022)

Ryujin said:


> "We Run" was the other big single from their first album and got a lot of mainstream airplay in Canada.



Yeah, they’d have fit into a playlist on some of the stations I liked back in the mid 1980s.  I wonder why they didn’t get more airplay down here.


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## Ryujin (Jul 5, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> New to me!
> 
> After looking at the video, I did a little research:
> 
> ...



A few bits of trivia: I saw them, on two successive nights, when they played in Toronto shortly after the first album was released ('85?). They were virtually studio perfect, while playing on the rotating stage at The Forum, at Ontario Place (the area that stood in for the deserted buildings in ST:SNW episode "Ghosts of Illyria"). There was a reason for this. The group wasn't prepared for their overnight success and the tour was organized in days. They had to put together a backup band for the tour and hired on a bunch of well known session musicians, resulting in an almost studio sounding performance.

A while back I saw that they had toured recently, or at least played some venues out west.


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## Rabulias (Jul 5, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Chilliwack did pretty well in MTV’s battle of the bands contest.  Got signed.  Never did get much popularity outside of their native Canada.





Dannyalcatraz said:


> Zebra.  Thought these guys were going to be huge.  But it wasn’t to be.  They had a few solid albums, but never got a lot of traction after their first single:



Back in the early 1980s after I saw them on MTV, I looked around for both of their albums but could not find them here in Virginia. I had to have them special ordered. I picked up some other Zebra albums later.


Dannyalcatraz said:


> They were protégés of Prince, and appear in several of his early videos.  They had a couple of moderately successful albums, but never really had a breakthrough.  However, like a lot of talented musicians, they have been in demand for soundtrack/scoring for TV and film.



They did more than appear in videos, they were in The Revolution with Prince for a time and contributed to _Purple Rain_, IIRC. As for soundtrack work, I have their beautiful soundtrack to the _Heroes_ TV show.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 5, 2022)

Rabulias said:


> They did more than appear in videos, they were in The Revolution with Prince for a time and contributed to _Purple Rain_, IIRC. As for soundtrack work, I have their beautiful soundtrack to the _Heroes_ TV show.



Sorry I was unclear- I was just trying to point out where people could get a visual reference for them!  I think their repeated and almost FEATURED slew of appearances in his vids is a sign of how important they were to The Revolution, and thus, Prince’s sound at the time.

Because there’s no question Prince valued them highly- possibly more so than several others who were in his orbit.  They worked for him for several albums, and he used his pull to help them navigate the biz.


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## Zardnaar (Jul 7, 2022)

Megadeth rereleased Etc Tu Le Monde from 1994's Youthanasia on 2008 United Abominations. 


  Duet with Lacuna Coils Christina Scabbia. 

 If that sing doesn't count eg to big I don't think the titular track chartered.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 7, 2022)

Ehhh…metal bands in general tend not to do all that well in terms of charting.  The exceptions are usually the absolute pupinnacles of their genres.  Megadeth is one of the Big Four Thrash metal bands, but Metallica is the only one that regularly charts.

Motörhead had decades of music and is one of the most respected bands in metal.  They had 9 songs chart, with no #1s.  The best they did was #22 for 2013’s “Aftershock”.  Of the songs you might find on a “Best of” collection, only “Orgasmatron“ charted, at #157 in 1986.  “Ace of Spades”?  “Killed By Death”?  Never charted.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 11, 2022)

Talk Talk’s third album was such a departure from their first album’s sound that I always wondered what the catalyst for the change was.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 28, 2022)

A couple more:

Blancmange had moderate success in their native UK, then broke internationally with this MTV staple:


But despite continued production- 4 albums as the original band, a 25 year gap, then reformation for another 9 albums- they never got much love in the USA after the first couple of albums.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 28, 2022)

There was a time when the hard rock world was avidly seeking a band to recapture some of the rock pomp Led Zeppelin had so caref cultivated for so many years.*  One of the contenders was a band called Fastway, formed by former Motörhead guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clark, UFO bassist Pete Way , Humble Pie drummer Jeff Shirley, and the then-unknown Dave King.  They got off to a great start:


Their fourth album was essentially the soundtrack to the horror movie _Trick or Treat:_



 But the band couldn’t keep it together.  Turmoil led to lineup changes and eventually, a loss of momentum and a dissolution.

* a time that- if we’re honest- continues to this day.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 28, 2022)

When Aldo Nova released “Fantasy“, most rockers thought he would be HUGE. 


However, after repeatedly butting heads with studio execs, he asked to be released from his contract.  The label refused.

