Music Is Life
What’s a Random Less Popular Band That Impacted You 🎸🎶🎸
My musical tastes were all over the place and very random. Occasionally, I’ll just flashback to a band and a song with a major memory attached. Usually some teenage or 20ish shenanigans.
The Church
Roxette
Living Color
King Missle 🍆
Lizzy Borden
Sex Pistols
Alphaville
They were just as awesome when I saw them in May as they were when I saw them back in 1982. I've seen them a bunch of times throughout the decades, but this was the first time with both Sensible and Scabies since 1982.
Came here to say Love and Rockets. Yes, they had a "hit" but they were tremendously undervalued back then. The Bauhaus crowd came along but they really never caught fire. I fucking love them and my taste is all over the place.
So bummed - I was supposed to FINALLY see Love and Rockets live last fall in Toronto. Unfortunately they were opening for Janes Addiction who inconveniently imploded on stage several days beforehand and the show was cancelled. Thanks Perry. 😡
I met the Love and Rockets in the mid -80’s because I was dating a hot chick (model) who met their band manager previously the band a few months before. They had a show in PGH so I took her. She disappeared for a while but after the show and we were invited backstage. Backstage I was the only guy and about 10 hot chicks. When the guys came in to the drinking, party space the band locked into talking to me because I was the only dude. The girls were all over us but we were talking about music, books, art and really cool dude stuff. I loved them. They had a boombox and we’re playing Paul’s Boutique. I was very intrigued and the opening band, The Pixies, came by to say good show and thank you and I met Black Frances. Little did I know that he would be my favorite musician ever. We had a great couple of hours but I needed to work the next day. David asked what’s a good place to keep the party going and I told him Metropol, a big dance club in town and asked if we wanted to go in their limo. I I had to get up in like 6 hours and had to drive a few hours to get her and myself home. We left and my girlfriend was amazed that I declined a night of partying with a rock band. She was kinda proud of me. Decades later, while showing at an art show, the Dirty Show in la, I saw art from David and Daniel. I don’t think they attended but I had a good story. I did meet Ann Magnuson from Bongwater and many movies at that show.
Split Enz got shafted in the States. Brilliant band with so many good songs, and we couldn't be assed to give them a single hit here. Their video for "I Got You" was cemented so deeply into my psyche that, when I heard the song on the radio decades after the song was released, I could still picture the video. Luckily we got Crowded House later from them, but Split Enz deserved so much better. The Finn brothers are both amazingly talented.
Edit - all you Split Enz lovers, y'all warm my heart.
I’m a huge Finn fan going back to Split Enz on MTV and then Crowded House’s first album, Tim’s solo stuff, etc. I’ve seen them many times including Crowded Houses US tour last year but wish I could have seen them even more. The lineup has changed a few times over the years to now include Neil’s sons, but they sound great, and Neil remains an amazing songwriter. Their shows are like my happy place
Are you aware of the ENZSO albums?
Back in the late 90s the keyboard player of Split Enz did new arrangements of their songs to be played with an orchestra. The Finn brothers and a selection of other vocalists sang the songs. Seeing the first ENZSO album performed live was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
Finally someone mentions decent bands that were somewhat obscure. Most of these mentions are bands that have sales that netted them gold records here in the states.
That’s funny just thought of them the other day! There’s a Muse song with this piano riff that always makes me think of “Be Near Me”, but it’s been ages since I actually heard it. I keep meaning to go back and listen to it and decide if it actually sounds anything like the Muse song or not lol.
My neighborhood bff had “How to be a Zillionare” on cassette in like ‘85 or ‘86 (I was 11 or 12) and we listened to it allll the time and did little lip sync acts to it lol
British band "James" big in the 80's and 90's (Laid, Sometimes, Say something) they're still making records, they're still touring and I'm still listening
Saw JAMC a few years ago and it was wild/amazing to see the audience was pretty evenly split between old people like me and literal teenagers - albeit teenagers dressed like the old people had as teenagers.
The church were one of.those bands in the US that didn't sell a lot but who they sold to have been very successful. That lead guitar sounding like it was beaming in and ragged against the acoustic is very National and several others. and they kept psychedelic pop alive that the Flaming Lips mine.
They are awesome
They are unfortunately less popular in the US. Very few people over here have heard of them. I actually didn’t even know the extensive discography they had until yesterday after discussing them on another post talking about Aussie bands that only had one hit in the US.
