Underrated or obscure artists and bands you discovered by accident?

Since lately we’ve been circling the same handful of household names and mainstream acts, I thought I’d open a thread for the deep cuts—those obscure or under-the-radar bands you stumbled upon by chance and have since started listening to more intently. Don't feel restricted by genre here. To get things moving, here are a few from my side:

Matt Andersen

John Moreland

Reigning Sound

And a few that are slightly less obscure:

Heartless Bastards

Crippled Black Phoenix

This is an interesting topic—I’ve actually thought about starting something similar before. To be honest, I was planning to make a thread about Mali and the big bands, since I noticed some legends don't even have their own dedicated threads. Given how many there are, it doesn't really make sense to open a separate one for every single act...

The band inspired this idea for me, mostly because I feel they deserve a mention despite not having their own space here. They were this great Canadian-American group from the late 60s and early 70s, pretty famous for being Bob Dylan's backing band during his early years. They eventually reformed in the 80s and played through the end of the 90s, though maybe with a bit less success. They’ve got some really solid material, and I think this is probably their most iconic track and biggest hit: The Weight

They definitely have other great songs too, and I’d highly recommend checking out this concert: The Last Waltz. The recording quality isn't the best, but you can find plenty of individual clips online. Besides Dylan, the guests at the show included Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Joni Mitchell, and a few others.

"The Last Waltz" finally made its way onto Blu-ray... It was directed by Martin Scorsese.

The band isn't some group of unknown or obscure legends—they’re household names. But since you brought them up,
here is a cover of one of their tracks by the artist from the original post, recorded at that same concert and featured on the same album.

I was just sitting here wondering... how did they land on opening a thread about "overrated music" in the first place? It feels like "underrated music" would have been an incomparably better candidate for a high-quality discussion. Think about it—you’d have a much larger pool of artists who actually deserve a mention.

brightwolf48 said:The band isn't really unknown or anything—just maybe under the radar. But since you brought them up, here is a cover of one of their songs by an artist from that same first post, same concert and album.

I know they aren't, but if you’d read my post a bit more closely, you'd see why I mentioned them in this thread in the first place 😉
Anyway, your guy John Moreland sounds familiar to me—I have this feeling he's someone with actual taste in music ☕

So, here is a band I think actually fits this topic. I stumbled upon them by accident and they don't seem very widely known, especially over here in the States. They're an Australian group who were most active in the late 70s and early 80s. I really liked them because they have that classic 70s sound, but there's something unique about them that sets them apart from everyone else. Here are a few tracks—if you dig them, check out whatever else the Little River Band has to offer. You won't regret it.
The Night Owl
Help Is On Its Way
Lonesome Loser

Some of the tracks by Moreland actually made an appearance in the soundtrack for Sons of Anarchy.

Anarchy in Sweden.

Not really, but the vocals...

Iggy Pop! 😁

Hmm...

Brandi Carlile. It’s not like she’s some stranger to us, but she’s finally really here. Maybe this is the year she finally takes home her first
Grammy, or perhaps even a few more given all those nominations.

Other Lives... honestly, one of those rare indie bands that I actually love.

Back in March 2014, I was at the Pogorausch festival near Munich and caught three Oi! bands live that I hadn't even heard of before that weekend.

Bishops Green:

Perkele:

Evil Conduct:

Back in the punk scene, there was this brief window of time where you could actually snag a few tracks from an album directly from the Epitaph website. I happened to stumble upon these guys from Sweden:

The Accidents (which, as it turns out, is where my handle comes from)

And a little bit of psychobilly from Denmark—The Nekromantix

@Susan Hernandez
These Viagra Boys guys are actually great. Research Chemicals is even better, though—it’s got a bit of that Primal Scream groove baked into it.👍

I feel like we shouldn't go overboard with the videos (I’m way more likely to click a link like 🤷), otherwise this whole thing just turns into a bunch of playlists. It would be better if people actually wrote about the artists—like the thread was intended—and gave us a little intro so we actually have time to listen... But hey, great topic!

