You won't have heard of it...

[Dr. Bath]

If this thread exists, I can't find it. So, do you have any film/game/band/song/series/book/something else that you know, but no one else seems to? It can both be a source of pride and annoyance when no one else has heard of it/them, so reveal your 'cult' find here!

Mine
Band: Mr. Scuff, Lemonjelly.
Book: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency by Douglas Adams
TV Series: Armando Innuchi's Time Trumpet

Feel free to tell people 'I know of them too!'. That's kinda the point.

[WalkingTarget]

If this thread exists, I can't find it. So, do you have any film/game/band/song/series/book/something else that you know, but no one else seems to? It can both be a source of pride and annoyance when no one else has heard of it/them, so reveal your 'cult' find here!

Mine
Band: Mr. Scuff, Lemonjelly.
Book: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency by Douglas Adams
TV Series: Armando Innuchi's Time Trumpet

Feel free to tell people 'I know of them too!'. That's kinda the point.

The Dirk Gently books are great! We've heard of them too Dr. Bath!

[Closet_Skeleton]

TV Series: Armando Innuchi's Time Trumpet

I hate that comedian. He just isn't funny and his attempts at satire just make him look stupid.

I suppose Dirk Gently is obscure if it's compared to Hitch Hikers.

Artist: Martyn Bennett. Young Scottish folk performer who did a few albums of world music before dying of cancer. Anyone who puts Shamanic Chanting, Scottish Poetry about Zombies and inacurate Irish Stereotypes on 1 album deserves slightly more recognition.

[Hannes]

Movie : El Topo.

[Tamburlaine]

Band: Mr. Scuff, Lemonjelly.
Book: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency by Douglas Adams
TV Series: Armando Innuchi's Time Trumpet


I've read the books, and seen that series (it wasn't as good as I had hoped though), but I've never heard of those bands.

[valadil]

Movie : El Topo.

Haven't seen it but I bought a copy for my dad last year.

Band: Two Siberians (http://whitefort.ru/mp3.htm). It's amazing how much sound can be produced by the combination of an acoustic guitar and an electric violin.

[sealemon]

Band: The Jungle Brothers. Thoughtful rap with no profanity or misogynistic lyrics? No wonder no one's ever heard of them. A real shame, because they're really good.

Comic book: The Elementals, by Comico. Great late 80's comic book about four undead superheros on a mission from god to stop Lazurus from destroying the world. Funny, thrilling and horrific, often in the same issue.

[Serpentine]

Lemonjelly.
THEY DID THE SHOUTY SONG, RIGHT?!

Book: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency by Douglas AdamsLoved that book. Wish he'd finished The Salmon of Doubt...

[kabbes]

Dirk Gently not very well known? What are you -- nuts? It's so well-known and such a brand that Radio 4 just finished serialising it as a drama series, starring Harry Enfield as Dirk Gently.

[kabbes]

Saying that, I've just remember that this is a US message board -- I've got too used to posting on a UK one, obviously. I can believe that something incredibly popular in the UK is pretty much unknown in the US. Like Jonny Wilkinson, or something.

[GolemsVoice]

You are not alone in having read Dirk Gentley's. And yes, it IS obscure. But hey, that's what we read it for.
A Band no one has ever heard of is Summoning. I really like these guys, and also the music they make (of course). This is probably furthered by the fact that because of the style of music they make (synthesizer sounds + harsh voacls, their songs are quite long, with 5-10 minutes playtime) they themselves said they will never go on tour, because it would just be boring.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Ianucci went downhill after Chris Morris became too controversial to show on TV ... :smallfrown:

[The Bunny]

Read Dirk Gently =P. Fenris (Fenrir) was in the fridge, I have no doubt of that.

TV series: It's a cartoon, but does anyone else in the known universe remember project G.E.E.K.E.R? It's the one with the lady with the cybernetic arm, a t-rex with a baseball cap named Noah and the hitman in the smiley face helmet.

[StupidFatHobbit]

What planet do you live on where most people haven't heard of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency? :smallconfused: I wouldn't call it one of Douglas Adams' most famous books, but I never met anyone who hadn't at least heard of it.

[Megalomaniac2]

Gunstar Heroes, Einhander (games), Last Days of Foxhound (webcomic), the Mouse Butcher (children's novel). Any of those ring a bell?

[Evil_Pacifist]

Movie: Time Bandits. Just awesome. I giggled a bunch at the end.

Book: The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear. I don't know what the author was smoking, but I want some.

Band: I know that Procol Harum isn't really "obscure", but I don't really know anyone who is a "fan."

