Butch Walker
Ben Folds
They Might Be Giants
Marshall Crenshaw
Post Passion Survivors

Ween

Big Star, i know all their albums made your 500 list, but i still don’t think theyve gotten their due, a subcategory could be Chris Bell and Alex Chilton. I would put these guys up there with the best of the best of the 70’s. Also Loudon Wainwright III…he should def be up there with Rufus.

2nd on Ben Folds.

Nick Drake
Jeff Buckley
The Replacements

Todd Rundgren
Michael Nesmith
Barenaked Ladies

the Beatles

Leonard Cohen
Tori Amos
Nick Drake

off the top of my head, definitely Husker Du. REM might have gotten the glory for expanding teh aparameters of post punk into alternative rock (and rightly so), but I think the Huskers deserve equal credit

Faith No More

Richard Thompson’s been unjustly overlooked for his entire career.

T. Rex–Marc Bolan is the most underappreciated singer, guitar player, performer and composer in rock history.Stevie Nicks–a great, individual rocker and persona…too often dismissed as fluff.

Ben Folds
Steve Earle
Spinal Tap

SLEATER-KINNEY. SLEATER KINNEY. SLEATER-KINNEY. SLEATER-KINNEY.

Ryan Adams
Postal Service
Slipknot

I would definitely put Neil Finn and Crowded House in this category.
One of the great contemporary singer/songwriters with a consistently high quality body of work.
Also:
Jeff Beck-When will RS put him on a cover as one of the all-time guitar greats/innovators still recording and performing at such a high level, and who’s outlasted so many of his contemporaries?

George Harrison solo
now that I think about it I think alot of Paul McCartney’s solo work and his work with Wings is unfairly dismissed
Billy Joel, seriously his 70’s stuff is great
Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane- I didn’t even know about their album until recently and it really is one of the more enjoyable albums of the late 70’s

and based solely on the merits of their first album: Third Eye Blind

uhh…. HELLOOO!?!?!?!? The Tragically Hip!!!!!! its PATHETIC they aren’t huge. Lyrics like Bob Dylan and a band that makes better rock music than anyone else out there…..

NOT the CARS, please.
The Mother’s of Invention
The Doors -aside from Jim
Cream

The Beatles will never be fully appreciated until high school history textbooks 100 years from now place them with Da Vinci and Shakespeare in terms of their true genius and influence on popular culture.

Elliott Smith
Blackalicious
Eels

WEEN

And Ben Folds.

Sonic Youth are respected, but not as big as they should be.
Sleater-Kinney have paid they’re dues, but deserve a way larger audience, even if they are broken up.

2nd Jeff Beck too, all Jimmy Page and Robert Plant did on the first Led Zeppelin album was rip off the Jeff Beck’s group album, “Truth”

-G. Love & Special Sauce-
-Ugly Duckling-
-Pigeon John-
-Eels-
-Cake-

BLUES EXPLOSION!

I have to say SILVERCHAIR. Their 3 most recent albums are pure genious and nothing from their early grunge. Ask David Fricke. GENIUS!

Television

Tool. Aenema is as good as any album from the 90s and Lateralus as any from this decade. So wtf?

And to say the Beatles are underrated is a gross fallacy.

The Hip

Afghan Whigs
Dinsaur Jr.

Slipknot- just flat out good metal
My Morning Jacket- Legendary
Eagles of Death Metal- Great rock
Blind Melon- so much more than the one song

There are tons of great artists to put in this list, but a few that come to mind are Queensryche, Faith No More, Kings X, Extreme, Dream Theater and Tears For Fears. All these bands had some success, but they are never given their fair amount of praise by the mainstream press.

This one is easy….Soul Asylum!

Arctic Monkeys!
Lemonheads
The Cardigans
Hüsker Dü
Nirvana
The Posies
Saves the Day
Zwan

Cake
Eels
Tori Amos
Ani DiFranco
Portishead

Blues Explosion
Gillian Welch

Midnight oil
The Fixx
Ween
The Church
Echo and the bunnymen

Townes Van Zant

Marc bolan and TREX are so totally ignored its not funny

PETER GABRIEL — singer/composer/producer/activ ist. He’s respected but cruelly ignored.

Graham Parker

tears for fears

The Kinks. Well regarded, but not nearly enough.

1) Butch Walker
2) Butch Walker
3) Butch Walker
4) Butch Walker
5) Butch Walker

The Kinks, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Yardbirds

Prince Paul
311
Incubus
Hanson
Luscious Jackson
Eels
Sonic Youth
…And you will know us by the trail of Dead
and BLACKSTAR (Talib and Mos Def – most influential rappers of all time)

URANUS
THE GRAVITY OF URANUS
URANUS AND ITS MOTHER
THE WIND FROM URANUS
BUTTHOLE SURFERS ON URANUS

Smashing Pumpkins
Jeff Buckley
Tim Buckley
Television

Blind Melon, Midnight Oil, Joseph Arthur, Doves, Mute Math, Dirty Three, etc.

Okkervil River

Just a Few!
Grant Lee Buffalo
Okkervil River
Ryan Adams
Violent Femnes
Wilco
Sun Volt
Archers of Loaf- Heck anything with Eric Bachman!!
Neutral Milk Hotel
Ben Folds
Public Enemy

Hold The Phones there Alex Turner > 50 cent!!
Nirvana, Arctic Monkeys? they are everywhere! Two out of every three teenagers has a nirvana t shirt. The arctic monkeys had the biggest selling debut album ever! How is that underrated?!
And as for the lemonheads, they had one good song, that was a cover version, the rest were mediocre at best, boring at worst. Evan Dando tried too hard to be something hes not, a musical genius

Blind Melon
Blur
Space Hog was underated, I don’t know what they do now. If there is in fact a Space Hog
Primus
I agree with everyone else about Ben Folds, he’s awesome

No one has said Rush yet. So… Rush.

Nick Drake
Wishbone Ash
Mike Watt
Hank Williams III

TORI AMOS
TORI AMOS
TORI AMOS
TORI AMOS
TORI AMOS

Alice in Chains, Tragically Hip, and Otis Redding.

The Zombies
The Animals
The Dave Clark Five

the Cranberries! everyone shoyuld go to youtube and listen to Zombie, Linger, Salvation or Dreams right now!
Especially zombie, which is about the irish civil war and the false patriotism that till pervades modern irish, especially northern irish youth. (”Its the same, old dream, since 1916″)

Nirvana is overrated, not underrated. Not surprisingly after that statement, my candidate would be Pearl Jam. I think people completely overlook the entire second half of their still continuing career and don’t give them enough credit as an important american rock and roll band outside of the grunge era.

Cheap Trick x3. These guys should be retired by now.

townes van zandt
the kinks
wilco
tribe called quest
the replacements

I don’t know if ELO should be worshipped but they are definately worthy of more respect than they get.
I second Third Eye Blind, I’d say their first two CDs deserve to be put on greatest ever lists, not at the top of course, but definately there. They’re definately one of the best bands of the 90’s, and they’ve been unfairly lumped with some terrible bands from that time.

Butch Walker is great, but hardly as underappreciated as the Cars or Cheap Trick. Give him a few years. He’s still young, and his time may come soon.

1. Nick Lowe
2. New Order
3. Mavis Staples

NRBQ
Cheap Trick
Oasis

btw whoever put Alice In Chains is my hero, completely overlooked as having one of the greatest vocalists ever, even though everyone rips his style off today. And even though Morrsion is an icon, I think the Doors are lost in the pantheon of bands from the 60s, in terms of respect for their music and impact on pop culture today.

Ween

weezer – started a whole new genre of music pretty much
ryan adams
the strokes
the kinks
the velvot underground

TELEVISION
NICK DRAKE
LOVE
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART
JEFF BUCKLEY

and Electric Six! A lot of people have never even heard of these guys and those people are missing out on lots of fun.

The Roots, The Roots, The Roots!

Tears For Fears, Ryan Adams,

Raphael Sadiq, Raphael Sadiq, Raphael Sadiq

PEARL JAM!

Oh, and the Kinks, most definitely. And CCR.

And I say Oasis because I consider them one of the 5 GREATEST rock bands of all time, and most in the US just blow them off as the “Wonderwall” band.

ween
ben folds
postial service
say hi to your mom
my american heart
kill hannah
ecscape the faith
we are the fury
midnight movies
levy
the black lips

Wilco
Digable Planets
Soul Coughing
Tears for Fears
King Crimson
Faith No More

I agree with your pick. Here are a few other artist I think are underappreciated:
XTC
Frank Zappa
Rush
Midnight Oil
Dandy Warhols
Pixies
Str angle rs
J oe Jackson
Tom Waits
Kate Bush
Fishbone
John Hiatt
Jeff Beck
Camper Van Beethoven

Hanson.
Hanson.
Hanson.

Swans

Anyone who did rock and roll before 1955.

Slipknot

Oh Dara…the bands I named are not nearly as relavent in the US as you would think. Arctic Monkeys haven’t even gone gold here. As for Nirvana-well, they’re underground once again and most teenagers don’t even know who they are. A good thing actually. Listen to Car Button Cloth by the lemonheads. You’ll figure it out-I promise!

King Crimson (all incarnations)
Peter Gabriel
Michael Schenker
Mahogany Rush
Robin Trower
Kraftwerk

Cranberries
Live
Chico Science & Nação Zumbi
Mimi Maura
Imogen Heap
Aterciopelados
Björk

Pearl Jam-the best band ever, and most don’t know it
Blind Melon-Simply beautiful
Faith No More-probably 10 years before their time
Primus-most talented ever

the vines
soul coughing
the thermals
yeah yeah yeahs
the roots

Morphine! There will never be another band that sounds quite like Morphine.

And I’m a hundred percent with everyone who said Ben Folds. I saw him live once and was very impressed. He’s virtuostic.

Trey Anastasio,
The New Deal,
The BlacK Crows,
Jimmy Cliff
Jeff Beck,
Billy Joel,
Warren Haynes

Ben Harper
the Roots
Paul McCartney
the WHO- best band ever!

The Kinks
Midnight Oil
Jeff Beck
Mink (Willie) DeVille
Poco
Gil Scott-Heron
Larry Graham

- Jellyfish

Enough said.

STEVE MILLER BAND!!!!!!!

EELS

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

The Knack

***ACE OF BASE***

Tom Waits
Lindsey Buckingham
Jackson Browne
Also, do you think Brian Wilson is worshipped enough?

Self

Failure, Year of the Rabbit (Ken Andrews in general)

Keane
Three Days Grace
Editors

jeff buckley
poison the well
the refused
elliot smith
alice in chains
mogwai
at the drive-in (they fucked them selves on that one… sparta and mars volta does not at the drive-in make…)

Mark Lanegan
Garbage
Queens of the Stone Age
PJ Harvey
Courtney Love

Indigo Girls

Joe Jackson

also…
Aimee Mann
Bill Withers

For all those canadian bands or artists out there that get no attention.
-Our Lady Peace
-The Tragically Hip
-The Trews
-Sam Roberts

For sure XTC. And I don’t think that Elliot Smith, the Replacements, Big Star, and Nick Drake ever received the widespread public recognition they deserved.

RORY GALLAGHER

Mudhoney
Blind Melon
Rush

Catherine Wheel
Hum

2 bands that put out multiple albums due to cult support and their label’s faith, but ultimately folded shop (not broke up) due to never fully breaking.

The question is- Are we talking about bands that are underrated in america, or europe?
Im from europe, and it appears that some people consider european bands that are huge over here, to be underrated in the usa. Similarily, i imagine bands like Dave Matthews band, who are underrrated over here, are big in the states.

The Black Keys
Captain Beefheart
Cat Power
Frank Zappa
Jeff Beck
Kyuss
Mark Lanegan
MC5
PJ Harvey
Tom Waits

Deep Purple
The Pixies

The Slip & Antibalas

Liz Phair
311
The Strokes
Counting Crows

as youknowit said The Tragically Hip should be up there. They should be a household name and selling out stadiums – anyone who wants two great CD’s need to pick up Up to Here & Road Apples

THE BLOOD BROTHERS!!!!!

XTC
The English Beat/General Public
They Might Be Giants
Randy Newman
Eels
Lemonheads
The Free Design (a very obscure band, but influenced several!)
Afrika Bambaataa (he should have been inducted to the RRHOF before Grandmaster)
Three Dog Night

phil ochs

what? cheap trick’s amazing! also blue öyster cult and motörhead

Cheap Trick is so so true.

Of Montreal
Protest the Hero
Mars Volta
Marcy Playground
New Radicals- only one album, absolutely spectacualar
Kings of Leon- Aha Shake was criminally underrated.

And whoever said Soul Coughing, props.

rush definitely overlooked by most.
311 and fishbone pioneered the rap/rock/funk thing before numetal/rap metal ever existed. the rockof the late 90’s owes their sound to these guys.

Depeche Mode
Our Lady Peace
MC 5
Oasis
Jarvis Cocker

DEFTONES!
311
Rush
Type O Negative!

Spiritualized, formerly Spaceman3
Jay Spaceman is amazing.

Jefferson Airplane
Pretty Things
Funkadelic
Rotary Connection
Sade
Anoushka Shankar
Chicago
Mountain Bus
Wilderness Road
…..(Dang senior moments)…
A bunch of others I probably should remember, their names escape me… (Sigh!) ~JBK

Second the Pixies
The Pretenders
Stooges (until just now … why’d it take 30 years?)

death cab for cutie
cake
ben folds
the cars
barenaked ladies
a perfect circle

I’ll give you two bands that are far before their time… Sunny Day Real Estate (who are the pioneers of the emo genre) and The Postal Service.

-The Kinks (Ray Davies is prolific!) and
-The Yardbirds (a nursery for all things awesome)

Afghan Whigs
Greg Dulli
Twilight Singers
Buffalo Tom
Rush
Tori Amos
Whiskeytown
Tommy Stinson
Jawbox
The Pretenders
Rancid

jamiroquai.

one of the best british bands to never break it big here.

Phish
Jim Croce
Santana

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN!!!
Alice in Chains
Janes Addiction
Faith No More
Primus
TOOL

Excellen t call on Warern Zevon!!

Sublime
Cake
Soul Coughing
FRANK JORDAN
Outsmarting simon

Oasis

Wallflowers

Beck

The View

Arctic Monkeys

tesla
megadeth
soundgarden
great white
free
iron maiden
the black crowes

A few more. . .

Faith No More
Deftones
Fugazi
Slayer
Suicidal Tendencies

Not a single mention of X? Good lord! Everybody, check out “Los Angeles”! John Doe is one of the coolest rockers of all time. Also, XTC has never gotten its due.

Incubus
Pearl Jam
Widespread Panic
Jethro Tull
A Perfect Circle
..to name a few

pavement

i’m sure some of these have already been mentioned, but i didn’t want to read through all the comments:

kraftwerk
the specials
bad brains
can
wire
the beta band
talk talk

pearl jam
alice in chains
wilco
slipknot
kings of leon
midnight oil
public enemy
tool
queens of the stone age
ben folds

BIG SUGAR

The Modern Lovers
Big head Todd and the Monsters
and as mentioned B4 prince Paul, along w/ Rick Rubin Prince Paul was an architect of the newly developing Hip-Hop sound, his 2 Handsome Boy Modeling School records bend so many genres it is hard to remember this guy helped invent modern Hip-hop.

Hall & Oates
Canned Heat
Rainbow
Manowar
The Jets
Peabo Bryson
Bread
UFO
Aldo Nova
Iced Earth

Robyn Hitchcock
Jesus and Mary Chain
Public Image Ltd.
Talking Heads
Cracker/Camper Van
Pulp

Afghan Whigs
Warren Zevon
X
Husker Du
Del Fuegos
Screaming Trees/Mark Lanegan
Lloyd Cole

The Kinks – One of THE greatest bands of all time, seem to get lost among the Beatles and The Who (Pete himself would agree that they were one of the most influential groups in Brit Rock).

The Zombies – Also overshadowed in the Brit Invasion bands of the sixties. These guys deserve much more attention. Get ‘Odyssey And Oracle’ then the singles collections.

Roxy Music – Basically triggered all that 80s Romanticism with their masterpiece Avalon, which will always remain the standard. All their stuff, from the Eno period on, is brilliant.

King Crimson – Though not exactly the most accessible rock band, even next to their prog compatriots Yes and Kansas, Crimson blows them ALL out of the water with their playing chops. ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’, ‘Starless And Bible Black’, and ‘Red’ are musts.

Cream – It seems to me that awareness of Cream diminishes with each generation, which is a shame. They were only together a short while and perhaps weren’t able to create a strong ‘brand identity’, but Clapton, Baker and Bruce made some of the most definitive music of their time (and it still holds up today).

