The only one i can think of off the top of my head is good charlotte. I was into them about a year and a half before trl picked them up with 'lifestyles of the rich and famous"
John Mayer. I go to a small club in Hollywood, and an act that I regular see there (Glen Phillips) had John open for him before he was anybody. Just John and his acoustic guitar in a club of about 120 people. Sounded amazing.
About 6 months later I saw John again...on MTV in the No Such Thing video
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST. I heard their second album (1970) at a friend's and began collecting their entire catalog up until their breakup a few years ago.
CLIFFORD T. WARD. Bought his "Home Thoughts" LP in 1974 knowing nothing about him, loved his voice and lyrics and proceeded to collected all of his work as well. He died of MS a couple of years ago.
KAYAK. Dutch band. Superb until the lineup changed.
I can't think of many. Most of my favorite artists either already made it big when I discovered them or have yet to make it big.
I guess Shakira counts. When I got into her music, she was already a big star in Latin America, but she wasn't known at all in the US. She still makes good records despite the image she presents of herself, though I much prefer her earlier singer-songwriter phase.
I too can't think of all that many that I discovered before the "big breaks".
The Bangles: Although I missed out on the first EP (because it's original release never made it to South Louisiana), I did catch the first LP, All Over The Place and bought the record having not heard the first thing about them or anything from them. I loved the album the moment the needle hit the vinyl. While "Hero Takes A Fall" soon made the MTV rounds later, it was the next album that made them big with songs like "Walk Like An Egyptian".
The Cocteau Twins: Never all that big in the U.S., but beginning in '83 with the second UK album Head Over Heels I began collecting all the import LPs, EPs and later the CDs before they started distributing domestically with Capitol starting with Blue Bell Knoll ('88).
Most others I discovered just as they became popular like Heart (in '76, not during the '85 comeback) or well after.
I do have several LPs and CDs that I bought of unknows on a whim, and most stayed unknowns.
Oh, also saw No Doubt and Sublime at the Inter-sorority beach volleyball tournament in Los Angeles in 1991.
Damn that was a great day.
And the bands weren't bad either
Bill - glad to hear you know of Glen. If you are in the L.A. area, go to the Largo in Hollywood, he often plays there (along with Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, Colin Hay and other smaller acts).
Porcupine Tree I still cant believe that a band this good can spend so long flying under radar and was horrified ( and later delighted to discover their huge back catalogue. The Dvd-A/CD of 'Stupid Dream' is available here :
a friend of mine used to work at a radio station, and was friends with john mayer when he was trying to get his demo tape played, and after a while my friend took it and had it played, and he was "discovered". i strongly dislike mayer's music, but it's an interesting story to me.
Godsmack is a band from my area that used to play at some real "upscale" places. I actually sat at the bar next to Sully and had a beer and chatted with him before he went on once. Staind is another band that I've seen a few times locally before they made it big.
-Metallica: My brother gave me a taped copy of Kill Em All and said "you like Motorhead check this out". That must have been in 84 I think. -The Flaming Lips: Was looking for something different in a mom and pop record store here in town. Looking at the back cover of Telepathic Surgery with the eyeball, I bought it. That was 1991 I think -Janes Addiction: Same record store. The guy who was running tha place said here listen to this. It was their first album.
Probably the biggest one for me is Maroon 5, I thought Songs About Jane album was great. I bought it about 6 months before the rest of the world caught on to it. Funny enough that album was released back in 2004 and took it a good year to finally catch on. John Mayer is still one that at least in my group of friends I'm the only one who really likes him or has really heard his material. But I was a fan of his just after "Room For Squares" came out, bought the album on a whim cause I hated the titled of it and I've ended up liking everything he's done since. Great musician.
I don't know if this counts, but I started listening to Eva Cassidy before there was any big national press about her. Unfortuneately, I didn't discover her music until after she passed away, but it was before there was the news articles about her music.
I was listening to U2 in ~1980/81 when nobody really knew who they were yet. One of the local college stations would play the whole album for new artist and I happened to catch either Boy or October and I really liked it. I still have all of their albums up until Rattle & Hum on vynil Now I don't particularly care for them anymore....liked them better before they became an icon...