Great acts who never made an album

M/A/R/R/S
Stardust

There's got to be others, surely?

They have to have released some recorded music, I think, or else have toured together a lot (thinking of weirdy one-off supergroups).

Rocket From the Tombs

Black Tambourine

did lifeboat ever put anything out?
i don't know about great, but saw them open for the replacements and dug it

everybody before like 1950?

Boring clever answers like "Beethoven" need not apply.

I don't think the Screamers ever actually made a proper album...?

might apply to the Weirdos too, I can't remember

the dils

everybody before like 1950?

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, March 9, 2012 8:36 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Boring clever answers like "Beethoven" need not apply.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, March 9, 2012 8:37 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Wait, apparently Rocket From the Tombs did release a real album of new material last year. Nevermind then.

Simply Saucer finally had Cyborgs Revisited compiled years after the fact.

Cold Sun also had an unreleased acetate compiled with some other stuff and released as Dark Shadows.

Robert Johnson & Skip James' 30s material was compiled years after the fact, which is true of a lot of 30s blues. What lps that were released in a lot of blues artists lifetimes were done after rediscovery based on earlier 78s so might almost fit. A lot of blues artists followed short term success by following other careers as farmers, preachers etc & would have continued as such without that rediscovery.

Great Society only had material released 2 years after they ceased to be. Conspicuous Only By Its Absence's title refers to this and was released in '68 based on Jefferson Airplane's success. They did record an unreleased lp though.

Oxford Circle only had material compiled for The Nuggets from The Golden State series after releasing one single.

The Charlatans the early San Francisco group only had an lp released by a later line-up with earlier material by the classic line-up finally being mopped up by the same Nuggets from The Golden State series.

Vagrants only had lps released in long term hindsight too.

Electric Eels only had compilations made long after the fact too.

If a band splits and then reforms years afterward on the strength of popularity of compiled material do you count their new lp material as being within their lifetime?

I don't think the Screamers ever actually made a proper album...?

― the sir edmund hillary of sitting through pauly shore films (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, March 9, 2012 8:38 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They apparently had a policy of not recording themselves though several members had record labels that released other artists work.
That Xeroid compi's pretty cool though.

yeah there's comps of both the Screamers and the Weirdos' demos and random recordings but nothing that could be considered an "album"

buddy bolden

Big flame, Tallulah Gosh, Cruella De Ville and The Hook and Pull Gang, though I may be isolated in my enduring admiration of those last two.

lots of jazz groups (and for me new orleans brass bands) where all the individual members have recorded, but certain band lineups went undocumented

Greatest bands ever that released, like, nothing basically
'Canonized' artists/bands with very little output and/or recorded material to their name

i love The Hook and Pull Gang, that drummer could really belt them out! was going to answer The MacKenzies earlier but thought i would be the obscurant of the thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtlIRFt6AY

Aside from The Action, there were these guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKBPZ0-qhE

must be hallucinating that Delta 5 LP in my collection ...

Xpost to zappi - you are Glasgwegian then? The Hook and Pull Gang were a great band and made an almighty racket too. I often wonder what became of the ex-members?

I like the MacKenzies too, though I wonder what an album by them would have been like. The two singles they made were quite radically different. They never really evolved into a style they were comfortable with.

yeh, i was 15 and sneaking into some of those FSD recordings, but just slightly too young to be able to get into Splash One/46 West etc. always wondered what happened to H&PG. MacKenzies had a Peel Session that got repeated a few times, was super jealous of the guys in years above me at school who would go & see them live with Big Flame etc

there was a time i was really waiting for my jealous god to release their album as i loved their 3 eps.

i would never suggest that they were great though.

delakota were on course re a second album (one single was released .. meant to get it, but missed my chance), but damon came along and put an offer on the table that the lads couldn't refuse as they ended up forming the early days gorillaz live band.

was that Delta 5 album not just a compilation?? every day's a school day. discount that one then.

See The Whirl. Thought it was an lp. Had it on vinyl way back & think I read a review of it from when it came out. Came out in '81 so was contemporary to the band.
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/delta_5/see_the_whirl/

One of my favourite one-offs is Mag and the Suspects http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Dfa8PVyOr1U
Great 'singer', great lyrics, wish they'd made an album

would rallizes denudes work? i believe the did go into the studio a few times, but i'm not sure that anything came of it, and i must admit i don't know much about them (and everything i have by them is live).

NNB (though i think they actually have a "lost" album that no one has ever heard)

omg I would love to hear a lost NNB album

oooh yes to NNB

and
http://hyped2death.com/catalog/images/Neptunes-Car2.gif

and The Pin Group!

...and somewhere there's a lost Soundtracks and Head lp

The Assembly

The answer is: The Mumps.

Garage greats, The Dovers!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTzvZMemHCQ
Four singles then nothing.

Prince and Miles.

The Painted Ship! This sounds a bit like the Stooges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLU8lfy0slw&feature=related

delakota were on course re a second album (one single was released .. meant to get it, but missed my chance)

one album excludes you from never having made an album (also don't worry, that later single isn't up to the other stuff)

anagram OTM but since I'm posting, The Yeastie Girls and Seventeen and The Crooning Wankstains

If greatness could be measured by sales numbers, I suppose Bandu Aid....

