Your favorite band that never made it big?

eits1986

Member
As we all know, sometimes circumstance seems to overshadow talent, and many great bands never break the surface of the mainstream ocean of success. Do you guys know of any good bands this has happened to?

My favorite would probably be Dinosaur Jr. I'm sure some of you have heard of them, but they never made millions, even though it is the opinion of this ruggedly good-looking homo sapien that they should have. Also, if you have heard of someone else's choice, let them hear your opinion!

Unless its negative, to which I respond you can go straight to hell.
 
My favorite bands that never made it big...

Frodus
Blenderhead
Roadside Monument

...all post-punk bands in the 90s that I listened to in my teen years. When I throw in a CD, it takes me back.

I am starting to explore the punk movement of the mid-late '80s, and will probably end up slow-crawling through the post-punk revolution, after which I plan on somersaulting through the mid-nineties Christian death metal explosion.
 
Depends on what you mean;
Today is the Day is a somewhat respected band, however I am always impressed that no one knows who they are. I don't know, I guess you could technically say they made it but I highly doubt Steve Austin is getting rich off that endeavor.

Spastic Ink with their tech-metal is another one I am really sad to see not getting a ton of recognition.
 
Ok so obviously any band I have been in ;-)

I really like a band that never really broke over here in the US call "It Bites"

Has anybody heard of them?
 
There was a good regional band in the D/FW area in Texas way back in the 80's and early 90's called Lo Della. Roughly translated it meant "the band" I believe. They played a lot of the larger night clubs in the area. They were always tight and always rocked the house, even with their own material, but never caught on enough to get a lot of exposure. And the local jerk radio stations never played their stuff....

You'd think the radio stations would be more than happy to play local favorites, but I'm not in radio so I don't know all the "rules".

Also the Toadies are from around here. They were semi-successful, but the record company never really marketed their CDs properly. They sort of cut the CD, then didn't market it, and eventually the Toadies broke up, I believe. At least that is what I read in the newspapers....
 
There was a very fine band from Atlanta called the Swimming Pool Q's. They appeared at the same the Athens scene was taking off and they rather got lost in that shuffle, so they didn't get the full national attention that I though they deserved. They're still around, I believe, but they, like a lot of Atlanta bands, were overlooked due to all the attention the Athens bands were getting at that time.
Really, even on a bad day the Swimming Pool Q's could blow REM right out the water, and their music was far more interesting, and better played, than that REM bunch.
 
Someone mentioned Dredge...I love that band, I think that they had moderate success for the audience they were aiming for.

Someone else said Porcupine Tree...I think they ve had more than enough exposure to be mainstream, but thats not so...and I love the fact that after 20 or so years, they are still considered "unknown" to many(commercial radio listeners esp.). But to hard-core fans, its better that way. I can still get a great seat at any of their shows and I dont have to deal with a bunch of lame-ass bandwagoners that are only there for the "scene"(DMB cough, cough). Not to mention we have the great Gavin Harrison right here, answering every query from the average "guy next door" drummer. IMO, I think its better to actually have a "musician's band" around these days. And they are about as good as you can get, talent-wise. But I digress.....lol

The band Oceansize never really took off. Not that I know of at least.

The band Seemless. Their first album was an absolute work of pure ROCK art.

Minus The Bear- still havent figured out their genre, but thats ok..

40 Below Summer- Local guys(for me) and beats RATM anyday, IMO.

The Apex Theory- ?????, Mr Bungle??,Acid Mother's Temple? Liquid Groove?....so many more.

I kinda like the fact that they never turned into another played-out, corporate, show band. But hey, thats just me. : )
 
Also the Toadies are from around here. They were semi-successful, but the record company never really marketed their CDs properly. They sort of cut the CD, then didn't market it, and eventually the Toadies broke up, I believe. At least that is what I read in the newspapers....

I love the Toadies! I'm also from the DFW area. Have you heard the Burden Brothers? Its the same singer from the Toadies they gained alot of local notoriety a few years back, but again I don't think they caught on outside of Texas.



But anyways, Frodus was a good choice, I got into them from Thrice's amazing cover of "The Earth Isn't Humming."

But my favorite was Terminal from Forth Worth, Texas. They were a local staple for a short time and then got picked up by Tooth & Nail Records and ended touring as main support for Hawthorne Heights in 2004, but broke up soon after. Some of the members have now formed Oh, Sleeper which is slowly gaining ground nationally. I caught the Terminal reunion show in Plano, Texas last year, it was a great show.
 
Minus The Bear

I've really enjoyed their music over the years. For me there are a couple of post punk bands that never really did mainstream, but I still listen to their music:

Unwound
Hoover

Plus, there is a band called "In a Nutshell" from Russia that my wife has been listening to a lot of lately. They're not too bad either (even though they are fairly new but because of location might never see mainstream US or even Europe).
 
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