Who are your most underrated bands?

WorldNumberOne · Mar 1, 2015

The fact they havent been mentioned makes my point for me.

The answer is : Collective Soul..

GoSooners · Mar 3, 2015

Dr. T said:
Poco still puts on a pretty good show. Paul Cotton and Rusty Young sing their songs. Richie Furay, Timothy B. Schmit and Jim Messina were early members of the band. I was surprised Furay didn't become a bigger star with his talent.

I just picked up a great bootleg of Poco performing last year in an all acoustic show. Rusty Young still sounds as good as ever. I agree with you about Furay. One of the original members of Buffalo Springfield. I believe he could have been a huge star, but he found religion. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But his priorities changed when he became a pastor. He did have a brief resurgence in the 80's. I've got a great bootleg by him too performing live at My Father's Place.

flashmo · Mar 3, 2015

Rory Gallagher
Dave Mason
Traffic
Steely Dan

GoSooners · Mar 3, 2015

honzie said:
Cherry picking some earlier posts here>>>

Bands where it is uncertain to say underrated = Procol Harum, Kinks, Yardbirds, Blue Oyster Cult.
These guys had their fame in their day and their music still has legs as they say.
PH so unique ... the ultimate in rocking out with a classical element. Everyone knows Whiter Shade of Pale (or they damn sure should) but you need to know A Christmas Camel (cool and funny), Boredom, Whaling Stories, Homburg, Quite Rightly So, - I can do 20 more, I'll shut up
YardBirds are iconic and had talent out the ass, not just Clapton and Page. Any band that was anyone had to go to school on them some way some how.
Kinks are under in a way...they fall just short of that "MtRushmore" discussion. But consider Lola was as BIG a hit - a single - as was Satisfaction, Hey Jude, Won't Get fooled Again, Light My Fire etc. Still they got plenty of acclaim and made a huge fortune for a long time. BOC in similar way had Dont fear the Reaper',, ditto Mega-hit...still rocking today I think...once had a beer with Buck Dharma, sort of, after they did a show at mid-sized Boston venue, fantastic - couldnt get the grin off of my face for days after.

Violent Femmes, Velvets, Joy Div I would argue are a little overrated and it hurts to say that with Lou Reed gone just a year now. I LOVE Reed and anything he got involved with recording-wise but he was a demi-god in the opinion of fans and other musicians. JoyDiv TOTALLY overrated. Good stuff but so many love to talk them up,....the preferred band of hipsters past, not enough of a catalogue for all of the love they get. Violent Femmes, although they have more songs, are so cool but same deal .

Mott the Hoople, JGeils Band, NewYorkDolls, James Gang, Scorpions early stuff are Underrated.
Mott one of those bands where they never pressed a bad song really. I go back and listen to some of those albums and forget how solid they were. There second-tier hits, which are many, make them all-time greats IMO.
So many groups, starting with Ramones ... up until Jett owe a huge debt to NYDolls. Often said they were orig garage rock band and that fits like a glove. Johansen one of best lead vocs ever. Check out "Human Being" if you like sax.
James Gang were preferred by cool hippies of early 70's but are forgotten. They gave us Joe Walsh - nuff said ;->
Scorpions = I could go on all day - glad you pointed out early Scorps, their better stuff for sure. If you like R&R you have to have In Trance, Virgin Killer and Taken by Force (hard to come by?) Fly to the Rainbow not too shabby also but not must listening.
J. Geils Band was prob the best live act I've ever seen and "Full House" best live recording maybe. "Blow Your Face Out" on top 20 list of Live albums also, biased maybe cause I was at Boston Garden when they recorded those songs (half done in Detroit also I think).

There were mentions of Rainbow, LosLobos and Traffic... Traffic was huge for a short while, everyone had them on 8-track when I was a kid, later on cassette. Rainbow had a song called "Stargazer" which IMHO should have been what 'Stairway to Heaven" turned into... a phenom. Los Lobos also unique in their style and rock out with anyone, thier first album still one of my ATFavs. Assume they get their due out west but not as much on east coast?
"ain't even done with the night" = perfect template for a rock song- it's got everything you need.
"Mexican Moonlight" - superb vocals by Johnette Napolitano/Concrete Blonde. Wish they did more like that, some of there stuff didn't do it for me.

Great post. I was a huge fan of Mott The Hoople. Their real early stuff was remarkable, along with Procol Harum's early stuff. These two bands somewhat had ties with each other because Guy Stevens was their producer early on. And he also gave both bands their names. Stevens was a musical genius. Nobody could touch him. Not even Phil Spector or George Martin could produce an album and bring out the energy from a band like this guy could. Besides Procol and Mott he also produced Spooky Tooth's debut album, which is one of the best rock albums of all time that probably few have heard. I think the last album he produced before he died of a drug overdose was The Clash's London Calling. Which is also a certified classic. Also Free's Tons Of Sobs, which i also consider their best album. When you go back and listen to all of these band's albums, what he produced for these bands is much different and superior to anything they did before or since. There's no telling what kind of music this guy could have produced if he had lived.

Salty-san · Mar 4, 2015

Any genre and country/culture has them because mainstream music is all about marketing, noise and even propaganda. But if we are talking quality music that genuinely deserve more recognition, then the post-rock genre is full of them. You can find so many of them with FULL albums posted on Youtube even.

Just of the top of my head you got April Rain, Moonlit Sailor, Mogwai, Maybeshewill, Caspian, The End of The Ocean, To Destroy a City and so many lol...