Countdown 100: Bands that got megahyped that failed spectacularly...

100. Deaf School

Darn. Will move to ILM in ...

99. Gay Dad

98. Menswear

97. Freur AKA "Elephant with a stick of rhubarb" AKA "that dumb squiggle logo band"

96. Moby Grape

... commercially that is, not artistically

95. Terris

94. Babylon Zoo

93. Brinsley Schwarz

... this is the British example that was always brought up, pre-punk at least, not sure what went on with them tho

94. Brinsley Schwarz, for similar reasons to 96

xpost OK, 93 then.

92. Puddle Of Mud

91. Black Kids

90. Jobriath

... artists count too?

re: 93. They had a gig at the Filmore, supporting Van Morrison I believe, they ferried the UK press out with a "free trip to the best new band ever" ticket, but the trip was a nightmare and the gig was over when the press got there. no forgiveness.

89. Tapes N Tapes

88. Supercharge

87. Nasty Rox Inc.

86. Campag Velocet.

85. Sigue Sigue Sputnik

84. Spelt Like This.
83. The Roaring Boys.

(Not Sigue Sigue Sputnik though, a number two hit, followed by a bunch of stuff that did OK, as well as could be expected)

xpost, funnily enough!

92. Puddle Of Mud

― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Thursday, September 23, 2010 9:56 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

only 5 million copies? FAIL

82. Ultrasound.

3 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Love Missile F1-11 Single Mar 1986
20 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Twenty-First Century Boy Single Jun 1986
10 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Flaunt It Album Aug 1986
31 Sigue Sigue Sputnik Success Single Nov 1988

81. Fischerspooner

80. Fischer-Z

79. Animal Collective

79. Jimmy the Hoover

78. Advertising

The EMI band that was going to save them after the Sex Pistols debacle.

83. The Roaring Boys.

Wow, had forgotten that lot!

78. Advertising

Tot Taylor, right?

77. King Trigger

76. Doctors of Madness

75 a) Orlando; b) Plastic Fantastic; c) Dex Dexter; d) and so forth

Minty!

There's almost like a whole subgenre of just-before-punk British flop bands from 1975-1977, when the record companies had no idea what they were doing anymore. About 5 of them have already been mentioned. Almost all the Pub Rock bands for a start

73 RPLA
The RPLA Debacle

72. Canibus

71. Mick Jagger solo

78, yep.

The biz being so london-centric, a whole host of pub rock bands got signed because they worked well in a pub, but outside of that, no-one cared. none got megahyped though, aside from the Brinz, as mentioned. Oh, Dr Feelgood did, but hey: Success or what?

70. Theaudience

I didn't realise Deaf School got megahyped - they were a brilliant band!

69. Lone Star.

68. S*M*A*S*H

67 Blue Rondo a la Turk

66 Animal Nightlife

65 King

64. Funkapolitan

63. Ultrasound

63 already 82.

63. FMB

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/lottery-win-inspires-failed-band-to-reform-514521.html

62. Campag Velocet

^ been done

62. Slade (in the USA)

61 : Tiny Dancers

the sheer extravagence on the promos etc (and weren;t they famously one of the last big ££ signings prior to the big EMI shakeup), but did anyone buy the album ?

60. Northern Uproar

59. These Animal Men

do american mags not hype up anything?

I'm trying to remember the last actually hyped American band that had zero success; even The Click 5 had like one hit song.

I don't know if Christiana DeBarge was actually megahyped but she performed on So You Think You Can Dance once and then was never heard from again

even big n rich sell records right?

they sell FUCKTONS of records!

58. Andrew WK

^ yeah!

Not sure I understand the meaning of the word "megahyped" in re: half these bands

57. Dave Matthews Band (in the UK)

but dmb were never hyped in the uk. Probably never even written about. Noone outside of ilm has probably heard them in the uk!

I remember a huge poster campaign! 'Who is Dave Matthews?'

56. clap your hands and say yeah

55. kula shaker

Andrew WK was fairly successful. WTF

I remember a huge poster campaign! 'Who is Dave Matthews?'

That really worked, didn't it?

^ a million selling album is a failure?

John Mayer is consistently regarded as the hit singer over here, except his hit total is one album on the chart here for 1 week.

Check: Dreamworks roster circa 2000. Cupcakes (industry hype), Palo Alto (Rick Rubin producing)...

Kula Shaker did alright!

54. Joe Lean and the Jing Fucking Jang Fucking Jong.

^ thanx for nothing there, mike

^ had erased them from my memory till then

In the interests of useful info rather than self-plugging, here's a piece I co-wrote five years ago where the likes of Orlando, Birdland and Brinsley Schwarz explained what went wrong. We got curt refusals from Gay Dad and Terris.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/jan/28/2

I have a promo copy of Joe Lean's unreleased debut. It will be worth literally pennies one day.

Oh man, World of Twist :(

Any band that gets megahyped in the US is already popular. Milli Vanilli is probably the closest I can think of to a group that turned hype into spectacular failure.

Proteges and familiar relations of successful artists/industry-folks have that big push and fail in the U.S. all the time.

I have a promo copy of Joe Lean's unreleased debut. It will be worth literally pennies one day.

I have an ultra-collectible six-track promo CD of the self-same lost masterpiece! Unfortunately, it is unplayable on any CD player which I possess.

where the likes of Orlando, Birdland and Brinsley Schwarz explained what went wrong.

Birdland were successful! They brought me and my wife together.

so in the US, hype from indie mags doesn't count as hype? cuz that's just what most of the UK examples are.

32 Birdland Sleep With Me Single Feb 1990

Well, the hype I was originally alluding to was the "big spend on advertising"...

Can you buy good coverage from the UK indie mags?

Answers on a postcard...

there must have been loads of hype for garage and jungle acts too

Scene-specific dance acts have their own criteria for success though.

In dance music, Alex Reece was a big flop but so was every "crossover" drum'n'bass act really. Even Goldie and Reprazent lost momentum very quickly.

Also on Dreamworks: Chicks

53. Credit To The Nation

Hype from "indie mags" means something completely different, and a much much lower level of attention, in the USA.

has ms dynamite ever been seen again?

I see her in the shops buying sweets for her kids sometimes.

And Lady Sovereign's the one selling her the sweets

Lisa Mafia on Sov's days off.

52. One True Voice

51. Jedward

etc

(xxxp) Sign on the door saying "Speech Debelle will not to be served in this shop"

ms dynamite has had a top 40 hit this year, and made two of last year's best singles!!!!! wtf.

hype around dance acts is mostly because of the rapid turnover of dance trends, right?

what ms dynamite is up to these days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JLrIMwxpFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-g-QimJKlc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKB3hJBvAZY

Oh yeah, that Zinc tune is fat. Glad she's back to MCing.

ms dynamite has had a top 40 hit this year, and made two of last year's best singles!!!!! wtf.

I think "failed spectacularly" is being used here to mean "did not take over the world as expected" - and having one single scrape into the top 40 kind of falls into that category. I think the British mainstream pretty much forgot her after buying "Dy-na-mi-tee" and giving her a string of awards.

Who hasn't had a Top 40 hit this year, I know I have

like with most "indie bands" who were hyped.
xp

and that mentality is exactly why this country sucks

50. Kevin Federline

okay in what world was Kevin Federline "megahyped"

I distinctly remember "megamocked"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laynXVsBulg&feature=related

like, no one was excited for this except Kevin Federline

and that mentality is exactly why this country sucks

one of many reasons, but yes :(

there's a sporting parallel - unless you actually WIN WIMBLEDON then you're characterised as a "bottler". there's plenty of room between "taking over the world" (and really was anyone actually ever expecting ms d to actually do this?) and completely flopping, which has a qualitative aspect to it - when you think back to an act that "flops", with all the connotations of the word, it's usually with a frisson of embarrassment, "what were we thinking" - an admission that they were NEVER any good. which especially doesn't apply if the artist is still making critically acclaimed music.

tbf this is not a uniquely British attitude

(haha i just noticed that "wile out" is still the jukebox's no 1 single of the year so far! and "get low" was THE anthem of sónar this year, no contest, heard it about 943834394 times)

We got curt refusals from Gay Dad and Terris.