Joy Division – Maybe too dark and gloomy for most people to latch onto, but genius none the less. Hopefully the upcoming Ian Curtis biopic will shed some attention on them.

All those awesome Kraut Rockers (Kraftwerk, Neu! and Faust) – Extremely experimental and distinctly foreign sounding. These Germans demand adventurous ears, which may be the reason they don’t get the attention they deserve…

Placebo

Leonard Cohen
Rufus Wainwright
Indigo Girls
Saxon
Cannibal Corpse
Men at Work
Night Ranger
Kraftwerk
Hanson
Can
Kylie Minogue
Slayer
Toby Keith
Hilary Duff
Black Flag

and The Kinks get the award for most underrated ever. They should be considered on the same level as the beatles and possibly above the Stones.

XTC and Midnight Oil are not to be forgotten either

Charlatans UK
Nada Surf
The Hooters (that’s right…I said it)
The Outfield
The Replacements
XTC
The Clash

Nick Drake-read Deeper Than the Darkest Sea-what a lost soul

The Black Crowes-good on CD-great live-Bring on Bring on

Billy Joe Shaver-wrote Honky Tonk Heroes for Waylon-he is an outlaw

Dave Alvin-wrote Long White
Cadilac for Dwight Yoakum

Tom Russell-Springsteen LOVES him…

Robert Earl Keen-song: The Road Goes On Forever-and for holiday carolling Happy Holidays from the Family…eggnog will come out of your nose.

Chip Taylor-Wild Thing-Angel of the Morning.

The Clash

The Band.. They invented americana and the Eagles got all the fame and hits of them.. The Band got good critizism from the media but the public never picked it up. a huge shame for such influential band. Eric Clapton split Cream after hearing the Bands first album. Huge Band fans are Bernie Taupin, George Harrison, to name a few..

pete doherty/carl barat
la’s – lee mavers

Laura Nyro

…and John Cale…consider his output pre-VU, VU, solo post-VU and as a producer.

People line up to champion Lou Reed, who has basically been repeating himself for years. John Cale may be the most underappreciated artist in pop music history

Oasis
Pulp
Blur
Third Eye Blind
Big Sugar
Big Wreck
Ben Folds / Ben Folds Five
Garbage

Justin Timberlake

Van Morrison

Radiohead

Pavement
X
Husker Du
Bad Brains
Dead Kennedys
The Stone Roses
Daniel Johnston
Dr.Octagon
Dinosaur Jr
Sebadoh

Mark Lanegan
Screaming Trees
the kinks
the zombies
queens of the stone age
kings of leon (by the american public)

for once I wont be a dick…I think the peeps name alot of good underrated bands. my list: Nick Drake of course, My Bloody Valentine, Neutral Milk Hotel, Godspeedyoublackemperor, Glenn Branca(if kids listen to him they would understand why I find most metal to be very childish and can NEVER compare to glenn’s sound), american altitude, john fahey, dan malloy, vini reilly and durutti column, and suicide.

Lynyrd Skynyrd

The Wallflowers

Tom Petty

Blues Traveler

Adam Again
Captain Beefheart
Graham Parker
Pavement (well, okay, critics loves ‘em, but they are still largely unknown…)
Todd Rundgren
XTC
Mark Heard
Patty Griffin
American Music Club
Crowded House
Afghan Whigs
The Fiery Furnaces
Over the Rhine
The Beau Brummels
The Faces (Small or otherwise)

Melanie (Safka)
Poco
The Clarks
Carly Simon
Paul McCartney

Cheap Trick for sure. Also the Black Crowes, the Wallflowers, Montrose, Rainbow, Free, Deep Purple, Silvertide, Indigenous, Alter Bridge, Fleetwood Mac (with Peter Green).

Frank Zappa

Badly Drawn Boy

Brand New, jesse lacey is a lyrical genious, and they sound like Nirvana,Radiohead and Led Zep mixed together.

Definitively Pearl Jam, they’re the greatest band and they don’t get credited by far, instead bands like Nirvana (who’s greatest fortune was the death of Kurt) get credit they don’t deserve, the same goes to U2( just cause Bono is so commercial)

Joy Division
The Zombies
Warren Zevon
Sonic Youth
Explosions in the Sky
Cheap Trick
Feist (how Lilly Allen is more popular I will never understand)
Evan Dando/ The Lemonheads
Ry Cooder
Buddy Guy
The Smiths
Interpol

the pixies (most influential band of the past 20 years….still underrated)

The Velvet Underground (shoulda been as big as the beatles and the stones)

Dave Matthews Band (devoted fan base but not as respected as they should be)

neutral milk hotel
the black keys
trans am
the marz volta
honky

Without a doubt, Rush. Time to give them credit for their longevity and ability to reinvent themselves as the music scene changes.

Big Country, Paul Westerberg
Jeff Tweedy, Stephen Malkmus
Jarvis Cocker, Paul Weller

Sammy Hagar

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Our Lady Peace

Alice In Chains

All of these have been posted, but I’ll toss in a few more votes for the one’s I agree with most:

311
Ben Harper
Cheap Trick
Faith No More
G. Love And Special Sauce
Gov’t Mule
Jeff Beck
John Hiatt
King Crimson
Kings Of Leon
My Morning Jacket
Oasis
Peter Green
Robin Trower
Rory Gallagher
Rush
Steve Earle
Stone Roses
The Black Keys
Tim Buckley
Tom Waits
Widespread Panic
Wilco

XTC
Guided By Voices
Peter Gabriel
Neil Finn/Crowded House
Matthew Sweet

Brand New. Often described as America’s Radio Head. They manage to make some of the most intense songs without even cursing. Their live performances can’t be touched in passion and energy. Jesse Lacey is easily one of the most under appreciated songs writers of the last 15 years. Often classified as emo which instantly turns off most people, Brand New is more alternative, writing about everything from a virgin’s first time to cancer destroying a loved one all without ever mentioning the topics. They have one of the strongest under ground followings of any current band. They were able to not make a record for almost 3 years yet still sell out every single show on their current tour, tickets often not reaching the public because they sold out during the pre-sale to the street team. Their sound will not dissapoint you!

kings of leon
interpol
biffy clyro
cooper temple clause
the music
the cribs

Velvet Underground

John Frusciante

Fugazi

Add Buddy Guy and J.J. Cale too

butch walker, if you never heard of him check him out he’s the best

Phish
Frank Zappa
The Band

Faith No More

Crowded House
Jesus and Mary Chain
XTC – one of the best bands EVER

1. Smashing Pumpkins: I feel they are in the same category with Pearl Jam, Nirvana got all this credit but SP and PJ were the ones that matured into great bands.

2. Everything but the Girl: They’re career has lasted over 20 years and helped user in the electronica era.

While I don’t think they are one of the top 25 underrated bands, Electric Six are a kick ass band that people should hear. (I think someone mentioned them before)

Glen Matlock’s post-Pistol’s The Rich Kids’ first and only album; definitely the entire Neil Finn catalogue; Polly Jean Harvey; Rufus Wainwright; Pearl Jam; Screaming Trees; Generation X’s Valley of the Doll’s album …

How can Guided By Voices be so underrated that nobody’s even mentioned them yet? “The Official Ironmen Rally Song” was the 90s, baby!

Brian Eno

and

The Zombies

pavement
Guided By Voices
Tom Waits
My Morning Jacket
Massive Attack
Barenaked Ladies
Magnetic Fields
Pearl Jam

Sleater-Kinney

Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding never get the credit they deserve.

The Libertines
Blue Oyster Cult
Electric Six

The Byrds, The Kinks, Pixies, The Band

King’s X. Why these guys never became superstars is beyond me, but for some reason they never found a mass audience (though other musicians love them). Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, Faith Hope Love, and Dogman are three of the greatest albums of the late ’80s/early ’90s.

I also agree with whoever said George Harrison as a solo artist.

I second Butch Walker, his live shows are like a religious experience

Hanoi Rocks. They could have been huge if it hadn’t been for Vince Neil, or their subsequent and maybe inevitable implosion. However, what they left us is still enough. They are like the Clash meets Aerosmith meets the Stones meets Duran Duran.

Clutch
Archers Of Loaf
The Replacements
Marshall Crenshaw
Can
Faith No More
Anything by Alex Chilton
Kate Bush

Whoever says “Butch Walker” is a plant.

Ryan Adams
Afghan Whigs
American Music Club
Beck
George Clinton
Cream
Nick Drake
Medeski, Martin & Wood
Minutemen
Pavement
Pea rl Jam
PJ Harvey
Sonic Youth
Uncle Tupelo
Velvet Underground
Tom Waits
Brian Wilson
Yo La Tengo

Blues Explosion!

Cheap Trick
Electric Light Orchestra
King’s X
Yes
Big Star

Living Color
Faith No More

The Jesus & Mary Chain
Joy Division
The Verve

Tears for Fears. Was there anybody more talented than them in the wave synth-pop bands they came in on? And did any of their other contemporaries evolve their sound as much as they did? Had they been more prolific, they might’ve been bigger than U2. Regardless, they are ignored wayyyyy too much, especially considering the influence “Mad World” has an emo guitar/piano boys. Patti Smith sure seems to like ‘em, too. Time for some TFF love, seriously.

Traffic

The Kinks

Elvis Costello

Squeeze

Crowded House

Aimee Mann

15 KEYS

Jeff Buckley
Collective Soul
Supergrass
Widespread Panic
Mazzy Star

Electric Light Orchestra
Harvey Danger
Iron Maiden

ELO is criminally underappreciated, by the way. Jeff Lynne’s grasp of melody is second only to Brian Wilson.

The Jam
The Call
The Replacements
The Waterboys

T. Rex
Neu!
Giorgio Moroder
Can
The Meters

Here are a few…

The Tragically Hip
Nick Drake
Syd Barrett
Stan Rogers

JELLYFISH!!!!!!!

Blind Faith
Otis Redding
Tesla
Sam Cooke
Procol Harem
Steppen Wolf
Scorpions
The Cult

Why the Beautiful South were never as popular in the US as they were in GB always amazed me.

Big head Todd and the Monsters
should be #1 on that list. Great music—no recognition.

Our Lady Peace
Collective Soul
Rush
Pearl Jam
Smashing Pumpkins

Cheap Trick
The Vines
Soundgarden
Spinal Tap.

Richard Thompson
Rickie Lee Jones
Buddy Miller
Greg Brown
Maria Muldaur

Oasis. Simply the greatest rock and roll band of the 1990s. Keep your Pearl Jam and keep your Nirvana. This band was all about one thing: music. Ok, maybe cigarettes & alcohol too. Their attitude was simple: either love the music or get the fuck out of the way. And oh yeah, Kurt Cobian wishes he could be 1/10 the songwriter Noel Gallagher is to this very day. Give me any other band that delivered a better 1-2 album punch than Oasis. Granted, expectations rose too high for them to ever reach, but a dedicated following have kept them at the top. Like them or not, Oasis is still here, even without the mainstream assistance outlets such as MTV or Rolling Stone. And it goes to show you how weak Rolling Stone magazine is when won’t even give the courtesy to review the Best Of Oasis album, Stop the Clocks.

so many great choices in here.
i might be repeating some other peoples’ selections, but i don’t i’ve seen:
big black
the gun club
gang of four
a certain ratio
buzzcocks
r. hell and the voidoids
happy mondays
the fall (mark e smith rules!!!)

The Band
Spaceman 3
Mission of Burma

Smith & Wesson

Faith No More
Living Colour
XTC
Mr. Bungle

and, um King Diamond

warren zevon’s last album made me cry
They Might Be Giant’s” Put a little birdhouse in your soul is amazazing

Jeff Beck Group
Faces
Van Morrison
Danzig
Motorhead
T he Darkness
Tha Animals

Faith No More
Joy Division/New Order(between their music, their club the Hacienda and Dry Bar they basically invented the future – but in the US seems people only know them as an 80s synth-pop band)
A Certain Ratio
Roxy Music
King Crimson
Smashing Pumpkins

Pearl Jam
The Cars
Dave Matthews Band
Lenny Kravitz
Peter Gabriel

The Kinks
The Pogues
The Violent Femmes
Kirsty MacColl
Blue Rodeo
The Tragically Hip
TRex
The Replacements

Oasis
Despeche Mode
Bryan Adams

Whore…
…I mean HOLE.

Ben Folds…Tears for Fears…Moby…Barenaked Ladies…Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all artists that have hardcore cult followings but have not been appreciated in mainstream culture.

Foo Fighters

I really agree with ‘the white duke’. Also, Eno in general. Only people really hip to record producing acknowledge him fully.

1) Catherine Wheel
2) Jesus and Mary Chain
3) The Smiths (at least in terms of U.S. recognition)
4) Doves
5) James
6) Joy Division/ New Order
7) Placebo
Stabbing Westward
9) Kent
10) Paloalto

Explosions in the Sky- Rock Genius
Home Video
Bush
Sonic Youth
Primus
The Eels
New Order
Digable Planets
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Radiohead!!!! They are also geniuses
Moby

Pink Floyd

ryan adams
ben folds
dismemberment plan
promise ring
toad the wet sprocket
jimmy eat world

Roger Waters

Neutral Milk Hotel

anything by dax riggs

soundgarden
liz phair
steve earle

Definitely T.Rex, too

Crowded House (and anything Neil Finn has ever done), The Jam (and anything Paul Weller has ever done), and Elvis Costello.

In my opinion this question is badly written – first of all we should define the term “underappreciated” by who: listeners? journalists? (I see that RS underapprecite TOOl) show business’s decision makers?

Due to this question someone can write that Jimi Hendrix was underappreciated – it was the case with the Black community.

Boz Scaggs
Roseanne Cash
10,000 Maniacs
Rickie Lee Jones
Pat Benetar

The Black Crowes
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

Morphine.
16 Horsepower.

The Zombies, all the way.

Neutral Milk Hotel and any work by the E6 collective

Liz Phair
PJ Harvey

Jayhawks
Tom Waits
Steve Earle

can’t believe no one mentioned Morphine, a very cool and original band

I think that TOOL’s importance as a band is greatly understated in the critical/commercial scenes. Seriously, RS is all up Pearl Jam’s ass (I love Pearl Jam to death, but Tool is so much more than they are), yet Tool is the only other band of that era that is still around.

At a distant second is Helmet. It was Helmet, and NOT KORN that created that chugging staccato beefy nu-metal stuff. But the difference was that it didn’t suck.

Both of these bands show that marketing goes a long way in appreciation.

Jeff Buckley
Richard Hell and the Voidoids
Dredg
Third Eye Blind
Thrice

Whoever said PJ Harvey is absolutely right. Add Talib Kweli to the list. He’s the best MC since…well, since Biggie.

Bad Brains
Erykah Badu
MC5
Deftones

The 13th Floor Elevators

The Fabulous Wailers

The Sonics

Eddie Cochrane

the music machine

XTC! Andy Partridge is a genius song writer and drastically underappreciated.

De La Soul
Doves
Screaming Trees
Travis
Depeche Mode
Interpol
MassiveAttack

Grandady
Keane
Muse
The Verve
Lush
Ride
Bad Religion

Scott Walker
Love
Can
The Kinks
XTC

SLOAN all the way

BUTCH WALKER

should be number 1
and if hes not on the list then my point will be proven

Bouncing Souls

What Bill Bones said (just scroll down).

Blind Melon were a great band who no one ever mentions because they known for one cute pop single, while they were in fact one of the best bands of the last decade. Just listen to “Galaxie” for proof. Ditto on Faih No More, one of the most creatiive bands ever. And how could I forget the SCREAMING TREES! they were one of the top grunge bands, had an awesome sound, and Mark Lanegan is simply one of the greatest voices in music. these are some truly underrated bands.

