The Obscure, Unsung & Forgotten Bands Desk:

I'd like to get this huge-to-be ball rolling. I assume obscure is >50 listens for the band's top track in the past 6 months on the last.fm charts.

Band/Artist: Tragic Mulatto
circa 80's-early 90's, San Francisco

Genre: Grunge, psychedelic, noise

Comments: Apparently the weirdest band they had in San Francisco at the time, Tragic Mulatto blend Butthole Surfers with a NoMeansNo and Babes in Toyland-esque sound, with bongos and carnage. Released four albums with songs that either can sound the same, or differentiate to the extreme.

Download: Whatever you can find of theirs, good luck if you do. www.strangereaction.com has a single of theirs up.

The Reivers are criminally under-appreciated and I'm on a one man crusade to get them heard again. Its shocking that there are a handful (less than 150 at last count) who have listened to The Reivers on last.fm and that's just not right.

This Austin, Texas band play perfect power-pop with boy-girl vocals, intertwining perfectly in sweetest harmony. There's shades of country in there (if you listen hard), but i find it hard to make any real good comparisons. Melodic and Jangly, their Don Dixon produced debut Saturday is where I would suggest you start looking.

I've got a selection of their stuff that you guys can sample HERE

Hope they brighten your day as they do mine all the time.

APOLOGIES IF THE EARLIER LINK DIDN'T WORK. I've Fixed it now.

My obscure record of the week:

Pom Pom Diary - Pom Pom Diary (2005)


Picks
Love 16
Backslide
Thursday

Just 62 listeners, which is criminal. They're easilly as good as Cut Copy, who boast 16,276.

ha!..Tragic Mulatto!! good call, i have Chartreuse Toulouse l.p...very very weird to say the least

thinking of them made me think of The Mentally Ill ...amazing lo-fi,wacked out, punk.. gacy's place has been called the sickest punk record ever made ....

they rerealsed gacy's place on alternative tentacles
with extras and stuff....i think you can hear a few cut on alternative tentacles site

Band: Orbit
Album: Libido Speedway (1997)
Influences: Pixies, The Jesus & Mary Chain
Favorite Tracks: Medicine, Bicycle Song, Yeah

ok so i've been on a Tragic Mulatto kick ever since i read that first post i think Its time for them to be heard again,also.....so i uploaded all i had..... clicky

A few months ago, I did a series of journals which were a rundown of all the artists in my collection with less than 1000 listeners. Below are some links to them, in case anyone is interested:

Numbers 70 to 61

Numbers 60 to 51

Numbers 50 to 41

Numbers 40 to 31

Numbers 30 to 21

Numbers 20 to 11

The Bottom 10

Since I wrote those, I have also been introduced to The Grand Union Music Show, which has two listeners (myself and the person who introduced me). They are a lot of fun.

I just have to do New Musik, definately one of my favorite bands.

Fronted by Tony Mansfield, a musical genius, who is widely known for his producing work. He produced many bands, including A-ha, the B-52s, almost every Naked Eyes recording, Captain Sensible, The Damned and many more from the 80's to present. New Musik has a very light and poppy sound with sometimes dark and alienated lyrics. They were also one of the first bands to use the "signature" 80's drum sound, super high reverb and a sound gate. New Musik is definately one of those bands that deserved to make it big, but didn't. In the words of the AMG "New Musik's near-total lack of commercial acceptance is one of the great mysteries of early-'80s pop."

You could start with the song that got ME hooked, Hunting off of the album Warp, which happens to be their third and last album. If you like that you could then go for the rest of Warp which has other great sounds that should be listened to sush as Twelth House and The Planet Doesn't Mind.

Or you could start with the last.fm top tracks for New Musik and go with the album From A to B (I just love the name of it too), their first album. In addition to the those top two tracks (This World Of Water and Living By Numbers) is The Safe Side.

Their second album, Anywhere, isn't as synth based as From A to B, but less "instrumental" then Warp. You could think of it as a sort of bridge between the two main New Musik sounds. So chances are if you liked either one of those albums, you'll like this one (which would in turn lead you to like the last one) too. Notable songs off this album include They All Run After The Carving Knife, which has long, weird "intro", The Office, While You Wait, and From The Village.

Album covers and song previews (song links from AMG, 30 seconds in length):

From A to B
May, 1980

This World Of Water
Living By Numbers
The Safe Side


Anywhere
March, 1981

While You Wait
The Office
From The Village

Warp
March, 1982

Hunting
The Planet Doesn't Mind
Twelth House

They also had a U.S. only LP titled Sanctuary in May of 1981 which contained all songs from the albums, basically just Anywhere in a slightly different order.

And on a more personal level, my overall top New Musik songs are Twelth House, Living By Numbers, The New Evolutionist (Example 'A'), and The Safe Side.

Hope it helps.

:)


P.S.
This is my first one of these (technically my second, since I wrote thise and accidently erased it all which made me have to write it from scratch again. I think the first incarnation of this post was a lot better but it's gone.) so sorry if it's all run together and whatever. Also, this seems like more of a review then a recomendation. Sorry about that I couldn't help it. :) Any comments would be appreciated and if anyone checks them out let me know. :)

Maybe we could start a band/music review thread, and you could add a link to the band/music reviewed in the first post so you wouldn't have to search through everything to find the one you want. Just an idea.

Okay, So now I'm going for Cuff because they only have 3 tracks played once each in the last 6 months. Can anyone help me out? If you have a copy of Evaporate Can you send it to me? Dying to get my hands on it.

Somebody just uploaded one of their albums in the Built to Spill group, and I need to give it a listen. I love Doug Martsch, so I'm sure I'll like it.

(moved to more appropriate thread)

RoyDCour said:
hehe, Ozric Tentacles! wicked. haven't heard that name for years! :)

Yes one of the worlds finest space rock acts, also well deserving of a mention here (and btw it's mostly instrumental = unsung *)