artists that you knew about and were into BEFORE the bandwagon

[blackdragon6]

you know the artists that you knew was gonna be huge..................

[Alex]

I can name a lot of bands i listened to before they got popular,just because i listen to a lot of music, i didn't neccesarily like them though.
Does that still count?

[Royal]

Mushroomhead


.......before the makeup

[zombie]

Linkin Park.

[CHEYENNE-BLACKBIRD]

well like i said in another thread a friend of mine worked at a music warehouse i was always up to date on the hip-hop no matter how obscure,or how popular. i knew of artists that people outside of that region wouldn't hear about til years later.(master-p,biggie,DMX,ja-rule,jay-z,anthony hamilton,bone thugs,three-6-mafia etc etc)

[Hiromi]

A lot of the bands I've gotten into lately have been after the band wagons passed.

[ComputerWizkid89]

The Killers. Couldn't stop listening to the cd when I got it. But, of course, MTV screwed that whole thing up. Now little teenagers think that their "Killers" fans. MAN that Pisses me off :mad:

[leonaozaki]

The White Stripes.

How bizarre it all seemed when they got on MTV.

rob

[JeffreyWKramer]

I was paying attention to Prince before anyone in my neck of the woods had heard about him. I bought CONTROVERSY when it came out and knew right then he would be someone big.

I saw Slipknot when they were just a local band. I thought they were pretty cool, but I didn't anticipate them becoming so successful.

[KenK]

Just before Maroon 5 blew up, I was DL'ing their early demos. The song they did for the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack, 'Woman', I had actually heard a year earlier. I was pissed when Songs about Jane came out, and it wasn't on there.

The Killers. Couldn't stop listening to the cd when I got it. But, of course, MTV screwed that whole thing up. Now little teenagers think that their "Killers" fans. MAN that Pisses me off

Don't be greedy! Music is to be shared by all!

[Dennis K]

A friend of mine (gasp! shock!!) recently sent me a CD he burned from a band called Black Velvet. I've never heard of them and it's not half bad.

[Buried Alien]

A lot of the bands I've gotten into lately have been after the band wagons passed.

Me too. My musical tastes have never exactly been cutting-edge, but at the same time, I have always cast a suspicious ear towards the "newest big thing." Often, however, I'll champion a truly good performer or group *years* after their commercial and popular peak has passed (i.e. my recent fascination with the Romantics).


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Valmore]

A lot of the bands I've gotten into lately have been after the band wagons passed.

Funny you should say that. I never hopped on the Pearl Jam bandwagon until they were no longer the huge sensation.

However, I was into Live long before "Throwing Copper" made it big.

[TomGun13]

Oasis, I picked up Definately Maybe long before they got huge (in NA anyways!). I saw the Supersonic video on a late night alternative show and picked it up shortly after.

[Michael P]

I was a fan of John Lennon's when his band was still called the Quarrymen.

Okay, not really, it was 20-something years before I was born, but wouldn't that be cool to be able to say?

[Hiromi]

I don't think I'd want to admit to being that old...

[Reptisaurus!]

Funny you should say that. I never hopped on the Pearl Jam bandwagon until they were no longer the huge sensation.

However, I was into Live long before "Throwing Copper" made it big.

I bought "Mental Jewelry" fairly early, but the video for "Operation:Spirit" was all over MTV, so I don't know if that counts.

I was really into Counting Crows as a teeny-bopper, long before they got Mainstream radio play.

[DonC]

It wasn't much before their bandwagon got big, but I was into Evanescence before they became a huge smash.


But this is literally a matter of weeks. Kind of like the bandwagon was just starting to take on passengers and I was one of the first.

[berk]

The Cranberries; heard them on cbc radio ("Brave New Waves" midnight - 4 AM weeknights) and boguth their 1st cd several months before they were on regular radio.

