Five favorite "obscure" bands (or CDs)?

[walter duque]

Gentle Giant
Curved Air
Cross Country
It's a Beatiful Day
B-52's
Seen them all live.

 

[jamie2112]

Jimmies Chicken Shack
Quicksand
Jen Van Meter
Shootyz Groove
Fishbone
Peeping Tom

 

[jostenmeat]

Fishbone

U. G. L. Y.

You ain't got no alibi.

 

[jamie2112]

Protest The Hero
Porcupine Tree
Snot
Milo Z
Helmet
Orange 9mm
Backdrop Bomb (Japanese)
Theivery Corp
Morphine
Maceo Parker

 

[tattoo_Dan]

OK, since the 5 favorite bands question tends to produce a lot of common answers (how could I not include the Beatles, for example), how about a variation? What are your five favorite "obscure" bands? (Or individual CDs/LPs?). You know, the ones you think are the greatest thing you've heard in a long while, but no one else has heard of.

Of course, there are degrees of "obscureness", so you can still answer with bands or CDs that some people have heard of - as long as they were never popular!

My list (at least what occurs to me today) is:

1. The old Rockpile boys (Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe) - maybe they're not really that obscure, but they were definitely never that popular.
2. Rancid (esp. the "Out Come the Wolves" CD)
3. Fountains of Wayne ("Welcome Interstate Managers")
4. David Johansen (pre-Buster Poindexter days, especially his first solo album with "Funky But Chic" on it - also get to count the New York Dolls album)
5. The English Beat (their greatest hits CD is a good collection, with "Save It For Later", "Door to My Heart", and a nice double-time ska cover of "Tears of a Clown")

1) Chickenfoot
2) Pure Prairie League
3)Southern Culture on the Skids
4)Rosebud Blue
5)Little Walter

 

[MinusTheBear]

These might be "obscure" to some people.

Mogwai
Botch
Guided by Voices
Sparta
Candiria

 

[lsiberian]

Tremolo(has my favorite singer in it.)

Klank(heavy metal largely uknown)

Gear Knight(Thai group that's really good)

Dime Store Prophets(same Tremolo guy)

Value Pac(my favorite punk band besides MXPX)

Some may not be obscure technically like Gear Knight(one of the most popular bands in Thailand)

 

[flippo]

Kerry Livgren/AD

Kerry Livgren/AD - Time Line
- Art of the State
- Reconstructions

 

[swspiers]

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Orange Goblin

Sleepytime Gorrilla Museum

Aphrodites Child

Eleven

That's it for now...

 

[Masher]

1.) The Weavers
2.) Leadbelly
3.) Badfinger
4.) Supergrass
5.) Mr. Bungle

 

[skizzerflake]

Only one tonight - Don Chambers and Goat. I had never heard of them until they opened for the Drive by Truckers back in January, but I bought their CD at the show. Zebulon is a find. Think of Edgar Allen Poe with a rock band or a creepy cemetery in Charleston. Chambers is southern gothic at its best.

 

[thejknight]

Ill go for Hooverphonic & Polly Scattergood as 2 for the moment.

 

[Deniii]

Tom waits
Fela Kuti
Beirut
The Clash
Talking Heads
The Stranglers

 

[pthoresen]

Was Not Was (already mentioned but worth it again)
The Tubes (not terribly obscure but certainly not mainstream)
Lucifer's Friend
Riuichi Sakimoto (Sounds exactly like David Bowie)
The Smiths

Lucifer's Friend - now that is obscure!
I have not thought of them in years.
I had a couple of their records, and probably still do.
They were obscure even in the 70s. . . . .

I thought of them as kind of a long lost cousin to Uriah Heep.
Nice addition to the lists!

 

[pthoresen]

Bow Wow - (Metal band from Japan, not the band Bow Wow Wow)
Fates Warning
Chaeaux
Sky Cries Mary
Tygers of Pang Tang
Cirith Ungol
Truth & Janey

 

[Daniel Caswell]

Any body remember Be Bop Delux Live in the air age. It's from the late 70's but very much ahead of its time.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Wow, I haven't heard even band name of something like 85% of mentioned bands... I guess "obscure" they are truly.
Lets through melodic death and power folk viking metal into the mix:

DevilDriver
Trivium
Dark Tranquillity
Children of Bodom
Avatar *
Arch Enemy
Sonic Syndicate
The Duskfall
Falconer

* Has nothing to do with the movie