Favorite Unknown Band

[Sewer_Bandito]

Have you ever had the urge to scream the name of an awesome unknown band to the world on the top of your lungs?

Yeah, me neither.

Anyway if there's an awesome band that you think should get out, this is the place to share it with the playground.

Today I just found out about The Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. They're a completely unique, experimental mixture of ska, punk, classical, eastern european and orchestra (if you've ever heard of Streetlight Manifesto or Catch 22, this is their lead singer). Unfortunately the only recording they have that's easily available isn't their best song but here it is anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWLE4M6v35w

[Resist77]

Their style is similar to 100 Raisons, a French Horror Punk band i'm particularly fond of.

[Dave Rapp]

I've never heard of any unknown bands.

See what I did there? I made a funny.

Ahem, anyways, he may not be quite unknown, but Neil Cicierega deserves WAY more fame than he gets. He invented an entire genre of Flash Animation, and he did the music for several of the greatest things ever made. Like the ultimate showdown. (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/285267)

[The Extinguisher]

Circle Takes the Square is realatively unknown, but they still deserve mentioning.

Also, Armchair Cynics and Murder City Sparrows.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

The Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution would be better known if they released a CD more than, approximately, once a century. Also, if their only merchandise I can recall were not a horrific shade of brown.

Mana Mana, a Finnish psychadelic band, are sort of a mix between Jimi Hendrix and the Cure or Cruxshadows. With some early, early doom metal thrown in. They're a very dark, psychological take on psychadelic, drug influenced rock. Their acid was probably replaced with cobra venom, their psilocyben with amanita, their heroin with laudanum. The vibe of losing your mind is much more literal, philosophical, and developed.

[The Extinguisher]

I should probably talk about the bands I posted.

Circle Takes the Square:
They're a screamo, and epic (litterally) band. Unlike a lot of popular screamo, they use actual voice techniques, combined with non-screaming singing for maximum effect. Combined with very creative melodies, ranging from "thrash and destroy everything around you" to "soft and quiet, just relax and settle down" in the same song, and you never notice it, because they shift seamlesslessly. This could be because they have long songs, but it's still great.
"Non Objective Portrait of Karma" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLMfsy8XWZI (please, please just ignore the video)
"Crowquill" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgqJwGKO-cs

Armchair Cynics:
Everything about this band screams "generic alternative-rock" band, but they pull it off so well. They do nothing special, but they don't need to. They rock in average. Thier albums are fun to listen to, because the lyrics are fairly good, nothing special. But they really shine in a live performance. It's a really fun performance, and Coutu brings a lot of enthusiam into it all.
"Bang Bang" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXXsMxhfYPo
"Coalmine" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK9QOdMrX78

Murder City Sparrows:
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
-Jack Kerouac
Murder City Sparrows are good punk. That's really all that needs to be said. They have perfected a style. They're lyrics are witty and very well written. I can't really say much else to it. They sound a lot like Queens of the Stone age, but more punk.
"Burn in Water" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhW7Ncz57v4
"Hammer Click" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8fPy-ATSnc

[Adding one more]
Chucky Danger Band
Ahh, the maritimes. You produce such good music. Almost like Great Big Sea, except they aren't as folkish. They mix seriousness and comedy like it's got a solubilty of 999. The singer has a great voice, and they do a lot of neat instrument effects. On one song, they use a salad bowl as percussion. In the same song, they have a percussion solo. All four band members play a different percussion instrument, several improvised. They are also really fun on stage, and their main drummer is a cool guy. (We talked for a while after thier show here)
"Marching Machine" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvFgBvrsb4c
"Travelling" http://axs.muchmusic.com/index.jsp?auto_band=x&rf=sv&fr_story=b5fccd26ba156d668c244b8b51ad1c8a878664ca

[SDF]

All my friends love Circle Takes the Square, but I just... bah, hate them.

I like The Appleseed Cast, but they are relatively well known. Action Action has some good songs, same with Red Fox Grey Fox.

Is Calabrese relatively well known? I suppose they are in the horror pop scene, and I did see a ~50 year old college student with one of their shirts in my bio class...

[Darkforge]

I've always tried to look out for new bands starting up so I've got a few, some less unknown than others:

Catholic School Girls: heavy with a funny, if crude twist (do not listen if you take offence easily though)

Earthtone 9: not sure what genre this is but its just truly awesome, with some great range, I smile whenever their music pops up on my random playlist.

Nine Black alps: really awesome grunge band, I believe their second album is due out soon/came out recently- I went to see them in a dingy little bar in Manchester about a month before their first album where there was a small crowd of people who were mainly the bands friends but they blew me away.

Maximo Park: An intense Indie band that I saw in Manchester just after their first album was released, they aren't that unknown now with their second album out and having gotten into the English charts a couple of times but they are still good enough to mention and excellent live.