The Proclaimers; this one's a bit odd, because they seemed to be quite well known from their first cd (Sunshine On Leith) among my social group in the late 80's - which at that time was mostly people from Newfoundland and Cape Breton. But no one outside that group seemde to know about them until years later. I remember getting excited once at a party in Ontario when '500 Miles' came on and singing along, etc, only to be stared at incredulously by all the mainlanders, including one girl in particular who was a good friend at the time. The attitude was basically "Uh, no one here's ever heard of this song, therefore it's not cool; and besides, it sucks.' Then a few years later, when that movie Benny & June came out, that same girl (a big Johnny Depp fan) went nuts over the song and the band now that they were cool, completely forgetting how she'd sneered at my enthusiasm for it way back then (no, I never pointed the lapse out to her).

also, my older brother (and thus me) was into Kiss and Cheap Trick before they made it big with Alive and Live at Budokan, respectively. He had the first couple albums by both bands, so we were listening to the studio version of "I Want You to Want Me" before the live version broke huge on the radion; and I still think Kiss's first album is their best one. They've been downhill ever since (and including) "I Wanna Rock n Roll All Night". (The only later song I ilke by them is their cover of Argent's "God Gave Rock n Roll to You", and that's thanks to the song itself, not them). (EDIT: Actually, these two bands did have a fair following even before they scored their big radio hitts, so I'm not sure if they really qualify here).

and of course, there are the bands who never did make at all. The New York Dolls for example. Or The Muffs.

I could probably come up with more examples, but there's nothing special about this. It all depends on where you find out about new music. If you mostly listen to mainstream radio, you'll find out about stuff when everyone else does. (And all you'll ever find about about is what everyone else likes). If you use other sources - college radio, word of mouth, local concerts, etc - you'll have a better chance to hear a wider variety of stuff, including some acts that might make it big in the mainstream later on and others who are just as good but will never make it. A couple of my favourite sources right now are CBC radio's "Radio Three"* (Saturday nights 8:30 PM - 4 am) and CBC tv's "ZedTV" which plays an eclectic mix of videos and music from all around the world (favourite recent discovery: an instrumental outfit from Iceland called Apparat Organ Quartet).


*I get the Radio 3 playlist emailed to me each week; here's part of tomorrow night's as an example:

| 8:30 pm
Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman of New York City's Le Tigre stop by to share us their thoughts on intolerance, favourite Canadians, forbidden cities and hating men.
ARTIST | Track Title | Album | Label
-----------------------------------------------------
LOW | California | The Great Destroyer | Sub Pop
DESTROYER | New Ways of Living | Notorious Lightning and Other Works | Merge
ELEVATOR | The Change | August | Bluefog
BRIGHT EYES | I Believe In Symmetry | Digital Ash In a Digital Urn | Saddle Creek
WE ARE MOLECULES | Silk and Venim | Nuvo | Robosapien
LE TIGRE | Punker Plus | This Island | Universal

|...

| 10:00 pm
Montreal's Wolf Parade was one of the most talked about, but least heard, bands of 2004; you'll hear then tonight as we have them in session. Plus, we'll also hear from Garvia Bailey about the fat activist collective Pretty, Porky and Pissed Off's last performance ever.
ARTIST | Track Title | Album | Label
-----------------------------------------------------
WOLF PARADE | Lousy Pictures | CBC Radio 3 Session | n/a
WOLF PARADE | I'll Believe In Anything | CBC Radio 3 Session | n/a
WOLF PARADE | Shine a Light | CBC Radio 3 Session | n/a
WOLF PARADE | My Father's Son | CBC Radio 3 Session | n/a
TUSSLE | Eye Contact | Kling Klong | Troubleman Unlimited
THE ORGAN | Sinking Hearts | Grab That Gun | Mint/604
HOT HOT HEAT | Goodnight Goodnight | Elevator | Sub Pop
HENRY MANCINI AND HIS ORCHESTRA | Baby Elephant Walk | The Music of Henry Mancini | Naxos
BATTLES | IPT-2 | EP C | Monitor
THE LONDON APARTMENTS | Streets In Autumn | The London Apartments EP | indie
THE OCTOPUS PROJECT | The Adjustor | One Ten Hundred Thousand Million | Peek-A-Boo
THE POSTAL SERVICE | Be Still My Heart | We Will Become Silhouettes | Sub Pop
DANNY MICHEL | God Knows I'm Good | Loving the Alien: Danny Michel Sings the Songs of David Bowie | Maple Music
PETER ELKAS | Party of One | Party of One | MCA