Jeff Buckley
The Verve
Nick Drake
Sunny Day Real Estate
Damien Rice
Screaming Trees
Deftones
Massive Attack
Porcupine Tree
My Morning Jacket
Blind Melon

The Action
Rocket from the Tombs
Wire
Os Mutantes

Elliott Smith
Laura Nyro
Rufus Wainwright

Sonic Youth
Modest Mouse
Low
Liz Phair
The Kinks
Joy Division
PJ Harvey
Tom Waits
Thom Yorke
Beck
Slint

Hole (say what you will about their lead singer…)
Weezer (except for their last album, ew)
The Replacements
PJ Harvey
X
The Buzzcocks

meat puppets, sonic youth, the pixies sex pistols, the melvins, beck

Iron & Wine, Mojave 3, and the Kings of Leon

I’ll throw some votes in the fire for these bands:

Morphine
Wilco
Oas is
Kings of Leon
Pearl Jam
Alice in Chains

King Crimson
XTC
Yes
Rickie Lee Jones
Roger Waters
Alice in Chains

Wilco

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
The Black Crowes
Humble Pie
The Faces
Boomtown Rats

The Tragically Hip (road apples, up to hear were already mentioned, fully completely and day for night are also great albums)
SLOAN – twice removed, one chord to another… I can’t believe no one has mentioned them.
Sam Roberts – ‘We were born in a flame’ was an amazing album, his follow up Chemical City was a little more rock and still great.
Kathleen Edwards – failer for alt country
Nick Drake – Pink Moon
The Lemonheads – It’s a shame about Ray

I could go on. I’m thinking I like bands, etc, who are under rated, if they were ultra popular I would probably get annoyed at hearing them all the time.

Wolf Parade
Prince Paul
The Strokes
Interpol
Radiohead – best current band in world doesn’t get enough pub
Sonic Youth – band everyone has been trying to sound like last 25 years
TV on the Radio – band everyone will try to sound like next 25 years

Ben Folds
Rufus Wainwright
ELLIOTT SMITH
Guster

pedro the lion
jars of clay
randy newman

I’ve gotta go with the following five…
1) Robert Pollard / Guided By Voices
2) Paul Westerberg / The Replacements
3) The Action
4) The Band
5) Camper Van Beethoven / Cracker

definitely Blue Oyster Cult, esp the first 4 albums. very underrated in the history of hard/metal rock

The replacements (for sure)

Hoodoo Guru (great pop rock)

Uncle Tupelo
Drivin’ N’ Cryin”
Whiskeytown
Ryan Adams
JIMMY HERRING!
Col. Bruce Hampton/ARU

T H E C U L T

Los Lobos!!

blue oyster cult – esp the first 3 albums, they never seem to get credit for their place in the history of hard/metal rock

the replacements (for sure)

Graham Parker

1. Failure (Ken Andrews is genius)
2. Kyuss (Josh Homme…genius)
3. Nick Drake (UK’s greatest singer/songwriter)
4. Ben Folds (Without his five)
5. Level 42 (greatest band to come out of the 80’s)
…and oh yeah, the Beatles

Van Halen , Van Halen , David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar

Oasis
Despeche Mode
Blue Oyster Cult
John Prine
Cars
The Animals

BIG
STAR

The Beatles are overlooked??

Chicago

“MARC BOLAN”

HE IS KNOW FOR BANG A GONG (GET IT ON) BUT HE HAD WAY BETTER KICK ASS SONGS THAN THAT!

OH! AND WE CAN’T FORGET THE OTHER BOLIN “TOMMY BOLIN” VERY GREAT BUT VERY FORGOTTEN BY MOST!

Peter Green
Bill Champlin
Tower of Power

the replacements
the hellacopters
screaming trees number 5 grunge band

KiNkS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELO
The Kinks
Grandaddy
The Decemberists
Neutral Milk Hotel

Dinosaur Jr.
Basically any punk band that isn’t the Sex Pistols or the Clash.
Cream

this is going to sound crazy, but……Elvis Presley.
Among people under 40 or so he is generally (mistakenly) viewed as either a rip off artist or a clown.

Fugazi
Soundgarden
The Beta Band
Guided By Voices
Pavement
Toad the Wet Sprocket

Wesley Willis

Zappa – really deserves more than he got for what he had to say.
Tool – too complex for some and too aggressive for others, but damn do they rock.
Deftones – Undeniably passionate and charged with meaning. White pony makes me want an ‘11′ volume setting for my speakers.
Pearl Jam – Far more than just a contemporary of Nirvana.
Alice in Chains – Again, in the shadow of Nirvana, all this great artistry was ignored because it wasn’t popular. Very disheartening.

Definitely Oasis…they get no credit in the states…they are one of the best bands of their generation.

Morphine
Husker Du
Beck
The Cure
Tom Waits
Mission of Burma
Social Distortion
Cat Stevens
James Brown
Peter Gabriel
Peter Tosh
Talking Heads
Desmond Dekker
Jerome Garcia

XTC
Jellyfish
Zappa
Roxy Music
R. Stevie Moore
The Move
Jason Falkner
The Carpenters
Paul Revere & The Raiders
Talking Heads

I’d have to throw in Robert Plant, too. Most people would write him off as nothing more than Zeppelin’s wailing mane of hair in tight pants, but his solo stuff is adventurously experimental, diverse and just plain fascinating.

The Replacements
Bad Religion
The Kinks
Ryan Adams

I agreed with all the people saying Blind Melon and the Black Crows. Both are great bands. But my vote is for Silverchair. They put out an awsome album this year named Young Modern and Silverchair’s last album Diorama is brilliant. But say their name to people and they think of the teenagers that had the hit song “Tomorrow” Daniel Johns is an amazing songwriter but nobody in America notices

Trip Shakespeare: The Wilson bro’s band before Semisonic; incredible vocals and great songs.

Captain Beefheart
NRBQ
UFO
Wishbone Ash
Agents of Good Roots
Roy Buchanan
Rory Gallagher
Tangerine Dream

And Status Quo. Icons in the UK, virtually unknown over here, but few bands can boogie like the Quo. More hooks than a tackle shop!

totally agree with the silverchair comment – young modern is unreal as well as their last album. the replacements/westerburg too. also: third eye blind, the beach boys

living colour or anything to do with vernon reid, hes is the most underratrd guitartist and in my opinion the greatest guitarist to ever touch the instrument, barely knocking out hendrix

PAVEMENT, NUETRAL MILK HOTEL

It breaks my heart that not every person in the world goes to bed humming the songs of Townes Van Zandt. Also Sonic Youth. “Teenage Riot” is the indie “Born to Run”. Kinks too. God save the village green.

Oasis
Rush
The Replacements
The Tragically Hip
Wilco

Duran Duran
the Monkees
the Charlatans
Blur
Leaders of the New School
Minutemen

Martha Wainwright
Bjork – her albums never make any ‘top albums of all time’ lists
Willy Mason
Graham Coxon

and message to ‘Hey’, Oasis have to one of the most overrated bands of all time

Blind Melon

the stuff they made before the lead singer died was great, but everybody just pins them off as one hit wonders.

SISTER HAZEL
THIRD EYE BLIND

The Kinks.

Aimee Mann is incredible.

Eva Cassidy (look her up)- the voice of God. Greatest female vocalist of all time- listen to her version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Spirit. Byrds. World Party.

Duran Duran. Almost 30 years together with a strong catalogue of great music behind them. Still making original music. Still seen as the band who made the video on the boat.

Wesley Willis!!!

ben folds, ryan adams, and t rex

Duran Duran
Crowded House
Neil Finn
INXS
Peter Gabriel

garbage. they’ve been making great music since their debut album in 1995 and people don’t seem to notice. guess that’s what happens when the band members range in age from 40 – 55. but they can hold their own against anyone out there. and shirley manson is THE female frontwoman of the last decade.

PROCOL HARUM

SPARKS!!! Almost 40 years of amazing original music by the Mael brothers.

urge overkill,,jj grey and mofro,,the black keys,,stereophonics,,brother cane,,govt mule,,chris knight,,dusty springfield,,robert randolph,,and even elvis

To Stuporfly: Where were you when the Monkees were selling zillions of records and outselling the Beatles/Stones during the second half of the 1960’s when a couple of their albums maintained a worldwide-multicontinent # 1 position for months on end on both the singles/albums/radio charts? Underappreciated? NOT! And…where were you in the 80’s when Duran Duran were selling their zillions of recordings for most of the decade? These two groups have been compensated quite well during their initial runs and then some. Monkees recordings have never stopped selling for all the continuos reissues throughout the past 40 years! Just on Linda Ronstadt’s evergreen cover of Mike Nesmith’s DIFFERENT DRUM alone, he’s been collecting royalties on that particular radio airplay staple 40 years on in 2007. I love me some Monkees too..but…there are other artists out there that true justice never rewarded.

Third Eye Blind!!!

Underrated as song writers and key in making the transition from early 90’s alt rock to more accessible late 90’s pop. They were able to ride this middle ground better than anybody not named the red hot chili peppers.

Midnight Oil
Colin James
Counting Crows
Our Lady Peace
Barenaked Ladies

Karla Bonoff[ripped off beyond comprehension]-John Hiatt[his own versions]-Kim Richey["Glimmer" should have been a zillion seller]-Alex Chilton[post Box Tops]-Ryan Adams[can't believe he isn't multiplatinum per disc!]-Caitlin Cary – Paul Carrack[should of been a solo multiplatinum hero]-Patti Smith…to name a few.

Fishbone……….

Lucinda Williams
Liz Phair
Soundgarden
The Cars
The Kinks
The Cult

I’ve also gotta say GARBAGE. A band I’ve always loved, but not enough people listen to. Great music, a kickass front woman. Rockin’, sexy, original sounding, interesting and smart songs that hold up and sound so much better than the crap that’s getting played on alternative radio right now.

T.S.O.L.

SUPERDRAG
THIRD EYE BLIND
ELLIOTT SMITH

SUPERDRAG
THIRD EYE BLIND
ELLIOTT SMITH

crowded house

Drema Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater

One of the only bands i know that after 20 years make albums that are better than their previous work and actually get heavier, unlike other bands who SAY their new album is heavier only to listen to industrual themed balladas.

Butch Walker. List over.

First of all, I agree with all the people that put the Replacements, I would like to add a band that clearly influenced them and R.E.M.-The Soft Boys as well as Swell Maps and the Wipers.

Townes Van Zandt
Robert Earl Keen
My Morning Jacket
Ryan Adams(should be selling just as much as Bright Eyes, only he doesn’t have the emo following)

death from above 1979

I’ve been waiting for this….
The Church
Ryan Adams
Ben Folds
Chris Isaak
Guided By Voices
The Minus Five
Rogue Wave

Days of the New/Travis Meeks
King Crimson
Porcupine Tree
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
Nonpoint
Dredg
Van Morrison
Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler

Days of the New/Travis Meeks
King Crimson
Porcupine Tree
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
Nonpoint
Dredg
Van Morrison
Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler

whoops, sorry didnt realize this post as ascending

FIXX

PSYCHEDELIC FURS

CURTIS MAYFIELD

CARDIGANS

RANDY NEWMAN

DOVES

Tori Amos
OK Go

Umm, let’s see…

The Tragically Hip
Cracker
Colin James
54-40
Rush

The Band

Nick Drake

Sleater-Kinney

Fre ddie Hubbard

Nina Simone

The Move
ELO
Matthew Sweet
The Kinks
Jellyfish
The Posies

Most of the artists that have been mentioned have had their day in the sun and are either fondly remembered or have had influenced some of the current lot.
Talking about Big Star,Kinks, Replacements..hundreds more. Artists that will be remembered forever..so I can see no neglect there.
Having said that, the guy who mentioned Sparks hit the nail on the head.

ted leo and the pharmacists

jimmy eat world

rilo kiley

and of course…atmosphere

Duran Duran
Tori Amos

The Tragically Hip
Odetta
Leonard Cohen
Kris Kristofferson
The Beta Band
Louis Armstrong
Roy Orbison
M. Ward
The Mountain Goats

Suede
T. Rex
Roxy Music
The Kinks
Duran Duran
The Cars
Adam and the Ants
The Zombies
James
The Verve

the dB’s
Fetchin Bones
Whiskeytown
Ryan Adams
Archers of Loaf
Ben Folds
Squirrel Nut Zippers
the Connells
Superchunk
Let’s Active
Root Boy Slim

THE NAZZ

BRYAN ADAMS

Shuggie Otis
Suicide
Simply Saucer
GZA/Genius
Aceyalone

Duran Duran – C’mon, critics loved to savage them in the 80s, but when you look back now…they were 5 musicians playing their own instruments, writing their own music about art about literature and hot chicks – compare that to the corporate-manufactured pop rock of today. And then when you look at the awesome resurgence of dance rock (Franz Ferdinand, The Killers), you gotta see the Duran Duran influence.

Dream Theater – Technically flawless. Years of quality and interesting music.

Queensryche – Melded the technicality of progressive rock to melodic hard rock with lyrics and subject matter that was challenging and intellectual. Operation:Mindcrime…an underappreciated masterpiece.

Nick Lowe
ELO
The Smithereens
Jason Falkner

Frank Zappa
Duran Duran
Talking Heads
The Kinks
Marc Bolan
Depeche Mode
Bjork
New Order
Spinal Tap

glenn danzig and joe walsh

horray for silverchair! their last 3 albums are incredibly underrated in america but are all brilliant … and NO it’s not the grunge type of songs you think… completely different beautiful orchestral stuff…

..if you listen to “tuna in the brine” and dont think its one of the most beautiful and well-recorded songs ever, well then, you just suck at life in general.

daniel johns in my opinion is easily the most underrated songwriter of today… he’s creating brilliant stuff but who even knows of him in america anymore? his work with the dissociatives is genius too and the only people i know of here in the states that have heard them are the ones whom i’ve told!

Shuggie Otis – I’m not sure if I emphasized him enough. His quasi album, Inspiration Information, was truly revolutionary when first released and stands up today as a soul/funk/psychadelic masterpiece. Forgotten now, but brought back by David Byrne’s label, Luaka Bop. God bless Talking Heads!

NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL

AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA IS ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS EVER

T. Rex

digable planets
tribe called quest
ween
pixies (just kidding)

elo-husker du-midnight oil-sparklehorse-dec ember ists- big star

The Legendary Pink Dots
Codeine
Leonard Cohen
Arab Strap
Colours Run

The Fixx – Hear them once in concert and you’d agree
The Chameleons
The Gandharvas

Oh man, Jay Farrar is the most under-appreciated human being of all time.

Yeah, that’s right, you put it back up there. I ain’t havin’ it!!

Sorry for the spam.

I’ve always thought that Incubus was underappreiciated by critics, despite their album sales.

The Replacements
Ween
Dino Jr.
Govt Mule
Yo mama

Faith No More
Screaming Trees
Kings of Leon
Pixies(until recently)
Spinal Tap

The Kinks
George Harrison
Frank Zappa
The GTO’s

and many more

ween, skeleton key, dig, king crimson, clutch, local h

Chuck Berry
Curtis Mayfield
Boz Scaggs
Garbage
Todd Rundgren
Dr. Hook
Leon Russell
The Stylistics
Jeff Beck
Squeeze
Three Dog Night
Marshall Crenshaw
Blood Sweat and Tears
Otis Redding
Kurtis Blow

-King Crimson

-Brian Eno

-Joy Division

-MC5

-Jethro Tull

-The Jam

1.Duran Duran
2.The Dandy Warhols
3.Big Sugar
4.The Tragicly Hip
5.INXS

Bob Dylan. People appreciate the man for his lyric gift, true, but if people really took a listen to his music (and his singing) then this multi-talent musician might get a bit more of the recognition I personally feel he deserves.

Peter Gabriel
The Clash
Joe Jackson
Tears for fears
Talking Heads
Simple Minds
Midnight Oil
Queenryche

Roxy Music & Bryan Ferry are truly lost in the shuffle here in the States. From their first album all the way through to Avalon, they did SO many different styles and pioneered much of the avant garde in rock that Bowie gets credit for (Bowie is not to be denigrated by that–he is an inovator too), but Ferry is such a unique & influential vocalist/songwriter it amazes me no one talks about his vocalizing more. Roxy is much more than Avalon—listen to Country Life or For Your Pleasure to see how brilliantly varied they were. They will never get into the AMERICAN Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because (like the Jam) we never caught on. Ferry, Manzanera (talk about underated guitarists!!) and Mackay, et al deserve far more praise on this side of the Atlantic (in Britain, Roxy is and was HUGE). In addition, The Jam was far bigger in the U.K. than the Pistols (all notoriety, but very little songcraft there once Matlock was sacked) or the Clash (great as they were, Weller is a FAR better & consistent songwriter than Strummer/Jones, great as they were)
The Jam merit a new listening here.
The Kinks deserve to be on the same level as the Stones & Beatles, but all 3 are very different and there is no use saying 1 is better than the others. As I will always have Revolver & Beggars Banquet in my collection, I will always have Something Else/ Village Green/ Lola & Face to Face from the Kinks. Waterloo Sunset & Days are my starting point if you want to see the magic that is Ray Davies.
Buffalo Springfield is not so much underated as they are overlooked—Stills was at his best and Young & Furay did alot of their best work there. Furay’s next band, Poco are cruelly overlooked by all CSNY & Eagles fans. Jeff Beck is definitely overlooked as a guitarist, as is Richard Thompson. Speaking of Thompson, Fairport Convention are due for the rediscovery Nick Drake has had. And then there are my overlooked female vocalists—-Linda Thompson & Joni Mitchell (let’s give Joni her due as a guitarist too!!). Last word on Joni—she’s not the female Dylan any more than he is the male Joni. I could go on and on; suffice to say that we need free-form radio to mix it all up & expose us to this stuff—I’m still trying to track down a great new wave album from my youth on CD by a group called the Headboys (does anyone remember “The Shape Of Things To Come”?). Until 15 years ago, I had never heard the Stooges FUNHOUSE. Now it is never far from my grasp. Someone turned me onto it, but it sure wasn’t radio.

