Underrated Music

**Galefore** · 03-16-2009, 04:42 PM

I decided to make this topic as I was listening to Souvlaki, by Slowdive, mainly because I really wanted to plug how awesome it is. So instead of just making a topic called HAY GAIS GUESS WUT SOUVLAKI IS AWESOME, I decided to make a topic where we can all talk about albums we like that nobody else on VGF likely listens to. Yeah, it's been done before. Who cares, everybody likes showing off their tastes anyway. :P

SHOEGAZE/LO-FI/DREDG THEMED POST:

Slowdive - Souvlaki: Okay, yeah, we've all heard of Loveless, by significantly more popular Shoegazers My Bloody Valentine. And if you're anything of a fan of Shoegaze, **** yeah you know what this is. But this could even be accessed by people who don't enjoy the genre. The simple, melodic structure of each of the songs, coupled with the swirly guitars that make Shoegaze what it is, form songs that are simultaneously catchy and difficult. Machine Gun (my favorite track on this album and one of my favorite songs, period) is a perfect example: despite the squirming musical mass that creeps up and down the song to its end, it's still impossibly catchy, and Rachel Goswell's self-harmony is sweet and biting all at once, especially after the lyrics and backstory have been examined. A wonderful album. 9.5/10

Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill: While I'm on the subject of dense music and ghostly female vocals, here's one you may have missed last year. Liz Harris is an enigma to me, as I have tried researching her music (as I always do with a band I'm interested in) and have found little information. She is, however, one of the only artists still working today who keeps alive what I liked about the aforementioned Shoegazing genre: simplicity coated in noise. I always loved music that was cold and distant, as well as music like this, that was drenched in musical waves and reverberated as if in an endless hallway. Her simple, stripped down tunes are covered in reverb, and as such come off as more mysterious than they truly are. There's a lot of soul here hidden beneath the static, and it's not truly so difficult to find. 9/10

Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness: I've spammed this album to hell and back, and with a lot of merit: herein is contained Post Punk, Electronica, and a lot of Lo-Fi goodness. As the previous two albums, it's simultaneously difficult and simple, but this one is a bit more confusing. The lyrics are based on religious leaders in roman times and are nowhere to be found in the interwebs, and in a really strange way, that sort of adds to the fun of the record. This album is the most difficult on this list, but by far the most rewarding. The only negative I can find it that a few of the songs lag a bit, but even so, that's sort of the point in the dronier pieces. Try it, you might like it. 9.5/10

Dredg - El Cielo: I've plugged this a billion times. I'm just including it again because it's that awesome. 10/10

More later.

Panfan · 03-16-2009, 05:26 PM

I'd have a list, but posting on the Alt board on GameFAQs made me realize that even the most obscure of my tastes are ****ing mainstream to them.

Bomby · 03-18-2009, 10:35 PM

Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman

If you haven't heard it yet, you fail at life.

**Galefore** · 03-18-2009, 11:27 PM

^I have. Very, very good album.

Bomby · 03-19-2009, 12:00 AM

(It's my all time favorite album of any genre ever)

Perhaps we should just transform this into an "Underrated Music" thread?

Some albums I feel much of VGF would enjoy that I've never heard anyone (besides myself) talking about:

Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2
Lily Chou-Chou (Salyu) - Breathe
Butter 08 - Butter
Slum Village - Fantastic, Vol. 2
Pizzicato Five - Playboy & Playgirl
Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster
April March - Triggers
Buffalo Daughter - New Rock
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

***Booyakasha*** · 03-19-2009, 12:33 AM

Valient Thorr is an awesome lesser-known group. So is Korpiklaani.

**Galefore** · 03-19-2009, 12:46 AM

Some more stuff:

Oceansize (band): This is a prog band for a new generation. Yeah, Muse is usually the band that gets that tag, and Porcupine Tree is often touted as the genre's prime revivalists (even though they themselves attempt like most bands to deny genre), but Oceansize really fits that description. They make long, epic music that combines not only the odd time signatures and experimentalism that makes prog prog, but also newer influences like indie pop and rock, a little post-hardcore, and a healthy injection of electronica. They've released 3 LPs so far.
Ratings:
Effloresce: 8.5/10
Everyone into Position: 8.6/10
Frames: 9/10

Middle 9 - Sea That Has Become Known (Album) - I discovered this little nugget by sheer accident on a Math Rock livejournal group I found while looking for good download links a while back. They're actually (mostly) straight Jazz created by a group of relatively new Japanese fellows that has a slightly mathy tinge to its distinct flavor. I've talked about this little discovery before, and I really hope some buzz picks up for these guys, as I think they could make a name for themselves if more people knew them. 8.5/10

Panfan · 03-19-2009, 04:48 PM

I saw MGMT mentioned a few times in the "best albums of 08" thread a while ago. Still a great rec.

