I Have Never Heard These Bands That Start With The Letter K

Kilburn and the High Roads were essentially Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Well worth investigating. A little stranger, camper even, than his subsequent work.

Kursall Flyers were pub rock band from Essex whose career was scuppered by punk, though they did have a top 30 single with Little does she know in 1976.

I am going to miss these threads, Scott. I will be in Greece from Sunday until Wednesday and will not have internet access! Bugger!

I've never heard a zither-thwacking folk duo. Do they exist?

Kingsnakes -- Pre-Stray-Cats rockabillies (from LA maybe?), they had a HUGE (and pretty good) hit on Detroit AOR stations circa 1979 with "(my my my my my my my) My Mistake," right around the same time another, better band from Toronto (sort of metallic dance oriented new wave) called the Kings had their own huge hit on Detroit AOR stations with "Switchin' to Glide/This Beat Goes On.

Kursaal Flyers - Another pub rock band, connected somehow with the Records, though punkier and less powerpop. They have a good track on the *Permanent Wave* compilation, but I forget right now what it's called.

I remember that. "The Kings...are Here!" was the album. Wounded Bird, or maybe BGO, reissued it with their second one, which I recall being disappointed with. Second had drawing of Amazon women on the cover, or something.

"...are Here!" was good. There was no beating the opener, which was the "Switchin' to Glide" thing.

Yeah, good 'un on the mistakes. Kingbees had a couple records, two, usually the phenom of the first being the best and the second tanking the buzz and losing the interest of the label or whomever was publishing them.

Since these things are from a book, what's it called? "The Trouser Press Guide to Barrel-Scrapers You Knew and Once Loved?"

Kane Gang
Katrina & The Waves
Lenny Kaye Connection
Tommy Keene
Klark Kent
Nik Kershaw
Killdozer
Killing Joke
Kingbees
King Crimson
King Kurt
Knack
Konk
Kraftwerk
Kraut

I have never heard these "K" bands from Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums 1955-1996 book:

(At least I don't think I have. At least not much):

Gunter Kallman Chorus
Kalyan
The Kane Gang
Kayak
The Kay-Gees
KBC Band
John Fitzgerald Kennedy*
KGB
Kick Axe
Kid Sensation
The Kids From "Fame"
Warren Kime & His Brass Impact Orchestra
King
King Biscuit Boy with Crowbar
King Family
Kingfish
Kingofthehill
King Richard's Fluegel Knights
Kings Of The Sun**
King Swamp
Klique
The Klowns
Fred Knoblock
Kokomo
K-Solo
Bob Kuban And the In-Men
Kut Klose
Kwick
K.W.S.

* - former President of the United States. And yes, I have heard his voice before a couple times; just none of his albums. He charted with TEN different ones between Dec 1963 and Dec 1965! That's probably more than the Beatles and Tupac combined. I had no idea. (Actually, these albums were all just tributes to him, it turns out. Weird that Whitburn lists them all under his name.)

** - Turn of the '90s Aussie AC/DC imitators. I think George likes them. It's possible I briefly tracked through one of their albums when it came out, but I don't think so. I obviously should, though.

"i'm not saying they're really thick
but all the groups who've hit it big
make The Kane Kang look like
an Einstein chip"

King Swamp were a British band led by Dave Allen (Gang Of Four, Shriekback) that played sludgy, ersatz-Tony Joe White blues-rock...I had their debut CD for all of about 3 weeks...the only track that still sticks in my head is called "Widders Dump"...oof...

The Kane Gang - how many of thses fucking sub-Hue And Cry bands were there?!

Kayak - Dutch prog, I used to own several of their albums, don't remember a thing about them. Nowhere near as good as Earth And Fire.

King - oh good grief.

K.W.S. - I think they had a hit with a KC & The Sunshine band cover around 1990, but maybe that was someone with a similar name.

Kay-Gees are a group featuring the brother of Ronald Bell (Kool & the Gang). Good old-school disco-funk. A double comp just came out last year through Castle US.

Kick Axe are an 80s canuckmetal band. Hard rockin' radio tunage.
King Biscuit Boy were some kind of blooz band, i think.....

KGB the Detroit punk/new wavish band?

And Klique, if it's the same one I have, is more entertaining for the album cover than the bland '80s funk on the album. Though the one I have might actually be Kliqque or some other stupid misspelling. They've got vinyl jumpsuits in front of a steaming manhole though.

Kings of the Sun -- yep right, Aussie long-haired he-men. Had some minor chart action on American debut with a song called "Serpentine," the best tune on the album. Live, the lead singer had a young Jim Dandy thing going on, charging onto the floor at the Airport Music Hall with a bullwhip.

