2nd edition in the category I call Underappreciated (which may be my favorite category), and this time the two bands I highlight have qualifiers for this category beyond just the amount of listeners. These two groups are doing/did something truly special for their genres; and I’d like to recognize them here today.

For a link to a Spotify playlist that holds the songs recommended in this article and the other “Underappreciated” posts (especially if you prefer over Youtube embeds), please click here.

Tenacious D

These guys (literally just two, Kyle Gass and the Legendary Jack Black) fit this category so well because they are underrated in much more than just not enough listeners. At the surface you’d think their content is constructed for humor and in that way it just be shallow shock rock (“Cock Push-ups and the Powerslide!” is a lyric). But really that is not even close to an accurate way to depict this band; they really are so damn talented. Kyle Gass is an extremely gifted guitarist and song writer and Jack Black (yes that actor with some slapstick elements to his style) has an amazing and quintessential rockstar voice (as he points out in “Master Exploder”: “My Voice is Fucking Powerful!”) They are seriously one of my favorite bands for the quality rock songs they put out; not their humor (I don’t listen to any other bands who center around humor).

Look no further than “Tribute” and “Wonderboy” on their very first album. Tribute’s build up is perfect, starting out with an sweet acoustic melody into a more traditional rock middle and interlude into a great heavy solo at the end overlayed on top of an outro verse; these guys aren’t just messing around, they are seamlessly integrating strong rock elements playing to their strengths and creating real art. As mentioned it’s not just a fluke on that album, you got Wonderboy again just delivering an uplifting song for you. Again utilizing a great intro melody to pull you in, it quickly gets into a rock opera. Jack isn’t as much rock godding it here but more delivering his prose verses before hitting heartfelt choruses; then of course you got the twist at the end! This song always makes me smile (And Fly! to a random battle at the end hah).

Tenacious D also offers Bonus Media to accompany their music!! Of course I am referring to their Second Album actually being a sound track to their Movie Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. The movie is quite silly and the lyrics and even song construction often reflect that but there is still a lot of objectively great rock songs on this album. Whether looking for great harder rock elements in “Master Exploder” and “The Metal” or more rock operas with “Kickapoo” (With a part from Dio) and “Beezleboss,” (with a part from Dave Grohl!) you can definitely listen to this album without having watched the movie. The latter song has one of my favorite sections of any song ever after the Devil’s (Dave’s) verses; after the little interlude conversation of the D, they pick it back up and trade verses together and once it goes back to just Jack he delivers the vocals that just puts goosebumps on my skin when I hear it (Especially “you hold the scepter, we hold the key.”)

Their later albums I will say I haven’t been able to get into as much (though I love their rendition of “Time Warp”) but these first two albums alone are so strong that I will say they are one of my top 20 favorite bands. Give them a listen!!

Songs to get you into them

Tribute

Wonderboy

Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)

Kielbasa

Master Exploder

Screaming Trees

Next underappreciated band I got into much more recently even though they are from the Grunge Era. In fact, they were one of the original grunge bands as was Soundgarden; one big difference between the two is you’ve probably heard of Soundgarden. Still, don’t sleep on this band, I for one am glad I discovered them; even if it was decades after I jumped into Grunge. Speaking of Grunge, to me it is a bit of an enigmatic genre in that it doesn’t have an obvious sound to me; it is heavily geographic based genre (need Seattle area ties to be “In” it feels like) and then it is a amalgam of other genres, especially Punk and Metal.

Screaming Trees feels like a mix of genres too but I am not sure I would say it’s either Punk nor Metal. So if you want something you can call grungy but less aggressive, you’ve found your band. Frontmanned by Mark Lanegan; vocally he really puts his stamp on each song; so much so that it almost sounds like the mix the instrumental elements to kind of blend into the background. He’s got a softer voice especially for grunge and it’s a bit echoey giving both a folky and psychedelic feel to the music (You may also recognize this voice on a few Queens of the Stone Age songs as he guest sang on several recordings for the band).

Again I feel like they transcend Grunge more than the other grunge bands; as if they influenced a lot of music, just not maybe not grunge music as much? For example I feel like “Revelator” and even the second half of “Dollar Bill” sounds like 90s Brit rock (like Oasis or the Verve). And then other songs go the opposite way, you can really hear influences with earlier psychedelic rock bands; such as The Doors with “Disappearing.” The one knock I’d probably have on this band is that I feel the songs sound pretty similar to eachother in many cases. Whether is because of the aforementioned mix of the instrumentals, or the twang of the guitar and distortion, or just the psychaedelic feels perhaps giving more emphasis and priority to the soft and echoey vocals of Lanegan, I have trouble finding a many songs rising apart from the others.

But as I listen more to the songs I am sure that will dissipate; BECAUSE For a band that is often an afterthought in the Grunge scene 30 years later; I was surprised going through their discography how many tracks I saved in my playlists; I really appreciated the music… and wished the background wasn’t a faded as mentioned before because you can hear some good guitar licks in there. I probably wouldn’t listen to full discography all at once but it does well to mix into a Playlist, which is often how I listen to music. This band flies under the radar but shouldn’t anymore! And while you can no longer catch Lanegan on tour, you can still check out their music.

Songs to get you into them

Bed of Roses

Halo of Ashes

Revelator

Dollar Bill

All I Know