10 albums that made me
Wow, loads of people are doing meme things all over the shop. Laura tagged me, so here we go:
1. Muse - Showbiz
It would be completely impossible to ignore the impact Muse had on my life, and I don't just mean in terms of music, socially as well. When I first heard Sunburn on Zane Lowe's MTV2 show Brand:New (LOL) I was pretty hooked and I went to find the album straight away. I probably played it every day for a year or so. I joined the forum on the website fairly early on really, in comparison. I spent a lot of time on there, met Cath and the rest. It was an avenue for a lot of other things, I think that was probably the era of audiogalaxy where I discovered just about everything else during that period (later came echo.com and then epitonic). I was still pretty obsessed by the second album but I don't think I listened to any of the later stuff anything near as much as I listened to Showbiz and I'm sure I've never been as mad obsessed with a record as much as I was with that.
2. Ash - 1977
I wonder if this meme needs to be done in two parts. 10 albums that made me before London and 10 albums that made me after London. This is certainly, along with the above, before London. I didn't really have britpop albums, no Blur, certainly no Oasis, didn't really bother with any of it, that was my sister's time. However, 1977 was just hit after hit, there was no down point on that album whatsoever and when I went to see them during the 'Free All Angels' tour i was so pleased that they still recognised just how unavoidable 1977 is as an album (I still cry thinking about i missed their version of a 'don't look back' style show where they just played that album last year) I'd give anything to hear 'Lost in You' live, obviously a total non-single/non-hit (probably the only really unrecognisable song on that album) but I used to absolutely dream of someone feeling those things about ME. You know, typical teenage way.
3. Pixies - Doolittle
I just listened to this today, it doesn't get old. Pixies were important because they were probably the first band I listened to that weren't particularly current, that weren't still around (except you know, Nirvana). I never did that, I still don't do that. I wanted to listen to things and get excited about things that were happening in the present. I suppose that was the way I knew I could somehow relate. Of course, that's completely false but I suppose I like the idea that I'd be able to one day SEE the band. Though I did, my god, I was so sad when I was stuck all the way in Lincoln with no way to get to see them when they played those Forum shows. No late trains, no nothing. Too young to stay over somewhere. As soon as they announced festivals my sister and I were THERE. The first confirmation was T in the Park and that's where we went. It was incredible, though ridiculous because everyone left after The Killers and didn't stay to see them. THEN, they weren't even headlining, The Strokes played after. Stupid.
4. iDLEWiLD - Hope is Important/100 Broken Windows
These two albums were bought together and come together for me. I just wanted 'when I argue' but I just ended up buying both records anyway, on the basis of that one song. I think idlewild had a lot more lurking within their music than meets the eye. I think they were an early step towards noisier more exciting 'post punk' whatever music. When I got 'Captain' I saw where I could go, it was something of a departure. I really liked to see them live too, pre Bob leaving at least. Not to mention they had great support bands like Ikara Colt - another way of learning a little more, going a little tiny bit further than the main frame.
5. Jetplane Landing - Zero for Conduct
I just bloody loved this, this had to be the first really underground band I listened to. I knew this because when I wrote it on my livejournal userinfo they were the first band where I was only one of like 3 people who had listed them. This is obviously important. There was a huge jetplane community though I wasn't at all involved in it, obviously nothing as huge as the Muse days. Still I first learned of a DIY ideal with them and I liked it. I wasn't into riot grrrl or zines or any of that but I think in a lot of ways I wanted to be and I was looking for that but frankly, i didn't know anything, I hadn't learnt of it.
6. Liars - They threw us all in a trench and stuck a monument on top
This had to be in here because Liars were important to me. I didn't get the latest album and I haven't made sure I've gone to see them when they've been over here in the last year or so. However, they progressed in such a way which sort of marked the way I progressed. From the disco punk fun of this first record which met nicely with the likes of Dance Disaster Movement and The Faint whom I was listening to around the same time to the second album which was just a stark and difficult but instantly enjoyable contrast. I wasn't quite ready for it, but in time it grew on me to the point where I listen to it much much more than I would ever listen to the first one (that and I've got the first one on vinyl which is a teeeny bit annoying to play). it also helps that when I first saw them it was on release of album number two, when they did that tour with Blood Brothers. They played NOTHING from 'they threw us in a trench' and I was forced to hear the new one for the first time and I might perhaps have never listened to that record properly if I hadn't heard it first that way. I loved them dearly and I think I forget that really, they were pretty much one of my absolute all time favourite bands. They couldn't go wrong, certainly live they couldn't, all those drums, all that charisma, it was perfect and I remember managing to see themn at least once a year for four or five years from that first show in Nottingham. That was nice.