Random indiefag albums that may or may not be obscure to the mainstream ear:
Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Antony & The Johnsons - The Crying Light
Ayreon - The Human Equation
Butthole Surfers - Electriclarryland
Col. Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - The Big Eyeball in the Sky
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Dredg - El Cielo
Eels - Beautiful Freak
Fair to Midland - Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times is True
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
The Jesus Lizard - Goat
John Frusciante (you probably know him as RHCP's guitarist) - The Empyrean
Les Claypool - Of Whales and Woe
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (sure, MM is really popular, but this album's ten times better than their latest two put together)
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
of Montreal - The Gay Parade
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (as much as people on the internet love them, PT will probably never be popular in the mainstream. Ever.)
Smashing Pumpkins - anything after Adore (seriously, it's not that bad guys)
Thom Yorke - The Eraser

**Galefore** · 03-19-2009, 05:29 PM

^Does it make me an indiefag that I own almost all of those albums? D:

Panfan · 03-19-2009, 05:36 PM

Probably. :P

Bomby · 03-19-2009, 07:44 PM

My favorite Deerhoof album is actually Apple O. Good to see someone else mention them.

BTW, if you have a chance to see Deerhoof live, ****ing see Deerhoof live. Best concert I've ever been to.

When compared to their contemporaries, I always found the Kinks to be underrated. Of course, they're wildly popular still.

***Cosmonautical*** · 03-22-2009, 03:32 AM

I posted basically the exact same topic a while back and it went totally underappreciated, ironically, because it was about underappreciated music.

Eagle Eye · 03-22-2009, 10:42 AM

Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, completely underrated album.

Especially "Big Ole Words"

Click to view video.

Bomby · 03-22-2009, 11:08 AM

Completely ****ing underrated:

The soundtracks to All About Lily Chou-Chou. There's two of them, actually: Arabesque and Breathe.

Breathe is truly ****ing spectacular, just like the movie All About Lily Chou-Chou itself.

Love Experiment
Wings That Can't Fly
Resonance (Empty Soul)

**Galefore** · 03-22-2009, 12:25 PM

^^^Yeah, as I said in the first post I knew that someone else had done it before me. I just didn't feel like finding and bumping it.

LAZINESS HOOOOO

ShyGuy727 · 03-24-2009, 03:45 AM

Tokyo Police Club

Dylan · 03-24-2009, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bomby

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

I don't know if MGMT is underrated, but regardless, that album is amazing.

Auron · 03-24-2009, 11:41 AM

Are you talking underrated from a widespread perspective or underrated within each given genre. I would classify almost everything I listen to as underrated because none of it is even remotely close to being mainstream, but a lot of it is highly regarded within its own genre.

ShyGuy727 · 03-24-2009, 11:59 AM

The majority of college kids worth talking to know who MGMT is, I'd say.

Bomby · 03-24-2009, 12:57 PM

I was just grabbing titles through my iTunes.