Dorian, did you ask the drummer?

(the uniquely british attitude is to hate on people even more if they DO take over the world)

Commercial failure is not the same as artistic failure but it's failure nonetheless

Ooh, ooh, I got a USA one!

49. Johnny Cougar.

if the media and public hadn't turned on those nme acts, the country could have been taken over by nme indie acts & ms dynamite and the lex could have been happy.

Lex OTM. And I doubt Ms Dynamite lost the label money, whereas famous flops like Brinsley Schwarz, Moby Grape, Fischerspooner, etc lost a packet. Imo, if someone's had one acclaimed, strong-selling album and a handful of hit singles then they shouldn't be in this thread.

Nicole - no, we asked Cliff and one other member but didn't work through the whole line-up - either we didn't have the contact details or we didn't have enough time, I can't remember exactly.

48 : VV Brown

Oh, god, elephant in the room time:

47. The Woodentops

haha. were they that hyped ?

46 : CHAKK - MCA funded them to build hi-tech studio/FON records etc. Sly and Robbie on production. no-one bought the album.

[but i'd still love a cd copy .. ]

(fwiw when i interviewed ms dynamite earlier this year, she basically said she deliberately took a few years off to be a mother, and now her son's at school she's able to devote herself full-time to music again)

Is that Chakk record any good Mark? Just asking as a Moloko fan...

A lot of money was spent, I believe. (re: The Woodentops)

And great things were expected. So many people I knew were "this is going to be big"

But I'd say, no one liked them enough to go buy.

75% 'wanted' not enough to break the threshold.

(i suspect that's true of many female artists who "disappeared", too; and ms dynamite also said that motherhood didn't just affect the time she could devote to her career but, w/r/t her genuine flop second album, how much she was committed to even making the music - she said she'd go into the studio and wonder how her son was instead of thinking about the music)

re chakk : honestly. no.

the band shot their load with the early 12" records (Out of the Flesh and They Say 12") which were great distorto-funk.
but, as an album of its time, i still play the odd track when in the mood.

she said she'd go into the studio and wonder how her son was instead of thinking about the music

Hmm. Everyone else who has a kid and a job has to get by somehow.

hello "Bosstown Sound"

45. Beacon Street Union
44. Ultimate Spinach
43. Orpheus

42. Robbie Williams (in the USA)
41. Nikka Costa

40. The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band

39. Rosie Vela.

Nikka Costa's a good one. She had a ton of money thrown at her more than once iirc. What was her claim to fame again?

38. O-Positive (1990; Epic) | "Most popular artists aren't interested in doing anything worthwhile. I don't want success on any terms. I don't care about being a guy in leather pants with no underwear. We just play what we like, we don't try to write songs for anyone else. We haven't really worried about how we're going to be received."

Imagine that.

sophie b hawkins got the most hype ive ever seen in the uk, 3 or 4 weeks a row on top of the pops all for getting no higher than #23.

Nikka Costa is the daughter of Don Costa (arranger for Sinatra etc...)

Sophie B. Hawkins is mortally otm #1.

i just cant recall any more hype in the 90s on anyone else

Wow, no mention of?

37. Jimmy Ray

its one thing being hyped up by the nme to a 100,000 readers at most, but sophie b hawkins was on adverts, every chat show, every music show, every commercial radio/r1 A playlist ,all the papers, those totps performances despite not even being in the top 20 and it still didn't crack the top 20.

Ha completely forgot about Jimmy Ray - he was all over MTV for about two weeks.

Hmm. Everyone else who has a kid and a job has to get by somehow.

well, she did get by!

polyhex says sophie b hawkins had two top 20 hits - i remember both (and still play "damn i wish i was your lover" occasionally), had no idea of the hype though! i guess it's similar to the florence & the machine hype now...always thought florence was a c-rate SBH.

ha, speaking of F&tM, my wife is now obsessed with them/her after the VMAs this year, going so far as to call her performance the best of the evening

36. Max Q

xp: I think that there were a number of mainstread media calling f+tm the best performance of the evening too.

mainstream

lots of industrialish stuff in the wake of NIN that got sorta this treatment, but not enough hype to get them a number imo (lookin at you spahn ranch, etc.)

(stabbing westward & filter?)

Filter was actually successful, though

Stabbing Westward... well they had their fans

those were both reasonably large bands with hits, HGN.

xp

Actually maybe Sister Machine Gun and/or Machines of Loving Grace are the best examples of what jjj's talking about?

Stabbing Westward had a couple of big radio songs on the first record.

theres a slurry of grunge/ska failures too to be mined for gold here, speaking of which

35. Goldfinger

Gravity Kills maybe? I dunno, that kind of stuff is never really hyped over here (NIN aside, obv).

xposts

hahaha i just remember course of empire. that didnt go well.

lol I have a Gravity Kills CD5 that I think I've played once

swing industrial fusion HOW CAN IT POSSIBLY FAIL xpost

so dan & jj fell bigtime for lol major label industrial @ college?

this surely isn't a secret to, like, anyone?

nah i worked at a record shop so i got to watch it fall flat on its face over and over again

I thought you guys were old enough to fall for the non-false industrial that scraped the barrel, lol

btw, I am remembering why I played my Gravity Kills single only once:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8S0_DppB14

actually Stabbing Westward's major singles were on their second album. "Ungod" was the first one, and didn't have any. So that's even more a suggestion that the hype helped build them from unknown to MTV darlings methinks.

essentially the years between 1988 and 1996 were essentially one long industrial freefall combined with rave/trip-hop/new jack swing detours

34. Warrior Soul

Horrible sub-par Britpop corner:

33. Northern Uproar
32. Heavy Stereo
31. Powder

Wow, didn't know Stabbing Westward had a album before the famous one.

hey no slagging off warrior soul now industrial butthurt boy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaDsh0IZ020

um

i must confess, i got the 1st stabbing westward album. I have never heard a single thing that came after it. They had no hit albums here.

what the world really needed was Queensryche set to a marching band drum cadence (xp)

i was actually trying to decide between warrior soul and powermad tbh

30. Infectious Grooves

can we all agree that Gravity Kills sucked

omg POWERMAD

xp: to quote Obama, YES WE CAN

how about Powerman 5000?

29. The Quireboys

remember when it looked like Jamiroquai was going to fall into this category ;_;

you're reminding me of an subgenre of music I was happy to have forgotten

You are digging up some best buried memories here.

Engines of Aggression, ladies and gentlemen!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TS_A0_2TaE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYYDtIXAwA

that was to Herman

Rob Halford's Two

xxpost -- (I saw these doofs open for Curve. An agonizing wait.)

(bonus points for the equally failed major label push on suicidal tendencies around the same time)

xxposts oh man yeah powerman 5000 is pretty good for this

Jimmy's Chicken Shack

28. The Von Bondies

wait a goddamned minute

in this Warrior Soul song did they really just say

To the rejects
Or the imperfect
To the retarded
Or the brokenhearted

also, how popular did Kittie actually end up becoming?

just as popular as they deserved to be

27. Mushroomhead

Northern Uproar in twice at #60 & #33

Kittie were reasonably big (not huge or anything), but the second album did a good job of finishing them off.

26. These Animal Men

I remember them because they were especially traumatic -- I had to miss a Red Wings play-off game to drive my sister to their concert.

http://www.poplife.info/Bilder/210142.JPG

Actually that really is a tragic cover -- all this horribleness on the page and then at the bottom 'Oh by the way Nick Cave and Rocket from the Crypt, are they any good?'

I could write a story about my sister's groupiedom w/low-level Britpop bands, but I would probably get sued. Plus, I have a sneaking suspicion she lurks on ilx sometimes.