Bo Diddley

King Crimson
Jeff Buckley
Porcupine Tree
Bad Religion
Social Distortion

1. The Cure – Will always remain a cult band
2. Cake – totally ignored
3. Eels
4. Wilco
5. Blur
6. Butthole Surfers
7. Scissor Sisters

Marc Bolan
T.Rex

Blur

Blur

Blur

and… .

Blur

TEENAGE FANCLUB
STEREOPHONICS
THE KORGIS
E.L.O.
THE JAYHAWKS
PETE YORN
20/20

here’s a couple i think…

-blur
-wilco
-the roots
-n*e*r*d*
-nada surf
-de la soul
-ash
-sufjan stevens

Butch Walker
Dredg
The Living End
Mute Math
Jump Little Children

Well in Hip Hop gotta go with …

1)Blackstar – only one album but arguably best ever made in Hip Hop (I don’t know if you call it influential considering Hip Hop’s current direction)
2)Pete Rock and CL Smooth – so innovative with Pete Rock’s signature horns
3)Gang Starr – all their albums are classic
4)K-os – the premier canadian and international MC
5)Big Daddy Kane – he was ahead of his time

and in all other genres

1)The Clash – I’m not sastified until every person know who they are especially those who listen to pop punk
2)Cake – props to the dudes who said it, always had good albums
3)Bedouin Soundclash – awesome fusion of Reggae and Rock (now that I think about their basically the new Police)
4)Blondie – no one gives them their due, or at least the people I know
5)Death From Above 1979 – I thought Your a Woman, I’m a Machine was incredible
6)The Libertines – Pete Doherty can write whe he’s not high or drunk with Kate Moss

the roots
doves
de la soul
massive attack
blur

Jonathan Richman IS the most underappreciated artist of all time. hands down.

Richard (and Linda) Thompson
Gram Parsons
Love
Violent Femmes

rusted root

1)The Replacements
2)Pixies
3)Pave ment

The Church
The Chills
The Undertones

There’s no doubt,that STEELHEART should be one of the most famous rock band of all times,but I’m not sure that everybody knows them!…

A lot of Canadian bands remain underappreciated particularly Sloan, Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo, three acts that should have been international stars but they are huge in Canada of course. Yet a band like Nickelback does something that the aformentioned bands haven’t done? Go figure.

And I should also mention several other English bands, especially the Hollies and the Moody Blues and also the Pretty Things(deleted from the most recent RS Rock Encyclopedia), the Small Faces and the Searchers.

WILCO

Blur
The Beta Band
The Black Keys
Dr. Dog
The Flamin’ Groovies
Gomez
Jurassic 5
Kings of Leon
Soundgarden
Ted Leo
Television

Peter Green, a true neglected genius.

John Martyn, eclectic singer songwriter/guitarist whose output has shown folk, jazz, blues, rock, reggae and trip hop influences over the last forty years whilst always being individual.

Richard Thompson, a truly great musician and songwriter.

Dick Heckstall-Smith, sax player, composer, a musician who did not achieve 5% of what he was capable of in his lifetime, yet still could set a room on fire with his eclectic soloing.

Garbage
Eurythmics
Blind Melon
The Go Gos
The Little River Band
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

Information Society
The Commodores
Ready For The World
Color Me Badd
Debbie Gibson
The Mission U.K.
Fields of the Nephilim
Huey Lewis and the News
Samantha Fox

Nick Cave has probably been the most consistent performer of the last 20 years. almost 50 and still going strong (check out Grinderman). Mike Patton is another who can be hit and miss sometimes, but doesn’t get the credos he deserves

FAITH NO MORE(ONE OF THE GREATEST BANDS OF ALL-TIME)
DEFTONES
TRICKY(PU RE GENIUS)
CHEMICALBROTHERS(THE BEATLES OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC)
THE BLACK CROWES
BJORK
SAUL WILLIAMS
ALICE IN CHAINS

living colour and or vernon reid

Can – The German band, shadowed by the likes of Pink Floyd.

Under Byen – Seriously, why aren’t they house hold names? Will they linger in the land of obscurity for ever, or get the ticket to stardom as deserved?

Nick Lowe; his stuff is always incredible, and yet he always gets overshadowed by his ex-bandmember Dave Edmunds (who is also OK in my book, but Nick just blows him away on every level).

Kraftwerk.
Crowded House.

Radiohead!

Commander Cody (original band)
Graham Parker
Travis
Gene Clarke
Stereophonics
Edgar Broughton Band
The Band
Ry Cooder
Canned Heat
Flying Burreto Brothers

There must be at least 100 postings here, and amazingly one name has been overlooked on everyone. That is Bill Haley and the Comets. Haley is seen by most people as the least hip character around, yet from 1953-1956 Haley was huge. Haley’s 1953 hit “Crazy Man, Crazy” was a rock hit before Elvis, Little Richard, or Chuck Berry hit commercially. More than any of the standard issue names people throw at each other to pretend there one up on their fellow fans, Haley really is the definition of underappreciated.

1. Chicago
2. XTC
3. Jeff Beck
4. ELO
5. Yes
6. Warren Zevon
7. Emerson, Lake and Palmer
8. Al Stewart
9. America

UNKLE
Absolutely underrated and astonding.

UNKLE is just DJ Shadow (or was when worth listening to anyway) you numbskull

Could obviously pick loads, but Yo La Tengo easily make the list. The greatest band of the 90s (in the true sense of a band, i.e. one person doesn’t write all the songs, play guitar and ignore the rythm section) and one of the all time great bands. Plus The Cars also get in there. I love the synthy stupidity of their songs

Blackalicious
Kings of Leon
The Flaming Lips
Jurassic 5- before Cut Chemist left
The Unicorns

Brian Jonestown Massacre
Guided By Voices
Melt Banana
Deerhoof
Tom Waits

Vanilla Ice.

No Vanilla ice, no eminem.

no eminem no dr dre!

Sloan

lindsey buckingham.
julian casablancas.

Clinic

MC5

The Shaggs

Brand New is the most over looked band, they are incedibly smart,cathy,loud and amazing. RS should do more stories about them instead of mychemicalfallpanic!boy

Death From Above 1979
- Great music, great energy

this might be overdoing it, but i think the allman brothers band are underappreciated right now. if you ask a normal person to name a classic rock band from the south, they’d say lynyrd skynyrd. the allman brothers now are underappreciated and need more recognition

Um, Radiohead is underappreciated? Lol. I don’t really understand the question then. Here goes:

Afghan Whigs
Big Star
Uncle Tupelo
Husker Du
Minutemen
Replacements (arguably best band ever, but appreciated by many, so should they be here?)
Joseph Arthur
Eleventh Dream Day
Pylon
The Jam
Scrawl
Kelly Hogan
Mekons
Bauhaus
The Stooges
Spinanes
Tara Jane O’Neill
Nick Cave

And…X.

Pearl Jam
John Mellencamp
Kings of Leon
old Kiss (Ace Frehley-era)
Cat Stevens
The Kinks
The Old 97s
Sinead O’Conner

The Black Keys, Nick Cave, The Cramps, Ween

ash grunwald (absolutely awesome – such a powerful voice)
the vines

I’m casting my vote in support of two already mentioned…Silverchair and 311. Both are still making records, touring and have a very active fan base. I’m not sure if the violent Femmes count cause their album went platinum 10 years after its release.

ELO! Jeff

BRAND NEW !!!

Roxy Music
Graham Parker
Squeeze
The Cars
Cheap Trick
Peter Gabriel
The Replacements

ash grunwald
emilana torrini
donavon frankenreiter
jack johnson
josh pyke
michael franti
new buffalo
pj harvey
placebo
sarah blasko
the strokes
spiderbait
the vines
the verve
the waifs
xavier rudd
the blind boys of alabama

The Fall
ELO
Peter Murphy
The Shazam

emiliana torrini
donavon frankenreiter
josh pyke
Michael franti
new buffalo
Nirvana
pearl Jam
pj harvey
the pixies
placebo
queens of the stone age
red hot chilli peppers
blue king brown
sarah blasko
the streets
the verve
the vines
the waifs
xavier rudd

but most of all, ash grunwald – i saw him live at blues and roots festival ‘07 – absolutley mindblowing…

pretty wide range of music for a 15 year old kid hey

I would have to go with
Pearl Jam
Soul Asylum
Frank Black
Wilco
Blur
The Stooges
The Tragically Hip
Sam Roberts
Sloan

Axl Rose

ELO were fantastic. Jeff Lynne wrote more hooks in one song than most people do in a lifetime!

I’d say the Lemonheads are the most underappreciated. Evan Dando is brilliant. Pop sensibilities? Sure. Pop tart? Definitely NOT!

The Black Crows are awesome, but are they really THAT underappreciated??? Maybe… Anyhow, “Amorica” was one of my favourite albums of the 90’s.

And, PJ Harvey is a personal favorite of mine, and I believe that the road she went down on to get to where she is now was exactly the road she needed to take… each milestone was hit exactly how they were supposed to be hit… I mean, I would just be scared shitless if this fragile phenomenon that is her and her songwriting somehow changed course… in other words, I’d fear that any type of (outside, artificial) alteration in her life and route would somehow “harm” her and her music….. she doesn’t need the fame… the people that need her already have her… and she has them.

Peace.

What! Nobody has mentioned mew! Voila! Totally underappreciated!

Aimee Mann
Grant Lee Buffalo

1)The Smashing Pumpkins – greatest band of all time.
2)TAPROOT TAPROOT TAPROOT- the best most under-appreciated, under-selling alternative rock band of this century.
3)Muse
4)Silverchai r
5)Deftones
6)Zwan – The “happy” Pumpkins

ELO

Dream Theater

Wilco

BUTCH WALKER!!
ELO
SUPERGRASS
THE VERVE PIPE
WARRANT (Yes, seriously)
EXTREME
STEPPENWO LF

JOHNNY CASH (A million times more talented than Elvis but for some reason a man who couldnt play an instrument or write his own lyrics is THE KING?)
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN(Bad timing to be out the same time as The Smiths and The Cure!)
SUPERGRASS (Listen to there greatest hits,Tune after tune)
NINE BLACK ALPS (A great new band with a brilliant debut album, so much more talent than Block party,Coldplay,Lilly Allen and any other hyped UK acts)

T.REX!!!!

Marc Bolan may have had only one chart topping hit in the U.S., but everyone is now listening to many of his other songs everyday and don’t even realize it’s T.Rex!

Metal Guru-at the start of the credits in “Herbie-Fully Loaded”

Bang-A-Gong-in “Jarhead”

I Love to Boogie,Cosmic Dancer,Ride A White Swan-”Billy Elliot”

20th Century Boy-”Velvet Goldmine”

I Love To Boogie-”Dancing with the Stars”-TV show (Billy Ray Cyrus)

The most underrated singer/songwriter of the 20th Century!!!

I cannot believe that after all these decades and now, this list. No one even thinks of….ALICE COOPER!! Talk about underrated and underappreciated. Cooper’s “I love the Dead” and KISS’ “God of Thunder” were the mother and father of Death Metal.

the eagles
the kinks
cake
phish
tears for fears
beck
oasis

Did I read somewhere down there that Nirvana are underappreciated. Are you for real? I can’t life up a goddam magazine without reading about how Kurt Cobain invented rock on the first day, died on the second day and on the third day he brought peace to the middle east.
Basically all im saying is Nirvana are NOT underappreciated. They are good, but sometimes people over do it. There, got that out of my system.

Incubus – at least up A Crow Left of The Murder they were making complete, awesome, and unique albums. Much more than the rap rock they were written off as. And also Third Eye Blind.

at least up until*

Brand New
The Smiths
Sunny Day Real Estate
Saves The Day

Definitely will go wit the Neil Finn crowd. (Including Split Enz/Crowded Hosue/The Finn Brothers). This is why Eddie Vedder, The Dixie Chicks, Wendy Melvoin, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr and so many others work with Neil…he’s incredibly underappreciated but admired by the knowing few.

slayer king diamond/mercyful fate/ samhain/misfits dead kennedys voivod metal church siouxsie sioux cheap trick butthole surfers black flag the avengers nick cave type o negative deathangel DRI suicidal tendencies circle jerks flipper

Blue Cheer.

Yeah.

S

TOWNES VAN ZANDT

KORN-seems like every album they come out with people bag on them for it not being like there old stuff well guess what people every bands changes!!!

“Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.” – Steve Earle.

The Strokes…once hyped but have fallen out of favor for some reason. come on, Is This It? changed rock and jump started the post- 9-11 era. It spawned countless bands who couldn´t carry the stroke guitar cases.

The Flaming Lips
Kings Of Leon
The Streets

Joan Armatrading

The Jam

Joan Jett

Culture Club

Blues Traveler (John Popper) has done for the harmonica what Jimi did for the guitar.

Ben Folds — the Piano Man of this generation

Govt. Mule (Warren Haynes) A living guitar god.

Todd Rundgren
Jeff Beck
Let’s Active/Mitch Easter
Sparks
Jellyfish
Wishbo ne Ash
Be Bop Deluxe
Rory Gallagher
Big Star
Little Feat
XTC
Rickie Lee Jones
The Wonder Stuff
Adrian Belew
The Bears
Jane Siberry
Sam Phillips
Fishbone
Sons Of Freedom
Art Bergmann
Mano Negra
King’s X
Urge Overkill
Jill Sobule
Urban Dance Squad
Throwing Muses/Kristen Hersh
Chris Whitley
Medicine
Brand New Heavies
Eric Johnson
Lifter Puller

ELO — not in RocknRoll Hall of Fame? Such BS.

The Fixx — WAAAY underrated, 25+ years of great albums and nonstop touring; new wave and progressive rock perfectly fused; great musicianship

Ian Broudie (The Lightning Seeds)

i agree with the guy who said cash was underated when a guy who couldnt write his own lyrics was king. pearl jam maybe today they are but not 10 12 years ago.

The Replacements
Husker Du
The Dead Boys
The Minutemen
X

Wilco
Golden Smog
ELO/Jeff Lynne
Nick Heyward
The Church

Like the lists I see…

Alice Cooper is the biggie!
Cheap trick incredibly Underrated.
Tragically Hip? Everything Cobain wanted to be.

Good call on the Tragically Hip. Utterly worshiped in Canada but have barely made a peep south of the border. I also think Mountain and Leslie West never got the respect they were due as a classic rock artist and one of the greatest guitar heroes.

Muse. They can sell out Wembley stadium, but they’re barely a blip on the radar here in the states. Incredible musicianship and songwriting. Check ‘em out.

What about Gram Parsons?

Tres Chicas have some of the best voices I’ve ever heard

butch walker
capable of writing songs catchier than anything on the radio, lyrics better than any indie rock act, and one of the best live acts of the last 50 years

Butch Walker and Nazareth!

yall wanna talk about the “man who didn’t write his own lyrics and couldn’t play? back in the 50’s it was all about hit records,,when people come to you with some of the greatest songs of all time to sing for them,,theats the greatest compliment that could be paid to your vocal telents at the time,,,and as far as couldnt play? watch the 68 comeback special for proof otherwise. but i like johnny cash too.

brian jonestown massacre
13th floor elevators
the pretty things
procol harum

The Pedestrians Crimson tide band The Smiths

Jellyfish
Arcangels
Jeff Buckley
Kings X
Nick Drake

Two Gallants
The Black Keys
Kings of Leon (even if their new single blows)

Husker Du
Jonathan Richman
Throwing Muses
Gram Parsons(sure, he’s a jamor legend in certain circles, but how the hell did the Eagles get to be so huge by doing such a watered down imitation?)
Neko Case
the MC5

Tragically Hip, Rush, T-Rex

the Captain
Tom Waits
Sun Ra
The Last Poets
Pere Ubu
Husker Du

Blue Oyster Cult
Steely Dan
Reverend Horton Heat
Drive-By Truckers
Grandaddy

Jimmy Buffett
J.J. Cale
John Mayer as a guitarist
Bruce Cockburn

Little Feat. Waiting for Columbus is one of the best live albums period.