03-16-2009, 04:42 PM	#1
Galefore EXPLOSION GOD OF MUSIC Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Some studio somewhere Gender: Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 1,361 Thanked 826 Times in 535 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Underrated Music I decided to make this topic as I was listening to Souvlaki, by Slowdive, mainly because I really wanted to plug how awesome it is. So instead of just making a topic called HAY GAIS GUESS WUT SOUVLAKI IS AWESOME, I decided to make a topic where we can all talk about albums we like that nobody else on VGF likely listens to. Yeah, it's been done before. Who cares, everybody likes showing off their tastes anyway. :P SHOEGAZE/LO-FI/DREDG THEMED POST: Slowdive - Souvlaki: Okay, yeah, we've all heard of Loveless, by significantly more popular Shoegazers My Bloody Valentine. And if you're anything of a fan of Shoegaze, **** yeah you know what this is. But this could even be accessed by people who don't enjoy the genre. The simple, melodic structure of each of the songs, coupled with the swirly guitars that make Shoegaze what it is, form songs that are simultaneously catchy and difficult. Machine Gun (my favorite track on this album and one of my favorite songs, period) is a perfect example: despite the squirming musical mass that creeps up and down the song to its end, it's still impossibly catchy, and Rachel Goswell's self-harmony is sweet and biting all at once, especially after the lyrics and backstory have been examined. A wonderful album. 9.5/10 Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill: While I'm on the subject of dense music and ghostly female vocals, here's one you may have missed last year. Liz Harris is an enigma to me, as I have tried researching her music (as I always do with a band I'm interested in) and have found little information. She is, however, one of the only artists still working today who keeps alive what I liked about the aforementioned Shoegazing genre: simplicity coated in noise. I always loved music that was cold and distant, as well as music like this, that was drenched in musical waves and reverberated as if in an endless hallway. Her simple, stripped down tunes are covered in reverb, and as such come off as more mysterious than they truly are. There's a lot of soul here hidden beneath the static, and it's not truly so difficult to find. 9/10 Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness: I've spammed this album to hell and back, and with a lot of merit: herein is contained Post Punk, Electronica, and a lot of Lo-Fi goodness. As the previous two albums, it's simultaneously difficult and simple, but this one is a bit more confusing. The lyrics are based on religious leaders in roman times and are nowhere to be found in the interwebs, and in a really strange way, that sort of adds to the fun of the record. This album is the most difficult on this list, but by far the most rewarding. The only negative I can find it that a few of the songs lag a bit, but even so, that's sort of the point in the dronier pieces. Try it, you might like it. 9.5/10 Dredg - El Cielo: I've plugged this a billion times. I'm just including it again because it's that awesome. 10/10 More later.

03-19-2009, 07:44 PM	#11
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,491 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	My favorite Deerhoof album is actually Apple O. Good to see someone else mention them. BTW, if you have a chance to see Deerhoof live, ***ing see Deerhoof live. Best concert I've ever been to. When compared to their contemporaries, I always found the Kinks to be underrated. Of course, they're wildly popular still. Last edited by Bomby; 03-19-2009 at 08:38 PM.*

03-22-2009, 11:08 AM	#14
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,491 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Completely ***ing underrated: The soundtracks to All About Lily Chou-Chou. There's two of them, actually: Arabesque* and Breathe. Breathe is truly ***ing spectacular, just like the movie All About Lily Chou-Chou* itself. Love Experiment Wings That Can't Fly Resonance (Empty Soul) Last edited by Bomby; 03-22-2009 at 11:14 AM.

03-16-2009, 05:26 PM	#2
Panfan AND HE PRAYS Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Grayskull Gender: Posts: 18,806 Thanks: 1,405 Thanked 2,250 Times in 1,338 Posts Blog Entries: 15	I'd have a list, but posting on the Alt board on GameFAQs made me realize that even the most obscure of my tastes are ****ing mainstream to them.

03-18-2009, 10:35 PM	#3
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,491 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman If you haven't heard it yet, you fail at life.

03-18-2009, 11:27 PM	#4
Galefore EXPLOSION GOD OF MUSIC Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Some studio somewhere Gender: Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 1,361 Thanked 826 Times in 535 Posts Blog Entries: 5	^I have. Very, very good album.

03-19-2009, 12:00 AM	#5
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,491 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	(It's my all time favorite album of any genre ever) Perhaps we should just transform this into an "Underrated Music" thread? Some albums I feel much of VGF would enjoy that I've never heard anyone (besides myself) talking about: Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2 Lily Chou-Chou (Salyu) - Breathe Butter 08 - Butter Slum Village - Fantastic, Vol. 2 Pizzicato Five - Playboy & Playgirl Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster April March - Triggers Buffalo Daughter - New Rock MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

03-19-2009, 12:33 AM	#6
*Booyakasha* SuperMod of War Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Wisconsinland Gender: Posts: 9,945 Thanks: 157 Thanked 1,481 Times in 763 Posts	Valient Thorr is an awesome lesser-known group. So is Korpiklaani.

