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YOUR musical timeline

  
 
bio k9
08:18 / 27.11.01
I have no interest whatsoever in listening to punks and art students go on about what music they think is important. No more than frat boys or jocks, anyway. Its just boring to me. No one will be able to cover every important musical contribution from their favorite genre, never mind linking contributions from outside influences. I'm far more interested in how you (yes, you includes punks, artists, fratboys and jocks) developed your interest in music. What was your path to the music you are now listening to?

I can't remember my parents listening to any music when I was little. We had Joplins Pearl and some Cosby comedy records that I would put on from time to time. I also remember owning an outerspace concept album for kids called The Intergalactic Touring Band.

Somehow, I came to like Bruce Springsteen. The local library had most of his albums so I could listen to him whenever I wanted. I thought he was the shit. I read that he was supposed to be "The Next Dylan" so I checked out some of Bob Dylans albums. Man, this Bob Dylan guy sucks I thought.

Sometime around 84/85 or so (memory is sketchy at best) my friend Paul moved in across the street from me. Paul was from Chicago, had lived in Texas with his grandparents for a while, and was now stuck in Tacoma WA. Stuck with his shoe box full of rap tapes (and his boom box complete with Mr. T "I pity the fool that touches my stereo" bumper sticker). We would sit around playing Intellivision football, listening to L.A. Dream Team, Kurtis Blow, and all kinds of other shit that I can no longer remember. Only a year older, he seemed infinately cooler. I learned how to do a backspin before the Beastie Boys blew up white suburbia. Rap was called a fad, remember? Paul moved back to Chicago to live with his mother for a while. He took his tapes with him. I didn't see him again until after college.

In 89, as a freshman in highschool, I was introduced to punk. My friend Gabe played the first Fugazi tape, a VU album and lots of death metal on top of the G n R everyone else was listening to. And the local scene was just taking off...


Shit! Its 3:30am...more later...

[ 27-11-2001: Message edited by: Bioluminescent K9 ]
 
 
The Natural Way
08:46 / 27.11.01
At 11 my brother purchases A Salt With A Deadly Pepper....and after that there's no looking back. Next came It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back along with House Hits 88 (it had some Hip-Hop on it) and then it steamrollered. My mother worked in Carnaby St. and, everytime I was up there, I'd cadge a bit of moolah for a new album, single, whatever from what was then called Red Records (later changing its name to Unity) and or Black Market. I just used to pick up vinyl without knowing what was on it - in this way I got my hands on such lovely little gems as Phuture's Acid Trax, Eric B & Rakim's Follow The Leader, Baby Ford's Ooooh, The World Of Baby Ford, Tot's What U R, Nightmare on Wax's Aftermath (altho I'm For Real on the B side was better)....only to get them all nicked 7 years down the line by evil E head %friends%. But, at that time, that was 7 years in the future and, for lack of being able to get to any raves, we made up for it in the fields around our village. Horrid teenage bachanalia with a house soundtrack: campfires in fields, dancing till God knows when to Pressure Drop's Feeling Good and enjoying nice dope and bad trips...the soundtrack still pumping. First rave in 91 - Camber Weekender:

"Hey, kids! What are you on!"

"Life, mate!"

Errr...you get the picture.

At 16 disappointed by nasty garage do's and Ride Like The Wind. Clearly music for old farts who told me to "Get that dummy out of yr mouth!"

Twats.

?

Hardcore pops up and from it Jungle starts to emerge with a 31 seconds giving itself to the darkside in sweet harmony. I'm not sure about it. While the Ragga Twins and Shut Up & Dance made me shake ma booty....this...hmmm......

Everyone starts to wear bomber jackets.

(contd after lunch)
 
 
Jackie Susann
08:54 / 27.11.01
At 12 or 13 I go to the local record shop specifically intending to buy whatever will annoy my dad the most. I end up getting NWA and Body Count tapes.

At about 15 I realise the people I really want to annoy are my peers, not my dad, so I start listening to unbelievably annoying, obscure lo-fi punk and indie rock shit nobody's ever heard of. A couple of years later I realise techno is even more annoying to most people I know than crap guitar music and start listening to that.

