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Great bands no-one talks about (Not a List Thread)

Started by gilbertharding, February 20, 2019, 12:02:06 PM

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gilbertharding

I'm quite old now, but back when I wasn't, I used to love bands like:

Jacob's Mouse
God Machine
Hair and Skin Trading Company
Homage Freaks
5:30

Jacob's Mouse were fairly local, so I saw them play dozens of times - I might have been at their first gig, in a Huntingdon pub, in an audience of 6 - so it was great to see them progress to the dizzy heights of... um... supporting Babes in Toyland and then giving up a little bit later. But I still treasure the thrill of seeing them play (and hated reading  luke warm press about them).

The other bands in the list there are ones I had similar passion for, and find it baffling that no-one else seemed to feel the same about.

Can anyone else remember liking these specific bands? Does anyone want to share their feelings for bands they really liked but are baffled that no-one else liked?

Brundle-Fly

5:30 were typical early nineties mid-fi funky indie, weren't they? Like a less Krautrock, more Mod version of New Fast Automatic Daffodils

Actually, the "NewFADS" were a band I liked that no-one talks about much now. Although, I did hear Fishes Eyes on 6Music a couple of weeks ago. This album sleeve is still a big fave.


Norton Canes

I was just listening to God Machine's Home the other day. Imperious stuff.

jobotic

I saw Jacob's Mouse at the Joiners in Southampton, with my friend who had the hots for one of them (she's vaguely from the same area). I'm afraid i don't remember much about them but they weren't bad.

I went to an all nighter at the Scala before it shut down and reopened, with Stereolab headlining. We got stoned (which I never did)and I passed out only to be woken by an unholy noise being made by Hair and Skin Trading Company. They were great on that night although their records didn't do an awful lot for me.

gilbertharding

The hots for one of Jacob's Mouse... one of the identical twins on guitar/bass? Or the singing drummer?

How were they not HUGE?? Ah well.

H&STD did indeed make a powerful racket.

Any advance on New FADs?

Norton Canes



Sure they didn't reinvent themselves as The Wobbles..?

alan nagsworth

Matmos, mate. Why's no fucker endlessly banging on about Matmos? Bjork collaborators and insanely inventive and unique musicians. Challenging themselves with radical new recording techniques and concepts with every release. Making an album entirely out of manipulated sounds of surgical equipment (including a whole techno tune made out of liposuction noises). Doing something similar just a couple years back with a Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine designed to simulate a standard wash cycle.

And what's especially tremendous about them is everything they do, on paper, either sounds ludicrously pretentious or way too nerdy to be enjoyable by anyone other than, well, nerds. BUT IF YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE WRONG! Their music exudes such playful colour and accessibly joyous wonder. It's danceable, it's bright, it's pretty and it's a lot of fun.

I dunno how they manage it but my days, they're completely wonderful and they always have been. They're doing things no one else has, and they're doing it brilliantly.

bushwick

Very few people mention Earl Brutus nowadays, but everything they put out was great. Like a weird cross between Queen, The Fall and Kraftwerk with plenty of ennui and absurd desperation. Very funny lyrics and general worldview that really didn't fit the Blair era but would probably make more sense now.

Never hear anyone talking about Th'Faith Healers, either. Think I avoided them at the time as I feared they would be twee, but having got into them in recent months I can see I missed a trick there. A feral Krautrockish vibe with good melodies and closer in feel to a lot of the weird US bands I liked at the time.

NoSleep

Dif Juz

I saw the band in 1981 at a pub in Stockwell a week after the Brixton riots (I remember how quiet the streets were on for a Saturday night as I walked back from Stockwell to Brixton Railway Station afterwards). Blew my socks off and I eagerly bought the Huremics EP that was released shortly after. Always wondered why they didn't set the world on fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chp9otyHAfc

rasta-spouse

Brainiac

no one ever talks about Brainiac. they had one sick sound and were developing into electronic areas and then the lead singer died. they were great.

I think albini produced one of their albums.

Gregory Torso

Quote from: rasta-spouse on February 20, 2019, 07:27:17 PM
Brainiac

no one ever talks about Brainiac. they had one sick sound and were developing into electronic areas and then the lead singer died. they were great.

I think albini produced one of their albums.
Brainiac were one of the first bands to pop into my head. The EP they did with Jim O'Rourke just before Tim Taylor died was really great and heading into an interesting new direction. Ah well...
Enon (John Schmersal's post Brainiac band) never really did it for me.

McFlymo

Quote from: alan nagsworth on February 20, 2019, 06:17:19 PM
Matmos, mate. Why's no fucker endlessly banging on about Matmos? Bjork collaborators and insanely inventive and unique musicians. Challenging themselves with radical new recording techniques and concepts with every release. Making an album entirely out of manipulated sounds of surgical equipment (including a whole techno tune made out of liposuction noises). Doing something similar just a couple years back with a Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine designed to simulate a standard wash cycle.

