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.
The P-Funk has been in my playlist rotation for like 15 years now
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.
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
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.
They are a really good live act, better than the records, the show is great.
Listening to Dadi Freyr right now!
I feel like you are my coworker Mike.
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.
Easily Fish in a Birdcage, my number one vibeing artist.
BONES/ Surrender Dorothy. he’s gained a lot more listeners over the past few years so more people are discovering his music
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.
- All of Nerdcore really
- sleep token
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
Janelle Monae is fantastic, an all around great creative person. She’s been getting recognition for her acting at least.
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.
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.
TOBACCO is one of my all time faves - love his work with Black Moth Super Rainbow as well.
Malibu Ken goes fucking hard though, one of my all time favourite albums. Aesop is on another level
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
Bump for Amigo the Devil. One Kind of People is a great upbeat song too. Always make me happy.