I'd like this story to end with 'and then at age X I realise there are more important motivations for enjoying music than to annoy people with different taste' but it's really not true, so whatever.
 
 
Ethan Hawke
10:34 / 27.11.01
My first tape, got when I was 9, was Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet". Til I was about 13 I listened to glam metal and maybe some pop, whatever was on MTV really and whoever had a cool logo I could draw on my notebook or desk (that was VERY, VERY VERY important criteria). Around age 13 I got into Faith no More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, paving the way for my Freshman year iN High School infatuation with Sonic Youth and all things Sonic Youthesque. For awhile there I existed in a paralell universe where Poison and Warrant were just about as equally listenable as the Pixies and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Then I fell under the sway on Spin Magazine's early 90s hierarchy of cool, something I think was very important in shaping the way rock music was viewed pre and post Nirvana. I saw the world premiere of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video and immediately rushed out to find the album (I had actually been looking for Nirvana albums earlier as an Interview with Sonic Youth I had read had namechecked them, Jesus Lizard and Mudhoney, none of whom I had actually heard but was willing to trust Thurston Moore on). For a brief shining moment, I could listen to the radio and hear something I liked. Then Pearl Jam broke.

The rest of my musical history includes inconsequentional infatuations with the best of the early 90s Amerindie rock underground (Pavement, Unrest, Archers, etc.) followed by a dalliance with twee, brief periods of brit-pop worship, and a nostalgic interest in (a) German music from the 70s (b) 80s english new wave bands. Nothing has rocked my world since the early 90s though.
 
 
solfishy
12:24 / 27.11.01
My first record purchase was Starship Trooper by someone who I have now forgotten I think when I was about 7. Michael Jackson's "Bad" was next at about 9. I think it was at about 12-13 years of age when a slightly older friend got me listening to AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Up until about 16/17 I listened to a lot of Glam Metal - Faster Pussycat, Poison, Quire(sp? it definatly wasn't "Choir") Boys as well as various other metal bands like WASP, Almighty I defiantly owned Kings of Metal by Man O War at one stage, Metallica, Mega Death. I was absolutely mad about GnR up until they released Lose Your Illusions at which point I did with them. After tumultuous split up with first proper girlfriend just past my 17th birthday started listening to a lot of Suicidal Tendencies and got really into Mega Death. The same friend who had introduced me to metal had also introduced me to New Model Army a few years earlier and in fact when I was 14 or so a New model Army gig was the first one I went to. I had always kinda liked there stuff but at this stage in my life I found they reflected my generally despondency fantastically so I got hugely into them as well.

AT this point (about 17 – 18 ) I started going out to alternative nights “Chaos” on the pier in Southsea , this slowly got into more, for want of a better term, alternative music ie Levellers, Back To The Planet, PWEI, Front 242, Rage Against The Machine, Sheep On Drugs, NIN e.t.c. Also started listening to a bit of rap at this point in the form of Ice-T. After taking my first trip and then proceeded to take a lot more after that I started to lose any interest in metal and just wanted to listen to crusty and industrial dancy kinda stuff. About half a year later started to listen to more rap like Dr Dre, Snoop Dog, Cypress Hill, a lot of NWA and Ice Cube. This coincided with me discovering dope and proceeding to live the next couple of years in a cloud of smoke. I mention my drug taking as it tended to be very influential in the style of music I was listening to at any time. By the time I was about 20 I was only listening to Gangsta Rap.

At I think about 21 I was now at Uni and living in Bristol, a friend who came from the area persuaded me and another Uni mate to go to a techno night at Lakota. I assumed that it was going to be full of blokes in suits with shitty attitudes a la your local equivalent of Ritzys (there’s at least one in every British city). We secured some E and some speed and it’s the normal first E story of me having one of the best nights of my life (the best being the next time we went out). I pretty much stopped listening to Rap on the spot. Up until about 24 I just listened to Techno and Hard House. When I stopped going out clubbing so much I stopped listening to Techno or anything else really. I just seemed to lose interest in music all together.

Recently (I’m 27 now) however I’ve started buying music again. At present listening to The Violent Femmes, The Clash, PJ Harvey, Everlast, Sex Pistols (they’re fantastic for wondering round London with your walkman on), still listening to New Model Army, White Stripes.

