For you indie rockers out there, what obscure bands have you marked out as having the potential for greatness?

I have seen the second coming of The Verve. It is called Exit Calm.

I don’t know what you consider obscure, but I can’t get enough of the following:

Ghostland Observatory
My Morning Jacket
Neko Case
The National
Bon Iver
M83

Of course KOL belongs in this group, but they’re far from obscure anymore. When frat boys start listing KOL in their list of faves… meh.

In Broken English

@essieness -I dunno if Mrs Case is considered ‘obscure’ anymore ;)
But, I’d put forward St. Vincent.

@Drawkward You’re probably right, she’s still awesome!

Let me put it this way, if you can walk into a Borders or a Barnes & Noble and find a CD of theirs then they don’t meet my criteria for obscurity. ;) MMJ, The National and M83 have such exposure.

I’ve been out music snobbed!

Ok, I reduce my list to Ghostland Observatory. ;)

@essieness LOL

Damm. I’m right now trying my library against the Border’s search, and it’s not faring well. ;)

@Drawkward well, you can search and find just about anything through Borders, but does the store have it in stock? They stock what they expect they can sell, and I’ve seen albums by the bands I mentioned previously out on the shelves.

Le Loup
The Pica Beats

@hiphiphopflipflapflop Good point. Animal Collective and Metric could be pretty big, well, maybe.

@Drawkward Does greatness require big-ness? That might be worth another question on its own, maybe?

@hiphiphopflipflapflop That is a good question!

Also, I’m noting these artists you guys are listing. Thanks for the recommendations!

@hiphiphopflipflapflop This is a good point. I was kind of defining greatness more closely to big-ness.

@essieness I was hoping to get something going where people would share. :)

Off the top of my head, Radiohead is the only group that could release something totally uncompromising (Kid A) and yet still remain huge. Everybody else it seems must water their stuff down a bit to reach the next level of popularity.

I was very gratified to see The Boxer Rebellion finally get a break this year.

@hiphiphopflipflapflop Yeah, I thought you were, but nobody’s biting yet. Or maybe they don’t have anyone to add. Do you have a Last.fm account? We have a Fluther group over there. It sounds like you have some good music tastes, so it might be a cool way to share music :)

@hiphiphopflipflapflop – Not many bands in history, were able to do that! The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Bee Gees, Ministry, Madonna and Radiohead are only the few that come to mind.

I know, I set the bar a bit high with the question worded the way it is. No one wants to bring their faves or stuff they just casually like to a snob fest and have them put down.

Bat For Lashes & April March. Both are cute indie musicians.

The Veils, too.

The Essex Green
The Wave Pictures
Marina and the Diamonds
Tafra
Sam Hester
White Antelope
The Soft Pack
Rafter
The Long Goodbye
Fujiya & Miyagi
Jay Brannan
La Roux

@boots: I LOVE THE VEILS. Advice for Young Mothers to Be was my track 1 on my summer mix. So effin good.

Two interesting bands I found recommended on Exit Calm’s messageboard:
The Bavarian Druglords
The Black Marquee

@TitsMcGhee You’re the only other person I know of that knows about them. :D

Red Fang
Baroness

Both kindof heavy stoner rock

Dredg
Bon Iver
Beck (Is Already Great)
Animal Collective
Fair To Midland (Some Local Flavor)
Porcupine Tree
Poe
The Airborne Toxic Event
Cloud Cult (They Paint On Stage)
Thrice
The Paper Chase (Good Luck Finding Them)
I could go on for days…

Black Moth Super Rainbow.
Explosions in the Sky. (may be to big)
American Analog Set.
Elliott Smith. (also pretty big, but amazing none the less)
Death From Above 1979.
Ghostland Observatory. (already been menitioned, but they put on one of the best live shows I have ever seen)
The Notwist.

Lots more, just can’t think right now. Long weekend.

@lukiarobecheck Ghostland is the shit.

@alossforwords: Totally yes on Cloud Cult, but I would argue that Animal Collective, Bon Iver, and ESPECIALLY Beck aren’t really obscure. Indie? Yeah, sure. Obscure? Not so much.

@lukiarobecheck: Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like all of those bands are pretty well known, especially Elliott Smith. Although, I did once meet a kid named Elliott Smith, and when I looked at his name tag, I exclaimed “I thought you were dead!” He was not amused, probably because he didn’t know what I was talking about.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obscure

Laughing We’re working with a broad adjective here!

@TitsMcGhee You’re right, but I like to throw those names around on the slim chance someone hasn’t heard them, or hasn’t heard them in a while. Of all of them, Fair to Midland is probably the least well-known, but my favorite. Their shows are an experience to reckon with. The lead singer’s voice… more powerful than most that I’ve heard live. I can’t say enough good things about them.

@alossforwords: I just wouldn’t consider someone with 8 major label albums ‘obscure’ in any sense of the word. And who doesn’t know the song “Loser”? I’ll look for that band though.

@TitsMcGhee: You got me there.