10 Great Rock Bands Who Never Released An Album

10. NNB

NNB, who formed in Minneapolis in the late '70s, created a fair amount of buzz at the time, being favourably compared to the likes of Television and Pere Ubu. By all accounts, guitarist/vocalist Mark Freeman was the guiding force behind the band, which released a string of singles but no long-player. Bassist Rusty Jones, drummer Jim Tollefsrud and guitarist Dick Champ.

Champ himself recalled, in an interview for The Current: “NNB, like a bunch of other Minneapolitans, rolled the dice, hopped into our Ford Econoline van, and relocated to New York in the fall of 1980. About six months later, NNB played the Noise Fest at White Columns, the festival that by some accounts launched Sonic Youth. All of which goes to illustrate: There's a little bit (and sometimes even a lot) of Minneapolis in the history of rock music.”

Like Sonic Youth, NNB's music was as challenging as it was addictive, combining a laudable quest for invention with the can-do attitude of garage-rock. Take a listen to the appropriately named Listen, below, one of only a handful of singles the group recorded, for a taste of what might have been.