I see a lot of people mention Ryan Adams. I think his former band Whiskeytown is highly underated. I also agree with ELO, Jeff Lynne just makes good pop music.

I haven’t seen anybody put Electric Six down. Seriously I think this is because no one has even heard of them but trust some dude on the internet that they are creating what I can see their own brand of rock and roll.

-Counting Crows; not near as big as they should be
-Fountains of Wayne
-Under the Influence of Giants
-The Fratellis

Camel/Andy Latimer

I’m not surprised to see Catherine Wheel on only one list. They truly are the best band no one heard of.

Five then?
1.CATHERINE WHEEL

2.THE PIXIES (who would actually get their due today if they put a new album out as good as their old ones since everyone acknowledges they stole/borrowed from them)

3.Poster Children- Champaign IL DIYers who took money from the man (Sire), saved it all, and built their own studio. They don’t need to pay someone to plug in their guitars.

4.Duran Duran-
Everyone who’s mentioned them is a genius, with severely legitimate points as to why. Also, they’re British.

5.Fugazi- I don’t get it…why did they never break out? It’s hard to imagine a major label wouldn’t want to add them to their….oh. Yeah. Now I get it.

ELO made some of the best pop music of the 70’s and 80’s.

Grandaddy should have been huge.

The late, great, Cotton Mather!

Nada Surf

The Kinks

MC5
Patti Smith

Tom Waits
Pixies
Butthole Surfers
Wilco
Primus
Medeski, Martin & Wood
Sonic Youth

WILCO

Violent Femmes
Two Gallants
Tilly and the Wall
Strokes
Spoon
Scissor Sisters
Rilo Kiley
Postal Service
N*E*R*D
Incubus
Cak e
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE!!

I’m old damn it… married with children has left me tragically un-hip since the ’90s. So the list is by no means all-inclusive. Just those who have been monumentally important to me.

Todd Rungren !!!
Warren Zevon !!!
Tom Waits
Graham Parker
Somebody please get these genius and genuine artists in the Hall.

Also,
Nils Lofgren
Adrean Belew
Big Star
The Clash (the only band that matters)
Luther Allison
Roy Orbison
Billy Talbot, Frank Sampedro, Ralph Molina
Lucinda Williams
Brian Eno & the 801
David Lindley & El-Rayo-X

also, tragic beloved beat hipsters Jack Kerouac and Richard Brautigan

“the dog ate the part we didn’t like”

montrose

stone temple pilots

little steven

the cult

The Kinks
T. Rex
The Black Keys
The Moody Blues
The Byrds
Jethro Tull
Neil Young

Maybe not all time, but Against Me! might be the most underrated current band. They are the closest thing to a modern version of The Clash.

Stone Temple Pilots
Deftones
The Who
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden

Emmylou Harris
Fountains of Wayne
Brian Eno
John Martyn
Fish (ex Marillion, not the band)
The Go-Betweens
Joseph Arthur
Robyn Hitchcock
Porcupine Tree

Pearl Jam
Derek and the Domimos for all the other songs besides Layla
Jethro Tull

dropkick murphys
king’s x

XTC
Stone Temple Pilots
Boomtown Rats
Brinsley Schwarz

Tragically Hip, XTC, the Dears

bob dylan…o wait nevermind.

Jethro Tull
Peter Gabriel
Tom Waits
King Crimson
Porcupine Tree

artists outside of the English-speaking world go tragically unnoticed because of the language barrier. It’s our loss, really.

Two Bands:
1. Velvet Underground
2. Big Star
And yes, Derek and the Dominos, the best guitar combo ever, but the only song known by the common rock fan is “Layla”

dEUS
you don’t know what you’ve missed until you hear this belgian band, ‘the ideal crash’ is a masterpiece

Fountains Of Wayne
ELO
Travis
Jason Falkner

Forgot Alice Cooper. Also the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, Susan Tedeschi, Blues Traveler, Flogging Molly, and Joe Satriani

Warren Zevon
Fountains of Wayne
Stone Temple Pilots
Drive-by Truckers

Cheap Trick
UFO
The Smithereens
Husker Du
Matthew Sweet
and most definitely: Crack The Sky

kate bush
suzanne vega
aimee mann
emmylou harris
joan armatrading

Deus (amazing belgian band, buy it if you get it)
Jimmy eat World (great songwriting)
Silverchair
Muse (not as popular as they should be)
Faith No More

Sparta!!! Threes is incredible!!!

The Late Greats

Spacemen 3
The Zombies
Loudon Wainwright III
The Pogues
Guided by Voices (American as Apple Pie in my opinion)

Lloyd Cole any one?

Johnny Rebel

Pulp
Stone Roses
Replacements
Velvet Underground
Whiskeytown
PJ Harvey

Great call on Zevon, he’s amazing.

Also want to throw in:
As Tall As Lions
Lindsey Buckingham
Marc Cohn
Phil Collins
Jim Croce
ELO
Jonah Matranga
Heart
Bruce Hornsby and the Range
Motion City Soundtrack
Boz Scaggs
Seal
Nina Simone
Cat Stevens
Thursday

Jackson Browne
The wallflowers
The Band

Alice Cooper Band
Kinks
Replacements
Tro ggs
and most of: Raspberries

Cheap Trick- For “Surrender” alone. How they are in the R&R Hall of Fame is mystery.
Nick Drake- The best folkie ever.
Richard Thompson- Arguably the best living guitarist, and should be a megastar.
Mudhoney- Grunge’s forgotten geniuses.

Digable Planets.

In no particular order…
The Cars
Smashing Pumpkins
INXS
The Cure
Oasis
XTC
and finally The Killers, but only here in the US and especially by some huge music mag and other poisonous pens. Hopefully this will change. They deserve the kudos.

Correction-

How Cheap Trick isn’t in the Rock Hall is a mystery. I gotta read this stuff before I turn it in for a grade!

I have to agree with alot of these comments about ZAPPA TREX,and CREAM being underated. More underated if not forgotten is SPIRT (I think was said),and HAWKWIND, or even GONG. I do agree with ELVIS being unappreciated by the younger generation. If only for what he did for the genre.
Who said Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd? You have to be kidding.
As far as the RRHOF (Did you notice the initals sound like someone throwing up?) Now everyone is saying ELO, what about the MOODY BLUES. Jann Weiner you should be ashamed of yourself.

Cheap Trick
Marillion
Aimee Mann
Toad the Wet Sprocket
The National

Here are my top 5 -

1. Roxy Music (Extremely under appreciated!)
2. T.Rex
3. Rush
4. The Cult
5. The Kinks

Oh, and Brian Eno!!!

Jethro Tull, ELO, Richard Thompson, Supertramp, The Honeydogs.

Enough with the Kinks! They are one of the most acclaimed bands ever.
Also Jethro Tull.
Underrated are bands like Fixx and Psychedelic Furs

1) DEVO
2) devo
3) DE-VO
4) Dee Veaux
5) DEEEEE VOOOO !

-Mountain! (Knight, Laing, Pappalardi, West)

-James McMurtry & the Heartless Bastards

-The Soledad Brothers

-Blur (in the US anyway)

-The Greenhornes

the cars definately!

Jellyfish
Hall & Oates(should be in rock n roll hall of fame)
John Mellencamp(Should be in rock hall of fame)
Ben Folds
Pete Yorn
Fountains of Wayne
The Wallflowers
Terence Trent D’arby
P.M. Dawn
Ben Folds
Jimmy Eat World
Rufus Wainwright
The Format
Butch Walker
Chris Isaak
Lyle Lovett

forgot
barenaked ladies(put out 2 cd’s this year,probably their best collection of music)
Hanson-just great music,listen to Penny and Me and tell me it’s not great

forgot again
Lindsey Buckingham(put out 4 solo albums each one better that the last)
Trash Can Sinatras

jeff buckley is respected but should be worshipped

How about The Band. I know they are in the rock and roll hall of fame but if you ask anyone who is my age (20) who The Band are and they will probably think you are talking about P. Diddy’s group Da Band. Also Little Feat. One of the most underappreciated bands. The Faces. Gram Parsons. Leon Russell. Mott The Hoople. Ry Cooder

James Taylor
Todd Rundgren
The Allman Bros
The Band
Buffalo Springfield
Chris Cornell
Pete Townshend

I don’t know if they’ve been mentioned yet, but I don’t think SLy and the Family Stone is given enough credit.

Also, John Popper

1.PARIS HILTON
2.LINDSAY LOHAN
3.CONNIE FRANCIS
4.THROBBING GRISTLE
5.SERGE GAINSBOURGH

- Dave Alvin/The Blasters (one of the most under-appreciated songwriters EVER)
- John Hiatt
- Steve Earle
- Ryan Adams/Whiskeytown
- Townes Van Zandt
- Tom Russell
- Richard Thompson
- Will Hoge
- Son Volt
- Drive-By Truckers
- The Gourds
- James McMurtry
- Ray Wylie Hubbard
- The Subdudes

Is that enough or should I go on??? There is so much great music out here under the radar….

PJ Harvey
Tori Amos
INXS
Simple Minds
Simply Red
Fleetwood Mac
Garbage
Queen
Pret ender s
Robert Palmer
Hall & Oates
Eurythmics
ELO
C ollec tive Soul

Neurosis

The Melvins

Tori Amos
Lucinda Williams
Heart
Emmylou Harris
Shaun Colvin
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Joan Jett
Kate Bush
Annie Lennox

The Soggy Bottom Boys- Phenomenal over night success story. Bunch of ex-cons running from the law dressed in fake beards and accompanied by a guitarist who sold his soul to the devil. Pretty much the most exciting thing to ever happen to country/bluegrass musiC.

Autobon- totally obscure, progressive, new-wave, techno-pop group from Germany. They were a bunch of nihlists. Lack of commercial success led to them to a life of crime.

tom waits

Townes Van Zandt
The Replacments
Big Star
George Harrison with the Beatles

the tragically hip, the biggest band in canada, rock on.

Thin Lizzy
The Replacements
Echo and the Bunnymen
Ben Folds
Husker Du
Pavement
The Kinks

Townes Van Zandt, one of the greatest america poets and song writers of all times.

Ben Folds
Pavement
Thin Lizzy
The Replacements
Husker Du
Elliott Smith
Counting Crows
Nick Drake
Televison
Eels

The Kinks
The Black Crowes

Screaming Trees
Helmet (The first 3 albums)
Cake
Tonic
The Sundays
The Smashing Pumpkins
Ween
Alice In Chains
Filter
Ministry
Soun dgarden
Lacuna Coil
Primus
The Lemonheads
The Mars Volta
Prong
Men at Work
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Prince

- Cheap Trick

- The Cars

- Todd Rundgren

(Blondie, Bee Gees, and Jackson Browne are in the RRHOF and these three aren’t?)

jj grey and mofro will probably never be “big” but i just saw them live in birmingham al. and i can see in that small concert hall venue,,,they dont really care…they just play from the soul which makes this whole list sorta pointless anyways…that was one of the best shows ive ever seen and ive seen a bunch of em,,good luck mofro and keep playing from the heart!!

Fairport Convention
Two Gallants

SoundGarden
Public Enemy
Sly and the Family Stone
Silverchair
The Velvet Underground
The Mars Volta
Alice in Chains

The Kingmen. Probably the fathers of Modern Rock on two fronts. 1 The music of Louie Louie. Every garage band FBI agent inthe sixties knew this song. Secondly the bass player and his brother gave birth to Sunn Amps! Modern bass guitar and large arena style sound amplification was perfected by the Sunholm Brothers (aka Sunn Amps). Look at the inside of the Woodstock album. No modern loud sound reenforcement, no modern day loud rock concert. Thank you Kingsmen!!!

The Black Crowes
Deep Purple
Buffalo Springfield

Mc5
count five
question mark and the mysterians
the dictators
zappa
queensryche

faith no more
gram parsons
the slits
hawkwind
mother love bone
eric b and rakim

CrazyWorldofArthurBrown: Vocals- Arthur Brown (Kingdom Come), Keyboards- Vincent Crane (Atomic Rooster), Bass- John Entwhistle (Who), Drums- Carl Palmer, (ELP, Asia) Producer- Pete Townsend (Who).

The Fixx – criminally ignored for their incredible range from new wave to progressive rock to hard rock to world music. Inexplicably dismissed as synth pop band when one listen to their albums or one of their concerts and you’ll realize how hard they rock and what great musicians they are.

Grass Roots – early band that never gets old

Three Dog Night – no act has ever had as many hits so fast and yet current generation isn’t familiar with them

Talk Talk – underrated vocalist

-Heart

-Siouxsie & The Banshees

-Blondie

-Donna Summer

I totally agree with The Cars. But I don’t think Roxy Music is underappreciated at all!

chuck berry, kings of leon, the roots, blonde redhead, fela kuti, nick drake

John Mellencamp can’t be left out.

Sleater-Kinney

& Fefe Dobson,
Swimming Pool Q’s,
Heathen Girls,
Dave Clark Five,
The Kingsmen,
Grand Funk Railroad,
Ten Years After,
Klaatu,
Badger.

The Cardigans
Cowboy Junkies
Bad Boys Blue
Joe Purdy
The Stone Roses ( only in the USA, in the UK they are gods )
Echo and the Bunnymen

Fishbone
Fishbone
Fishbone, aaand
Fishbone.

Been around for 20 years, were a huge influence on No Doubt and Sublime, although Fishbone’s vastly better than those two bands in every way; better songs and musicianship, more experimental, they were able to go heavier, had more variety.

Also, Alice Cooper. Generally gets mentioned as the guy who combined goth, theatrics, punk and metal and had a girl’s name before Marilyn Manson, but Alice doesn’t get nearly enough credit for how good some of those albums are.

Kate Bush – Because every artsy singer-songwriter-producer owes her…big

Siouxsie and the Banshees – Because we must all praise Siouxsie Sioux’s Vivienne Westwood bondage heels…’nough said

The Pretenders – Because Chrissie Hynde and James Honeyman-Scott are/were two of the best musicians of the past thirty years

Shirley Bassey – Because…she is the voice of Bond. Um…just take a look at this, and you’ll see why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =clF15ITzFC0

the presidents of the united states of america

IN NO ORDER – MY 25

1. The Band – Hardly hear them on Classic Rock stations. There too busy playing “Stairway To Heaven”. How I wish Rick Danko and Ricard Manuel were still alive. One of the most talented bands ever.
2. Velvet Underground
3. Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention
3. The Replacements
4. Gram Parsons
5. 13th Floor Elevators
6. Blondie
7. The Pixies
8. The Cars
9. Mudhoney
10. Quicksilver Messenger Service
11. New York Dolls
12. Delaney and Bonnie
13. Buddy Guy
14. Dick Dale
15. Cheap Trick
16. The Ramones – Should Have Been A lot Bigger
17. MC5
18. Captain Beefheart
19. Peter Tosh
20. The Kinks – They don’t get enough credit
21. T. Rex
22. The Black Crowes
23. The Rascals
24. Joe Cocker – I know he was big at one time but hardly ever played or mentioned anymore. What a great voice.
25. Just about every great blues musician. Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and a slew of others.

I forgot:

Grace Jones – Because she IS the most underrated artist of all time. A lot of people remember being frightend of her in”A View to a Kill,” and that’s it. But her albums, esp. “Warm Leatherette” and “Nightclubbing,” are some of the most exciting, unusual, difficult masterpieces ever. Plus, she’s a damn good performer—even if she is a little scary. But, really, that’s part of her allure.

Emitt Rhodes
John Martyn
Shuggie Otis
Terry Reid
Can
Big Star
The Kinks
Billy Nicholls
Essra Mohawk

Robyn Hitchcock – brilliant lyricist on par with Dylan

And his songs are damn catchy!

Kings Of Leon…people should commit suicide bombings in their name..I might then understand their cause….
Thin Lizzy
Primal Scream,
Lupe Fiasco (he’s a genius)
The Libertines
As Tall As Lions
The Darkness (primarily “Permission to Land”)good rock.
T-Rex
Spandau Ballet
Weezer

Blondie – Unfairly dismissed as superficial far too often. Stein and Harry get their due, but the band has one of the best drummers in the business. The No Exit reunion was one of the few times where the band gets back together, makes actual new material, and releases an album and single that rups much of the stuff from the first time around

And I second the KInks and Blur not getting their U.S. due

Powderfinger. Still don’t understand how they haven’t made it in the U.S. yet.