Skin
http://991.com/NewGallery/Skin-Tower-Of-Strength-31739.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsoB9v6FJdo
Little Angels
http://www.heavyharmonies.com/bandpics/littleangels.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFbcdXpgf-A

just for San Te & Chap (and dan & jj)

One track off the first Stabbing Westward album was the theme tune to MTV Europe's metal show for a while.

This one, to be precise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRphqu0lDYw&ob=av2e

Me and loads of mates had the first album.

Super Rock?

Chap> We all bought Kerrang or RAW then.

Wither Blister Burn and Peel was the 2nd album.

anybody else remember when Melt Banana was going to take the alternative world by storm?

Haha, Metal Hammer for me. A higher standard of journalism altogether.

xposts

I'd forgotten that Northern Uproar looked like such twonks.

24 or so?) I remember from back in my one-stop days hearing about the biggest advance ever given: to Lone Justice. Think they may have sold a few records here and there but nothing to justify the million bucks or whatever it was they were handed in the mid-'80s, when that was a fair amount of money.

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

though from the review i'm guessing "Ungood" woulda been a better title.

Metal Hammer higher standard? lol dont make me laugh. I remember they wanted to drop the "metal" from the name of the magazine as metal was very unhip in the days of alternative & nu-metal.

Double plus ungood...

I remember from back in my one-stop days hearing about the biggest advance ever given: to Lone Justice. Think they may have sold a few records here and there but nothing to justify the million bucks or whatever it was they were handed in the mid-'80s, when that was a fair amount of money.

I acquired a huge collection of 80s Rolling Stone magazines back when I worked at a public library and they were going to get rid of them -- there were a *lot* of articles devoted to hyping Lone Justice.

chaps getting nostalgic for those vids i posted, i can tell. He's digging out his Symposium & Midget cds as we speak.

23. Kenickie

26. The Flys
25. Adema
24. Oleander

Yeah, I mainly bought Metal Hammer cos it was bigger. And I must admit I'm tempted to dig out some Therapy?

Yeah, Nicole, Lone Justice (specifically Maria McKee, I guess, really) had unfuckwithable L.A. credentials when that actually meant something to A&R guys. And it was of course Geffen who doled out the bucks.

23. Mink Lungs
22. Lady Sovereign

Frickin' Lone Justice.

Some ILX talk on this thread about them a while back. Great post by Alfred following up on it.

Seeing ellaguru's post about Lone Justice made me think of Johnny Winter. His Columbia contract was at the time the biggest for a new act, but--while he did alright--he probably didn't pay commercially like the next Hendrix or Clapton like they thought he would.

Mind Funk

I remember them being pretty hyped - can anyone confirm?

yes

20. Northern Line

i guess veruca salt belong here too?

"Seether" was inescapable.

Mind Funk LOL OMG

I'm sure there was a slew of post-Spice Girls under-performing girl groups, but I'm struggling to remember any.

Replace one Northern Uproar with The Railway Children to keep the numbering in line.

Alan McGee had a whole string of overhyped nomarks - kind of glad I can't remember any of them.

Does Velvet Revolver count?
Jesse Camp and the Lower East Side dumbasses or whatever?

xxxp: I dunno - maybe they were good, but I saw a lot of advertisements for them and was almost convinced, but never bit the bullet.

19. Zwan

18. Macy Gray

Good call on Zwan. "Billy Corgan, that chick from A Perfect Circle, some guy from an indie band--how can they lose?"

Anyone remember the major label boyband response to Britpop called "Catch"?

To date, Gray has released five studio albums, one compilation album, and one live album, with her fifth studio album, The Sellout, released on June 22, 2010; and has received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues and Idlewild.

not sure what bit of that is failing spectacularly.

I bet even the lex doesn't
xp

Catch had a truly terrible song called "Bingo" didn't they? c.1997?

yeah that's them. cant even resemble the song tbh

McGee and Horne could fill this whole thread with blagged flops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33SjUj4J5BU

not sure what bit of that is failing spectacularly.

see e.g.

http://www.cleveland.com/homegrown/index.ssf?/homegrown/more/macy/grayarea.html

and no single has cracked the US top 100 since the debut.

xpost -- That is one ugly freezeframe.

Northside

xxxp Ugh. That track was on what seemed like constantly when I had a summer job in an industrial laundry in Bristol. Great days.

20. Northern Line

Ziggy did pretty well on Big Brother.

Thanks Herman, I had successfully suppressed all memories of that Catch song.

18 Wheeler (lol david keenan)

maybe these, maybe not exactly "mega-hyped", but
17. Biff Naked
16. Fiona
15. Phranc

14. Jonathan Fire*Eater

13. Sammy

12. Nellie McKay

Oh God, the Medicine label.

13. Kelly Osbourne

and no single has cracked the US top 100 since the debut.

She's had more success in Europe, where the first three albums charted well. She still gets a good bit of press when she has a new release. I can appreciate from a singles point of view that she's a one hit wonder but she's been 'successful' enough to keep doing what she does. I don't think anyone in Northern Uproar made five studio albums. Even the link you posted has her opening for Bowie 5 years after her spectacular failure.

12. Los Lobos

11. Mind Over Four

Northern Uproar reminded me a band i saw on the same NME tour

12 Fluffy

Make that

10 Fluffy

9. the firm (jimmy page and paul rodgers' 80s-collaboration)

8. 60 ft dolls

12. Los Lobos

? the purpose of this thread has lost me. Bands with decades of output got megahyped then failed spectacularly?

9. The Beatles - all that hype then nothing for 40 years. You don't even hear them on the radio any more.

12. Los Lobos

? the purpose of this thread has lost me. Bands with decades of output got megahyped then failed spectacularly?

at the time rolling stone, other american music press made them out to be the best rock'n'roll band in america, blah blah blah. in contrast to how much they were hyped, what avg person would know any of their output other than the la bamba cover?

Los Lobos became a long lasting cult band, which is more than you can say for Lone Justice or other similarly-hyped peers.

May as well rename the thread 'one hit wonders' if we're going to write off decades running artists as failures because they had a hit. I thought we were looking for something else here. Los Lobos were active for over ten years before La Bamba and are still active more than 20 years later.

Did Kix have a long lasting successful career?

i think of lone justice as being more of a cult band than i do los lobos

i'm thinking levels of failure as commensurate to levels of hype

los lobos just a one hit wonder if they hadn't been heralded at the time as second coming of "real" american rock'n'roll

afaict this thread pretty much instantly devolved into 'hey let's just name some bands we remember from when we were teens' so I wouldn't really sweat it xp to onimo

Faust. From the point of view of Polydor who were convinced they had the new Beatles and Virgin who must have lost a lot of money on The Faust Tapes.

Faith No More, after that one hit "Epic" what happened? where did they go? who talked about them? NOBODY. screw this whole "being around for 10 years or more and being in the rock canon", THEY WER UNSUKXUCKESSFUL

(sadly there are people I know who have said the above about FNM!)

i bet the los lobos dudes own really nice houses

...that Paul Simon claims ownership of.

hahaha Kelly Osbourne pretty much owns this thread

Melody Maker, Jul 1972

The Faust Tapes, Virgin's cheap album currently at number 18 in the MM chart will be deleted on July 20. Reason? Well, it was too popular.

At 48p a go, the album costs more to produce than the price it sells for. So, on 60,000 sales Virgin have already LOST £2,000. Such are the crazy economics of the business... or so they say.

Carly Hennessy

Kenna?

if you can malcolm gladwell as 'megahype'

er, if you can count

From Fluffy's Wikipedia page: "The band was regularly featured in several magazines; Kerrang, Q, Select, Melody Maker[1] and NME. They also appeared on several UK television shows, including Top of the Pops, The Big Breakfast and Hotel Babylon."

Chart positions:

"Husband" (1996) Parkway - UK #58
"Nothing" (1996) The Enclave - UK #52

Ouch.

