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In general, Parliament/Funkadelic has a ton of artists within its scope worth exploring. George Clinton is probably the most famous among them, but there's also Eddie Hazel, Bootsy Collins, Gary Shider and his son Garrett Shider, Fred Wesley, and a lot more.
I also recently discovered a Japanese artist called Masaki Ueda who seems criminally unknown.
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Eddie Hazel is one of the best guitarist ever. For those not familiar just give Maggot Brain a listen. It was completely improvised and record in one take.
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The P-Funk has been in my playlist rotation for like 15 years now
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Way too many to list but I'll throw one out. Do you like Radiohead, REM, The National, Pixies, Frank Turner, or Dinosaur Jr.? Well, they (or their lead singer) all love Mark Mulcahy's music enough to have recorded a cover song for the tribute album when Mark's wife passed.
Mark led the band Miracle Legion, released some solo work, and led the band Polaris (not the metal band from Australia), best known as the band from the show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Also noteworthy: Miracle Legion toured and released an EP with The Sugarcubes, aka Bjork's band.
Song recommendations: The Backyard, All For The Best by Miracle Legion - Hey Sandy, Saturnine by Polaris - Taking Baby Steps, The Fiddler, Hey Self Defeater by Mark Mulcahy.
Album recommendations: Drenched by Miracle Legion, Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete by Polaris, and Fathering by Mark Mulcahy.
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Jukebox the ghost. Criminally underrated, they'd have been as big as queen or muse if they had the right publicity and timing.
The Tallest Man on Earth. Probably the best modern folk artist, but not as well known as he should be.
Aimee Mann. One of the best songwriters of the 90s and 2000s. Popular, but not as much as she should be.
Placebo.
Talk Talk. Spirit of Eden is one of the greatest albums ever made, but not many people know about it.
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+1 on jukebox the ghost
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Tallest man is really good. And if you see him live, his tallness will surprise you.
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Just listened into Jukebox the ghost a little and their music is amazing! Thanks mr lemmy dev!
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No probs!
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Nick Drake.
Years ahead of his time and while he gets a lot of recognition posthumously in certain music circles, he didn't have any hits during his life, or even any hits after, so the average Joe hasn't heard of him.
All three of his albums are fantastic, though Five Leaves Left is my favorite.
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Road is such a sad song, pretending not to be a sad song. And yes his whole catalog of subtle, beautiful music, he was a genius.
Odd recommendation but Hayes Carll the country singer, I love him and told one of my friends part of what I find so compelling about his music is that you can always hear in his voice this edge of sadness, even in his really happy songs (and he's good at happy songs) it sounds like he knows it can't last. That is part of what I really appreciate about Nick Drake, he wasn't good at hiding the sadness in his voice, and it adds depth to everything he is singing.
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Knower - pretty fucking sweet music with a good sense of humor.
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They are definitely one of the most criminally underrated bands. But they’re all DIY, so they’re pretty popular for a DIY band. I think Genevieve’s solo stuff really deserves more attention as well. Louis seems to be doing alright for himself, though.
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Thank You Scientist
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Tesseract
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Panzerballett
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Ado
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Hell yes on Thank You Scientist
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The metalcore band Harm. IMO better than Spiritbox but only has like 3000 montly listeners on Spotify.
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Easily Fish in a Birdcage, my number one vibeing artist.
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Amigo the Devil - Cocaine and Abel, Perfect Wife, Murder at the Bingo Hall, Hell and You, Hungover in Jonestown... If one of these songs doesn't grab you, I don't think we can be friends
Froglord - The Mystic Toad, Wednesday, Army of Frogs
Snakemother - they only have one ~40 minute album, listen to it from start to finish. The first 5 minutes or so are pretty different than the rest so give it a chance.
Edit: came back to add Hippie Death Cult, my fave songs are Hornet Party, Nice to Know You, and Arise which is from the new album Helichrysum - worth giving the whole thing a listen as I think it's their best work to date
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Bump for Amigo the Devil. One Kind of People is a great upbeat song too. Always make me happy.
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TOBACCO has this super-sludgy techno sound that next to no one's doing; I love his work for just kicking back and lighting off a blunt. Been pretty heavy on American Murder Story as well, since it looks like we're not getting the finale to the Devil's Carnival yet.
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TOBACCO is one of my lifelong top artists - his work with Black Moth Super Rainbow is great as well.
In my opinion Malibu Ken is his best project though, it's one of my all time favourite albums. Aesop is on another level
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When Malibu Ken dropped I think I looped that album for a solid month. Been listening to Aes for years now; sometimes, I need my bars esoteric and bout as dense as an elephant's foot
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Listening to Dadi Freyr right now!
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I feel like you are my coworker Mike.
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My kids say I don't have a good handle on which bands are popular, just listen to what I like and then get surprised when one band comes to play the stadium and another a little bar. So they taught me to look at the count of YouTube subscribers and these guys are way more good than popular
Joshua Ray Walker
Ramsay Midwood
And famous but not nearly as popular as they are good?
Janelle Monae
Parker Millsap
Inhaler
Gone but never got the success they really ought to have gotten. We saw these guys any chance we got they were so freaking amazing.
J Roddy Walston and the Business
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Janelle Monae is fantastic, an all around great creative person. She's been getting recognition for her acting at least.
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Janelle Monae is the only artist from this list I uplift tbh; the Arch-Android was pure fire
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Panpticon, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Chat Pile, Ashenspire, Swans, Obongjayar, Black Midi, and emancipator
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Don't know your other artists but I frickin love emancipator. I've listened to every album hundreds of times, not exaggerating. Have you heard Kinack? Not the same but if you like one you might like the other. I'll have to check out your list when I can use my good speakers.
