Mine would have to be Tom Lehrer
Not truly obscure but I’ve never seen anyone speak of his music. Haircuts For Men.
I guess Igorrr and Naked City are some of the most, I don’t know if exactly obscure, but hard to listen to, for sure.
Made a comment myself and then found yours, I also mentioned Naked City.For some reason I really like them, it could just be my brand of madness.
Well John Zorn is a true innovator and knew how to mix all of the vanguardism stuff with the punk/grindcore scene, it’s something completely natural if you like to listen to music that breaks boundaries.
I do enjoy his shenanigans, at least the (by his standards) more approachable stuff.
I remember asking about the concert after my cousin saw Zorn for a forth time, ages ago and he just said “Well, I’m not sure it’s really music anymore”.
death’s dynamic shroud. I don’t do vaporwave much anymore, but I can sit there and listen to a dds.wmv tape for an entire week on repeat. Personal recommendations are the “Evangelis” tape, and the “I’ll Try Living Like This” album.
death’s dynamic shroud
I’ve yet to come across someone else who also likes them, that’s awesome! I really like “I’ll Try Living Like This”.
I dont know how obscure these bands actually are, but i havent met anyone irl who listens to them…
King gizzard and the lizard wizard
Kikagaku Moyo
And
Altin Gün
Are some of my favorites
Kikagaku Moyo are do amazing. Sad that they broke up and I never got a chance to see them!!
Although it is sad they broke up, that last album was great, and a welcomed addition to their discography.
King gizzard and the lizard wizard
Nice PFP :)
I really like Planning for Burial
Desideratum is awesome.
Thom is such a nice dude! Love him so much
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This is a bit of a trick question because there are bands that are fairly well known in certain countries and in specific genre scenes but internationally and with general audiences they would definitely be considered obscure.
I find it too hard to pick just one so i’ll list a few of them:
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German folk-metal band “Subway to Sally”, they were most active and well known in the 90s and 00s, but i think they are still around today
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“Faun”, another German folk band, also not exactly unknown, pretty big in their scene especially in the 00s and early 2010s
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“The Dreadnoughts”, Canadian folk punk band most active late 00s to mid 2010s, probably too well known in the punk scene to count as truly obscure but it’s a niche genre so a lot of people may not be familiar with them
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French folk rock band “Malicorne”, fairly popular in the 70s and 80s, pioneered some groundbreaking innovations for the genre, would be surprised if many people outside of France still know them nowadays
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Romanian prog folk bands “Phoenix” and “Sfinx”, active in the late 60s, early 70s, with the former having a bit of a revival a few decades later; very well known in Romania especially among the older generations but quite obscure outside of Romania
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British jazz folk band “Pentangle”, quite popular in the 70s and 80s, not obscure among folk fans but probably fairly obscure for most other audiences
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1970s Irish folk band “Planxty”, not as well known as other popular Irish folk groups but still pretty big in their genre; had a big influence on later groups, such as English folk band “Pilgrim’s Way” (founded in 2010)
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“Girlpool”, indie duo from LA, broke up by now i think but they recorded some really good albums in the late 2010s. Some of their videos got quite a lot of views and they had a decent amount of popularity in the indie scene for a while, so not that obscure.
Now of you want some really obscure stuff that is pretty unknown even in their respective genres and countries, here are a few that come to mind:
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“Songs for Moms”, indie band from Oakland, California, very obscure, published two albums in the late 00s
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“Spectaculatius”, a small German medieval music re-enactment troupe who mostly play medieval festivals, or what you would call “Renaissance Fairs” in the US
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Romanian folk band “Focul Viu”, started in the late 90s, mostly play local clubs and folk festivals around Tîrgu-Mureş
Obviously this list leans heavily into the folk and partly indie genres, not because i don’t listen to or enjoy other genres too, but because these are the easiest genres for me to find “obscure” music in that i still listen to on a regular basis. My tastes in other genres are more “vanilla” and would not be sufficiently obscure for this list.
I used to jam Songs for Moms constantly! SOOOOOO CATCHY
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I really like Danny Schmidt and Satellite High but the Nightvale Weather Report has some 240 very high quality songs each from a small group or individual musicians. Might be worth a look on shuffle and you’ll likely find a couple small artists you really enjoy. Jerusalem and “Bill and Annie” have completely different vibes to illustrate how diverse the playlist is.
best song of Lehrer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdtAFIl2jhc
Pete Seeger is most definitely NOT obscure in any sense of the word, but i wanna share my favorite song of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJBksL69gX4
I have a few but The Private Sector is a good one.
Probably Nothingface. I feel like my music taste is mostly stuff that’s avant-garde in a popular way (say Limp Bizkit, or Xxxtentacion). That’s why I’d say nothingface, because it’s like what I generally like, but I’ve never heard anyone mention it, irl or online (I found it in a search result for the word communist). In additions Sankara’s great, and only known online.
Whitewoods, also known as Bug Your Parents.
Made somewhat popular by Pyrocynical from his use of their song Beachwalk in his outro, along with Whitewoods revolutionizing Vaporwave by basically founding the genre. However many of their songs are extremely obscure and I assume that absolutely no one knows who they are.
Beachwalk: https://youtu.be/oF9yHO-UUws
12 million views, so definitely a hit, but they are overall very small and obscure in the grander scheme of things.
Derek Messink. YT algorithm recommended one of their tracks one time and I listen to their music since then.
John prine
His live performances of Sam Stone are heartshatteringly good.
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That’s a hard one because the majority of my music taste is pretty obscure, I am a huge music nerd. Here are a couple:
Comus - First Utterance fucking dope dark/psych/acoustic folky band from the early 70’s. Think like, evil Jethro Tull. One of my favorite albums, highly recommend
Elizabeth Color Wheel - Nocebo Seen this band 3 times and they always make me cry, so good. Heavy noisy wall of sound chaotic melodic hardcoreish goodness. If you like My Bloody Valentine this might be up your alley, they are heavier.
Pinnochio - S/T Fast, fun, femme vocal punk rock that makes you wanna pogo