7. the pAper chAse - Hide the Kitchen Knives/The Murder of - Everyone's in love and Flowers Pick Themselves.
Musical discovery has (after Muse) been almost entirely online and often social. I've put these albums together and there are probably a few more (ex models, erase errata, black eyes et al) which absolutely removed me from the mainstream indie pop I was listening to before. I wanted more, especially after Jetplane Landing. Renee pretty much made me in a lot of ways, through her and epitonic.com I found just about everything I needed. She provided me with all the greatest of bands. I owe her my life for Black Eyes and thinking about it perhaps that should be on the actual list because it's just so GOOD. I've been looking for another Black Eyes ever since but I simply haven't found one (although Hide and Seek came close - if I had two lists they would be on the London one). So paper chase and murder of marked this. I put them together mostly because we saw the two together (and Edmund Fitzgerald!!) in Oxford back when I went to visit her whilst i was still living in Lincoln and going to school. It was loud, well, louder than Clearlake and all the other indie I was listening to (Grand Drive too lmao) and it was just interesting and exciting and overwhelming and it made me want more more more.
8. The Unicorns - Who will cut our hair when we're gone?
This is about the same era probably as the above only this was a really great transitional album for me and I found it all by myself, which was quite important to me at the time. I actually found this completely at random whilst pottering around looking for some decent interesting music sites with decent interesting music I had never heard of. This and Menomena's 'I am the fun blame monster' (an anagram of 'the first menomena album' and the influence on my email address don't you know) were reviewed on 'noripchord.com' and they were really niely written reviews in that they actually sort of gave the essence of what this stuff might just sound like. I went straight ahead and downloaded them both and my god I'm glad I did. The Unicorns will never ever leave my absolute top 10 albums of all time because it encompasses just about everything I have ever loved in my musical history. It is pop, it is accessible, it is fun, it is weird, it is ridiculous, it is just bloody BRILLIANT and it's themed!!! When they played in Nottingham I almost died of excitement, I tried to interview Alden for a website Karis was making which never actualised. In fact the whole thing was just bad luck. Still, who cares because I got to hang out with Alden. We were sat in the middle of Nottingham town centre, looking at the nice old buildings and I had forgotten to put batteries in my dictaphone. So I was asking questions whilst my sister was frantically taking notes for me, we ended up just talking about the differences between the historical architecture which dominates British towns and America's more modern looking cities. It was great. I bought a t-shirt, I still wear it although it's pretty fucking old now.
9. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Pocket Symphonies for Lonesome Railway Cars
This record marked a time when I judged a CD by its cover. I bought a lot of things just by looking at them and going 'oooh this looks like fun' it didn't always work, in fact, it rarely worked but when it did work it was glorious. This was glorious. I was in a second hand record shop in Aberdeen (visiting my sister at uni) and I was rooting around for something special and came across this adorable little pink cardboard case, with the adorable little amp and handwritten title. How could I possibly leave this to sit on the shelf, I'd never seen it before, I didn't know if I'd ever see it again. So, I picked it up, I paid the £3 or whatever it was and I took it back to my sister's flat. We were instantly touched by it's lo fi sweetness and charm. It had a place in my collection, it had a mood and a purpose. 'We Have Mice' or 'Tonight was a Disaster' would be the conclusion to just about every mixtape/cd I ever made after that. It filled that final minute or so that I previously would have to leave blank so perfectly. It sat on every compilation sleepily and snuggly propping up the other songs. I was still in school and not even people I knew on the internet knew what this gorgeous little album was. I remember trying to get hold of 'Answering Machine Music' and just never did (didn't have a debit card yet either) It still remains the only casiotone album I've got and I sort of like it that way. It wasn't until I got to London and when I first met Matt Boys at an Operation Wolf show that I discovered people knew of this strange and wonderful music and liked it and made t-shirts. In a funny way, now that I know people in real life who know casiotone and all the rest of it (especially the Renee influenced stuff - that their history coincided with mine but probably more individually than I had managed - not to mention a bit cooler - ie I never got into fugazi or bikini kill or melvins or anything) it sort of created a bit of a disenchantment. I think if I ever bought another casiotone album then it really would ruin it, it was too special, it was as though no other copy ever existed in the world. Of course, I'm happy I got to see him and all the rest, and it is pretty nice to know people and see people every day that, you know, are as cool as I am.
