Topic: One album and out

[sardines]

Acts who you fell for immediately who never really kicked on commercially and appear to have disappeared without a trace.

I remember loving a Rocket Girl act called Byrne who supported Low, Belle and Sebastian amongst others but disappeared without a trace.

The Strange Death of Liberal England released an album of the kind of literate indie rock I would have killed for were I hearing it as a 16 year old. Then they disappeared.

Dark Dark Dark released two beautiful albums of downbeat cabaret folk (I struggle to define their sound but it is fuckimg gorgeous) and have the slightest Internet presence (mainly when a TV series picks up one of their songs).

Anybody else have bands like this which they look up every 5 years just in case something has happened?

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Life Without Buildings

[Head Gardener]

Byrne were a lovely band, I have fond memories of several bands from the same era who came and went in a blink, like Arco, Novak, and Bitmap

[icehaven]

Ultrasound (although I think they had more than one album).
Edit: Yes they did, but many years after their first one and they never released any singles from them.

[purlieu]

My Vitriol. One great album of poppy-but-heavy shoegaze around the turn of the century, and then nothing other than a self-released CDr of some badly mixed demos 15 years later. Still enormously fond of Finelines.

[Jockice]

Ultrasound (although I think they had more than one album).
Edit: Yes they did, but many years after their first one and they never released any singles from them.

Their more recent stuff is great. Very underrated band.

[Norton Canes]

Had to jog my memory a bit by Googling, but I reckon Young Marble Giants win this by a neck from Late Of The Pier, with maybe The Postal Service or The Good, The Bad And The Queen in third

[JaDanketies]

Nazgûl - De Expugnatione Elfmuth

Tolkein-themed symphonic black metal telling the story of a bunch of Orcs fucking things up for a bunch of Elves. 2002. Apparently they're working on album number 2, 18 years later.

[imitationleather]

The Good, The Bad And The Queen

They've done two albums!

[Norton Canes]

The Postal Service it is, then.

[icehaven]

The Good, The Bad And The Queen

I just presumed it was side project for them all and never intended to be a long term thing.

[El Unicornio, mang]

That Uncertain Feeling. Saw them supporting The Charlatans at Newcastle Uni in 1994 and went to HMV the next week to get their album "500/600", their first and only

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

It's just basic guitar indie really but with a slightly ethereal edge, a bit left field of the stuff that was popular t the time, and stands up a lot better than some of the more famous Britpop stuff that I've revisited since.

[another Mr. Lizard]

The Beat Up
One pretty good album, that I'm aware of, about fifteen years ago. Produced by Kevin Shields.

The Amazing Snakeheads
One fine LP, a handful of excellent singles, dead.

[Artie Fufkin]

My Vitriol.

There was a time in early Noughties these lot supported, seemingly, everyone I went to see live. At The Drive-In comes to mind. They were VERY busy.

[sardines]

Life Without Buildings

Yeah I saw Sue Tompkins do her spoken word thing a few years ago and it was crying out for the band.

Ultrasound (although I think they had more than one album).

Great shout. Especially as their debut was a double lp epic.

My Vitriol. One great album of poppy-but-heavy shoegaze around the turn of the century, and then nothing other than a self-released CDr of some badly mixed demos 15 years later. Still enormously fond of Finelines.

My Vitriol managed to pass me by though I remember them being all over the music press and on every festival bill for a six month period. It must be fucking depressing to be one of the 'next best things' which don't even make it to a shit second album before the world loses interest.

[Johnboy]

90s band called Straw

One album - Shoplifting

Absolutely brilliant.  Anyone here familiar with them?

[jamiefairlie]

That Uncertain Feeling. Saw them supporting The Charlatans at Newcastle Uni in 1994 and went to HMV the next week to get their album "500/600", their first and only

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

It's just basic guitar indie really but with a slightly ethereal edge, a bit left field of the stuff that was popular t the time, and stands up a lot better than some of the more famous Britpop stuff that I've revisited since.

Yes, I had the singles too, all excellent stuff.

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Whipping Boy - and specifically their album Heartworm - were a pretty big deal in Ireland in the mid-90s. Saw them supporting Lou Reed in '96 and they were excellent. They really seemed destined for very big things and then they just sort of vanished.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/whipping-boy-the-once-future-kings-of-irish-rock-n-roll-remember-heartworm-1.2418295
Sounds like a bit of a sad tale really... a combination of bad luck, bad decisions and record-label fuckwittery.

[Johnny Textface]

Gay Dad?

[PaulTMA]

The Amazing Snakeheads
One fine LP, a handful of excellent singles, dead.

Ill-advised choice of words there, the singer did die a couple of years ago.

[Bazooka]

Gay Dad?

That's a hell of an accusation!

[jobotic]

I bought two singles by Caruso in 2003 that I think are ace. One in Pickled Egg Records. According to discogs it's a fella called Matt De Bellis who seemed to do nothing else at all.

Am I the only one who owns these?

Sorry, that's two singles and out. Not even one album.

[NoSleep]

The United States Of America only made one eponymous album but it's one hell of an album.

The American Metaphysical Circus
The Garden Of Earthly Delights

[kalowski]

The Vessels - one great alt.country album and then a follow up single and then they seemed to disappear

[easytarget]

White Whale - WWI https://whitewhale.bandcamp.com/
One record. Belter.
No one cares.

[Jockice]

My Vitriol. One great album of poppy-but-heavy shoegaze around the turn of the century, and then nothing other than a self-released CDr of some badly mixed demos 15 years later. Still enormously fond of Finelines.

They were on Top Of The Pops weren't they? And one of them had 'one hit wonder' on his guitar? That's all I can really remember about them.

I'm with whoever suggested Young Marble Giants. That was a classic. In fact I think I'll play it now. Also my favourite ever Sheffield band, I'm So Hollow, put out one album after which Virgin Records were apparently interested in signing them. But they just thought 'nah' and split up. One of them is quoted in a book by a former colleague of mine as saying something along the lines of: "It's ridiculous when bands are obsessed with 'making it.' There's other things." I've always admired that sort of can't really be arsed attitude.

[Jockice]

They were on Top Of The Pops weren't they? And one of them had 'one hit wonder' on his guitar? That's all I can really remember about them.

Should have checked. They were on twice and it was the singer's t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan on their debut appearance. Of course if they'd been true to themselves they'd have refused to go on again. Like the Manics not splitting up after Generation Terrorists. I've never quite forgiven them for that.

[jamiefairlie]

Whipping Boy - and specifically their album Heartworm - were a pretty big deal in Ireland in the mid-90s. Saw them supporting Lou Reed in '96 and they were excellent. They really seemed destined for very big things and then they just sort of vanished.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/whipping-boy-the-once-future-kings-of-irish-rock-n-roll-remember-heartworm-1.2418295
Sounds like a bit of a sad tale really... a combination of bad luck, bad decisions and record-label fuckwittery.

Yeah great album, saw them live around that time - very loud!

they actually had two other albums, one before and one after, neither as good.

[jamiefairlie]

The Yachts would have been a perfect fit for this, virtually every track on their debut is fantastic, but they messed it up by releasing a crap follow-up before splitting up.

[sardines]

I bought two singles by Caruso in 2003 that I think are ace. One in Pickled Egg Records. According to discogs it's a fella called Matt De Bellis who seemed to do nothing else at all.

Am I the only one who owns these?

Sorry, that's two singles and out. Not even one album.

I used to pick up quite a few of the Pickled Egg releases but this one passed me by. Great label.

They put out a lovely album by a band called George, 'The Magic Lantern', but it doesn't count for this as a few years later there was a slightly disappointing follow up.