Great music websites from dead and forgotten bands?

January 17, 2010 3:56 AM

I am looking for examples of great "from beyond the grave" music available online; the band split but the music lives on...

My criteria are:
1. There once was a band/musician who recorded live or in the studio.
2. The band never encountered any meaningful commercial success before splitting up.
3. They are still obscure.
4. But years later somebody dug up their recordings and put them online (youtube, website, whatever).
5. They were great and we should really listen to them (or at least to the track you specify).

I'm really thinking of artists you used to be a fan of who got nowhere but who you were able to find again by googling - but, all right, it could be your own band at a pinch.

posted by rongorongo to media & arts (12 answers total)

Not bands, but individuals:
Jackson C Frank
Connie Converse
posted by phrontist at 4:00 AM on January 17, 2010

Betty Davis. Light in the Attic (a great record company) released her first two albums a few years ago, which made them available for the first time since their original releases (LitA does this with other great, forgotten artists too). Anyway, fantastic stuff for fans of funk.
posted by smorange at 5:10 AM on January 17, 2010

Death, a 1979 punk band that sounds like the Stooges, if the Stooges were brothers from Detroit.
posted by Gortuk at 5:55 AM on January 17, 2010 [2 favorites]

Sorry, I realize I overlooked the 'online' requirement - although really, all music is online, isn't it?

In penance, here's something that does meet your criteria. The Bonaduces, one of my favorite bands ever, that you probably haven't heard of unless you were in Winnipeg at the right time. A Winnipeg music blog put together a five part retrospective on their history & music, including downloadable links to all their albums. Part One is here. (In a very minor sense, buried somewhere deep in the series is a self-link, but I wont' say where).
posted by Gortuk at 6:01 AM on January 17, 2010

Before my time, but The Monks seem to meet your criteria.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:17 AM on January 17, 2010

On iTunes there's a band called "Decrypted Tomb" which existed back in the early 90's as pretty much a local, not too successful heavy metal band in Charlottesville, Virginia (one member went on to co-form the successful goth band "Bella Morte.") It disbanded around 15 or more years ago. I only know that it's on iTunes now because my sister was friends with the band and she alerted me to the fact because she thought it was simply incredible that the band's songs had made it onto the internet. Of course, naturally, I can't find them. I may be misspelling their name or something.
posted by Atreides at 6:56 AM on January 17, 2010

Jellyfish was highly regarded, but they aren't really my taste. They seem to have a fair amount of music on youtube. My favorite song by them is The Ghost at Number One.
posted by cali59 at 8:10 AM on January 17, 2010

There is really no end of bands that could qualify. The mp3 blogs (a.k.a. sharity' blogs) are full of unknown, yet brilliant bands in EVERY genre. One further example from my little corner, might be nineties indie-pop-punk hooksmiths, Bum courtesy of Willfully Obscure.
posted by jeffen at 10:03 AM on January 17, 2010

It wasn't until after he died that Nick Drake gained recognition. He now ranks among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years.
posted by runningwithscissors at 1:06 PM on January 17, 2010

All right, all right...since you said it...

My band split up recently because I moved out of the U.S. It was really hard to do, as we worked really hard on our music for five years.

I also really can't get enough of the Better Beatles.
posted by nosila at 3:20 PM on January 17, 2010

Happy End : 1970s Japanese psychedelic with tones that sound familiar.
posted by still lampin' at 4:50 PM on January 17, 2010

Hazel Miller was popular in Louisville in the mid-80s, struck out for LA in search of fame and fortune, and never quite got the opportunities she needed. She still has the voice, though.
posted by acorncup at 8:56 PM on January 22, 2010