Ron Sexsmith, Jolie Holland, Counting Crows, Nick Drake, the Kinks

Wilco
Wilco
Wilco
Wilco
Wilco
Wilco
Wilco
Wilco

Wilco
ELO
High Llamas
The Myracle Brah
Grandaddy
Earlimart
The Posies

Cheap Trick-by far the most under rated classic rock band ever
Siouxsie & The Banshees
ELO

The Stone Roses should be up there with the Beatles in pure rock godness.
Oh yeah and then there´s….
1. Paul Simon: Best singer songwriter since Dylan
2. Erasure and The Cure; New Wave rocked
3. Tom Petty: sould be toasting grammys with Bono
4. Guns and Roses: The last great hard rock band before grunge. They should have legend status along with their platinum albums
5. The Violent Femmes: Folk-punk at its best.

the black crowes, took us back to the good old days of the 70s…
jeff buckley, the most original and perhaps the greatest voice of all time
and finally, peter frampton, soo good live and wrote some great songs

King’s X.

THE CONSTANTINES!!!! What’s that? You’ve never heard of them? Exactly my point. One of the few bands today that sounds like they could change the world even when nobody knows who they are. One of today’s greatest band, containing of the greatest songwriters of the last decade.

i’ve read the list and seen many bands (most that i love)…learned about a few. Thank you people!

but i think there is confusion over the question…

define “their due”

MC5
Pixies
Husker Du
Lead Belly

-and-

The Strokes…I’d be happy to tag them boy band or pan flashes, like the Killers, and ignore….but I’ve enjoyed all 3 of their CD’s way too much.

My Top 10

10. Harry Chapin
9. Screaming Trees
8. The Living End
7. Blues Traveler
6. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
5. The Cranberries
4. Tears For Fears
3. Muse
2. Silverchair
1. Ben Folds

I forgot:

Cake (completely original)
Alice Cooper (more than makeup)
The Fratellis (the best new band)
Soul Asylum (great songwriting)
The Dandy Warhols

King Crimson. Lesson to all artists nowadays: Try and create a genre of music like prog by yourself. Yeah, good luck with that one. A joke that “In the Court of the Crimson King” was left off the 500 Greatest Albums list a while back.

Lindsey Buckingham

Lindsey Buckingham
Christine McVie{its always Stevie Nicks}
Derek and the Dominos(for more than just Layla}
Traveling Wilburys
Mountain{Leslie West)
The Band
Jackson Browne
Eurythmics {or just Annie Lennox}
Dave Mason
leon Russell and Rita Coolidge(the Delta Lady)
Steve Winwood + Traffic
Bad Company
Harry Chapin
Bonnie Raitt (Angel from Montgomery +4 being the best slide guitarist ever!
Cindi Lauper,Joan Jett + Gracie Slick
And by the way Phoenix,AZ never 4gets Alice Cooper hes even a radio DJ and owns a bar here!
Leon Russell +

Mike Oldfield. He has released great music for decades now, yet most people in North America only know him for Tubular Bells, way back in the early 70s.

Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs
Green on Red
Vic Chesnutt
Dream Syndicate
Thelonious Monster Mellencamp
Tex and the Horseheads
The Sheiks of Shake
The bPeople
The Blue Shadows
Crimony
DC3

Fifteen Forgotten
#1 Granicus
#2 UFO
#3 Kate Bush
#4 Utopia
#5 Living Colour
#6 The Tubes
#7 Suzanne Vega
#8 MC5
#9 Dan Fogelberg
#10 Resurrection Band
#11 Marc Bolan
#12 Mahogany Rush
#13 Marc Cohn
#14 Chris de Burgh
#15 Damn Yankees

also
Roxy Music
Kings X
Peter Frampton
Squeeze
Paul McCartney-post Beatles
Ten Years After
Tears For Fears
George Harrison-post Beatles
Hall and Oates
Talking Heads

Duh…. The Replacements!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Wilco
Liz Phair
Pixies
PJ Harvey
The White Stripes
Talking Heads
Thom Yorke

Liz Phair
Lucinda Willians
Tom Petty
Steve Earle

O.A.R.

ROBBIE WILLIAMS!!!!!!!!!
SUGABABES

MUSE!!!!!!!

George Harrison – post Beatles

Leon Russell
White Animals
ELO
Subdudes

A few that haven’t been mentioned yet:
1. The Hold Steady (although someone did mention Lifter Puller)
2. Todd Snider (one of the best songwriters alive; overlooked as a novelty artist)
3. Pulp / Jarvis Cocker (The whole “Oasis vs. Blur” thing was ridiculous. This band was better than either of those two.)
4. Mott the Hoople / Ian Hunter (You’ve gotta be kidding me; no one has mentioned them yet?!?)
5. Sam & Dave (One of the best soul bands of all-time)

Others already mentioned that deserve another vote:

1. Crowded House / Neil Finn (including Split Enz and the Finn Brothers)
2. Sam Cooke
3. Kirsty MacColl
4. Jimmy Cliff
5. The Jam

BLACKFIELD
is the most underrated band. fact is, no one mentioned them at all!
any project that steven wilson is involved with deserves more appreciation and this one is one of his best. 2 excellent masterpieces out and no one heard of them already???

BLACKFIELD
is the most underrated band. fact is, no one mentioned them at all!
any project that steven wilson is involved with deserves more appreciation and this is one of his best. 2 excellent cds that border on a masterpiece out and no one heard of them yet???

Sleater-Kinney is god. Sleater-Kinney is god. Sleater-Kinney is god. Sleater-Kinney is god. Sleater-Kinney is god. Sleater-Kinney is god. Sleater-Kinney is god.

Fugazi – Who’s in the picture posted above?

1. Duran Duran: Bands from the Eighties are often derided for various reasons (why, I’m not sure) and even though I think this band has received a critical rehab since their original lineup reunion in 2001, they still belong on this list. There are excellent album tracks that are lost in the shadow of the huge hits, their longevity speaks for itself, their influence on bands after them shows their originality, and their live act that, cliche as it sounds, rocks.

2. Paul McCartney (post-Beatles): Slowly but surely the hipsters are coming around and realizing the plethora of classics that McCartney recorded after his ‘other band’ broke up. The burden on McCartney to produce a Beatles-like song on every track of every album is so unfair, and he has received a critical lashing because of it. The way John Lennon has been knighted as a music God is merely a result of Lennon’s tragic and untimely death, and Paul has had to deal with this ever since that tragic day in 1980. As a result, Paul often gets labeled as the ‘other guy’ in Lennon/McCartney. Absolute crap. Solo McCartney is like solo Lennon…when it was good, it was really good. When it was bad, it was bad.

3. The Monkees: The Sex Pistols covered this band. Tom Petty raved over them years ago. Michael Stipe once said he wouldn’t accept entry into the Hall of Fame if The Monkees hadn’t already been inducted. Their songs have endured. Their appeal has endured. Any comparisons with other ‘manufactured’ groups no longer stand. These guys broke the strings of corporate management and rebelled against them, which is what rock and roll is all about. And they made some great music on their own.

4. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Why are nimrods like John Mayer winning Grammy’s and garnering big press and praise when a band like this rarely attains either? This band is one band that has NEVER released a bad album. Think about that. It’s true. Their live act smokes, and as a group of musicians, they are the finest American band of the last 30 years, bar none. (Take that, Bruce!)

Before their recent reunion, I would have tacked The Police on this list, but now that they are back in the spotlight and active again, it seems the world is finally appreciating this band for what it was…one of the best ever.

I also forgot:

Steve Earle
King’s X
Faith No More
Alice in Chains
Tori Amos

Woody, I think that’s the “New Cars,” although why they didn’t just put a picture of the old Cars lineup (with Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr) is beyond me.

ELO
TOM PETTY
THE SILENT LEAGUE
MAPLE MARS
GRANDADDY

Jeff Buckley
Nick Drake
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
The Dandy Warhols
The Postal Service

kerbdog, thin lizzy, whipping boy, my bloody valentine,….all irish and tons better than the shite comin outta ireland at the moment, the frames, snow patrol and damine rice are a disgrace to the country…. but if they’d have been from the uk or the us they all would’ve dominated their genres…also faith no more, deftones, the wildhearts, house of pain, the foos, lagwagon nofx and so on and so forth i could keep goin for ages

The Replacements
Paul Westerberg’s solo work
Mott the Hoople
Public Enemy
A-ha
The Cure
The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Pogues
New Order
Joe Strummer’s solo work
Randy Newman
Public Image Limited

nickelback and good charlotte have to be up there on the list of all time best bands, so don’t forget about them

Tapes ‘n’ Tapes

T.Rex/Marc Bolan. Maybe things are different across the sea, but here in the US no one even knows that T.Rex is the name of a band. (They know one or two songs though!)

I don’t understand how a band as iconic and influential as they were has been allowed to fade into relative obscurity.

rolling stone, for a smart magazine and website, this is a frikin` STUPID uestion. there are WAY to many artists out there to make a list of only 25 most underapritiated Idiots. the questions cant be SO general. how can you pretend to make a list of 23? I mean, maybe if you had a list of like, a couple hundred then you might be able to cover most of them but I like to e able to trust these lists and I know that I will not be able to belive that there are only 25 good ones. I sugest having a list that says more OVERapretiated, or most OVERATED! That would be abl to cover most good ones, but not this.

Im not gonna even sugest one, because I can easily name 300 good contestents.

Blind Melon! They were ruined by the Big Business Machine. Woefully underrated.

radiohead

Steve Miller! They don’t call him Stevie “Guitar” for nothing!

Def. Richard Thompson
Also:
Elliott Smith
Pavement
X
The Specials

Some I forgot

The Waterboys
Mott the Hoople
Ian Hunter
The original Alice Cooper band

King Crimson

The Mars Volta, does any other band even come close to their complex and mind blowing arrangements? By far the most experimental band around, and hardly anyone knows about them!

DION! He’s got an incredible body of work. Look into it. Doo-wop, big-band, blues, folk, rock, pop, gospel….he has done it all. Look into it.

Pere Ubu
Scott Walker
Tim Buckley
Love
Silver Apples
The Monks
Incredible String Band
The Residents
The Slits
Billy Childish
The Cramps
The Fall
Boredoms

-Cloud Cult
-The Mars Volta
-The Black Keys
-Muse
-The Kills
-Ben Folds(Five)
-Blind Melon
-Boards Of Canada
-Dido
-Tapes ‘n’ Tapes
-Amon Tobin
-Massive Attack
-The Pinker Tones
-The Subways

Hello Hello
DEVO!!!!!
Are we not men?
No, we are DEVO!!
Don’t you see??
honestly, listen to there first five albums and you’ll agree with me. also…
SLOAN
best damn canadian band there is
BUTTHOLE SURFERS
crazy punk psychedelia nutso brand texan rock, need I say more?
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN
again, the 1st five albums says it all
MASSIVE ATTACK
even listening to them makes you feel cool, i mean come on
TALKING HEADS
a religon for funk geeks everywhere
THE ZOMBIES
care of cell 44 anyone?
THE CHURCH
please put this awesome band on every good band list you can, they deserve it
THE BETA BAND
Hot Shots II, incredible album by incredible band
SUPERGRASS
a consistently amazing group album to album

GUNS N’ ROSES!!!!!!!!! They were one of the first hard rock bands and they broke away from the popular glam-rock of the time! And now, sadly, when I tell my friends that GNR is my favorite band ever they say “Who?”

The Ramones!

I know they had critical sucess and a great fan base. But they never got the the main stream success they deserved. Everyone on the planet should own their first four albums.

Fugazi
Slint
Mike Patton
Nick Cave
The Flaming Lips

All innovators, all underappreciated.

Dion Dimucci. A superlative voice and talent for interpreting songs. A career that has spanned decades and genres. And a damn fine guitarist, too.

The Raspberries

The Dogs D’Amour: Tyla is on a par w/ Shane MacGowan.

Marillion (post-Fish)– that’s 90’s and 00’s Marillion

perhaps the most underrated rock act of all time, in terms of nobody even knows about them. they are not always consistent, but when they are great, they are GREAT

Check out, on youtube:
“out of this world” from Afraid of Sunlight
“neverland” from marbles
“fantastic place” (steve doing it solo on portugese tv) from marbles
“easter” from season’s end

and then tell me this is not one of the world’s hidden treasures

Fugazi
Blind Melon
Dinosaur Jr
Leo Kottke
Radiohead
The five most underrated. Even Radiohead most people haven’t fully grasped their genius.

The Knack – Round Trip is a brilliant album. Seriously!

Colin James: see “Voodoo Thing”, “Why’d You Lie”, “I’m Losing You” and his cover of “Into the Mystic”
Desmond Dekker: see “Israelites”
Sam Roberts: see “Bridge to Nowhere” and “Hard Road”

Living Colour
Chris Whitley
Big Star
Cheap Trick
Cracker
Dan Baird / Georgia Satellies
NRBQ
Buzzcock s
Ke vn Kinney / Drivin N Cryin

Wilco
Big Star
The Replacements
The Kinks
Drive-By Truckers

Funkadelic/Parliament
Lewis Taylor
Average White Band
Ruth Copeland – the greatest female singer of all time that never was. Her voice was Melanie meets Janis Joplin. Check out the Gimme Shelter – Invictus Sessions CD via Amazon. features members of Funkadelic as her backing group. simply awesome & sexy too

1. TOM PETTY
2. JOHNNY WINTER
3. SUBLIME
4. ROBIN TROWER
5. TED NUGENT

The Kinks they’re not as popular as they should be. Maybe it’s because how hard their album are to find in mainstream music stores.

The Byrds

The Ramones,pretty much every punk band acknowledges them as an influence, but the respect they’ve been accorded hasn’t really translated to record sales

The Kinks, Roxy Music, George Harrison, Television, Kliche

elo
animal collective
neutral milk hotel
rachel yamagata
olivia tremor control

ALICE COOPER!!!!!! (band and solo)
Tom Petty
Cheap Trick (agree with that one!)

Gotta second Tears for Fears, Third Eye Blind and Pulp. TFF is criminally underrated in my opinion. Their sound dwarfs almost anyone else from the 80’s and has matured and evolved in a positive and creatively fertile direction ever since.
I also must mention an artist who was underrated by this magazine: Miles Davis. Your ranking of the 100 greatest artists listed him at 88. 88?!! The guy is one of the great minds and innovators to come from the world of music and he’s 88? Come on man.

Kinks
Velvet Underground
Sonic Youth
Pixies
Queens of the Stone Age

SIGUR ROS
COCTEAU TWINS
PETER GABRIEL
MEW
VAST

Muse
Iggy Pop
Anti-Flag
The Strokes
Stone Temple Pilots
Alice In Chains
The Vines
Billy Idol
Counting Crows
Ryan Adams

Oh yeah, and have any non-Canadians checked out The Weakerthans???

How about some more love for those bands which pioneered today’s current sound of the killers, franz ferdinand, etc.? Those bands owe a debt to The Cure, Joy Division and The Fixx which had that sound 25 years ago. Although I don’t think of The Cure as underrated. The Fixx definitely are.

The Who

More love for ELO and The Kinks! How about Jellyfish?

Liz Phair
Aimme Mann
Tom Petty
Jonny Lang
Lucinda Williams
Frank Black

radiohead-i know they’re critically acclaimed, but dang!
thom yorke should be a legend
far more of a musical genius than the overrated kurt cobain
jeff buckley-grace is just pure epic
everyone should know it

Alice Cooper
Cheap Trick
Liz Phair
The Shoes
The Guess Who

Harry Nilsson. The Beatles called him both “their favorite artist” and “their favorite band”. He was enormously influential. Harry deserves his due.

A few more…

Faith No More
The Black Crowes
XTC

Jeff Buckley was good, but he is constantly being recognized as such. His father Tim Buckley was a greater musician and very influential, but hasn’t really been given the credit he deserves. Starsailor is a truly amazing album.

The Band. After the Beatles and Rolling Stones, they seem to me the finest ensemble rock group of all time. Very few rock artists can bost two absolutely perfect albums, and the Band is one of them. They are certainly regarded as a great band, but these days, groups like Cream are far more popular, even though the Band’s actual output is far superior to that of Cream (not to pick on Cream, they’re just the band that jumps into my mind).

Dolorean deserve much more attention and have a fine songwriter in Al James

Matthew Sweet is also under-appreciated IMO

First and last word on this issue: Rush. Extremely influential and great musicians. Never loved by this mag, but since RS has become an emasculated pansy rag, it hardly matters.

Oh, while I’m here, I’ll also mention The Waterboys. Great band. This Is The Sea being one of the great discs of the 80’s. He had his indulgences, but there are several classic tracks on this album.