I’ve always been a bit odd in my music listening ways in that I tend to buy a small number of albums which I listen to death and the move on to something else
 
 
rizla mission
14:00 / 27.11.01
Probably far more than you ever wanted to know:

The music I remember listening to from my parents collection when I was very young included such stuff as The Beatles (pre-revolver, when they were still good), Pink Floyd (whom I never really liked, but pretended to so as not to offend my mum), Merle Haggard (now that's the shit!), Roxy Music and Willy Nelson..

I didn't start to like music myself until I started at big school, when I started buying tapes by the likes of Aerosmith, Ugly Kid Joe, G n' R and so forth and lovin' them.

After a year or so of that, someone put a tape of Smells Like Teen Spirit on the classroom radio and I spent about six months listening to the first 3 tracks on Nevermind constantly, shortly thereafter graduating to Green Day, Offspring, Rage Against the Machine and early Beastie Boys..

Then brit-pop hit, and for a year or so it was all Oasis, Blur and little else. This was when I first got a CD player and I'm still chuffed that, by pure coincidence, all the brit-pop albums I bought were the cool ones (Defintely Maybe, Different Class, Modern Life is Rubbish), as opposed to the uncool ones.
The first CDs I bought were two singles from the bargain bin - 'Stay Together' by Suede and 'Saturn 5' by the Inspiral Carpets.

After that, my school chums abandoned the urge to rock and switched to nasty club music compilations. I didn't, instead rediscovering the brilliance of Nirvana as I re-bought their albums on CD, honing my indie-ness through intensive and obsessive Steve Lamacq listening (I have about 20 recorded-off-the-radio tapes to prove it) and, whilst I didn't actually buy many CDs during this period, I did get into Beck, Eels, the Dandy Warhols and the Manics (and Kula Shaker, but the less said about that the better).

Then, a friend of mine lent me a Ramones tape and I simultaneously discovered the joys of !PUNK! and !POP!, shortly afterward buying Rocket to Russia, Never Mind the Bollocks, New Transister Heroes (Bis), At The Club (Kenickie) and The Best of The Undertones.. this is about where I truly started LOVING music rather than just listening to it for something to do.

Next came the 3 month Pixies obsession, an increasing amount of spare cash resulting in a drastically increased rate of CD buying and an opportunity to start buying music papers every week..

Then Grant was nice enough to send me a Sonic Youth tape, I switched from Lamacq to Peel, HMV started having really wicked sales, I went to a Motorhead gig in Swansea, and the rest is history....

[ 27-11-2001: Message edited by: Rizla Year Zero ]
 
 
grant
18:23 / 27.11.01
My heart swells with joy.

My history, in highlight form:

first two albums I'm allowed to play: Hard Day's Night soundtrack and Beethoven's 5th.

It builds up from there - buying the soundtracks to Rocky and Star Wars in Kmart, Pat Benatar on the 6th grade radio, an abortive jr. high play adaptation of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (I wasn't in it, but wound up with the sheet music).

High school - a friend loans me Dead Kennedys' "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables". All of a sudden, my other friend's Ozzy Osbourne records don't seem quite as cathartic.
Family trip, I'm in London, buy the Repo Man soundtrack and the Bauhaus Live album in HMV records. The Bauhaus seduces me instantly. Shortly after hearing "Bike" on the Dr. Demento Show, a family friend buys me Pink Floyd's "Umma Gumma" out of the cassette cut-out bin. I am still in love with early Pink Floyd. You can't change that.

College - Camper Van Beethoven and The Cramps hit me at the same time. Everything I've ever wanted: humor, anger, sorrow, noise, beauty, newness (as opposed to simple novelty). My friend Harry hits me with Sonic Youth and Bruce Springsteen. Correction: we trade mix tapes and hit each other with everything. The Sonic Youth actually started because I had a station wagon, and groups would pay for my ticket if I drove 'em to rock shows. Saw Jane's Addiction and Fishbone (in the ska years) the same way.

* Post-grad - suffer heartbreak while living with Mister Twee Indie Pop. Weep and dance to Magnetic Fields. Rediscover Devo and Wall of Voodoo. Build shrines to Ennio Morricone.