[someonenonotyou]

band: the four post men
all five of them are my heros

[rubakhin]

Nobody here has read anything ever. Whenever I get excited about somebody, no one within a hundred-mile radius has the slightest bit of interest. I understand that most Americans won't have read the classics or the foreign novels I like, even if they've been translated, so I won't complain that nobody goes around reading Jean Genet or Vladimir Sorokin, only no one's read the modern English-language stuff I like, either. Burroughs. Ferlinghetti. Saul Williams. Jeremy Reed. Henry Miller. J.G. Ballard. Nabokov's more obscure novels (The Eye is superior to pretty much everything he ever wrote, excepting Pale Fire, which wasn't a novel so much as a miracle). Then all the queer lit - Dennis Cooper, Bruce Benderson, Slava Mogutin, et cetera, et cetera.

Americans aren't very well-read. Perhaps it has something to do with your books costing five times more than Russian books at minimum. :smallmad: I can't be spending twenty of your American dollars on a single book!

I have the same problem with movies, but only because I insist on watching, like, inscrutable art films from the seventies that you can only buy off some Dutch guy out of the back of a van.

[Zeb The Troll]

Meh, I usually get blank looks about things I've read or seen that I thought were fairly mainstream. Examples - Better Off Dead with John Cusack is one of my favorites. Outside of me and my brother and people I make watch it, no one seems to remember this one. Also The King's Blades and King's Daggers books by David Duncan. I picked them up at a Barnes & Noble or some such, not some hole in the wall esoteric bookstore, but still no one ever knows them save me and those I make read them.

[Eldan]

Book: The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear. I don't know what the author was smoking, but I want some.


Moers is awesome. You should read his other books, he's written about half a dozen set on Zamonia.

[Darken Rahl]

Time Bandits is one of my all-time favorites.

As for musicians, I like Snog. He's a really clever songwriter.

[Castaras]

Twelfth Night. Their Album "Live at the Target" frigging rocks. Amazing instrumentals.

Anyone heard of Stevie Nicks? She's got some cool albums as well.

[Smeik]

Moers is awesome. You should read his other books, he's written about half a dozen set on Zamonia.

Actually there are 5 books about Zamonia out in Germany at the moment. Oh, and one where Moers was inspired by pictures of Gustav Dore (http://dore.artpassions.net/), which also has an awesome story, although a bit darker than even Rumo of the Zamonia books.

And does anyone apart of me know the books of the Swedish author Mikael Niemi? He is just incredibly good, but I think he hasn't been translated to English just yet. But I think at least in french and german, books of him exist.

And before I forget it, as a film: "Night on Earth" by Jim Jarmusch.

[Darken Rahl]

Anyone heard of Stevie Nicks? She's got some cool albums as well.


Stevie Nicks isn't really an unknown, but she's better known as a member of Fleetwood Mac. ;)

[RTGoodman]

Books: Don't really have any unknowns - every time I read something that's relatively unknown, it suddenly hits the spotlight. For instance, Richard Matheson is pretty unknown outside of a small segment of society (i.e., those people that read old horror stories). But now, I Am Legend is being made into a movie (that'll probably rape the original novella, but I'll withhold judgment until I've seen it) and I'm sure everyone'll know about him soon. Oh, or here's one - Harry Potter. I started reading the series after the first book was published in the U.S. I don't recall meeting anyone else who'd read them until around the time of the 4th book or even the movies. Also, I love the stuff by Richard Bach that isn't Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (such as Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah). Also, I've never met anyone else that knows Christopher Moore, author of such gems as Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Movies: For the longest time, I think I was the only one in all of North Carolina that had seen "The Seven Samurai." That's probably not true, but I'd say that most people have never heard of it (even if they've seen the movie based on it, "The Magnificent Seven). Also, "Bubba Ho-Tep." I think only about 3 of us have ever seen it.

TV: I've had some roughly luck here - most of the TV shows I watch tend to be less known, and usually get cancelled. Of the ones that are still around, probably my favorite is Dexter. I'll admit, several people have heard of it, but I don't know how many people watch a Showtime series about a serial killer who kills just bad people. (It sound hokey, but it's really great.)


Music: Let's face it - I listen to a lot of weird stuff. For instance, Chuck Mangione. He's probably the greatest flugelhorn player ever, but people only seem to know him because of the TV show "King of Hill. (And apparently, Firefox's spell-checker won't even admit that a flugelhorn is a real thing.) Also, no one in the area knows any of the Irish and German groups I like (hooray Dubliners and Eisbrecher!), or one of my favorite bands, Carbon Leaf.

[mwp1138]

Mine:

Books: Hugh Laurie's "The Gun Seller"; the Fu Manchu novels of Sax Rohmer; "the Damned" trilogy by Alan Dean Foster
TV: Black Books; Spaced (both BBC shows from a few years ago)
Movies: the Descent; Without a Clue; the In-Laws (original version)

Probably more stuff that I'm blanking on at the moment...

[Darken Rahl]

The Descent is one of the best horror movies ever made.

[Alarra]

heh...wow...with the exception of zeb's...and that's only cause he's made me watch his, i haven't heard of anything in this thread.

My favorite book series few people have heard of or read. Cept Shiny, yay for Shiny. Kushiel's Legacy by Jaqueline Carey

[RTGoodman]

The Descent is one of the best horror movies ever made.

