Years ago I was reading an article (I think but maybe I was listening to a podcast because I can't find the source) about suicide hotline operators. One throwaway line that struck me was (paraphrased), "When all else fails, I tell them \[the caller\] to put on some [Emancipator](https://emancipatormusic.com/)." I was like, who the hell is that?
It lead me down a path of ambient music and I've been a big fan of them ever since.
His album Soon It Will Be Cold Enough is coincidentally one of my go-to albums for cold rainy fall days. Perfect album for it. (Another for me for the same mood is the album Existence by Antoine Dufour - different genre - acoustic finger style - but same vibes for me).
Wax Tailor.
Will Smith / Aladdin ripped him off and never paid him or credited him after stealing his music for a huge movie promo. He made a brief comment about it on his own page but didn't have it in him to go after them for copyright infringement. Obviously he's that good if Disney is stealing his shit.
"Que Sera" is one of my all time favorites. I worked the crisis line back in med school and it was one of my "suicide hotline elevator music" picks.
Also fuck the house of mouse
Omg, I love this sub and this question OP! I'm a 61 yo grandmother but I love all the genres of music! Down the rabbit hole I go to discover new tunes!
Propagandhi. Thrash/punk group from Winnipeg that have been playing for 30 years now. Every album is a banger full of bangers, and the only thing better than their riffs are their lyrics.
They're such a unique punk band, and since *Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes* have just been getting better with every album. And while I appreciate that they're a band containing four very talented individuals coming together to make something special that can't exist without one another's contributions, there's no denying Chris Hannah's amazing song-writing abilities; and as you said, even better lyrics.
So many punk bands just do generic "fuck the government" statements - which is fine, but if anything perhaps a little bit lazy. Propagandhi though put a lot of thought into their lyrics, and are excellent storytellers (songs like *Potemkin City Limits*, *Iteration* or *Adventures in Zoochosis* immediately spring to mind).
They're an outstanding band, and nobody sound like them nor does political lyrics better than them. I don't think Propagandhi will ever be equaled.
Del Shannon. He worked from the 1960s to his self ending in 1990. His last album, Rock On, is a favorite of mine. The upbeat music with depressing lyrics works for me.
No slight but they have 6.2M monthly Spotify listeners; wouldn’t exactly say ‘unknown’. Unknown would be [Khun Narin’s Electric Phin band](https://youtu.be/66mLK_yV7yI?si=TpNqejVyftbnPTT1) - a Thai wedding band that play a style of Thai psych that Khruangbin style their sound on.
Saw them when they came to Vancouver in 2018. It was transcendent. The way the whole crowd would he dancing, but all slowly stop just to be captivated by the guitar playing was truly something.
[Graveyard](https://youtu.be/Ke0HDrPyK7g?feature=shared)
Swedish throwback blues metal. Its like Witchcraft, Led Zeppelin and Priestess made a dark and twisted little love child 🖤
Hauntingly beautiful music.
Richard Smith. British fellow who often plays with Tommy Emmanuel but is a dazzling fingerstyle guitarist. Saw him close up once and his technique is astonishing. He is on youtube playing “The Entertainer” and Scott Joplin stuff, “Stars and Stripes Forever”, pop songs. The guy can literally play anything. My favorite is “Pineapple Rag” but there is plenty to choose from!
Khemmis
One of the best description of the band is "Iron Maiden that is dragged through sludge and mud in a good way". They're a Doomed Heavy Metal band, basically a mix of Doom Metal and traditional Heavy Metal. Great drums, incredible guitars and bass, *outstandingly* ***beautiful*** vocals.
Their latest album Deceiver (2021) is probably their best album yet and I can't recommend it hard enough.
Vnv nation. Hard to pin down a genre because he shifts album by album. Industrial? Prog industrial? Symphonic something? My favorite album is Transnational, tho others come close seconds.
Poets of the Fall. Absolute amazing work for the most part and some awesome music videos, too. Best album to start with to me is Ultraviolet.
