Best regional bands that never quite made it

Reading a comment by Obsessed in an old thread made me think about this. What's your favorite local band that never quite made it?

For me, it's the Iron City Houserockers from Pittsburgh. Their rise and fall pretty much matched up with my time in college in the late '70s and early '80s. I thought that they put out one excellent album after another and they were just on the verge of making it before they lost their recording contract and broke up.

Joe Grushecky kept at it and has released a number of finely crafted albums over the years. His 2006 album, "A Good Life" is particularly good, although I haven't heard his most recent release yet. I was lucky enough to catch him at the Birchmere as a solo opening act for Southside Johnny a couple of years ago. Both were excellent.

How about the rest of you guys? Who do you remember who almost made it big?

Local Charlotte band. The Noises 10. They put out a few albums, toured across the country, made some good music. Lead singer got addicted to Heroin and I haven't heard much of them in a while.

Michael Stanley had a big local following when I was in college. I still enjoy his music. He did well but never really hit the big time nationally.

In Jacksonville, the big time pink band was Inspection 12 in the late '90s. The lead singer chose college over rockdom and the bass player went on to play with Yellowcard. To this day they still play two shows every Christmas. One will be electric and the other is an acustic show on Christmas day.

Closest I can think of is a band that pretty much made it, but as a different band with a slightly different line up.

1998-2000ish there was a great local ska-pop band called the Undercovers. They had one album, a bunch of lineup changes and never really hit it big, although, these days they're the core members of The Stills, who have arguably "made it". Although in my opinion The Undercovers were way more awesome than The Stills are.

Too hard to nail down the criteria. What is regional exactly? What is "make it" exactly? Is national attention enough to make it? Is one hit record enough? Is recording one album for a national record label enough, hit or no hit?

Did the Nighthawks make it? Are they regional?

Roy Buchannan, I guess not a group, but really one guy, I do not see that the Snakestretchers were destined for national acclaim. Danny Gatton?

Did any of Ronnie Hawkins bands ever make it?

13th Floor Elevators (Texas)?

Did Grin (Nils Logren's band) make it?

Ultimate Spinach (Boston)? Actually any of those Boston groups from around that time.

Probably a lot of Chittlin' circuit bands, which would have been the South mostly, that could not cross over to mainstream hit charts.

I guess what you are really looking for is a band that good fill stadiums locally, but tried to take it nationally and seemed to have far less appeal.

Hard to think of too many of them. Lots of bands that were good locally and went to LA or NY to make their fortune that never really got any traction.

The Clarks are a band that has a big following in Western Pennsylvania, but they have never made it BIG. They did play on the Late Show about 5 years ago.

The Kelly Bell Band here in Baltimore had quite the cult following while I was in college. You couldn't go three cars without seeing one of their bumper stickers. I haven't heard much from them lately. They are a blues band named after the lead singer, Kelly Bell.

I grew up listening to the Mission Mountain Wood Band in Montana.

Wilpar76 said:

The Kelly Bell Band here in Baltimore had quite the cult following while I was in college. You couldn't go three cars without seeing one of their bumper stickers. I haven't heard much from them lately. They are a blues band named after the lead singer, Kelly Bell.

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I am from and live currently in the DC area (or, as it is cool to say these days, "the DMV") and I do not think I have ever heard of the Kelly Bell Band. That is bad!

I just got an e-mail announcement of a date band date that is very apropos of this thread. The Nighthawks are playing a small but quality club in Bowie Maryland this weekend. The announcement mentioned that the Nighthawks apparently have a really big following in Germany and Japan.

So that may be another criteria. What American rock groups have made it regionally, but not nationally, but have picked up big followings overseas.

The Runaways may actually be an example of this phenomena. I was very aware of music at the time the Runaways were performing, and I remember some Rolling Stone mag press about them, but I do not remember a hit record on eastern stations or anyone being interested in seeing them particularly. But my impression is that they were fairly big in LA, and really big in Japan.

I'd say 13th Floor Elevators made it even though Roky pretty much fell to bits.

My choice... The Judy's. Guyana Punch was a their biggest song.

Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows

They were HUGE in Chicago during the late 70's and early 80's. The did some tours outside the midwest but never quite hit it nationally. Good band.

arghblech said:

I'd say 13th Floor Elevators made it even though Roky pretty much fell to bits.

My choice... The Judy's. Guyana Punch was a their biggest song.

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You may well be right. It is amazing to me that I never really heard of them until years after the fact. Heck of a band.

How about Anvil?

Goes to 'Jumbo'
An LA band from '69 to '70
Check them out for yourselves and see what you think.
They have an album on their website you can download for free @ jumbo70.com
They also have some youtube videos http://youtu.be/81fYHUDbDCc Pretty cool stuff.

In MN, it was The Lamont Cranston Band.

The dBs (Stands for Decibels) started in Chapel Hill. They were big here and sold pretty well in Europe. They did not make a real splash in the US though. That was in the 1980s. Several members went to the same high school in Winston-Salem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stands_for_Decibels

Love, love, love the 13th Floor Elevators and Roky Erickson's solo work. Roky's meds seem to be well regulated and he is on the mend. Last year's album was great and hopefully he has some more in him before he calls it quits.

For better of worse, Killdozer helped usher in grunge.
Richard X. Heymen crafts exquisite power pop gems.
Paul Cebar does Afro-Cubano-R&B.
Neo-psychedelic band Plasticland was set for a revival that never happened.
The whole Paisley Underground movement included some great bands that never transistioned to the bigs: Green on Red, Long Ryders, Dream Syndicate and one of the coolest bands ever: Thin White Rope.
Beat Farmers, Butthole Surfers, Granicus, Alejandro Escovedo....

I've seen Lamont Cranston many times.
They usually play the 'Blues Fest' in Fargo, ND every summer.
They've been around a long time and deserve more recognition....

The Knize said:

Did any of Ronnie Hawkins bands ever make it?

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Well, there was that little band of Ronnie's that went on to back Bob Dylan, and then struck out on their own, and became The Band.

Quite a few good players went through Ronnie's training camp and ended up with other well known bands: Jack DeKeyzer, Pat Travers, Dominic Troiano, David Foster, Larry Gowan, King Biscuit Boy, David Clayton-Thomas, Bob McBride - to name a few.