We just seen "Crack the sky" on March 6th. in Baltimore MD. I have loved them since the 70's and always thought they were very well known, but I found out a few years ago they were only known localy. Does anyone here know them? They have put out around a dozen albums and the last one just came out. Some of my favorite are "From the greenhouse", "Saftey in numbers", "Ghost". A single that recieved limited airplay, "Rangers at midnight.
Dennis
http://www.clearstudio.com

Was Carey Ziegler playing bass?

I have a handful of Crack The Sky albums - Animal Notes is great, Safety in Numbers too really great tunes on those albums.

My Fav though is EAT, Sell Me A God - a killer album - hard to find now.

Never heard of Crack the Sky here in England unfortunately.

A great band that didn't hit the big time were "It Bites". Awesome players and great songs. Just a case of the wrong band at the wrong time.

Cheers

Mike

They were pretty well known, I thought.

Mike,

It Bites have reunited (original line-up), and rumor has it they'll put out a new album before the end of the year.

Great band, I agree wholeheartedly.

Kai

Crack The Sky are excellent. A good greatest hits package is called "Crack Attic". Safety in Numbers and Animal Notes were also my favorites.

When I was 14 in 1975 other bands my friends and I really liked were Nektar, Triumvirat, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Al DiMeola, Jean Luc Ponty, Return To Forever, Jeff Beck and Trapeze.

I guess we were an odd lot.

For an excellent Funk/Rock band, I always thought Mother's Finest should have been huge...

I saw Crack the Sky here in S.A. Tx, in 78' or 79' they were great. At one time i had their first 3 studio albums and a live album. A very tight band.I saw a photo of guitarist Rick Withkowski in Post magazine last year, he was working at a studio if I remember correctly.I would like to see their back catalog released on CD, that would be very cool!! Alleecat

Ahh, you were probably also a fan of "Friday Night in San Francisco?"

Nika.

I was their original sound guy and I built their PA. I still see Rick, and a couple of nights ago I spent at Heinz Hall with B E Taylor. He was performing for a Mr Rogers special event held by the Pittsburgh Symphony. Rick was in the audience, but he left before the post-event reception because he had a session in the morning. JP moved away and releases something every now and again, Joe Macre moved south to work at a gospel network many years ago, Jim Griffiths I haven't seen or heard about in years. But the other guys are around.

The band was originally (and brefly) called Archangel, the Words. But Cashman and West thought that people would confuse them with Stories, so they changed the name. They moved to NYC, and I chose not to go... I took a job with Pacific Presentations instead.

After a while they ended up hooked up with Cellar Door in Baltimore. That was a bad scene.

There have been some recent compilations, "Crack Attic" I think is the latest. But the original albums and the authorised bootleg remain my favorites.

Bill

Dixie Dregs . . . of course it's hard for an instrumental act to make it big time I suppose.

For the first 6 or 7 years I was listening to them I thought BareNaked Ladies would fall into this category. Fortunately someone discovered them that was more significant than I am.

Nika.

Yes and John Palumbo, Rick Witkowski, John Tracey, Bobby Hird, Glenn Workman were also in the line up
http://www.crackthesky.com/

Nectar just toured in Europe last year and they are touring again this year and may even come to the US
http://www.nektarmusic.co.uk/introduction.htm

Try E-bay.
I seen them twice last year they still are tight. This year they did a little show before the concert at Record and tape traders and signed CD's Albums and t shirts. The Ghost CD from 2001 is realy cool.
Dennis

"John Palumbo, Rick Witkowski, John Tracey, Bobby Hird, Glenn Workman were also in the line up.."

There have been a lot of great musicians through the band over the years, but the original lineup was JP and Rick, Rick Griffiths, Joe Macre, and Joey Damico. One of the highlights from the old show was when Joey would come out from behind the drums, and sing "something's wrong on the moon, my friends..." When they did clubs, they would do things like "I Am The Walrus" with 2 guitars, bass, drums, and a Wurlitzer electric piano. Scary stuff.

Bill

Don't know if it's out yet, but I heard a pre-release of a new Nektar (sp?) CD. Sounds very 80s- I guess they wanted to pick up right where they left off, or so I hear from the knowledgeable. Not my thing, but possibly of interest.

