Welcome to the HU roundtable on The Best Band No One Has Ever Heard Of. For the next couple of weeks we’ll be running posts from HU guests and regulars on bands, singers, or musicians who are neglected, forgotten, obscure, underrated, or some combination of all of those.
The index below is alphabetical by musician covered, and will be updated as the roundtable goes along. Feel free to tell us about other best bands no one has ever heard of in comments.
_______
Introduction: Best Music You’ve Never Heard Of — Noah Berlatsky
Pamela Bowden — Noah Berlatsky
Wilmer Broadnax — Noah Berlatsky
Cardiacs — Ben Saunders
Betty Carter — Jordannah Elizabeth
EGOIST — A.Y. Daring
Music of Eritrea — Rahawa Haile
Sleepy John Estes — Betsy Phillips (and a follow up post here.)
Jane Jensen — Kinukitty
The Music Machine — Sean Michael Robinson
Natural Snow Buildings — Dana Schechter
Music of New Zealand — Chris Gavaler
Esther Mae “Mama” Scott — Paige McGinley
Norma Tanega — Quinn Miller
Thoughts of Ionesco — Chris R. Morgan
Thumb of the Maid — Osvaldo Oyola
Windham Hell; Virgin Black — Otrebor
Conclusion: The Best Roundtable No One Has Ever Heard Of — Noah Berlatsky
Addendums
Best Writer No One Has Ever Heard Of
Best Artist No One Has Ever Heard Of
I’m voting for The 80’s Matchbox B-line Disaster and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, unless they’re actually too well-known already ?
How well known something in has a bit of wiggle room…I’ve heard of trail of dead, but not Marchbox, myself….
I have to vote for two of my Chicago genius friends (now all of us ex-pat)- John Bellows and Spires That In The Sunset Rise.
Spires! Haven’t thought about them in a while!
Severed Heads.
cordelia’s dad. or craw. or both. but probably just cordelia’s dad.
Paul Barker was in a weird Seattle band called The Blackouts before he joined Ministry. I even bought their discography collection. There’s also Thoughts of Ionesco, a MI metal/hc band from the late-’90s heavily influenced by early Swans and experimental jazz.
Ave, Good choice of Severed Heads. They were seminal electronic music pioneers. I can think of several genres (or sub-genres) of electronic dance music that either wouldn’t exist, or would have been delayed several years, were it not for their influence.
Gonna throw my hiphop hat into the ring and recommend a gentleman who goes by the name Count Bass D. Especially his album “Dwight Spitz”
I guess that doesnt qualify as a band really, but he is definitely deserving of more recognition then he ever really got.