Urban Hat€monger ?

.......On Last FM and tell the story of how you got into these bands.

1. The Fall
First heard of The Fall back in 1992 when there was this CD sized magazine called Volume where each edition of it had a free compilation CD with picture of a tropical fish on the cover.
Volume 4 of this magazine featured The Fall's 'Arid Al's Dream'.
I thought it was a heap of shit.
Throughout the 90s I would read interviews and tour reports about fights, bust ups and Mark E Smith generally being a prick and was amused by them (My favourite being he got so drunk at an award ceremony he made Badly Drawn Boy drive him home thinking he was a taxi driver and left his false teeth in the back of his car).
When Live At The Witch Trials was given a deluxe reissue I picked it up and was blown away by it. Later when I saw all their Peel Sessions were to be released I picked that up too and over the course of those 6 CDs became a full on Fall obsessive.


2. The Clash
I've talked about my Dad finding a record box with loads of punk singles in it when I was 8 years old before. In this box was the White Riot 7 inch, which I played to death.
Sometime around 1990/91 when I was getting bored of metal I decided to give punk a try and bought The Story Of The Clash. That kept me going for several years until I picked up The Clash On Broadway on one of my trips to London several years later.
After that it was time to pick up their albums proper. Most of my plays of them recently come from live recordings & bootlegs I've picked up over the years. I very rarely listen to their studio stuff now.


3. The Rolling Stones
I remember watching some music documentary on the BBC when I was very young and they showed the Stones playing Get Off My Cloud and I just remember staring at the TV thinking it was the coolest song ever.
My mother had a few of their singles and I remember playing those on our record player often. After a false start buying a really awful live album (Flashpoint) I decided to give them a secong chance by buying Hot Rocks around the same time as I picked up The Clash album.Hearing that was when a little lightbulb when off in my head. I picked up Sticky Fingers, Exile, Let It Bleed, Aftermath, but I think it was when I picked up Beggars Banquet I was finally sold.


4. David Bowie
Been aware of Bowie for as long as I can remember. I can remember watching kids TV on a Saturday morning and seeing the Ashes To Ashes video and even then being aware of who he was. I remember him doing Under Pressure with Queen and my mum really liking that song. I can also remember when Let's Dance, China Girl & Modern Love came out and watching the videos to them on TV. I think the first Bowie record I bought was the one he did with Jagger for Live Aid.
I stopped listening to him for a few years while I did my metal thing and he did his Tin Machine thing. After that I started checking out his 70s stuff. I think the first album I bought was Diamond Dogs, but it was Hunky Dory that really clicked with me and made me want to listen to all his stuff.
Heroes, Low & Lodger I left till last (Apart from Pin Ups & Young Americans) because I knew they weren't 'Rock' albums. Heroes I loved straight away, Low & Lodger took a little more time for me to get into but I got there in the end.


5. Hawkwind
I remember the first time I ever heard Hawkwind, It was on the radio late one Friday and I was waiting for them to play Iron Maiden's 1988 Castle Donington set from the previous weekend. They played a 10 minute live rendition of Master Of The Universe. It sounded like shit, like some badly recorded bootleg with this repetitive droning noise that seemed to go on forever. This put me off Hawkwind for years.
I know I must have heard Silver Machine at some point after that on some compilation because it's on every rock compilation album released ever, but I don't think it made me any more interested. Neither did the fact that Motorhead were one of my favourite bands and the Lemmy connection with them still didn't make me budge.
Sometime around the late 90s when I was discovering an interest in Krautrock and some 70s Prog I found a 3CD Hawkwind compilation going very cheaply. I picked that up and over the next few weeks found myself liking more and more songs on it. I decided to start buying some of their albums, as it just so happens they had just released the 25 anniversary edition of Space Ritual just a few weeks earlier so I picked that up.
Ironically it was the blistering version of Master Of The Universe on this that I really loved the most. After playing Space Ritual to death I picked up their other 70s stuff. I still don't really listen to anything they did after the early 80s but maybe in time I will.

__________________

Norg

korn

Slipknot

Deftones

Faith no more

Gucci mane


CUS they all the MOST "ELIITTTEEEE" in music quality

Frownland

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - I met this surreal and strange being at 15 years old and I haven't been quite the same since.

Billy Woods - Found out about Woods through MB after History Will Absolve Me was getting a lot of love here.

Wolves In Sheepskin - Some try-hard *******s who I happen to know very well. They also kick ass, but I dare you to catch me admitting that I like their ****e music.

Zu - Found them by looking through artists that Mike Patton was associated with.

Tom Waits - Hearing him being compared to Captain Beefheart piqued my interest, my first exposure to him was Bad As Me.

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Neapolitan

I am new to last.fm so this list doesn't really represent my all-time favorites, just what I listen to with last.fm.

