Relaunching this again for a future ‘not-post’, but something better! Thank you to everyone who continued to send in suggestions. Submit here.
As an addition to the goth/post-punk/alt band masterpost, here’s a list of bands featuring members of color. Most are influential, others new discoveries or future freak gods. Thanks to research and helpful readers, here’s a bit of sick sound suitable for all taste buds:
Goth, dark or industrial:
Creature Feature- Erik X is an evil composer and organ player with a special gift for raising the dead.
Plastique Noir-the Brazilian band that made the song “Empty Streets” that’s just too dark to handle.
O. Children - contrary to popular belief, Tobi O’Kandi is not, in fact, a black reincarnation of Ian Curtis.
Thrill Kill Kult - sick industrial band with several poc members.
Dev Hynes - a British musician who started out in a punk band Test Icicles then went solo as a folk/indie musician as Lightspeed Champion and now is doing an electronic/R&B thing as Blood Orange.
L’Arc-en-Ciel-Okay, so these guys are Japan’s other most famous export. These guys got known outside of japan for doing some major anime theme songs (Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam 00, NANA live action movie, etc) and were the first Japanese act to headline Madison Square Garden (Japanese rock bands really like New York for some reason). Their bassist tetsuya (formally known as tetsu) gets bonus points for being one of Japan’s only out LGBT celebrities (he’s Bi).
Gogol Bordello - self described as “gypsy punk”. Singer Eugene Hütz is Russian-Ukranian with Romani heritage and born with a ‘stache. Nearly crazier than Little Big and Korpiklaani combined.
Blasphemy - Black metal, the biggest irony on earth as Caller of the Storms remains one of the rare black musicians within the genre.
Babymetal - this Japanese trio is more metal than a viking woman on her period in the middle of a battlefield drinking the blood of her enemies to the sound of Immortal…for some at least.
Wicked Wisdom - Will Smith’s wife get a band?? Yes she Will.
Unlocking the Truth - these 13 year olds played in the streets of NYC before they opened for Living Colour.
Ego Fall-a Chinese folk metal band and also Corbac’s fave. Mixing tradition with heavier sounds.
Static X-Japanese guitarist Koichi Fukuda & Mexican-American bassist Tony Campos.
Sepultura-the founding members are all Brazilian, currently their lead singer (Derrick Green) is black. “Arise” is a massive album of pure metal awesomeness.
Tenger Cavalry - a folk metal band based out of Bejing who describe their style as “Mongolian folk metal”. Like this and you’d probably enjoy Ego Fall.
Cthonic - Taiwanese metal band who’s lead singer is also the president for the Taiwanese branch of Amnesty International.Most of their music deals with their goal of an independent Taiwan and they’re really REALLY great.
Invasion-a stoner/psych-metal band fronted by a valkyrie space wizard out of London.
Vodun-like invasion, marries punk, psychedelic, and doom metal influenced instrumentals with soul influenced vocals to create a unique and original takes on doom metal.
Body Count- Ice T’s metal band rules. It would be a little tastier with ice cubes though.
Hirax-pioneering thrash/speed metal band (with hardcore influences). Katon De Pena is one of the most distinctive vocalists of the then-burgeoning California metal scene. Though they never achieved the success of some of their contemporaries like Metallica or Slayer, they have long been an insiders’ favorite and cited as an influence by bands ranging from Napalm Death to Cannibal Corpse to Darkthrone.
X Japan-Probably Japan’s most famous metal export. These guys are the reason Visual Kei (basically Japan’s gothic metal scene) exists. All those flashy JRock bands wouldn’t exist without X Japan. They also recently just played a huge show at Madison Square Garden.
Maximum the Hormone-Also known as “the guys that did that weird opening and ending to death note”, MTH do a fantastic combination of metal, punk, and even pop. The best part about MTH is that their lyrics don’t make sense even when translated so you can just have mindless fun listening to them even if you understand Japanese.
Suffocation-one of the most influential death metal acts of all time. Terrance Hobbs’ incredible mastery of the guitar allowed the band to blend complex technicality into the genre without sacrificing raw brutality.
Acrassicauda- Iraqi heavy metal. There is a film called “Heavy Metal in Baghdad”, about the band. Another documentary called Global Metal, which is by the same director as Heavy Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, is highly recommended.
Sigh - one of the first japanese black mack metal bands led by a fierce lady.
BIS (Brand-New Idol Society)-considered “alternative Japanese idols”, and have done some amazing things including recruiting a new member who was rumored to be a high school girl and turned out to be Junko Koshino, a famous fashion designer who is 74 yrs old. Their song + video for MURA-MURA is excellent.
Go Betty Go - chicano rock, “pop punk”. Several of their songs are in Spanish.
ELLEGARDEN-JAPAN’S BEST 90s/EARLY 2000s POP PUNK ROCK EXPORT I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING. Part of what contributes to this is Takeshi Hosomi (singer/rhythm guitarist) writing ¾ of the band’s discography in perfect english. Unfortunately they went on hiatus in 2006, but that spawned two more fantastic bands: Takeshi does experimental progressive indie in the HIATUS (its the same guy I swear), and guitarist Shinichi Ubukata formedNothing’s Carved In Stone which is basically a Japanese alt. rock supergroup.
Shonen Knife-you can’t talk about japanese girl rock without the literal originators of the movement/popularity. Because Kurt Cobain said he listened them, a HUGE surge of all girl bands started popping up over Japan.
This was originally a simple post intended to show representation within alternative music. Somany of you responded. Over the past weeks I have received over 80-some band suggestions in my mailbox, this not counting the 80-some suggestions within the comments.
Let’s Expand
I am constructing a full on resource for underrepresented alternative artists of yet more walks of sound. This includes artists of color, lgbt+ folk, musicians with disabilities and more. The goal is to provide a space for discovery, notably among those young to the scene searching for their like. Each band will have their own space with a short bio, recommended sounds and their impact on the scene as an underrepresented musician - if possible, newspaper clippings and photography.
Many of you had comments about genres, band controversies and various tidbits. The database would provide a place for people to discuss and make it easier to edit band info.
How Can We Reach this Goal?
The goal is almost reached!! Donate (as little as $1) on Patreon. We have already hit close to $175. This is the amount required for time, research and even interaction with musicians themselves. Patreon users donate on a monthly basis. Say you choose to donate $5, the amount will be deducted from your account monthly and you will receive prizes relative to the donation. You may opt out at any time.
Each contributor (yes, all of you who suggested awesome bands) will receive a personal thank you. Each patron will get a special prize: custom art, full color comic of you, shootin’ the double scoop with the creator etc….
At this point it would only take 34 peeps to each donate $3 to get the database up and running.