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Question Of The Week: Top Five Bands That Should Be Way Bigger Than They Are?

If you're the same kind of music geek I am, then you probably saw the dorks in High Fidelity bickering at a record store all day and thought, "I could hang with those guys."

Apart from the modicum of decorum we occasionally attempt to show in editorial meetings, that's not so different from a day spent at our office. Today's entirely unimportant debate: What are the top five bands that should be huge, but aren't? These aren't sad cases of completely unknown bands. They may even have a decent audience and the respect of critics. But for whatever reason, they just haven't drawn an audience as huge as the one they deserve.

Tell us about your five picks in the comments section. Here are mine:

1. Five Eight: These guys from Athens have been hammering out melodic, crushing rock for more than 20 years and like to call themselves the greatest band that never was. What gives, world? Please buy their records.

2. Telekinesis: The smartest, catchiest, rockin'est pop of the last decade. Every time a cut comes up from this Seattle-based band I literally shake my head and ask the empty room, or train full of commuters, "Why isn't this the biggest band in the world?!" Blank stares.

3. JEFF The Brotherhood: When I want to hear some real *&!@#$ rock 'n' roll, I reach for these guys. With a decade's worth of monstrous albums behind them, they really ought to rule the galaxy by now. Maybe things will change now that they've signed with Warner.

4. Lawrence Arabia: I think if it were 1968, this New Zealand-based group really would be one of the biggest bands around. If you like folky psych-pop in the spirit of The Zombies or The Beatles, nobody today's doing it better than Lawrence Arabia.

5. Sam Phillips: Not a band, but I consider it a national tragedy that this brilliant singer-songwriter isn't much, much bigger. She's on her own, now after having limited success with labels such as Virgin and Nonesuch. Alluring, beautifully spare, occasionally whimsical folk-pop songs. Oh, how I love her music.

Got a question for us to bicker over? Drop the All Songs gang an email.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.