Wait, are you talking about the film "The Descent" that came out earlier this year? I thought that was one of the worst things I've ever seen.

And I was expecting molemen, and didn't even get any of those!

[Attilargh]

You know this thing called a shamisen, right? The Japanese three-string instrument? Well, turns out there's these two brothers who play rock with them. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Yoshida Brothers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERXiliJfdI&feature=related).

[Darken Rahl]

Wait, are you talking about the film "The Descent" that came out earlier this year? I thought that was one of the worst things I've ever seen.

And I was expecting molemen, and didn't even get any of those!

You had expectations, which usually either leads to rabid enjoyment or insta-hate.

[Closet_Skeleton]

You know this thing called a shamisen, right? The Japanese three-string instrument? Well, turns out there's these two brothers who play rock with them. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Yoshida Brothers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RERXiliJfdI&feature=related).

Yes, I have a shamisen player as my desktop.

That is pretty awesome though.

[themob212]

Bookwise:
Duncton wood. The singularly most fantastic tale of romance, questing and spiritual wonder. Hampered slightly in sales by the fact it is about moles. And no Tam you can't borrow it as you wouldn't appreciate it.
A fanfare for a teenage warrior hero. Worst. Title. Ever. An important book to me personally but I suspect you have to find it at a certain time.
Music Wise: Shawn colvin, suzzane vega.
Gameswise: Giants citizen kaboto.

[Serpentine]

TV: Black Books
Yay Black Books! Awesome show. That reminds me: Coupling. If you're in the US, you may have seen what you think was Coupling, and probably hated it. That's because it was an awful attempt at "translating" (as though they don't speak English in England 9.9) it for American audiences. You haven't seen it, not really. Jane is not meant to be quirky and silly. She's meant to be weird, obsessive and vaguely creepy.

I can't say I listen to it on a regular basis (though it'd be neat to have an album) but Mongolian throat-singing is amazing.

Is Willow an obscure movie? One of my favourites :smallbiggrin:

[Dr. Bath]

THEY DID THE SHOUTY SONG, RIGHT?!

Yay! Serpentine knows of them! I really loved their first album, but I haven't managed to get my hands on the second one, from which the shouty track comes from, although I've heard large segments of it.

Since you've all heard of Dirk Gentley, how about the deeper meaning of Liff? Another Douglas Adams book, which is really quite strange.

Another TV series: Flight of the Chonchords. It's just very funny, but probably an aquired taste.

Books: Almost anything by P.G.Wodehouse, for some reason most people I know, bar one or two, go 'whuh? Who's he?' whenever I mention the books other than the Bertrum Wooster ones.

@v There's a fair bit on YouTube, if you want to hear some more. Most of it's a lot more chilled out than the shouty track. Lots of 'uplifting' type songs.

[Serpentine]

They were playing it on Rage a lot (video clip show that's on something like 11pm Friday - 9am Saturday, attached to Triple J (www.abc.net.au/triplej)). It's great :smallbiggrin: But I think that's all of theirs that I've heard, unfortunately.

[Dhavaer]

Gunstar Heroes, Einhander (games), Last Days of Foxhound (webcomic), the Mouse Butcher (children's novel). Any of those ring a bell?

I've read Last Days of FOXHOUND.
Very few people seem to have heard of Sara Douglass's book series The Crucible. There are three books, The Nameless Day, The Wounded Hawk and The Crippled Angel. They're set in an alt-history 14th century Christendom, and they're very, very good if you can get through the bright, flaming misogyny the main character starts off with.

[Serpentine]

I've seen Sara Douglass's works around - sorted a whole stack of them on the library shelves just today - but I couldn't say if I've seen The Crucible in particular. They do look interesting... any good?

[Dhavaer]

I've seen Sara Douglass's works around - sorted a whole stack of them on the library shelves just today - but I couldn't say if I've seen The Crucible in particular. They do look interesting... any good?

The Crucible is very good, if you're into gritty alt-history with a somewhat fantasy twist. Beyond the Hanging Wall I've also read, but all I can remember is that it was a bit depressing. I haven't read any of the Troy Game.

[Arioch]

Mitch Benn!

[Closet_Skeleton]

Mitch Benn!

Heard of him. Saw him live at the Edinburgh festival.

[The Extinguisher]

I think I might be the only person in North America who has read Kim Newman's "The Quorum".
Of course, it might explain why I found it for 99 cents in a bargain bin.

A bit different on the music. A dozen other people share the love for Murder City Sparrows that I do.

[Satyr]

A movie too little people know off: It's hard to be a god. Great fantasy/science fiction cross over.

A book too little people know about: Sheep look up by John Brunner. Probably the fastest book known to man.

[Arioch]

Heard of him. Saw him live at the Edinburgh festival.

I saw him on the subsequent tour. What did you think?

[Closet_Skeleton]

I saw him on the subsequent tour. What did you think?

I'd already been a fan of him from The Now Show on radio 4.

He's funny. Not much more I can think to say.