I Found Them First! Artists You "Discovered"

[Deleted]

I saw the Faint at a teeny club in LA in '01, and they blew me the frig away. One of the best live acts I'd ever seen. I went forth and preached the gospel of the Faint far and wide. Then they toured with No Doubt and their keyboardist stopped playing live, opting to cue up endless patches instead, and now they are just fair-to-middling in concert. Still great on record, though.

[Edit: Oooh, I've got a good one. I heard Limp Bizkit's demo tape when it was making the rounds, courtesy of a friend of mine who hung around with Korn. And you're not going to believe this, but that shit was good. It was kinda like the Judgment Night soundtrack updated -- raw and bouncy and fun, and the guitars were at the front of the mix instead of Fred Durst's weaselly whinging. I was really excited, damnit, and then they got signed and the album came out and it sucked so f'n hard. Those guys sold out before they even had anything to sell and I hate them.]

[Deleted]

I was listening to Johnny Cash when he was still called Johnny Paycheck.

sorry, it's been a long week...

[dwanollah]

*smacks Duke and sends him to stand in the corner*

[Deleted]

OW! Jeez, Dwan, at least take your rings off...

[fanatic]

Yeah Maroon 5 was definitely a staple in my cd player a good 3 years ago, but what can ya do. Let's see...I jumped on the Hot Hot Heat train pretty damn early and Jason Mraz.

OOH, and I claim these for the future:
Maximo Park
Louis XIV
The Hysterics

[kateln]

London said:

I "found" The Darkness before all my friends did. That was really only because I was in England the summer they brokeout and they didn't hit the States until a couple months later.

Currently none of my friends seem to know who Bloc Party, The Music, or Kasabian are and they usually catch on to the foreign bands even if the bands never release a song in the States.

I'm loving Bloc Party right now. Jimmie's Chicken Shack came to play at my college back in 95' when I was a freshman. I have their EP from E-Flat music.

[tydomin]

Nellie McKay. Her first album was last ywar's absolute finest, and her new one is due out soon. Saw her twice in concert, too, in very small venues (like, the second one had seating for 90, and we sat eight feet away from her), and she's every bit as terrific live.

I'm big lately on Thea Gilmore. Seek her out.

[biondetta]

Not that I was huge fans of either, but I was familiar with Better Than Ezra and Ben Folds Five back before they got signed. BTE used to play local shows in New Orleans and I'd see their hand-printed signs up all over the place. Ben Folds Five was sort of a local band were I live in NC, and the bass player, Robert Sledge, was someone I would see at local clubs around town and at local parties. We even worked in the mall at the same time and would stop in and say hi to each other during breaks. (He worked at Sbarro.) Imagine my surprise when the band was suddenly being featured on MTV's show Fanatics.

For those who like their funk, I remember Galactic back when they were known as Galactic Prophylactic.

I'll challenge the Snow Patrol claim. I bought that CD when it first came out in 2003. It really is good and more people should know about them.

[workgeordie]

I would like to believe that Clap you hands say Yeah! will be the next best thing in alternative music within the next 2 years. Those guys have ridiculous amounts of talent. So watch out for them.

From a New Zealand perspective I was at a concert of The Checks and most of the audience were their parents and family as the boys were only 16 years old at that time. This concert rocked and I was about double the age of most of the fans in the front row but I was rocking with them. Now most of them are 19 years old and they have toured with NME in England, have opened for REM and The Hives in Southern Hemisphere tours and will soon open for Oasis during their Australia tour. Watch out for The Checks!!

[Daisy Pusher]

Hmmm, I've loved Pulp for about 15 years, which is no small feat here in the U.S., as no one else seems to have heard of them. I still love to sit in the dark and listen to Jarvis Cocker's voice.

I remember seeing Sheryl Crow open up for Blues Traveler about 10 or 11 years ago. She looked like a skanky ho to me then, and despite her inexplicable fame and fortune that subsequently followed, she still remains a skank to me.