So he turned to writing jingles…as well as parts of hit songs for Bon Jovi (“Blaze of Glory”), Celine Dione (“A New Day Has Come”), and Clay Aiken (“This Is The Night”).  He was also part of the “guitar orchestra” on Blue Öyster Cult’s _Imaginos_ album.  Ad while he continues to release albums, most people don’t know much about them.


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## Ryujin (Jul 29, 2022)

On the silly side, I'm betting that no one else can name a single other song by B.E.R.


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## Mallus (Jul 29, 2022)

Have some Bettie Serveert. “Dust Bunnies” is one of the 90s best albums.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

How about Keith Murray?


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

Not inventive, song is contemporaneous with Wu Tang’s Enter the 36 Chambers, the New York beat of the time, but son is fantastic


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

It’d be nice if more songs in the thread were good.  I mean no one ever thought that Alta Nova or Fastway were good.  They were manifestly awful bands only weirdos wold ever like.  Don’t push garbage.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 30, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> It’d be nice if more songs in the thread were good.  I mean no one ever thought that Alta Nova or Fastway were good.  They were manifestly awful bands only weirdos wold ever like.  Don’t push garbage.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


>



not trying to be dick, but come on, you’ve been posting real mediocre naughty word that isn’t an ignored hit single, it’s just garbage you like but no one else does For good reasons.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

People can put whatever they want here, sorry.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

How about a song that should have been on the soundtrack?


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 30, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> not trying to be dick,




Succeeding, though.


Smackpixi said:


> but come on, you’ve been posting real mediocre naughty word that isn’t an ignored hit single, it’s just garbage you like but no one else does For good reasons.



I don’t know you or where you were when those bands were out, but they were definitely NOT considered mediocre by rock fans of the day.

Hard rock and metal releases tend not to do well on the charts.  As I pointed out earlier in this thread, Motörhead- one of the most revered bands in heavy music- only had 9 songs chart in the Billboard top 200, of which only 4 cracked the top 100.  Two of those made it into the top 50, and none of which cleared the top 20.  The highest hit 22.

“Aftershock” is their highest charter at 22nd…and “Ace of Spades“ isn’t any one of those other songs.

For sake of comparison, Aldo Nova’s “Fantasy” hit 23rd on the Billboard 200.

Fastway’s debut album hit 31 on the Billboard albums chart, with one one song from it hitting 14th and another hitting 35th.  Their 4th album- the soundtrack for _Trick or Treat_- hit 35 on the Billboard 200 album chart.


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## Mallus (Jul 30, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> It’d be nice if more songs in the thread were good.  I mean no one ever thought that Alta Nova or Fastway were good.  They were manifestly awful bands only weirdos wold ever like.  Don’t push garbage.



Weirdos, eh? Here’s Laurie Anderson feat. William S. Burroughs.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

Mallus said:


> Weirdos, eh? Here’s Laurie Anderson feat. William S. Burroughs.



well Burroughs is weird, sure.  Not understanding the point.



Dannyalcatraz said:


> I don’t know you or where you were when those bands were out, but they were definitely NOT considered mediocre by rock fans of the day




Those are lousy songs by any standard.  Maybe there good within the genre, but theyz’re boring outside of it.  Do, you, with your deep metal knowledge, really think those are the best representatives of the possible pop aspects of that scene?  I surely hope not because they sound like awesome local metal bands I have to pretend have a chance to be big, but they don’t, cause they’re boring, but I’m friends with them so I have to pretend.

My hope with this thread was that we’d get pop sounding songs from people’s deep cataloge of genre stuff.  Not what happened.  Like, I’m deep into this scene everyone craps on, but here’s a song that will change your mind.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 30, 2022)

i do appreciate your efforts though.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 31, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> Those are lousy songs by any standard. Maybe there good within the genre, but theyz’re boring outside of it. Do, you, with your deep metal knowledge, really think those are the best representatives of the possible pop aspects of that scene? I surely hope not because they sound like awesome local metal bands I have to pretend have a chance to be big, but they don’t, cause they’re boring, but I’m friends with them so I have to pretend.



Once you’ve gotten past competency with instruments & composition, music appreciation and taste is pretty subjective.  For example, I like rap, but I found your selection (Keith Murray) to be a 2nd rate version of Bustah Rhymes (whom he did perform with).  In the context of his contemporaries, he wasn’t all that special.  But I basically kept my opinion of him to myself (until now).

So, in the context of this thread, your post basically has this kind of energy:






Those songs & bands were pretty well received at the time.   Individual members of Fastway had great careers BEFORE that band, and several did afterwards as well.

When you compare them to local bands you’re hearing now, you’re discounting the fact that they did it 40 years ago.  And that’s missing a big factor in the music profession.  Being among the first to do something matters.  Innovation matters.

