NAME THOSE OLD NOW OBSCURE BANDS

Wow, this is a pretty cool thread. Skippy, I'm from Massachusetts (out west, past the vast, undiscovered wastelands...Bostonians don't realize the state goes past rte 495!),and have seen some of the Boston bands you mentioned. We all know that Aimee Mann has gone on to have a pretty stellar career after 'til tuesday (an Oscar nomination for best song, even). Can't exactly say the same thing for the guitar player in that band. Robert Holmes lives near here and has a 70's funk/disco band called Love Bomb.(don't get me wrong, a very good and tight band it is if you enjoy that type of music) I got to jam with him a couple years ago on Halloween at an open mic. We played "Season of the Witch" and the dude really plays great funk rock and blues guitar, nothing like what he played in 'til tuesday. It was really cool for little local me to get to play with someone semi-famous.

I would still go out to see somebody like the Fools, they were a blast, and "Life Sucks" still can fire up a rowdy crowd of bikers round here. Though I wasn't too fond of them, The Stompers were really big 'round here when I was in high school. I think I also saw Mission to Burma once too.

peace.
 
The Fools. "No Money, No Fun, No Pizza, No Beer, No Nothin!". I still have a couple copies of "Sold Out" somewhere. Did you know that the lead singer/harp player actually had no idea how to play harmonica? That asskicker harp sound on "Sold Out" is actually him singing the harp lines through an *ancient* (original) Shure Green Bullet into a Roland Cube 60 guitar amp, set to "stun". He'd cup his hands around the mic as if playing harp, and just sing the line- the little overdriven amp did the rest, and nobody knew. *Damn*.

Human Sexual Response was the best, of course. Their height of fame was doing one of the Democratic national conventions, once... I don't think those guys knew quite what they were in for. I think that they did "I Want a Buttfuck" at that gig, too. Casey Cameron singing "I Want to be Jackie Onassis"... Ahhh.

And Mission of Burma? "That's When I Reach For My Revolver". Clint Conley is _still_ God. Hung it up after a Channel gig once, and never played out again, near as I know.

My background? Went to college in Cambridge, Ma, escaped in '81, ran a little money-losing studio in Watertown while doing the early part of my EE career there (worked for a couple of computer companies at first, and later Kurzweil Music Systems, by day), then left music (and the East Coast) entirely and worked on the West Coast designing microprocessors for workstation use for a decade or so. Bagged that in '97, and now run a solo consulting practice doing microprocessor and circuit design for whoever wants to pay me.

My best credit: my initials are on the die of the DSP chip used in the Kurzweil 1000 series synthesizers. A couple of those bands above recorded in my room, too, back then. But nobody ever heard of them, right?
 
You want obscure now, but famous back then?... And, by the way, yes, I did listen to all these bands at one time. Still have plenty of them on vinyl yet.

How about the Association? Great vocal group (Never My Love)
Simon and Garfunkle
Pink Floyd (still around but not like they were yesteryear)
Rainbow
Styx
Seals and Crofts
Bad Company
The Guess Who
Foreigner
Journey
Billie Joel
Elton John
Lynard Skynard
38 Special
Dan Fogelberg
The Eagles
Boston
Bruce Hornsby
The Partridge Family
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Yes
The Moody Blues
Men at Work
Brian Adams
Toto
Little River Band

Well, its late so I will think of more some other day.

Peace, Jim
 
Damn, I was reading thru the posts thinking of bands that u guys forgot, but by the time I reached the last post you had managed to remember most of them!

Just to touch on a couple of them:
WES, Billy Thorpe, is back home in Oz these days and still playing occasionally. He originally surfaced here in the mid 60's as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.
SKIPPY, Boston....glad to see they are remembered, but I think towards the end it was Tom Scholtz doing almost all of the instruments himself. I may be corrected on that.
BRUCE V, Shriekback?......my god, I thought I was the only person that knew of them.

OK, add these to the list.......Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Fleetwood Mac (the original line up), Manfred Mann and the Manfreds, Hawkwind, IRON BUTTERFLY (I'm amazed that someone hasn't said them)..........and for an Australian flavour....The Easybeats, Masters Apprentices, Cold Chisel, Dragon, Aussie Crawl.....and so it goes on.........
 
OK... Underrated bands...

Slave Raider....ever heard of them?

Lynch Mob...post-Dokken George Lynch

Queensryche....Geoff Tate can sing.....and 2 screaming guitar players...

