Bands you thought were gonna be big ... but then nothing happened

[Sunhillow]

Let's talk about both progressive and non-progressive bands you thought we're gonna be big and/or influencial, yet they never actually delivered, leaving us with frustrating brilliant albums, that remain for the large part undiscovered by the big(ger) audience.

I know a lot of examples, but let me start with two:

The Standard

Now a band in constant hiatus, among their five albums, four of them I regard as masterpieces. They occupy a space between new prog and Pitchfork-liked indieprog like The National and Grizzly Bear, yet they are much more radio-friendly. Can't understand why this band isn't playing stadiums and selling tons of albums. Here's a track from "Wire Post From Wire":



Magyar Posse

Possibly the best postrock-bands I ever heard of. Their sound has some Ennio Morricone-influences within them. Their three albums are each masterpieces and quite difficult to obtain. Here's a track:



And this is probably their signature tune, and their best known song (relatively speaking):

[Rarebird]

Well, I hoped Anomaly would make it, but alas they broke up

[presdoug]

Rose-when this seventies Canadian band released their second album A Taste Of Neptune in 1977, (and i saw them at my high school) I thought they would take the world by storm, but it never happened. Neptune remains their greatest, but the band broke up just a couple of years later, and their last album Judgement Day went nowhere.

[Roth-Handle Studios]

Avalanches. One album and then nothing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLrnkK2YEcE

// Mattias

[Roth-Handle Studios]

[Yanks2014]

They occupy a space between new prog and Pitchfork-liked indieprog like The National and Grizzly Bear, yet they are much more radio-friendly.

Huh? What the heck is "pitchfork-liked, and who the heck are The National and Grizzly Bear? You mention an obscure prog related band, and compare them to something even more obscure, and wonder why they are not huge? I think you answered your own question.

[Yanks2014]

Well, I hoped Anomaly would make it, but alas they broke up

I agree about Anomaly, I figured due to the main composer's young age (I think he was 19 or 20 when this came out) that they had a bright future. Just one album. Bummer.

[JKL2000]

Huh? What the heck is "pitchfork-liked, and who the heck are The National and Grizzly Bear? You mention an obscure prog related band, and compare them to something even more obscure, and wonder why they are not huge? I think you answered your own question.

Pitchfork is a well-known music review site - it's been around for ages now, and their reviews are pretty well respected. I guess it leans toward indie rock stuff - I don't, but assume The National and Grizzly Bear are successful indie rock bands.

[Rarebird]

I agree about Anomaly, I figured due to the main composer's young age (I think he was 19 or 20 when this came out) that they had a bright future. Just one album. Bummer.

Yeah, Ivar Pijper was a very young lad, I think still at the music academy at that time. Rory Hansen was a bit older, but not much. Ivar Pijper seems to be playing in some commercial cover-band nowadays.

[ThomasKDye]

Kula Shaker. Completely. At the time I thought their psychedelic-tinged indie music would really be the next big thing in a world of Oases and Blurs and so on. Then they released a rather blah second album, and then fell off the face of the earth until a rather lackluster reunion much later on.

[SteveSly]

Huh? What the heck is "pitchfork-liked, and who the heck are The National and Grizzly Bear? You mention an obscure prog related band, and compare them to something even more obscure, and wonder why they are not huge? I think you answered your own question.

As JKL2000 says, Pitchfork is very well known indi music review site. Just about anyone into music who is under 30 would be familiar with pitchfork. Both The National and Grizzly Bear are fairly well known indi bands. Pitchfork does a big 3 day festival in Chicago every summer. The bands they promote tend to not be my personal taste, but it is only obscure to old people like us.

Steve Sly

[Hurm]

Ark. The band featuring Jørn Lande that is. Their progressive cross-over rock/metal/something they produced with the album "Burn The Sun" was só catchy and só clever. It had even some soul and pop flavors to it. I thought it could be as big as Living Colour, circa "Time's Up".

[Rufus]

Horslips , Sassafras & Jobriath !

[Jerjo]

Huh? What the heck is "pitchfork-liked, and who the heck are The National and Grizzly Bear? You mention an obscure prog related band, and compare them to something even more obscure, and wonder why they are not huge? I think you answered your own question.

If most of the bands championed on PE here had as many fans as The National or Grizzly Bear they'd be ecstatic. Both are quite successful indie bands that get a lot of press and airplay. Not as much as the insipid pop divas (and who would want to be one of those flash-in-the-pans) but solid, respectable careers. There's a lot of music outside the PE bubble.

[Scott Bails]

I've only gotten into them the last few years, but now that I've heard them and know a little about them, I can't understand why Jellyfish weren't huge.

[LongFrog]

I think the scientific name for this phenomenon is "survival of the fittest". One-song, one-album, and even a multi-album success doesn't indicate that the band will remain on its ascending trajectory indefinitely and never break apart.

[mogrooves]

Captain Beyond

[jake]

i saw EBN live three times and thought they were "the next new thing" no-one was doing anything even close to what they were doing - I think they even toured with U2 - but nothing really happened with them:

[the illusionist]

I've seen Spiraling twice at CalProg and I thought, as you can tell by profile pic, I thought Tom Brislin and the boys were going to be very, very big.
I even thought they may crossover to the mainstream, have a big hit, ( can you say Roundabout? ) and make a ton of money.

[Paulrus]

I always thought Oceansize were poised for good things but they imploded before anything could happen.

[mozo-pg]

I haven't read the whole thread but I'd say MAX WEBSTER is the best Canadian example. Every bit as good as Rush (their tour mates), great melodies, wick driving guitar and keys, excellent vocals AND an amazing live band. No idea why they didn't make it in the elusive U.S. and international markets.

[tormato]

Ghosts and Vodka, not that instrumental bands ever make it that big, but these guys were pretty good.

[Reginod]

Yanks has a point. Popular music of all stripes (not just so-called "prog") has been burying itself at an increasingly exponential rate for decades now, and it has been greatly accelerated by availability of bandwidth.

Sad, because there are good bands and artists that deserve to be noticed. But isn't it telling that almost everybody in this thread has a different answer?

[Rune Blackwings]

Dushanbe

[presdoug]

I haven't read the whole thread but I'd say MAX WEBSTER is the best Canadian example. Every bit as good as Rush (their tour mates), great melodies, wick driving guitar and keys, excellent vocals AND an amazing live band. No idea why they didn't make it in the elusive U.S. and international markets.

Another big Canadian example is Moxy, whose first three studio albums Moxy, Moxy 2, and Ridin High produced some of the most infectious heavy rock of the whole seventies decade. Thought they were going to be as big as a band like Aerosmith, but lead singer Buzz Shearman left, and so did their career.