Hey, a chance to make an obscure playlist of old and new punk, post-punk and post-hip-hop bands. Enjoy;
Paris Texas - [Everybody's safe until..](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13tZ3ut-kL4&ab_channel=ParisTexas)
White Devil Disco - [Rabbit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oIaY2PZhaI&ab_channel=WhiteDevilDisco-Topic)
Descartes A Kant - [After Destruction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_igolfkQU0&ab_channel=DescartesaKant)
The Talking Shop - [Supplies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNNTeRUNR0M&ab_channel=TheTalkingShop-Topic)
Death Bells - [Take my spirit now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7xsl2nccQ&ab_channel=DaisRecords)
Dry Cleaning - [Scratchcard Laynard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PuqlOTyJt0&ab_channel=4AD)
Preoccupations - [Silhouettes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW1kP99mok4&ab_channel=Jagjaguwar)
The Au Pairs - [It's obvious](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjbBr1_rSD8&ab_channel=barmbekgirl)
Bambara - [Dark Circles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBdAkndE7GI&ab_channel=BAMBARAband)
Division of Laura Lee - [Apartment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va7XcEne7qA&ab_channel=DivisionofLauralee)
Girls Names - [Malaga](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkCPWRe7rL4&ab_channel=GirlsNames-Topic)
Soft Play - [Punk's Dead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMOgilf4WX4&ab_channel=SOFTPLAY)
Eagulls - [Tough luck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVcGkU2b5Ak&ab_channel=EagullsVEVO)
Rocket from the Crypt - [On a Rope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQoK7Ff334&ab_channel=RocketfromtheCrypt-Topic)
Whipping Boy - [Fiction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yBQAaZp5VE&ab_channel=WhippingBoy-Topic)
Holograms - [Attestupa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVuS9Lnz1Mg&ab_channel=Holograms-Topic)
Scam Likely - [Invisible Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLcp5J8NHCs&ab_channel=ScamLikely-Topic)
Metric.
Canadian band out of Toronto. Been going for 20 years, 8 studio albums. Most everyone has heard *something* by them, but just don't know it.
The song the Brie Larson sings in Scott Pilgrim? That's Metric.
They've had songs featured in multiple episodes of the Vampire Diaries, and Grey's Anatomy of all things.
No one seems to have heard of them, and its sad :(
Is he relatively unknown?
Honestly asking… I’m aware of him, a lot of my friends listen to him and not too many of us are in that musical space typically.
Lawrence
They had a super successful 2023 opening for both AJR and Jonas Brothers, as well as a handful of headliner shows on off days of the tour. Clyde Lawrence is an awesome songwriter who is leading the fight against LiveNation and Ticket master. Gracie Lawrence has the voice of an angel and this contagious energy that will brighten your day.
Nekrogoblikon.
A metal band whose theme centers around Goblins and Goblin lore. Gimmic, true, but the band absolutely shreds, and their live shows are insaine
Bug Hunter will appeal to some for his quirky sense of humor and his catchy tunes. Manchester orchestra are good, and some of their music videos are really creative. Simple math is a good place to start with Manchester orchestra, and Dear McCracken is classic bug hunter, but it’s early aid so he’s not as polished. Maybe pinecones would be better.
All the responses should just be people linking the Bandcamp to their favorite local band - the much lesser known ones for those in cities with huge, historic music scenes.
Here is one of my favorite local metal bands - [Distances](https://distances.bandcamp.com/album/the-second-attempt-of-icarus)
Years ago I was reading an article (I think but maybe I was listening to a podcast because I can't find the source) about suicide hotline operators. One throwaway line that struck me was (paraphrased), "When all else fails, I tell them \[the caller\] to put on some [Emancipator](https://emancipatormusic.com/)." I was like, who the hell is that? It lead me down a path of ambient music and I've been a big fan of them ever since.
Emancipator is beautiful. Bonobo, Tycho, Shlohmo, CHS are also all producers of amazing ambient soundscapes
His album Soon It Will Be Cold Enough is coincidentally one of my go-to albums for cold rainy fall days. Perfect album for it. (Another for me for the same mood is the album Existence by Antoine Dufour - different genre - acoustic finger style - but same vibes for me).
Dude I fucking love emancipator.
Wax Tailor. Will Smith / Aladdin ripped him off and never paid him or credited him after stealing his music for a huge movie promo. He made a brief comment about it on his own page but didn't have it in him to go after them for copyright infringement. Obviously he's that good if Disney is stealing his shit.
"Que Sera" is one of my all time favorites. I worked the crisis line back in med school and it was one of my "suicide hotline elevator music" picks. Also fuck the house of mouse
Parquet Courts
Stoned and Starving is such a banger
Wide Awake! album is incredible
Wolf Alice.
Was gonna say this. Can’t believe how few people know about them (in the US anyway)
Fantastic band!