Band Aid, I mean

The Weirdos did make an album, it was called Condor and came out in 1990.

I'll sub in the Avengers for the Weirdos.

"And she said yes" is unbelievable!

If this was about certain eras of styles of music you could include the heavy folk stuff the SWANS were doing in '88. That line-up of the band didn't record in that style, & the lineup changed by the time of Burning World the closest lp to the era. Some of the material turned up with further lineup changes on the White Rabbit era stuff.

But I think that '88 SWANS era's really special and needs hearing.
But presumably falls outside the remit.

I could possibly name a handful of Norwegian 60s acts.

The Misunderstood? There were a couple of posthumous collections released on Cherry Red but not a proper album as such.

Preston punks The Worst famously never made a record, and for that reason I really don't know if they really were great or if it was just memories of drugs and good times for those who saw them

For someone really into 1960s soul or garage bands or freakbeat, you wouldn't really know where to start with this.

Maybe true with punk, too - i.e., Killed by Death, etc. - so seeing Avengers/Dils/Screamers here maybe feels a little regionalist.

Sonic's Rendezvous Band

Just the one single...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtqTAvv2kDA

Derrick May is probably the most influential Detroit techno producer of them all, but he never released an album. His singles have been compiled on a couple of comps though.

was thinking re this as i fell asleep last night as i knew something was bugging me.
and then i realised one massive ommision : steinski
never released an album proper.
one mixtape, and one bootleg compilation of the 12" tracks, and thats it.
whereas the influence those early tracks had was massive.

isn't The Homosexual's lone lp actually a compilation?

The Misunderstood? There were a couple of posthumous collections released on Cherry Red but not a proper album as such.

― Gavin, Leeds, Saturday, March 10, 2012 2:08 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there's I think 4 compis out Before The Dream Faded, Legendary Goldstar Sessions, Golden Glass and whatever the title of the Acetates set through Ugly Things was. But only 2 singles or was it even 1 during their lifetime. I think 2 tracks from the '66 sessions were released in '69 followed by a new version of the band being formed around Glen Ross Campbell. These were captured in the Supershow film and recorded the Golden Glass material.
Ugly Things told their story over 4 or 5 issues which were well worth reading. As most of that mag tends to be with the odd exception.
The singer wrote an autobiography which was put out through Ugly Things too. Very interesting read though it's more about his life in India post draft dodging & becoming a Krsna monk.

The New Age Pat Kilroy's group recorded an lp which was shelved cos he died before it was released so no band would be around to release it. It was finally released about 5 years ago on REd Lounge records.
Great article detailing their history by David Biassotti in one of the Ugly Things too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5-H_Lqfm24

Ringo's High.. bit of a west Yorkshire reference, but would have like to have seen an album.

the misunderstood and wimple winch and we the people three of my alltime fave 60's bands that never had an album. but, luckily, they all left lots of cool stuff behind.

The Attack too! god, what a great band.

and The Creation album that was europe-only in the 60's was just a bunch of singles, i think? not a proper album. though i guess it kinda counts.

also public nuisance. this song probably in my top ten of 60's rock songs. not just garage rock. all rock. and their stuff really needs a re-reissue. limited reissue that came out a while back didn't get heard by enough people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E93wr4o67u8

misunderstood, public nuisance, we the people, three bands that could rival u.k. freakbeat and psych. there weren't a ton who could do that. i mean, don't get me wrong, tons of great garage rock in the states - duh - but very few bands that could slice your head off like The Attack or The Move or The Prettys or 50 other u.k. groups. (and in a lot of cases bands that reached those heights here did it on one song on a single that nobody heard on local labels. in england people did it every day on major labels. hats off, blimey. i can withstand the beckhams cuz i remember the good things you've given me...)

oh man, i forgot The Poets. one of the greatest groups of the 60's! no album. better than almost anybody.

good bands.

I've only heard "That's the way it's gotta be" of The Poets, awesome song

The Ravishing Beauties' output was just one Peel session and an appearance on an NME cassette. Such a shame!
Boys Wonder, who were doing tacky, cartoon Britpop in 1987.
Someone beat me to Cruella De Ville. They were absolutely brilliant, unique. They recorded a Roy Wood-produced album that never came out - I would love Cherry Red or someone to release it but I imagine the audience isn't quite there.

2.3, just the one single in 1978, none of them apparently ever recorded anything again... until 2018 when they finally put out an LP.

Anyway, for 40 years this was all there was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZcTD9RqLEU

Electric Guitars - Singles & EP's but no album

The Monroes - One EP

The Ravishing Beauties' output was just one Peel session and an appearance on an NME cassette. Such a shame!

― houdini said, Monday, October 3, 2022 10:12 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think all their material got incorporated into Virginia Astley's solo repertoire, although the versions of those songs done for Peel are hard to top, mainly due to Kate St John's contributions.

Q Lazzarus was one who never got as far as an album, or even an EP. Just two original songs and a cover released in her lifetime, although it seems she wrote and recorded a lot more that was just never heard.

Lori & The Chameleons

A side-project sure but this thread started with MARRS and Stardust

Liquid Liquid

Miaow