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Haven't heard them, no, I'll have to give them a look! The rest of my recs are wildly different so they aren't for everyone who likes emancipator, haha.
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Orebolo - 3 guys playing acoustic perfection.
Goose - same 3 guys from Orebolo, but with the rest of the band, non-acoustic, and some good jams.
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Neko Case! The voice of God with red hair, I call her. Also her other supergroup band The New Pornographers is amazing. A one of a kind voice.
Also Drive-By Truckers should be considered a worldwide treasure.
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Evade the Eye. Excellent guitar work, good songwriting. Genre: instrumental prog metal
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Destiny Potato. They released one spectacular album.
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They renamed to 'Sordid Pink' and have another album out.
David Maxim Micic is their guitarist and if you know him, then you know they are good.
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Do they have to be recent or alive? If not:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - if there is any one person that can be attributed with inventing Rock'n'Roll, it is her, and she gets far too little credit for it. Watch this docu about her to find out more, or even better yet, listen to her songs.
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Nineteen Forty-Five
Their debut album, Together We'll Burn Like Autumn Leaves is solid gold all the way through; the second studio album I Saw a Bright Light is almost as solid. I like them so much I tracked down all the members' previous bands and solo projects and B-sides.
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Ozric Tentacles
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Electric Storm by White Noise. Included the lady who recorded the Dr Who theme.
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Caroline Polachek.
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Her cover of "Breathless" will absolutely leave you so.
If your library has Freegal she's on there BTW. :)
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I should check out her work, pretty sure the only place I've heard her was on a flume collab
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My fave album by her is Pang, but Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is also incredible.
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Just got really into her, I absolutely love what she does with her voice. I just received her second album on cassette.
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She has the best vocals on the planet, I’ll say it over and over again.
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There's a really underrated band from Vancouver called Slightest Clue that just put out an album. Alternative/punk and very fun
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Cold blue
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Weird Al Yankovich
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Antonin Dvorak
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The Revivalists are an incredible bluesy rock band, but everything of theirs on the radio is their blandest stuff. They really excel with live performances and amazing instrumentals.
"It Was a Sin" builds slow but gets really high energy by the end
"Soul Fight" has a top notch saxophone solo
Here's a full concert at Red Rocks
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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They are a really good live act, better than the records, the show is great.
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- All of Nerdcore really
- sleep token
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Emma Ruth Rundle
TR/ST
Ionnalee
Keosz
Rival Consoles
I Will Keep Your Ghost
Moon Cathedral
Russian Circles
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Dirt Poor Robins, Fish in a Birdcage, and Burn The Ballroom.
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Donny Benét has the potential to be massive. Guy is a legend
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/kCLWf_DVDmA?si=tIz6pgKy_dwv7miZ
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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Anderson .Paak: I know he's pretty popular but I feel like it's mostly because of his Silk Sonic stuff. His solo albums are great, especially Malibu. He's an incredibly talented musician and entertainer. I would strongly recommend anyone watch his Tiny Desk if you haven't already.
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Atlus: Pumps out a lot of music, not all of them are bangers. But he has a lot of good songs.
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Josh A / iamjakehill: I grouped them because they do a lot of music together but they are each fantastic on their own. Save Our Souls is such a great album.
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Brothers of Metal: Fun power metal band that makes music about Norse mythology. Makes you want to ride out into battle. I've shown this band to multiple people who are not metal/power metal fans and they love it.
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Lorna Shore: I know Through the Hellfire went viral and they are pretty popular for a Deathcore band. But they definitely deserve more recognition. I used to listen to a lot of Deathcore in high school 15 years ago and Lorna Shore single handedly got me back into it. I must've listened to all of Pain Remains at least 50 times. I can't get enough of Ramos's vocals and Archey's drumming.
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Light the Torch: If you loved Killswitch Engage with Howard Jones vocals then you will love this.
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BONES/ Surrender Dorothy. he's gained a lot more listeners over the past few years so more people are discovering his music
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Dead Posey I think needs more awareness.
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Jason Molina, particularly his last act, "Songs: Ohia". Singer, songwriter, sad bastard indie rock artist who died in his early thirties from complications of alcoholism. Like Will Oldham with more bluesy pop influences instead of bluegrass and folk.
https://songsohia.bandcamp.com/album/magnolia-electric-co-deluxe-edition
https://songsohia.bandcamp.com/album/love-work-the-lioness-sessions
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Norman Pain
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Death grips
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Frontier Ruckus is a band that I grew up alongside. I shamelessly plug them whenever I get a chance. They make music about the places I grew up and sing about it in a way that makes me feel so close to it. Their new album just came out, but their first 2 albums are their standout. The Orion Songbook and Deadmalls and Nightfalls.
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Bloodywood, an Indian folk/rap/metal group. Great stuff!
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Shilpa ray.
Here’s her audiotree live session, but if no one is going to invest 30 minutes into a new artist, at least check out this part, two of her best songs done in a sort of medley format.
I’ve seen her play a few times, once she was playing for free on a sidewalk, which seemed criminal to me, honestly. She’s way too good to be setting up her own shit and waiting while some bar owner’s nephew futzes with a shitty PA system. Second time she had her full band and it was hands down the best show I saw last year. And I saw a lot of great shows, KNOWER being one of them, mononeon, Sleafors Mods, Dry Cleaning…
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Taylor Swift
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