Curve were one of the worst live bands I have ever seen.

Game Theory, haven't any of you dumb fuckers ever listened to Game Theory? Seek them out. Late 80's pop perfection from the bay area.

I remember them. My college roommate LOVED that stuff.

sonicdeathmonkey are you named after jack blacks band from high fidelity?

That's so mean! Gomez are wonderful, they've got a new LP out in May How We Operate and the songs I've heard so far are ace. Gomez's myspace site, which people should check out, because they are really nice. They experiment a bit with unusual instuments and the like, and they have three vocalists, a bit like you-know who!

They come from the same part of the world as me, too.

So, yeah, they must be good!

Gomez are loathsome initally, but they do get a lot better once you accept that they're not going to stop doing what they do and doing it well. I likes 'em. I also want them to get enormous so my vinyl copy of their first single goes up in value.

The Feelies (why are all their albums out of print!)
O.C. "Word...Life" (ditto)
My Dad is Dead
J.J. Fad
MX-80 Sound
Ciccone Youth (i'll fistfight ya' over this one! AND i'll win!)
Freddy Foxxx

Freddy Foxxx aka Bumpy Knuckles? Man I was just thinking about how bad ass that dude is yesterday

Vibracathedral Orchestra
they are wonderful

Underrated bands (at least to mainstreem audiences who largely seem to have no clue about who these people are): The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Neutral MIlk Hotel (and the other Elephant 6 bands), Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, the Velvet Underground, Abandon Jalopy, Comets On Fire, The Frogs, Jesus and Mary Chain, Jesus Lizard, Pillows, Sebadoh, Husker Du, Vaselines, Flipper, the Raincoates, Blind Melon (does no one else remeber/care about this band besides me?), Sunburned Hand of the Man, the Feathers, Lightning Bolt, Lambchop, Yo La Tengo, Wylde Ratttz, Witch, SRC, 13th Floor Elevators, MC5, Television, Glenn Branca, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and I guess that's all i can think of right now.

oh and the Magik Markers and Mission of Burma.

umm The Dirtbombs, New Blockaders...

i agree totally with mission of burma and the dirtbombs.

How about Donovan, i always ignored hime until recently and i think he is pretty good

vibrators, adverts, notwist, hm...POLVO, pop group, love & rockets, consonant, firehose, joggers, beat happening, serena-maneesh, dresden dolls, wilderness, new zeland's pop/post punks: chills, clean, bats, verlaines, straitjacket fits..., glenn branca, josef k, achers of loaf, x-ray spex, wipers, feelies, nick drake... and mission of burma!

blonde redhead, dead boys, the sonics, dictators.

this is a ambiguous term depending on what you are basing the underrating by: mainstream or extremely knowledgeable/extensive music fans. I think to mainstream folks a lot of the bands everyone has named are unheard of instead of underrated, then again to the average alt/indie fan maybe not, maybe they are underatted. Who knows, but to me it seems aparent that when you get a group of people who KNOW their music, a lot of the bands everyone has named get their deserved credit and accolades. Thats my 2.0 cents.

Every band is overrated or underrated to someone.

I second that. Too bad they split up. They were something new, interesting and original in modern music. Their live shows were very intense and exciting, their songs were powerful and funny. RIP

...
 

Threads like this would be much more interesting if the reasons
why
a band is underrated were given rather than offering a compilation of obscure bands.

Magoo

band profile :
A long time ago ( about 1992 ) in a village far far away, a band called Magoo was formed. Influenced by bands such as Guided by Voices, Stereolab, Pavement, The Flaming Lips and a healthy dollop of radio Peel, the band took its first steps towards being able to play. This achieved they set about writing, recording and playing local gigs in and around norwich.
After releasing three singles on Noisebox Records they were snapped up by those canny scots Chemikal Underground, where they released two albums : The Soateramic Sounds of Magoo and Vote The Pacifist Ticket Today.

During this time Magoo played all over Britain, did some European jaunts, played CMJ festival in New York and at Glastonbury in Glastonbury. fun fun fun...
After parting ways with the Chemikals the band started recording their third album Realist Week at their own Sickroom Studios, eventually releasing it on London labelGlobal Warming to great reviews but little else.
2003 / 2004 saw Magoo recording their fourth LP.The All Electric Amusement Arcade and 8-track mini LP. Popsongs. Magoo live in norwich and surrounding areas and London and are still wowing audiences up and down the country.

Geraldine Fibbers

The Perfect Disaster and especially the above album.


Phil Parfitt, Dan Cross, John Saltwell, Josephine Wiggs, Allison Pates, Malcom Catto, Richard Geismar, Kevin King, Julian Nelson

