Scanning the local listings this week, my heart gave a little jump when I saw the words "Piano Magic" next to a barely-publicised gig at Brighton's Hope.
I've been collecting Piano Magic releases since I was 16 and they're my favourite band, but I've only ever seen one print interview with the group (in the defunct Comes With A Smile 'zine), and this is only the second live show I've been aware of and able to attend. Since 1996 there have been more than 30 standalone Piano Magic releases, but whenever I mention the name to friends or colleagues I get blank stares.
Having an obscurity as your favourite band is only valuable to elitists if that band is known well enough to not be uncool. Not if no one has heard them. Maybe this is why I've found it so hard to convince editors to run features on the already publicity-shy Piano Magic. At this level, a band's obscurity becomes self-perpetuating.
But I'm not alone. A quick email poll of journo acquaintances practically became a cenotaph of bands that they had loved, but whose existence in the world outside of their own stereos seemed almost doubtful: Son Of Bazerk ("imagine Otis Redding as a rapper and fronting Public Enemy"), Dancing Did, the Cravats, Bang Bang Machine ("Milford-on-Sea's unsigned but permanently singed nutter"), Count Bruto Bastardo ("these days only 'the authorities' know where he is"), Cocker Spaniels ("an Austin teen who somehow manages to bridge the distance between Daniel Johnston and Yes"), Sloy ("they were French and their frontman played his guitar with a steel ruler"), Blood Everywhere, Testcard F, Gee Mt Tracey, the Hospitals, Brand Violet, Jade Warrior, Butterfly Child, Sweet Jesus, Matson Jones.
In truth, most of these bands probably reached their maximum audiences. A lot of them might not have been musical innovators, or even very good, but there's something beautiful about how a group can have something so unique about them that they mean nothing to 99.9% of what few ears caught them, but everything to one person, to the extent that their music somehow describes you completely. This is the way I feel about Piano Magic, who have a new EP, Dark Horses, out this month. If you want to investigate them I'd recommend starting out with their brilliant 1999 album Low Birth Weight (especially for the cover art). You lot undoubtedly have your own "lost" favourite bands, though, so here's your chance to let the world know about them.