And what's especially tremendous about them is everything they do, on paper, either sounds ludicrously pretentious or way too nerdy to be enjoyable by anyone other than, well, nerds. BUT IF YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE WRONG! Their music exudes such playful colour and accessibly joyous wonder. It's danceable, it's bright, it's pretty and it's a lot of fun.

I dunno how they manage it but my days, they're completely wonderful and they always have been. They're doing things no one else has, and they're doing it brilliantly.

I've only heard one album more than once, but I totally agree on their fun inventiveness with a range of unlikely sound sources, and your review of them has made strongly consider biting the bullet and hitting Dublin to see them in June!

Shaky

Quote from: rasta-spouse on February 20, 2019, 07:27:17 PM
Brainiac

no one ever talks about Brainiac. they had one sick sound and were developing into electronic areas and then the lead singer died. they were great.

I think albini produced one of their albums.

YES! They totally passed me by back in the day and I only got caught up a few months ago. Incredible band.

Leatherface. They released one of the great punk albums Mush in 1991 but even a decent level of success evaded them. They folded in 2012 with a back catalogue of superb world weary melodic punk loveliness.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: McFlymo on February 20, 2019, 08:09:40 PM
I've only heard one album more than once, but I totally agree on their fun inventiveness with a range of unlikely sound sources, and your review of them has made strongly consider biting the bullet and hitting Dublin to see them in June!

You should! I'm going to their London show. Their new album is a commentary on the nature of how we view plastics in the last couple of years, and of course it's entirely composed of plastic sounds. The two lead singles are great and I've heard they're impressive onstage so it was a no brainer for me.

buttgammon

Quote from: McFlymo on February 20, 2019, 08:09:40 PM
I've only heard one album more than once, but I totally agree on their fun inventiveness with a range of unlikely sound sources, and your review of them has made strongly consider biting the bullet and hitting Dublin to see them in June!

I'll be going to see them in Dublin so if you decide to come along, I'd be happy to meet up before or afterwards.

MiddleRabbit

I remember seeing 5:30 back in the day as we didn't call it then.  They seemed like they were being set up as a relatively big deal in the NME and Melody Maker (just) post The Stone Roses and pre-britpop when a couple of journalists tried a few times to bring 1979 back.  They took Aleister Crowley's front door on tour with them, that seemed to be the most memorable thing abou their interviews.

I had the first Abstain, the first single, saw them at, I think, the Hull Adelphi were I thought they were a bit like The Jam probably were.  Might have been, I was too young to have seen The Jam.  Quite exciting in a spiky sort of way. 

Didn't bother with Air Conditioned Nightmare, the next single, or the album 'Bed'.  Well, not until I found it about two years ago going cheap at a record fair.  Bought it, never listened to it.

At around the time they were going nowhere in particular The Stairs played the Adelphi regularly, but I suppose people talk about them a bit nowadays.  They were fucking ace, especially live.

The Moonflowers were another outtasite live band who seemed to play there every month.  I was never into anyone else from that crusty set but The Moonflowers live were something else.  Once they came onstage in an enormous sock thing, like a knitted worm.  This is about when Get Higher and Tighten Up were out.  Don't really know anything about them but they were always worth seeing.


jobotic

Quote from: MiddleRabbit on February 21, 2019, 11:45:17 AM

The Moonflowers were another outtasite live band who seemed to play there every month.  I was never into anyone else from that crusty set but The Moonflowers live were something else.  Once they came onstage in an enormous sock thing, like a knitted worm.  This is about when Get Higher and Tighten Up were out.  Don't really know anything about them but they were always worth seeing.

Yeah! Feel exactly the same. Only saw them once but had a fabulous time.

thraxx

Quote from: Gregory Torso on February 20, 2019, 08:04:43 PM
Brainiac were one of the first bands to pop into my head. The EP they did with Jim O'Rourke just before Tim Taylor died was really great and heading into an interesting new direction. Ah well...
Enon (John Schmersal's post Brainiac band) never really did it for me.

I got one of their LPs out of the Rough Trade bargain bin for a quid about 20 years ago, listened to it once, found it unlistenable and never played it again.  I shall listen to it a second time this weekend and see how i get on.

thraxx


And oh yeah; Strangelove.  The usual band I tout in these threads.

They could have had it all.  I know some of why it floundered and fell apart from them, but they were better musicians than their contemporaries, had a better looking and sounding frontman, and had tunes that were at least the equal of them too.  Their last, eponymous, 3rd album that was squeezed out to no publicity as the band fell apart is a unheralded almost-masterpiece in my opinion. 

