What unknown musical artist would you like to share with your fellow audiophiles?

I agree with bdp24 in regard to being a music lover and an audiophile. Being an audiophile puts icing on the cake but the cake is the music. I have enjoyed and been moved by music coming out of the crudest devices since I can remember.

My unknown artist du jour is rapidly becoming 'known'. A band called The Struts out of England. Modern take on glam rock. Maybe glam pop is a better term.  Hard touring, hard working band. Saw them live. Loads of fun. No single member is any sort of musical genius but the front man is one of these types that owns the stage and the crowd. Sadly, production quality of CDs is rather poor. But this isn't the type of band you sit and listen to with a martini in your hand.

I think that when we talk about new or different or 'unknown' those terms are relative. Probably not many quality recorded acts that no one here will have never heard of. But there will be lots of those that not many of us have heard of.

I mentioned The Struts. They've been on the late night shows and were sort of the anchor act for the Victoria Secret Fashion show recently. So hardly unknown and they've been touring for 4 years. Still, a lot of folks here probably haven't heard of them.

One of my favorite and much lesser known acts is the Teskey Brothers. Heard of them here on Audiogon. If you like R&B in the vein of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, etc, you'll like these white kids from Australia. Good stuff. I emailed their agent a few weeks ago and they will be touring the US this summer.

I think you can be a collector without being an audiophile or a music lover. Collecting often takes on its own reason to exist. What is collected can become secondary to the collecting or the collection.

I think you can be an audiophile without being a collector or a music lover. Equipment can get to be the focus or a certain effect like sound stage or holography can become more important to the music.

I think you can be a music lover without being an audiophile or a collector and just enjoy music when and where you find it.

I think being a music lover and an audiophile opens a lot of avenues for enjoyment and appreciation. Add collector to those two and those avenues can become broader or even narrower depending on the impulse to collect.

I’m a music lover first, audiophile second, collector is way down the line even though that impulse might be latent.

I also agree about 21st century music. Especially rock. I know you can find decent stuff if you spend the time and do the legwork. But in years past there was a lot, and I mean a lot, of good stuff right there in your face. I struggle to find new bands that give me any hope for rock and roll. That’s one of the reasons I like The Struts so much. In the same way the Teskey Brother give me hope for the bluesier R&B scene which is pretty stagnant too.

One of the things I like about both of these bands is that even though they are retro, it isn't kitchy or cheesy. They love the older music and are putting their hearts into it. They aren't just cover acts trying to be someone else. They are using the old flavors but making their own dish.

How about Gary Clark, Jr? He's been around a little while but you won't hear him on many radio stations. 

Very hard to put him in a box. Amazing Hendrix like rock guitarist and on his debut album Blak & Blu there are a couple of very hard rocking songs and a remake of Henrdrix' Third Stone from the Sun which will pin your ears back. But on the same album he has smooth R&B and even a tinge of hip hop. His second album has less hard rock sound but more blues to it. His acoustic song "Church" is stunning in its soulfullness, sadness, and simplicity.

https://youtu.be/FgbUcJA6ivE

@fmpnd Monty Python humor. We all have our burdens to carry. ;-)

I think it would nice on threads like this if folks checked out other folks' recommendations and reported back on how they liked them. 

There have been a wide variety of recommendations here and not everyone is going to like them all but it is fun to hear when someone hears a new act for the first time that they fall in love with.

I found Tedeschi Trucks earlier this year and really love their first album. Their second album gets stelar reviews but leaves me cold. The same thing happened, for me, with Alabama Shakes. I don't dislike either of these band's second albums but they just don't do it for me.

Gary Clark, Jr.'s second album is not the tour de force his first album was but it is still great.

I have high hopes for third albums from all these bands.

The Struts, that I mentioned earlier (glam pop), just released their second album and it is every bit as fun as their first. It will be a long while before a third comes out.

@fmpnd : Did you see that one of the mods removed my John Cleese quote? Someone flagged it as an insult and the moderator removed it. I think that's hysterical.

Monty Python literacy is at an all time low. Who will be lost of and forgotten next, Moe, Larry and Curly?

@fmpnd In the moderator's defense, I did not put it in quotes _and_ the post was flagged by another member who found it offensive. So it was probably a member who did not realize it was Monty Python. I am flattered that some member thought that I had thought up that insult!

Anyway, back to the music.