03-19-2009, 12:46 AM	#7
Galefore EXPLOSION GOD OF MUSIC Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Some studio somewhere Gender: Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 1,361 Thanked 826 Times in 535 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Some more stuff: Oceansize (band): This is a prog band for a new generation. Yeah, Muse is usually the band that gets that tag, and Porcupine Tree is often touted as the genre's prime revivalists (even though they themselves attempt like most bands to deny genre), but Oceansize really fits that description. They make long, epic music that combines not only the odd time signatures and experimentalism that makes prog prog, but also newer influences like indie pop and rock, a little post-hardcore, and a healthy injection of electronica. They've released 3 LPs so far. Ratings: Effloresce: 8.5/10 Everyone into Position: 8.6/10 Frames: 9/10 Middle 9 - Sea That Has Become Known (Album) - I discovered this little nugget by sheer accident on a Math Rock livejournal group I found while looking for good download links a while back. They're actually (mostly) straight Jazz created by a group of relatively new Japanese fellows that has a slightly mathy tinge to its distinct flavor. I've talked about this little discovery before, and I really hope some buzz picks up for these guys, as I think they could make a name for themselves if more people knew them. 8.5/10

03-19-2009, 04:48 PM	#8
Panfan AND HE PRAYS Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Grayskull Gender: Posts: 18,806 Thanks: 1,405 Thanked 2,250 Times in 1,338 Posts Blog Entries: 15	I saw MGMT mentioned a few times in the "best albums of 08" thread a while ago. Still a great rec. Random indiefag albums that may or may not be obscure to the mainstream ear: Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam Antony & The Johnsons - The Crying Light Ayreon - The Human Equation Butthole Surfers - Electriclarryland Col. Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - The Big Eyeball in the Sky Deerhoof - The Runners Four Deerhunter - Microcastle Dredg - El Cielo Eels - Beautiful Freak Fair to Midland - Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times is True The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy The Jesus Lizard - Goat John Frusciante (you probably know him as RHCP's guitarist) - The Empyrean Les Claypool - Of Whales and Woe Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (sure, MM is really popular, but this album's ten times better than their latest two put together) Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea of Montreal - The Gay Parade Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (as much as people on the internet love them, PT will probably never be popular in the mainstream. Ever.) Smashing Pumpkins - anything after Adore (seriously, it's not that bad guys) Thom Yorke - The Eraser

03-19-2009, 05:29 PM	#9
Galefore EXPLOSION GOD OF MUSIC Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Some studio somewhere Gender: Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 1,361 Thanked 826 Times in 535 Posts Blog Entries: 5	^Does it make me an indiefag that I own almost all of those albums? D:

03-19-2009, 05:36 PM	#10
Panfan AND HE PRAYS Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Grayskull Gender: Posts: 18,806 Thanks: 1,405 Thanked 2,250 Times in 1,338 Posts Blog Entries: 15	Probably. :P

03-22-2009, 03:32 AM	#12
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,151 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	I posted basically the exact same topic a while back and it went totally underappreciated, ironically, because it was about underappreciated music.

03-22-2009, 12:25 PM	#15
Galefore EXPLOSION GOD OF MUSIC Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Some studio somewhere Gender: Posts: 8,275 Thanks: 1,361 Thanked 826 Times in 535 Posts Blog Entries: 5	^^^Yeah, as I said in the first post I knew that someone else had done it before me. I just didn't feel like finding and bumping it. LAZINESS HOOOOO

03-24-2009, 03:45 AM	#16
ShyGuy727 Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: O-H! I-O! Gender: Posts: 10,135 Thanks: 44 Thanked 77 Times in 54 Posts	Tokyo Police Club

03-24-2009, 11:41 AM	#18
Auron Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Inside Gender: Posts: 6,743 Thanks: 5 Thanked 325 Times in 198 Posts	Are you talking underrated from a widespread perspective or underrated within each given genre. I would classify almost everything I listen to as underrated because none of it is even remotely close to being mainstream, but a lot of it is highly regarded within its own genre.

03-24-2009, 11:59 AM	#19
ShyGuy727 Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: O-H! I-O! Gender: Posts: 10,135 Thanks: 44 Thanked 77 Times in 54 Posts	The majority of college kids worth talking to know who MGMT is, I'd say.

03-24-2009, 12:57 PM	#20
Bomby You just freaking blew Joe Biden's mind! Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: WHAT?house Gender: Posts: 19,491 Thanks: 513 Thanked 1,449 Times in 849 Posts Blog Entries: 5	I was just grabbing titles through my iTunes.