Profile:Band leader Phil Parfitt originaly started out in punk band The Varicose Veins releasing the now highly collectable single Incredible in 1978. Then followed releases as The Orange Disaster, The Architects of Disaster, before settling on The Perfect Disaster following its rhythm section's departure to form Fields of the Nephilim. When the group's Velvet Underground-influenced alternative pop/rock failed to break onto the British scene, they moved to France in 1985 and released a self-titled album with a lineup of bandleader/singer/guitarist Phil Parfitt, bassist John Saltwell, guitarist Allison Pates (also ex-The Varicose Veins), and drummer Malcolm Catto. The band continued to struggle, releasing only a few EPs, and by the time The Perfect Disaster finally secured a record deal in the U.K. in 1987, Saltwell and Pates had quit and were replaced by bassist Josephine Wiggs and guitarist Dan Cross. 1988's Asylum Road, based on Parfitt's experiences working in a mental hospital, received favorable reviews, as did 1989's Up. Wiggs left the band during the recording of 1990's Heaven Scent in order to work full-time with Kim Deal's Breeders. Parfitt went on to collaborate with Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce before drafting in Lead Guitarist Kevin King, bassist Julian Nelson & drummer Richard Geismar, the band then changed their name to Psychotropic Vibration & musical direction, playing a more Post Punk/dub/krautrock style. Psychotropic split around 1992 with Parfitt going on to form Oedipussy.

blimey, that's a name i never thought i'd see on the SY board

It was 1992. I saw them in Chicago; I had to go there to see Spiritualized on their first US tour since they weren't coming to Minneapolis and they were opening for Curve and The Jesus And Mary Chain. Most of Curve's sounds were completely canned and I found the frontwoman's stage presence irritating. The guitarist was pretty hammy too, and I was already in a bad mood because Spiritualized got a measly 25-30 minutes at the bottom of the bill at that show.

Rockbitch
Nashville Pussy
Raging Speedhorn

Myess indeed. Saw them when they played with the mighty Urusei Yatsura... it was Magoo, Prolapse then the Urusei. That's a whole show of great bands that are largely forgotten now.

Have I mentioned Nought in this thread yet? They were/are great.

I think I only know a couple of songs by Nought. I don't really remember what they sound like. Could you please remind me? Were they a female-fronted band?

No, they're an instrumental band. Nothing like post-rock at a time when instrumental meant post-rock. It's like some sort of instrumental Iron Maiden, but not as hoary.

http://www.myspace.com/nought
http://www.noughtmusic.com/

Listening again, I would ignore my description and just listen to Redrag on their myspazz. I think Alex Ward of Bailey's Limescale notoreity played with them a few times.

the most underrated band is THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS.
in terms os songcraft, originality, inventiveness, lyrics, etc. they are fantastic and noone ever mentions them.

Rob you must be kidding. They are the worst college radio band that I can think of, unless you are being ironic. Racist, thanks for all the information. I'll refresh my memory.

they are one of my top 5 all time bands.
their intensely dour and bleak lyrics, coupled with their fantasmagoria of genre melodies and music tickle my fancy.
they are supremely gifted in my eyes.

How are they a college radio band? they were two guys doing songs and performance for a decade before getting a full band, just them and whatever instruments they devised. amazing stuff.

tindersticks

np on let them it pussy = underrated

np on the first record after let them it pussy = overrated

np after that record = getting what they deserved.


"fried chicken and coffee" and "go motherfucker go" are anthems.

Yes.

Labradford

Labradford consists of bassist Robert Donne, guitarist/vocalist Mark Nelson, and Carter Brown on keyboards. Their music style is experimental ambient/post-rock, although their earlier releases such as Prazision and A Stable Reference were much more related to dark drone rock.
In 1993 they released their debut album on Kranky which has remained their home since. The group's music mostly drifts on the guitar effects and the keyboard passages, with the vocals, when present, in the background.
In 1999 they started a tour with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and their Festival Of Drifting series, which featured appearances from Pole, Matmos and Papa M as well.
Though the group has not officially disbanded, they have not released another album since 2001's critically acclaimed Fixed::Context, and the band members have apparently moved away from their former base of Richmond, Virginia. Robert Donne has joined the slow-core group Spokane. Mark Nelson continues to release records on Kranky under the name Pan•American.

In my opinion, the greatest forgotten band the last decade.

I must get me some Labradford some time. Or at the very least listen to some.

Did I mention "Calla" in here already?
I love them, so many simply beautiful songs with nice sounds.

I know it say it all the time -- and even the Sun City Girls agree with me on this -- but the most underrated band ever is probably Thinking Fellers.. you're talking about a band that is just consistantly amazing and completely competent and forward-thinking as musicians who got NO press whatsoever (I mean, I HAVE seen Polvo mentioned in small capacity in music magazines and press, even Ryan Adams talked about them in some interview he did for Spin; I've never seen any mention of Thinking Fellers anywhere outside of the internet). It's hard to find a band without a single bad song. Their approach to structure, craft, melody, riffs, etc. was completely off-the-wall and inventive, yet oddly accessible. Very rarely did they degenerate into tunelessness, even in their most of out of tune moments. It seems like they stuck all that filler in their albums just so people didn't take them too seriously. But in all seriousness, probably will always be the most underrated band ever. I've seen bands listed so far on this thread that have been listed on the Billboard Top 200.. on the other hand, I kinda doubt that all the Thinking Fellers record sales combined would be equal even 200,000. Sad.

You should definitely listen to "Mi Media Naranja". I'm always trying to capture that beautiful atmosphere in my own music, but, unfortunately, mostly I badly fail.

I have a 7" single from Labfrbador that I have owned for years. It is good stuff, but I have ot heard it in a long time. I will check it out tonite

Not a band, but a solo artist, however, New Zealand's Peter Jefferies is a complete musical genius of a song-writer who far too few people have even heard of.