Great artists you somehow missed

[Goredho 17412]

What are some great artists/bands you’ve “discovered” long after you should have?  I’ll start with a couple I’ve learned about in the last couple years that I wish I had known about earlier.

Wishbone Ash

Gentle Giant

 

[Al_4_ISU 12470]

I was well into my 20's before I really got into The Replacements, which is kind of bizarre as the Twin Cities are the only place remotely close to where I'm from that regularly spawned great artists, and I went through a big punk phase in high school and have always liked Stonesy rock.  With the Mats basically being a Stones/punk love child, and my dyed-in-the-wool Midwesterness, I feel like I really missed out for close to a decade.

[mooseoutfront 3643]

 

[jimmyjazz 45992]

Alice In Chains was one I ignored until a buddy loaned me a couple of CDs maybe 15 years ago.  I really dialed into the vocal harmonies -- very unique.  When they were all over MTV in the grunge era I somehow just wrote them off as Pearl Jam Lite, which isn't even close to what they sound like.

[Al_4_ISU 12470]

10 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Alice In Chains was one I ignored until a buddy loaned me a couple of CDs maybe 15 years ago.  I really dialed into the vocal harmonies -- very unique.  When they were all over MTV in the grunge era I somehow just wrote them off as Pearl Jam Lite, which isn't even close to what they sound like.

When grunge was actually happening (I was in elementary school), the only one of the popular grunge bands I liked was Nirvana, who I was obsessed with for a couple of years.

When I was in college I got back into grunge and found I liked AIC, Soundgarden, and (especially) Pearl Jam more than Nirvana.

[BrickHorn 18249]

55 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Alice In Chains was one I ignored until a buddy loaned me a couple of CDs maybe 15 years ago.  I really dialed into the vocal harmonies -- very unique.  When they were all over MTV in the grunge era I somehow just wrote them off as Pearl Jam Lite, which isn't even close to what they sound like.

I was into “Man in the Box” when it first hit MTV, before the grunge craze. I liked their popular releases from Dirt, but didn’t really hop on board until Jar of Flies was released. When I first heard “Whale and Wasp” I was like HOLY SHIT. Been a huge fan ever since. 

Edited January 31, 2022 by BrickHorn

[noharleyyet 2838]

Some I've not appreciated enough...Dylan's writing, Clapton's singing..etc. Some mentioned upstream I simply didn't 'get'....still don't. 

[Goredho 17412]

45 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

When grunge was actually happening (I was in elementary school), the only one of the popular grunge bands I liked was Nirvana, who I was obsessed with for a couple of years.

When I was in college I got back into grunge and found I liked AIC, Soundgarden, and (especially) Pearl Jam more than Nirvana.

I was kind of the same way.  I missed the initial wave of grunge just because I really wasn't consuming music much at the time.  Dug into it a few years later and was like, wow, this is good.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

Genesis. The pop music that got played in the late 80's isn't representative of the band. 

Duke and Abacab still stand up and their stuff with Peter Gabriel is strong.

[Goredho 17412]

1 minute ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Genesis. The pop music that got played in the late 80's isn't representative of the band. 

Duke and Abacab still stand up and their stuff with Peter Gabriel is strong.

Absolutely this, exact same for me.  When I first heard Genesis, I heard "Invisible Touch" and dismissed them completely.  Only later after getting into prog did I go back and listen to their earlier stuff with Peter Gabriel and it blew me away.

[tbone_ 14132]

When grunge was actually happening (I was in elementary school), the only one of the popular grunge bands I liked was Nirvana, who I was obsessed with for a couple of years.
When I was in college I got back into grunge and found I liked AIC, Soundgarden, and (especially) Pearl Jam more than Nirvana.

I was in graduate school and was a solid metal head (I knows that’s shocking). I never really cared for Nirvana at the time, still don’t love them, and Soundgarden was take it or leave it. Loved Pearl Jam and AIC though. Call them what you want but to me PJ was just a great rock band and AIC was a straight up metal band. Yes please.

[jimmyjazz 45992]

6 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Genesis. The pop music that got played in the late 80's isn't representative of the band. 

Duke and Abacab still stand up and their stuff with Peter Gabriel is strong.

Yep, and in particular Abacab, which is a stronger recording.

[South Austin 52521]

7 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Genesis. The pop music that got played in the late 80's isn't representative of the band. 

