} > So what's your supposed skeleton in the musical closet? What DID we
} > listen to way the hell back when that led us to this blessed state we
} > find ourselves in (hopefully)? Enquiring (or perhaps madly curious)
} > minds want to know!
}
} Good discussion question. I've seen Samu in his underwear, now I can't wait
} for Drukman to show his.
}
} My first album ever was Foreigner 4. Somehow my friends convinced me at that
} tender age that "Juke Box Hero" was the coolest song on the planet. I also
} was once very into Styx. I think I later burned Foreigner 4.
Domo ori gato, Mr. Roboto!
(What does that mean, pet the cat?)
Anyways, my musiqual hystery:
~4th grade - my dad bought Synchronicity (the Police) and Brothers in Arms
(Dire Straits), and I put those two albums on a tape that I listened
to every night as I feel asleep, for about a year. I also bought
Duran Duran's first 3 albums (all of this on good old LP, mind you)
and a few other random items from that era...
5th grade-8th grade - basically lost touch with music. Watched a lot of MTV in
its early days, so I was hearing what was out there but not buying a
whole lot. Got turned onto KROQ, and started making tapes from there,
but as a whole I couldn't bring myself to spend good money on a slab
of vinyl.
Summer after 8th grade - listened to a LOT of KROQ, finding there were lots of
groups I really liked (DM, U2, Sioxsie, etc).... I took about 10 tapes
with me on my trip to Russia, and found music to be an incredible
bond between cultures....
9th grade - went to the U2 concert in LA, with the Pretenders, with my dad and
4 friends. Convinced him that music like this NEEDED to be heard on
CD. He agreed - that Christmas I got a CD player and "The Joshua
Tree", and my life has never been the same since.
10th grade - discovered Poobah's record store in Pasadena - the best CD store
I've EVER been to. Cheap, and you could get almost anything there
Also started listening to the Swedish Egil's All Night Radio Mix on
KROQ, where he counted down the top 20 club hits and added a few songs
of his own. This is the first place I heard acid house music - I think
it was "The Acid Commandment" by Camouflage where I first recognized it
as a separate musical entity. I also got a job at the Wherehouse
(music and video chain store), which feuled a lot of purchasing on my
employee discount, and which introduced me to even more music.
11th grade - branching out in musical tastes - got into Industrial, 4ad... just
about everything KROQ was playing I would at least check out, then
usually buy, then usually look into everything else they've ever done,
etc. I developed a strong taste for obscure bands, sometimes
liking them more for their obscurity than their talent. I also started
going out to raves in LA, and LOVING the music they played. Went to
TONS of concerts.
12th grade - Discovered This Mortal Coil, whose music sent me to new emotional
extremes. Discovered Psychic TV's "Turn On To Thee Acid House", which
was the first time I ever considered a song to have a true... mindfuck
aspect to it. My tastes were very wide - everything from the Cowboy
Junkies to the Revolting Cocks, from Baby Ford to the Fatima Mansions,
from the Stone Roses to the Church. And yet I loved it all. I found
it hard to do ANYTHING unless I was listening to music.
Freshman at college - Beginnings of music confusion. The "rave music" that I
had loved was turning sour, and while I threw good money after bad
trying to recapture the thrill of hearing "James Brown Is Dead" for
the first time on a booming system, I felt like my tastes had reached
an apex, like it was only downhill from here somehow. I didn't have a
job and I realized I was depleting my financial resources in vain.
Even the new song my a most-ballyhood group, the Orb, "Perpetual Dawn"
failed to grasp me. So I laid off from buying for awhile, and kept
up here and there buying the new stuff from familiar groups...
and tried new stuff like Negativland (success) and Nocturnal Emissions
(bomb)...
Sophomore - Job! Money! I persued my musical search with renewed vigor, and
this time was more careful with my selections. Had a brief flirt with
the possibility of being a DJ, but gave that up when I realized I'd
have to dedicate all my buying power to dance music and my time to
mixing if I wanted to pursue that. As usual, my first exposure to
the Aphex Twin (digeridoo) wasn't that impressive, but the B-side...
ooooo, the b-side! Analogue Bubblebath 1 completely turned me around.
So now here I am.... I've been going through my collection recently, pruning
out the stuff I don't listen to anymore, to make room for the stuff that in
the future I won't listen to anymore.... hmmmmm.... where does this cycle end?
Brian