[Ayo]

Before the bandwagon:

Cage, aka Agent Orange, aka Alex the Worm King. 1997 when "Agent Orange" got played on one of Hot 97's late night shows. I was taping the song, but I wasn't sure whether or not to keep it. I didn't even know the guy's name, I just knew that the song creeped the living shit out of me. Later I saw him in THE SOURCE magazine with a description of the song, which allowed me to connect the dots.

Aesop Rock, aka Bazooka Tooth. I heard about him after he had released three albums, but before he got signed to Definitive Jux. Nobody ever described his music, they always spoke about him in hushed tones. I downloaded "1,000 Deaths" from Napster (R.I.P.), and it took weeks to get my jaw off the floor. Its hard to imagine Aesop Rock as a real human being when listening to his early albums; he was different than any artist in hip hop--scratch that, ANY genre of music. There was nothing in the world similar. He's since started making sense in his songs and behaving like a normal mortal. Still one of the premier wordsmiths in the music industry.

MF Doom, aka Zev Love X. Except I'm lying. I caught on to Doom when he started blowing up in the underground hip hop world...which was before he became one of the top icons of all underground music in general. Of course, I had nothing to do with KMD--slightly before my time. I DO remember seeing the "Gas Face" video way back when. But I can proudly say I was into the Supervillain before Doommania swept the trendy hipster world.

[Eliot Johnson]

No artist I have been into has really blown up.

I guess, the closest would be Gangsta Blac...he's still underground, really, but I remember when they would play "S.O.U.T.H. Parkway" on the radio all the way across the south. Everyone was like "your boy is on the radio!" I remember, one time, they played a Tom Skeemask video ("2 Wild For The World") on BET, and I was like "They have Tom Skee on BET!" and I called a buncha people but I never saw it again. Later I learned it was a underground spotlight or something. Playa Fly's "F_ck A Wannabe" was on that same show once, i've been told. I've seen the video, but I never knew they put it on BET. Further on Fly, he's never blown up, but I was listening to him before he gained his "underground legend" status.

I don't like Crime Mob or Dem Franchize Boyz, but I heard them long before they blew up. Next to blow from Atlanta: Lil Maceo "Ho Sit Down", D4L "Betcha Can't Do It Like Me", or Lil Weavah "Home Team". I hope it's Weavah...the other two are garbage, but they get a WHOLE lot of play in the club and EVERYBODY can get buck to their songs. Weavah actually has some skills.

[howyadoin]

The Police.

The Clash.

R.E.M.

U2.

[Buried Alien]

The Police.

The Clash.

R.E.M.

U2.

In the days before downloadable music, how did one get to become acquainted with performers who were not local and had not yet achieved widespread fame?


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[monkeysweat]

The Fugees. Down ever since "Boof Baf".

[howyadoin]

In the days before downloadable music, how did one get to become acquainted with performers who were not local and had not yet achieved widespread fame?FM radio, Trouser Press and word of mouth.

[Noir_Dark]

Metalica
RHCP (When they were funk)
At the Drive Inn
NIN
Incubus (When they were good)
Weezer
The Darkness
Alice in Chains
Soundgarden
Queens of the Stone Age
Tool

[Grant]

I guess Modest Mouse. No one else I've listen to became insanely popular.

[Grant]

R.E.M.