The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club: Cool Indie band who I saw in sheffield a while back, cool stage presence and fun songs, listen and enjoy.

Future of the Left: A mindblowingly good act formed from the remnants of McKlusky (another great unknown ex-band) which have recently done a mini tour round England. Their first album "curses" is absolutely awesome. This band should make it big soon (I hope).

More to come, I'd best get back to work now...

[expirement10K14]

Heres a local band that is doing pretty well around here. They do a tour in Ireland each year but aren't that Famous. Hair of The Dog. (http://www.hair-of-the-dog.com/index2.html)
They are an Irish semi-rock for some songs band, yes, I like different music.
Edit: I guess they could be semi-famous, they did a song on the same CD as some famous people (U2, James Taylor, The Chieftains, The Corrs, Mary Black and Carly Simon), which happens to be the only CD I don't have of them.

[Narmoth]

Dreamtone (http://www.myspace.com/dreamtone). Awesome progressive / melodic metal band from turkey

[Jimp]

Flook, a trad group from Ireland, England and Scotland.

[valadil]

Two Siberians. I saw them open a free show for TMBG and they were one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen. It's just two guys from Siberia. One plays acoustic guitar and the other is on electric violin. The amount of sound that came out of those two was immense. They have a number of MP3s online for free (http://whitefort.ru/mp3.htm) but they just don't quite compare to the live show.

[Sewer_Bandito]

The Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution would be better known if they released a CD more than, approximately, once a century. Also, if their only merchandise I can recall were not a horrific shade of brown.

Yeah, this is true. But on the bright side, they just updated their website and appearently they're looking for musicians and have a bunch of new songs written. Which I'm assuming they'll start working on after Streetlight's done with their tour.

[zeratul]

The New Wave / Industrial / goth band "Thoushaltnot". It's a pretty awesome band that few have heard of.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

I love Thoushaltnot! The VEGC is great, too. Stage presence is awesome, and it is the single most indie name a band can ever have. Except something to do with dating a transcendentalist.

[Catch]

Refused (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refused). I've posted about this before, but I will again. No one knows Refused, yet they were probably the best hardcore band since Minor Threat and The Shape of Punk to Come really is a marvelous piece of work. Strangely prophetic, too.

New Noise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8MkVIe9xGc), which pretty much encapsulates the album's ideology.

[Castaras]

Twelfth Night. Their Live at the Target album is amazing. Pure instrumental, but freaking awesome. Although I think they did some vocal...but not heard any of that...

I can't find anything about them anywhere.

That's how unknown they are.

*goes to look on Amazon to see if she can find them*

Edit: Looking at the track extracts of their vocal stuff, it's kinda crap, imo...but their instrumental is amazing...

[Jimp]

Refused (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refused). I've posted about this before, but I will again. No one knows Refused, yet they were probably the best hardcore band since Minor Threat and The Shape of Punk to Come really is a marvelous piece of work. Strangely prophetic, too.

New Noise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8MkVIe9xGc), which pretty much encapsulates the album's ideology.

I'm a fan of Refused. So a little less italics on that 'no one' remark :smalltongue:

[Hydrolyzer]

burninside, freakin awesome.

they've only got four songs 'released' at the moment, but theyre working on an EP as we speak.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=118475096

thats their myspace profile, and yeah, have a listen, if you had to name their style, its probably christian metal, although if you dont take the meanings to heavily, its not super christian :P its more metal thats err, 'safe'

[Smeik]

Hm, it hink my favourite unknown bands are...

Van Canto (http://www.myspace.com/vancanto), a German A capella Heavy Metal band.

Diablo Swing Orchestra (http://www.myspace.com/diabloswingorchestra). A Band too awesome to describe with words...

[Samiam303]

Yeah, this is true. But on the bright side, they just updated their website and appearently they're looking for musicians and have a bunch of new songs written. Which I'm assuming they'll start working on after Streetlight's done with their tour.

Ummmm.... No. Look again, that site was updated back in march and hasn't been touched since. The RISC group site (www.theriscgroup.com) still says "Coming 2006".
On a positive note though, I heard a rumor that Kalnoky has actually started recording new BOTAR stuff, and they played like 30 seconds of what sounds to be a new bandits song (http://ukah.perdomocore.com/streetlight%20manifesto%20-%20new%20song.mp3) at one of their shows this tour.

Also: On an older version of their site, they had links to mp3s of all their songs, and while that site's disappeared, four of the five songs can be heard at the unofficial BOTAR myspace (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=9664766). The fifth song is just the intro to the EP.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

I despise Minor Threat, so I never gave refused a try, since they're always described as you did; the best since them. Which means they're evidently not as good.

[Haruki-kun]

I have to say I do have a favorite unknown band. They're called Sweetbox, though I think they're changing their name to "Jade" (the lead singer's name).

They're like............. the meaning of Pop Music. A friend of mine says they make other well-known Pop artists sound like Kiss.

