In general, Parliament/Funkadelic has a ton of artists within its scope worth exploring. George Clinton is probably the most famous among them, but there’s also Eddie Hazel, Bootsy Collins, Gary Shider and his son Garrett Shider, Fred Wesley, and a lot more.
I also recently discovered a Japanese artist called Masaki Ueda who seems criminally unknown.
Eddie Hazel is one of the best guitarist ever. For those not familiar just give Maggot Brain a listen. It was completely improvised and record in one take.
The P-Funk has been in my playlist rotation for like 15 years now
And Rick James.
AFAIK Rick James was never associated with Parliament/Funkadelic (not that he isn’t also an underrated artist).
Way too many to list but I’ll throw one out. Do you like Radiohead, REM, The National, Pixies, Frank Turner, or Dinosaur Jr.? Well, they (or their lead singer) all love Mark Mulcahy’s music enough to have recorded a cover song for the tribute album when Mark’s wife passed.
Mark led the band Miracle Legion, released some solo work, and led the band Polaris (not the metal band from Australia), best known as the band from the show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Also noteworthy: Miracle Legion toured and released an EP with The Sugarcubes, aka Bjork’s band.
Song recommendations: The Backyard, All For The Best by Miracle Legion - Hey Sandy, Saturnine by Polaris - Taking Baby Steps, The Fiddler, Hey Self Defeater by Mark Mulcahy.
Album recommendations: Drenched by Miracle Legion, Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete by Polaris, and Fathering by Mark Mulcahy.
Jukebox the ghost. Criminally underrated, they’d have been as big as queen or muse if they had the right publicity and timing.
The Tallest Man on Earth. Probably the best modern folk artist, but not as well known as he should be.
Aimee Mann. One of the best songwriters of the 90s and 2000s. Popular, but not as much as she should be.
Placebo.
Talk Talk. Spirit of Eden is one of the greatest albums ever made, but not many people know about it.
Tallest man is really good. And if you see him live, his tallness will surprise you.
Just listened into Jukebox the ghost a little and their music is amazing! Thanks mr lemmy dev!
No probs!
+1 on jukebox the ghost
Nick Drake.
Years ahead of his time and while he gets a lot of recognition posthumously in certain music circles, he didn’t have any hits during his life, or even any hits after, so the average Joe hasn’t heard of him.
All three of his albums are fantastic, though Five Leaves Left is my favorite.
Road is such a sad song, pretending not to be a sad song. And yes his whole catalog of subtle, beautiful music, he was a genius.
Odd recommendation but Hayes Carll the country singer, I love him and told one of my friends part of what I find so compelling about his music is that you can always hear in his voice this edge of sadness, even in his really happy songs (and he’s good at happy songs) it sounds like he knows it can’t last. That is part of what I really appreciate about Nick Drake, he wasn’t good at hiding the sadness in his voice, and it adds depth to everything he is singing.
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Thank You Scientist
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Tesseract
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Panzerballett
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Ado
Hell yes on Thank You Scientist
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Knower - pretty fucking sweet music with a good sense of humor.
They are definitely one of the most criminally underrated bands. But they’re all DIY, so they’re pretty popular for a DIY band. I think Genevieve’s solo stuff really deserves more attention as well. Louis seems to be doing alright for himself, though.
The metalcore band Harm. IMO better than Spiritbox but only has like 3000 montly listeners on Spotify.
Easily Fish in a Birdcage, my number one vibeing artist.
Amigo the Devil - Cocaine and Abel, Perfect Wife, Murder at the Bingo Hall, Hell and You, Hungover in Jonestown… If one of these songs doesn’t grab you, I don’t think we can be friends
Froglord - The Mystic Toad, Wednesday, Army of Frogs
Snakemother - they only have one ~40 minute album, listen to it from start to finish. The first 5 minutes or so are pretty different than the rest so give it a chance.
Edit: came back to add Hippie Death Cult, my fave songs are Hornet Party, Nice to Know You, and Arise which is from the new album Helichrysum - worth giving the whole thing a listen as I think it’s their best work to date
Bump for Amigo the Devil. One Kind of People is a great upbeat song too. Always make me happy.
My kids say I don’t have a good handle on which bands are popular, just listen to what I like and then get surprised when one band comes to play the stadium and another a little bar. So they taught me to look at the count of YouTube subscribers and these guys are way more good than popular
Joshua Ray Walker
Ramsay Midwood
And famous but not nearly as popular as they are good?
Janelle Monae
Parker Millsap
Inhaler
Gone but never got the success they really ought to have gotten. We saw these guys any chance we got they were so freaking amazing.
J Roddy Walston and the Business
Janelle Monae is fantastic, an all around great creative person. She’s been getting recognition for her acting at least.
Janelle Monae is the only artist from this list I uplift tbh; the Arch-Android was pure fire
Electric Storm by White Noise. Included the lady who recorded the Dr Who theme.
Ozric Tentacles
Do they have to be recent or alive? If not:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - if there is any one person that can be attributed with inventing Rock’n’Roll, it is her, and she gets far too little credit for it. Watch this docu about her to find out more, or even better yet, listen to her songs.
Neko Case! The voice of God with red hair, I call her. Also her other supergroup band The New Pornographers is amazing. A one of a kind voice.
Also Drive-By Truckers should be considered a worldwide treasure.
Listening to Dadi Freyr right now!
I feel like you are my coworker Mike.