I assume you are being honest but we all know people in their late thirties and early forties who claim that and it's obvious they were listening to mostly Hall & Oates and Huey Lewis & the News during the eighties.

[howyadoin]

it's obvious they were listening to mostly Hall & Oates and Huey Lewis & the News during the eighties.I think it's also obvious that I didn't grow up listening to either of them.

[JeffreyWKramer]

The Police.

The Clash.

R.E.M.

U2.

I wasn't aware of the Clash until they had already become big, but I was well ahead of the curve with the Police, REM and U2 - largely by way of word of mouth and college radio stations. You can add the Cramps, Husker Du, the Minutemen and lots of the indy bands of that era to that list.

[Grant]

I think it's also obvious that I didn't grow up listening to either of them.

But you were a big Spandau Ballet fan I believe right?

[Ontir]

U2

Duran Duran

Scissor Sisters

Deee Lite

the The

Cousteau

the Eels

[howyadoin]

But you were a big Spandau Ballet fan I believe right?If I were, it'd give me a hell of a one-word comeback to that question.

[howyadoin]

the EelsThat's a band I really need to learn more about.

[Buried Alien]

If I were, it'd give me a hell of a one-word comeback to that question.

Not with that ten-character minimum we've got here it wouldn't. ;)








Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Brian Cronin]

The Wallflowers. :D

-Brian

[howyadoin]

Not with that ten-character minimum we've got here it wouldn't.True.






Heh heh heh.

[berk]

A complication for North Americans is that for some acts the bandwagon may have been jam-packed and moving at 100kph in the UK, but never really got going across the Atlantic until years later if at all. Thanks to my older brother and his friends, I was a huge fan of Roxy Music (and Ferry's and Eno's solo stuff), T Rex, and Mott the Hoople while they were at the peak of their popularity in Europe and/or the UK, but Roxy never received much notice over here until "Love is the Drug", T Rex (apart from the blip of Bang a Gong) probably not until the god-awful 80's Power Station remake, and Mott the Hoople basically never. I bought the first Jam album around when it was first released, out of a discount bin for $0.99, never having heard of them before, but I'm sure they had a pretty big following in the UK at the time. So was I ahead of the bandwagon or on it? Depends on your POV, I guess.

I'll tell you someone I was behind the curve with - the Ramones. Never really appreciated the genius of their sound until the late 80s.

[Spike-X]

I'd love to list Bruce Springsteen here, but I was only fourteen when Born In The USA came out, so that didn't give me much of a chance. I sure made up for lost time, though! I bought BITUSA when I was sixteen (end of '85), and the next week I went out and bought the first six albums.

Then I got my first bootleg...

[howyadoin]

I'd love to list Bruce Springsteen here, but I was only fourteen when Born In The USA came out, so that didn't give me much of a chance.I hear that. I got into him about a year before Darkness came out.

[mike rok lok]

The one band that sticks out the most is Soundgarden as I remember buying their records off SST before their breakthrough "Badmotorfinger" came out. Other bands that is worth mentioning is And you Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead who been digging since their days at Merge Records and Rye Coalition who I have been with since their first record long before their upcoming record which has Dave Grohl in the producers chair. Also too I recall falling in love with At the Drivein when I saw them open up for Archers of Loaf and Knapsack and I was fortunate enough to be one 15 people watching them tear sh*t up on stage. At that time their second full length In Casino/out was just released and months later they were huge in the indie scene and when there next record "relationship of command" came out they were huge.

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

anthony hamilton,and alicia keys

[Leslie Lee III]

Cash Money
Queens of the Stone Age
The Killers
Interpol

[Bakema NL]

I'll name a whole genre here......rap and hip/hop and electro too. I was into it in the early 80's, almost everybody at school looked strangely upon it, it was kinda new then and a lot of stuff was only available through import for double the price of a normal record.

Nightwish, to a degree as I was rather late discovering them myself. But only now they seem to be hitting it big.

And there are probably some more I cannot think of now.

