In your opinion?

Mine are...

13th Floor Elevators
Country Joe and the Fish
The Seeds
KLF
The Beta Band
Super Furry Animals
Suicide
Kinks
The Fall
Glasvegas

I don't think anyone under rates The Kinks, most people who appreciate music of that generation appreciate the depth and ability of Ray Davies' songwriting, and KLF and SFA are hardly 'underated'. Possibly slightly forgotten about, but not underated.

IMHO anyway.

For me?

The Selecter
The Cramps
Sham 69

All three were at least partially responsible for the creation of a new genre (2-Tone, Psychobilly and Oi! respectively) but all are overlooked in favour of later contributors to those scenes.

The Hersham Boys played our town in c'79.
Was stood outside the gig as I was only a boy and couldn't get in.
Remember it for the scrapping that went on outside after the concert had finished mind.
Pandemonium.

Scooter nik

Kinks albums are massively underated, just because people sing a long to Lola and Waterloo Sunset doesn't make them not underrated.

KLF pioneers who are more remembered for burning £1,000.000 than there music.

SFA are underated, critically liked but don't sell many records.

The Kinks!

Not sure they have ever been under rated ever. As long as I can remember and it's a while they have always been considered one of the best British bands of all time. People like Paul Weller and Blur and many others cite them as massive.

True they don't get the sales and crowds that their contemporaries like the Stones and the Who receive but they sure do get the plaudits.

If you want a really underated sixties band IMO it's the Small Faces.

Slade are a band that gets bypassed - probably because of the truly ridiculous nature of the music/fashion scene at the time - they have some great non Xmas related tracks.

That is because they were not a great album band - the Kinks record releases were erratic even by the standards of the time. Village Green is not bad for a concept album but not exceptional.

Love the Kinks album track wise but hate most of the commercial stuff, can't do with the best of the Kinks stuff!
Sham 69 I loved but unfortunately the dicks that followed them caused em to pack in!

You probably know better than me just what a mess early Kinks releases were and pretty much all their early albums were "best of" or a hotch potch. Village Green was IMHO their first cohesive attempt at an album which is a few years after their contemporaries. Ray Davis abrassive nature didn't help.

Schizo Fun Addict.
Heard a couple of tracks on a Fruits De Mer sampler about 7 years ago and loved it. There are a couple of bits on a popular video sharing website whose name might be ThouCylinder, but suffice to say they never made an impression. Indeed, typing this has just prompted me to order a couple of CDs.

Sorry, but Ray Davies is very widely recognised as being one of the best song writers this country has ever produced. Whether those songs are on albums or singles is immaterial in the context of this thread, the fact is that The Kinks are widely accepted as being one of the best bands of the sixties.
Ditto The Small Faces for that matter, lesser geniuses than Davies, but still....

Perhaps it's because I'm day to day on the edge of a scene that thrives on the sixties music scene that I can see it, but I think - as stated above by Vastman - they're widely quoted as influences, Madness being another band that have regularly cited them as major players in their origins.

I suspect that this is the crux of the matter though, if you're a fan of a particular music scene, then you're going to be more knowledgeable that someone who's just familiar with the name.
I can't comment on KLF for this reason, but a mate reckons that their legacy is immense. I can't see it myself, but I'll take his word for it.

I think there's two versions of Sham 69 still gigging .

My choice for underrated band goes to Puressence .Just missed the Madchester scene but they were tipped to be the next stadium band after Radiohead . They even flirted with the charts with a couple of singles off the first couple of albums but never got the that elusive break through they deserved imo . There still going strong and are great live and there first two albums [iPuressence[/i & [iOnly Forever [/iare worth checking out if you like your Indie rock.

Great White, FM, Thunder, John Kilzer

let's have a think

Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Illinois Speed Press
Longbranch Pennywhistle
Three Man Army
Sea Level
Gryphon
Rare Bird
Moving Sidewalks
Seals & Crofts
Chicago Transit Authority
Bubble Puppy
Delaney & Bonnie
Fuzzy Duck
Gandalf

Should also mention that Great White have (probably had now that Jack's gone) an alter ego as an amazing Led Zep cover band, plenty of examples on the usual site

Rumour has it they've reconciled their diffences. I hope so, because I saw the Pursey led group and they were dire.