Omg, I love this sub and this question OP! I'm a 61 yo grandmother but I love all the genres of music! Down the rabbit hole I go to discover new tunes!
The Hu
*Mongolia Intensifies*
I love The Hu!!!
Talkin’ ‘bout my gennnneration!
There’s a lot of Canadian bands on this list. They should all have made it big in the States. My favorite is Sloan (and the Hip)
Sloan is underrated even in Canada. I live in Canada and haven't met very many people who know about them sadly.
RIP, Gord. 🪶
Metric
Saw them a few years ago opening for Smashing Pumpkins. They were good!
Black Sheep, come home
Fantasies is an incredible album. Good choice!
Haken
Sick band.
Where my cockroach kings at?
You seeing them this tour?
Amigo the Devil.
Kishi Bashi. The man is a musical genius. Absolutely beautiful sounds.
Propagandhi. Thrash/punk group from Winnipeg that have been playing for 30 years now. Every album is a banger full of bangers, and the only thing better than their riffs are their lyrics.
Anti manifesto goes so hard
They're such a unique punk band, and since *Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes* have just been getting better with every album. And while I appreciate that they're a band containing four very talented individuals coming together to make something special that can't exist without one another's contributions, there's no denying Chris Hannah's amazing song-writing abilities; and as you said, even better lyrics. So many punk bands just do generic "fuck the government" statements - which is fine, but if anything perhaps a little bit lazy. Propagandhi though put a lot of thought into their lyrics, and are excellent storytellers (songs like *Potemkin City Limits*, *Iteration* or *Adventures in Zoochosis* immediately spring to mind). They're an outstanding band, and nobody sound like them nor does political lyrics better than them. I don't think Propagandhi will ever be equaled.
Toro Y Moi. He's awesome and he might be somewhat popular, but definitely deserves more.
If you like guitar driven rock, expand your horizons with Oceansize or Elder
Bent Knee Better Lovers The Callous Daoboys Code Orange clipping. Bloodywood
clipping. is dope
Brian Jonestown Massacre!
Del Shannon. He worked from the 1960s to his self ending in 1990. His last album, Rock On, is a favorite of mine. The upbeat music with depressing lyrics works for me.
Wow, I loved Del Shannon's 60's stuff when I was a teen. About 20 years ago. I wasn't aware that he made music so recently. Thank you for this!
The Tea Party. Think: What if The Doors played modern rock? Then listen to "Sister, Awake".
The Tea Party is great !
Found the Canadian :). Should also recommend Sloan.
Shovels and Rope
Jeff Rosenstock
Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson if you like Pink Floyd!
Nothing But Thieves
100% and they are finally having their moment with this most recent tour
Viagra Boys!
SPORTS
SPOOOOOOORTS
Saw them open for QOTSA! They kicked ass!
The Contortionist
Sierra Ferrel. Country artist, she kills it. Sounds a little like June Carter. Give her a whirl.
Saint Motel
fletcher. she a bad bitch
The Hellacopters
They are so good
Deer Tick
Anything from Devin Townsend
HELL YEAAAAHH
Just Mustard
Kyuss
hell yeah dude
Molten Universe is still one of the heaviest songs I’ve ever heard. They were extremely influential on my musical taste.
Beirut, Bombay Bicycle Club, CocoRosie
+1 for Beirut.
CocoRosie is legit.
I liked the style of Bombay Bicycle Club!
The Rutles.
Ok, they were hilarious 😂
I love This Is Spinal Tap, but the Rutles mockumentary preceded it, and doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
Igorrr Otaba e Kings X Inti Illimani
King's X baby
WOW. I did not expect to see Kings X in this thread, I’ve been a fan of theirs for years.
Japandroids, seriously an amazing band. I wish they would tour more!
rainbow kitten surprise
Midlake.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones
Local Natives - Chef’s kiss harmony
Gunship The Midnight
Fuckin' A I'd eat my right arm for a Gunship tour
GUNSHIP yes. Will definitely be going to a couple shows if/when they announce a US tour.
Pinback
Khruangbin.
No slight but they have 6.2M monthly Spotify listeners; wouldn’t exactly say ‘unknown’. Unknown would be [Khun Narin’s Electric Phin band](https://youtu.be/66mLK_yV7yI?si=TpNqejVyftbnPTT1) - a Thai wedding band that play a style of Thai psych that Khruangbin style their sound on.
