Bands/Artists/Albums that were Current when You should've been Aware of them but weren't -- and now that you've finally discovered them, they've either broken up or died.

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In the last couple of weeks I've been delving into bands I'd only partially taken notice of before -- notably COIL, World Domination Enterprises and 23 Skiddoo -- and am enjoying them way more than I ever would have expected to. Trouble is, in the case of these three bands, as least -- I'm too late. The ship has sailed. COIL -- despite having a VAST amount of material out there -- are done (due to the passing of John Balance). And as far as I'm aware, both W.D.E and 23 Skiddoo are long over with. So sure, I can track down their recordings (though not that easy a feat....some COIL discs are hard to put one's hand to), but I really missed the boat when they were a going concern.

This happened to you? Discovering or at least learning to appreaciate an artist way after they've stopped making new music and touring?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 16 April 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

This happened to you?

A rhetorical question, I'm sure. Surely this happens to all of us more commonly than we'd like to admit?

Big ones for me:

My Bloody Valentine (knew about them from around the time of "Loveless", didn't bother listening to them until 1996)(of course, they haven't formally broken up, but let's be realistic here)

Cocteau Twins (liked a few of their more well-known songs, but didn't start buying their albums until 1999 or so)(granted, they seem to be back together now, so maybe this one doesn't count either)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 16 April 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

Not to put salt in your wounds, but I can actually boast that I saw both bands. I saw MBV in the early 90's when they were touring with Dinosaur Jr. Had I known that they were going to swifly slip away into the ether, I'd probably have paid more attention. I do remember a seventeen-or-so minute strech of nothing but dizzying, brain-frazzling guitar noise. Like it was yesterday, i distinctly remember two hepcats standing in front me...swaying and dancing to the noise (whilst all the members of MBV stood perfectly still, either facing away from the audience or just at their instruments....concocting an ear-splitting racket). The guys in front of me dancing seemed to so EARNESTLY want to project that they were actuallly enjoying ("yeah, man, don't you get it?) the noise....but after about nine minutes, even they got tired and their ears started to hurt. I didn't know whether to love MBV for that stunt or loathe them, but I respected their "let's separate the men from the boys" approach to noise.

I saw the Cocteau Twins twice. First at the Beacon Theatre circa Heaven or Las Vegas -- which was absolutely sublime in every conceivable manner (largely because we were all sitting down in nice comfortable seats whilst cherubim and serpahim played a beautific round of celestial croquet on the cathedralesque ceiling to the warbling strains of Les Cocteaus). The second time at the Roseland Ballroom (circa Milk & Kisses, I suppose) was a veritable hell hole, as we were all standing in a completely packed venue, sweltering and standing on each other's feet (the Cocteaus do not inspire dancing, so there was really no crowd movement of any kind). It was so uncomfortable that enjoying the show was out of the question.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 16 April 2005 04:52 (twenty years ago)

Not to put salt in your wounds
Oh, there's nothing anyone can post here that could pour salt in my wounds, because by simply posting on the thread I already poured salt in my own wounds.

I'm sure several ILM'ers have seen both MBV and the Cocteaus.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 16 April 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

Some of us were even signed to their record labels in the days when they were still around!

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 16 April 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

Suede...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Saturday, 16 April 2005 06:18 (twenty years ago)

I first learned about Sun Ra when I was a dorky, Keyboard-magazine-reading teenager. I probably had plenty of opportunities to see the Arkestra while Ra was still around but of course I didn't really bother to check out their albums until he had already left the planet.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 16 April 2005 06:33 (twenty years ago)

man - who's ever been to a gig by someone who's riding on a rep 20 years old? story of my life.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Saturday, 16 April 2005 06:41 (twenty years ago)

man - who's ever been to a gig by someone who's riding on a rep 20 years old? story of my life.

Hello!

― Resident Duran Duran Geek (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 16 April 2005 07:06 (twenty years ago)

Anyway... BLUR. It's only been really recently that I've properly appreciated their contribution to the world of music. Before that I was... well... I liked some of their stuff, sure, but it didn't really sway me. I think I kinda preferred the Stones-like swagger of Oasis; in the mid '90s, when both groups were in their heyday, I had been a Stones fan for longer than I'd been a Duran fan. These days, however, the situation has reversed itself. Too little, too late, though.