Duke and Abacab still stand up and their stuff with Peter Gabriel is strong.

I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent.

[Guest Lobo]

Funny y'all should mentioned them/they...but listening to a lot of Genesis/Phil Collins lately (and the myriad incarnations thereof).  Like anybody our age, I liked the videos as a kid.  But never gave him a play on my radio show, never bought an album, I don't even think I ever owned a one-off download track.  But last few months, been listening to the hell out of 'em.  Always knew it was brilliant musicianship...but the songwriting itself holds up much better than I imagined it would, 30+ years later.  

And while always a casual fan, ever since he passed in 2020...been listening to the hell outta John Prine.  For 30 years of serious music listening, I heard his fingerprints on so much great music of other artists...but just never gave he, himself...much of a chance.  I regret that now, but making up for lost time has been great for my mood during Covid.  Range isn't the term for Prine, he's a continent sized mesa unto himself.  

[Hornius Emeritus 12474]

I didn't really miss him, but I never gave Boz Skaggs his proper due.  This song, recorded with Duane Allman and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, is one of the greatest recordings of the last 122 years:
 

 

[veritas aequitas 443]

Huey Lewis and the news. Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

[Rimbo 25993]

Didn't discover Iron Maiden until about ten years ago.

[Rimbo 25993]

Truth is, I could fill several pages with the metal bands it took me years to find out about. Growing up in Amarillo during the 1970s/1980s sucked.

Didn't really get into Van Halen until after 1984 came out.

Didn't get into Metallica until the Black Album.

Didn't get into Alice in Chains until the Black Gives Way to Blue tour.

Devin Townsend? Was around the Epicloud time. Still haven't really gotten into the Strapping Young Lad era. But hey, at least I got Vai when it came out, hahaha.

Megadeth... just started digging through their discography a few years back.

Last year, I discovered Joey Belladonna Anthrax.

How about Missing Persons? I just started getting into them two months ago.

[Rimbo 25993]

13 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Alice In Chains was one I ignored until a buddy loaned me a couple of CDs maybe 15 years ago.  I really dialed into the vocal harmonies -- very unique.  When they were all over MTV in the grunge era I somehow just wrote them off as Pearl Jam Lite, which isn't even close to what they sound like.

Every song they have either works brilliantly or fails spectacularly. Very little middle ground. But always unique.

[Delta Charlie 150]

I didn't get into Warren Zevon until about 2 years after he died. I am a big REM fan, and I had the Hindu Love Gods CD and played the hell out of it back in the early 90s. But I had it because it was Buck/Mills/Berry.  I really didn't think much about who was singing at the time.  Fast forward to mid 2000s and a coworker played "The Wind" and I freakin' loved it.  It was right then I realized Warren had died a few years before that.  Man, I was crushed because I knew I would never see him live.  Since then, not a day or two goes by that I don't play or hum a Zevon song.  "Keep me in your Heart" will be played at my funeral.  It's a god damn travesty Warren isn't in the RRHOF.  I hope someday he gets in.  Til then Enjoy Every Sandwich.

[ztejas 43503]

14 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Alice In Chains was one I ignored until a buddy loaned me a couple of CDs maybe 15 years ago.  I really dialed into the vocal harmonies -- very unique.  When they were all over MTV in the grunge era I somehow just wrote them off as Pearl Jam Lite, which isn't even close to what they sound like.

 

13 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

When grunge was actually happening (I was in elementary school), the only one of the popular grunge bands I liked was Nirvana, who I was obsessed with for a couple of years.

When I was in college I got back into grunge and found I liked AIC, Soundgarden, and (especially) Pearl Jam more than Nirvana.

 

54 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Every song they have either works brilliantly or fails spectacularly. Very little middle ground. But always unique.

I think AIC is one of the most talented bands ever and while I'm not sure if their body of work outdoes Nirvana or Pearl Jam I think they were certainly more impressive than either at their peak - especially in a strictly technical, musical sense. Dudes could fucking play.

I'm also curious which entries of their's you think fail spectacularly @Rimbo. I think they have plenty of forgettable and skippable tracks but I also don't think they put out virtually any bad music. But maybe we're communicating a similar sentiment through different language.

Edited February 1, 2022 by ztejas

[ztejas 43503]

I mean I really hesitate to say it because it seems absolute sacrilege but fuck it - I kind of think they are up there with bands like Led Zeppelin in terms of musical ability and chemistry (not at all saying they were as good or put out music as good, btw). Their shit is so, so fucking tight and individually impressive. I personally believe they were that good. Opinions are of course like assholes. 