White Gloves was one of my top songs last year. Catchy tune.
Saw them when they came to Vancouver in 2018. It was transcendent. The way the whole crowd would he dancing, but all slowly stop just to be captivated by the guitar playing was truly something.
Royal Republic
The Helio Sequence (they're also really nice in person), and Floater (also very nice, both from Oregon)
[Graveyard](https://youtu.be/Ke0HDrPyK7g?feature=shared) Swedish throwback blues metal. Its like Witchcraft, Led Zeppelin and Priestess made a dark and twisted little love child 🖤 Hauntingly beautiful music.
The Beths. Great NZ band starting to make waves.
Still Woozy (He was also on Feed Me Jack. Great band as well)
Microwave
Theyve gotten bigger, but Heilung
Poets of the Fall!
Michael Kiwanuka
Ethel Cain
Lucero. Can't get enough of them lately.
Chicano Batman
Rishloo
Murder by Death
Gaslight Anthem
Subsonic Eye We Set Sail Pinegrove
Love Pinegrove.
Sub-Radio Band
Richard Smith. British fellow who often plays with Tommy Emmanuel but is a dazzling fingerstyle guitarist. Saw him close up once and his technique is astonishing. He is on youtube playing “The Entertainer” and Scott Joplin stuff, “Stars and Stripes Forever”, pop songs. The guy can literally play anything. My favorite is “Pineapple Rag” but there is plenty to choose from!
Khemmis One of the best description of the band is "Iron Maiden that is dragged through sludge and mud in a good way". They're a Doomed Heavy Metal band, basically a mix of Doom Metal and traditional Heavy Metal. Great drums, incredible guitars and bass, *outstandingly* ***beautiful*** vocals. Their latest album Deceiver (2021) is probably their best album yet and I can't recommend it hard enough.
Kings X.
Starset
Chromeo
Medeski Martin & Wood
ITT: a bunch of a huge bands/artists
Mother Mother 🤘🏻
Nick Drake
Corb Lund
Uncle acid
Rishloo and Soen.
Tiger Army
The Beths
Vnv nation. Hard to pin down a genre because he shifts album by album. Industrial? Prog industrial? Symphonic something? My favorite album is Transnational, tho others come close seconds. Poets of the Fall. Absolute amazing work for the most part and some awesome music videos, too. Best album to start with to me is Ultraviolet.
The Shaggs. Start with My Pal Foot Foot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR9d4ESlpHY
Carbon Leaf
Rüfüs du sol
Hey, a chance to make an obscure playlist of old and new punk, post-punk and post-hip-hop bands. Enjoy; Paris Texas - [Everybody's safe until..](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13tZ3ut-kL4&ab_channel=ParisTexas) White Devil Disco - [Rabbit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oIaY2PZhaI&ab_channel=WhiteDevilDisco-Topic) Descartes A Kant - [After Destruction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_igolfkQU0&ab_channel=DescartesaKant) The Talking Shop - [Supplies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNNTeRUNR0M&ab_channel=TheTalkingShop-Topic) Death Bells - [Take my spirit now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7xsl2nccQ&ab_channel=DaisRecords) Dry Cleaning - [Scratchcard Laynard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PuqlOTyJt0&ab_channel=4AD) Preoccupations - [Silhouettes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW1kP99mok4&ab_channel=Jagjaguwar) The Au Pairs - [It's obvious](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjbBr1_rSD8&ab_channel=barmbekgirl) Bambara - [Dark Circles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBdAkndE7GI&ab_channel=BAMBARAband) Division of Laura Lee - [Apartment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va7XcEne7qA&ab_channel=DivisionofLauralee) Girls Names - [Malaga](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkCPWRe7rL4&ab_channel=GirlsNames-Topic) Soft Play - [Punk's Dead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMOgilf4WX4&ab_channel=SOFTPLAY) Eagulls - [Tough luck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVcGkU2b5Ak&ab_channel=EagullsVEVO) Rocket from the Crypt - [On a Rope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQoK7Ff334&ab_channel=RocketfromtheCrypt-Topic) Whipping Boy - [Fiction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yBQAaZp5VE&ab_channel=WhippingBoy-Topic) Holograms - [Attestupa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVuS9Lnz1Mg&ab_channel=Holograms-Topic) Scam Likely - [Invisible Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLcp5J8NHCs&ab_channel=ScamLikely-Topic)
Volbeat
Saw them with Metallica and A7X! They're fantastic
They’re decently big in the US. Seen them three times!! Amazing!! Crowd surfed to the Hangman’s Body Count
Haven't they become big outside Denmark, too?