Kenickie had all that too but I think they did get a few top 40 singles.

That Bingo track isn't half bad.

Yeah, I loved that Catch song at the time. Normally I hate 'so bad it's good', but you just had to admire the way they managed to encapsulate so much that is reprehensible in a career that only lasted one song.

I owned and listened to CDs by Stabbing Westward, Filter, Gravity Kills, and Goldfinger, though it was obvious at the time that Goldfinger kind of sucked. There were a bunch of hypey punk revival bands like Millencolin that came and went -- who would have thought that the Blink-182 of "M&Ms" would be the one to hit it big. Portions of 1994-1995 were pretty ugly looking back on it.

Carly Hennessy

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, September 23, 2010 3:33 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

was waiting for this one. she was a huuuuuuuuuge bust before appearing on Idol.

Coal Chamber

I was thinking anything-post-Zep-involving-Jimmy-Page, but it seemed like the first Firm album did well.

The Egg!
And that mid-90s band with the astronauts on the cover!

can i just give a shout out to nerf herder

from an aussie perspective: Mandy Kane. upwards of $70K on an album that sold pathetically (i picked it up for $5 in the sale bin on its WEEK OF RELEASE)

los lobos are totally not failures by any stretch

if you can still play carnegie hall, you're really not a spectacular failure

Deaf School? You are mad. If by 'hyped' you mean that anybody outside of the UK 76-79 ever heard of them, you are incorrect. If by 'failed spectacularly' you mean they didn't make three endlessly enjoyable albums that I still listen to frequently, then you are delusional and incorrect. If you mean they never got the acclaim and popularity they deserved, you are quite right.

Dear Deaf School, I love you for all eternity. RIP Eric Shark.

What a way to end it all.

Frickin' Lone Justice.

Some ILX talk on this thread about them a while back. Great post by Alfred following up on it.

Wow -- thanks! It's amazing how much The Industry had invested in them.

If you mean they never got the acclaim ...

... is the point of this thread.

7. Northern State
6. Barbara Manning

Barbara Manning got megahyped and failed spectacularly?

i know that they had a vague hit and all, but jesus the level of hype + the lack of return of luscious jackson as the beastie boys but oh wait THEY LADIES fits for my own definiton

5 : regular fries

a lot of money. a lot of hype.
some great records (imho of course).
total lack of sales.

cornelius hope, the bands spokesperson a few years back :

"alas, such chaos has meant that labels are even more straight-laced now in the wake of the Fries legendary million pound debts…"

4. Blue Mercedes

^ wasn't their album called Rich and Famous or something?

3. Bif Naked

2. The Parkinsons (jesus fucking christ)

From Fluffy's Wikipedia page: "The band was regularly featured in several magazines; Kerrang, Q, Select, Melody Maker[1] and NME. They also appeared on several UK television shows, including Top of the Pops, The Big Breakfast and Hotel Babylon."

Chart positions:

"Husband" (1996) Parkway - UK #58
"Nothing" (1996) The Enclave - UK #52

Ouch.

I don't recall Fluffy's hype being particularly memorable or mega, they just seemed like another London scenester band who got coverage because they socialised w/ppl from MM and NME, I dunno.

I have "Husband" and another one of their singles (checks that shitipedia page) "Hypersonic", I think they were 50p each. Classics, both of them, "Husband" is fierce!

Spacehog? A no.1 out of the gates, of course, but I think they must have got turned into glue shortly afterwards.

And that mid-90s band with the astronauts on the cover!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/Smartsleeper.jpg
Sleeper

Or perhaps http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Failurefantasticplanet.jpg

Sleeper? Failed?

Hmpf.

16 Sleeper Inbetweener Single Jan 1995
5 Sleeper Smart Album Feb 1995
33 Sleeper Vegas Single Apr 1995
14 Sleeper What Do I Do Now Single Oct 1995
10 Sleeper Sale Of The Century Single May 1996
5 Sleeper The It Girl Album May 1996
10 Sleeper Nice Guy Eddie Single Jul 1996
17 Sleeper Statuesque Single Oct 1996
28 Sleeper She's A Good Girl Single Oct 1997
7 Sleeper Pleased To Meet You Album Oct 1997
39 Sleeper Romeo Me Single Dec 1997

They didn't fail and they weren't hyped much either, other bands at the time were far more hyped

Right, the final place should go to a band/artist that's being megahyped RIGHT NOW that are doomed to fail.

Drumroll keith!

(that's not the name of a band/artist btw)

2. The Parkinsons (jesus fucking christ)

Totally forgot all about them - saw them supporting someone (Freeheat maybe) at King Tut's and they were fucking appalling. Dude tried to climb up on the speaker stack with his guitar but the ceiling was so low he couldn't really fit so he had to leave his guitar then squeeze into the wee gap then get someone to pass it up to him - kinda lost the moment you know? First and only time I ever saw a literal embarrassing climbdown.

Symposium probably fit in here too.

the silence is deafening (i struggled to think of any current it name hype games .. )

which i guess leads to the question - are labels bank rolling full scale hype programs these days ?

Or possibly hype works better than it used to

Thesedays, it seems the hype machine spends money on what's already got some sort of posfeedback.

OK, I got one good enough for the current situ:

1. Sandi Thom.

She was born too late to a world that doesn't care

oh hang on .. who is that person who did all those viral videos that people believed were X-tina ?

as from the evidence so far, the whole thing seems to have totally failed.

There was an act around 1990 who got hyped to the extreme by his own label. Sony Music had seemingly decided they wanted to turn Halo James into a megastar. It ended up in one minor-to-medium-sized hit in "Could Have Told You So" and then nothing else ever.

As for bands that got mega-hyped by critics but never had any commercial success to speak of, I guess you could namecheck almost the entire Paisley Underground scene of the mid-to-late 80s.

Well, it's like any "scene", the bands that emerged and succeeded tend to be forgotten as "that's where they came from"...

I remember a fair amount of 'the next Smiths??' style hyping going on in the NME, some bands I recall being on the receiving end were people like Easterhouse, Gene, The Railway Children & James.

Oh and The Primitives, The Motorcycle Boy. All it took was for Moz to wear one of your t-shirts or praise you in an interview.

97. Freur AKA "Elephant with a stick of rhubarb" AKA "that dumb squiggle logo band"

I had a couple of this lot's singles as well, "Doot-doot" (which was pretty bad, but was a nice picture disc) and "Matters of the Heart", which was a great 12" single, the b-side was this weird techno-metal thing that ~I liked a lot, and there were a couple of weird little instrumentals as well, one of them being a brief blast of bleak, hawkwindish noise. I wish I still had it. In the long-term, maybe it worked for them, Underworld did pretty well I think?

Swansway and Hayzee Fantayzee come to mind - they were both unbiquitous in the music press for a while, HF had I think one minor hit, Swansway not even that that I remember.

xp bourgie bourgie I remember getting abit on next-smiths hype in MM, but not megahype really.

Thought of Swansway, and also of Scarlet Fantastic, who they became

Cranes got a fair amount of hype in MM I recall, 'this summer's coolest band' along with odd insinuations of child-abuse and Alison & Jim's odd-childhood (forget details)

I remember a fair amount of 'the next Smiths??' style hyping going on in the NME, some bands I recall being on the receiving end were people like Easterhouse, Gene, The Railway Children & James.

Also there was Bradford and Raymonde

Were Love & Money successful?

aw man don't lump the poor Primitives in with this lot :(

I liked the Motorcycle Boy too but they're the perfect fit for this thread.

Oh shit Raymonde! Ha

Swansway had "Soul Train", which was pretty good.

Hipsway certainly belong on this.

Love + Money had a hit or two. As did Hipsway. That was the period when bands in Glasgow were only allowed to write songs with Sugar, Candy or Honey in the title (see JaMC).

What was the name of the band with Thom Yorke's brother in, named after a film I think.

