I like some mainstream stuff, but I've also explored the indie/lesser known stuff. I must be one of the few people to love both Avril Lavigne and PJ Harvey. I'm 28, so I've had time to develop my taste.

Here are some that are very worthy of mention IMO:

Kay Hanley/Letters To Cleo
Nina Gordon
Leona Naess
Jo Davidson
Miranda Lee Richards
Aimee Mann (been more popular lately)
Abra Moore
Neil Finn
Penelope Houston
The Donnas
Ron Sexsmith
Cindy Alexander
Bree Sharp
Laura Dawn
Sleater-Kinney
Anna Waronker
The Painkillers
Thea Gilmore
The Jayhawks
New Pornographers
Mary Lou Lord
The Shins
etc..

Love Fountains Of Wayne, but they have been noticed big-time.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MattD,

A few off the top of my head:

Joe Henry who should appeal to anybody who is a fan of both indie and jazz as well.

The Candy Butchers and Velvet Crush, both of which are pure power-pop and should appeal to you if you love Fountains Of Wayne. Mike Viola from The Candy Butchers worked on the soundtrack to That Thing You Do with Adam Schlesinger from Fountains Of Wayne.

If you like Sleater-Kinney, you might check out a Seattle band called Pretty Girls Make Graves. They draw a lot of Sleater-Kinney comparisons, though their sound is much more their own. I think a fan of S-K would like them, though.

If Sleater-Kinney and the Shins and the Donnas Pretty Girls Make Graves count as little-known, then the topic is too vague.

Thanks very much for the recommendation. I am always looking for new music.

I might as well mention Dar Williams if I've mentioned Aimee Mann.

To Buck:

Well, we have a topic called unsigned bands, but I thought it would be good to give the little known rockers attention, too. Quite a few in indie have a following, but aren't near where they should be.

As opposed to Letters To Cleo, Neil Finn, Ron Sexsmith, The Jayhawks, and The New Pornographers?

To the majority of the public most of those bands ARE little-known. It's certainly possible to get far more obscure to the point of outright snobbishness, even one-upmanship. Possible AND fun!

Kip Hanrahan anyone?

Yep, I discovered some like Cindy Alexander, Jo Davidson, Laura Dawn, and The Painkillers who are VERY little known, but I'm still in the process of seeing what's in the indie scene, so listing VERY unknown artists is helpful.

Meal Ticket (ska)
Angry Samoans (punk)

Jesse Malin
The Unicorns
Cody ChesnuTT

Norfolk and Western is a really great lesser known band. I guess the guys in Sparklehorse are big fans, and I first read about them on their website. I would think Norfolk would strongly appeal to fans of Elliott Smith, Microphones, Iron and Wine, and any lover of intimate, lo-fi, cleverly arranged acoustic pop.

Here's a couple bands I also mentioned in the "overlooked albums of the past year" thread.

1929 - Kinda like Mogwai, but without the boring "build" part. It's all rock. Maybe that means they're not really post rock at all. Let's not get into genre discriptions, and stick with the Mogwai-minus-boredom description.

Tamion 12 Inch - No New York meets Detroit electro. Shards of guitar noise and Slits/Lydia Lunch-ish vocals with 808s and synth bleeps.

This is a band I've seen live and don't really care for so much, but they're probably going to get bigger, so I'm gonna mention them. When they do get slightly more well known, I'll be awarded 10 scene points for having seen them before most other hipsters.

PAS/CAL - Fruity indie pop. If you're way into this kinda of stuff, you might dig it. They're a little bit too good for the "local band" label, but just not quite what I could get into. Their live show has props, and the main dude wears foppish clothing, so they've got some imagination at least.

I would be getting 50 scene points if I would've namedropped them sooner, but Pitchfork reviewed one of their EPs recently, and they got a tiny mention in Spin in a sidebar for a Von Bondies article.

Not sure how deep we're digging here, but here are three: Xinlisupreme, Metamatics, Iran.

My apologies if the scale of 'success' of these artists are too great for this thread, but in my opinion, they didn't / don't receive as much attention as I felt they deserved / deserve so belong here...

Send No Flowers - Sound quite dated when I listen back now, but they released an album during the Grunge era called Juice which acutally had some really good songs on there, they were just unlucky not to get further than they did.

Murry The Hump - Welsh band from Aberystwyth, now defunct but with most of the members now in the inferior band 'The Keys'. Hearing Welsh people cracking alt. country, rock, folk etc. is just mesmorising! They only released one album which was a kind of mishmash of their EPs, but it was still a great work!

LiborSpacek & Antiba - Two Bath, UK based bands who've been doing the local circuit for quite a while and generating quite a buzz. Take a listen to some of their tracks at LiborSpacek.co.uk and Antiba.co.uk.

Others not so small, but underrated in my opinion: The Dismemberment Plan, Josh Rouse, dEUS...

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Iran.

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Hell yeah.

Geoff Berner. a guy from Vancouver who plays punk rock on an accordian. brilliant.

a few bands i like (i could go on and on. a lot of these/most of these i know are pretty big:

super furry animals
stereolab
broadcast
the decemberists
flaming lips
acid mothers temple
mercury rev
olivia tremor control
neutral milk hotel
destroyer
built to spill
new pornographers
the notwist
the sea and cake
beulah
blur
the unicorns
grandaddy
wilco

i dont understand what is so great about the shins. i got chutes too narrow and while the songs were good there was nothing that i thought was original and nothing that stood out to me.

Here's another one: Jackie-O Motherfucker.

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PAS/CAL - Fruity indie pop.

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I've got their "Handbag Memoirs" EP. Passable light pop, but I must admit I lost interest after a couple of listens.

Saw them last July as part of a triple-bill hosted by our neighborhood donut shop, of all places. (with the Lucksmiths from Australia and the Sprites from Wash, DC.)

Pas-Cal's songs performed live sounded a lot more rock-n-rollish than they did on the CD treatment.

Then again, any band that finishes a show by covering T-Rex's "Jeepster" is alright by me.




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favorite little-known artists

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Linus of Hollywood
Splitsville
The Shazam
Myracle Brah
Owsley


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