Bands with hit singles that were not hit singles

[Jahydin]

Okay, it has over a million views now, but this gem of an album still deserves so much more.

For those that don't know the backstory:
Death was a proto-punk band that formed in 1971. They had a hard time getting signed (the name didn't help), so shelved their music and moved on with their lives. In 2008, the music resurfaced digitally, and Drag City Records contacted the members and asked if they were interested in finally putting it out.

So made in 1976, released in 2009, lol!

Really awesome documentary was put out and worth a watch.

 

[Jahydin]

Parental Advisory: Explicit Content


Downset is such an interesting group. Devout Christians surrounded in gang culture made for some interesting songs. What stuck with me for so long though was how progressive they were at the time. As a kid, it was my introduction to civil rights issues, rape culture, and poverty struggles.

Oh, and the killer guitar tones and clever rap flows are a treat too!

 

[Ryujin]

Passion Puppets - "Like Dust"

 

[payn]

Ramsay Midwood

Rockthrow

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here’s one:

Not the rappers of Outkast…their backing band.

They started off in D/FW as a funk/punk fusion band when RHCP, FNM and Fishbone were really getting major attention. They had a bad rep here- too good to follow, and too unprofessional to be dependable on their start/stop times on gigs. When I saw them at SXSW in the early 1990s, their killer performance absolutely destroyed the audience.

But they didn’t get signed to a major label, and eventually faded into obscurity.

HOWEVER, as the embers of their band were dying here, they decided to take one more shot, and moved to Atlanta. That’s where Big Boi and Andre 3000 found them and made them into Outkast’s backing band.

So they didn’t make it under their own name, but they still kinda made it.

With the breakup of Outkast, the band’s principles returned to D/FW, and they still gig in bars and clubs.

 

[Zardnaar]

Here’s one:

Not the rappers of Outkast…their backing band.

They started off in D/FW as a funk/punk fusion band when RHCP, FNM and Fishbone were really getting major attention. They had a bad rep here- too good to follow, and too unprofessional to be dependable on their start/stop times on gigs. When I saw them at SXSW in the early 1990s, their killer performance absolutely destroyed the audience.

But they didn’t get signed to a major label, and eventually faded into obscurity.

HOWEVER, as the embers of their band were dying here, they decided to take one more shot, and moved to Atlanta. That’s where Big Boi and Andre 3000 found them and made them into Outkast’s backing band.

So they didn’t make it under their own name, but they still kinda made it.

With the breakup of Outkast, the band’s principles returned to D/FW, and they still gig in bars and clubs.

I now have that catch song they did stuck in my head. Cheers.

 

[Smackpixi]

Okay, it has over a million views now, but this gem of an album still deserves so much more.

For those that don't know the backstory:
Formed in 1971, Death could be considered the first punk band. They had a hard time getting signed (the name didn't help), so shelved their music and moved on with their lives. In 2008, the music resurfaced digitally, and Drag City Records contacted the members and asked if they were interested in finally putting it out.

So made in 1976, released in 2009, lol!

Really awesome documentary was put out and worth a watch.

The stooges were around in 1969, I don’t get these other first punk rock band ideas. And really, the kinks…or even the Kingsman Louie Louie. They’re cool and all but not first punk rock band.

 

[Smackpixi]

What if Fugazi’s 13 songs came out in 1994 instead of 1989? Like alongside offspring and green Day? Wow, they’d would have been huge. Like also Story of My Life by social distortion, came out in 1990, but if it came out in 1994? Wow.

 

[jdrakeh]

Trust, the French band, should have been popular internationally, but they never really caught on outside of France to my knowledge. Notably, in America, they're almost unknown except for their song Antisocial, which didn't gain a lot of traction until American heavy metal band Anthrax covered it in English. But the original version of Antisocial and several of their other songs are AMAZING.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yazoo/Yaz:


This song was huge back in the day. The intro to this song was used for all kinds of New Wave themed ads, radio alerts, and so forth. There are bands that cited the debut album as THE reason they got into electronic music.

But internal tensions broke the duo in twain after the second album. Each musician has had long, successful careers with other bands. They did eventually bury the hatchet and have performed together live in 2014 as I recall, but no new recordings have even been hinted at.