Tommy Keene

From his start in the DC alternative scene in the early ‘80s through acclaimed releases for Geffen and then Matador in the ‘90s, Tommy Keene returns to the public eye with Crashing the Ether, his first studio album since 2002. Keene’s fans, many of them fellow musicians and critics, have long recognized that Tommy has written some of the best pop/rock tunes of his generation.

While we all know there's a fine line between "rock legend" and "cult figure," there is no doubt that [Tommy] Keene is one of America's greatest, unheralded songwriters. -- Rolling Stone

We couldn't agree more. Since he's one of our favorite unsung heroes, we asked Tommy for a list of his Top 10 favorite underrated bands...

1. Be Bop Deluxe/Bill Nelson
Though they put out five or six great albums, and Bill is an amazing guitar player from whom I copped many licks, this band never got recognized. Very melodic and spacey - sometimes prog, sometimes the dreaded “power pop.” Bill Nelson was also quite a poet!

2. Poco
They should have been bigger than The Eagles, with whom they shared two bass players. Mixing country/alt-rock with power pop, Poco (lead by Richie Furay, late of The Buffalo Springfield) never had a hit, although they did have the best rock pedal steel player ever: Rusty Young. No Depression fans take note!!

3. Grin/Nils Lofgren
Four albums in the early ‘70s failed to impress the U.S. market, but Nils still enjoys a nice following in the U.K. People know him best for his work with Neil Young and The Boss but the Grin records and his solo albums still entertain! Also another very influential guitar player for yours truly.

4. Sparks
Although they made it big in the U.K. and appeared on ABC's “In Concert” here in the States, they will probably be remembered as the band with the keyboard player who had a Hitler-esque mustache. That and the butchered cover of one of their best songs, "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us," by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Great songwriting and hilarious lyrics - I play them now for friends who reply, "Sorry, I never liked Queen."

5. 20/20
The best power pop band ever, if that genre really exists! Their first record on Epic, released in late ’79, is a classic -- great songs, vocals and production by Earle Mankey, who was in an early incarnation of Sparks.

6. Jellyfish
Fantastic combination of The Beach Boys, Cheap Trick, Badfinger …you name it. These guys had super hooks, songs and production. Plus, they were an awesome live band for anyone privileged enough to catch them.

7. Rory Gallagher
Ireland's favorite son, this guy was not only one of the best guitarists ever but a real sweet guy who got me into one of his shows in DC by explaining to the bouncer that I was his long-lost, 13-year-old cousin. His best record is the first live one, Rory Gallagher Live.

8. Flaming Groovies
Although Cyril Jordan wrote one of the best pop songs ever, "Shake Some Action," the stand-out album from these guys is Teenage Head featuring then-vocalist Roy Loney. If you like Exile on Main Street, check out this record, which also contains a fantastic cover of Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby."

9. Milltown Brothers
Two great albums in the early '90s on A&M here in the States. These guys seem to have disappeared from the planet. Great live band too!

10. The dBs
Critical darlings who proved the point that even if John Rockwell at the New York Times heralds your debut album as one of the best of the year, you still might not be able to get arrested. Their first two records hold up to this day. A perfect Lennon/McCartney combination in songwriters Stamey/Holsapple, they should have been bigger than R.E.M., or at least Joe Jackson.

Tommy's new album Crashing the Ether is available in the ARTISTdirect Store.

Hailing from Bethesda, MD, Tommy Keene is a guitarist and singer/songwriter who plays and writes melodic guitar-based pop/rock. As a child, Keene played classical piano before picking up guitar and drums. He spent his teenage years drumming in a rock trio called Blue Steel, whose original guitar player, Mike Lofgren, was the younger brother of Nils Lofgren. Consequently, Keene's first notable gig was when Blue Steel opened for Lofgren's band Grin. In 1977, while attending the University of Maryland, Keene switched to guitar and formed the short-lived band the Rage with songwriter Richard X. Heyman. During this period, Keene left the Rage to join a popular Washington, D.C. rock band called the Razz, who opened for such notable acts as the Ramones, Devo, and Patti Smith. It was in the Razz that Keene met bass player Ted Nicely, who would work with him throughout the '80s.

After the Razz, Keene embarked on a European tour as a sideman for new wave singer Suzanne Fellini, before co-founding a band called Pieces in New York. Unhappy with the music, Keene decided to form his own group with Nicely and drummer Doug Tull (also from the Razz), plus a guitar player named Michael Colburn, who was soon replaced by Billy Connelly. Using Keene's name, they released Strange Alliance on their own Avenue label in 1982, before being picked up by the Dolphin label out of North Carolina. Keene recorded two EPs there before being signed to Geffen, which released two full albums, Songs from the Film and Based on Happy Times, as well as Run Now, a six-song EP of previously recorded material, before dropping Keene from its roster.

With a new backup band that included bassist/vocalist Brad Quinn and drummer John Richardson, Keene inked a deal with Matador in the early '90s, recording the EP Sleeping on a Roller Coaster and a full-length album entitled Ten Years After in 1996. In 1993, Alias released The Real Underground, a retrospective of Keene's career that included a wealth of unreleased tracks and out of print material from the '80s. In addition to recording and touring behind his records, Tommy Keene spent some of the '90s as a guitarist for hire, on the road with both Velvet Crush and Paul Westerberg. In 1998, Keene released a new studio album, Isolation Party. Four years later, Keene hooked up with his longtime rhythm section of John Richardson and Brad Quinn, Wilco's Jay Bennett, singer/songwriter Adam Schmitt, and ex-Gin Blossoms frontman Robin Wilson to issue The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down in June. In 2004 he switched lineups and released Drowning, and two years later, his tenth solo record, Crashing the Ether, came out on Eleven Thirty Records. In the Late Bright followed in 2009 on Second Motion. ~ Jack Leaver, All Music Guide