[Shadow of the Sun]

A local punk band called Blame Sam (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=35722919). They rock a lot.

[Ceska]

I don't know, somehow bands being known to me breaks the concept of unknown, no?

Anyway, probably "Open the Barngates", a punk band my aunt and her husband played in. With easy and catchy song structure and a vocalist that is by far too drunk to care he can't sing.

Edit: /\ Bah, I dislike modern "punk". Just don't like the sound anymore. It's okay, but somehow it doesn't go with my definition of punk-rock.

Narmoth: Very good. I like the band.

I already knew Smeik has a good taste in music.

[H. Zee]

I live in England, and I know that this band are pretty much completely unknown over here - but I don't know how well-known they are anywhere else. Their name is Finger Eleven, and they're undoubtedly one of my favourite bands.

But if that's not unknown enough for you, then how about this? I'm willing to bet that no-one else on this forum had heard of the Bad Robots, but their songs - 'Day by Day' in particular - are biblically good.

[Jimp]

I live in England, and I know that this band are pretty much completely unknown over here - but I don't know how well-known they are anywhere else. Their name is Finger Eleven, and they're undoubtedly one of my favourite bands.

But if that's not unknown enough for you, then how about this? I'm willing to bet that no-one else on this forum had heard of the Bad Robots, but their songs - 'Day by Day' in particular - are biblically good.

I loved those bands when I first heard them! Friend of mine in England was playing their stuff over ventrilo a while back. Sadly I haven't been able to get my hands on any of their stuff bar one Finger Eleven song :smallsigh:

[Dragonstar]

One of my favorites is Hillbilly Casino (http://www.thehillbillycasino.com/), who opened up for The Brian Setzer Orchestra (http://www.briansetzer.com/) last year during their Xmas Extravaganza tour. If you like rockabilly, these guys are really talented and VERY high-energy live.

[Serpentine]

Woven Fear (http://www.wovenfear.com/framed.htm), but only cuz I used to go out with Swino :smallbiggrin: ...I'm not a very big fan of heavy metal, otherwise :smalltongue:

He's such a coot ickle metalhead now :smallbiggrin:

[Lord of the Helms]

*looks at sig*

Why, no, no shouting from me at all :smalltongue:

In addition to the roughly ten trillion lightyears of awesome that is Pharaoh, I'll raise you:

Black Atom: Scottish Trad/Prog Metal band with, as the singer puts it, a tendency to do 10-minute epics. www.myspace.com/blackatom has some songs

Custard: Local band, sort of. Nothing fancy or complicated, just a lot of fast fun :smallsmile:
www.custard.de

[Smeik]

*looks at sig*
Custard: Local band, sort of. Nothing fancy or complicated, just a lot of fast fun :smallsmile:
www.custard.de

Hm, they are local to me as well. and sound quite nice.

Thanks for the suggestion :smallwink:

For another good band from our part of the world:

Layment (http://www.layment.com/)

[JabberwockySupafly]

I've mentioned my favourite "bands" on previous incarnations of this thread, so I may as well here. I don't really have very many unheard of actual bands, I listen to a lot of different music, though, and the most unheard of stuff I listen to tends to Underground Hip Hop. Not your standard style of rap where they talk about guns and drugs, but a more philosphical take on it. A good way to think of Underground (also called Indie Hip Hop) is what would happen if Allen Ginsberg and Run DMC did an album together.

Philosophy, Science, Religion, & deep thoughts all around is what the majority of it runs around. A lot of them aren't completely unknown but pretty unheard of by the masses. The groups/artists I tend to listen to are Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Illogic, El-P, Felt, Eyedeas & Abilities, Mr.Lif, and MURS.

Unfortunately, since most of the music isn't considered "radio friendly" (and I still can't conceive how something like 50 Cent can be considered radio friendly and these guys can't) you will rarely if ever hear them on the radio. Their songs are both lyrically and musically brilliant. Their lyrics can be at times scathingly sarcastic, emotionally deep, or light-hearted and humorous. It's sad that music has to be basically ignored by the mainstream media because it's considered "too intelligent".

[Sewer_Bandito]

Ummmm.... No. Look again, that site was updated back in march and hasn't been touched since. The RISC group site (www.theriscgroup.com) still says "Coming 2006".
On a positive note though, I heard a rumor that Kalnoky has actually started recording new BOTAR stuff, and they played like 30 seconds of what sounds to be a new bandits song (http://ukah.perdomocore.com/streetlight%20manifesto%20-%20new%20song.mp3) at one of their shows this tour.

Also: On an older version of their site, they had links to mp3s of all their songs, and while that site's disappeared, four of the five songs can be heard at the unofficial BOTAR myspace (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=9664766). The fifth song is just the intro to the EP.

www.acousticbandits.com

^ I knew I wasn't making up that update. This site may or may not be legit though.