I posted this track on some thread here awhile back because it was blowing my mind at the time - and I commented along similar lines that it's like it's one hivemind playing every instrument. 

Like seriously - go get 4 buddies and find someone's garage and try and play this chorus.

Edited February 1, 2022 by ztejas

[Rimbo 25993]

5 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I'm also curious which entries of their's you think fail spectacularly @Rimbo. I think they have plenty of forgettable and skippable tracks but I also don't think they put out virtually any bad music. But maybe we're communicating a similar sentiment through different language.

Same sentiment, different language, I think.

[Bookman 4639]

18 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Alice In Chains was one I ignored until a buddy loaned me a couple of CDs maybe 15 years ago.  I really dialed into the vocal harmonies -- very unique.  When they were all over MTV in the grunge era I somehow just wrote them off as Pearl Jam Lite, which isn't even close to what they sound like.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I graduated high school in 1994, and liked a few of their songs but didn't really get into Alice in Chains until Ryan Adams covered "Down in a Hole" in 2007.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

8 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

I didn't really miss him, but I never gave Boz Skaggs his proper due. 

Solid guitar player. You don't play with Steve Miller, Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, etc unless you have some chops.

Saw him in the 80's and was one of the most fun concerts I've been too. Great showman.

[tbone_ 14132]

[Rimbo 25993]

38 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Solid guitar player. You don't play with Steve Miller, Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, etc unless you have some chops.

Saw him in the 80's and was one of the most fun concerts I've been too. Great showman.

Back in the day I had this song recorded on a cassette. I was just testing out my setup for recording other radio songs by recording whatever was the next song on the radio. I ended up liking the song enough that I kept it... but for DECADES couldn't find out what it was, not until the internet and Google came along, not until both of those were populated well enough that I could type the lyrics in and find out...

 

[smuggs 9353]

I didn't pay much attention to The Misfits for far too long. Even when I was a casual fan of Danzig's solo stuff in high school. No explanation other than I had a lot of music on my radar as a teen and The Misfits flew under it I guess. 

 

 

 

[Al_4_ISU 12470]

Sort of a random aside, but when I got into the Misfits and Ramones I immediately found it hilarious that punks at the time (late 90's early aughts) were dismissing bands like Green Day and Blink 182 for being too poppy.

You can't tell me that "Hybrid Moments" isn't a straight up pop song, and a brilliant one at that.

[smuggs 9353]

The Misfits certainly bring the melodies that capture a wide audience.

My wife used to teach a spin class that was attended mostly by granny blue hairs. One day Last Caress came on in my garage lair and she said "hey I have this song on my spin playlist as a final blast before cool-down". I asked if she had ever listened to the lyrics, which she hadn't. We then laughed at the idea of old ladies sweatin' to the infanticide.

[Scooter Monzingo 821]

I’m a little shocked that there are people who got through the 90’s and didn’t know of Layne Staley?

Besides AIC, his Mad Season effort with McGready and Martin was solid. 

[Butch Had Not 2982]

I love AIC and really really dig their post Staley stuff with Will Duvall and more focus on lead vocals by Jerry. It's different but good shit.  Probably hard for big fans of Layne to embrace but a few listens will hook you.  

Or so I hope....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[zlavydra 2123]

I missed most of the Finnish death metal bands the first time around. Depravity, Abhorrence, Funebre. Mega-popular bands like that.

 

[jimmyjazz 45992]

3 hours ago, Scooter Monzingo said:

I’m a little shocked that there are people who got through the 90’s and didn’t know of Layne Staley?

Well, since I brought up AIC, I'll defend myself -- I "knew of" him.  I knew the band well.  i just ignored them, they didn't resonate, for whatever reason.  You know, kind of the point of the thread.

