Considering that my memory isn't the greatest, some of this
may be a little fuzzy around the edges, but I'll do what I can.
When I was a tot, my mom was one of those people best
categorized by the word "Bohemian" -- not really hippy, not really
granola, not totally gone on the art thing (though she _was_ a
leaded-glass artist for 'bout ten years -- quite a good one, if I do
say so myself. But I digress. Constantly), but not very mainstream,
either. She listened to lots of psychedelia, Kraftwerk, Mike Oldfield,
Tangerine Dream, Tomita, and Jean-Michelle Jarre. Plus big heaping
doses of various ethnic musics and Muzak (!).
My dad was more into a rock'n'roll tradition, but a cool one.
Lots of Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel, Yes, etc. I think the combination
of Mom 'n Dad more or less permanently fried my brain and led to my
currently raging eclectic tastes.
The first tapes I ever bought with my own money were Def
Leppard's _Pyromania_ and Men Without Hats. I was also a big Go-Go's
fan then (still am -- gotta problem with that?). For a long time I
lumped Ozzy, the Fixx, Flock Of Seagulls, Journey, Berlin, and other
heavy metal/New Wave bands into the same category, since the one radio
station in Portland that was worth listening to played all those bands
together.
My real musical awakening occurred when I saw the video for
Art Of Noise's "Close To The Edit" at an eighth grade dance (yeah, I'm
sorry, us country bumpkins don't have MTV ;). I was completely blown
away. The first piece of vinyl I bought was _Who's Afraid Of The Art
Of Noise?_ and if anyone ever tries to separate me from that, I'll
kill them.
However, at the same time, I was sorta trying to figure out
what I liked listening to. The Outfield, lots of Yes, Bruce
Springsteen, Jefferson Airplane, the Cure, Mudhoney, and various other
losers made their way into my collection then.
Whilst foundering about like this (and sorta listening to
classic rock for a while. Yuck), I got my first CD, Art Of Noise's
_Daft._ I worship that CD still, and try to think of creative ways to
mix it in with my other stuff (though I gotta admit the FON mixes
didn't do nearly as much for me as I thought they would).
Soon after this, I went on a trip to England and heard acid
house, and thought that was quite nifty. Got a bunch of Bomb The Bass,
the obligatory copy of M/A/R/R/S.
Then I saw a Front 242 video, which turned me on to
industrial. Bought lots and lots of industrial, and acquired my
mastery of all sorts of obscure details of Brian Lustmord's equipment,
and the various modifications that Genesis P-Orridge has made to his
genitalia. I also thought that Skinny Puppy were pretty nifty around
then, too, even if the industrial hard-liners think of them as effete.
Then I discovered 4AD for reals (via the Pixies), and started
buying lots of that. And also picked up an obsession with PiL that
didn't end until I finally snagged a copy of Metal Box.
All along here I listened to lots and lots of Sub Pop stuff,
because Mudhoney and Nirvana and folks played in Portland like every
other weekend, and I liked shows.
Oh yeah, got a copy of MBM's "Helter Skelter" the first day it
came out and thought it was the most godlike piece of dance music I'd
ever heard. Still do, actually.
Went to college, got a radio show, and heard shitloads of
indie-pop and dancy industrial, dabbled in making my own real
industrial, got a guitar, played classical piano for a while, took
music theory classes, and managed to almost entirely ignore the techno
that did make its way into the radio station (I liked Bassomatic a
lot, but that wasn't "hard" enough for me, in a dance-industrial
sense). I'd picked up a copy _Utd. State 90_ my first week at school,
and liked it a lot, but I didn't really make the connection between it
and techno until I picked up a copy of Coil's _The Snow_ and liked
that a whole hell of a lot, though I still think it doesn't have a
lot to do with Coil.
After _The Snow_, I wasn't the same. In the past two years,
I've picked up lots and lots of techno. Due (sorta) to the deleterious
impact that certain unnamed people on this list had on me (hi,
Brian!), I finally got off my ass and got a loan for a Denon 2000F and
a mixer. I like mixing a lot, but 60 techno CDs just aren't enough for
this boy. I am currently craving stuff from Djax Up, FAX, Harthouse,
+8, and Warp. If any of you care to make donations, e-mail me and I'm
sure we can work something out. :P
So, after all that, I now have one 60-CD case for techno, one
60-CD case for dance-industrial, two 60-CD cases for indie-pop (one of
which contains a very large amount of Legendary Pink Dots CDs), one
60-CD case full of experimental / difficult / noise / industrial-type
stuff, and a 60-CD case full of loud guitar stuff, which also houses
pretty much the complete Swans discography.
Plus I have about 150 other CDs (mostly hippy crap and more
mainstreamy stuff (like Bonnie Raitt)) floating about, most of which
seem to have wormed their ways into my parents' collections (they
aren't fanatics like me, but they're very broad-minded, and Mom's just
about shaken the house apart with "Blue Room" more times than I can
remember anymore). And my little brother has all my Guns 'N Roses and
Led Zeppelin (which I never listened to more than once, anyway.)
Maybe this is why I get a strange little smile on my
face whenever anybody asks me, "So, what kind of music do you listen
to?" :)
peace out,
ozymandias