1. The Sea Urchins - Found them on youtube. They are an indie pop band from West Bromwich, England. I got hooked on them after hearing Please Rain Fall.
   
2. Brighter - I don't know how I got into them or why they even rank that high. Maybe they were a last.fm rec - seriously idk.
   
3. Carl Perkins - Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Robert Gordon covered a few of his songs.
   
4. Duane Eddy - My dad had a few albums by him. I bought some of them on CD. I simply love his guitar playing. Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel was my favorite albums for years.
   
5. The Yardbirds - My dad had a greatest hits album by them. I was kinda fascinated with their history since they had three very well-known guitar players in Rock play at one point or another in the band.

__________________

bulbasaur

1. why? - besides clouddead and the likes, the first time i actually listened to a why? song was when my internet friend linked me to crushed bones sometime in 2007. i wasn't blown away by it or anything, but i enjoyed it. it wasn't until i listened to the vowels, pt. 2 sometime shortly after alopecia leaked online that i became really interested in why?. now i have no problem saying their my favorite group, and i enjoy at least 80% of yoni's output.

2. nara leao - there's no interesting story behind this. i believe i found out about nara through a now defunct blogspot sometime around 2009, which i don't recall the name of or even what i had been looking for at the time. her music doesn't have much significance in my life, but she's still a neat vocalist.

3. bruce haack - nothing interesting here either. just another artist found through yet another blogspot, this time around 2010.

4. the magnetic fields - i listened to 69 love songs for the first time in 2007 or 2008 as it was posted on another blogspot (radiobutt maybe); fido, your leash is too long became an instant favorite. i've loved merritt's work ever since, with holiday being my current favorite magnetic fields' release. i didn't learn until years later that this wasn't the first time i had heard the them though, since they were featured on the soundtrack for nickelodeon's adventures of pete & pete which aired in the early 90s. at least two other of merritt's groups were featured on the series' soundtrack also, the 6ths being the most prominent of the three.

5. evenings - i first heard this guy sometime in 2010 when i used to view a bunch of videos on vimeo. this video had evenings' friends - lovers with before sunrise audio clips dubbed over it. i thought it was great and still think so. that's about it

__________________
last.fm

Goofle

1. Aesop Rock: 2,726

It's no coincidence that my favourite Hip Hop artist is #1 on my list, but I have to confess that I only really got into him via Musicbanter. According to last.fm, I had listened to him a few times before joining the site, but it wasn't until 2012 (about four months after signing up) that he started getting heavy rotation. I have obsessively listened to Labor Days since then, but pretty much all of his albums are good to great for me.

2. El-P: 2,299

Unlike Aesop, I was quite familiar with EL-P before joining the site. I had listened to Fantastic Damage and Funcrusher Plus a few times beforehand. But like Aesop, I only really started becoming a huge fan due to the influence of this site, and it came at around the same time in early 2012. Non stop scrobbling ever since.

3. Lana Del Rey: 1,752

Weirdly enough, my first listen to Lana came at pretty much the same time as I became obsessed with the previous two artists. However, I was by no means a huge fan at that time. It wasn't until late 2013 that I decided to give her albums another shot. Around that time I had been getting into more pop music courtesy of my man Justin Timberlake, so it was only natural that Lana would be given a fair shot. Needless to say, I have compulsively listened to Born to Die, Paradise and Ultraviolence ever since.

4. The Fall: 1,600

This is the only band that truly pre-dates Musicbanter on this list for me. I became a fan late in 2010, which was probably the starting period of my serious musical discovery phase. C.R.E.E.P. is the first song I remember listening to, and I loved it. After listening to most of their albums I got a hold of their Complete Peel Sessions and I listened to that over and over again. It's utterly fantastic. Fall obsessive for life.

5. Catherine Wheel: 1,488

I discovered these guys in 2012 on YouTube, which is the source of many of my finds. This isn't the exact video which made me check them out, although it is the same person:



Basically listened to them heavily since then, and now consider them one of the finest shoegaze/alternative rock bands ever. And probably my favourite band of all time.

__________________

Janszoon

My scrobbler stopped working correctly about a year and a half to two years ago so my top five is probably a bit out of date at this point. Here they are though:

1. Harry Nilsson—One of my favorite artists of the 60s and 70s. My love of him goes back to early childhood and his album The Point but I really, really got into him about two years ago and got all of the albums of his that could find. The timing probably explains why he's top of my last.fm list, though I still listen to him a lot so I'm sure he'd rank pretty high even if the scrobbler still worked right.

2. Necro—Campy, rough-hewn hip hop that worships at the altar of metal. There's something about this guy where, once I start listening to him, there's nothing else I'm in the mood for and I definitely went on a lot of these Necro benders around 2010-2012 so he's high on the list. I have no recollection of where I heard of him but I do remember I didn't like him on first listen but then he somehow grew on me.

