Recently in Fallen Through The Cracks Category

Latin freestylers, back-alley punks, boogaloo trailblazers, techno precursors, hard-rock gals, nu-metal boys, squishy electronic animals that leap from lily pad to lily pad: the trapdoors that keep fine artists out of the Hall of Fame (or even its public bathrooms) may not be fair, but they touch all bases. A few are below.

Plenty of these feisty bands below you may not have thought about for a long time, assuming you ever did. They are so feisty, in fact, that if they got in a fight, it's hard to guess who would win. Feel free to place bets, but if I were you, I definitely wouldn't rule out the ladies.

All of the artists in this post -- late '60s acid-boogie outfits, biz-boosted '80s cheeseballs, early '00s garage-rock dresser-uppers -- have names that start with "Ch." Strangely, so do I. Savor the moment now, for it may never happen again.

A number of the artists unearthed below remind me that, long before I lived here, New York City was apparently a really exciting place to hear music. And some of the other artists unearthed below remind me that other places could be pretty cool too sometimes.

Two house music acts, two '70s sludge-metal bands, three captains, some people who wish they were the Spice Girls and Springsteen, and more. When you're asking for musical artists whose 15 minutes of fame ran out a long time ago, isn't that enough?

by Chuck Eddy

Nine more acts you've managed to successfully erase from your memory banks until now: four from the post-disco dancefloor, then four from the C&W chicken coop, then some big British pop stars that Americans never heard of. Most common last name: Brown.

by Chuck Eddy

by Chuck Eddy

In this latest rundown of unjustly neglected talents, you'll find Californians who wish they were New Yorkers, New Yorkers who wish they were British, and Britishers who wish they were American pioneers capable of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with grizzly bears. Wishful thinking, in all cases, but please don't hold that against them.

by Chuck Eddy

Below you'll find six acts you may not be familiar with whose names start with "Black," and only one act whose name starts with "Blue." Weird! Plus two acts with offensively pornographic lyrics. And none of the above played on Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult's legendary Black & Blue Tour. (Or with the Backstreet Boys' either, for that matter.)

by Chuck Eddy

This column's collection of unjustly forgotten music includes country from Russia, mambo from Germany, atmospheric extreme metal from Sweden, doo-wop from the Bronx, free jazz from Syracuse ... and all sorts of stuff from jolly old England.

by Chuck Eddy

In which two gutter-rock gangs with the same singer and three bands whose names kick things off with a bang are dredged up from the great cut-out bin in the sky -- along with an Irishman swinging on vines through the Italian jungle, and a pair of hard-drinking country oldsters dressed in Culture Club drag.

by Chuck Eddy

Lots of rocking lady singers among this fortnight's batch of forgotten wonders, yay! Not to mention three atomic acts, some prehistoric old dudes, and the band that composed the theme song for what some consider the greatest television show of all time.