Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies - first LP I bought, hit me right between the eyes, and led me into glam rock, which took me straight to...

The New York Dolls - s/t
Iggy And The Stooges - Raw Power - both of which I got at the age of 13 in '73. Bye bye to the Top 40, hello jail. And the same glam thang, that same year, got me into...

Mott The Hoople - Mott - it was like Bob Dylan fronting the Rolling Stones, and prepared me to backtrack into the work of those two greats - and everything that flowed from them (ie: everything).

The Ramones - s/t - age 16 in '76 and bought this with my girlfriend. Oh yeah - it's all about melody and momentum. Faster please.

The Saints - (I'm) Stranded - bought this the very next year. They had the melody and momentum of the Ramones, but also injected pure anti-social aggression to the mix; it was like that Ramones debut mated with the Stooges "Death Trip" and a perfect intro to...

the first wave of punk, which quickly fractured into reggae, ska, dub, goth, synth pop, post-punk, and all kinds of other shit I would've never predicted I'd listen to.

My father randomly found a mix tape on the ground of a car dealer in 1991 or so, and gave it to me. It had a bunch of Police songs, some live INXS, and two U2 songs: "Mysterious Ways" and "The Fly". I would say the latter is the most important song in my musical evolution. Not long after this I bought Achtung Baby and Every Breath You Take: The Singles.

I began listening to DC101 in Boston, and thought I liked bands like Aerosmith. Also into Pearl Jam at the time. Then one day I was on the phone with a friend I heard a radio station in the background at his house playing "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots. He told me the station was WHFS. I turned it on and never looked back.

WHFS exposed me to classic bands I was unfamiliar with ike New Order, Pixies, The Smiths, and Echo & The Bunnymen, as well as others I knew but hadn't heard much by like Depeche Mode, The Clash, and the Cure. By the time I went ot college, I had CDs by many of these bands (though often greatest hits CDs). HFS also exposed me to newer bands like Pavement, James, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Bjork, and Catherine Wheel. Many of whom I bought CDs from before hitting college.

In college, I expanded even more as I got really big into Radiohead and Bjork as they released some of their best work. I also began to move away from early favorites like U2 and Smashing Pumpkins as they began to seriously decline. I got into Liz Phair, Guided By Voices, Sugar, and other more "indie" bands.

Then, in 1999, I discovered 3wk.com. This station turned me on to Neutral Milk Hotel, Belle & Sebastian, Built To Spill, Death Cab for Cutie, and the Dismemberment Plan. I finally truly found indie music. Listening to that station every day, my knowledge increased a thousand fold, supplementing my already deep knowledge of 80s "classic" alternative and 60s/70s classic rock.

In 2000 I discovered CMJ, becoming a regular poster in 2001. In early 2002, I attended the Pill and met velouria, KPH, DS Bruce Robertson, Mrs. Neuro, and bluestar (the latter two hadn't started posting yet at that point). I knew I was home when the DJ played an Avalanches song and KPH said "record of the year, man [meaning 2001]. Do you have this yet?" Yet. As though it was unthinkable I wouldn't have it.

I still don't have it.

I guess that's not a list of albums, but it's a nice story. Aww.

weezer (blue)
before this album, i never veered too far from what my friends were listening to. dinosaur jr was probably the only other band that i listened to a lot that no one else my age did, but i only knew them because the guys at the record store in my town turned me onto them. anyway, my friends and i were watching mtv one day and saw the "undone" video. i thought the song was great. we saw it again the next day and they mocked it. one kid who hadn't been there the previous day said something like, "i can't wait to see this fag run around the drums." and when the song was over, they just laughed at the dorks on the tv. i think i went out and bought the album that day. and then i listened to it over and over. when i got back to school in the fall, i'd mention weezer occasionally. only a few people even knew what i was talking about and they would say, "oh, that blue video with the dogs running through it?" and then "buddy holly" broke and everyone was going bananas over weezer. and that was probably my first moment of music snobbery because i made a point to tell everyone, "i was listening to them first."

pulp - different class
i was in new york for july 4 with two friends from high school. we went to another friend's apartment to get out of the ridiculously hot and humid day. for some reason, everyone started playing chess while sitting in front of the a/c. i don't play chess and was beyond bored. the only thing keeping me sane was the music. one of the roommates kept putting on CDs and i was liking everything, but now have no idea what anything was because i forgot everything before different class. it came on and i was immediately into it. i was sitting there humming songs i'd never heard, singing along to words i didn't even know. i was like, "yes, i do want to sleep with common people," "yeah, we should meet up at the fountain down the road," "i also remember the third drawer down of the dressing table," etc. the kid just mumbled whenever i asked who it was, though. i had those songs stuck in my head all day, even when i got home at 3am. i did a hotbot search the next day and figured out who it was. i went to college that fall and was a disciple of jarvis.