NoSleep

I hope nobody's agreed with another poster on their choice, because that would count as talking about the band. Or does just posting the once suffice to negate their status? What've you started, gilbertharding?

studpuppet

King Of The Slums - saw THIS on SnubTV and immediately went out and bought Barbarous English Fayre, went and and saw them three or four times when they were in London (more than any other band I've seen). Seem to recall that some student even wrote a dissertation on Keigher's lyrics. Unfortunately they were peaking just at the moment when indie went baggy and they seemed to lose impetus not long after.

A lot of the lyrics are all the more prescient in these times...

Up The Empire/Balls To The Bulldog Breed

gilbertharding

Quote from: NoSleep on February 21, 2019, 12:08:09 PM
I hope nobody's agreed with another poster on their choice, because that would count as talking about the band. Or does just posting the once suffice to negate their status? What've you started, gilbertharding?

Oops. Please read the thread title as Great Bands No-one TalkED About. Bands You Think Are Great, But No-One Seems To Agree (Until Now?). Previously Forgotten Great Bands.

FINGS I LIKE. DO YOU LIKE EM TOO?

gilbertharding

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on February 21, 2019, 04:36:55 AM
Leatherface. They released one of the great punk albums Mush in 1991 but even a decent level of success evaded them. They folded in 2012 with a back catalogue of superb world weary melodic punk loveliness.

For some reason I never gave Leatherface any kind of chance - I think on aesthetic grounds.

gilbertharding

Quote from: MiddleRabbit on February 21, 2019, 11:45:17 AM
I had the first Abstain, the first single, saw them at, I think, the Hull Adelphi were I thought they were a bit like The Jam probably were.  Might have been, I was too young to have seen The Jam.  Quite exciting in a spiky sort of way. 

Didn't bother with Air Conditioned Nightmare, the next single, or the album 'Bed'.  Well, not until I found it about two years ago going cheap at a record fair.  Bought it, never listened to it.

At around the time they were going nowhere in particular The Stairs played the Adelphi regularly, but I suppose people talk about them a bit nowadays.  They were fucking ace, especially live.

Yes, exciting live. I saw them at the Sea Cadets Hall, Cambridge. Don't look for it, it's not there anymore.

The Air Conditioned Nightmare 12" was their high-water mark, I think - but all their 12"s were packed with good stuff. For some reason I never shelled for the LP, which I think came out just a little too late (and that might have been the reason...).

Stairs were great. Never saw them, but similarly collected all their records. I did get their LP, but on tape, sadly. Saw it on a list a few years ago of Great Lost Albums. Apparently completely unavailable now. Might check the ebays later.

PinkNoise

Me and my mate went to see The Stairs circa 1992 when they were supporting Top (remember them?) at Manchester University.

We rocked up, all set for some Who-lite R&B because we liked "Weed Bus" but were dismayed to discover that The Stairs had been taken off the bill and replaced by a bunch of drippy looking lads and a girl that announced, "Hello, we're The Cranberries. We're from South Ireland."

The pair of us flounced out in full view of the people on the stage (the room was three quarters empty) and asked for our money back. We never got to see The Stairs.

"Mexican R&B" was unfortunately saddled with the worst cover artwork of all time and the brilliantly-named Edgar Summertyme later worked with The La's didn't he?

Another vote for New FADS - "Get Better" is an absolute stormer, produced by Martn Hannett.


Egyptian Feast

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 21, 2019, 12:26:15 PM
Stairs were great. Never saw them, but similarly collected all their records. I did get their LP, but on tape, sadly. Saw it on a list a few years ago of Great Lost Albums. Apparently completely unavailable now. Might check the ebays later.

It's had a deluxe Cherry Red CD reissue recently. Perhaps a vinyl reissue will follow.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/the-stairs-mexican-rnb-deluxe-digipak-edition/

gilbertharding

The Stairs are a bit triggering for me though, since my girlfriend at the time (the good-at-art Dynamite Sack Artist of legend - who helpfully pointed out the misogyny in some Rolling Stones lyrics) didn't like them.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on February 21, 2019, 01:17:16 PM
It's had a deluxe Cherry Red CD reissue recently. Perhaps a vinyl reissue will follow.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/the-stairs-mexican-rnb-deluxe-digipak-edition/

Cor - cheers. CD's great though. It's not on Spotify, but lots of other interesting Stairs content is.

gilbertharding

Quote from: bushwick on February 20, 2019, 06:55:57 PM
Never hear anyone talking about Th'Faith Healers, either. Think I avoided them at the time as I feared they would be twee, but having got into them in recent months I can see I missed a trick there. A feral Krautrockish vibe with good melodies and closer in feel to a lot of the weird US bands I liked at the time.

Came late(ish) to th'Faith Healers - I mean, they were still going, and I saw them a few times. Part of the Camden Lurch scene (which no-one ever talks about now). Silverfish, and that mob. Good stuff, but superceded quite quickly, sadly. I guess it was too anti-commercial to make a big thing out of.