3 albums that shaped your musical identity.

[jrmy]

Versus - The Stars are Insane

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepcMTQdVOo[/youtube]

I like the cut of your jib, sir!

[StopReferencing]

Versus - The Stars are Insane

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepcMTQdVOo[/youtube]

I hit a guardrail doing about 60 on the Mass Pike while I was listening to that album.

[gunslinger_burrito]

Burn Piano Island, Burn by the Blood Brothers.
I think that this record is pretty polarizing. Maybe less polarizing then their future output but the high-pitched shrieking from one of the vocalists is usually enough to turn people off. But this was my first foray into aggressive music post-Sabbath. Interestingly, this bad is agressive in the most anti-machismo way. As far as "heavy" goes, this record isn't really heavy -- though some of the synthesizer work is gnarly -- it's not driving and sludgy and "heavy" like we tend to think of the term. This led me down a really weird path while simultaneously just moving down a heavy and aggressive hardcore/punk/metal path. I had a lot of Three One G worship and Level Plane worship around this time.

Dude. No one mentions the Blood Brothers. I saw them open for Coheed and Cambria sandwiched between Dredg. Two of my favorites at the time. Talk about a strange audience reaction, but what a show.
High Five.


I think I'll have to list the ones that started it, and the ones that shaped my identity, as it stands today.

When I was a wee lad, I first wanted to play music because of.......

Marilyn Manson- Antichrist Superstar
Smashing Pumpkins- toss up bewteen Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie....
Nine Inch Nails - I love most of what Trent's done, but I gotta go with the Fragile as one of the most influential albums on me.

My identity as a musician is hands down without a fucking doubt shaped by:
The Dillinger Escape Plan- anything. Can't choose one album here. I get fired up listening to most anything by these guys. They're a crazy source of inspiration for making music, and making the way you fucking want it to be no excuses.
Dredg- El Cielo. Leitmotif is a close second. These are goddamned shamanic dream rock operas. Especially Leitmotif.
annnnd....
Old Man Gloom- Christmas. I was never into noise or drone until hearing this. It may be an odd gateway into those genres, but it's what did the trick. I wouldn't have found "what I want to do with music" without this. It's why I had to fly across the country to see them play. Listening to it from start to finish is like some kind of psychedelic stream of consciousness crust/metal/doom experience. And the final track on this? FUCK.

[jrmy]

Versus - The Stars are Insane

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepcMTQdVOo[/youtube]

I hit a guardrail doing about 60 on the Mass Pike while I was listening to that album.

Whoof! Can you still listen to it? That sorta thing might put me off an album for a while.

[AngryGoldfish]

Deftones - White Pony
Biffy Clyro - Infinity Land
Mastodon - Blood Mountain

[gunslinger_burrito]

White Pony is pretty fucking sweet.

[proroby]

Stereotypical, but here it is, chronologically.

Green Day - Kerplunk!
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
MBV - Loveless
Galaxie 500 - Today
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Neutral Milk Hotel - ITAOTS
Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#
Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Skip James - Blues From the Delta
Yo La Tengo - Painful
Modest Mouse - TLCW
Pavement - Terror Twilight
Los Saicos - Demolicion

[HeavyXIII]

Stole idea from an earlier post (PS: haiguizeimnew!)

Roughly chronological order...
High school:
- Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
- Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
- Tool - Undertow
- Kyuss - Sky Valley/Self Titled
- Down - NOLA
- High on Fire - Surrounded by Thieves

College:
- Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog
- Neurosis - Souls at Zero
- Pelican - Australasia
- Mastodon - Leviathan
- Earth - HEX; or Printing in the Infernal Method
- Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts (I-IV)

...Or something like that

[phantasmagorovich]

Stereotypical, but here it is, chronologically.

Green Day - Kerplunk!
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
MBV - Loveless
Galaxie 500 - Today
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Neutral Milk Hotel - ITAOTS
Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#
Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Skip James - Blues From the Delta
Yo La Tengo - Painful
Modest Mouse - TLCW
Pavement - Terror Twilight
Los Saicos - Demolicion

Great list, man.

[Mark of the Beast]

Void - split with The Faith
The Broadways - Broken Star LP
Cap'n Jazz - Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped on and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over LP

If I had to pick 3. I'm also diggin' other people's choices 31G stuff, The Ex, Dillinger Escape Plan, Warsaw. It's really amazing how listening to this stuff opens up a whole new world, like "What were they even thinking when they made this?" or it hits some secret button in you and you forever think of music with this completely different filter.

[Seizurema]

King Crimson - Discipline
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Yes - Close To The Edge

MBV - Loveless
Magma - MDK

[Chankgeez]

King Crimson - Discipline
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Yes - Close To The Edge

MBV - Loveless
Magma - MDK

Prog-gaze?

[AngryGoldfish]

Stole idea from an earlier post (PS: haiguizeimnew!)

Roughly chronological order...
High school:
- Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
- Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
- Tool - Undertow
- Kyuss - Sky Valley/Self Titled
- Down - NOLA
- High on Fire - Surrounded by Thieves

College:
- Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog
- Neurosis - Souls at Zero
- Pelican - Australasia
- Mastodon - Leviathan
- Earth - HEX; or Printing in the Infernal Method
- Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts (I-IV)

...Or something like that

Damn good list.

QOTSA, Tool and Rage were three bands during my 16-19 years that had a huge impact on me. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Manic Street Preachers, Travis, Feeder, these were all back when I was a young teenager. But later on in life it was NIN, Mastodon, QOTSA, Smashing Pumpkins, and Deftones.

[kaboom]

System of a Down's self titled album.
In high school, all i listened to was nu metal. SOAD was my gateway out of that scene, and i couldn't be more grateful for that. Even just meeting other fans who listened to different genres of music was huge. When i got that album, that was when i branched out to appreciate music in general.

Pedro The Lion "Control"
I bought this cd used for $7 because someone said Pedro The Lion was an obvious influence on minus the bear, and i was enamoured with minus the bear at the time. I remember being unsure of how i liked it at first, the melodies were so slow and drawn out compared to what i was used to. It was one of the first albums i listened to all the way through while reading the lyrics and really getting a feel for the album as a whole. It was so cynical and bleak and the delivery worked so perfectly. I described it as "like being stabbed in the stomach, but in a good way."

I don't know others off the top of my head, but just in terms of how they affected my development musically, those two stand out.

[Helter]

Syd Barrett - Madcap Laughs

One of my favorite albums