avalanches - since i left you
i picked it up because someone said it had, like, 800 samples and had taken six months to be legally cleared. i had no idea what it even sounded like. i've always liked the idea of cold buys, but usually always knew at least something of what i was getting myself into. i didn't like it too much over the first listens and it got shelved. i took it along on a midwest roadtrip that summer and listened to it on headphones in dubuque, iowa. and that's where it sunk in. it was like this cruise ship in my head while we drove. i was totally blown away by how it came together, how all these different elements were mixed in to sound like they were meant to be heard that way. it probably didn't hurt that i was reading last night a dj saved my life on that trip either. it was a gateway to a plethora of music i doubt i'd've ambled across otherwise. between the book and the album, i started to get a lot more interested in production and dj'ing. it hasn't turned out to be my profession, like i once thought it might, but it's a nice hobby to keep going back to.

well, I have 2 older sisters... the oldest tended to listen to cooler stuff, the older tended to listen to crap, so I guess I pulled from both of them.

David Bowie - Young Americans/Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
My oldest sister had the Bowie album on 8 track, and I loved it. I was mesmerized by the fact that a boy so pretty could sound so good. She was also a big Elton fan, and I still have that album on cd. Neither album is their best by a long shot, but it was the first to make me take notice of both.

The B-52's
Again, this came from the oldest sister. She brought it home with her from college, and I fell in love with it. I think I was 8 at the time. I remember singing the "girl" parts with my hairbrush/microphone while dancing in my room.

Duran Duran - Rio
Yes, I guess you could consider them a boy band at the time, but I was enthralled with the rhythm and texture. Through them, I actually discovered a lot of other music, so I always consider them my gateway drug.

R.E.M. - Murmur
The first proper R.E.M. vinyl I ever listened to. I always liked hearing the muffled billiard balls in "We Walk." It was quiet, simple and contemplative at the time. I wish there were a way (other than in my own head) that I could take a snapshot of this album and keep them this way. I hate the way they've turned out, but hey, whatever... artist expression, I guess.

Bauhaus - Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape
First foray into listening to these guys even though they'd been around for a while at the time this came out. It finally made sense to me, esp. since I was already listening to the Cure, Siouxsie and all that other stuff at the time.

Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
The perfect marriage of metal and punk in my opinion.

I LOVE UNCLE MONGER!!

Pulp - Different Class: I never new Britain released anything of merit since the Beatles disbanded.

Genesis - Lamb Lies Down on Broadway: My sister's favorite band, ergo I had to listen to it daily growing up. I still find myself popping this in every month or so.

A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory: My induction to conscious rap if you will. Haven't come up for breath since.

Pearl Jam - Ten: I must've been the first to purchase this record in my high school... I think I started a revolution into grunge. I also listened to that CD twice a day for many months.

Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff: Coming out of my hair metal stage... this and Nevermind made the transistion extremely easy.

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way: My first jazz CD. Probably not the best piece to start with, but 395 jazz CD purchases later, it must have worked.

:shock:

Madonna - s/t
The first album I really loved. (grade 4)

InXS - Kick
My first "rock" album, my first favorite band, (and the first time I really "got" what sexy was).



Disintegration also woke me up to the possibilities of sound recording.

Billie Holiday - The Billie Holiday Story
It took awhile for me to get used to the old recording sound, but after that it was pure love.

Bjork & 808 State - "Oops"
The first time I was ever truly blown away by someone's approach to singing.

Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
My intro to post-rock

The Stooges - s/t
Got me into punk rock


Zzzabout it.

That record pretty much inspired me to start getting into music heavily... but in Waco, TX, it was hard to come across anything mind-blowing. When your one radio station would play Metallica, then Madonna, you had no choice but to find the guy with all the vinyl in the dorm.

So true. I know exactly what you're saying.

Paper Lace S/T --- just because it's the first album I can remember buying -- around the same time Rads was rocking out to the Dolls and Stooges so I should have solicited young Radcliffe's advice

Rolling Stones "Hot Rocks" & Kinks "Kronikles" -- the next albums I can remember getting and the first I can remember wearing out. My taste was improving.

Never Mind the Bollocks/The Clash/Gang of Four "Entertainment" -- all discovered the same day in a friend's older brother's collection the same day in 1980 at age 12. I was on sensory overload.

