These 9 seriously underrated bands broke up entirely too soon

You know that feeling when you discover a brand new band that’s awesome? You get that moment where you feel like a one-person secret society witnessing greatness. You follow them religiously. And then they break up.  Sure, you can always go back and keep playing the tracks you loved. Hopefully (well, not this year, at least), you might be able to plan a vacation (or a weekender) around a farewell tour. This new APTV video is dedicated to seriously underrated bands who never got the attention they deserved.

There are a myriad of factors why a band doesn’t “make it.” And really, that just lights the fuse for more platitudes that begin with “What if” or “If only they…” And if you witnessed an awesome (but doomed) band’s first tour, you don’t want to hear that crap. You’re too bummed your favorite but underrated bands got the fight knocked out of them. You love them, but you don’t blame them. Being in a band is rough.

Read more: 10 things every music lover is looking forward to after staying at home

Genre-wise, our list of seriously underrated bands is all over the place. The logic for the choices is quite varied but still solid. There is the band that should have been a massive emo success story. We also have the electronic dance-rock unit who were smart enough  to know how good their jams sound with real live drums. Remember that awesome pop duo whose lead singer actually did end up having hit singles? (We did.) How about that obscure spiky noise trio with the excellent album title? The garage-rock band whose drummer took the stage of Late Night With Conan O’Brien wearing a face-full of shaving cream gets a nod here, as well.

Even if you missed these underrated bands when they were around, it’s all good. The recordings are still out in the world for you to discover. You know where the real tragedy lies? Think of all the bands that never made it past the third basement jam. The ones who kept the potentially great music between themselves and their practice spaces. Mitigating factor? Maybe they’ll end up in new bands and end up revealing their austere, unheard beginnings in an issue of AltPress.