If Crocodile Dundee/Paul Hogan had stayed popular in the States, they might have stood more of a chance.

KBC Band

Kantner/Balin/Casady, reconstituted Airplane parts after Kantner got fed up with the arena rock the Jefferson Starship was putting out. Largely Paul's political meanderings, often effective but as often as digressive - you really have to be into this sort of thing. "Mariel" and "America" worth a few listens but not much else.

K.W.S. - I think they had a hit with a KC & The Sunshine band cover around 1990

In the U.S. "Please Don't Go" was a hit in fall '92, I think. Their album of the same name was largely covers of other K.C.-performed and -produced and -similar hits. Heard one, heard 'em all, and you heard the best one if you heard the single.

In Canada, this is the Kane Gang song that persists:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GFkoCME35M

Kane Gang: Started very well with "Smalltown Creed", continued respectably enough with "Closest Thing To Heaven", then lapsed into 1985: It's The New Authenticity! Tedium with their cover of "Respect Yourself". Label mates at Kitchenware with Prefab Sprout and Martin Stephenson & the Daintees. Produced by Pete Wingfield, who did the first Dexys album (and played the keyboards at a family funeral, v. nice guy).

King: Flipping awful pile of style-mag hyped toss, tipped as "the band to watch for in the new year" for two years running before finally making it at the start of 1985 with the god-awful, fag-end of New Pop, "Love And Pride" ("Take your hairdryer, blow them all away." No, seriously.) I saw them live in a trendy nightclub in early 1983, and they were less than scintillating. Multi-coloured Doc Martin boots, that was their "thing". Lead singer Paul King became an MTV VJ.

Kokomo: Mid 1970s UK pub rock, toured with Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers (no relation) on a three-band pub-rock showcase package tour, can't remember who the third act was though...

K.W.S.: Nottingham Pride! Gave my adopted home town their second UK Number One (after Paper Lace) in 1992 with a limp dance cover of KC & The Sunshine Band's "Please Don't Go", recorded as a plea to Nottingham Forest's Des Walker, who was quitting the team. (We once took his ex-wife on a tour of the Nottingham gay scene. God, that was a night and a half.) I think the video was recorded in Top Local Nitespot the Black Orchid. Various equally limp and pointlessdance covers followed, each charting lower than the one before, despite a surprise Brit Awards nomination (alongside the even-more-shite limp dance cover act, er, Undercover), and despite the roping in of a succession of guest artistes: The Trammps, Gwen Dickey, Teddy Pendergrass (God, pickings must have been slim in the earely 1990s for bona fide 1970s soul legends).

Gunther Kallman Chorus - German(?) lounge/harmony group from late 60s. You've probably heard them without realising it as their song 'Daydream' was sampled by I Monster, Beta Band, Lupe Fiasco and several others.

Kids from 'Fame' - TV series spin off from the Alan Parker movie. Inexplicably hugely popular in UK in 1982, the biggest selling album in the UK that year.

Kane Gang - better than Matt#2's description, though fits into that mid 80s earnest, worthy, socialist soul strand see also Redskins/Style Council/erm....Hue and Cry. Dave Brewis wrote theme tune for Byker Grove thus is partly responsible for Ant and Dec.

KGB the Detroit punk/new wavish band?

Nope. 1976 "supergroup" with Rick Grech, Mike Bloomfield, Carmine Appice, Barry Goldberg, apparently.

Kokomo: Mid 1970s UK pub rock, toured with Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers

I wish. This Kokomo is supposedly a nine-member Brit jazz-rock band, though definitely mid '70s: Self titled album 1975, Rise and Shine 1976, #159 and #194 in the States respectively. Though actually I guess it could be same band, or Whitburn's description could be wrong. Hard to imagine pub rock fans going for a fusion big band, but ya never know.

King Biscuit Boy were some kind of blooz band, i think.....

Yes, Canadian(?) although usually without the Crowbar bit I think. Died a few years ago.

In fact, of course, there's a wiki page about him. Died in 2003 it seems. No mention there that one of his albums came in sack material which is now quite collectable.

"Kokomo: Mid 1970s UK pub rock, toured with Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers"

"I wish. This Kokomo is supposedly a nine-member Brit jazz-rock band, though definitely mid '70s"

same band!

i mean, they started out kinda pubby, and ended up kinda jazzy/disco-y, or whatever.

if you have heard big daddy kane then you have heard the kay-gee's: "WHO'S THE MAN WITH THE MASTER PLAN!!!"

(that kay-gee's debut *keep on bumpin' & masterplan* is friggin' great by the way)