If you like rock music, I’ve dug through my 1000 song Spotify favorites to find some of the bands I would bet most of you aren’t aware of. I know there are thousands of great songs out there right now I’m unaware of that I wish someone would suggest to me. These are bands I found through commercials, reality TV, you tube etc. Pure chance in most instances.

That’s what is so different about the music we consume today vs the 90s growing up in my formative years. First off the access to anything you want to hear anytime you want to hear it free is amazing. You don’t however have the radio or MTV feeding you what they think you should like. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that time too. You’d hear a song on the radio, and you’d have to wait to listen until they played it again. At least for me I had to manage which CD’s I would spend my limited resources on at the time. I couldn’t afford them all. It was like taking a chance, and many times I’d be disappointed by the rest of the album might only have one or 2 good songs you really loved. Those albums that had 10+ songs strong from top to bottom were the greatest and most memorable.

Nowadays you can listen to every song these bands have ever made though. These are bands that for the most part, I like the majority of their songs and that I found though alternative means. There is a good variety of sounds here as well, at least within the rock genre.

Flickerstick -4236 monthy listeners

These guys were the likable but dysfunctional drunks from one of the first reality TV shows ever called Bands On the Run. The show was a competition show where 4 bands competed for 150k dollars of equipment and money back in 2000 on VH1. They would win but never hit big. I saw them live 4 times and to this day they were one of the 2 best live bands I’ve ever seen. Their first album Welcoming Home the Astronauts is still one of my favorite albums ever.

Flickerstick is having a bit of a renaissance reforming after about 14 years with several of the members going on a tour this year.

Tabitha Secret-28,521 Monthly Listeners

This one might be a bit of a cheat considering this band wrote one of the biggest songs ever. Ever heard of Matchbox Twenty’s 3AM? We’ll technically these guys wrote 3AM and played the song first when Rob Thomas was a part of this band. The story goes when Rob Thomas was discovered in this band, the record label wanted him but didn’t want the two guitarists. So Thomas and the drummer and Bass player left Tabitha’s Secret to start Matchbox 20. They wrote essentially all new material for the first Matchbox 20 album in what would become one of the best-selling albums ever. Only one problem one of the biggest hits of the 90’s was carried over from Tabatha’s Secret and the other two members got some royalties off of it. They would also release several albums of material as well which is good in its own right.

The first Album was called Don’t Play With Matches. You got to love the spite. I can’t say I blame them.

Atomic Tom -26k monthly listeners

I remember exactly when I heard these guys. It was on an AMC commercial for the Godfather of all things around 2005. Edit: I actually just looked it up and the commercial is on you tube. It was 2007, and it was for several movies including the Godfather.

I thought they sounded good, and from that snippet, I was able to type some lyrics into google and find out who they were. Amazing technology considering a decade earlier that wouldn’t have even been possible, and it would be lost forever. Those songs that got away so to speak. From there I was able to find a myspace and the rest history. Great band.

Far Too Jones- 923 Monthly Listeners

Very 90’s here, a great band that just never quite hit. I actually saw them live just by accident at a bar and was hooked. I bought this album and loved every song on it.

Absent Element- 26k TOTAL Listens From the Top Song.

This might be another cheat as the lead singer is well known (Chris Daughtry). I don’t actually remember or know any Daughtry songs, but this song from his band pre-American Idol has 26k total listens. It’s well worth a listen from you. This album deserves to hear the light of day.

The Midnight

This is a little bit of a cheat as well and unlike the others closing in on a million listens (800k) granted they are hitting now where most of those other bands have had their day. I actually found this band off of good old you tube and this song.

This was a few years back when they weren’t as big as they are now, but it showed me how bands can find audiences today. At the time the song had a couple of million views I think, but within a month of hearling it I found out they were going to play a show in my state on a Sunday night. I made a 2 hour drive not knowing what to expect and there were probably 300 people there which was a surprise. 47 liked songs later It introduced me to retro wave and it’s a worm hole I have found many bands I’ve enjoyed since in recent years. Gunship, Kalax, FM84, Timecop, Killstar etc

Anyway these are just a few suggestions. Good bands that deserve more listens especially from the newer generation that would likely otherwise never find them.