* Since then - it's all a matter of catching up.
 
 
grant
18:26 / 27.11.01
Ooo. Skipped the bit in college when suddenly my Dad's old jazz & blues records were suddenly "cool." It was around the same time Robert Cray's first album came out - I don't necessarily consider that a musical milestone as much as typical of the time. All of a sudden, BB King and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf were all touring and all coooool.
 
 
Cop Killer
19:21 / 27.11.01
Watched MTV compulsivly as a child and loved all the cock rock stuff (Poison, Motley Crue, Ratt) except for Warrant, who always sucked. Liked G'n'R quite a bit as well. Got into heavier stuff like Metallica, Megadeath, Sepultara and Pantara around fourth grade through my older brother's influence. Listened to that for a while, then my brother got me into punk rock around sixth grade via the Dead Milkmen, Fugazi and the Ramones. Through those three bands, I became obsessed, did massive research on the subject, found out where to read about it, the internet led me to bands more and more. I got into the hardcore punk and Oi! this way. I also got into rockabilly because of my brother's then constant listening to the Stray Cats, from there I got into the Rev. Horton Heat (because of his video on Beavis and Butthead, actually) and the Demented Are Go. Got into the Makers around sophmore year, also when I started my hardcore punk band, the Awful. I got some weird thing with Iggy Pop, and the Stooges became my favorite band ever, followed closely by Motorhead and the Ramones. The Awful broke up a couple years later. Since then, two years ago, I've been listening to a lot of Garage and sixties punk (thanks to the Makers who got me into the Sonics who got me into ? & the Mysterians who got me into all the other underground stuff the sixties had to offer). Regrew my obsession with cock rock and Metal, got into Manowar, Death Metal, Black Metal, and vowed to bring back Thrash Metal. And I play acoustic songs in front of people at coffe houses now, sort of a folk punk thing. And I fucking rock.
 
 
uncle retrospective
22:04 / 27.11.01
Started of with a Bon Jovi, Def Lepard at 13. Moved on to Iron Madien pretty quickly ten had a friend feed me Metallica. On to thrash metal moved on to Death metal. Napalm Death become my fav band for 2 years.
Move to collage and get into indie scene, Neds, PWEI et all.
Then get into goth and really miserable music. Spend 3 months listening to nothing but Joy Division, the cure and the Sisters.
Good times.
Move on the the industral scene, front 242, FLA and Swans. After another 2 years of that get into the post rock, shoe gazzing scene.
Mogwai, GSYBE and Slowdive.
After one of the worst gigs I ever see in my life (GSYBE) I give up on post rock as a bunch posuer toss.
Go to see Orbital with some friends and take my first pill.
Start getting into dance music. Orbital, Underworld are still my fav dancing tunes.
Got into Tecno and hard house pills started fucking me up so try to pry my way from the scene through cold turkey.
Move back to metal as may have been noticed as on my brothers of metal post.
Now I'm wondering about in a metal/dance haze and worring that I haven't found a new band i've liked in about a year.

(CK, lothar I still have remembered your cd's they are sitting on my shelf till I get off my arse and send then. I will, I will!)
 
 
grant
12:08 / 28.11.01
I can't believe I totally skipped the first time I saw Jonathan Richman live, in St. Petersburg.

That was world-shaking.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
18:24 / 01.12.01
This is such a great idea for a thread.
(ahem)
When I was a kid, I borrowed (for which read stole) my older sister's records. That means stuff like Adam and the Ants, Visage, Martha and the Muffins...
then (being the good Christian kid I was, my "pop sensibilities" weren't aroused for a while, so...)
I ended up simultaneously thinking Madonna and Sigue Sigue Sputnik were the coolest shit EVER.
Then I got a bit older, started actually checking stuff out, and unfortunately went through a horrid goth phase, which lasted for YEARS. (First band I ever went to see- The Mission. I was 17, in my defence, but how poo is that?)
Now... I like all sorts of shit. But some of it actually IS shit. I'm just not sure which bits anymore.
But I HAVE launched a one-man campaign to get Strawberry Switchblade again considered cool...

[ 01-12-2001: Message edited by: Black John Bonnie the Stoat ]
 
  
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