I think I could've also done with a bit more of an appreciation of the '90s in general, too. It's kinda silly to say that considering that all the '80s stuff I listened to adoringly back in my '90s teen years is now ACTUALLY CONSIDERED COOL, but the '80s fetishization I lived through certainly didn't help me out in terms of feeling connected to my own generation, and I realize more and more with each passing day just what I missed out on by gazing out and wishing I'd been born ten years before I actually was. So, yeah, again with the "story of my life" theme.

― The Spirit of Sam Endicott (Dee the Lurker), Saturday, 16 April 2005 07:12 (twenty years ago)

hi dee...who've you seen? did they suck or was it *nostagia heaven*?

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Saturday, 16 April 2005 07:22 (twenty years ago)

I think I kinda preferred the Stones-like swagger of Oasis

They fuckin' wish.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 16 April 2005 07:23 (twenty years ago)

Even though I saw and sort of met Royal Trux in '97 at a show, I didn't really get into them big-time until the past year or so.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Saturday, 16 April 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

despite the fact that i became a fan just before the release of their last record, i totally feel this way about the Dismemberment Plan. it took hold of them in a big way, and then it seemed like they split mere minutes later, even if the split actually took a full year (in which time they failed to come to the UK, which is what really got me sore).

― Lee F# (fsharp), Saturday, 16 April 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

Elliott Smith

Dark Star

Also, i didnt get into the Smashing Pumpkins until Machina. I was more a Radiohead-head.

― dmun, Saturday, 16 April 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

Uncle Tupelo
Vulgar Boatmen

I'm kinda in an alt country phase right now.

I saw MBV when they played the Ritz in NYC, a triple bill, Pavement, Superchunk and MBV. Impressive stuff, particularly Pavement who had just released Slanted and Enchanted.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 16 April 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

I saw MBV support the Pixies in the late 80s, before I was particularly impressed by them.

― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Saturday, 16 April 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

Most everyone I like, the first example I can think of offhand being Disco Inferno.

― Ian Riese-Moraine. To Hell with you and your gradual evolution! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 16 April 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

Then again, not many people knew of them until fairly recently...

― Ian Riese-Moraine. To Hell with you and your gradual evolution! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 16 April 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

Yeah. Really wish I'd made the effort to see Jet third on the bill all those months ago.

― The Velvet Overlord (The Velvet Overlord), Saturday, 16 April 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

Hell, many of my favourites died or disbanded when I was still a toddler! (Or younger.) But this was kinda painful: Altho I'd read about 'em a year earlier and was intrigued, I'd never actually heard minutemen until a week or so before D. Boon's fatal car accident. Anyways, I had virtually no chance of finding their records in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. (Nor it's even-smaller Michigan namesake, one mile south.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 16 April 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

By the time I discovered Genesis, they had been making boring AOR albums for more than 15 years.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 16 April 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)

Slint, Neutral Milk Hotel

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Saturday, 16 April 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Louis Armstrong

― Burr (Burr), Saturday, 16 April 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

Hell, many of my favourites died or disbanded when I was still a toddler!

Wait, that doesn't count. Read the thread title again. I'm talking about artists who were out, about and around when you were already "musically savvy" or aware, yet you failed to notice them in time. I mean, sure, I would've loved to have gone and seen the Stooges in their prime, but I was two in 1969. That sort've regret doesn't bother me in the same way as having had the opportunity to see COIL live or hear their music when it was new (when, at the time, I was probably listening to The Mission UK or some other also-ran).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 16 April 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

Pavement, for me. Sometimes I want to say to my older brother, "Why weren't you into better music when I was a kid?" Oh well. At least I have a firm Metallica foundation haha

(when I first saw the title of this thread, I thought I had written it last night when I was drunk.)

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Saturday, 16 April 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

This happened to you? Discovering or at least learning to appreaciate an artist way after they've stopped making new music and touring?

story of my life, since i didn't really get into punk/indie rock until 1997...

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Saturday, 16 April 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

I got into Stereolab in 98 or so but I didn't see them live until last year, after Mary was dead. I don't know that I had that many opportunities but I know there were at least one or two. Also Horace Tapscott, a local jazz legend, died before I got around to checking him out.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Saturday, 16 April 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Young Marble Giants - album came out in early 1980; NYC shows in December 1980, followed by breakup; I buy _Colossal Youth_ in September 1981.