They still do "I Am The Walrus" Also John Palumbo's son's band opend for them they were pretty good they had an electric violin player he played the keyboard part from teenage wasteland.

I would be interested in that.

I saw It Bites open for Jethro Tull in the 80's. Maybe they were having a bad night but they really didn't do anything for me.

One of the funniest lines I've heard at a concert came from that show, it went something like this: "We're called It Bites. Over here that translates as 'it sucks', and maybe we do, but we have a new album out." At the time I found myself agreeing with him

--
Rob

I saw them in '92 at a small club in Montreal opening up for the Crash Test Dummies. I don't know if Gordon had been released yet or not but either way I had never heard of them.

They were phucking awesome! I know a lot of bands talk about having fun onstage but BNL take having fun to a new extreme. I've never seen anybody else be that comfortably goofy in front of an audience. It felt like I was in their basement watching them show off for friends.

--
Rob

I saw them in 1992 also at Bumbershoot in Seattle. They opened for the Violent Femmes. We thought the name was a cute gimmick and wanted to see the Violent Femmes. They were absolutely stunning on stage and the Violent Femmes were absolutely awful. We left the VF after two songs to go find a CD of BNL in the merchandise kiosk and they were already sold out.

I have seen them several times since. After one show we were wondering if their onstage persona, gimmicks, and stunts were all scripted, so we went again three weeks later in a different city and it was an entirely different show.

I'm glad they didn't become a "who's that?" sort of band.

Nika.

ILLINOIS SPEED PRESS 1970's

Blues Image

Sea Train

Moby Grape

XTC....

XTC didn't hit the big time? Sure they ain't U2 but they have a lot of fans.

--
Rob

Jellyfish,The Posies.... Arch

Wow Dennis, thanks for the news on Nektar. I have done many searches in the past on them and always came up blank. All I have is a reel to reel of Recycled I made from my buddies album, what a fantastic piece of work. That link was great showing current pics as well as studio pics from 1975. Thanks, Paul.

Bettie Serveert never got the recognition they deserve. I saw them supporting Dinosaur Jr in '91 or '92 and they were great. They're still releasing albums but they're kind of a best kept secret.

I remember them.

Bill

Pacific Gas & Electric for sure. Saw them at the first Atlanta Pop Festival & they were amazing. The records didn't come close to the live show.

Also Mother's Finest. Their 2nd record inspired me to pull back out the keyboards & start playing again after a 2 year escape from the music biz.

Marty

Check out any of their 3 studio albums (though "Once Around The World" is undeniably their best). They are simply brilliant. Probably that was not a good night for them, indeed...

The Jayhawks
Ambrosia

On a related point:
Folks that used to be big and now barely get any attention/airplay: such as

Van Morrison

My fave "obscure atists":

Devin Townsend - Current artist from Vancouver B.C. should be 10,000x bigger than he is right now. Check out "Accelerated Evolution".

Max Webster - Toronto band from '70's toured w/ Rush. Never got huge in the States. They were Gods. "Universal Juveniles"

805 - Prog Rock band from Syracuse N.Y. Had an RCA release in '80 or '81. "Stand in Line"

Robert Hazard - Philly guy with one very minor hit in '82. "The Escalator of Life."

Gowan - Sort of Canada's answer to Peter Gabriel. Now the lead singer of Styx, but his own stuff was wayyyy better. "Criminal Mind."

Willie Nile - Early 80's singer songwriter from N.Y.

Naughty Sweeties - Was L.A.'s answer to the B-52's

jettison eddy - Was L.A.'s answer to Matchbox 20. Incredible CD produced by Keith Olsen. Should've been massive. Blame their "Manager".

Leggs Diamond - What if Deep Purple grew up in Texas? They'd be Leggs Diamond.

Civil Defiance - L.A.'s bastard stepchildren of Metallica meets Megadeth meets Allan Holdsworth. Awesome.

A truly great recent band was the Mommyheads. These guys changed my whole way of approaching music!

A sad thing happened to them- they were signed to Geffen Records and Don Was produced their 5th or 6th album, after 10 years as an indefatigable independent act.

That killed that band but dead!

One week of press releases and charting on a few college radio stations, and finis.

You have to wonder how many great acts died in similar fashion...

