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Monday, June 05, 2006
From unknown to known
I am doing underrated band week here at my blog. So I attempting to shout out praise about bands that I think are underrated. I remember being in tenth grade and buying albums by bands that I had never heard before like King Kobra, Loudness and Grim Reaper. I took chances on these bands because I wanted to hear something new. I had a friend at the time who would say these bands were "nobody" because they were not big yet. I never understood that mentality because almost everyone starts at the bottom before they become "somebody" or get known. I had a friend in college who listened to maybe a dozen bands and refused to listen to anyone he didn't already know of. He waited for the radio and Mtv to find new music. Word of mouth and tape trading was a great way for bands who weren't getting a lot of radio play to get known back in the 80's. Of course you have to want to hear new music and be a little open for this to work. I have heard a lot of bands over the last twenty some years. I have heard good, bad and in between, but I am certainly glad that I went out of my to give new bands a chance rather than waiting for the radio, Mtv or some other media source to tell me what I should listen to.
Mark, I can't tell you how many times I picked up CD by a band that I never heard of but what choice did we have back in the 80s? There was no internet or places to actually preview any kind of heavy music. The only places that you could hear about these bands were in magazines or, if you were lucky enough, get the radio show Metal Shop. Here are a few bands whose albums I picked up without ever hearing:
ReplyDelete1. Iron Maiden - Maiden Japan
2. Voivod - Dimension Hatross
3. Celtic Frost - Into the Pandamonium.
4. Faith No More - The Real Thing
5. Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos
6. Bathory - Under the Sign
7. Kreator - Terrible Certainty
As you can see, I discovered many of my favorite bands by purchasing based on either word of mouth or just taking a chance.
Back in the day, I hung out at a record store called the Blue Goose, and they would play a lot of stuff over the store's stereo system that I had never heard. The owner was a true music fan, and thought it was a good idea to introduce customers to new artists, and I'm thankful he did, because even back then, the local radio scene was less than mediocre.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, I hung out at a record store called the Blue Goose, and they would play a lot of stuff over the store's stereo system that I had never heard. The owner was a true music fan, and thought it was a good idea to introduce customers to new artists, and I'm thankful he did, because even back then, the local radio scene was less than mediocre.
ReplyDeletedamn blogger is f'ed up today...sorry about the double post.
ReplyDeleteyes, I listened to unknowns as well and most of my inside scoop came from Metal Shop also - "The Only Show with Teeth" :)
ReplyDeleteOr before the days of MTV (at my house anyway, it was Night Trax or Radio 1990). Damn, I'm old.
Except the people I picked out never really got off of the ground in a big way. Ex: Girlschool
I listened to the Metalshop around 85-86 and discovered Megadeth and Motorhead as well as others from that show. We had a local radio show called Friday nigh metal around 84-85 and that's where I first heard Metallica, Raven, Exciter and others. Here are some albums I bought in the 80's just based on reviews or album covers.
ReplyDeleteAnthrax-Spreading the disease
Dark Angel-Darkness descends
Possessed-Seven Churches
Metal Church-The dark
Exodus-Bonded by blood
Manowar-Fighting the world
Helloween-Walls of jericho
All of those turned out to be albums I played over and over.
Bruce-There was a record store near me like that,but they didn't open until about 1989. I wished they had been around sooner.
Onmywatch-Girlschool were bigger on the other side of the Atlantic.
Interesting site. Useful information. Bookmarked.
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