By Nilpferd
A stunning response to last week's topic with an endless roster of underrated bands and artists taking their bow on the Song Bar stage. I hope many will return for other themes now that we've been introduced.
Reading up on the back-stories, as well as listening to the many different voices and styles, it struck me how much chance is involved in musical success.
So many of those nominated for this theme could have become household names, but for some quirk of fate or the whims of the music industry.
I enjoyed the justifications and the little details and anecdotes you supplied immensely, while my knowledge of the music world's more poorly lit corners has been substantially enhanced.
There was practically no overlap among nominations, which shows just how individually we perceive the injustices of musical fame and success. It also means that I've picked just 24 artists from a list of over 500 nominations, thus condemning over 95% of nominated bands to continued obscurity. Sorry about that. Anyway here is my, as ever, purely subjective selection of your tracks, barring two, all new to me.
Finally Aired Unsung A-list Playlist:
Spearmint - Sweeping the Nation (megadom)
A neat mix of self-referential on-topicness as the officially underrated Spearmint dedicate this song to "some of the best bands in the country" who never got to release a record or get played on the radio, before singer Shirley Lee suddenly realises it's his own unrealised potential he's singing about.
Peggy Jones (released as Bo Diddley) - Aztec (PopOff!)
Despite the artist credit this title was composed and performed by Peggy Jones, "The Queen Mother of guitar", aka Lady Bo, whose innovative stylings on electric guitar make for a startling early sixties rock instrumental.
Bettye LaVette - Piece of My Heart (Seth Miller)
She enjoyed a certain amount of recognition late on in her career but arguably her greatest work was done in the era of Motown and Stax, such as this passionate slice of soul, and it still hasn't entered the canon.
Gabby Young and Other Animals - We're All In This Together (Severin)
Bursting with quality, haunting and pitch-perfect, an intoxicating blend of cabaret, jazz and folk. As Severin noted, "Not a megastar yet. Something is wrong."
Cymande - Fug (pejepeine)
A melting-pot band performing a melting-pot of genres was perhaps simply too much melting-pot for early seventies Britain. They achieved some popularity in the US but disbanded early and despite a late rebirth thanks to sampling producers they haven't really yet been recognised for their groundbreaking role in British soul and funk music.
Homeboy Sandman - Life Support (DiscoMonster)
Pithy summary of why so many musicians perservere in the face of indifference...
"I'm alright, but if I stop making art then I'll die"
Piano sample incidentally taken from one of soul music's most underrated, Norman Whiteside, performing under the band name Wee, on the track I Am In Love With You.
Scotty - Worry (George Boyland)
Innovative "singjay", producer and DJ for Derrick Harriott's studio, Scotty's DJ cut over Harriott's 'Do I Worry' showcased his unique style and feel. Sidelined in the seventies before a return to music making before his death in 2003.
UK Decay - Unwind (Carpgate)
Fascinating and musically adventurous 1980 recording on the cusp between punk and goth, from a short-lived band brought down by label problems and the exhaustion of endless touring. They reformed in the 2000s and have a robust fanbase, but the impart of their early work still seems to evade musical historians.
Kleenex - Hedi's Head (Uncleben)
Zürich based punk band forced to rename themselves as LiLiPUT to avoid legal action from the paper tissue company. As guitarist (formerly saxophonist) Marlene Marder put it- "When we started, we just had the four songs and we played for our friends. It wasn't like it was staged for an audience. So we played the four songs in fifteen minutes and they'd say 'go again! go again!' so we'd play the songs again for four hours. It was such good fun that we thought 'maybe we should find out a fifth song..."
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Bout des doigts (amylee)
An ever-changing band roster and stylistic focus make this collective around the mercurial Anton Newcombe hard to pin down. A shoegaze-inspired single with French lyrics sung by Rike Bienert, which was paired with an English language version sung by Tess Parks.
Nisennenmondai - A (Live at Clouds Hill) (Traktor Albatrost)
Some minimal Japanese dance music from a Tokyo trio named for the Millennium bug. More of an acoustic virus than a digital one, this track has serious ear-worm qualities and reminds me of a similar group I once saw in a Prague basement club.
Two Lone Swordsmen - It's Not The Worst (Lali Puna remix) (MussoliniHeadkick)
Touching Lali Puna remix of the Andrew Weatherall/Keith Tenniswood track, the DJ and remixer put under the editing knife here. Weatherall died on February 17, 2020, just one person out of so many who left us in that brutal year. Countless forgotten souls. Let this track at least stand as an elegy.
No Longer Ignored B-List Playlist:
Big in Japan - Suicide a Go-Go (TarquinSpodd)
Liverpudlian punk band which flamed briefly and expired.
The Ordinarys - I Wanna Be An Ordinary (OliveButler)
Demo-only mods denied a record contract by the powers-that-be. Maybe the record honchos took the lyric too seriously. Or perhaps "ordinary" simply didn't scan properly in a composition which required a 3 syllable word. On such things, careers hang.
The Weather Station - Robber (Tincanman2010)
Intriguing blend of art pop and jazz, enticingly arranged and performed.
Wendy Waldman - Explain it (Fred Erickson)
One of the numerous talented singer-songwriters nominated who moved from performance to writing and production.
Leslie Winer - 5 (barbryn)
Mysterious proto trip-hop release by a producer-musician-poet who has since retired to a life of rural bliss in France.
The Passage - Sharp Tongue (ParaMhor)
Post-punk Mancunians with an alluring synth sound and arch lyrics who were perhaps just too clever to succeed. Slight hint of Simple Minds in the sound.
Folk Devils - Art Ghetto (vanwolf2)
Mid-eighties post-punks brought down by chemicals and chaos.
Future of the Left - Manchasm (happyclapper)
Welsh indie band who appear to be singing about a pussycat named Colin.
Yargo - The Other Side of Midnight (philipphilip99)
Manchester band with a convincing blend of soul, ska, jazz and pop which nevertheless failed to connect. This track was composed for a Granada TV series.
Nico Wayne Touissant - Mali-Mississippi (Maki)
Ex-pat Frenchman shifting easily from blues to jazz to afro-beat.
Roots Manuva - Hard Bastards (Shoegazer)
Rodney Smith aka Roots Manuva is one of Britain's most influential musicians but beyond a MOBO has little to show for it. This is one of his harder-edged rhymes, a Sleaford-Mods style diatribe against the titular Bastards.
The Verlaines - Death and the Maiden (Nicko)
Iconic "jangly" indie single by the Flying Nun band inseparable from my student years in Dunedin. Deafening gigs in cramped campus buildings impregnated with smoke and beer in aerosol form. Those were the days.
Guru’s Wildcard Picks:
The Ethics - Lost In A Lonely World
Featured by Madlib on Sound Dimensions, the exquisite vocal harmonies and arrangements of this Philly group pre-dated Motown.
Eddie Harris - Instant Death
One of the classic R&B-jazz cuts by the ever underrated Eddie, played on a trumpet with a saxophone reed and sort of a pocket-calculator amp attached.
Mary-Lou Williams - It Ain't Necessarily So
By the time she recorded this spacey, spooky rendition of the Gershwin classic in 1963 MLW had already contributed more to the development of jazz than all but a handful of her male pianist colleagues.
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic:Unsung: songs by underrated, overlooked artists and bands. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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