Let's Discuss Your Past Through Music

[Still-ill]

You know that Album? The one that piqued your interest and challenged you as a listener, or the one that introduced you to a genre that has since become your favorite. Not necessarily your favorite album(s), but the one(s) that sent you along into the deep, expansive world of "music not on the radio." Here is the beginning of the discussion:

I might as well just put this on the record, that if it weren't for Trout Mask Replica, I may have never started challenging myself musically. It was the first album that took me more than two or maybe three listens, to actually get and enjoy.

I give that title to one of three records, all of which have affected me beyond belief: It's either Can-Tago Mago, Neutral Milk Hotel-In The Aeroplane Over the Sea or Joanna Newsom-the Milk Eyed Mender. I found these three within a month of eachother, and they all completely destroyed what I thought about music up to that point.

My uncle playing Pop Tatari when I came to visit him once is the reason that I branched out from only listening to the radio at a young age.

Yeah In the Aeroplane over the Sea is still pretty important to me as well. I was about 14 when I first heard it. It kind of changed my perspective on music also.

that would be a good thread. talk about the album or two that changed the way you hear music, took you out of the mainstream

[hawkingvsreeve]

[humanoid]

N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton showed this 11 year old, suburban white kid that there was exciting music being played somewhere other than on the radio. It opened up an entirely new world of musical possibilities.

PJ Harvey's Rid of Me prompted me to see her live and the show prompted 2 life long musical love affairs...Ms. Harvey and an English band that I had no clue about at the time, Radiohead

[Still-ill]

I recognize that album cover, but I've never listened to Cursive. What should I expect? (I'm downloading it now)

[Still-ill]

Also, Post-Punk as a genre in general is probably the most important musical discovery I've ever made.

[tricorne]

Wait, you discovered that? That's amazing.

[Still-ill]

Yes. Hipsters as a community owe a great debt to me.

[GrossMagic]

Huge part of my childhood! I have a vivid memory of me dancing dancing off the walls in my room while this is BLARING on the record player.


Changed music for me when I was around 13. I remember my friend putting on the track "Nebula" and I was so fucking confused. The rest is history.


This describes late High School and early College years for me. It is also when I started going to a lot of shows and festivals.


Saw BMSR for free and deaf at the UCSB campus and instantly fell in love.

[Libertas Tranquilitas]

When I was 12 years old my older cousin gave me a dubbed tape of "The Pixies" Come on Pilgrim EP. It was nothing short of a revelation for a young mind.

[hawkingvsreeve]

I recognize that album cover, but I've never listened to Cursive. What should I expect? (I'm downloading it now)

Lots of angles.

[bballarl]

I have probably told this story on this board 20 times by now, but here it is again. I really love remembering all of it, so forgive me.

I heard "Last Nite" on the radio the summer between 7th and 8th grades. I remember downloading it via Morpheus on our 56k modem or whatever and listening to it and "Clint Eastwood" over and over and over again. I was in a ska phase at the time, but The Strokes and The White Stripes made me outgrow that.

I bought Is This It at Borders. Actually, my grandma bought it for me. I hadn't heard the whole album at that point. I was going over to a friend's house later that day, so I took it over there and we listened to it over and over again. I wasn't impressed at the time by anything except "Last Nite." It was all so different from anything else on Live105 or 107.7 The Bone or ska, and thus it was unlike anything I had ever heard.

It slowly grew on me to the point that it didn't leave the three-disc changer that was my stereo until Room on Fire came out and replaced it. CD 1 was Is This It, CD 2 rotated, and CD 3 was White Blood Cells (which was replaced by Elephant when it came out.)

I hate to over-romanticize all of this, but those records mean so much to me. They genuinely changed my life. The whole Strokes/White Stripes/Hives/Vines thing coincided with my musical ear developing to the point that I could figure out songs on the guitar by ear. I realized I didn't have to be Jimmy Paige or Eric Clapton. I could be in a band that was awesome without raging guitar solos and virtuosity. I could write songs and I could be a real fucking musician.

Those albums, combined with the suggestions on CDNow.com, led to stuff like The Libertines and The Kills and The Greenhornes. Then I started reading Rolling Stone magazine for some reason and they did that terribly shitty 100 Greatest Guitar Players thing. Kevin Shields was on there and the blurb talked about how he played so loud that overtones suggested instruments that weren't even there. I thought that sounded like the coolest fucking thing I had ever heard. So I downloaded Loveless. Dani (Psychic Friend) started suggesting other shoegaze to me, so I got into Chapterhouse and Lush and Pale Saints cause of her. I also checked out Sugar because she said they were the loudest show she had ever seen.

The other thing was, funnily enough, Live105. From 2002-2004 or so, they played some pretty good shit on a regular basis. Aaron Axelsen's "Soundcheck" program on Sunday nights was a favorite. I heard "Twisterella" by Ride on there and that blew my mind. And I vividly remember some random DJ on a Sunday afternoon played "Love Spreads" by The Stone Roses, specifically mentioning how he hoped playing it would introduce other people to their genius just like someone had for him. It worked for me...I didn't know the song title, but it had slide guitar and that jived with my White Stripes love, so I started looking on Soulseek for songs by them with the word "Sister" in it. That's how I accidentally downloaded their self-titled album (cause of "(Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister".) I found "Love Spreads" itself afterwards.