The Unbelieveable Truth

Love and Money were successful enough to hang around for years making records for the same audience. Maybe I thought they were more successful than they actually were because of their prominence in and around Glasgow.

Texas came along and made all those bands redundant (not to mention embittered + resentful)

Getting unpleasant flashbacks of people like The Big Dish and The Silencers here.

In terms of post-Nirvana major label cash hemmorhaging, Jonathan Fire*Eater probably had the most high-profile trajectory of "a MILLION dollar contract --> total flop album --> drugs --> cautionary tale --> obscure footnote." It's a really great album, though.

Even at the time, it almost seemed like the majors already knew not to bother spending the marketing cash on the many other big WTF post-grungexsplosion signings (Drive Like Jehu, Helmet, Jawbox, Shudder to Think, etc. etc.)

Everyhit brings nothing for Love and Money.

Hipsway:

17 Hipsway The Honeythief Feb 1986

"Candybar Express" not a hit?

(see what I mean about Candy/Honey/Sugar?)

http://www.btinternet.com/~birdpoo/images/pupplp01.jpg

I've got that album somewhere!

from Love and Money's wikipedia page - "hits" in this case meaning between #50 and #75

In their nine years together they recorded four moderately successful albums, three of which were released in the United States, and had six chart hits in the United Kingdom.[2]

Singles

"Candybar Express" (1986) UK #56
"Dear John" (1986)
"River of People" (1987)
*Love & Money" (1987) UK #68
"Halleluiah Man" (1988) UK #63
"Strange Kind of Love" (1989) UK #45
"Jocelyn Square" (1989) UK #51
"Up Escalator (1989)"
"Winter" (1991) UK #52
"My Love Lives in a Dead House" (1991)
"Wishing Waters EP" (1991)
"Last Ship on the River" (1994)

"Strange kind of love" the only one I could hum you.

So, what positions did those moderately successful albums get to?

Not exactly setting the heather on fire there

Looking at the wikipedia page, it looks like the record company tried everything they could launch them, but not one top 40 hit. Support slots for U2, Simply Red & Tina Turner, appearances on the Wogan TV show etc...

iirc 'Candybar Express' mentions both sugar and candy in the chorus.

James Grant couldn't sing and wasn't very good looking - no competition for Sharleen Spiteri basically

So, what positions did those moderately successful albums get to?

Their first album didn't chart. I'd be surprised if any of the others reached higher than the arse end of the top 40. 'Dogs in the Traffic' was 30th in the Scotsman's top 100 Scottish albums thing that I think we discussed on ILM at one point.

Did Jonathan Fire*Eater srsly have seven figures chucked at them?? That seems like next level madness if that's true. In the UK they were exactly as big as you'd expect ie a cult band who had a good rep among indie kids and got played on the Evening Session (think Lamacq released their records in fact?)

Did Jonathan Fire*Eater srsly have seven figures chucked at them??

That was the story:

In early 1997, Jonathan Fire*Eater signed with David Geffens nascent Dreamworks music label. It was a million dollar contract with unusual clauses including full creative control for the band and a generous dental plan for their nearly toothless manager Walter Durkacz.

The front man had a big drug habit and the band collapsed, but (most of) the rest of the band put the money into their own studio (and re-formed as The Walkmen).

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/101581.jpg

^ remember seeing these cocknozzles all over Smash Hits when I was a kid. Never heard a note though.

Whozat?

The mighty Drum Theatre

It was a good era for preening buffoons in post-'Wild Boys' pyjamas

Detective

were Das Psych-Oh Rangers hyped?

2x Hayzee Fantayzee + self-promotional linkidge

Managed a couple of hits though, and Jeremy Healy has been pretty successful since.

Yeah, two big hits in the UK, which is twice as many as Toto Coelo ever had.

The Gufs

Tin Machine?

Oy Vey, Baby still boggles the mind.

Radish! Another group what got tons of money thrown at them by Mercury. Think Ben Kweller saved a little bit of it, maybe and has ended up making a few records that for some reason sound nothing like Radish.

Oh, ellaguru! I've been trying to think of them ever since I remembered Symposium being on the NME 'bratbus' tour (lol). I bought the Radish album...I...I dunno...

wait, did anyone mention Vanessa Hudgens?

Yeah, I guess Disney is guilty of spending money on people whose talents they later shifted - Lohan? Panetierre, Duff etc.

hey onimo you remember Slide and The River Detectives?

shitloads of these shitbands got hyped by billy sloan/daily record/sunday mail. Each one shitter than the last.
Love & Money were by far the worst.

The mighty Drum Theatre

Was about to mention them. "Eldorado" was actually a great pop song. But surely no hit. Not that one either.

I saw Slide a couple of times supporting people at the Barrowlands, can't remember what they sounded like.

hey onimo you remember Slide and The River Detectives?

shit yes :(

I think I saw the Silencers once, supporting The Alarm maybe.

billy sloan really had a malign influence on scottish music

haha Why isn't There A Thread For Scotlands Top Music Journalist ..... BILLY SLOAN?

lots of youtubing from this thread the last couple days and it's apparent why the vast majority of these bands failed spectacularly...

Nancy Boy.

Dan Reed Network

In terms of post-Nirvana major label cash hemmorhaging, Jonathan Fire*Eater probably had the most high-profile trajectory of "a MILLION dollar contract --> total flop album --> drugs --> cautionary tale --> obscure footnote." It's a really great album, though.

You forgot the absolute nadir of the trajectory:

Million dollar contract --> total flop album --> drugs --> cautionary tale --> obscure footnote --> The Walkmen.

that Bingo by Catch is incredible, it's like the Motherbanger of Britpop

Oh ILY ilxor. Madly.

Oh man, there was this band called Zeno who apparently had a "million pound deal" (whatever that actually means) with EMI around 1986. They made it to the front cover of Kerrang, the album flopped and everyone had forgotten about them 2 weeks later. The main guy was Uli Jon Roth's brother btw, didn't help much though. Here's what they sounded like :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrB_kuXuiPU

Would Pink Lady qualify for this thread?

was that Jonathan Fire Eater album ever any good?

I thought so. Better than the Walkmen, which might be damning them with faint praise.

In fairness, though, 99% of bands are better than the Walkmen...

O-Town

Atanas

(this will make sense only to the Detroiters out there)

I'm surprised no one mentioned Terence Trent D'Arby. He was mega successful during his first album run, then went bat shit crazy afterwards. Even changed his name to something horrible.

i thought of mentioning him, but then i thought maybe his was more a case of self-hyping? also iirc i think there is big ilx love for him, and given the way ppl reacted when i tried to suggest los lobos, listing terence might have resulted in death threats

Saigon
The Replacements (Don't Tell a Soul era--Remember the "Last Best Band of the 80s" ads?)

Would Pink Lady qualify for this thread?

I'm not really comfortable listing them given how popular they were in their native Japan.

xxxxpost to pfunkboy,

Did Kix have a long lasting successful career?

First there was a late period rock radio, pre-MTV domination moment where "Body Talk" got some airplay. Then I worked with a guy who was ex-army and possibly east coast origin that unironically loved Kix. By that I mean in his Mustang, he had multiple Kix tapes. A few years later, they had one of their biggest hits,and, unrelated I started reading a prominent writer upping their stuff.

I don't know. It was cool to read about someone hyping a band I liked but barely knew, and that band had big fans, and the big moment was really good.

(barely related) - When Johnny Cougar acts like a tired old man, I want to tell him "Shit dude, you are rich. We bought your records and those suits ripped you off. You are better off than Kix, but Kix rocked too. They got paid and still exist in some form. Just like the Johnny Cougar band. Why are you dragging me."

So Kix, were small time famous, and got full label push once or twice, but they earned it with fan base, and people that like them after the fact, just kind of get off on rockin out etc.

very similar to Kula Shaker.