[Rorschach4100]

a perfect circle

[ZombieHavoc]

i've heard bands before they were huge, but typically they werent bands i cared about one way or the other.

blink 182 opened for my friends band at a club. i didnt like them, and i remember seeing a video for them later on.

i saw the disturbed opening a show at a club and i thought it was the stupidest goofiest thing ever. whenever later on i heard ooo waa aaa aaa...

um, saves the day i saw open a show in front of like 30 people. i guess they arent bandwagon big like the darkness or something, but whatever.

my old band opened for the explosion, about 4 years ago, who have an album out on virgin now. i guess they'll be big.

my boss' husband however saw susannah hoff's breasts because he was a abrtender for a club that the bangles played when they were starting out and there were no dressing rooms so she changed on the side of the bar. i'm quite jealous.

i dont pay enough attention to current music to get into anything before the bandwagon, and i dont get into any of it during or post bandwagon either. i just like alice cooper the vibrators and power metal.

[thik_3rd]

jay z since can i get open
50 cent since projects too hot (knew of him since react, but wasnt a fan then), no longer a fan
ja rule since time to build came out, and on usual suspects, murdergram, etc. wouldnt really have said i was a fan, but those were hot songs, and i thought he had potential

i dunno, i know a lot more, it's kind of a grey area as to whether i was really into their stuff though...

[I Must Break U]

I'm gonna have to say Linkin park also.
Also I wanna say eminem, i swear i was the only dude feeling him before he blew up!

[thik_3rd]

I'm gonna have to say Linkin park also.
Also I wanna say eminem, i swear i was the only dude feeling him before he blew up!
em is a case of me knowing him before he got big but really not liking him. i think the first time i heard him was on that track he did with domingo... and i didnt like him at all.

[Ayo]

em is a case of me knowing him before he got big but really not liking him. i think the first time i heard him was on that track he did with domingo... and i didnt like him at all.

Seriously? That verse was mind-bending.

[Core]

Metallica

Faith No More

NIN

Nirvana

White Zombie

[thik_3rd]

Seriously? That verse was mind-bending.
"its mostly the voice" and em's (especially back then) irritated the shit outta me. like, technically, he's a good rapper, he'd score well if i rated all his aspects on paper, but,in the end... he just doesn't do it for me.

[blackdragon6]

em is a case of me knowing him before he got big but really not liking him. i think the first time i heard him was on that track he did with domingo... and i didnt like him at all.co-sign..............

[elheffe]

Man, there's tons -
Bleach era- Nirvana
Louder Than Love era Soundgarden
Nothing Shocking era Janes Addiciton
Pablo Honey era Radiohead
Mothers Milk era RHCP
Gish era Smashing Pumpkins
Let's Go era Rancid
Building Something out of Nothing era Modest Mouse

[Bakema NL]

my boss' husband however saw susannah hoff's breasts because he was a abrtender for a club that the bangles played when they were starting out and there were no dressing rooms so she changed on the side of the bar. i'm quite jealous.

I have seen the videoclips and she's cute and all...............but you say she has breasts ??? :evilsmile

[ZombieHavoc]

maybe he just saw her nipples.

[FanboyStranger]

Since I tend to like indie rock bands that never get recognized by anyone but critics and record geeks like myself, I'd have to say the only two that stick in my mind would be Modest Mouse and Coldplay. Modest Mouse was the second concert I saw when I moved to Chicago back in 1997 (first was Luna) mostly 'cause they sounded vaguely like Built to Spill, my favorite band, and I remembered thinking that those guys were one of those "great on record, shitty live" bands. Coldplay, on the other hand, was the result of living in Scotland for few months towards the end of 2000, and having their music stuck in my head. (They were already huge over there.) So, I brought it home, and everyone I played it for loved it. A few months later, they were unescapable. I still think I should have left that record over there!

[Headhunter]

Eh, does getting into Lacuna Coil in late 2003-early 2004 count?

