My first vote goes to:

1. Joy Division. at least here in the states. Besides us new wave/punker kiddies, nobody knew who they were. Until the onslaught of '80s nostalgia led by monsters of marketed rebellion such as "Hot Topic", etc., and with movies such as "24 Hour Party People" (great movie, btw) putting Ian Curtis and his suicide on the map, Joy Division enjoyed popularity like never before. Good for them though.

2. Sublime, of course. Here in L.A., Sublime had a faithful following, much like predecessors the Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction. They put out some great music already but shit didn't blow up for them until Bradley Nowell's death and release of their self-entitled album. alas, it was too late to catch them live by then. But they were full-on stars and now iconic, thanks to the death of Brad.


3. Velvet Underground. What's up with that? suddenly it's like super-cool to say you're into them. Well, it sure as hell wasn't about 15 years ago or so. Well, never fear, when it's not cool again, Lou and the gang will still have me!! but really, wtf??


Who gets your vote(s)???

Before I even OPENED this I was going to say the Velvets!

Another contender, but as this is an artist, and not a band, I'm not sure if this counts, but Nick Drake became huge, years after commiting suicide and being an obscure musical footnote.

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"coming up on kittyradio, an erotic thriller featuring Shannon Tweed..."

Moldy Peaches thanks to Juno

double post

joy division for defo.
i think jeff buckley got way bigger after his death.
and of course the velvets. goddamn these retro revival t-shirts. damn you, hottopic.

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pretend you're bored
pretend you're anything
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Joy Division Pixies Sublime and the Ramones although it took three of them to pass away.

To come away from the morbid trend, record sales soared for Godspeed You Black Emperor after they went on "hiatus" and download rates nearly doubled.

Definitely Joy Division.
Even in the 1990s they were a "cult" band but not extremely popular. After Control their status somehow was raised.

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My friend's band isn't big, but it seems like one of those bands-with-stories things along these lines. He died a few weeks ago, and days later, the guitarist in the band killed his brother who was the manager.

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^wow.

hmm. tiger trap. they made one album. was never considered a great band before. but with the boom of twee pop years ago, they became truly beloved and known as one of the best bands out of that whole olympia thing. and rose melberg, the vocalist, is one of the most revered voices in indie pop today. the one album they made is now considered an indie classic by some.

• Kyuss. I'd barely heard of them when they split, in fact they always seemed to get lumped in with bands like Royal Trux and Sebadoh and you just didn't hear the term 'stoner rock' used seriously to describe music?
• At The Drive In. Were fairly popular but threatening to become massive, then delibrately seemed to throw the towel in at that exact point.
• Refused. Did two painfully mediocre hardcore albums, then a jaw-dropping one, then fell apart off the back of a world tour. I didn't get into them until years after mind.

The last two have a very delibrate spitting at their peak thing going on. I'm struggling to think of any accidental slow-burners.

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babes in toyland. although i'm not sure whether you could say they were actually "big". I suppose they never got as big as joy division but they definitely became more famous after they fell apart

why did he do that? how did your friend die?

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Love (kind of)

Nick Drake

The Ramones

I had to think about that one. Not counting deaths (Nirvana, The Doors, etc which dont count if the band disbands) Id say big daddy The Beatles even got more popular between the years of the break up and John Lennons demise.
Second would be The Dead Kennedy. They broke up cause of legal reasons and then got as big as ever, Biafra didnt do singing but did alot of public awaremess speaking tours which are sorely missed.
Third Animotion, kind of trivial, a one hit wonder from England until Cynthia Gibb of American TV show Fame bought them out and did Room to Move which made the original lineup who was never in Cynthia Gibbs band one hit wonder and album to be bigger. Englands Animotion came out first with one hit wonder Obession (not sure of the follow up single) then when they went dormant Cynthia Gibb of later seasons of Fame tv show based on movie bought the name out and had the one hit wonder with Room To Move. That incarnation of Animotion will never be as popular as first incarnation. I also believe Cynthia Gibb had married 80's big hair pop ballad sensation Richard Marx at the time but that version, the second one was more forgetten.
So in a nutshell:
The Beatles
The Dead Kennedys
Animotion version 1.0
Id throw in Husker Du too, although obscure now they became very big when the lead singer went solo and also came out which was great for that time (late eighties)

the pixies
husker du

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I think there are more Doors fans now than when they first came out.
Sex Pistols? British punk scene was pretty small at the time but in the last 15 years possibly more fans now than when they were around.

I don't know about the brothers - I only just found out the other day, and I didn't really know either of them. But Dave (their bandmate and my friend who died) had a really dark sense of humour and I think he would have loved the faux-rock mythology of it...

He died of an accidental overdose at the start of August. He was a heavy drinker, but had stopped because he had been put on various sedatives and anti-depressants. He had a fight with his girlfriend and went out and got hammered and that's as much as we know for sure, because they found him dead on his doorstep. I think it'll be a little while before we hear what the toxicology reports say. The thing that breaks my heart most is that in the past he had been suicidal, and tried to kill himself before, but things were getting really great for him, and it seems like he knew he was in trouble that night and was trying to get into his house to get help.

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I fucking love The Velvet Underground but I notice that they aren't really talked about with the other classic rock and/or glam rock legends like Bowie, the Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Bob Dylan etc. which I find really weird cus they're the shit.

but in the way that it's cool to like 'Indie Bands' it's really cool to listen to The Velvet Underground...and The Smiths. Indie kids and hipsters from Toronto generally are fans of those two.