3. The Beatles—I was doing my "Win Janszoon Over To The Beatles" thread a few years ago and I listened to them a hell of a lot in the the process. I was won over to them to a certain extent in the end, though I rarely put them on just to listen to at this point.

4. NeoTokyo—Great weird Spanish post-rock band that I saw at small club in London many years ago. I only owned one vinyl release from them for over a decade until discovering their bandcamp page in early 2013, at which point I was happy to discover that they had made a whole lot more great music in the intervening years.

5. Igorrr—Crazy ass baroque metal breakcore guy from France who is easily one of my favorite musical discoveries of the past decade. I first heard of him because of a thread here on MB, checked him out and immediately fell in love. I still listen to Igorrr and one of his other projects, Whourkr, a hell of a lot.

__________________
A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Charlemagne

I reset my last.fm a while back, so this is actually based around the last year, not since I've had it. Either way

Sufjan Stevens - My dad bought Illinois when I was 15 and I loved it. I used that album as a springboard to discover all his other albums and I've been a fan ever since. Not to mention I listen to his two Christmas compilations basically for the entire month of December.

The Mountain Goats - I think I was a sophomore in high school and I heard "This Year" for the first time on some site, I don't really remember, but I bought The Sunset Tree and then slowly over the next 5 years I went and got everything in his discography. I remember also having a friend who really liked them as well, and I could talk to him about their music which was how I made friends back then.

Madeline Ava Back in senior year in high school there was this site that I loved to go to called CLLCT, which basically allowed DIY pop artists to post albums for free, and I scoured that place. The first album I got by her were her albums where she "covers" In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and I thought it was adorable.

Into It. Over It. - Okay in freshman year of college I started discovering Emo. For the longest time I couldn't get myself to respect that genre, so finally this guy on last.fm, oddly enough, recommended Castevet, and I loved them, so Castevet had a split with this band and I picked it up, and I loved Into It. Over It.'s side more, and I found that he had done, and was currently doing a bunch of splits with a bunch of great bands, and that he had an album out of 52 songs he had recorded in 52 weeks, and I would spend hours listening to just that.

Jason Anderson - I was a DJ throughout my four years of college, and my freshman year we were allowed to take any CD we want and rip it onto our laptop if we brought our laptop to our DJ shifts. So I used that to rip everything that I was interested in. So while rummaging through the back room that was filled with hundreds of CD's from years passed I stumbled upon an album by him called Tonight, which was like a faux live album, he recorded it in a studio with a live audience. I was obsessed with it because of the joy and passion that he sang with.

__________________
Charlemagne had eyes like a lover, but last winter there was weather and his eyes they iced right over.

My Last.fm

Key

Elliott Smith (1,893 plays): One of my all time favorite artists that I accidentally stumbled upon. I always heard the name being brought up on music forums, and such, and figured it was my time to give him a listen and see what it was all about. I was impressed the minute I started to listen to XO. After that, I went on a binge listening journey of listening to nothing but Elliott Smith, and that led to just listening to each of his albums a few times a day for several weeks. I was hooked and couldn't stop listening. I'm still hooked and to this day I wish I could tell him how much of an impact he had on what I listen to today.

Dream Theater (1,537 plays): I was introduced to Dream Theater in high school by a close friend of mine who used to bring his guitar to school since he was in band class. He told me about one of his big influences being John Petrucci, and I wasn't sure who he was talking about. The next day he brought me two DVD's, one containing a live show of Dream Theater (can't remember which one it was), and the other being a G3 concert featuring Steve Vai and John Petrucci. I'll never forget the day I heard the cover of Deep Purple on that album and was completely blown away.

Sigur Ros (1,158 plays): I remember going to a CD store in downtown Seattle and seeing Sigur Ros's Takk... I had heard of the name before but wasn't entirely familiar with the band yet, but I knew a few songs from the album so I decided to pick it up. I put that bad boy into the stereo system that I had and I swear that album got more spins out of any of the other albums I had at the time. Was instantly hooked and I immediately put the album on my iPod and found myself listening to it all the time. It was something different from anything else I had ever heard, but I found myself really enjoying it, mostly for how peaceful and easy listening it was. I think it had a big impact on how I appreciate post-rock these days.

Chiodos (783 plays): My cousin and a friend of school both introduced me to this band within a week of each other. Again, this is a band that I was familiar with the name, but wasn't entirely familiar with the music, having only heard a song or two. Honestly, I can't say that most of my love for them comes with Craig Owens being the vocalist, I think most of the reason they have the plays on my last.fm are due to the Illuminaudio album. I suppose that's a bit odd to say since that one album doesn't feature Craig Owens as the vocalist, but hey, I enjoy it and got plenty of love for the band as a whole regardless of the vocalist.

Porcupine Tree (775 plays): This is another band that I think I was introduced to by hearing the name on music forums and the like so many times that I figured it was my time to give it a go. The first time I ever heard of this band was of course with "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here", and honestly, the love of the band just skyrocketed as more albums I listened to were just better and better.

bob.

love this idea man.....what a fun read from all of you

1. Rudimentary Peni

so one of my best friends in high school....we'll call him Jon (since that is his name)....Jon and i more or less went through musical discovery together although Jon was a bit more ahead of the curve than i was....anyways..at my high school there was thing called "the nutritional break"....it was between second and third period and was a 15 minute break meant for students to get a healthy snack....for me and my friends it was a chance to smoke a couple cigarettes and smoke a bowl ....anyways it was on one of these breaks that Jonj pulls up in his bug and tells me he just bought this record by the craziest punk band he had ever heard....and that i should skip the rest of the day and come back to his house to get stoned and listen to it over and over again....obviously my musical education was much more important than anything i might learn in that fascist training building so i hopped in his car and went along for the ride

i will never forget the feeling the first time i heard "Media Man".....needless to say we still argue as to what side of the EPs is better....me?.... i'm a Farce kind of guy

2. Swans

so this is kind of a two parter.....my introduction to Swans....and when they really clicked with me

December 1995 i went to San Francisco with my buddy Dead to see Pigface and Psychic TV at The Maritime Hall (R.I.P. ).....this was in the downstairs area so it was very small and very intimate....which is probably why upon entering the venue members of Pigface were giving everybody x-mas wrapped gifts all with some silly quote and all signed by Martin Atkins....(they were all cd's and all on Invisible Records)....mine said "Onions!? We got enough to choke a ****ing horse! - Love martin Atkins" and after carefully opening it it turned out to be a copy of Swans - The Great Annihilator (i still own this very copy )....now although i did enjoy the album....at that time i was very much in a more ambient industrial stage....lots of Dead Voices on Air, Scorn, Download etc etc etc....so i kind of filed it under "should look into when i'm in the mood"

well the mood came a few years later while at a bacchanal.....i was going through a friend cd collection trying to decided what to listen to next and came upon "Public Castration is a Good Idea" by this Swans band....think back i remember their full loud sound but also remembered it being carefully constructed and somewhat pleasing.....so obviously this would be perfect music to keep flirtatious conversation moving....if you have ever heard this album i'm sure you can imagine what happened

but for me it really lit a fire in me....by the time Gira first bellows "MONEY IS FLESH!!!!!!!" i came to the realization that this is exactly what i've been looking for for years....

3. Lana Del Rey


so i first heard Lana by my friend Charity....and i won't lie....and as many of you know.....i was not impressed....i mean sure....she's got pipes but why all the fucking hype?

so earlier this year her new album came out....and i started to notice around this place especially that many people whose musical taste i really respect were praising this album....and then Engine posted the song "Money, Power, Glory" in the "what song says how you are feeling" thread and i checked it out....it resonated in me so i downloaded the album to give it whirl....i stopped playing it over 48 hours later (please keep in mind that at this time i drove for a living so this obviously saves sleep and such)....it is easily one of my all time favorite albums....and i would say that 98% of my scrobbled tracks are from Ultraviolence

4. Current 93

so i was 20 and i met this kind of freaky goth guy at the mall....we talked for a while and he told me to come back next week and he would have a tape for me....it was Current 93's Swastikas for Goddy...after a conversation i took off with my walkman playing some great hardcore (probably Integrity or Earth Crisis at that time in my life)....so i got to a bus stop and while waiting for the bus i decided to check out this band.....the first song is this....


very powerful....and made even more powerful as while listening to this i was watching giant earth movers destroy an old building....the line "and have built a strange place for the children to dwell" really struck me

a few weeks later a group of friends and i decided to all eat a quarter ounce of mushrooms each on the winter solstice....i opted to have this album be our pathway into the psychedelic bliss we were headed for....needless to say it's all i listened to that night....save a couple hours of watching The Tick....and it really settled in my mind that this band is by far one of the most important musically and lyrically....at the time finding their albums was very hard and very expensive....but worth every moment and every penny

5. DEVO

like most people my age "Whip It" was the first Devo song i've heard....and throughout their career i also liked them....but it wasn't till my mid 20s that i came to the realization that this band really planted something in my subconscious and thus fell head over heels for them....i mean back in the 80s they were huge and at the same time talking about Wilhelm Reich and the church of the sub genius....and as i grew older i started to notice the strange connections and the obvious influence these art students from ohio have had on not just my taste in music but also my thought process and the way i view the world

__________________
A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.

Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.