Because as time goes on, much of what was once innovation that only a few could even dream of doing becomes the new benchmark for mere competence.  There’s preteen  guitarists out there who can play substantial chunks of EVH’s catalog as well as he could.  The bass techniques Jaco Pastorius and Bootsy Collins pioneered in the 1980s can be heard in HS battles of the bands.

A friend of mine is a jazz pianist.  He’s got a few albums to his name.  As the joke goes, he’s “big in Japan”.  I watched him play the Jazz standard “Take Five”- a song famously popular in spite of being written in 5/4 time- in 3/4, 4/4, 6/4 and 7/4 _on the fly as the signature changes were called out_.  He teaches piano and plays for a church choir.


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## Smackpixi (Jul 31, 2022)

What if you just knew some pop indie metal songs you could post?


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 31, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> What if you just knew some pop indie metal songs you could post?



Are you asking me to post some?  What do you consider pop/indie metal?

Or are you asking permission?  Because you don’t need any.


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## Jahydin (Jul 31, 2022)

I don't think I've seen anyone take the fun out of a thread so fast before... extra points for it being their own.


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## Eyes of Nine (Aug 1, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Jane Child…
> 
> Her first single was in heavy rotation when I got BRUTALLY shot down asking for a date.  How heavy?  I went running errands with my roomie an hour later and it came on the radio.  I changed the channel.  It came on a few seconds later.  I changed to a third channel.  It came on; I turned off the radio.  My roomie said,  “The universe hates you.”
> 
> ...



I just couldn't get over fearing that the chain between her nose piercing and her ear would get caught on something and tear her face in half... But I did like that one song


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## payn (Aug 1, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> I just couldn't get over fearing that the chain between her nose piercing and her ear would get caught on something and tear her face in half... But I did like that one song



I think several comedy skit shows of the time even demonstrated it.


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## Eyes of Nine (Aug 1, 2022)

Throwing mine in

Disposable Heroes of HipHopracy _Television_. Michael Franti went on to sing uplifting reggae adjacent songs with Spearhead. But his hiphop joint with Rono Tse was amazing and still for me sets the bar for socially conscious hiphop.


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## Mallus (Aug 1, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Throwing mine in
> 
> Disposable Heroes of HipHopracy _Television_.



... the drug of the nation. 

Good one!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Aug 1, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Throwing mine in
> 
> Disposable Heroes of HipHopracy _Television_. Michael Franti went on to sing uplifting reggae adjacent songs with Spearhead. But his hiphop joint with Rono Tse was amazing and still for me sets the bar for socially conscious hiphop.



Excellent one!

No knocks on Franti’s other projects, but I always wondered why DHoH broke up.


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## Eyes of Nine (Aug 1, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Excellent one!
> No knocks on Franti’s other projects, but I always wondered why DHoH broke up.



same


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## Richards (Aug 2, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Disposable Heroes of HipHopracy _Television_.





Dannyalcatraz said:


> No knocks on Franti’s other projects, but I always wondered why DHoH broke up.



...because they were disposable?

Johnathan


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 2, 2022)

King’s X blew the doors off MTV when they released this one:

Their albums always generated a lot of praise for their musicianship- especially from their peers- but it never translated into financial success.  In a recent interview, Doug Pinnick laid it out pretty starkly:









						Doug Pinnick Says It's 'Never Been Profitable' to Be In King's X, Reveals How Much Money Band Owes to Labels
					

'Everybody that's ever signed us has always lost money.'




					www.ultimate-guitar.com
				




40 (!) years as a band, and they just released a new album and announced a new tour.  (Said tour had to be cancelled because of Ty Tabor’s falling ill.)


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 3, 2022)

Son of Bazerk had 2 albums- one in 1991, and another in 2010.  Here’s the two off the debut they made official vids for:




The first album was well reviewed, but didn’t sell well.  They reformed 20 years later because of a relatively large online fan demand.  That album received decent reviews…and didn’t sell well.

You might notice similarities to Public Enemy (among others).  That’s not an accident- they traveled in the same circles, they had the same influences.  SoB’s founder introduced Chuck D and Flavor Flav.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 3, 2022)

Ultramagnetic MCs had a fresh sound, but couldn’t stay together professionally.  They had some killer tracks, but are known more for launching the careers of Kool Keith and Rahzel, each of whom is more of important as cult like influences than for epic success.

KK is one of the weirdest rappers…_ever._  Histrippy, often nonsensical lyrics & subject matter, delivery, and alternative identifies (Black Elvis, Dr. Octagon) are often cited by other performers.  He’s sometimes credited with being the father of horrorcore rap (and other exotic genres).

