Let me begin by defending the idea that there have only been five rock decades (rather than the seven or eight that some might argue for): I’m not counting the 1950s, because rock was a nascent art form from 1954-59, and the concept of the rock album didn’t exist until 1963. I’m only interested in the decades in which rock was an album art form. And I’m not counting the 2010s, because that wasn’t a rock decade. It was a pop decade. Almost no great new rock bands emerged in the 2010s. Big Thief and Titus Andronicus are the only ones I can think of. Poor Gen Z. Boy, did they get robbed. And I’m not counting the 2020s, because it’s still too soon to say both whether or not this will be a rock decade and who the most underrated rock band is.
That leaves us with the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, the five decades when rock was both an album art form and the dominant musical art form in the Western world (and beyond). Hip-hop began to outsell rock around 2005, but for our purposes, let’s consider the 2000s a rock decade.
I’m going to attempt to single out one band from each decade as “the most underrated.” This is, of course, absurd in many ways. But perversely, the more absurd the better as far as I’m concerned. So here goes:
1960s: Arthur Lee’s groundbreaking L.A. band Love. This is a bit of a cheat, because their album Forever Changes is very well known and beloved in the UK, but I’d guess that only 1% of music fans in the U.S. know the band and/or the album. Which is a shame, because Love’s first three albums from 1965-67 (Love, Da Capo, and Forever Changes) are as good or better than most of those by their more famous contemporaries. For instance, I prefer them to the Rolling Stones’ first three albums, the Who’s first three albums, and crucially The Doors first three albums. Why “crucially” the Doors? Because Arthur Lee of the Love is the guy who convinced Elektra to sign the Doors in the first place; and the Doors’ debut album was such a massive success that it actually hurt Love’s career. Just to be clear, I think the Doors debut is one of 20-30 best debut albums ever and is better than Love’s debut by a half notch or so; but Da Capo is incrementally better than the Doors Strange Days, and Forever Changes blows Waiting for the Sun out of the water. It’s no contest. Which is why Forever Changes is on just about every list of the greatest rock albums of all time, and Waiting for the Sun is on none of them.
If you don’t know this band, there’s a super wonderful 25 song compilation of their four albums for Elektra called Alone Again Or that makes as strong a case for them as the most underrated rock band of the 1960s as anything. Only their cover of “Hey Joe” (which pales in comparison to Hendrix’s, who Arthur Lee was friends with) is not special. The other 24 songs (almost all originals) will make you wonder how you’ve never heard of this band before or why you don’t listen to them more often.
And if you do know their music, but want to know their story and understand why they were so groundbreaking and important, I highly recommend reading Chapter 1 of my book Secret Stars: The Greatest Underdogs of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Era. It’s all there in black & white (pun intended, as Love was arguably the first interracial rock band, a year before the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Sly & the Family Stone.)
1970s: Big Star. Memphis’ Big Star were Alex Chilton (singer/songwriter, guitar), Chris Bell (singer/songwriter, guitar), Andy Hummel (bass), and Jody Stephens (drums). They recorded three albums in the 70s that almost no one heard at the time, other than music critics, in part because of distribution problems. And yet all three are on almost every list of the greatest rock albums of all time: #1 Record, Radio City, and Third aka Sister Lovers. The Bangles covered their perfect pop song “September Gurls”; Elliott Smith and others have covered their masterpiece “Thirteen”; Cheap Trick covered their song “In the Street,” which became the theme song to “That 70s Show” in the 90s; the Replacements’ most famous song is called “Alex Chilton”; they’re Mike Mill’s of R.E.M.’s favorite band of the 70s; and on and on and on. So then how can they be the most underrated rock band of the 70s? Because most music fans don’t know these albums and can’t name a single one of their songs. If you don’t know Memphis’ Big Star, you’ll thank me. I promise. Also, I tell their story, critically examine their body of work, and explain their importance in Chapter 3 of my book.
1980s: Australia’s finest, the Go-Betweens. Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, the founding singer/songwriters of the Go-Betweens, met in college in Brisbane. The nine albums they would go on to record together as the Go-Betweens are as good or better than any other Australian band’s body of work. While the Bee Gees enjoyed Beatles level success for a brief period, Forster and McLennan are closer to being Australia’s Lennon & McCartney in almost every other way except album sales. My three favorite albums of theirs that document their 80s peak period are Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express, 16 Lover’s Lane, and a live album released in 2020 called Fountains of Youth. You should also hear the album they recorded with Sleater-Kinney in 2000 called The Friends of Rachel Worth. All are available for streaming. For those of you with antipodean curiosity, everything you need to know about the Go-Betweens can be found in Chapter 4 of my book. Are you detecting a pattern yet?
But now I’m going to force myself to stray from the pattern. Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices is the 90s songwriter I researched, interviewed, and wrote about in my book. But I can’t honestly say that Guided by Voices is the most underrated rock band of the 90s. There were critically acclaimed and modestly successful in the 90s. And their reputation and audience has only grown over the decades. So instead, for the 1990s, I’m going to choose Built to Spill as the most underrated rock band.
I’ve written about Idaho’s Doug Martsch and Built to Spill here before, but I’ll just say that almost all of their nine albums are essential with the exception of their first, Ultimate Alternative Wavers and 2015’s Untethered Moon (which is half good). And your record collection sucks if it doesn’t include their 1999 masterpiece Keep it Like a Secret. Kidding, of course. But overstating it to make a point. That album is an all-time great and top 10 of the 90s for me. Start there, and if you love it as much as I’m sure you will, work your way forwards and backwards from there.
2000s: This was the hardest decade for me, because many of my favorite bands from the 2000s— the Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, the New Pornographers, Kings of Leon (first four albums), Spoon, the Shins, the Decemberists, and even Elbow— are not underrated. The band I wrote about in my book, Drive-by Truckers, would be my pick, but I feel like they’ve grown in stature since former band member Jason Isbell blew up a decade ago.
So where does that leave us? Honestly, I’m stumped. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists come to mind. So does Wussy. Or bands with one great album that decade like the Glands and Sun Kil Moon. Or perhaps Robert Pollard’s second best band, Boston Spaceships, who released three of their five albums in the 2000s. If I could include their 2010 album, Our Cubehouse Still Rocks, they’d be my pick for most underrated rock band of the 2000s for sure. In fact, I’ll pick them anyway off the strength of 2009s Planets are Blasted. Or how about this gem from their other album that same year, Zero to 99? Good luck getting this ear worm out of your…ear hole.
My two favourite Jayhawks albums are the 90s albums with both founding members, Mark Olson and Gary Louie’s: Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass. Also love Rainy Day Music from the 2000s, but I think they peaked in the 90s.
Same with Fountains for me. Love their first three albums, but the second is my favorite.
Agree that Jayhawks are “underrated” or not as well known as they should be. Fountains, on the other hand, had a big hit with Stacy’s Mom, so not sure they qualify.
Thx Kev. So glad to know I turned you on to the Go-Betweens.
And listened to “Airborne” just yesterday when I thought I was going to be writing about Wussy. “When something from the yours pile shattered on the floor tile, and you went off like Frankenstein!” So good.