Bands that never got the success they deserved.
 

How about those bands that, on paper, should've been far bigger than they were: ticking all the boxes for a level of success in their own field but which never quite got it, for whaterer reason.

My nominations?

Big Star: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BNKSs1J38EA
People laugh, stupidly, at the Monkees; thinking of them as just an attempt by the US music industry to cash in on the Beatles, but then ignore Big Star. The fools! It took bands like Teenage Fanclub to generate some recognition, but evem then, people just ignored them. Personally, I think September Gurls is the greatest three minutes in pop history. But then I think most of you know that by now.

The Go-Betweens: http://youtube.com/watch?v=VpRFuADsdxc
How crap like Crowded House achieved the success they did while fellow Australians the Go-Betweens never had a single hit, is pop music's own version of the crop-circle mystery.

Urge Overkill:http://youtube.com/watch?v=jS-WUsfdOgI
Yeah, they got some attention for their, frankly crap, contribution to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. But the Urge's brand of Power Pop should've set radio-land aflame with their summer-friendly anthems. But wierdly not.

The Iveys: http://youtube.com/watch?v=dnF5t82tJvg
They'd signed to Apple, Macca gave them double thumbs of approval, they released 'Maybe Tomorrow' - a sure-fire swinging London smash, you'd think! But no. Treble odd.

And just to prove September Gurls wasn't just some brilliant flash in the pan:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cn1t6l7UUPc











EDIT: This thread was brought to you by the Official Demonrail Big Star Boosting Federation:

The first three got exactly the amount of recognition they deserved in my opinion.

Mediocre all three. Never heard of The Iveys.

Disco Inferno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQbMuiuE5es

An incredible band, although completely unnoticed.

Cylob
µ-ziq
Built to Spill deserved to be Pavement-big. But sadly were not.

Oh, these are always fun, these threads. Mike Paradinas is hardly wanting for money now, is he?

Urusei Yatsura and Datblygu are the first bands that spring to mind for me.

Ha Ha, in my mind, you sort of like Mike Paradinas. I dunno what it is. And I still love you!;)

The Verlaines should've had more success, in New Zealand at least. Their first single, Death & the Maiden, was released, and it sold out. Their record company, Flying Nun, couldn't afford to press enough quickly to meet popular demand. When they could afford to press more, months had passed, and they could only press about 300 at a time, so the song never made the charts.

Would definitely agree that The Verlaines deserved better.

good shout!

Paradinas is a legend.

The Chills - Another New Zealand band, again from the Flying Nun label. Early in their career, they brought their first single (Rolling Moon) to a Dunedin radio station, hoping they would promote it. The radio station wouldn't play it, saying "it's not what we like to play", or something like that. When they did make it in NZ (without any real support), they went to the UK to get more exposure. They got support from John Peel, but journalists would refer to sheep jokes instead of their music when writing about them. So, they didn't really get any succes outside of NZ, but listening to their best of, I really think they deserved more.

Didn't The Chills have a song called 'Leather Jacket'? I'm sure it was them. That was a real cracker.

Yes they did, it was one of their best. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKWkK1tJxdw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9OuD6xagLE

http://www.netnik.com/jollybeggars/pylon.html

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-d....php?id=197858

mclusky
the feelies
poster children
the idiots
the redneck manifesto
coughs

Bailter Space. A truly incredible band, especially live, that never got anything like the recognition they deserved.

hum.

Jobriath

how about most bands? if you're good you deserve to be selling out worldwide and selling millions of albums, although as we all know it unfortunately does not work that way.

loop
brian jonestown massacre
bardo pond

they deserve/d at least a fucking television performance (or six).

the dead milkmen

this band has consistently been one of my favorites no matter what music im listening too. and yes, theyre pretty big, especially after that weird detroit tigers fiasco. but in my opinion, these guys were the best "college rock" band ever. short punked up songs, pop sensibilites, and funny as hell lyrics. people always say the pixies, i say the milkmen.

^haha definately, those guys are just amazing.

I think, at least in terms of 'Indie' pop, that the NZ/Flying Nun/'Dunedin sound' is the most over-looked today. Alongside already mentioned bands like The Chills, The Verlaines and Bailter Space we could also add The Clean, Headless Chickens, The Bats and the John Paul Sartre Experience. People constantly talk about the influence of The Fall on bands like Pavement, but these were, in many ways, just as crucial. And we can add to that, the criminally unsung Straitjacket Fits: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KM5dBt8k5v4

plagal grind are another really awesome band from that era of NZ music

Exactly, there's so much great music from that scene. And on a Flying Nun documentary, Stephen Malkmus talks about how he stole the vocal melody from a Verlaines songs to use in a Pavement song.

Hum got all the success they needed. They were a great band, but overexposure would have tore them apart even quicker. They had one semi-minor hit with "Stars" and that was enough.

jawbox and failure.

Absolutely

Haunted Henschel - does anyone here know of them?

Sure he's popular among us and indie circles in general, but J Mascis had the chops to make a full conversion a la REM or something. All the later Dinosaur Jr albums and Fog stuff sound like popular albums that were just overlooked by who they were designed for.

Well they kinda asked for it, didn't they?

hahahaha

but i guess this makes them even more special, it would be pretty shit if they're still up and running today.

I don't know if they are respected on this board or not, but beulah deserved much more attention. If bands like the shins can make it big, so can they.

colourbox

Tim Buckley

The Loveblobs.