Nirvana - only really dug them after Kurt died

― mike a, Saturday, 16 April 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

The Lemonheads
Dinosaur Jr
Tupac & Biggy
TLC
Ash - they got less good, which is almost the same as breaking up
Weezer - they're dead to me now at least

― billstevejim, Saturday, 16 April 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

Like a lot of other people, I didn't discover Elliott Smith until after he had died.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 17 April 2005 00:01 (twenty years ago)

They fuckin' wish.

No no no, you don't get it. The Stones and Oasis had roughly the same extra-hefty sized egos. Hence the swagger. Though the Stones have more talent to back up that strut-strut, no question about it.

hi dee...who've you seen? did they suck or was it *nostagia heaven*?

Honey, guess. (And hi back!)

― The Spirit of Sam Endicott (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 17 April 2005 00:23 (twenty years ago)

I'm guessing about 99% of Velvet Underground fans didn't "discover"
them until after they'd broken up.

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

Also Horace Tapscott, a local jazz legend...

I stumbled across Tapscott at one of the early 80s LA Street Scene festival (no longer held) and was amazed. I'm sorry I didn't seek out any subsequent live performances. I still don't have any LPs, he was pretty prolific and I don't want to start buying blind. Any recommendations on disks?

For a lot of bands I hear now I think, "I would have loved that when I was 20-something" but just can't get into them now (Kinski comes to mind, and Disco Inferno). But I guess that's a different thread.

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

Other than a few songs here and there, I don't know why I never got into Skinny Puppy. As a Canadian who was into a lot of industrial at the time, it doesn't make any sense. Nowadays, everytime I hear one of their songs (even if it was one I didn't care for when it first came out) I get nostalgic.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

Warren Zevon. I always knew about him and kind of liked him. But I really wanted to see him live and could have many times in the 80's. Never did.

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

Boredoms! I mean really! I'd have loved Vision Creation New Sun even more when it came out and I was 19 than I even do now. And at the time I was into Aphex, Godspeed, Sigur, Sonic Youth etc so how in the heck didn't I even hear them till last year?

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

So, like, I've been entirely steeping myself in COIL these days, trying to catch up. I picked up the re-mastered Horse Rotorvator (though I had the Some Bizarre edition -- which the band has since renounced). I also picked up the Unnatural History II disc in order to finally hear the aborted tracks from Hellraiser (I really wanted them to be scarier, truthfully, but there's a lot of other great stuff on the disc). The stuff I was really looking for but couldn't seem to find, however, was Love's Secret Domain and Musick to Play in the Dark Vol.1. I'd looked all around the likely shops in NYC, but came up empty, and their official site (Threshold House) has closed the shop for now. Failing everything else, I went to eBay, and won a used copy of L's.S.D (at no great savings to me), figuring I'd never find it anywhere else. It hasn't arrived yet.

So, today, on a lark, I pop into Tower Records on Broadway looking for nothing in particular. Once upon a time (in the days of vinyl), if you were looking for a record and Tower didn't have it, there was a good chance that said record simply didn't exist. But, that was then. In the ensuing years, Tower has fallen into a decline that recalls the fall of the Roman Empire. They're a lost cause teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. But sure enough -- push me down the anal staircase! Their in the import section are more COIL releases than I've ever spotted in any locale...including Musick to Play in the Dark Vol.1 (which I instantly snapped up) and....rotorvate my damn horse...Love's Secret Domain...WRAPPED, PRISTINE AND FACTORY SEALED...unlike the used version I'm waiting to arrive in the mail, which -- for all I know -- may have been used as a coaster. I suck.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 1 May 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

What does it matter whether an act is current or not, really. Good music is timeless, and works just as fine regardless of which ear it was recorded during.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

Well, the factors that could matter:

- Being able to see that act perform live.
- Being able to more readily find that act's music (older/defunct acts' music is often times out of print or simply very rare).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 1 May 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

I remember the first time I heard Smart Went Crazy I got excited and went and looked up about them online and it turned out they had just broken up like a month earlier.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

Good music is timeless, and works just as fine regardless of which ear it was recorded during

this is nonsense. the ears of recorded music are only a hundred years old anyway.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Monday, 2 May 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

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