10. Need New Body - UFO
When I think of albums that actually literally, made me, this is the first thing that comes into my head. This is definitely the London era I was talking about. When I first went to ATP, the first Nightmare before Christmas in December 2004, I was already into all those amazing bands that I had missed during the spring festivals of that year that I know Laura and Matt and people who are older than me and were already in uni went to. I had A levels, lol. Anyway, so, first year of uni, first year of ATP, lots of fun all around, Liars played and I think they were probably just about the only thing I had ever heard of, still, they were great as always. On the Sunday they used to have the wee record fair outside near the queen vic pub and there was the Pickled Egg Records stall. I had one record on Pickled Egg by a band my sister pointed out 'Pop off Tuesday' who were this ridiculous Japanese thing which I never could really properly get into. Anyway, he was playing something on a wee discman with wee speakers which made me squeal a little bit. "What is this?!?!?!" I asked the gentleman running the stall excitedly. He pointed to 'UFO' and I bought it without a second's thought. This changed EVERYTHING. After this music was never to be the same again, I would never be able to buy as much as I did before, I would never like as much as I did before, everything paled in comparison, everything else was so BORING. This ridiculous beefheart/zappa style bizarre nu-jazz chaos was absolutely everything I had every wanted out of music ever. It did it, completely, it did everything, even more than the Unicorns did, or at least, it was the evolution of that and the evolution of me. It doesn't mean I can't listen to Ash anymore (I am doing so right now) but it will always be there, it will always be the pivotal point when I said to myself 'This, this is what I really and truly LOVE about music'. It's chaotic and absurd and wildly imaginative. When I saw them (and my goodness am I glad I got to see them before they disbanded) it was like they were improvising, even though I knew they weren't. It helped I suppose that I didn't have 'Where is Black Ben' yet and they were played a lot from that, but still, even the songs I knew just sounded spontaneous. That's what I love about NNB, the spontaneity, or at least the allusion of such spontaneity. I must have recommended this to just about everyone and anyone and when I hear songs like 'Show Me Your Heart' I just have to dance and sing and cheer at its genius.
That was fun. It fit with my day, so far I've listened to Pinkerton, Doolittle, Presidents, 1977 and I'll probably listen to UFO in a minute.
1. Muse - Showbiz
It would be completely impossible to ignore the impact Muse had on my life, and I don't just mean in terms of music, socially as well. When I first heard Sunburn on Zane Lowe's MTV2 show Brand:New (LOL) I was pretty hooked and I went to find the album straight away. I probably played it every day for a year or so. I joined the forum on the website fairly early on really, in comparison. I spent a lot of time on there, met Cath and the rest. It was an avenue for a lot of other things, I think that was probably the era of audiogalaxy where I discovered just about everything else during that period (later came echo.com and then epitonic). I was still pretty obsessed by the second album but I don't think I listened to any of the later stuff anything near as much as I listened to Showbiz and I'm sure I've never been as mad obsessed with a record as much as I was with that.
2. Ash - 1977
I wonder if this meme needs to be done in two parts. 10 albums that made me before London and 10 albums that made me after London. This is certainly, along with the above, before London. I didn't really have britpop albums, no Blur, certainly no Oasis, didn't really bother with any of it, that was my sister's time. However, 1977 was just hit after hit, there was no down point on that album whatsoever and when I went to see them during the 'Free All Angels' tour i was so pleased that they still recognised just how unavoidable 1977 is as an album (I still cry thinking about i missed their version of a 'don't look back' style show where they just played that album last year) I'd give anything to hear 'Lost in You' live, obviously a total non-single/non-hit (probably the only really unrecognisable song on that album) but I used to absolutely dream of someone feeling those things about ME. You know, typical teenage way.
3. Pixies - Doolittle
I just listened to this today, it doesn't get old. Pixies were important because they were probably the first band I listened to that weren't particularly current, that weren't still around (except you know, Nirvana). I never did that, I still don't do that. I wanted to listen to things and get excited about things that were happening in the present. I suppose that was the way I knew I could somehow relate. Of course, that's completely false but I suppose I like the idea that I'd be able to one day SEE the band. Though I did, my god, I was so sad when I was stuck all the way in Lincoln with no way to get to see them when they played those Forum shows. No late trains, no nothing. Too young to stay over somewhere. As soon as they announced festivals my sister and I were THERE. The first confirmation was T in the Park and that's where we went. It was incredible, though ridiculous because everyone left after The Killers and didn't stay to see them. THEN, they weren't even headlining, The Strokes played after. Stupid.
