There’s an old line that functions as a punchline among music heads: “I’ve heard of them… but I’ve never heard them.” It’s funny because the speaker is basically revealing they’re trying to stay afloat in a conversation about an artist who they can’t admit they’ve never heard. 

Yeah, happens. Every music fan walks around with a head full of mental Post Its bearing names of kinda recognizable bands and performers that they haven’t gotten around to yet. But look, there’s a lot of internet out there. If you’ve never heard a thing, but you’d like to, why not try hearing it? Grab your phone and let the floodgates open. You can preview an entire discography, hours of material, before deciding which album you need to buy first. Heck, you can hit the budget used bins and you’ll probably be able to find at least a couple of their records – maybe not the primo material, but enough to provide a hint of why people talk about ‘em.

Now, one group that I think stands as a really good example of a semi-slept-on yet worthwhile discography is Kinda Recognizable but Not Super-Famous Late ‘70s/Early ‘80s Band.

I’ve been listening to them heavily this year. Look, I slept on ‘em forever, too, but they’re worth the deep dive for sure. And they’re not the only band with a similar story. So let me break down what you get when you go deep with this band:

Budget-Production Aggro One with No Hits is their first album, and I knew their big hits for years before I backtracked my way here, but this is the really got me interested in doing an end-to-end catalog listen. The energy level is so high, and you can clearly hear what they would go on to become, but it’s so much more raw and confrontational. 

One Where Everyone Was Finally Able to Afford Three Meals per Day and Make Time to Focus on Songwriting is really strong. No filler on that album. Probably my fave of the bunch. Really smart, nuanced production, and the whole band drives so hard. 

One With a Top 30 Hit but Otherwise Tries Too Much to Incorporate New Sounds that Don’t Always Work is the album everyone mentions because it has The Main Hit. Clearly doesn’t rate many repeat listens, though, because you find it in the $4 bins everywhere, and tbh it’s better off there. 

One Where Everyone Is Tired and They’re Resurfacing Songs From Their Very Early Days that They Didn’t Record for the First Album but Nonetheless Somehow Has Two Top 50 Hits is kinda weak, but those two singles are undeniably bangin’.

One They Really Shouldn’t Have Recorded gets sort of an “undecided” from me tbh. The songs aren’t great, but there’s something mesmerizing about its particular “dgaf” vibe. 

One Where They’re Not on a Major Label Anymore and the Singer Is the Only Original Member Left and Next One Where They’re Not on a Major Label Anymore and the Singer Is the Only Original Member Left (maybe I’m crazy, but these two feel “of a piece” to me) have some super-cool stuff you can really dig your teeth into, but honestly it almost sounds like a different band. 

It’s always an interesting thing when you get into an artist who might seem to have a few entire albums with discernible high and low points — but listening through end to end, experiencing the whole arc of their catalog, the whole somehow feels like more than the sum of its parts. I mean, provided you can work around whatever music the artist or an old label decided to pull from streaming. Someone always has the missing stuff up on YouTube somewhere. Go ahead and pick a band you only kinda know about, hit the bins in the independent record shop in any US college town, and go nuts.

A segment of this post originally appeared on my personal Facebook page.

Disclaimer: This is a parody. It’s satire. This band I’m describing doesn’t exist. This doesn’t even accurately describe any specific real band I can think of. This is a JOKE, and I’m over here destroying the joke by explaining it, but that’s just what you have to DO to keep people from getting the wrong idea. I mean, I accept the responsibility, but you have to understand how this feels yanno