Cherie

And here's more on Carly Hennessy

Ryan Adams?

he didn't "fail spectacularly" but he was heavily hyped as the hope of cornball mainstream rock - call him the Lone Justice of the early 2000s

I'm surprised no one mentioned Terence Trent D'Arby. He was mega successful during his first album run,

.. and you have just answered yr own surprise, as TTD didn't ..

.. oh I suppose he did 'fail' megaspectacularly, but then he did succeed megaspec as well...

I kinda wonder if there will be anymore attempts to hype artists like Ryan Adams or Lone Justice- plucked from a scene with a little bit of following and momentum, then hairsprayed into a mainstream package. Either could have dawdled in the roots rock scene for as a modest career, but they ended up with neither credibility nor huge sales. Seems like big labels either wait for acts to develop everything on their own, or an act is cultivated in-house from the start now.

but Terence Trent D'Arby was really only a failure in the USA (and he was a failure after the "wishing well" record) ... i understand he was pretty big in some European countries right?!?

lone justice were kinda dull, and ryan adams is kind of a douche. that might have had as much to do w/ why neither act really became huge.

Ryan Adams also didn't help his cause by releasing like 27 albums a year.

Who are Relient K and why does MTV seem to be pimping them so much?

http://posterscene.com/images/items/full/vandyke1.jpg

I had always heard that Bob Marley's initial attempts to break America (circa Catch a Fire and Burnin') were huge hype failures for Island Records, but the only real hint I could find was this original Rolling Stone review of Live!, which was released a couple years later and has the same attitude. "Whom does Island expect to buy records like this?" Ha!

"every time i plant a seed, he said 'kill them before they grow'" indeed!

VH1 and CMT are full successful acts that are dull and douchey, though. Just not ones that own X albums.

Ryan Adams may not have ended up a mainstream rock saviour, but he sells out 2,000 seat venues here in ATX to an absolutely rabid fanbase. I'd hardly say that's a failure.

whats that 'how we lost £35,509.50 on the album of the year' thing?

$ sorry

voxtrot!!

http://vandykeparks.com/miscfiles/musician852.html

Tangentially related plus I wanted to vent about this wasteman article from yesterday, opinion4u-based URL onwards: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/flavour-of-the-week-will-our-obsession-with-newness-finish-fledgling-bands-careers-before-they-have-even-started-2086665.html

really glad to be lectured about supposedly ever-decreasing hype cycles by a dude who immediately goes on to proudly relate how his job consists of looking at the same MP3 blogs as every other cunt out there and selecting the exact same buzzbands to briefly highlight

Some to add:

Nymphs - In early 90s, some were convinced that they were gonna be huge, or at least Janes Addiction-style huge. Flop.

Hothouse Flowers - To an extent, anyhow. The first album was a classic case of shipped gold and returned platinum, with the record label insistent that they were going to be the next U2 while the public was all "Whooo??" I guess they found a dedicated audience that was smaller than anticipated so they probably don't count.

Transvision Vamp - These guys were gonna be huge. So far as I can remember the album flopped bigtime.

haha Nymphs fucked up when Inger Lorre took a piss on the desk of the MD of their record label.

Man I remember them in Kerrang & Raw all the time, not even thought about them in 15 years.

transvision vamp were huge in australia

(and also kinda underrated these days - the first album belongs alongside the primitives and darling buds as great buzzsaw pop records)

I somehow have two Transvision Vamp albums but remember nothing of them now other than the singles.

i remember wendy james

first album was successful enough generally, wasn't it? then they fell off so hard that the third album was ONLY released in Australia, where it also flopped

haha Nymphs fucked up when Inger Lorre took a piss on the desk of the MD of their record label.

These days the only way they could fuck up by doing that is by not shooting video of it and then posting it on YouTube!

Bis? Iirc they hit their high point in terms of visibility before they released anything (their TOTP performance).

Also, while we're repping failed "next U2s of the 80s": In Tua Nua.

before they released anything (their TOTP performance).

not really true, they had 3 singles out by that point, including the secret vampire soundtrack 45 which is what they were on TOTP in support of

oh man i missed the end of the countdown so i missed out on adding:

Big Pig
Saigon Kick
Enuff Z'nuff

Transvision Vamp - These guys were gonna be huge. So far as I can remember the album flopped bigtime.

They did have a number of hits. Plus they are also one of the most important influences on more recent teenybopper punkpop.

re Bis: and a split on a Spanish label iirc?

quite a few of the recent examples saw dece success in non UK/US markets tho. bis were colossal in japan for a while, big pig had a top 5 album and a handful of hit singles in Aus (though the album probably didn't do much better than 100k overall)

the acuarela one wasn't a split but they did a split on guided missile (or was it slampt) too i think

last bit xpost obv

whoops no, got confused: first single was on an actual spanish label, split (4-ways!) was on a UK label with a we no speak americano name

x-post too! split was on Ché

ah yes

"buy Intendo CD from CDNow"

solitary links that effortlessly sum up the late '90s

Rubber Rodeo

I'm always suprised US ppl even mention Big Pig - they were known of outide of Oz? What next, Boom Crash Opera, big in Hungaria?

God, I do remember Drum Theatre though, haha. I had "Eldorado" taped off the telly, thought it was awesomepants, then they disappered from sight.

But then again I was an Alarm fan so what would I know.

Transvision Vamp - These guys were gonna be huge. So far as I can remember the album flopped bigtime.

They did have a number of hits. Plus they are also one of the most important influences on more recent teenybopper punkpop.

Guessing this is a regional thing, what with Jim telling of their Australian success as well. Over here in North America I think they sputtered out almost immediately after a pretty big push.

Both Big Pig and Boom Crash Opera got some play in Canada...not tons, but they got a release and some attention. Also there seemed to be a very short-lived "hey look at this!" about Weddings Parties Anything.

their very last single (if looks could kill) has been recently resurrected for tv commercial music here too, i'm sure that's making a buck or two for mr sayer

xpost

wavves

I wish I grew up with those 60's/70's full page record release ads with lot's of text and witty (but often sexist) hyperbole.

like that "Wouldn't you like to "Rip her to shreds" " sort of thing?

Please stop talking about Big Pig

XP Mark, more like this
http://posterscene.com/images/items/full/jonifull.jpg

Although I doubt if what is written there is witty. My point being that it's something that isn't done anymore. I wonder if the record companies got straight-up ad agencies to do their work.

See, I sort of think it's a shame that there aren't any Music Newspapers anymore.

Back when, it was 'black and white' like it was The Times, or something.

Now, they're just magazines with thinner paper, just about.

(and also kinda underrated these days - the first album belongs alongside the primitives and darling buds as great buzzsaw pop records)

Transvision Vamp, Darling Buds, and the Primitives would be an amazing nostalgia tour. I would book them for my county fair in a heartbeat.

PAS/CAL, heard of 'em?

Guessing this is a regional thing, what with Jim telling of their Australian success as well. Over here in North America I think they sputtered out almost immediately after a pretty big push.

Regional as in making it big in the UK and then the rest of the Western World outside America following:

UK singles chart stats are as follows:

5 Transvision Vamp I Want Your Love Jun 1988
30 Transvision Vamp Revolution Baby Sep 1988
3 Transvision Vamp Baby I Don't Care Apr 1989
15 Transvision Vamp The Only One Jun 1989
14 Transvision Vamp Landslide Of Love Aug 1989
22 Transvision Vamp Born To Be Sold Nov 1989
30 Transvision Vamp (I Just Wanna) B With U Apr 1991

But I think there are a lot of examples of acts being hugely hyped in the US and still not making the US market, yes. Robbie Williams, for starters?

Soft Pack

THE RAPTURE

next U2s: might Diesel Park West count?

THE RAPTURE

Not quite, I think they received quite a bit of indie love.

For a bit, but what now.

I still wouldn't call it "failed spectacularly."

Grant Lee Buffalo

your right....agreed.

a possible current contender : Hurts

re chakk : honestly. no.

the band shot their load with the early 12" records (Out of the Flesh and They Say 12") which were great distorto-funk.
but, as an album of its time, i still play the odd track when in the mood.