Me too. My musical tastes have never exactly been cutting-edge, but at the same time, I have always cast a suspicious ear towards the "newest big thing."
Ah, how jaded we have become...not that anyone can blame us, with all the dreck on the airwaves these days. It's weird how (in my opinion, of course) that as the advent of the Internet has given independent artists a greater platform, traditional media seems hellbent on promoting increasingly low quality and taste "music" upon us.

It wasn't much before their bandwagon got big, but I was into Evanescence before they became a huge smash.

But this is literally a matter of weeks. Kind of like the bandwagon was just starting to take on passengers and I was one of the first.
Heh, I got in a bit before when the Daredevil trailer hit a few months prior to Fallen.

[Trucker Belt]

Lil Jon
Lil Flip
Paul Wall & Chamillionaire

[Patriot07]

This doesn't really count, but The Beatles. I got into them when I was in 6th grade. That's when The Beatles 1 came out on CD and by the end of the month, I had most of the albums (All except With the Beatles and Beatles for Sale). During this time, everyone was into Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and all that crap, so I got made fun of a lot for liking The Beatles, now they're one of the most popular bands at school. So I guess that sort of counts.

[the film freak]

In the days before downloadable music, how did one get to become acquainted with performers who were not local and had not yet achieved widespread fame?


Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

They were big on college radio for a long time.

[rick]

Back in the early 1980's, my wife and I used to go see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers play at clubs in LA.

[PanzerMega]

"huge" is relative in this case, but I was following the Swedish metal bands, In Flames and Arch Enemy in the mid-90s, and caught their first North American tours in the 1999 when they were playing for a couple of dozen people in a bar every night.

Nowadays both are really popular with the metal crowd, have been on Ozzfest, crack the Billboard charts, and headline festivals here.

[Ontir]

Rufus Wainright

the Eels

the The

Kinky

I may STILL be ahead of these particular curves! :p

[Patriot07]

THE THE!

My band was going to call ourselves that, but we found out it was taken. What a great name! :)

[the film freak]

I listen to a lot stuff that's never hit the mainstream. Usually it doesn't. I guess Modest Mouse is one that did pretty well but I started listening to them when they were fairly popular with indie kids. The Shins too but they kind broke out pretty quickly.

[rick]

THE THE!

My band was going to call ourselves that, but we found out it was taken. What a great name! :)


Infected is quite possibly my favorite album of all time.

It certainly at least makes the top 5.

[SleepWalker]

I think a lot of the music I listen to has yet to, and probably won't, actually have a true mainstream bandwagon.

[zombie]

Infected is quite possibly my favorite album of all time.

It certainly at least makes the top 5.

I bought that a couple years ago without having heard any songs by the The based on your love for it, haha. It wasn't what I expected, but still pretty good.

[DrewTheXenocide]

Taking Back Sunday, and pretty much a lot of the emo-pop scene. Ironic thing is I can't stand the stuff now, with a couple of exceptions.

[jessecuster3]

Good Music is good music. Either you are the first or the bandwagon should never matter. I get almost all albums a minumum of 2 months in advance, so i am "ahead of teh curve on a a number of bands. I just try to weed out whats good and then pass those on to people. The biggest one I have got into recently was Bloc Party. I had that album a year before it was released in the States and at least 3 months before it came out in England. I still listen to it somewhat regularly today.


Someone said Nothing's Shocking era Janes Addiction. I saw them even before that was released when Perry stuck an amplifier inside a regular cooler and just beat on that for a while.

I saw 311 right when Music was being released, the show cost $3.11 and there were 12 people on the audience.

I have to just priase anyone who likes the Eels, I abosolutely love them. But I would be plenty surprised if you were "ahead of the curve" when Novacaine for Your Soul was played on Alternative stations across the country. Not too mention E himself had an established career even opening for Tori Amos long before the Eels.

[(A)//(E)]

the World/Inferno Friendship Society is going to be huge.
Mark my words.