Rahzel is simply one of the most talented beatboxers out there.  His vocal skills are akin to Michael Winslow’s.


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## the Jester (Sep 3, 2022)

Smackpixi said:


> It’d be nice if more songs in the thread were good.  I mean no one ever thought that Alta Nova or Fastway were good.  They were manifestly awful bands only weirdos wold ever like.  Don’t push garbage.



It's nice that you are the arbiter of good music and can tell other people what's good and what isn't.  

Oh wait, no you can't, you simply don't share their taste and are being kind of a jerk about it. And, even after being called out several times, you're continuing, and adding a healthy dose of condescension as well. Come on. Just stop.


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## the Jester (Sep 3, 2022)

On topic, Ayreon is amazing, little known (at least in the US), and has a good sized catalog of excellent rock opera type work that draws in a huge collection of singers from across the prog rock and prog metal world. Here's what I consider to be the iconic example of their work, including commentary from the guy behind the project.


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## Ryujin (Sep 3, 2022)

_Aldo_ Nova had a certain following, in these parts. Probably because of the Canadian connection.


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## jdrakeh (Sep 3, 2022)

Aldo Nova's Fantasy definitely saw some heavy rotation at the roller rink/disco when I was a kid.


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## Aeson (Sep 3, 2022)

jdrakeh said:


> Trust, the French band, should have been popular internationally, but they never really caught on outside of France to my knowledge. Notably, in America, they're almost unknown except for their song Antisocial, which didn't gain a lot of traction until American heavy metal band Anthrax covered it in English. But the original version of Antisocial and several of their other songs are _AMAZING_.



At first glance I read the band name as Thrust. Now, THAT'S a rock band name.


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## Mad_Jack (Sep 4, 2022)

the Jester said:


> On topic, Ayreon is amazing, little known (at least in the US), and has a good sized catalog of excellent rock opera type work that draws in a huge collection of singers from across the prog rock and prog metal world. Here's what I consider to be the iconic example of their work, including commentary from the guy behind the project.




 I discovered Ayreon through being a Nightwish fan, and from there looked into the work of several of the other singers.
I think Floor Jansen busting out into the mainstream consciousness on YouTube has gone quite a ways towards shining a more public light on a lot of the other folks in similar genres of music.


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## the Jester (Sep 4, 2022)

Ryujin said:


> _Aldo_ Nova had a certain following, in these parts. Probably because of the Canadian connection.



I had his first two albums on vinyl back in the day, and have one of his later ones in digital form (the one with Are You Inexperienced on it), and I think the dude rocks.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 4, 2022)

Echo & The Bunnymen are another band that can’t quite keep it together.  ”The Cutter“ hit #10 in the UK singles charts, and its album hit #2 in the UK album chart.
[
The next album gave us this, another #10 UK charter:

And then?  The lead singer went solo, the original drummer died, the band reformed and continues to this day.  But they’re not getting much attention beyond their original fanbase.
MEDIA=youtube]Y2ItNtCMgqc[/MEDIA]

The next album gave us this:

And then?  A coup more well received albums and the lead singer went solo, then the original drummer died.  Eventually, the band reformed and continues to this day.  But they’re not getting much attention beyond their original fanbase.


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 4, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Echo & The Bunnymen are another band that can’t quite keep it together.  ”The Cutter“ hit #10 in the UK singles charts, and its album hit #2 in the UK album chart.
> [
> The next album gave us this, another #10 UK charter:
> 
> ...



Funny to see Echo in this list, because I thought they were pretty big. However reviewing their wikipedia page, I guess indeed, while I loved _Ocean Rain_ and _Porcupine_; the rest of their catalog I am mostly unfamiliar with. At some point I must have gotten a hold of a greatest hits album because I really appreciate songs like "Lips like Sugar", "Heaven up Here", and "Rescue". Anyway,  to Echo & the Bunnhymen...

And today I learned they are on tour. I wonder if they were in LA within the past few days (yup, 2 dates August 26-27)?!? Too bad I missed em.


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## MGibster (Sep 4, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Urban Dance Squad’s first single…



Congratulations.  This is the first one in the thread that I can recall having heard when it first came out and I'm sure they're considered a one hit wonder here in the United States.  Although how are we defining hit single?  Deeper Shade of Soul peaked at #21 and anything in the top 40 is usually considered a hit.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 5, 2022)

_I’m_ not really defining hit single.  Some of the ones I’ve listed were big hits globally, others simply didn’t make it in the USA.

I‘m thinking more in terms of buzz.  Expectations.  Cult status.  Cultural significance.

I mean, some really influential and important music gets made that never even charts.  Some of a song’s chart position is based on pure popularity.  But some of that is about “business decisions” and broadcast regulations. 