I could talk about it all day. But things just branched out from there.

[amyzzz]

Erasure led me to Depeche Mode which led me to alternative radio.

[Still-ill]

Lots of angles.

Oh.

[hawkingvsreeve]

I wrote about their disco here.

[bmack86]

2001, I remember reading Rolling Stone. At that time, I was just starting branch my taste out from my dad (who, admittedly, has really good taste. Man raised me on REM, The Smiths, Nirvana and lots of post-punk and electronic stuff) and get more into hardcore punk and whatnot. I read a review for Fugazi-The Argument. They said that it was subtly rewriting punk's rewritten history. I found that to be a pretty bold statement (being younger, I didn't realize how often they make bold, stupid statements.) I went to the record store in Mammoth and they happened to have a copy of the album. I got home, listened to Minor Threat to get me ready for this and then I put it on. I was so pissed off at first. It was subtle sounding pop music with weird vocals, and there were cellos. They weren't ranting at anything, they weren't making me incensed. They seemed like they were just telling me how bad things were, but how things could get better. And then I put the album away. For some reason, the next day I had to listen to it again. And again. it was a more subtle revolution in my head than the first time I heard Can (My first full day at UCLA) or Neutral Milk Hotel (driving home in a snow storm alone) or Ys (walking to class and being so blown away that I never made it and just sat outside looping it over and over again.) Still, it was a subtle shift that worked wonders on me, and that album still does it.

[Aurgasm]

that's where im at now.. raised with prince, discovered Can and it blew my mind, fell in love with Underworld and now I'm heavily into the work of Pierre Schaeffer

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

Domestica is an amazing album. It's a shame that nothing else Cursive did ever really lived up to that one for me though

I'd like to write something detailed here later

[zajaa]

the big game changers were








sry for life story, dont read if u dont care

grade school - green day, the offspring, nirvana, alternative rock radio, 5th-6th grade first heard the cure <3,
junior high - mostly nü metal, marilyn manson, embarrassing stuff
beginning of high school - tool and nin fanboy
middle of high school - classic rock radio stations (start liking old metal, prog, etc), skateboarding friends introduced me to early punk
end of high school onward - radiohead
beginning of college - depeche mode and misc 1980s, introduced to genres "emo/hardcore" (donotwant) and "indie rock" (do want).
middle of college onward - my indie rock universe multiplies exponentially
end of college onward - with indie unable to fill the void left by lost interest in hard rock of the 90s, hard hitting electronic beats replace crushing guitars as my get-pumped go-to

Also, Post-Punk as a genre in general is probably the most important musical discovery I've ever made.

yep. the beginning of last decade was an explosion of post-punk revivalism that ultimately led me to gang of four wooo

[bmack86]

Guys, it's a lot more fun to read something you wrote rather than a list. Lists are just a bunch of names. Tell us why the hell you're listing them.

[fatbastard]

Ooooohhh. Me lickey this idea.

[Still-ill]

Let's Discuss Your Past Through Music by looking at pictures.

[Still-ill]

I wrote about their disco here.

What a handy thread.

[hawkingvsreeve]

Probably the best thread on this board says I.

[PotVsKtl]

[MissingPerson]

My pick would be devastatingly unsurprising, and I suppose I've posted enough about it here already, but in case there's anybody left on earth that I haven't seized by the shoulders and bothered at length about it, you can read my slightly flowery and overlong explanation of why Funeral felt, and still feels, so important to me here.

To sum up; it was the first album I heard that really carried me away with it. I liked that it was a bit odd. I liked that it wasn't quite perfect, I liked that it wasn't embarrassed to holler from the rooftops about things like love, and I liked that more often than not I had no idea what the fuck they were saying or what they meant by it - all that helped me believe it. It felt sincere and it felt alive, and both of those things were strange and fresh to my ears then. They're no less thrilling to me now.

[juloxx]

First album I really dove into. Introduced me to underground rap and just put me in the zone. Though I am not all about underground now and I liked hip-hop before this album, this is where my obsession with hip-hop really really began.



This album borrowed both; elements from the underground and the mainstream and put it in perfect fusion. No better beats to free-style too. Havoc's style of dark style of production was really solidified here. Truly a unique album


Lastly, this was the album that took me from listening to strictly hip-hop and electronic to opening the door's to all genre's.

[bluemamba]

Changed music for me when I was around 13. I remember my friend putting on the track "Nebula" and I was so fucking confused. The rest is history.

I second this.

[RoughSteez]

i bought Thriller on cassette in 95' when all i had was a hand-me-down walkman, first record that really caught my ear and encouraged me to explore more music.



in 97-98' I heard Stairway to Heaven then Over the Hills and Far Away back to back on the radio in the car and I was totally hooked on Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy after that which in turn introduced me to Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, etc. All of this blew me out of the water.




then came Room on Fire and Elephant which i had heard singles from on the radio but incidentally it was both previous albums, This Is It and White Blood Cells, that really got me hooked on that garage rock revival/indie sound.




All gateway drugs, if you will.

[Still-ill]

The amount of Strokes and White Stripes is interesting. Kind of shows the mean age of the board.

[bluemamba]

Pink Floyd's Animals got me hooked into all the Pink Floyd and then led me to Led Zeppelin. The rest is history.



along with SCIENCE, this album was my favorite and got me through 6th grade.