Talking Heads "Remain in Light" - discovered the same year and took my listening off in many different directions. I can't remember the first TH album I had but I owned the first three within a few weeks of each other. This was the most influential on me though even if it was probably never my favorite.

Police "Zenyatta Mondatta" -- I was such a fan boy that I took the cover into the barber shop and instructed the barber to make me look like Sting.

Ramones "Rocket to Russia"/"End of the Century" - just cause my friends and I wore the tapes out in HS.

Squeeze "Cosi Tan Tutti Fruitti" - Its not Barry White, but I sure had a whole lot of teenage sex with this as a soundtrack back in the mid 80's

I could keep going but it would start to just turn into favorites at different periods of time.

Oh crap, here's where King's "Steps In Time" and Animotion come back to haunt me.

Let's go by year of discovery:

1984-1988 (Age 10-14): "Weird Al" Yankovic and Smothers Brothers were my thing along with mostly Top 40 radio.

1988-1989 (Age 14-15): Rap Ruled My World
Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
Run-DMC - Raising Hell
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Sir Mix-A-Lot - Seminar

1990 (Age 16): Rap Continued to Rule My World (But Zeppelin Opened Up A New World)
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (which led to the entire back catalog of Led Zeppelin)
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
NWA - Efil4zaggin

1991 (Age 17): The Beginning of "Alternative" Listening
De La Soul - De La Soul is Dead
Black Sheep - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Pearl Jam - Ten
Nirvana - Nevermind
Metallica - Metallica

1992 (Age 18 ): Strange Trip into Jazz Lite
Harry Connick, Jr. - Blue Light, Red Light

1993-1994 (Age 19-20): Continuation of "Alternative"
Big Head Todd & the Monsters - Sister Sweetly
Collective Soul - Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid
Blues Traveler - Four
Green Day - Dookie
Offspring - Smash
Weezer - Weezer

1996-1999 (Age 22-25): From "Alternative" to "Indie"
Beck - Odelay
Radiohead - OK Computer
Liz Phair - Whitechocolatespaceegg (which led to another back catalog fill)
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

2000 (Age 26): Finally Going Back to The Roots of All My Faves
The Clash - London Calling (another back catalog fill)
Television - Marquee Moon
Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

2001-2002 (Age 27-28 ): Transition to "Indie" Complete
Outkast - Stankonia
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Pedro the Lion - Control
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

Wasn't that Jen (bluestar) spinning the Avs ("Since I Left You")?

I absolutely don't stand by that record today as "best album of 2001" (esp. compared to a few other +1 albums, chiefly DNTEL), but at the time, boy was I ever inseparable from it. It was the first record that seemed as all-over-the-map as Endtroducing, an album I will return to when I add my own "important" albums to this thread. Since I Left You is still a trip to listen to though...

Kiss - Alive - My first rock record, got it for my 7th birthday. Led to more Kiss albums, like Destroyer, Love Gun and Dynasty. Also led me to Cheap Trick and then inevitably into 80s metal like the Crue, Ratt, etc.

Breakdance Now! - This was a basic no name compilation from the early 80s. It's inclusion in this list is warranted because it was my first exposure to hip-hop/rap. It was the first time I ever heard what is still one of my favourite songs "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel". It also led me to Run DMC, The Beastie Boys, Kool Moe Dee, Eric B and Rakim and NWA. This was first though and still is.

The Forgotten Rebels - In Love With The System/This Ain't Hollywood - At 13, my first foray into non-metalish. Although most would definitely not consider this punk, as it was more glammy than punky, it was my first foray into the genre proper. After this I heard the Sex Pistols, whose Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle could be bolded too, but these were first. I fucking love these two albums more than anything. It pisses me off I only have the latter on cd.

David Bowie - Changesonebowie - My aunt gave me this record to hear when I was about 14. I kept it for years until I got my own when it got rereleased with that stupid new Fame '90. Hate that version. This album started my Bowie fixation.

There are a bunch of other records I could include, like the first time I heard The Ramones, Beck, Pavement, Nirvana, Radiohead, The Smiths etc. but the feelings they evoked where small compared to the seismic impact this aforementioned albums had on my own musical direction.

I don't know which DJ it was, but that was the song.

I think she was the only one who ever played the Avs there (other than me, of course). I gave Ken the CD for his birthday that year. I was *that* obsessed with the Avs at the time!

Well, it was clearly a very memorable moment for me as I'm still talking about it nearly 4 years later.

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
In seventh grade, the production seemed so otherworldy than the radio stuff I was exposed to. I had these massive headphones that I used when I went to sleep and I think I know every millimeter of that record.

