Favorite Obscure Prog Band?

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Heck even Gentle Giant is obscure in the "real world." Not sure about King Crimson though. I think most music fans at least know about them regardless if they are prog fans or not.

King Crimson opened for Tool. No way would I categorize them as obscure.

Not deliberately now no. I don't hold a musical grudge. However, there is so much music out there that to be honest they are no longer on my radar. 

very good and interesting album..  do check it out. .and Aussie prog if so inclined. There are a lot of gems there.. and a long running thread here dedicated to those bands.

Here is my favorite from the album

Not that obscure but I am a fan also.....get all 4...they are all decent imho.

Try Jonesy also...the first 3 or 4 are all good....a little like Crimson at times with a mix of things going on with some mellotron and jazz influences.

I have all their output (vinyl & CD) and Greenslade's solo stuff as well - like you said not obscure for 70's prog freaks - but very obscure to anybody younger probably and mainstream pop fans of the same era. 

miamiscot wrote: I've been really enjoying Ritual (from Sweden) lately. Patrik Lundstrom from Kaipa is such a great singer. Are they obscure?

They probably are now. They made a splash 20ish years ago with their debut. They were supposed to play Prog Fest '97 in Los Angeles but had another commitment. The replacement act was Big Elf.

Yeah so? Most people don't pay much attention to the opening band unless they are already fans. I'm sure it turned some people onto KC but that by itself would not be enough to launch them into the mainstream. Plus not everyone is a Tool fan.

Well, I'm not saying KC aren't part of the big six but they are definitely the least commercially successful of those bands(which also includes Yes, Genesis, ELP etc). They are also the least popular(although these days they are probably more popular than ELP among prog fans). That doesn't mean they aren't as good just that they aren't as popular. As for your second tier you didn't mention Gentle Giant. Actually Gentle Giant might be the only band who is sort of stuck between first tier and second tier or at the very least are the top band of the second tier(along with Porcupine Tree and Marillion if we can count newer bands and I use the term newer quite liberally with Marillion(actually both now)). As for King Crimson let's face it. Your average music person doesn't necessarily know about them. I think it's mainly musicians, total music fanatics and prog fans. For Gentle Giant and the second tier bands(which GG are but are also sometimes considered first tier believe it or not)would be mostly just prog fans and the occasional obsessive music collector(pretty much the same thing as the aforementioned "total music fanatic"). But yeah I would say King Crimson are not obscure to us(then again neither is GG, VDGG and all the bands you mentioned plus any band on here with say over 300 ratings) but to the average music fan they certainly are. Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not going to sugar coat it. In fact sometime last year I was talking to some guy, probably in his fifties, who knew Yes and seemed to be a fan but never even heard of King Crimson. To be honest I was a bit surprised. So yeah obviously not everyone knows who KC are and not even people who are technically "old enough to know better." So let's get down to the core here. Are King Crimson obscure? Well, ultimately that's a relative term. Obviously among prog fans they aren't. They are obviously one of the first bands a person will discover and get into(hopefully)if they are a prog fan. Heck I got into them before I got into ELP back in the eighties but then again I had a cousin who was into them plus read about them in a music book. I got lucky though because I mostly just knew about what I heard on the radio at that time. So among prog fans and real music people no not obscure. Among the casual music listener or those who just rely on what is popular or on the radio yes they are.