― mark e, Thursday, 23 September 2010 16:11 (1 year ago)

just to contradict myself.

the final CHAKK 12" that they released themselves on FON post MCA chaos, 'Time Bomb' was fucking amazing.
just wanted to set the record straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kBctZrz-5s

is grime a band

hahaa

voxtrot!!

― markers, Sunday, September 26, 2010 5:07 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That EP is still eerily good for a band that never did anything else.

They’re like my favorite band that doesn’t really exist.

Guardian is still hyping up The Horrors and people stopped paying attention more than a decade ago.

Personally I hyped THE BOOKS so hard a decade ago and so did Pitchfork and several other indie zines but it never worked like it should have. Their 3 most famous albums where in so many top 10 EOY lists and yet it seems like most people forgot about them. They should be huge but they ended up disbanding and being a cult underground band to discover in 20 years when indie + folktronica goes through a reappreciation phase.

I’d argue Arcade Fire and Sigur Ros fall in this description. After Funeral and Agaetis Byrjun had everyone charmed in the early 00s, it seems like they’ve both experienced diminishing returns and they haven’t received the same loving consensus ever since.

Mum is another one which I remember was super hyped 15 years or so ago and I can’t remember the last one I read or heard anything about them.

holy shit @ Voxtrot i haven't thought about them in at least a decade

Some artists which I remember sold big and got good reviews but their next record was a massive failure and failed to get any single any airplay.

Duffy, MGMT, Klaxons, MIKA.

Possibly, but they have had their time in the sun, and quite possibly will do more. xpost really Arcade Fire

This was more about hyped up bands/artists that did not hit, but I'm guessing we've done those, and a side order of 'bands that pissed it away' is also good.

I just came in here to see how long it took before someone mentioned Terris. Not long, I see!

Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes could qualify too even though they can still fill stadiums. Their second albums could be considered massive failures after the debuts were filled with potential singles.

The Fabulous Somethings?

They had a single 'If she doesn't smile, it'll rain' which everybody loved but they did nothing else. It seemed like they were so objectionable to their label that they got shown the door, and nobody else took them for similar reasons.

Or something

no way this thread was made for Voxtrot

what about Times New Viking

Black Dice too. There was a time when Animal Collectibe and them were like the coolest most hyped indie acts from NYC. Animal Collective are a household name now but Black Dice are a dark reference nowadays.

A good way to find these bands is to google the posters for Coachella or Primavera sound or whatever festival from 10+ years ago. The bigger the letters and the least you know who they are 10 years later, the more they’ve failed.

Are people just missing the point of the thread now?

Ah, I see Mark G already said it.

Like for example Coachella 2012 had 3 main acts: Radiohead, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg, and Black Keys. The last popular single I heard from Black Keys is ‘lonely boy’ from 2011 and I only know an album from them. I’ve no idea if they’re even active anymore.

Yeah sorry I deviated the original thread a bit but it seems pointless to start a new thread to expose a similar sort of phenomenon. Spontaneous self combustion vs slow burns.

ctrl-f 'Razorlight' 0 results!

Black Dice didn't live up to their indie potential like Sonic Youth didn't live up to their commercial potential. still doesnt fit itt

bands that are still active after the hype has long gone (cf. deerhoof, xiu xiu, black dice) don't count. i saw deerhoof play to 50 people max a couple months ago and it was so depressing, they're still great

ditto for xiu xiu who i saw play a sold out 300 cap room in april and play to 30 people in the same room in september

They're hardly "failing spectacularly" though. They've found their audience, are still up to inventive things.

Sigur Ros def have an audience but are an example of a band that went the U2 route: somewhere along the way they decided to stop evolving and make the same music over and over again. (and no, this was def not the case with the first three recs).

right, i'm not saying those bands are Voxtots. but Sigur Ros isn't either

Nah true. Artists and band who come to a grinding halt creatively and just keep doing what they're doing are an interesting diversion of the theme though. I loved the first two albums of Heather Nova, and recently googled her: turns out she's still touring, still making the same music. You'll never read a review again but she's just doing her thing I suppose.

Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes could qualify too even though they can still fill stadiums.

Franz Ferdinand played an 1100 capacity room tonight. I saw them two years as part of FFS, playing a 1350 cap room. Neither were sold out.

The Strokes haven't played a headline in 17 months, and that was in an 1800-seater/2300 standing venue.

Animal Collective are a household name now

They made a song about wanting a household, certainly.

What about The Woodentops?

They seemed to get pushed hard everywhere I went back then, and it was the sort of thing I should like, but.. mmmm... no.

Even bought the album! The singles were the sorts of things I liked for three plays and then never wanted to hear again.

63. FMB

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/lottery-win-inspires-failed-band-to-reform-514521.html

― ledge, Thursday, 23 September 2010 14:25 (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

update:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295133/Lottery-winner-42-spent-thousands-forming-student-band-left-relying-handouts-parents-blowing-1-8m-fortune.html

(don't click. couldn't find non daily mail entire story in url link)

Personally I hyped THE BOOKS so hard a decade ago and so did Pitchfork and several other indie zines but it never worked like it should have. Their 3 most famous albums where in so many top 10 EOY lists and yet it seems like most people forgot about them. They should be huge but they ended up disbanding and being a cult underground band to discover in 20 years when indie + folktronica goes through a reappreciation phase.

I remember hearing the name everywhere from 02 to 05. given the sort of music they made I'd say they made off quite well. what was disappointing was seeing their final album get lukewarm reviews. I thought it was quite good. but yea, taking 5 years off was probably not the best move

How about Datarock, about 2 years after their first album they started getting all sorts of positive attention, slotting in with the whole LCD/DFA thing that was taking off in the mid-00s. I remember hearing "Fa-Fa-Fa" everywhere for a while. Their second album came and tanked hard (undeservedly, imo), they did a big international tour and did alright but not great. And they haven't really been seen since.

The Fabulous Somethings?

They had a single 'If she doesn't smile, it'll rain' which everybody loved but they did nothing else. It seemed like they were so objectionable to their label that they got shown the door, and nobody else took them for similar reasons.

Fantastic Something - two Greek brothers, iirc. Their album was "quite good"

What about The Woodentops?
They seemed to get pushed hard everywhere I went back then, and it was the sort of thing I should like, but.. mmmm... no.
Even bought the album! The singles were the sorts of things I liked for three plays and then never wanted to hear again.
― Mark G,

see your own posts upthread.

was listening to their boxset just last week, still love'em (mainly just the on-u remixes these days).

Datarock is otm

Wet

Woodentops should be in the thread for bands that shed all their interesting elements whenever a major label got them in a studio.

In 2007 I saw Blonde Redhead in primavera festival for like 30 people and it made me sad for them. There were thousands of people at the festival at that time so it wasn’t a lack of people just a lack of interest.

Does Ashley Simpson fit itt?

Hmm yes, though perhaps with an asterisk, because being remembered for a major performance disaster =/= being hyped and then completely forgotten, with no defining or memorable event.

She was being hyped as this Avril Lavigne/ Pink punk-ish pop star and after the playback fiasco and her reaction her career went to hell.

Oh I see.

Then how about Kelly Clarkson?

I still can't get over Voxtrot. this is the new New Jersey thread.

how about EAR PWR?
carpetbaggers from NC moved to Baltimore at the height of Dan Deacon/Ponytail/Ecstatic Sunshine/neon rock, got signed to Carpark, went nowhere. maybe High Places too? altho they were around a lil longer and decent imo.

xp Kelly Clarkson? she's one of the most well known popstars of the last 15 years, just put something new out, did a major press tour, has an enduring hit... doesn't fit at all

there seems to be a great deal of confusion about what the words "megahyped" and "failed spectacularly" mean

Or MIKA who I mentioned above. Life in Cartoom Motion was number 1 in several countries charts, he was a bit pf a celebrity, remember seeing him in magazine covers and being harrassed by paparazzi... but every subsequent single and album ever since failed to hit as hard and I don’t think I’ve seen anything about him in almost a decade.

