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Late to the Party: Bands you really got into well after they made their mark.
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,681
in Other Music
Inspired by a Loujoe comment mentioned to me on another thread, let's see what bands you got into big-time well after they had already made it big or had already been a cult classic.
Here's my list:
Here's my list:
Dinosaur Jr. I had read about Dino in Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life, sampled their music, and wrote them off as a band with interesting music but a "bad" singer. Several years later, I gave them another go and they became one of my very favorites. And J's voice? Yeah, technically it's pretty weak but I totally love it anyway.
The Dream Syndicate. Dare I say it? This one is almost inexcusable. I have had their album Medicine Show since a year or two after it came out in 1984. I vaguely remember that I may have seen them live in San Francisco in the mid 80's. HELLO! Just a few years ago, I finally branched out into more of their albums as well as band leader Steve Wynn's work and became a FANATIC. (Evident by the fact that I now have 20 TDS/Wynn related albums).
The Ramones and New York Dolls. Alright, seriously, it's embarrassing to mention those names within this context. I got into them both around the same time (maybe 15 years ago) and, needless to say, have been a huge fan of both ever since.
Dean Moon. It took reading about the death in 2017 of Dead Moon's Fred Cole to even know about this band. For cryin' out loud, the band had been around for almost 30 years! The more I hear, the more I love their raw, low-fi thrash and Fred's ragged macabre-obsessed songs and singing. Gritty, garagey, and great!
Joy Division. Talk about late to the party! I'm a very recent
convert. Damn, I mean Ian Curtis has been dead for 21 years.
Apparently so was part of my brain! I now love that band! I will no doubt have all their stuff (which, sadly isn't much) before too long.
Television. Not as severe as the above, but still a significant late start for me. Excellent stuff! Marque Moon is massively great.
Alrighty, tardy music fans. Time to fess up! Whatcha got?
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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Good one! I'm sure you were not the first.
I really liked them when Ten came out, then kind of lost interest, then really got back into them in that middle period with Yield, No Code, Riot Act, and the self title "Avocado".
Wellington 1998
London 2007
Brisbane 2009
Stockholm 2012
EV Dublin 2017
Milan 2018
Padova 2018
Boston 2 2018
Detroit 2000, Detroit 2003 1-2, Grand Rapids VFC 2004, Philly 2005, Grand Rapids 2006, Detroit 2006, Cleveland 2006, Lollapalooza 2007, Detroit Eddie Solo 2011, Detroit 2014, Chicago 2016 1-2, Chicago 2018 1-2, Ohana Encore 2021 1-2, Chicago Eddie/Earthlings 2022 1-2, Nashville 2022, St. Louis 2022
King Crimson-picked up in the court of the crimson king and was blown away. Since grabbed a best of. Loved the diversity of songs. Gave it to my friend and he too was wondering how this band flew under our radar. Surely a timing thing of when we grew up.
Sure there are and will be others.
Clutch - I first heard them when a friend took me to see a gig on the From Beale Street to Oblivion tour in 2007. I have no idea how I’d missed them before.
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
Pearl Jam - first album I bought on release date was No Code. First PJ album I bought was Vitalogy, but that was quite a bit after it’s release.
Tool - a friend of mine was into them.
of their earlier albums quite cheaply at a local store. Awesome band! Uniquely Australian.
Beastie Boys - bought their anthology release out of interest not long after it was released. I remember loving the Body Movin’ clip when Hello Nasty was out. Slowly but surely made my way through their back catalogue Paul’s Boutique and Ill Communication specifically.
Melbourne #2 '03
Melbourne #3 '03
Melbourne #1 '06
Melbourne #3 '06
Melbourne '09
Melbourne '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Spoon
TV on the Radio
Heartless Bastards
There’s a lot more just can’t think of them..
I almost added Mould and Husker Du because I've recently been listening to some of both after reading Mould's autobiography, See A Little Light, but I can't say yet that I'm a big fan. Maybe with time.
Flaming Lips
DMB - I've always liked them, but skipped their shows after my first experience was just watching them jam for what seemed like way too long. Now, I really enjoy their live shows.
Built to Spill, wasn’t until Ancient Melodies, but my first actual albums were Keep It Like a Secret and Perfect From Now On!
Bought Goo, maybe, three years ago in a sale. Then continued forwards, in order, then backwards and then through the post sonic solo works.
Always knew who they were, of course, but never got into them before.
1996: Ft Lauderdale
1998: Birmingham
2000: Charlotte, Tampa
2003: Tampa, Atlanta, Phoenix
2004: Kissimmee
2008: West Palm Beach, Bonnaroo, Columbia
2010: MSG2
2012: Music Midtown
2014: Memphis
2018: Wrigley 1, Fenway 1
2022: Nashville
2023: Ft. Worth II
The Smiths
It's interesting to think about how strongly boomer's kids and Gen x'ers kid's gravitated toward 60's and 70's rock, yet we boomers generally did not take strongly to our G.I. generation parent's favorites like Glen Miller, Perry Como, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, etc. It took me til clear up to just last year to get hip to the fact that Bing Crosby was not just a great pop singer, but a first-rate jazz singer as well. I was clued into that by reading some books by the late jazz critic and novelist Nat Hentoff.
Mastodon
Manchester Orchestra
Elliott Smith
www.cluthelee.com
www.cluthe.com
Summerfest - Jul 09, 1995*Savage Hall - Sep 22, 1996The Palace of Auburn Hills-Aug 23, 1998 Breslin Center- Aug 18, 1998,The Palace of Auburn Hills-Oct 07, 2000 DTE Energy Theatre-Jun5,2003,DTE Energy Music Theatre - Jun 26, 2003Sports Arena - Oct 02, 2004 Van Andel Arena - May 19, 2006Palace of Auburn Hills-May 22, 2006 Quicken Loans Arena-May 09, 2010
10-16-2014 Detroit
Wilco - my wife introduced me to them in 2006. I was aware of them, but the only song I knew was "Heavy Metal Drummer". I am now a mega-fan!
Great choices, Loujoe!
I was late to the party with Cohen myself. I like "Suzanne" a lot but not much else until many years later I saw him on the show Sunday Night hosted by Jools Holland and David Sanborn. Cohen played a couple of number with Sonny Rollins that are just amazing and really sparked my respect for the man and his music. Both of them!
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly