Gentle Giant

King Crimson

Mars Volta

Gong

Ozric Tentacles

Pink Floyd

Rush

Tool

Primus

Porcupine Tree

Can

MAGMA

Opeth

Henry Cow

The Soft Machine

Frank Zappa

The Moody Blues

Jethro Tull

Kraftwerk

Brian Eno

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band

nearly everybody have heard of and heard them

can you recommend something more specific and relatively unknown?

He does live in the North Carolina mountains.;)

Eidetic Seeing

Instead of knocking his recommendation, keep in mind that there are still a lot of people that have never dove into prog before and when they find an amazing band, they like to recommend it to other people. Whether or not people have heard of them doesn't really matter.

Like Asia for example.

Well yeah. Though I know now that they aren't a prog band. However it's very easy to be mislead.

Every Inch A Man by a band named Zior. Released in 1972, it was their 2nd album, and is quite a unique blend of psych, heavy guitar riffs, and organ mostly. Biggest weakness is the vocalist, I can tolerate more than most so enter at your own risk. Not terrible, but certainly the weakest aspect.

The Flaming Lips. Wonderful psychedelic band

MoeTar, X-ray Press and Clouds on Strings. These groups have more of a jazzy prog sound i guess you could call it. Anything similar would be greatly appreciated.