Wilco
Ben Folds
Ben Harper
Ben Kweller
Jurassic 5
Starsailor
Gomez
wishbone ash

WEEN, Meat Puppets, Fugazi, Big Black, Brian Eno

The Residents

Silverchair, Silverchair, Silverchair!

The King of Shock Rock..

..Alice Cooper

It’s good to see power pop stuff like Matthew Sweet and Jason Falkner getting some mention. ELO and Big Star deserve far more respect, IMO.

1. Townes Van Zandt- greatest lyricist of all-time
2. JJ Cale- THE baddest motherfucker
3. John Scofield- greatest living guitarist

p.s. John Mellencamp sucks

Alice Cooper seems the only totally obvious omission.

kudos to whoever said Roy Buchanan

1. The Lemonheads
2. The Meat Puppets
3. The La’s
4. The Replacements
5. The Smithereens
6. Marcy Playground
7. Oasis
8. The Charlatans UK
9. The Velvet Underground
10. The Byrds
11. The Kinks
12. early REM

New York Dolls
The Osmonds
Yes
Mott The Hoople
T.Rex
The Kinks
Bryan Ferry
Brian Eno
Rush
the cult
Robbie Williams

xtc

The best band you never heard of (unless you are Australian) : POWDERFINGER

More, more, more:

The Pretenders
The Pogues
Black Flag
Pere Ubu
Kraftwerk
Roky Ericson

Social Distortion has always been overlooked. Pick up Live at the Roxy and find out what youve been missing your whole life

Drive-by Truckers

fall out boy

jeff buckley
King crimson
Blind melon
Black crowes
311
Funkadelic
Faith no more
Tim Buckley

Definetly Blur. The finest band to come from Britan since the Beatles.

VAST … Jon Crosby writes some of the most moving and emotional songs Ive ever heard.

The Flaming Lips … a band that continues to persist and writes its best music each time it makes a new effort.

here are a few that i dont think were on the extensive list.
great choices.
basically everybody can make the list.
most of the people on the list are just not known i wouldnt say anybody who knows their music doesnt like them.
here goes
1, tommy stinson, chris mars. slim dunlap- all have put out some really cool solo albums.
2willie nile- great power pop and solid rock n roll since 1980
3 matthew ryan- one of the best songwriters in my small opinion.
4.t bone burnette- known for being a producer has put out some great cds
5. nils lofgren- great voice songwriting and fanstatic guitar player as is evident solo with his old band grin and backing up neil young and springsteen. a few springsteen songs live he has breathetaking solos.
6 steve forbert
7. nrbq
8the del lords
9izzy stradlen known for being guns guitar player but has put out a few real nice stonesy pure rock n roll solo albums.
10eddie hinton- dont know much about him but hes a white guy who sounds like otis redding very soulful
10. the rationals- 60s garage band from detrioit very inluenced by soul music.
11. the last herd- bob segers first band garage band from detrioit also., not known even though seger beacme a household word on his own.

I’ll break it down into decades
60’s- The Move
70’s-ELO, Rockpile, Cheap Trick
80’s-The Fixx, The Cars
90’s-Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, The Posies
00’s- Sparklehorse, The Decemberists, Chewy Marble

Fall Out Boy?

1. They were just on the cover of Rolling Stone

2. They suck

The Byrds

old, pre-frusciante and smith 80’s chili peppers

Jeez what about Ben Folds and Sean Lennon? ELO are overlooked quite a bit, too.

Obviously it’s Rush.

SLOAN is the band. In a perfect world they would be massive. But they aren’t, which is fine by me since I can still see them in a small club in a small town.

well everyone says velvet underground and tahts basically the only one i agree with.

but why not

jimmy eat world?
so constatn and great everytime a leauge of there own.

brand new?
the spill canvas?
where are these???
but actaully il give you the cars for sure

the band? nefver could get enough for waht they have done

the germs
meat puppets
the roots
bauhaus
nick drake
black flag
violent femmes

The Velvet Underground

Good choices all! I’ll second and add some…
The Cars
The Raindogs/The Schemers/Mark Cutler
Television
BoDeans
J . Geils/Peter Wolf
WARREN ZEVON!!!
Graham Parker
Nick Lowe
Robyn Hitchcock
Tom Waits,…

Undoubtedly, it’s either Os Mutantes, the New Pornographers, or Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Os Mutantes blasted psychedelic rock the way that only Brazilians could. The New Pornographers are one of the most artistically satisfying yet still approachable supergroups ever. When Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich rocked their hardest, few British Invaders could touch them, let alone surpass them. Also, I really like Elliott Smith.

FAITH NO MORE most under rated band ever!
Post Berry REM, Awesome but rarely heard
WEEN, the greatest band ever
U2-POP
De La Soul
Placebo
Beck

I’m sorry i almost forgot-Buffalo Tom!

Nick Drake.
Possibly the most tragically ignored artist of all time.
Simply brilliant.

Warren Zevon
The Cars
Better Than Ezra
Tom Petty
Sublime
Garbage
The Cranberries
The Zombies

roy buchanan, the best guitarist the world never knew

The Pixies
Talking Heads
and what the hell, Alcie Cooper

There’s more, but I can’t think of them right now.

As for Radiohead, I think they get all the respect and worship they deserve, Kid A went straight to number one and won a grammy. Plus they’re on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. What more do you want!?

Pixies, Meat Puppets, Violent Femmes, Strapping Young Lad, Melvins, Beck, Smashing Pumpkins.

The Kinks are number one among underated artists, that’s final.

Alkaline trio

i saw mention of willie nile..his 2006 lp ‘STREETS OF NEW YORK’ was by far my favorite cd of 2006. CHEAP TRICK is the best live band i have ever seen so i give them the nod…i saw mention of SLOAN-boy are they good i am just getting into their stuff.

Faith No More was criminally underrated. People who only know them for “Epic” are missing out. Angel Dust is one of the best rock albums ever recorded.

neutral milk hotel
blue scholars
wilco
spoon
built to spill
the unicorns

The Descendents…case closed .

Um, and I am saying Afghan Whigs, again.

Seaweed?

My Bloody Valentine.

The Kinks are always overlooked when it comes to being an influential band. Tom Petty should be considered a national treasure. ELO(Jeff Lynne) were second only to The Beatles (and maybe The Beach Boys), in terms of incredibly melodic songwriting.

The Black Keys
The Kinks
The New York Dolls
The Mars Volta
The Velvet Underground or Lou Reed
DFA 1979(Assholes but innovative)
Soledad Brothers
Junior Kimbrough
Gram Parsons
Townes Van Zant

The Smiths
The Byrds Jim Croce
Counting Crows Lyle Lovett
Peter Wolf THE STONE ROSES
Ryan Adams Patti Smith
George Harrison (solo)
Townes Van Zandt
Hank Williams

Kinks, ELO, The Fixx

fugazi
fugazi
fugazi
fugazi
fu gazi

I gotta say jimmy eat world too…theyre awesome and dont get nearly as much artistic credit as they should.

Colin Hay, former Men At Work vocalist is amazing now he’s gone solo

Nick Cave, although he’s a crazy insular drug addict he doesnt get nearly enough recognition for his part in Australia’s musical progression

Elliot Smith, a man who almost literally rose from the dead with his music. He will live on forever but still isnt seen as an influential artist.

Definitely Alice Cooper. There is a misconception (mainly because radio is ran by idiots) that Alice only put out great music in the early and mid 70’s. He is actually a better live performer today than back in the 70;s. Musically some of his best work includes From the Inside (which had his best lyrics), Dada, The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet, and a few others. His solo career has had a few misses, but people forget that albums from his original band like Muscle of Love weren’t that hot either.

Another artist is more in the folk vein but has some elements of rock on many of his albums and that is John Prine.

@grabbo:
Fugazi is fine right where they are. They do not need anybody’s attention because they are not seeking it.

I would say King Crimson, Danny Elfman and Mike Patton

The author of the original blog post failed to specify what he really meant by “underappreciated”. I know there was a little blurb attempting to clarify the term, but it didn’t answer the basic question: are we talking underappreciated by audiences or by the critics? If it’s audiences we’re talking about, I could mention about 25 soul/funk artists from decades past. American audiences have a criminally short memory when it comes to black music, and this is reflected in both sales and everyday discourse. I’m not African-American myself, nor do I mean to come across as holier-than-thou, but as somebody who’s been consumed by soul/funk/r&b of the 60’s and 70’s in the past few years it pisses me off to no end that so many great musicians have been forgotten. We’ll keep celebrating and buying music by MOR footnotes like Supertramp and the Carpenters and America, but to acknowledge and appreciate somebody like Sly Stone seems beyond us. I picked an obvious example because in spite of Sly & The Family Stone’s importance and early popularity they’ve mostly been consigned to oldies radio and the nostalgia bin. And take P-Funk/George Clinton – outside of a loyal cult following, nobody but well-informed critics seems to know how vital and how great they were.

A couple years ago, I would’ve come up with a list similar to the ones other people have offered, but having made even a casual acquaintance with the history of black music in America I’m utterly mystified as to why rock bands persist in the popular memory yet soul groups fade away. Sure, we all know Motown and Prince and the Jacksons and Barry White, but there’s so much more out there. So here’s some further artists who are important – most are critically respected, too – but for some reason haven’t retained the following enjoyed by all manner of rock acts, vital and marginal alike:

Chic
The Ohio Players
Spinners
The O’Jays
Kool & The Gang (the late ’60s/early ’70s stuff)
The Chi-Lites
Curtis Mayfield/The Impressions
Chaka Khan
Shalamar
Tony! Tony! Tone! (’90s, I know, but they helped spearhead the whole neo-soul thing typified by Jill Scott & D’Angelo, not to mention the Roots. They were also markedly less pretentious about it than their offspring, including group leader Raphael Saadiq.)

Counting Crows

Tom Petty

Skynyrd

IRON HEEL

IRON HEEL
They Might Be Giants
Ben Folds
Butch Walker

Willie Nelson
Hootie and the Blowfish
Creed
IRON HEEL
Fuel
Bright Eyes
Bob Dylan
Bob Seger
The Decemberists
IRON HEEL
The Kinks
Spin Doctors

Neil Young
Vertical Horizon
IRON HEEL
John Mayer
Sheryl Crow
Smack That Bottom Baby Boomers

Nice Peter
Kelly Clarkson
Elvis Costello
The Allman Brothers

Little Feat

Bruce Springsteen

Blues Traveler

Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Gomez
Jet
Charlie Daniels Band

Put some of that low yo-yo on the list

Captain Beefheart (aka Dan Vliet)

3 Doors Down
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Elton John
IRON HEEL
My Morning Jacket

1-Rem -even though they are considered legendary, they have NEVER gotten all the credit that they deserve and its a joke. fuck u2. Rem is the greatest/most important band of/starting from the 80’s by far.
2-Pixies
3-Wilco
3-Hus ker Du
4-the stooges
5-The Replacements
6-The Jayhawks
7-Teenage fanclub
8-Big Star
9-Fountains of wayne
10-nada surf

and the kinks NEVER got all of the credit they deserve either

The Monkees
Everclear
The Wallflowers
Sister Hazel

The Byrds

Third Eye Blind

Goo Goo Dolls

IRON HEEL

Tom Waits

Marcy Playground

Semisonic

Grand Funk Railroad

James Gang

IRON HEEL

Counting Crows

Sex Pistols

Collestive Soul

Blue Cheer

Weird Al Yankovic

The Cars

Wilco
IRON HEEL
Blues Traveler
Canned Heat

One word…Tad.

Pavement – someone wrote earlier that Weezer “started a whole new genre”. Not really… That was Pavement.

Wilco/Jeff Tweedy
The Libertines (underated in the US)
Counting Crows
M. Ward
My Bloody Valentine

Is actor Alan Rickman, Arthur Brown in disguise?

1)the replacements
2)pixies
3)pave ment

Rush.

And while we are onto Canadian bands, The Tragically Hip, which never even had a sniff of fame in the USofA.

wilco

Electric Light Orchestra
George Harrison
Supertramp
Echo and the Bunnymen
Jeff Buckley
The Cars

What are some of these posts? Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Elton John are UNDERappreciated? C’mon.

Bob Mould (in his various incarnations)
Buffalo Tom
The Black Crowes

The Kinks — and it’s because there’s never been a decent three-decade, career-wide, definitve best of (with the promotion it deserves) that they get passed over so much

Robyn Hitchcock

Hands down, The Roots haven’t been given their due yet. I think they are one of the most innovative bands in the world, and have been pushing hip hop forward, instead of the same old predictable garbage. Why Game Theory did not get more recognition is beyond me. That was one of the best hip hop releases of ‘06 and their best album yet. By the way, they have never made a bad album either. How many bands can claim that?

Tool

One Name: Tori Amos.

i can see how guys like springsteen or elton john make the list in certian aspects of their music.
examples.
1. springsteen- his guitar playing has always been great and i think some who dont like his music might like his guitar work same goes for prince.
2. prince- sells millions of records and is recognized but he is kind of without a category.
he doesnt fit into urban black music and he doesnt fit into classic rock or rock n roll although he is a great guitarist and i always thought that at least classic rock could play little red corvette once in a while.
3. elton john n billy joel- both have put out schlock but are great entertianers and damn good piano players and have written some of the 20th cenuries best pop songs.
they could make the list of overappreciated as well though.

Ween
Crowded House/Neil Finn
Alice in Chains
Belle and Sebastian
Garbage
Big Star
Bjork
Blind Melon
Bob Seger
Dire Straits/Knopfler
Eels
G randa ddy
Guided By Voices

The Jam
T

The Strokes and ELO.

THE SPOONS
A great canadian synth from th ’80’s, check them out.
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN
The fact they are not huge is a crime, please, someone prosecute
HIGH DIALS
2 great albums, incredibly talented band nuff said
DONOVAN
dismissed as hippy-dippy, but a true songwriting talent
BUDDY HOLLY
Seriously, this classic rock n’ roller is simply not revered enough. Any sixties artist worth anything were influenced by him. Beatles? yep. Stones? sure.

Liz Phair
Chan Marshall ( Cat Power )
Lucinda Williams

SLEATER-KINNEY
THE WEAKERTHANS
SONIC YOUTH
NEW PORNOGRAPHERS

The Tragically Hip – huge in Canada, criminally unknown in the states. They made some of the best albums of the 90’s.
The Weakerthans

The Kinks (especially Muswell Hillbillies)
Exploding Hearts
T. Rex
The ‘Mats
Helmet
The Buzzcocks

i could go on and on…

and how could i forget,

HANK III

Rush
The Fixx
Chameleons
Supertramp

Bad Brains
Big Star
Faith No More
Mike Patton
Rush
Goblin
Fishbone
Ch eap Trick
King Crimson
Clutch
Superdrag
Men at Work
Yes

Mo.Kee and Co-co

http://www.myspace.com/mokee ncoco

That’s about it, really.

Jungle Brothers — Never gotten the praise of De La or Tribe, but their first two albums were every bit as brilliant and innovative.

Paul Revere & the Raiders — Slick, poppy, gimmicky, whatever; they were a great singles band. “Kicks,” “Hungry,” “Good Thing,” yum.

The Trammps — “Disco Inferno” was just the tip of the iceberg. This was one of the most consistently enjoyable disco/R&B bands of the ’70s.

Digital Underground — I could be wrong about this, but I get the impression they’ve been virtually forgotten except for having spawned 2Pac, or maybe written off as clowns or something. But they made some glorious music.

Kid Creole & the Coconuts — Are their albums even in print? I don’t think they ever made a bad one.

Barenaked Ladies
Tesla
Stu Hamm

ALICE COOPER
T REX

The Afghan Whigs

Alice Cooper should be at the head of that list. He’s always had great lyrics and he’s certainly had a huge influence on other artists. A lot of people think he’s dead or retired when in fact he’s still touring, putting out CD’s and DVD’s and is about to release a new book.

There are many names I see here that I agree with but two I would add are Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band – I mean the man for his insanity and brazen comedic lyrics and his real life character being even more outrageous than his songs should get him a gold star somewhere.

Another band little known but that should have been on everybody’s play list was BACKWASH from Hawaii. They put on a show like none I’ve seen in my many decades of life and created every type of music branching of fromt their punk rock beginnings. There’s not a surfer from anywhere in the world that didn’t hear them at a party on the North Shore if not many many parties during the mid to late nineties. Hawaii’s top radio station tagged them the Best Band In Hawaii when they played live on air. I am sorry the world may never know the great ones that were in our midst. They created two albums before the explosion of diverse currents amongst the members shot them as high as the Backwash at Kammies on a good day. Too bad they got swept away in their own directions.