American Music Club - Everclear
For some reason I was under the assumption that AMC was rockier. From the first notes, I was floored (literally listened to it on the floor in front of my stereo) and then hit repeat. I can't explain my connection to this record.

XTC - Skylarking
I was expected a whole record of "Dear God," and in high school, a lot of this was over my head at first. I put it aside because it wasn't 120 Minutes enough. One day it walloped me and opened the door to so much other stuff. Again, another headphones masterpiece.

Ride - Nowhere
I was in a Ride rip-off band in college. I don't listen to it much anymore, but it's really evocative of youthful yearning or whatever.

Radiohead - The Bends
Not even my favorite Radiohead record, but after Pablo Honey, I had little expectations. This was such a monumental leap forward. A friend and I listened to it together speechless.

The Blue Nile - Hats
This record is so crazy good. It felt really odd listening to music this sad as a kid. But it hinted at something very adult and made me wonder.

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
I always dug Red House Painters, and I don't have a whole lot of time anymore to try to figure out why I love things, but I can always play this. There are all these killer little parts that make me happy.

Motley Crue-Dr. Feelgood --The first thing I purchased at the then unknown wal-mart, in Florida while visiting my grandparents. I remember my aunt made a stink about me buying it, my parents just shrugged it off and said I probably didn't understand the lyrics, but I was fully aware of them. Brought me minor acclaim to the neighborhood kids as I owned it and no one else did, so I was always being offered tape dub trades. Nothing I received was as good though.

Temple of the Dog --Between Motley Crue and Temple of the Dog I just listened to my parents FM stations. I knew not what music was at all. I snagged a sound of this on MTV at a friend's house and told my parents I wanted this and a cd player for xmas. My first cd.

Pearl Jam-Ten --Ushered me into an existence of actually knowing what was being played on 98 Rock and WHFS. Prior to that I didn't know any song at all on the radio. I knew who the Beatles were but I couldn't name a song until this point. Funny how Vedder and co. opened me up to such a world.

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation --This is where the insanity began. I remember hearing this for the first time, and it just clicked with me. This was my entrance into non-radio music. This was where my head exploded and little bits of eccentric bands started to float into my head gaining a higher shelf than say algebra. This was sophomore year of hs. I used to talk to this kid Mike aka hotchocboy on the phone and in school. He would tell me about all these bands, bands that had crazy names..He would ask me if I had heard of them, and I would say yeah. I had no idea. I would run out and buy the album, or order it. Not knowing at all what it sounded like. Bands like Half Japanese, Pussy Galore, Unwound, Beat Happening, Scratch Acid, Sun Ra, the list went on and on. I was getting a first-rate lesson in indie rock. My collection swelled. My friends started questiong me when I started playing the Boredoms or Some Velvet Sidewalk in my car.

Iggy & The Stooges-Raw Power --Punk fucking rawk. Junior year I discovered this album and became punk rock guy. I was still listening to all the stuff before but of course teen angst is a bitch. Remember yelling "Here Iggy, here boy" down the hallway, and getting confused looks. Funhouse was the greatest record Thurston. Got me into the Germs, Ramones, and Clash.

Black Flag-Damaged --this album destroyed me. It opened me to other bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat. Holy hell fuck.

Radiohead- OK Computer -- It was challenging to segueway for me into a straight up "indie rock fan" and not an indie asshole. I used to be that guy, freshman year of college, who would look at your collection and scoff. I would laugh at the Dead, which is funny now, since having given them a chance I'm a huge fan. This record was that transition.

Echo & the Bunnymen-Reverberation --slow getting into this, had the tape since hs, one night, drunk I popped it into my stereo. I was depressed, etc. I ended up drinking 4 OEs and dancing the night away to this album. I searched out more like it, and became an anglophile. Ended up devoting 4 years of my college existence on college radio to doing a show called "Across the Pond", spreading the gospel about britpop, british blue-eyed soul, janglepop, etc.

Mogwai-Come Die Young/My Father My King/Rock Action --when my gf and I broke up I was devastated. Like many of you I sought solace in music and friends. Mogwai was there. They fed me water, made me get up, and heck, in the summer of that year when I went to see them at the Ottobar, they rocked my fucking ass so hard, I forgot who or what she was.

Animal Collective-Sung Tongs --I was out of college. Didn't have my music director/station manager job to fall back on to keep being introduced to music. I had no idea what was up. This album got me back on the tracks.

thanks if you read all that.

That's a good way to start listening to non-radio music. Anyone who can make it through the Trilogy has got to have an open mind.