For example, NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” was released in 1988…and didn’t chart until _2015_, at #38.  That’s their biggest hit as a group.  It’s not a big hit based on its chart history, but that song is *significant.*


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## MGibster (Sep 5, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I‘m thinking more in terms of buzz. Expectations. Cult status. Cultural significance.



Okay, that's fair.  Released in 1970, The Buoys "Timothy" is a song about about a group of miners caught in a cave in who are rescued after an unspecified amount of time has gone by.  All except for poor Timothy whose fate is never explicitely explained, but it's implied that he's been eaten by the other miners.  Despite being banned from many American radio stations, it peaked at #17 in the top 40.  I'm including it here because it caused sensation at the time, but I had neve heard of the song until 2015 or 2016.  Fun Fact:  Written by Rupert Holmes who wrote the song "Escape" which is better known as the Pina Colada song.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 5, 2022)

MGibster said:


> Okay, that's fair.  Released in 1970, The Buoys "Timothy" is a song about about a group of miners caught in a cave in who are rescued after an unspecified amount of time has gone by.  All except for poor Timothy whose fate is never explicitely explained, but it's implied that he's been eaten by the other miners.  Despite being banned from many American radio stations, it peaked at #17 in the top 40.  I'm including it here because it caused sensation at the time, but I had neve heard of the song until 2015 or 2016.  Fun Fact:  Written by Rupert Holmes who wrote the song "Escape" which is better known as the Pina Colada song.



Never heard that one! 

An interesting footnote I found while looking for its lyrics: the song was released as a 45 with an illustration of a mule (then still used in some mines) and “Timothy” written in such a way implying that was the mule’s name.  So the record label and/or the band muddied the waters as to the lyrics actual meaning.

That said, I don’t know that the narrator would have had a blackout if they had just killed and eaten their mule…


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## Mad_Jack (Sep 5, 2022)

I remember hearing about "Timothy" about ten or fifteen years ago...


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## MGibster (Sep 5, 2022)

Here's another oddball song.  "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (that's the band name) is a psychedelic rock song sung from the perspective of the God of Hellfire who is destroying everything his victims had built up over their lifetimes.  This song was released in 1968, and I'm including it because it was fairly influencial on the nascent heavy metal genre which was forming at the same time.  

The reason I call this an oddball song is because I have never heard it on the radio.  At least not in whole - and I'll explain in a minute.  The song just doesn't fit into any good category for American radio.  It's not heavy metal or hard rock, it doesn't fit into the classic rock genre, it's not used for the soundtrack to movies set in the 60s, and there just doesn't seem to be any place for it.  The only time I've heard it on the radio was a local station which played the opening to the song where Arthur Brown says, "I am the god of hellfire!" which they played during the traffic report any time there was a vehicular fire.


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## Mad_Jack (Sep 5, 2022)

I think "Fire" falls into the exceptionally fuzzy and ill-defined genre of "proto-metal"... Though I can't think of a particular example at the moment, a number of songs and bands from that time period sort of straddle the line between multiple categories of music as people were getting much more experimental... I've heard a fair number of songs that were classified as prog rock, surf rock, acid rock, and a dozen other things where you can clearly hear the roots of heavy metal forming.


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 5, 2022)

MGibster said:


> Okay, that's fair.  Released in 1970, The Buoys "Timothy" is a song about about a group of miners caught in a cave in who are rescued after an unspecified amount of time has gone by.  All except for poor Timothy whose fate is never explicitely explained, but it's implied that he's been eaten by the other miners.  Despite being banned from many American radio stations, it peaked at #17 in the top 40.  I'm including it here because it caused sensation at the time, but I had neve heard of the song until 2015 or 2016.  Fun Fact:  Written by Rupert Holmes who wrote the song "Escape" which is better known as the Pina Colada song.



TIL that Escape was the last #1 hit song of the 70's, closing out as #1 at the end of December 1979...


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 5, 2022)

MGibster said:


> Here's another oddball song.  "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (that's the band name) is a psychedelic rock song sung from the perspective of the God of Hellfire who is destroying everything his victims had built up over their lifetimes.  This song was released in 1968, and I'm including it because it was fairly influencial on the nascent heavy metal genre which was forming at the same time.
> 
> The reason I call this an oddball song is because I have never heard it on the radio.  At least not in whole - and I'll explain in a minute.  The song just doesn't fit into any good category for American radio.  It's not heavy metal or hard rock, it doesn't fit into the classic rock genre, it's not used for the soundtrack to movies set in the 60s, and there just doesn't seem to be any place for it.  The only time I've heard it on the radio was a local station which played the opening to the song where Arthur Brown says, "I am the god of hellfire!" which they played during the traffic report any time there was a vehicular fire.