Noted.😉

Most of the bands I'm into aren't exactly household names here in the States, though I guess they're obscure everywhere else too. Anyway, here are a few of my random favorites:

Miranda Sex Garden—these British madrigalists I stumbled upon during the credits of some crazy horror flick I watched just because Godflesh was in it. The track is called Cut and you can't find it on YouTube, so here’s a Spotify link if that helps, along with the YouTube version of Peep Show.

MSG - Fairytales of Slavery

Miranda Sex Garden - Peep Show

Lars Pedersen, this legendary experimental guy from Norway, works with two different outfits:

Holy Toy, featuring an immigrant from Poland, Andrej Nebb, who sings in Polish quite a bit.

Holy Toy - Marmur

Holy Toy - When

When—which is mostly just Pedersen's solo project.

When - The Valley of the Dead

This eerie collage is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It's actually inspired by that horror novel The Valley of the Dead by Andre Bjerke (aka Bernhard Borge).

One of those acts I came across while traveling through Canada—Shyam. For their first album, Željo daleč stran, they actually picked up a Zlateg Petelin (think of it like a local Grammy or something) for best rock album. Really solid music, great vocals, and the lyrics especially hit hard.

Shyam - Trenje

José González - Heartbeats

I’ve really been vibing to this lately... just feeling a bit sentimental, I guess. It’s actually an acoustic cover of a song by Knife. 🙂 It adds such a romantic layer compared to the original, even though the lyrics were always meant to feel that way.

Been spinning Hugo Largo a lot lately—an American outfit that dropped two thirty-minute albums back in the late '80s. Michael Stipe from R.E.M. produced the first one and even jumped in on backing vocals for a few tracks. We’re talking two bass guitars, a violin, and Mimi Goese’s ecstatic vocals. No drums at all, despite what the title of the first record suggests. Killer stuff. 👍

drum
mettle

Onnakodom(child woman), a Japanese band with a setup pretty similar to the ones I just mentioned—bass guitars, violin, and female vocals. Both bands pull off this totally unique vibe by ditching the backbone of any standard rock or pop group—you know, the rhythm guitar and the drums.

when she ascends for steps
stray sheep

^I'm sitting here listening to "Drum" right now and man, they are absolutely fantastic. Thanks for the recommendation...

No links.

Sheila Chandra - ABoneCroneDrone. A '96 album. She’s a former musician—due to health issues, she’s practically mute today (a heavy story). I first stumbled upon this in some ultra-highbrow dive bar and was floored; over the last twenty years, I've kept rediscovering it by pure accident. It’s a striking blend of raw and polished, acoustic and digital, glossolalia meets structure. And, naturally, there are traces of India and Europe in there—but you'd need someone more academic than me to truly unpack that.

Great topic 👍

I really love how diverse the musical genres have been so far. It makes this whole discussion much more meaningful and, frankly, way more interesting for everyone here. I’m hoping this thread keeps heading in that direction, and maybe I’ll be able to drop some recommendations of my own down the road.

Looking at what’s been shared up to this point, I’d have to highlight Hugo Largo and Onnakodom. There’s something uniquely special about them—they feel a bit more unconventional and perhaps even higher quality than the rest of the links provided.

Sheila Chandra also strikes me as a high-quality artist, even if the album ABoneCroneDrone isn't exactly easy on my ears. Still, her broader discography definitely deserves an investigation once I find the time.

Crippled Black Phoenix, Other Lives, and Brandi Carlile all look intriguing, so I’m adding them to my "must-listen" list.

Heartless Bastards have been on my radar for a while now. My impression of them is a bit mixed, to be honest; some of their tracks are fantastic, some are perfectly fine for background listening, and others just don't do it for me at all.

As for the rest, there might be a few gems worth adding to a playlist, though nothing jumps out as being particularly groundbreaking or worth a deep dive right away. Once I finally get around to diving into Bruce Springsteen—which is high on my priority list—I might also check out some work from Little River Band, Matt Andersen, John Moreland, and José González.

Kudos also for bringing up The band in this context. They aren't exactly household names here in the States, as far as I can tell. I listened to them ages ago during my folk, blues, rock, and psychedelic phase, mostly because of their collaboration with Bob Dylan. I actually recently rediscovered them after stumbling upon The Last Waltz on YouTube.