I don't think anyone that actually ever got a number 1 hit can be considered to have "failed spectacularly"

Mika was on UK X Factor as recent as two months ago.

But yes, Shakey OTM.

there seems to be a great deal of confusion about what the words "megahyped" and "failed spectacularly" mean

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, December 5, 2017 3:31 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah so many of the bands mentioned in the initial 2010 posts don't fit those criteria at all. Tapes N Tapes is a good example of a band that had a HUGE p4k push and went nowhere. they didn't fail spectacularly & weren't megahyped by anyone else in the media, but they absolutely sit alongside Voxtrot

I guess the fact that a lot of Pitchfork hyped American indie from the '00s was fucking terrible is neither here nor there.

no it definitely is, if you look at most of the bands posted itt they're all either average or fucking awful.

Terris still remain the best example - endless hype in the UK music press from 1999 to 2001, even landing an NME cover without having released all that much. Their singer, if I recall, was giving it the big licks onstage a lot and totally thought his band were the mutts nutts. They didn't have a Top 10 single, the album performed dreadfully and they got dropped. The NME suddenly were like "meh, fuck 'em" and moved onto The Strokes.

yeah that's a perfect example

idk Sheer Mag seemed to be getting a push from p4k and Rolling Stone in 2015 and 2016 and they dropped a debut album this year that I'm not seeing on any EOY lists

To this day, I've still never heard a Terris track. Gay Dad were similarily hyped, and utterly shit, but I still managed to hear the singles from the first LP without even trying.

I was going to say--hippie alert--Blind Faith, but I didn't realize their debut hit #1 in both the States and the UK. They didn't get a second album out, though.

How about Rita Ora's US career? (I know she's actually had success elsewhere but I don't think "hook singer on the Iggy Azalea single people barely remember" qualifies in the US as spectacular success.)

Well the NME had just came from helping these guys take over the world:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yksb7SyiQWQ/UHf4digZMxI/AAAAAAAAL64/nsUwk2Pf7xE/s1600/tiny2.jpg

I don't think the NME were banking on them putting out overblown, progged out double CD debut album, which they promptly gave a middling review to.

They certainly crashed and burned quite spectacularly. Split up about a year after that cover - which may have contributed to their demise.

I'd say the fact that they didn't get on too well with each other was the main reason they split.

I want to say JJ72, but they managed to make it to a second album. God, the late '90s/very early '00s were a fucking strange time.

Then how about Kelly Clarkson?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, December 5, 2017 3:27 PM (forty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is this trolling

Sheer Mag = jury is still out, but yes I could definitely see them becoming one of these bands. Another contemporary that absolutely fits the bill is Downtown Boys.

oh!! and METZ. huge p4k push circa 2012, nice festival slots, solid tours, each album has essentially been ignored. when I was in Toronto recently (their hometown), I saw a poster for their new record and realized I hadn't thought about them in years.

Sheer Mag not capitalising on large rock publications writing about them probably has something to do with their having zero interest in the perceived benefits of that

or their profound stupidity

yeah those idiots probably think they're actually enjoying being in their band

FISCHERSPOONER

^otm

yeah moka imho yr thing is interesting and might yield some good groans and lols, but different enough to have its own thread. equivalent or overlapping with bands that got megahyped and it was enough to give them a moment of success but the public didn't really buy it and they disappeared back whence they came - your duncan sheiks and jimmy rays, and their indie equivalents (where mgmt miiiiiight qualify but idk then we're just doing one-album wonders... they have fans and still put out music).

kelly clarkson is ludicrous though.

Not trolling on Kelly Clarkson it’s been years since I heard about her didn’t know she was still huge in the US.

Color me underwhelmed...from Justin to this!??

But yeah my examples are on the wrong thread was thinking of diminishing returns rather than undelivered promises.

Kinda happens with most artists

I've not listened to it in donkeys years but I remember quite liking the Terris debut EP. Live they were very good too, in an intense way. The debut album was fucking awful, though.

I've literally never heard of Voxtrot before today.

I've literally never heard of Voxtrot before today.

me neither.
i am going to have to try and find that terris album this weekend aren't i.
pretty sure i found a skinny promo cd-r in the bins around the time they were being hyped, but not sure i ever actually listened to it.

I'd say the fact that they didn't get on too well with each other was the main reason they split.

― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican)

maybe. they got back together some years back. they do pretty well as a cult prog band appealing to the cardiacs set - they were just never going to be the Monsters of Britpop the NME thought they were after hearing "Kurt Russell".

Jimmie Ray..... my god, flashbacks

What was that guy all about

who wants to know

Metz seems kind of unfair to list here. They have a niche and they fill it.

I'm guessing the new freebie NME doesn't have the space to hype obvious chancers any more, I kind of miss that now it's gone.

I'd always assumed The Vines were an answer to this question but fuck me their debut sold 1.5m copies. How big do you need to be to do that these days?

ha, the Vines were my first thought when I saw this thread title, too.

Would someone like Jay Electronica count? He got a ton of hype and co-signs back in 2007 but then has released 2 solo songs and about a dozen guest verses since then.

Jay Electronica is a great pick for the niche level of hype he got

Jimmy Ray was hyped? Moreso than those other 90s one-hit-wonder acts like Marcy Playground or the “This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world” band?

Obie Trice
Lupe Fiasco

Did anyone care about Obie once?

Normani (after all that hype her debut album only got up to #91 on the album charts. oof.)

Canadian version, circa the turn of the millennium:

- J. Englishman
- his sister Esthero
- Robin Fucking Black
- Jordy Birch's Fun Machine

I knew I was forgetting one:

- Adam Cohen

Lauryn Hill

I joke I joke

The concept of this thread is a bit confusing to me. Usually when an artist is getting megahyped is at the peak of their fame - which is accompanied by a massive hit single or album -, and failing miserably implies not following it up with a great single or album. So this makes every one hit wonder and artist that failed to get a successful follow-up album eligible for this thread. And that makes pretty much 99 out of 100 artists eligible.

Some artists do fail upwards where their follow up albums/singles are huge financial failures but are adored by critics or viceversa.

Mika hosted Eurovision in 2022

Isn't MIKA's mega year and then subsequent dropoff pretty consistent with other BBC Sound Of/BRITs Critics Choice Award types? Makes me think of Emeli Sande, James Bay, La Roux (who I don't think held either of those titles and is obviously the best of this bunch but)

MIKA had no fewer than six songs I must have heard a hundred times in 2007 and early 2008 though. Man he was big.

And yeah I haven't contributed to this thread til now because I feel like it can be interpreted from so many different ways or at least enough that I feel the list is endless beyond endless.

Actually I do want to mention Jonathan Wilkes. Such was Robbie's cultural cachet at the time that his mate could get a deal with Virgin amid a lot of forced publicity but the first - and only - single failed and it was curtains for him.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/jonathan-wilkes-1374575

ROBBIE WILLIAMS‘ flatmate JONATHAN WILKES has reportedly been dropped by his record label after failing to breach the Top 20 with his debut single ‘JUST ANOTHER DAY’ earlier this year.

The singer, whose career was launched with a flurry of publicity around his friendship with Williams and an intensive promotional campaign which included a Los Angeles video shoot and US junkets for journalists, may yet attempt to pursue a pop career in Europe, according to The Sun newspaper.

The single only reached Number 23 in the UK charts in March. Today’s (July 30) Sun, quotes an insider at record label Virgin, whose offshoot Innocent Wilkes was signed to, as saying that bad timing was to blame for his lack of success.

This might qualify for the other thread actually.

Wilkes then went on to host You've Been Framed! for under a year before the show got rid of having a visible host or set altogether.

“We were very disappointed with Jonathan’s chart position and it was just no longer right for us to continue our relationship with him. The timing was not right for him but it has been an amicable end of the contract,” they said.