Obscure bands

Love the self-titled May Blitz, second track, first side is guitars in the room. 2nd of May is far more restrained, more recherché as a UK Swirl.
Patto- first album actually sounds good as a US swirl, second album doesn’t- you need the UK.
Just got into Lucifer’s Friend -self titled- Philips UK en route- sort of Heep/Zep/Sabbath/Deep Purple-y.

There’s another record I got turned onto recently by a friend who is deep into prog- guy was a sideman that played with Stevie Winwood- killer record, musically and sonically. I’ll have to dig it out, forgot the name.
PS: Miller Anderson- Bright City. US Deram pressing sounds great. Had never heard of him or this album until I got tipped to it, very much like early Winwood. 

Cain, Pound of flesh.

Lucifer's friend is another great band. John Lawton was the original singer on the first five or six albums.                      He later did some stuff with Uriah Heep and also some very good solo albums. Hey did a few albums after Lawton left. Just about all of their stuff is good.

I like China Crisis a lot and thanks for reminding me of Crack the Sky. I always equate a band's relative obscurity with being regional independent acts. This is the type of original music I have always strived to find and seek out when I travel. Sometimes they hit it big and sometimes they end up in the cut out bins. So here are a few more: The Samples from Boulder, CO., The Connells from Raleigh, NC., From Good Homes (predecessor to Railroad Earth) from NJ.,  The Grapes from Atlanta, GA., and the White Animals from Nashville, TN. Most of theses acts are still performing, despite a lack of massive commercial success, but they all are well worth checking out. 

Another criminally obscure artist is Bill Mallonee from Athens, GA. Bill has released a ridiculous number of albums to critical acclaim, but has never achieved significant commercial success. Both his solo works and his band Vigilantes of Love are excellent. Check out "Perfume Letter" where his guitar playing is very much like George Harrison. His 70+ albums are available for download on bandcamp and his website is www.volsounds.com. This guy can really write.