If Khrungabin aren’t well known there is no justice in the universe. They are so good. They headlined a big festival here (one so expensive I didn’t go) and did those awesome collaborations with Leon Bridges so I thought they were famous?
I like Will Wood, his stuff has been described as “evil jazz”, but it ranges from calm and soothing singer-songwriter type stuff to a full upbeat jazz band with chaotic composition and arrangement. I find his lyrics insightful, but they are also often quite abstract.
Cute girls doing cute things have some nice tracks, but many of them feel a bit the same-y.
The Vienna Clarinet Collection has great covers of classic clarinet songs, but classical and jazz.
I couldn’t choose one, so here are a few jazz bands I like: Francis Coppieters, Loftys Comet, T-Square, Micheal Lowerstern, Archie Shepp, Sons of Kemet, and Mansur Brown
Cari Cari (just discovered them, psychedelic jams)
Bargain Music (reggae/ska, similar to sublime)
Secret Chiefs 3 (schitzo alternative/middle eastern, many members of Mr. Bungle)
TR/ST (darkwave)
The Two Man Gentleman Band (old timey barbershop banjo)
Superorganism (psychedelic)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (punk covers)
St. Vincent (indie/alternative)
My kids say I don’t have a good grasp of how popular bands are, but I think most of these are popular? I have seen Jason Isbell, Sylvan Esso, and Bleachers in pretty big venues here.
I was thinking about “mainstream”, but that could be interpreted a few ways. I think these are popular bands within their niche genres, but I don’t know if I’d call them mainstream. If I’d ask most of my friends about Sylvan esso maybe one out of ten might have heard of them. But if I talk to someone that listens to a lot of electronic music they definitely would know of them. Sorry @OP: I might have misinterpreted your prompt!
Really obscure: I like Ramsay Midwood, Have Gun Will Travel, and Joshua Ray Walker too, so good and a class act as a person.
Somewhat known: I love Ondara, Durand Jones & the Indications and all their associated solo stuff, Charley Crockett, Toro y Moi, Phosphorescent, Josh Ritter, Arlo Parks.
Oh my God how could I forget, they are broken up now but J RODDY WALSTON AND THE BUSINESS! They are one of the best live acts I’ve seen and their records were also great.
I’m not familiar with most of these but I drove 2 hours to see Jukebox the Ghost play in the second story of a church when I was like 19, and Stars is probably my number one favorite band, so I may have to check out some of your other entries here.
Edit: The Jukebox the Ghost show was really cool btw, they wouldn’t let them do an encore in the upstairs part of the venue but they agreed to let the keyboardist do a solo encore on the church’s organ on the first floor.
Their song “Computers” is the best way to musically describe working a shitty job and then hitting that glorious weekend only to have to do it all over again.
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