4. iDLEWiLD - Hope is Important/100 Broken Windows
These two albums were bought together and come together for me. I just wanted 'when I argue' but I just ended up buying both records anyway, on the basis of that one song. I think idlewild had a lot more lurking within their music than meets the eye. I think they were an early step towards noisier more exciting 'post punk' whatever music. When I got 'Captain' I saw where I could go, it was something of a departure. I really liked to see them live too, pre Bob leaving at least. Not to mention they had great support bands like Ikara Colt - another way of learning a little more, going a little tiny bit further than the main frame.
5. Jetplane Landing - Zero for Conduct
I just bloody loved this, this had to be the first really underground band I listened to. I knew this because when I wrote it on my livejournal userinfo they were the first band where I was only one of like 3 people who had listed them. This is obviously important. There was a huge jetplane community though I wasn't at all involved in it, obviously nothing as huge as the Muse days. Still I first learned of a DIY ideal with them and I liked it. I wasn't into riot grrrl or zines or any of that but I think in a lot of ways I wanted to be and I was looking for that but frankly, i didn't know anything, I hadn't learnt of it.
6. Liars - They threw us all in a trench and stuck a monument on top
This had to be in here because Liars were important to me. I didn't get the latest album and I haven't made sure I've gone to see them when they've been over here in the last year or so. However, they progressed in such a way which sort of marked the way I progressed. From the disco punk fun of this first record which met nicely with the likes of Dance Disaster Movement and The Faint whom I was listening to around the same time to the second album which was just a stark and difficult but instantly enjoyable contrast. I wasn't quite ready for it, but in time it grew on me to the point where I listen to it much much more than I would ever listen to the first one (that and I've got the first one on vinyl which is a teeeny bit annoying to play). it also helps that when I first saw them it was on release of album number two, when they did that tour with Blood Brothers. They played NOTHING from 'they threw us in a trench' and I was forced to hear the new one for the first time and I might perhaps have never listened to that record properly if I hadn't heard it first that way. I loved them dearly and I think I forget that really, they were pretty much one of my absolute all time favourite bands. They couldn't go wrong, certainly live they couldn't, all those drums, all that charisma, it was perfect and I remember managing to see themn at least once a year for four or five years from that first show in Nottingham. That was nice.
7. the pAper chAse - Hide the Kitchen Knives/The Murder of - Everyone's in love and Flowers Pick Themselves.
Musical discovery has (after Muse) been almost entirely online and often social. I've put these albums together and there are probably a few more (ex models, erase errata, black eyes et al) which absolutely removed me from the mainstream indie pop I was listening to before. I wanted more, especially after Jetplane Landing. Renee pretty much made me in a lot of ways, through her and epitonic.com I found just about everything I needed. She provided me with all the greatest of bands. I owe her my life for Black Eyes and thinking about it perhaps that should be on the actual list because it's just so GOOD. I've been looking for another Black Eyes ever since but I simply haven't found one (although Hide and Seek came close - if I had two lists they would be on the London one). So paper chase and murder of marked this. I put them together mostly because we saw the two together (and Edmund Fitzgerald!!) in Oxford back when I went to visit her whilst i was still living in Lincoln and going to school. It was loud, well, louder than Clearlake and all the other indie I was listening to (Grand Drive too lmao) and it was just interesting and exciting and overwhelming and it made me want more more more.
8. The Unicorns - Who will cut our hair when we're gone?
This is about the same era probably as the above only this was a really great transitional album for me and I found it all by myself, which was quite important to me at the time. I actually found this completely at random whilst pottering around looking for some decent interesting music sites with decent interesting music I had never heard of. This and Menomena's 'I am the fun blame monster' (an anagram of 'the first menomena album' and the influence on my email address don't you know) were reviewed on 'noripchord.com' and they were really niely written reviews in that they actually sort of gave the essence of what this stuff might just sound like. I went straight ahead and downloaded them both and my god I'm glad I did. The Unicorns will never ever leave my absolute top 10 albums of all time because it encompasses just about everything I have ever loved in my musical history. It is pop, it is accessible, it is fun, it is weird, it is ridiculous, it is just bloody BRILLIANT and it's themed!!! When they played in Nottingham I almost died of excitement, I tried to interview Alden for a website Karis was making which never actualised. In fact the whole thing was just bad luck. Still, who cares because I got to hang out with Alden. We were sat in the middle of Nottingham town centre, looking at the nice old buildings and I had forgotten to put batteries in my dictaphone. So I was asking questions whilst my sister was frantically taking notes for me, we ended up just talking about the differences between the historical architecture which dominates British towns and America's more modern looking cities. It was great. I bought a t-shirt, I still wear it although it's pretty fucking old now.
9. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Pocket Symphonies for Lonesome Railway Cars
This record marked a time when I judged a CD by its cover. I bought a lot of things just by looking at them and going 'oooh this looks like fun' it didn't always work, in fact, it rarely worked but when it did work it was glorious. This was glorious. I was in a second hand record shop in Aberdeen (visiting my sister at uni) and I was rooting around for something special and came across this adorable little pink cardboard case, with the adorable little amp and handwritten title. How could I possibly leave this to sit on the shelf, I'd never seen it before, I didn't know if I'd ever see it again. So, I picked it up, I paid the £3 or whatever it was and I took it back to my sister's flat. We were instantly touched by it's lo fi sweetness and charm. It had a place in my collection, it had a mood and a purpose. 'We Have Mice' or 'Tonight was a Disaster' would be the conclusion to just about every mixtape/cd I ever made after that. It filled that final minute or so that I previously would have to leave blank so perfectly. It sat on every compilation sleepily and snuggly propping up the other songs. I was still in school and not even people I knew on the internet knew what this gorgeous little album was. I remember trying to get hold of 'Answering Machine Music' and just never did (didn't have a debit card yet either) It still remains the only casiotone album I've got and I sort of like it that way. It wasn't until I got to London and when I first met Matt Boys at an Operation Wolf show that I discovered people knew of this strange and wonderful music and liked it and made t-shirts. In a funny way, now that I know people in real life who know casiotone and all the rest of it (especially the Renee influenced stuff - that their history coincided with mine but probably more individually than I had managed - not to mention a bit cooler - ie I never got into fugazi or bikini kill or melvins or anything) it sort of created a bit of a disenchantment. I think if I ever bought another casiotone album then it really would ruin it, it was too special, it was as though no other copy ever existed in the world. Of course, I'm happy I got to see him and all the rest, and it is pretty nice to know people and see people every day that, you know, are as cool as I am.
10. Need New Body - UFO
When I think of albums that actually literally, made me, this is the first thing that comes into my head. This is definitely the London era I was talking about. When I first went to ATP, the first Nightmare before Christmas in December 2004, I was already into all those amazing bands that I had missed during the spring festivals of that year that I know Laura and Matt and people who are older than me and were already in uni went to. I had A levels, lol. Anyway, so, first year of uni, first year of ATP, lots of fun all around, Liars played and I think they were probably just about the only thing I had ever heard of, still, they were great as always. On the Sunday they used to have the wee record fair outside near the queen vic pub and there was the Pickled Egg Records stall. I had one record on Pickled Egg by a band my sister pointed out 'Pop off Tuesday' who were this ridiculous Japanese thing which I never could really properly get into. Anyway, he was playing something on a wee discman with wee speakers which made me squeal a little bit. "What is this?!?!?!" I asked the gentleman running the stall excitedly. He pointed to 'UFO' and I bought it without a second's thought. This changed EVERYTHING. After this music was never to be the same again, I would never be able to buy as much as I did before, I would never like as much as I did before, everything paled in comparison, everything else was so BORING. This ridiculous beefheart/zappa style bizarre nu-jazz chaos was absolutely everything I had every wanted out of music ever. It did it, completely, it did everything, even more than the Unicorns did, or at least, it was the evolution of that and the evolution of me. It doesn't mean I can't listen to Ash anymore (I am doing so right now) but it will always be there, it will always be the pivotal point when I said to myself 'This, this is what I really and truly LOVE about music'. It's chaotic and absurd and wildly imaginative. When I saw them (and my goodness am I glad I got to see them before they disbanded) it was like they were improvising, even though I knew they weren't. It helped I suppose that I didn't have 'Where is Black Ben' yet and they were played a lot from that, but still, even the songs I knew just sounded spontaneous. That's what I love about NNB, the spontaneity, or at least the allusion of such spontaneity. I must have recommended this to just about everyone and anyone and when I hear songs like 'Show Me Your Heart' I just have to dance and sing and cheer at its genius.
That was fun. It fit with my day, so far I've listened to Pinkerton, Doolittle, Presidents, 1977 and I'll probably listen to UFO in a minute.