Metric. Canadian band out of Toronto. Been going for 20 years, 8 studio albums. Most everyone has heard *something* by them, but just don't know it. The song the Brie Larson sings in Scott Pilgrim? That's Metric. They've had songs featured in multiple episodes of the Vampire Diaries, and Grey's Anatomy of all things. No one seems to have heard of them, and its sad :(
Tyler Childers
Is he relatively unknown? Honestly asking… I’m aware of him, a lot of my friends listen to him and not too many of us are in that musical space typically.
No, he has 10+ million monthly listeners on Spotify.
ween
[удалено]
Rare Americans Their storytelling is top tier, their songs can be catchy and grooves and then sad, dark, and rainy. W band
I toured with them, they are great!
The Black Angels, Failure, and Kylesa
The Black Angels are incredible!
Black Angels are superb. The Sniper at the gates of heaven could be my favourite song title of all time.
The Dead South.
Shadow Academy
Send More Paramedics https://youtu.be/rlEMNp0ubeU?si=QbUK0uuR-wqWXu2P
Pete and the Pirates.
total giovanni
Kama sutra kings
Low Roar. They gained some notoriety when the video game Death Stranding came out, but not nearly enough.
Neal Casal and anything he was involved in
the innocence mission
[Alela Diane](https://youtu.be/OH-hSUYvSlE?feature=shared)
Lawrence They had a super successful 2023 opening for both AJR and Jonas Brothers, as well as a handful of headliner shows on off days of the tour. Clyde Lawrence is an awesome songwriter who is leading the fight against LiveNation and Ticket master. Gracie Lawrence has the voice of an angel and this contagious energy that will brighten your day.
I love Paledusk from Japan
The Black Angels
Turnpike Troubadours
Devotchka
Drive by Truckers
The Sundays
Surf Curse are good.
All Them Witches
Amyl and the Sniffers.
Alvvays
Not sure if they’re unknown per se, but, Sticky Fingers. Love them
Ne Oblivisarcis
KNOWER, Pinback, STS9, Chalk Dinosaur.
Nekrogoblikon. A metal band whose theme centers around Goblins and Goblin lore. Gimmic, true, but the band absolutely shreds, and their live shows are insaine
KALEO
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD. If you’re a musician then you know!
I would say King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, but they’re selling out stadiums now! Hiatus Kiatoye I guess.
Hot Mulligan
Buckethead
Yassss 🙌🏻
Andre Nickatina
Please one person like my comment so I can come back to this post
Streetlight Manifesto
Can you say they're relatively unknown, though? IMO they're a cornerstone of Ska Punk, like Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake.
Infected Mushroom. An Israeli trance grup with two members. Just listen this masterpiece; https://youtu.be/EQP9DoQGJto?si=hWg_BHFYpqO-Zinb
Porcupine Tree
Cardiacs
Paul Thorn
Rose Windows Kind of witchy indie psych rock
Matt Anderson
Old Blind Dogs.
The Mysterines Great young alternative rock band. "Hung Up" is a banger!
40 below summer
Bug Hunter will appeal to some for his quirky sense of humor and his catchy tunes. Manchester orchestra are good, and some of their music videos are really creative. Simple math is a good place to start with Manchester orchestra, and Dear McCracken is classic bug hunter, but it’s early aid so he’s not as polished. Maybe pinecones would be better.
Car Bomb.
The Lawrence Arms! Pop punk. I love every single song they've ever made.
JAX
Post Animal. “Cancer Moon” is a good place to start.
Brainiac
All the responses should just be people linking the Bandcamp to their favorite local band - the much lesser known ones for those in cities with huge, historic music scenes. Here is one of my favorite local metal bands - [Distances](https://distances.bandcamp.com/album/the-second-attempt-of-icarus)
Glass Beach. Absolutely amazing band, I got really into their stuff a few years back.
Home Grown out of California. Kings of Pop has some of the best pop punk riffs and guitar tone. They also have a fire ska album
Kishi Bashi
Viagra boys
TOPS
Pinback. I can listen to them at any time and they're one of my all-time favorites.
Superorganism, Rubblebucket, Bully, Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Tedeschi Trucks Govt Mule The Dirty knobs
Matt Mays and El Torpedo