The Lowest Of The Low - Shakespeare My Butt
The only music I knew by this age in my life was what my parents listened to. Fond memories of my dad's vinyl copy of John Mellencamp's Last Jubilee playing from the record player in the hall closet. Back when he was still the Cougar. The Low showed me the range a single artist on a single album can have, from being punky to acoustic to slow ballads. The fact that they were from the same city I was growing up in and writing songs about the Carlaw Bridge and The Only taught me that you didn't have to be a huge band on the tv to reach an audience and touch people. You could do it from your apartment, driving a dirty van from city to city, selling cassettes for crumpled bills. When I was older and found out that they were one of the biggest independent bands in the history of Canada, their perservence meant that much more. They taught me to be indie.

The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
I was eighteen, graduated from highschool, but still living at home with my parents and sisters. My friend had her own apartment in the downtown of the biggest city in the country, while I had been shunted off to the suburbs years before. She lived on her own, went to university, and had a full-time job with thousands in the bank. I was so jealous, so envious. While we sat around her apartment waiting for the concert to start, her and her roommate rolled a joint and put on 'Louder Than Bombs'. I'd only ever heard 'How Soon Is Now?' on radio countdowns. The Smiths were nothing more than a name to me. By the time, "I went to London and I, checked myself in at the Y-WCA..." came on, I was hooked. The next day, I returned home wide-eyed and excited. I walked the suburban streets twenty minutes to the used cd store and found a copy for $7.99, purchasing it immediately. I later got a job at that store for half a year. I never saw a used copy of that album come into their ever again.

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
From the city that birthed me and turned me onto music in the first place came the second coming. My taste in music had grown stale. I was past the junior high adolescence of Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20. I was past the early highschool trying to fit in stage of Rancids and NOFXs and didn't feel at all at home with these dyed-black-hair friends of mine who listened to the Get Up Kids and Dashboard Confessional and drew hearts on their arms in markers. Something had to break. My friend told me about this band she just found out about who were from the same city as her and played me the album. They played a show in their/our hometown a few blocks from her house in a small club. This band had nine people with them on stage. They had male and female vocals. They had four guitarists, and pedals, and synthesizers, and noise with rhythm, and "parkthatcardropthatphonesleeponthefloordreamaboutme" and it clicked. And I blinked and they were huge.

That ROCKS, dude. I fucking love this album more than anything. I don't know why but I've been playing this at least once a day for the last two weeks. It's practically perfect.

And good call on Louder than Bombs. That was my first Smiths album too. Picked it up at Sam the Record Man for $7.99.

I'm going to do mine one at a time (as I remember them):

Controlled Bleeding, Penetration

Mostly for the track, "Swallowing Scrap Metal Pt 3 -- Live" -- my introduction to noise.

I put the year of discovery next to each album.

Enigma - The Cross of Changes (1998)
This album essentially brought me out of the dark age of Top-40 and sparked my obsession with music. It was the first time I really sat down and listened to an album over and over. It doesn't have the same effect on me today, but I still enjoy Enigma and I credit them with "waking me up."

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights (1999)
Besides flirting with rap in the mid-90s, my second major obession with a genre was industrial. When I was seriously into it, my collection was about 90% industrial, 10% other. Last Rights was probably my favorite album of that period.

The Beatles - The White Album (2000)
Music made before 1983 can be cool?

Dr. Dre - 2001 (2000)
This album helped take me beyond industrial and into other genres. cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy mentioned that he liked Dre's 2001 in an interview, and I trusted his taste in music. I grew tired of rap when Puff Daddy took over the airwaves, but years later Dr. Dre brought me back.

Common - Like Water for Chocolate (2000)
My first hip-hop album that wasn't gangsta rap.

Talking Heads - Remain in Light (2001)
Introduced me to Brian Eno. Sure, I heard U2 and Bowie on the radio before, but Remain in Light was the first time I saw Eno's name.

Missy Elliott - So Addictive (2001)
Same situation as the Talking Heads album, except with Timbaland instead of Eno.

Steve Roach - Structures From Silence (2001)
Ambient music.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore (2003)
I loved it so much that I bought every single Smashing Pumpkins album the following day. Corgan helped me rediscover a lot of grunge and alternative rock that I previously shunned during middle school and junior high.

Peter Gabriel - Up (2003)
I don't think I've ever anticipated an album more than Up. It delievered. I expected someone his age to mellow out and write more conservative music, but he's still writing some of the most innovative rock of our time.

New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (2004)
"You Get What You Give" is my favorite song of all time. Gregg Alexander gave me a new appreciation for pop music in general.