What Ever Happened To <insert band>

Discussion
1

OK, there’s probably been similar threads to this in this great forum’s history. But it’s about time I got more involved here and as I’ve got this on my mind at the moment I’ll trot this out.

Which bands can you think of that were hyped by the money making machine into being “the next big thing” but never made it - and you could see it coming a mile off? And face it, when these bands finally bowed and didn’t make it you had a big shit eating “I told you so” grin all over your face, didn’t you?

Any bands spring to mind?

For me, the bands that fall into the “Supposed To Be but Never Were’s” would include:

Stereo Mcs - Remember these guys from the 90’s?? Remember “Get yourself connected…da da da da da!” Didn’t think so.

Skunk Anansie - Another British band from the 1990’s whom the press hyped through the ceiling. And the response? (outside of Britain anyway) crickets.

Dee Lite - 1990 “They’re gonna be huge”. 1995 “Dee who?”

L.A Guns - Gonna be the next Motley / Guns / Wasp / Skid Row…yada yada yada… yeah. nup.

Prick - remember when these guys were going to be the next big thing in industrial music? Think harder.

Alien Ant Farm - very much hyped Down Under. Thankfully however…

Big Audio Dynamite - “Rush for a change of atmosphere…” Fuck that used to annoy the shit out of me when it got played once every 15 minutes on the radio back in the day. I guess (in the end) the record buying public showed them.

Morcheeba - The next Massive Attack? Um…nope.

Crash Test Dummies - Mmmmm Mmmmm…

Days Of The New - well, at least I guess we found out what they’ve been up to. Yay! <crickets>

Local H - Bound For The Floor? How about Bound For The Bin?

Kula Shaker - Example of how the music press can get it so so wrong…

[:|]

2

MC 900 Ft. Jesus

4

B.A.D. had a couple of hits.

5

Local H is still around. Not huge or anything, but seems to be doing all right. Rolls through town on tour every year or two. My wife LOVES them. Pack Up The Cats was probably their peak, that record was better than As Good As Dead (the one with the radio hits) in my opinion, but both were good. The newer records as a whole aren’t as good but there are some songs that are really solid.

6

Around the late 90s, the U.S. was under the sway of the stupid ‘Cool Brittania’ fad. Scads of faceless or utterly predictable ‘Brit-pop’ bands were marketed here with the logic that, having bought into Oasis, those gullible Yanks would probably go for some other unremarkable crap too.

Given, a lot of those bands did generate some sales here, but practically no one gave them the same attention and veneration that the weekly music rags in the U.K. were giving them. And the bands that did pick up some steam early on, like Supergrass, are now super-absent from playlists.

I might suggest “Gay Dad” as one British group that was pushed / hyped constantly by NME and Melody Maker, and faded into nothingness after getting a few early murmurs of approval from Brit-o-philes here.

7

Dee Lite - 1990 “They’re gonna be huge”. 1995 “Dee who?”

This one I might actually contest (and there’s THREE 'E’s in Deee Lite, lol.)

While they certainly never nabbed any top 40 hits after ‘Groove is in the Heart,’ you have to remember that they are a beloved act of the gay club DJ, which means they’ll have a longevity that spans generations. Just as goths will never, ever tire of doing the looking-for-a-contact-lens dance to “This Corrosion”, or “She’s In Parties,” gay club patrons will never, ever tire of dancing to Deee-Lite or the 70s kitsch from which they get their inspiration. So they do have a leg up on the other bands mentioned which never cracked a ‘niche market’ to give them meager, but long-term, success.

They were also kind of a ‘supergroup’ of non-musicians (DJs and a model) who just melted back into those other careers when Deee Lite fizzled. Towa Tei’s “Future Listening” is a mega-guilty pleasure, namely [url http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kB1ifHjuCM]this track which makes me want to walk my dogs through Harajuku while blasted out of my mind on acid. That, and Pizzicato Five, were among my top five artists for terrorizing customers into leaving the record store…the syrupy sweetness of both had an effect on people similar to bombarding them with early SPK or the harshest Skinny Puppy tracks

8

How 'bout the Spin Doctors? They’re still big, right?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

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How 'bout the Spin Doctors? They’re still big, right?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Are you sure they aren’t still tearing it up on the “jam band” circuit somewhere? They seem like the kind of band that would continue to court the same kind of loyal niche audience that trades Phish bootlegs. Not that any of this is, of course, a good thing.

I hope the reviewer who once refered to ‘With Sympathy’ as “yuppie funk” lived to hear the Spin Doctors…I can think of no better name for the genre of music they play

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The 90s had a ton. New Radicals and Marcy Playground come to mind.

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The 90s had a ton. New Radicals and Marcy Playground come to mind.

Holy crap! I hated that New Radicals song so much. I still do, actually. It’s one of those songs that just makes my blood boil and I feel like doing violence to anyone that was involved with the song or band or has any feelings toward them that is less than absolute hatred.

The Marcy Playground track, however, I’ve actually come to kind of like and find myself singing along when it comes on the radio from time to time.

12

I was going to say Right Said Fred but apparently they are still out there gyrating for the fans.

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I was going to say Right Said Fred but apparently they are still out there gyrating for the fans.

HAHAHA!!! Coming soon to a county fair near you . . .

14

EMF

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There was a lot of that crap around that time. I think they were referring to it as the Manchester sound . . . EMF and Jesus Jones and The Farm and . . . . yeah, I’m not missing any of it.

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[reply]I was going to say Right Said Fred but apparently they are still out there gyrating for the fans.

HAHAHA!!! Coming soon to a county fair near you . . .[/reply]

They were on John Oliver’s HBO show a couple weeks back. Pretty funny.

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[reply]The 90s had a ton. New Radicals and Marcy Playground come to mind.

Holy crap! I hated that New Radicals song so much. I still do, actually. It’s one of those songs that just makes my blood boil and I feel like doing violence to anyone that was involved with the song or band or has any feelings toward them that is less than absolute hatred.

The Marcy Playground track, however, I’ve actually come to kind of like and find myself singing along when it comes on the radio from time to time.[/reply]

I pretty much agree with everything here. Being a huge NIN nerd, I was agitated that the New Radicals had a backwards N in their band logo. Then Eminem and Linkin Park started doing it too.

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I never even noticed the backwards N. I was too busy always being repulsed that such a retarded picture was even used as the album cover. Seriously, THIS is the cover of their album. There is NOTHING about this band that doesn’t make me want to smash them in the face with a brick. Just look at this smug douchebag with his stupid hat and sneakers. If I saw a guy like that just sitting on the floor at some club or party I would stomp on his balls just for looking like a prick. What’s that? I’m a big bully and have no reason to do that? Are you kidding? Did you SEE what this guy looks like. He needs to die. There can be no debate on this topic.

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There was a lot of that crap around that time. I think they were referring to it as the Manchester sound . . . EMF and Jesus Jones and The Farm and . . . . yeah, I’m not missing any of it.

What!!! Not even…the INSPIRAL CARPETS!!!

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[reply]I was going to say Right Said Fred but apparently they are still out there gyrating for the fans.

HAHAHA!!! Coming soon to a county fair near you . . .[/reply]

“Now I’m…too sexy for the Tilt-a-Whirl / too sexy for the petting zoo…” (insert other fairground attractions to your heart’s content, repeat ad nauseam)

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I’m too sexy for these funnel cakes, so sexy it aches!