NRBQ
The Dictators
Television
Golden Smog

Immortal Technique- listen to Revolutionary Vol. 2

Bloodhound Gang
Dog Eat Dog
Body Count
Ska-P
Ugly Kid Joe
Sublime
Anouk
Guano Apes
Republica
Skunk Anansie
Davina
Dead Prez
Ms Dynamite
The Presidents Of United States Of America
The Breeders
Kula Shaker
Arrested Development
Prodigy
Therapy?
L7
K’s Choice
Suzanne Vega
Sonic Youth
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

I think I mispelled my own name further down the list. Anyway some other entries mentioned T.Rex, I would say this is not necessarily true, as in Europe he was/is seriously famous, he even had his own TV show at one point, except then he died. He had loads of hits here in the early 70s and I rate him alongside Bowie. Although it is true that when people hear his songs in ads (which happens a lot over here too) they often don’t know whose song it is.
Plus I don’t think underappreciated is the same as unknown; Gram Parsons may not be the most known artist, but I don’t think those who know him don’t appreciate the quality of his songwriting, unlike say Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine, Augustus Pablo and possibly the RZA, his structures are vastly superior even to Dr. Dre’s (although Pete Rock and DJ Premier are also rather unappreciated). Does everyone I mentioned get included in the poll or only the ones I directly mentioned; I meant all of them.

PORCUPINE TREE

supertramp
steve harley/cockney rebel

kinks
steve harley/cockney rebel
supertramp

Bob Geldof/Boomtown Rats

The Replacements
Big Star

Most definitely Alice Cooper. He doesn’t get half the recognition he deserves!

Hands down the Kinks !!!!!!!
They always get lost between The Beatles, Stones & The Who. Also special mention to Warren Zevon. A true original.

geldof blows bono

I think celine dion is the coolest thing since sliced bread! DID u see her on AI last week? Her voice is so sweet it brought Elvis back from the dead!

The Giraffes
Clutch
Grand Funk Railroad
Cake
Mark Lanegan

Jimmy Buffett & the Coral Reefer Band
Cocteau Twins
Echo and the Bunnymen
Huey Lewis and the News
Kinks
Men at Work
Midnight Oil
Widespread Panic

I also love Rush and Pearl Jam, but I hardly think they’re underappreciated. (Ask anyone to name the top 3 drummers and bassists, and you will always hear Neil Peart and Geddy Lee, respectively.)

Only one name comes to mind – GRAHAM PARKER. Forever unfairly compared to Elvis Costello, the man has one of the great soulful voices in Rock and Roll, has recorded three of the best album (Howlin’ Wind, Heat Treatment & Squeezing out Sparks) and hasn’t lost a step in 30 years. Give the man his due.

The Afghan Whigs and their leader Greg Dulli were totally ignored by the mainstream public when that band was putting out some of the most intense and cathartic rock to ever come out as heard in their masterpiece “Gentlemen”.
Greg Dulli is a genius songwriter and few can come close to the emotional impact that his picturesque lyrics create matched by a perfect sonic landscape.
I would also have to say GUIDED BY VOICES are still a cult band when they should have been huge.
If this world was right then their album ‘Bee thousand” would have been quadruple platinum.
GBV’s leader Bob Pollard is the most prolific rock songwriter ever.
One of their later albums called “isolation drills” is a freakin’ masterpiece recorded in hi fi and it rocks.
GBV! GBV! GBV!
Hey Pollard, the only reason why you broke up the band is because you want to control everything.
I’m sorry to say but you’re best stuff was when you were working with Tobin Sprout and the rest of the guys.
Stop being a control freak and regroup Guided by Voices then you’ll start to again fill up the clubs.
Don’t turn your back on a great legacy.
Their really is something called band chemistry so recognize and wise up.
I’d also have to give props to Cheap Trick who did Nirvana’s sound Long before Nevermind came out.
Check Out “He’s a whore” off their 1976 debut album.
Even Cobain named Trick as an influence.
Cheap trick along with The Rasperries and Badfinger are all pioneers of power pop and all should get more recognition.

My Bloody Valentine tops them all. End of discussion.

ELO, Yes, Polyphonic Spree.

John “Cougar” Mellencamp

Supertramp

Di re Straits/Mark Knopfler

Pantera. They have been getting some credit since Dimebag was killed, but not nearly what the deserve, since the only two bands that they are really comparable to are Black Sabbath and Metallica, and are pretty much the inspiration for almost all of the modern metal bands of today.

Robbie Robertson as a solo artist. Apart from great music and lyrics, he has the sexiest voice going. He’s always mentioned in connection with The Band but I much prefer his solo work.

The Waterboys, especially the album This is the Sea.

Are we talking overlooked when they came out or overlooked today?
Overlooked when they came out: Velvet Underground. I’ll give them 10 votes, they’re a huge influence now.
Overlooked today: Talking Heads. One of the best groups from the 1980s, together with Prince.

Ani Di Franco
Michael Franti and Spearhead
Ozomatli
Kim Deal
Chrissy Hynde
Jack Johnson
Erykah Badu
The Verve

Definitely Dire Straits. Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, ELO, Traveling Wilburys, Frank Black.

Tom Waits. And whoever it was that mentioned Tony Toni Tone is my new hero.

my chemical Romance

David Ackles might be the best songwriter that you never heard of. His albums were all terrific and so idiosyncratic that no one much played them on the radio–though it is said that Elton John was a big fan. His album “American Gothic” is incredible.

Would absolutely have to include-

Fugazi

Mark Lanegan

Elliot Smith!

the decemberists
the roots
the tragically hip!!!!!!!!!!
nick drake

Traffic
Grand Funk Railroad
Queen
Boston

TOOL

My Morning Jacket
Wilco
Digable Planets
M. Ward
Death Cab for Cutie
Common

Many of the acts mentioned are already critically and/or commercially appreciated. Are we talking underrated by the current generation OR underrated even during their heyday?
Breeders, Pete Shelley, ELO, The Fixx, Everclear

Willy Mason

M. Ward or maybe Nada Surf (no, definitely Nada Surf).

Everbody Knows John Paul Goerge give some love 2 RINGO
dont forget about Rush and Supertramp

John Prine

Pearl Jam. They are easily the best band of the past 15 years, and are never realized as anything more than “that other band from the early 90s,” especially by this magazine.

Huey Lewis and the News

Still performing and stronger than ever!

Pearl Jam. Rufus Wainwright. Talking Heads.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier and I didn’t see them yet on this list (sorry if I missed it) but…

Oingo Boingo

Television

Tom Waits

Scott Walker

I’ll have to agree with Maynard on this one;

TOOL

*clearly one of the most dynamic, cathartic, densely talented bands of the last 30 years; as inherently artistic, and innovative as Pink Floyd, The Doors, and Zeppelin

Ani DiFranco
moe.

Pavement!!!

tool
wilco
uncle tupelo
television
neutral milk hotel
nirvana (anytime someone talks about them now, it’s just to say how overrated they are)

huey lewis and the news

DURAN DURAN. This is more than just a 80’s hit machine, consistent music over the past 2 1/2 decades, numerous bands/singers have cited them as an influence. Exciting music, 30 Top 40 hits, including some number ones – a band that made us change to the way we look at music forever.

Without a doubt Pearl Jam – they are the greatest AMERICAN Rock band ever and they get no respect, going stong for 15 years or so, still selling out stadiums in seconds, still politically active and producing music that it still better than 99% of the crap that comes out now..

Pearl Jam
Radiohead
Bad Company

Huey Lewis and the News!!!

Great band, talent, writers, performers. Still an excellent band today.

tom waits
the animals

Underrated!-
Redd Kross
Wovenhand
Electic 6
Meg Whites Drumming
Sebadoh
Early Flaming Lips
Black Rebal Motorcycle Club

The Roots
Common
Death Cab for Cutie
The Decemberists

Poopy.

Lynerd Cohen was an incredible poet, and THE folk guy before Bob Dylan came on the scene, but no one knows him, except for his oft covered Hallelujah.

I agree about Tom Waits as well–brilliant but underrated. Mostly because he can be hard to listen to.

The Wallfloweres have to be on my list as well.

OASIS! OASIS! OASIS! IF PEOPLE WOULD LISTEN TO SOMETHING BESIDES WHATS THE STORY WE WOULDNT HAVE THIS PROBLEM!!! ALSO CAKE, RUSH (WHO IN MY OPINION WOULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER THAN ZEPPLIN HAD THEY NOT BEEN THE UGLIEST GUYS IN MUSIC) I AGREE WITH THE TOM WAITES…GOOD CALL AND ONE MORE THING….LISTEN TO VAST!!!!!

i cannot believe some of you are listing bands like radiohead and pearl jam, you’re all retarded. these are some of the most popular bands in the world over the last 15 years and unless you’re saying they are completely transcendent, which they aren’t, then you’re just making a mockery of yourselves.

Tori Amos

THE STROKES (such a great band)
Arctic Monkeys
Albert Hammond Jr.
The Velvet Underground

The Black Keys

Kings of Leon
The Cribs
Regina Spektor

Barenaked Ladies
Guster
Warren Zevon
Journey

Hey Peter… We are not retarded. We just realize that because of Nirvana, no other 90’s band gets the total respect they deserve. They may do really well, but they are still overshadowed by Kurt’s suicide.

Monster Magnet!!! Dammit

-Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes
-Josh Ritter
-Social Distortion
-Pete Droge
-Ike Reilly
-The Pixies (obviouly)
-Wilco (obviously)
-Whiskeytown
-To m Waits
-Tom Petty

The reason that other 90’s bands don’t get credit because of Nirvana is because without Nirvana, a lot of those bands would not exist, at least in a mainstream sense. You can say that another band could’ve come along and done what they did, even though their success was such a happenstance to begin with (Nevermind was projected to sell a half million copies and ended up selling 10 million), but they didn’t. Nirvana did. Get over it. The race goes to the swift.

J Dilla
Nick Drake
Harry Nilsson
Queens of the Stone Age
The Stooges (commercially at least)
Tragically Hip
Neutral Milk Hotel
Kings of Leon
John Butler Trio
Dropkick Murphys
Death From Above 1979
Alkaline Trio

ween fo’ sho’

The Roots – They have the greastest and underrated rapper of all-time in Black Thought. Plus, they are the only rap group that truely operate as a band. Most rap bands only includes the rappers. The Roots consider the keyboardist, guitarist and drummer as part of the band.

Ras Kass – When underrated rappers get mentioned, Talib Kweli and Mos Def are often mentioned, and dersevedly so. However, Ras Kass is one of the illest spitters in the game right now. To truely appreciated his greatness, buy his 1st album “Soul On Ice” and listen to “Nature Of The Threat”, one of the greatest rap songs ever.

Biohazard – One of the 1st and few rock/rap acts to have political songs, as well as songs about the hardships mnay urban people face. Even though the pioneers of rock/rap like Bad Brains and Faith No More are often mentioned as being underrated, I believe that Biohazard is even more so.

Ozomatli – They were on top of their game when they still had Cut Chemist and Chail 2na. Still, their 2nd album “Embrace The Chaos” was still great. This multicultural band from L.A. blended Latin rhythms with hip-hop and made it seem natural, a feat within itself.

Goo Goo Dolls – Ok, I now I might get some crow for this. I also kknow that their greatest album was the compilation “Ego, Opinion, Art and Commerce”. Still, I think songs like “Naked”, “We Are The Normal”, “Cuz You’re Gone”, and “Black Balloon” are pure songwriting genius to me.

Alice In Chains….

also Eagles of Death Metal….every song that band plays sounds like it’s the official anthem of kickin’ ass

Talking Heads, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder

Gov’t Mule

i hate to say this because i am a Rolling Stone subscriber, but when it comes to underappreciated music I would have to say all good underground hip hop. ESPECIALLY by RS. In the last 10 years, save the biggie conspiracy article, I have yet to read one compelling article or review about hip hop. It’s definitely an afterthought for this mag. And most reviews seem like they were written by some guy who’s never heard anything past eminem or 50 cent. People say that hip hop is dead, well one of the reasons is the fact that the true artists don’t get the mainstream respect and publicity that they deserve. Underground hip hop is alive and well. Just to name a few:
J Dilla (well not alive per se R.I.P.)
Madlib
Zion I
The Living Legends
Lifesavas
MF DOOM
The Blue Scholars
Digable Planets
Atmosphere
Hieroglyp hics
L*Roneous
Kool Keith
Ohmega Watts
Apathy
and defintely the Pharcyde

but even groups like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and the Roots

RS…please quit reviewing artists like Lil wayne, young jeezy and rick ross. it looks foolish. dig a little deeper and find the real good stuff. i’m sure your readers would appreciate it, and more importantly, enjoy the music!

Nick Drake
They Might Be Giants
Donovan
Whiskeytown
Kings of Leon
Ryan Adams
Rufus Wainwright
Elliott Smith

I don’t know what I can add to this list, but I’ll just throw these out there:

The Flaming Lips (Definitely one of the most wonderful American rock bands in rock history. The eccentricity is great, but the fact that they can create melodies on the same level as Brian Wilson is truly extraordinary. Wayne Coyne is the Oklahoman David Bowie. )

Alice Cooper (Marilyn Manson has stolen so much from him- he even sings like him)

Peter Gabriel (His solo work post-Genesis I believe is absolutely stunning. Amazing studio wizard plus brilliant lyricist. Not to mention live performances.)

Tom Waits (It’s truly sad that more people in America don’t know who Tom Waits is. He’s practically on the same level as Dylan with me. Rain Dogs is one the most amazing records I’ve ever heard. The history of American music is on that record. Tom is the only person I know that can take Rockwell and turn it into Dali.)

Peter Murphy (The stuff with Bauhaus is good, but I think what Peter managed to achieve after Bauhaus blows it out the water. An original voice not to mention an excellent songwriter. Deep may be one of the most underrated records of the past 25 years.)

Neutral Milk Hotel
Geggy Tah
Ween
Tom Waits
Blind Melon
Dr. Dog!!!

Huey Lewis & the News

Truly talented musicans who are incredibly underappreciated.

released underrated albums that just sound like nothing else:

Slint (Spiderland)
Talk Talk (Spirit Of Eden, Laughing Stock)
Ride (Nowhere)
Stereolab (Emperor Tomato Ketchup)
Silver Jews (American Water)
Slowdive (Souvlaki)

Today:
Spoon (consistent, accessible)

Where to begin? Just because someone doesn’t make millions of dollars in record sales, doesn’t mean they are underappreciated!
How about a band from the 70’s Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers? Love them.

Richard Hell
The Vapors
Joe Jackson

mark lanegan and or screaming trees

Tori Amos
Wilco
Death Cab
Jason Mraz
Ray Lamontagne
Ben Folds
Rufus Wainwright!!!
Ryan Adams
Incubus

Lawrence – 4/30/2007

“Underrated!- Meg Whites Drumming”.

Yeah, it’s underrated for good reason: she’s a shitty drummer. Even the Duracell bunny can do better!

People drivel on about her ability to change tempo mid-song to suit Jack’s playing. The silly bint can’t keep time !

Just think what Jack White could really achieve with a half-decent percussionist by his side.

All the bands list here got exactly what they deserve!

BAD BRAINS!

Blue Oyster Cult
The Cars
Cheap Trick
blink-182
XTC
Warren Zevon
Rush

Jeff Beck
Rory Gallagher (with and without Taste)
Free
Roy Buchanan
Genya Raven
Arthur Lee
David Blue
Eric Andersen
The Meters
Lonnie Mack
Link Wray
Peter Green
Laura Nyro
Boz Scaggs
Les Dudek
Jesse Ed Davis
Marc Benno
Leon Russell
Nick Lowe
All the nameless studio musicians who have laid down tracks for some of the best, and sometimes some of the more questionable, rock music recorded.

Negrita
Negrita
Negrita

T hese guys are from Italy, and have rocked it for over the last decade. They are little known stateside, but check them out and see how great they are.

The original emo lyricist: Leonard Cohen

HANOI ROCKS

even Axl Rose has said ” if Hanoi Rocks had made it, there wouldn’t have been Guns-n-Roses”

Morphine
Roxy Music
The Waterboys
Pixies
Femi Kuti

SPARKS
X
OINGO BOINGO
ALISON MOYET/YAZ(OO)
TALK TALK

Wilco
Neutral Milk Hotel
A Tribe Called Quest
Joni Mitchell
Sufjan Stevens

ben lee

Huey Lewis and the News

Tears for Fears

Journey

(in that order!)

I TOTALLY agree that Roxy Music is underappreciated. Add to that list Bauhaus & Love and Rockets.