[WhatTheBuck 28791]

On 1/31/2022 at 11:23 PM, Hornius Emeritus said:

I didn't really miss him, but I never gave Boz Skaggs his proper due.  This song, recorded with Duane Allman and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, is one of the greatest recordings of the last 122 years:
 

 

Boz had a long and interesting career. Born in Canton, OH, grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, moved to the west coast. Here he is sitting in with fellow Bay Area artists the Grateful Dead in 1982:

 

[WhatTheBuck 28791]

I’ll add Oingo Boingo. I basically only knew their hit Dead Man’s Party and I knew they did the theme for Weird Science but never really paid any attention to it. I didn’t really get interested in the band until right around the time they broke up. I knew that Danny Elfman wrote the Simpsons theme song and was getting into composing film scores. But it wasn’t until a friend played the song Change from Boingo, their last studio album, that I decided to check out more of their catalog, starting with that album which is excellent. I now own a number of their albums and wish I had gotten into them sooner. It must have been awesome to see them playing in L.A. clubs in their early days. And they totally pass the acid test.

 

[Scooter Monzingo 821]

12 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, since I brought up AIC, I'll defend myself -- I "knew of" him.  I knew the band well.  i just ignored them, they didn't resonate, for whatever reason.  You know, kind of the point of the thread.

I could take or leave them, Nephew thinks he was pretty special. 
 

More importantly…Wasn’t there a claymation celebrity death match back then that had Staley and Eddie Vedder fight to the death. 

[Bogeywon 2519]

John Mayer 

Jack Johnson

royal blood

got to them a few years before they blew up

[TexPx 2323]

The Kinks. I liked every song I heard of theirs but for some reason never really got into them. Did a deep dive into their catalog a couple of years ago. Holy shit! They did some brilliant stuff.

[qwertyu1234 496]

On 2/2/2022 at 12:08 PM, TexPx said:

The Kinks. I liked every song I heard of theirs but for some reason never really got into them. Did a deep dive into their catalog a couple of years ago. Holy shit! They did some brilliant stuff.

This is a great song to dance half naked at the Bing to:

 

[Carl Spackler 3487]

I dismissed both AC/DC and the Ramones when I first heard them.  Took me a long time before I woke up and started appreciating them for what they are. 

    

[tbone_ 14132]

The first note of back in black changed me forever.

[jimmyjazz 45992]

45 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

The first note of back in black changed me forever.

Yeah, when I bought my first Marshall -- frankly, a semi-shitty JCM900 50W head -- it was the very first chords I played through it at the music store that sold me, and that was "Back In Black".  I might have played an A major first, but it took about 1.5 seconds before I was on E - D - A, because that's what those amps are made for.  Even my then-wife said "you need to buy this", so I did.  Welcome to jimmyjazz' world, Marshall half stack.

My co-writing and band partner has a JCM 800 and it kicks all kinds of huge ass as a Marshall.  I'm always bugging him to play through it.  It's just a giant, sonic rock boner.

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13585]

Hated Devo when I first heard them 40 years ago. I love them more with each passing year.

[WhatTheBuck 28791]

5 hours ago, tbone_ said:

The first note of back in black changed me forever.

What would defensive 3rd downs be without Hells Bells?

[WhatTheBuck 28791]

13 minutes ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Hated Devo when I first heard them 40 years ago. I love them more with each passing year.

They have a lot of great songs. Here’s one I really like but no one ever talks about. It’s not edgy or challenging at all. It’s beautiful in its simplicity which, of course, goes for the rest of their music. And it’s about love, which most of their music is not. But it’s also about heartbreak so it still fits with their less-than-rosy perspective on things.

It’s pretty. I’m not sure why it wasn’t a hit single but maybe that’s why. It’s about a girl making a Sisyphean effort but the guy not realizing it until she’s gone. It’s a tragedy.

 

[Hornius Emeritus 12474]

Jesse Dayton is from Beaumont and has been out there forever and played with all kinds of famous musicians and on their records and I just found out about him this week. Songs like I'm at Home Getting Hammered, She's out Getting Nailed and Daddy was a Badass  are classics.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Hornius Emeritus

[Carl Spackler 3487]

20 hours ago, tbone_ said:

The first note of back in black changed me forever.

Interestingly, this showed up this morning in my FB feed.  Not Back in Black, but still . . .

 

[Carl Spackler 3487]

13 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Jesse Dayton is from Beaumont and has been out there forever and played with all kinds of famous musicians and on their records and I just found out about him this week. Songs like I'm at Home Getting Hammered, She's out Getting Nailed and Daddy was a Badass  are classics.

 

 

 

 

 

He's playing a string of country shows later this month with the Supersuckers, a band I've been into for a long time.    

[Hornius Emeritus 12474]

1 hour ago, Carl Spackler said:

 

He's playing a string of country shows later this month with the Supersuckers, a band I've been into for a long time.