Love this song. I have heard it only on the radio; but very rarely. I first heard it on the radio before the internet and had no idea who it was. When the internet finally came around, and all the lyrics were getting recorded, I FINALLY learned about the Crazy World of Arthur Brown...


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## Art Waring (Sep 6, 2022)

That time Jello Biafra, Al Jourgenson, and Paul Barker decided to collab in 1988.


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## aco175 (Sep 6, 2022)

Nobody said Afroman.  Back in 2000 he cracked this out and got some play from the Howard Stern Show and the internet, but I do not recall and play on radio.


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## MGibster (Sep 6, 2022)

aco175 said:


> Nobody said Afroman. Back in 2000 he cracked this out and got some play from the Howard Stern Show and the internet, but I do not recall and play on radio.



It's done fairly well for a novelty song and on rare occasion it still pops up in odd places today.


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## Ryujin (Sep 6, 2022)

aco175 said:


> Nobody said Afroman.  Back in 2000 he cracked this out and got some play from the Howard Stern Show and the internet, but I do not recall and play on radio.



It got some radio play here.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 6, 2022)

Ryujin said:


> It got some radio play here.



But then it got high.


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## Art Waring (Sep 6, 2022)

Migos out of GA made this track a few years back, remixed by PUAR.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 6, 2022)

Nicky da B fell ill and died at the age of 24, after releasing only one album.  Nonetheless, he was considered one of the bigger names in Bounce (a rap subgenre) and was a major figure in popularizing twerking.  He partnered on songs with other artists like Diplo, and part of one of his tunes was featured in a nationally aired commercial for Cheetos. 

Most of his vids would probably come close to violating site rules, soooo…here’s the 2013 Cheetos commercial that sampled Diplo & Nicky’s “Express Yourself”


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 7, 2022)

Art Waring said:


> That time Jello Biafra, Al Jourgenson, and Paul Barker decided to collab in 1988.



Peak Lard (to date. Jourgensen and Biafra keep threatening a new album about once a decade...)


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## MGibster (Sep 7, 2022)

The Art of Noise was an obscure British band....okay, I don't know how well known they were in the U.K., but here in the U.S. I think I'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has heard of them.  Yeah, despite winning a Grammy for their cover of the theme to Peter Gunn in 1986.  They were pioneers in eletronic music particularly when it came to sampling.


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## Rabulias (Sep 7, 2022)

MGibster said:


> The Art of Noise was an obscure British band...



They got a lot of play with "Paranoimia" on MTV in the late 1980s.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 7, 2022)

I’m a huge fan of AoN!  There must be…DOZENS of us!


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 7, 2022)

MGibster said:


> The Art of Noise was an obscure British band....okay, I don't know how well known they were in the U.K., but here in the U.S. I think I'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has heard of them.  Yeah, despite winning a Grammy for their cover of the theme to Peter Gunn in 1986.  They were pioneers in eletronic music particularly when it came to sampling.



Yeah, I am only familiar with Peter Gunn - but dang it's a good rendition of it...


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 7, 2022)

This was the AoN tune that got my attention, and still continues to get a lot of airplay in my mental radio station to this day.  As I recall, this is also the video that got them attention, hitting #8.


Bonus: live version from 2004


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 7, 2022)

The late 1980s and 1990s were great for Industrial Rock/Metal.  Ministry, NIN, Prong, Front 242, Killing Joke and others were reshaping music.  And there were side projects like the aforementioned Lard, Pigface, 1000 Homo DJs, and so many more.

Some got a taste of mainstream attention, but it didn’t translate into big sales, like KMFDM:


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 7, 2022)

That same era spawned an unlikely industrial _disco_ band called My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult.  This wasn’t just some watered down version of the genre- they had been among the genre’s founding groups, but had taken a bizarre turn.  Lidyia Lunch was a member.  They worked with members of their label mates KMFDM & Ministry.  Here’s the 2 main versions of their best-known song.


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## jdrakeh (Sep 7, 2022)

Ryujin said:


> It got some radio play here.




In SoCal, too. It was everywhere for awhile.


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## Bagpuss (Sep 7, 2022)

Zardnaar said:


> I now have that catch song they did stuck in my head. Cheers.



And you didn't even get to see the backing band in the video!


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## Art Waring (Sep 7, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Peak Lard (to date. Jourgensen and Biafra keep threatening a new album about once a decade...)



Yeah the last time they said something about that was back in 2020, in the meantime Uncle Al has other side projects, like SMM... industrial cabaret lounge, so completely different than anything else he has done, and it went completely under the radar.