Originaly posted by nhcomp45@aol.com Your welcome we ordered the reissue of Recycled with the following Bonus tracks

– Original Geoff Emerick mixes July 1975 : Recycle, Cybernetic Consumption, Recycle Countdown, Automoton Horrorscope, Recycling, Flight to Reality, Unendless Imaginations, Sao Paulo Sunrise, Costa Del Sol, Marvellous Moses, It’s All Over (All tracks previously unreleased)

Does anyone have any info on the band ETHOS some of the albums I know of are OPEN UP and ARDOUR I think they were great musicians.
Dennis
http://www.clearstudio.com

Since they're from the Toronto area, they've been fixtures in Western NY since the early '90s. From a concert date here about 6 years ago, they might still hold an attendance record for our local "hockey barn" concert venue.

I just took my wife and 3 young kids to see them a month ago (the 3rd time my wife & I have seen them). Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, BnL is probably the most entertaining live act on the road today.

I'll echo Gtoledo3's post and put XTC at the top of the list. They hit the "medium time", but still never got near the success they deserved. Check out "Dukes Of Stratosphear" or "Big Express", brilliant CDs that were largely ignored. Aside from their first album and their latest two or three releases, everything they put out is great...

"Speech" is one that I'm disappointed to not see hit the big time.

As the front man for Arrested Development he was successful, but as a solo career he doesn't seem to have the draw, but for the genre it's the best I've found.

Nika.

Sooo many great groups...

Soft Machine
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Nitzinger
Danny Gatton
Love Sculpture
Atomic Rooster

Just the first handful that spring to mind...

Ohh yeah, I'll second (or third) XTC and the Jayhawks. Peter Case is another one (former front man for the Plimsouls, another shoulda-been-big band, but his solo stuff might be even stronger). Richard Thompson I guess is well known to his cult following but never really hit the big time.

I used to always put Fountains of Wayne on lists like this but I guess now they've finally had a top 10 hit. I also used to always mention Orange Hat , but a few months ago I was asked to join the band so I guess I shouldn't toot my own horn... but hey, they're still one of my favorite bands and definitely not big time!

Tall Dogs from Macon, Georgia
Jam Factory from Syracuse
Tribal Therapy from Seattle
Moxy Fruvous from Toronto
Andy Pratt ("Avenging Annie")
Pousette-Dart Band

Gotta chip in on this one. Growing up in the Bay Area in the 70's we had a great band that used to play our high school dances once in a while. They were called the Sons of Champlin. They killed it every gig. Later Bill Champlin joined Chicago but his best work was with the Sons.

My 2cents.

Second choice was Montrose.

I liked Ronnie Montrose a lot... geat player, great guy. What was his first popular band? I think that their big song was,"I Got The Fire"... a riff that I can still play.

I have some old San Francisco psychedelic posters with the "Sons.." on them... usually as the opening act, if I remember correctly. I don'tthink that I ever got to hear them, though.

Bill

Montrose was great then with a young Sammy Haggar was the lead singer back then. The group at that time was just called Montrose. Another blast from the past was a rock band called Yesterday and Today. Good also. The bay area was great back then... Bill Graham Day's on the Green all day concerts, Winterland...inebriated memories.

I have Atomic Rooster Headline News it is a great album I believe it's the only one with keyboards, and they were sorry they put them in. I checked some of there other work but that album was the only one I liked.
Dennis

PS does anyone know of the band ETHO's or have any info on them?

Jellyfish!!! If you want to hear a great vocalist singing superbly crafted tunes with influences of Badfinger, Beach Boys, Queen, Beatles and a great dollop of their own greatness....buy the two albums, Bellybutton and Spilt Milk. You will not be disappointed.

I have made it my life's work (I am exaggerating a bit ofcourse) to spread the word about Jellyfish.

Note of interest, some members of Jellyfish were part of Ringo Star's band a few years ago...

I told Andy Sturmer about this thread. He let out a good chuckle.

Nika.

"You're My Girl" ... ,love it! One day back in the 60s I had X amount of money in my pocket... the 2 albums that I was looking at were both unknown at the time. I almost bought that Led Zep album, being a Yardbirds fan. But I tried something different instead. Never regretted it. (Bought Zep later... everybody had it anyway.)

Bill

....and did anyone mention Pages yet?

I just recieved my new Nektar CD Recycled with the original album mix and a Geoff Emrick album mix it is awsome if you like this kind of music.

Dennis