Sometimes songs with awesome guitar riffs get overlooked because of the band they come from. While there are many examples of songs that fall into this category, I tried to target artists most people would recognize right away. Whether the guitar riff is a complex and underlying part of a song or a standout ripping part, the overarching theme is the frontman is usually stealing the show and drawing attention from the music behind them.

The first song on my list is called The Breaks, by the Black Keys. This song is from their debut album called The Big Come Up, which is still my favorite of theirs. Today, The Black Keys are a bit more mainstream and much less raunchy than when they started, which is okay, it’s fine to move in new directions as you find success. I hope they throw it back to their original sound in a future album, though. This song epitomizes the sound the Black Keys used to influence an entire generation of blues rockers. The duo recorded this album in their basement using two microphones bought on eBay and an 8 track recorder, which gives it that grainy, lo-fi sound perfect for the wailing, dirty style of Dan Auerbach’s guitar playing that carries this song.

The next song on my list is Arco Arena, by Cake. Xan McCurdy is a wildly underrated guitar player who layers intricate rhythm guitar parts into many different Cake songs without the listener even realizing it, which is an indication that a band is extremely tight and has defined their sound very well. Arco Arena is primarily an instrumental song with some John McCrea vocal shouts sprinkled in throughout. This song is an anomaly, straying far away from Cake’s usual vibe, which is one of the reasons it stood out to me. McCurdy’s ominous electric guitar riffage is complimented perfectly by a slinky, sneaking acoustic riff played relentlessly by McCrea.

The third song on my list is Shake Me Like a Monkey by Dave Matthews Band. Much like Arco Arena, this is not your typical DMB song. What surprised me about this particular track is that Dave himself recorded the electric guitars. Of course, he’s a great acoustic player, but the rocking guitar work on this song is not what you would expect from Dave. I would have thrown out the unremarkable, somewhat out of place bridge that hits near the end of the song for a ripping solo, but otherwise this is an display of electric guitar awesomeness that may go unrecognized by a majority of Dave Matthews fans.

The last song on my list is called Prog by Pinback. This song is definitely my favorite of the four on this list and certainly recognized by Pinback fans as a powerful guitar driven song, but I included it because I wanted to recognize a band that some of you watching may not have heard before. Pinback has a cult following and has been working for years, and are similar to the Black Keys in that the band is lead by two members, Rob Crowe and Armistead Burwell Smith, both of whom work together to produce this songs’ growling guitar landscape. Prog is my favorite song on this album entitled Blue Screen Life, and if you like what you hear, you should definitely listen to the other tunes as well.

So that’s it, four of my favorite guitar driven songs that may be unrecognized by the general guitar community. What are some of your favorite songs that would fit into this category? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear what you guys have to say.