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## Art Waring (Sep 7, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> That same era spawned an unlikely industrial _disco_ band called My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult.  This wasn’t just some watered down version of the genre- they had been among the genre’s founding groups, but had taken a bizarre turn.  Lidyia Lunch was a member.  They worked with members of their label mates KMFDM & Ministry.  Here’s the 2 main versions of their best-known song.



Yeah TKK is divine. My favorite albums have to be Confessions of the Knife, and I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits. They are still active and making new albums too from time to time.

I got to see KMFDM live a few times, but not TKK. I also used to live near the Wax Trax record shops in CO, when they had multiple stores, one on each corner, with different genres in each shop. I would spend whole days there looking through music that I never would have discovered at that time, before music got onto the internet.


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## MGibster (Sep 7, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> This was the AoN tune that got my attention, and still continues to get a lot of airplay in my mental radio station to this day.  As I recall, this is also the video that got them attention, hitting #8.



It was on Beavis & Butthead!


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## Zardnaar (Sep 7, 2022)

Art Waring said:


> Yeah TKK is divine. My favorite albums have to be Confessions of the Knife, and I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits. They are still active and making new albums too from time to time.
> 
> I got to see KMFDM live a few times, but not TKK. I also used to live near the Wax Trax record shops in CO, when they had multiple stores, one on each corner, with different genres in each shop. I would spend whole days there looking through music that I never would have discovered at that time, before music got onto the internet.




 KMFDMs gateway song. 


 I own Angst but couldn't find their other CDs over here.


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## Art Waring (Sep 7, 2022)

Zardnaar said:


> KMFDMs gateway song.



Yeah they had a couple of tracks in films, I remember Virus was in Johnny Mnemonic.

Juke Joint is a great track, Symbols would have to be my favorite album.


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 8, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> That same era spawned an unlikely industrial _disco_ band called My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult.  This wasn’t just some watered down version of the genre- they had been among the genre’s founding groups, but had taken a bizarre turn.  Lidyia Lunch was a member.  They worked with members of their label mates KMFDM & Ministry.  Here’s the 2 main versions of their best-known song.



The album I owned was 13 above the Night. Listened to it quite a bit; although I don't actually remember any of the tracks to pick a specific video - so here's the whole album.


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 8, 2022)

Here's a 0 hit wonder, the Gun Club. The whole album shreds, but I think one of these was their "hit". 

She's like Heroin to me

Sex Beat


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 8, 2022)

Last one for the night - Sisters of Mercy. I owned Floodland, and this was their biggest hit in the UK. A great example of terrible TERRIBLE lip-syncing.


I worked at a night club in the early 90's, and every Sunday night was all-ages Alternative/Goth night. Made terrible tips, but the music was good. This one was in heavy rotation...


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## Lanefan (Sep 8, 2022)

MGibster said:


> Here's another oddball song.  "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (that's the band name) is a psychedelic rock song sung from the perspective of the God of Hellfire who is destroying everything his victims had built up over their lifetimes.  This song was released in 1968, and I'm including it because it was fairly influencial on the nascent heavy metal genre which was forming at the same time.
> 
> The reason I call this an oddball song is because I have never heard it on the radio.  At least not in whole - and I'll explain in a minute.  The song just doesn't fit into any good category for American radio.  It's not heavy metal or hard rock, it doesn't fit into the classic rock genre, it's not used for the soundtrack to movies set in the 60s, and there just doesn't seem to be any place for it.  The only time I've heard it on the radio was a local station which played the opening to the song where Arthur Brown says, "I am the god of hellfire!" which they played during the traffic report any time there was a vehicular fire.



A rather incendiary-loving blast mage in my game uses this as her theme song.

It got some play on the radio in these parts back in the day.


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## Zardnaar (Sep 8, 2022)

Eyes of Nine said:


> Last one for the night - Sisters of Mercy. I owned Floodland, and this was their biggest hit in the UK. A great example of terrible TERRIBLE lip-syncing.
> 
> 
> I worked at a night club in the early 90's, and every Sunday night was all-ages Alternative/Goth night. Made terrible tips, but the music was good. This one was in heavy rotation...




 I bought one of their albums 96 or 99 iirc. Kicked Patricia out but she was a fan flavour. Oops.


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## Zardnaar (Sep 8, 2022)

Lanefan said:


> A rather incendiary-loving blast mage in my game uses this as her theme song.
> 
> It got some play on the radio in these parts back in the day.






 Fire by Scooter. Made it into the Mortal Kombat 2 soundtrack.