The Cult

Dokken...yup a hair band with a real lead singer, excellent harmonies, and Gorge Lynch's face removing tone and fretboard folies...
 
Are we naming stupid stuff like Sock of Fleagulls or Thompson Twirps or are we sticking with legit bands?

We could go on forever on the Kajagoogoos of the '80s.

As with the demise of disco, I say there IS a God.

But, that's just my opinion. ;-]
 
Wow Chilliwack ( Four men in a rock and roll band, Fly at night in the morning we'll land) Strawbs forgot about them , very different sound. How about 80s heavy metal band from Norway called T.N.T. They rehersed in my studio for 2 months back in 85. Anyone remember Circus Maximus with their hit called The Wind.Chambers brothers Time Has Come Today 13 minutes long. Rare Earths Get Ready 19 minutes long with great drum solo.
 
Hey, nice job. You guys really pulled out some old gems there. Gentle Giant-great album cover-right up there with Court of the Crimson King.And Flash,they were great too.Man this thread gave me a real flashback, so I stumbled down to the basement to sift fondly through the old vinyl collection,and found:
Soup
Sunblind Lion
Electric Flag
Animal Logic
Audience
Clover
BeBop Deluxe
Bourgeois Tag
Focus
It's A Beautiful Day
Jade Warrior
Nice
Quicksilver
Renaissance
Sea Train
Touch
Toy Matinee
Kings X
Subdudes
Ugly Americans
Huffamoose
Too bad I no longer have a turntable that functions properly. Might be worth it to fix her up again.

Twist
 
John Weigel,

Yeah, I have Trout Mask on CD... is Safe As Milk the earlier one with Ry Cooder?

Here's a couple that were good bands and always pretty obscure:

Patto
Good God
The Amazing Blondel
Blodwyn Pig
Mick Abrahams Group

Oh, and the underrated guitarists thread reminded me of a couple more:

Tempest
Colosseum
Soft Machine

-AlChuck


[Edited by AlChuck on 01-09-2001 at 14:26]
 
Alchuck: yes it is, but they retitled the CD release. I can't go look because we are living in the back half of our house while the living room & den are barricaded off while they --gosh, this sounds dramatic, doesn't it? -- put in new hardwood floors. (Luckily, the kitchen and bedrooms and bathrooms -- and the computer!) are back here.) When the dust settles (literally) I'll let you know.
John
 
It's hard to believe that we have thought of so many bands that the youth today would not recognize......some names I can understand,but some were well known.I couldn't believe I saw Blodwyn Pig and Mick Abraham's Band...Tull spinoffs!
Soft Machine,Colloseum...THAT'S out there.Fairport Convention,Hawkwind...hahaha.I'll be 45 this month,and it looks like I'm not alone.How about (1) John Entwistle's Ox
(2) Frigid Pink
(3) Cowsills (haha)
(4) Grinderswitch
(5) Climax Blues Band
 
What about the band that did "Something in the Air" , Thunderclap Newman and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown "I am the God of hell fire!" or were these just solo artists? I think they were both on Track Records, the Who's label.
 
If I tried real hard, I might could muster up a few names worth mentioning - just wanted to say "Yeah" to Chris N and Emeric for mentioning that Texas band Bloodrock, those cats were way ahead of their time.
 
Tweedville,

I just turned 46. Climax was a fav of mine in the 70s.
But I wasn't sure I could still call them obscure after that radio hit they had probably 10 or so years ago.

bball,
I still think DOA by bloodrock is one of the spookiest songs I've ever heard.

Twist
 
Here's 4 more for the old (especially Texas)folks:
Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth
The Amazing Rhythm Aces
Shiva's Head Band
13rd Floor Elevator
John
 
Thank you guys for fessing up on the ages.....ain't it a grand time?Paulie,your birthday is 2 days after mine.Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth? Good one. DOA is the spookiest song,and Bloodrock was way ahead of their time.I don't know who the main guitarist was,but he was tasty with those tried and true licks (well,they were new back then) and he had a great vibrato.How about;
(1)Nils Lofgren and Grin
(2)Taste (Rory Gallagher)
(3)? and the Mysterians
 
What a hoot. Great thread.

Prism
Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Crowbar
I Braineater
Five Man Electrical Band
War
Frankie Goes to Hollywood

and (gag) Serendipity
 
Remember the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble? Michael Kamen of movie-scoring fame was in that group...
 
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