5 best underrated or unknown bands and why?

Hey Mike,
Gotta agree w/ the Uz Jsme Doma pick. The 1st couple of times I caught them live I thought I was gonna forget how to breathe...totally astounding stuff. The 3rd time (Ears tour) was a dud. I heard the same assessment from a couple of other Doma freaks who went to different shows. I really hope they can rebound.
Here are a few other interesting and mathematically twisted bands that can hog up and hold hostage lots of valuable cranial contents:

Miriodor, depraved, often sombre, rock influenced instrumental carnival music. These guys are playing at the Nearfest pre show on 6/27,(if your're there, introduce yourself ,I'll be the tall ugly bald guy in the 2nd row).

Lucas Niggli's Zoom, Trombone/Guitar/Drums trio, completely makes moot any line between improvisation and composition. The spiraling trombone flatulations, smearing guitar swells and amazingly inventive drumming all print in the head like the most carefully rehearsed and composed compositions.

Massacre (w/ Fred Frith) All 3 of their discs are HUGE! Every guy in the band is a #&*%!! musical genius who is constantly crunching tonal and percussive possibilities. When they put out a record there's a helluva' lot of cool previously unavailable angular poop to soak up. Sometimes you may get your head blown off and have to screw it back on before you can learn how to listen, but it's a small price to pay.

Loch Ness, Mexican instrumental guitar/bass/drums trio, you might end up w/ something like this if you stuck King Crimson (Red era) in a room and made them listen to early Black Sabbath non stop for a week and then got them to record a spaghetti western soundtrack. Has a great primitve underground feel alot like High Fidelity Orch. (also from Mexico)

Fermata, Start w/ the 1st two (available on one disc) This band was on fire! it's really obvious that new discoveries were popping up for them all the time. It's not a stretch to say this band was the Chech equivalent of the Mahavishnu Orch. (Inner Mounting Flame or Birds of Fire days). You'll hear guitar, bass and keyboard sounds from Fermata that aren't on any Mahavishnu records, so if you dig the best Mahavishnu stuff and you haven't heard this, you're really in for a treat.

X-Legged Sally, Slow Up disc is a good one to start with. Sound like a bunch of Zappa-fied Dolphy headed Bartok-ers. The Zappa element is pretty much from the Grand Wazoo/WakaJawaka period. Real groovy bass clarinet work and meticulously precise choppy passages are especially prevalent on Slow Up and Land of the Giant Dwarfs.

Okay, that was six, sorry.

Here are 5 more excellent brain fryers that ya' shouldn't ought to overlook:
Kada
Blast (Sringy Rugs is my fave)
Trettioariga Kriget (1st)
A Noise Fragment (live ep)
Tipographica

Thanks duanegoosen,I know Fermata from long time ago,I used to own one record from them back home in Czech but I was not in jazzrock at that time I was just stupid little teenager.I am definately gonna check out your ideas they seem very promising.Do you like Ruins from Japan?Mike

I love Ruins, they can be a tough listen at first (It sometimes seems like they're throwing away way too many good ideas per second). A few months after becoming acclimated, I got lucky and they came to the west coast. I had very high expectations before the show. They whomped the tar out of my most optomistic hopes of what they could pull off. Ruins are pretty much on a level by themselves as a live unit. Glad you mentioned Ruins, they definitely belong in yer' thread.

Ironically, before I even read the responses, both Can and the Residents immediately came to mind. I'd have to add Olivia Tremor Control (Athens/Elephant 6), the Features (www.thefeatures.com), and countless others.

As far as Lambchop goes, if you like Is A Woman, you'll love Nixon. Its considered their best record. And unfortunately, most of the members of Lambchop still have to work jobs on the side when they are not on tour. They are friends of mine and if you'd like to know more about them, you can email me.

Backtoanalog-yes but the only reason some of the members of Lambchop have to work jobs on the side is because there's so many of them!
There must be about 15 in that live band!