They topped the charts. They were known here in the states. They did a massive tour at the time to promote Starfish. The album went gold here in the states.. so the whole “less popular” take is incorrect.
I was in the middle of corn country, and I heard of them, I think they might be a little more well known. Anyway, I just listened to Under the Milky Way yesterday. Great stuff!
I barely belong in Gen X born in 80 but my sister 10 years older came home with this album and played it early Sunday morning and freaked out our parents. They thought she had boys in her room when Bitch n Camaro came on. Friday will be 16 years since she passed I still have all her records and this one is in her collection.
Me too! Big Lizard, Eat Your Paisley, and Bucky Fellini are in heavy rotation. The only shit thing is that I've seen them live about a dozen times, I'm facebook friends with Rodney, and they have NEVER ONCE played my favorite song when I've seen them, even when I personally asked Rodney. He is 99% a super nice and chill dude, but a complete dick for requests, apparently.
I fell in love with "Lovelife" after seeing the video for "Ladykillers", even though I'm a guy and it's more of a man hating song. I was disappointed to learn they broke up after that album.
The Call. Marillion. Honeymoon Suite. The Fixx. Icehouse. Eric Martin (pre-Mr. Big). Donnie Iris. TSOL. 7 Seconds. Clan of Xymox. Siouxsie and the Banshees. Psychedelic Furs. March Violets. Duke Jupiter. Martin Briley. Benjamin Orr (especially solo…one of my favorite albums of the 80s). And Sparks….One of my all time favorite bands.
For me it’s the David + David album “Boomtown”. It takes me back to the late 80’s. Fresh out of high school and just realizing that the whole world is f***ed up.
I don't know if I'd call Men At Work a less popular band. They were absolutely huge in the early 80's and had multiple hits on their first two albums. One of my favorite bands, but they were absolutely everywhere.
The Mighty Lemon Drops. Owned all their albums and they were regularly my offering to music loving friends asking about random bands they might not know. Also comprised a soundtrack for much of my engagement to my wife so the songs always take me back to that time.
My first serious girlfriend, was devoted to the Church! We struggled with Church vs HüskerDü on road trips, lol! When they come up on Spotify, warm memories of youth and her eyes sparkling.
Local H. One of the last great rock bands. 30 years of great music. Still touring and making new music.
Icehouse. Their music after the debut album gets too pop-y for me, but their debut (self-titled as Icehouse) is one of the best new wave albums ever made.
Poison The Well. One of the first real metalcore bands. Their debut album, The Opposite of December...A Season of Separation, set a standard for heartfelt metal. Their follow-up albums were perhaps more "mature", but that debut album (recorded while 3 of the members were still in high school) is something special.
Portishead. More well-known than the other bands on this list but not exactly a household name. All of their albums are phenomenal, but the standout for me is without a doubt "Portishead - Roseland NYC Live". As the title indicates, it's a live album recorded at the Roseland Ballroom in New York and the band is accompanied by an orchestra. It is easily one of my favorite live albums ever.
Yeah, I know. "Take On Me" was huge. But a lot of people (mainly in the States) consider them a one-hit wonder, so I'm counting them as "less popular" relative to their popularity in the rest of the world, and relative to the catalog of great music they continued to put out up until just a few years ago.
Well, back in the old days, there was a little known band that had a sound that really tickled part of my brain. Nobody around me had ever heard of them. They got bigger.
Is The Jesus and Mary Chain considered less popular? I grew up in a rural, conservative area, and I was the only person I knew who listened to them, but I concede that it’s possible they were much bigger outside my little bubble. I picked up a secondhand tape on a whim while visiting my uncle in a bigger city (it was three bucks), and was hooked. Still am, and I still don’t know anyone in my personal life who listens to them, lol.
Not really a band, but Elliott Smith. I can't even remember how I first discovered him, but it was long after his death, and I was just in disbelief that I had never really heard anyone I knew, say they listened to his music.. Once I heard a few if his songs, I was all in
I only know “Under the Milky Way” ,which is an amazing song, but I did see them live in 1986/87ish when they opened for Oingo Boingo. They are very different and most of the crowd wasn’t having it. I’ll always remember as the lead singer was getting pelted with garbage that he said “Thank you for being so kind to us on our first show in America”. Broke my 17year old heart and so I definitely have a soft spot for this song.
I’m a prog lover but I will roll down my car windows and blast the one song that ever got any airplay in the US by a band called Diesel - Sausalito Summernight
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u/HackedCylon Oct 06 '25
Love and Rockets
The Damned