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## Radaceus (Sep 8, 2022)

was gonna mention Art of Noise, but then i read the last page...
I saw Zebra and Fastway live as opening acts, both were awesome! and they were both part of any rockers repertoire in the 'cassette' tray back in the day.
I'll throw in The The for the montage here:


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## Radaceus (Sep 8, 2022)

also, one guy who never saw the recognition he deserved is Rodriguez, who's story was told in the movie about him  'Searching for Sugar Man'


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## Radaceus (Sep 8, 2022)

ok, something heavier, but these guys were great live also ( again dating myself ;p )


I dont think they ever got much radio play other than the above song


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## Lanefan (Sep 8, 2022)

Radaceus said:


> ok, something heavier, but these guys were great live also ( again dating myself ;p )
> 
> 
> I dont think they ever got much radio play other than the above song



Long Stick Goes Boom got some play around here.  Midnight Maniac also, but not as much.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 8, 2022)

Radaceus said:


> ok, something heavier, but these guys were great live also ( again dating myself ;p )
> 
> 
> I dont think they ever got much radio play other than the above song



Marc Storace had a great voice!

The songs I heard most on the radio were “Screaming in the Night”, “Eat the Rich” and their cover of “Ballroom Blitz”.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 8, 2022)

Soul Coughing brought us a fusion of alternative and jazz sensibilities. Great musicianship, but egos- and America’s ambivalence towards jazz kinda doomed them.  Still, they generated a bunch of buzz before they flamed out.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 8, 2022)

Morphine gave us a lot of killer music before Mark Sandman’s passing.  But not everyone remembers Treat Her Right, the band he had shortly before Morphine broke.  They had a pretty solid hit with this song:


But they didn’t move tons of records, and they didn’t pull big crowds.  Soon after their debut album, they were at SXSW, shopping for a new label.  They broke up before that happened.  But, as mentioned, we got Morphine.


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## Art Waring (Sep 8, 2022)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Soul Coughing brought us a fusion of alternative and jazz sensibilities. Great musicianship, but egos- and America’s ambivalence towards jazz kinda doomed them. Still, they generated a bunch of buzz before they flamed out.



They are really solid actually, thank you for sharing them! I instantly thought of another band when I heard this for some reason from the alt-jazz style, but probably a bit stranger and not to everyone's taste.


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## Art Waring (Sep 8, 2022)

Ok but back to the subject, probably the two bands that were truly exceptional, and were probably too unapproachable for most people at the time, or even today, but have wrought works of amazing beauty. Depending on your tastes of course...

-*Pigface*: Can't emphasize just how unique this collaboration was, but with the passing of Mark Atkins [Drummer/ Vocalist] the lead member, the core project ended before its time.


I hope you are sitting down...



-*The Sleepytime Gorilla Museum of Natural History*: Hard metal eminently combined with violins and a classical approach towards something never quite seen before or after.


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## MGibster (Sep 8, 2022)

The Skatt Bros. were a band that formed in Los Angeles in the late 1970s but didn't have a lot of mainstream success in the United States.  "Walk the Night" appeared on their first album in 1979 and proved to be an underground hit in gay bars.  Like many people, I never heard of it until it appeared on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008.  It's a pretty good song, and I'm a bit surprised it wasn't more of a mainstream hit.  


The Skatt Bros. had another hit that was a bit more campy and gained a lot of popularity in Australia.  "Life at the Outpost" ought to be right up there with the Village People's "YMCA," but it never got anywhere here in the United States.  The folks in the video are not members of the band, they were models hired to lip sync.  Check out that Star Trek pinball machine though.  It's all real, baby.


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## Art Waring (Sep 9, 2022)

Fields of the Nephilim: Often referred to as the Pink Floyd of the goth scene. Ethereal guitars with Sumerian imagery.


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## Ryujin (Oct 15, 2022)

These guys never really took off but I remember hearing this song A LOT. The lyrics aren't exactly deep, but at least it's seasonally appropriate


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## Ryujin (Oct 15, 2022)

I really doubt that the group Toronto got any airplay outside of Canada. It's a pity, because their sound was the epitome of late '70s rock.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Oct 15, 2022)

Ryujin said:


> These guys never really took off but I remember hearing this song A LOT. The lyrics aren't exactly deep, but at least it's seasonally appropriate



They’re still around and kinda on the cusp of breaking big.  They had 3-4 solid albums and had a lot of award nominations, with a few wins. Then took a several year hiatus- I don’t recall why.  They just released a new album this September.


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## Lanefan (Oct 19, 2022)

Ryujin said:


> I really doubt that the group Toronto got any airplay outside of Canada. It's a pity, because their sound was the epitome of late '70s rock.



Ditto Streetheart, who did a few really excellent songs.


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