i think that this post is the perfect excuse for a lot of w**kers to get overly exited about their pretentious fantasies. some of you are talking like its a compettition to be into the most obscure bands, its not, they are usually crap, and deserve nothing.

eoinfilter, this thread is entitled "Bands Who Should Be More Well Known", i.e. that people feel deserve success and is one of the better threads to be posted here in a while. Maybe one or two people are pretentious, but any band posted in this thread is going to be relatively obscure by definition so who are you to second guess peoples motives for mentioning a particular band? Someone has to hear about a band first and people are sharing their favourite discoveries, whats wrong with that? You're perfectly entitled to your opinion, but come on, surely you can think of something more interesting and constructive to contribute?

in fact, this could be a good regular feature on the site; a regular feature on an up-and-coming local act that deserves some/more attention - interview, photo, links, maybe a track or two to download..... then when they fill croke park we can show how we brought them to fame and feel very pleased with ourselves :D perhaps also a regular section on cult/underground heroes or cult albums - not people like jeff buckley or nick drake who are reasonably successful and well-known by now; una mentioned the fall - plenty of people haven't a clue about them and an article telling their story, recommending albums and arguing for why they deserve more attention.... two ideas in one day; I'm exhausted :D

Aidan, profiles of new bands is a pretty good idea, why not mail Eoghan (webmaster@cluas.com) and see what he thinks. Of course if you do want to interview/review a new band, you can already do that and it will be fitted into either the features or album/gig reviews sections. Have you written for Cluas before? if not, please bear in mind that you will need to submit a review of an established act as your first article. This is merely to ensure that new writers are capable of writing balanced reviews to a good standard. After that you will have free reign to write about whom you choose, provided the writing remains balanced of course As for a section cult albums, we're way ahead of ya on that one, can't say too much, but watch this space. If you want to write something on a cult hero, theres nothing stopping you. It can be included in the features section. to submit a review, use this page: http://www.cluas.com/forms/submit_an_article.htm I believe for features you still need to mail Eoghan (or Jules if its an Op-Ed).

Some other acts I would recommend: the unicorns - who will cut our hair when you're gone american indie band whose album has been getting lots of play chez moi carina round - the disconnection reminds me of pj harvey at times and a major talent the national - sad songs for dirty lovers like the tindersticks crossed with afgan whigs, new album out soon

sweetie, your spot on with the national.

Has anyone mentioned ambulance ltd...they probably have. ive just recently been introduced to their stuff and i like it

Klootfan, I bought 'LP' by Ambulance LTD. It's good in parts and they could come back stronger with a second album, but this first one kind off strays off track a bit. Few more acts that people might or might not know: The Waifs (www.thewaifs.com) Cowboy Junkies (www.cowboyjunkies.com) Drive-By Truckers (www.drivebytruckers.com) Kings Of Convenience (http://www.cluas.com/music/albums/kings_of_conv.htm) Trembling Blue Stars (www.tremblingbluestars.com) Jack Johnson (www.jackjohnsonmusic.com)

Cheers Gar, ive heard that alright... Ive only got a few mp3's off their site, which i liked, but its always a risk buying an album based on a sample from their site. I ordered the Havana Guns 7" from rough trade, so at least one purchase has come out of this thread.

Gar just got Jack Johnson's 'In between dreams' - A1, great songwriter.

Yeah it's good album alright but I would recommend his second effort 'On And On' which is great. The first album 'Bushfire Fairytales' is ok too but the second album is his best work yet. www.jackjohnsonmusic.com

totally agree with Gar , 2nd one is the best , but all are good! Would love to see him live but never seems to stray to far for the US.

the National are cool alright. I'm also looking forward to see Do Me Bad Things at Crawdaddy, there's a bit of a 'buzz' there, I guess you could call it.

Back to the thread... Michael Head has released some fantastic albums over the years especially 'the magical world of the strands' and 'hms fable.' Anybody catch him in whelans a couple of years ago?

i think paul tiernan definately deserves a bigger audience - i'm sure some would describe him as talentless, derivative and irritating (and possibly even tousle-haired), simply because he's irish and a singer-songwriter, but he writes beautiful songs, has a great voice and can actually play the guitar! if you don't know him (he's on the first 'other voices' cd), his new album 'belle' is definately worth exploring. also - rachael yamagata. randomly caught her gig in boulder, colorado and was well impressed. haven't seen her cd 'happenstance' over here yet but i'm sure it won't be too long coming, i think she's starting to make a name for herself in the states... you can hear some stuff on her website, i believe: www.rachaelyamagata.com ben christophers is quite interesting too - he'll be supporting bell x1 in a couple of weeks. i really like all his albums, but the first one, 'my beautiful demon', is probably my fav. just realised that none of these are proper bands. please don't kill me, me so sorreeeeeeee!