Failed musicians/bands that you actually enjoy - People who should've gotten big, but didn't

[Darwin Watterson]

Do you have a favorite artist or band whom you think made really good music and had a lot of potential, but for whatever reason never managed to get their career off the ground?

Personally, I like SPF1000. They're mostly known for having a song featured in an episode of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but they did more than that, and actually released an album. The album was pretty decent in my opinion, but unfortunately they never released anything else and seem to have broken up sometime around 2005 or 2006.

 

[Batman VS Tony Danza]

Some of these guys often showed up on downloadable playlists with a catchy song and then you'd never hear anything about them. A few of them only had one song or album then disappeared.

Spoiler: Jett Valentine

Spoiler: Benjy Ferree

Spoiler: The Yes Pleases

Spoiler: JAMAICA

This next one isn't failed since it's a band Ryan Gosling made with his sister's boyfriend and was based around how much they loved the Haunted Mansion at Disney. Yeah, it sounds weird but it's different and has some stuff that might get stuck in your head. When I heard a few of the songs I was surprised I never heard anything about it anywhere else.

Spoiler: Dead Man's Bones - Pa-Pa-Power

Spoiler: Dead Man's Bones - My Body's A Zombie For You

 

[Keerakh]

my old friend's cousin had a screamo band that was so bad it's good. I unfortunately have no access to any of the material, but it was called Face the Day. The friend's cousin was the guitarist and did few vocals, as there was a main vocalist and the bass player (who was still in high school at the time) was the designated screamer. I enjoyed it given my somewhat lax taste in music(I'm still a big LP fan), but they only had one EP CD that I ripped the songs from but lost the files.

 

[RADICALGOBLIN]

Do you have a favorite artist or band whom you think made really good music and had a lot of potential, but for whatever reason never managed to get their career off the ground?

Personally, I like SPF1000. They're mostly known for having a song featured in an episode of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but they did more than that, and actually released an album. The album was pretty decent in my opinion, but unfortunately they never released anything else and seem to have broken up sometime around 2005 or 2006.

American Football. Granted, they're debut album was pretty damn good and eventually got praise, but it took so long. If it gotten popular back then, It's effects for all we've known could've positively affected the industry. Who wouldn't want this much variety in the radio?

 

[Zeorus]

Jim Ford is one of the best country singers you've never heard of.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Do you have a favorite artist or band whom you think made really good music and had a lot of potential, but for whatever reason never managed to get their career off the ground?

Personally, I like SPF1000. They're mostly known for having a song featured in an episode of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but they did more than that, and actually released an album. The album was pretty decent in my opinion, but unfortunately they never released anything else and seem to have broken up sometime around 2005 or 2006.

OH.

MY.

FUCKING.

GOD.

I have been trying to figure out that exact song for well over a decade (for those who don't know, it's the song Grim sings in the battle of the bands episode where he joins a kiddie metal band). I have never heard of SPF1000 before now but a quick youtube search confirms it is their song.

MY QUEST IS OVER ALL THANKS TO YOU!

 

[feedtheoctopus]

Came across these guys by chance. Don't know if they're still together or not. They're the typical indie-folk shit that you saw a lot of a few years ago, but I fell in love with it for whatever reason. Weirdly I found them on a blog that posts links to obscure hardcore punk acts (haven't been able to find links to their music anywhere else either). Guess the guy who runs it liked them also. Good site though, just be forewarned that while a lot of the bands on it are amazing some of them are fucking terrible. But I guess I can say that about any music website.

 

[Dr. Boe Jangles Esq.]

Schoolyard Heroes (Not to be confused with Gym Class Heroes)
Angsty horror/screamo band that never made it, but still had a certain charm to it, if that's your thing.
Famous for entering a Christian sponsored battle of the bands, then getting kicked out almost immediately.

They supposedly had a follow up project called the Blood Veins, but it never happened. They have a really odd style, but I always liked how they'd incorporate old Vincent Price horror movie tropes into the lyrics. It's hit and miss, but they experimented a lot with their sound and did some good work.
Also, they have a song called "The Mechanical Man Vs. The Robot from the Outer Limits".
What more do you want, dammit?

 

[Bogs]

Depends what you mean by failed: I could post a lot of bands here, but they are now well-known by the general public, bands like the Velvet Underground who barely sold a record in their lifetime, but now are part of the essential canon of music.

That being said, I will post two bands some of you may not know:

First off The Replacements, a hardcore punk band who turned indie in the vein of REM or The Smiths, who released 6 or so albums which barely scraped the billboard 200. I think they had a minor hit with their song "Alex Chilton"
Anyway, their albums "Tim" and "Let It Be" are solid masterpieces of 80's Indie Rock

Fun-Fact: The High School in Heathers was named after their lead singer, who was dating Winona Ryder at the time

Next up a band who influenced the above. Led by Alex Chilton, mentioned above, who scored a hit with the song "The Letter" in the late sixties, Big Star were arguably the first indie-rock band. Having scored only critical success with their Byrds influenced debut and suffering line-up changes, they turned to more introspective and non-conventional song-writing

Fun-Fact: Yes, that is the theme to That 70's Show

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

Well, there's Failure, naturally. Dunno if they're still failed, given that their first reunion show sold out in less than a minute, but I'll mention them anyway.

Spoiler: Failure sperging

They morphed a lot between albums, Comfort being late Nirvana-y noise rock with that lovely Albini production, Magnified dipping into some alt-metal stuff, and Fantastic Planet being a lot of weird experimental space rock. Their new album's alright, I don't care for it much.

As for actual failed bands, Stella Luna comes to mind. They dropped a really cool EP in 2002 and then just disappeared. I don't know what happened to them. Here's their entire EP:

Spoiler: Stella Luna - Stargazer

We Are Scientists was pretty great too. They had a few minor hits and worked on videos with the Lonely Island way back when, but then they dropped off. I think they're still around, though.

Spoiler: We Are Scientists - The Great Escape

 

[Abethedemon]

Abstrakt Algebra!

 

[MrTroll]

Jeff Buckley, cuz that nigga died after making just one album. What a waste of talent.

 

[Positron]

Here is a gothic-classical outfit from Germany called Amygdala, who only put forth one album Memento Mori. Although the song titles are mostly about death, the music is not as grim or morbid as you might expect: instead it is a nicely done fusion of lush strings, choral voices, and ethnic stylings.

Perhaps they didn't thrive because they weren't deathly enough?

 

[The Janitor]

https://myspace.com/halfdemondoll/music/songs

 

[Abethedemon]

As I Lay Dying (not that one) from Austria.
They only released one promo and then split up.
Very good riffs and a lot better than the one from California.

 

[D. Sweatshirt]

Oh Lord. I gotta say, if there's one failed band I love over any of them, it's Mr. Bungle. The Red Hot Chili Peppers destroyed their career by removing them from a bunch of European concert festivals over a feud Anthony Kiedis had with Mike Patton, their lead singer. They put out three amazing albums and split up in 2004; the members have since spread out all over the world.

A few highlights:

Also, here's them parodying RHCP at the height of their feud:

 

[Panty Shroom]

 

[Morose_Obesity]

The drummer from Primus had an awesome side project that should've been a bigger hit:

 

[Globe]

i guess this'll make for a good discovery thread because i haven't heard of any of the bands dropped so far. But for my input, here's two honorable mentions that I've got right off the top of my head

Spoiler: Cop Shoot Cop

one of those noise rock gems out of the 90's that never really caught on, despite putting out several albums that had pretty solid singles like the two linked. The second song was covered by some group called Strapping Young Lad that was apparently pretty popular, though I can't say I liked it much, myself.

For whatever reason I really dig the way the first song ends. It's this 45(ish) second stretch of instrumental that builds and builds in intensity in this way that makes you think there'll be another short verse or some kinda of vocals to round it all out, but then it just doesn't happen. Don't ask me why, but throwing me for a loop like that made it so much more appealing to me.

Spoiler: BigDumbFace

This was one of Wes Borland's several tanked attempts at starting a band of his own. If you're not familiar with the name, Wes is mostly known for being an off-and-on guitarist in Limp Bizkit, arguably their only talented member and definitely their only likable member. BigDumbFace was kind of a slapstick comedy metal act in the same vein as GWAR. They only ever recorded one album way back in the early 2000's when Limp Bizkit was still popular. I don't know if Wes had intended to do anymore with it, but he's used the same lineup for several following projects including the current (and only) one of his that's had any appreciable level of success, Black Light Burns.

Truth be told, I don't care too much for Black Light Burns. It's a mediocre Nine Inch Nails wannabe at the absolute best. But I picked up BigDumbFace's only album from Hastings about six or seven years ago and loved it. I don't know what it says about a band when their main saving grace was that they clearly weren't taking any of it seriously, but it made for a fun album.

 

[ZepFloyd94]

Ronnie Montrose.

Not just his band Montrose, but everything about him as a whole.

While he clearly had the skills to be one of the all time guitar greats, his personal problems really bogged down any chnace he might have had of getting mainstream success.