Quinta-feira 20 Abr 2006, 12h:14
OK, I've spent half of my afternoon shift in work compiling this so please comment! Don't be shy!!… this i getting into real High Fidelity territory now :s
Anyway, here's how i got into my top 10 artists:
1- Elliott Smith - He’s number 1 by a distance and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change. A mate of mine in school (dhcmrlchtdj in my buddies over there!) gave me a mix-tape of his stuff in ’99 or so, I have no idea how he got into him. I remember liking Needle In The Hay a lot (this was well before Royal Tenenbaums I gotta add) but I was pretty dismissive at first - too busy listening to KoRn and their ilk.
2- The Fall - John Peel got me into 'em. It just seemed that every track he played by them really stood out from the rest of the stuff on his show. Got 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t be wrong a couple of years ago - was a bit disappointed (Again, not a great start in our relationship). How do you go about making a Fall compilation though? Anyway, I picked up their new one last year and have played it to death along with Hex Education Hour.
2- Therapy? - Definitely the band in my top 10 I’ve been into the longest. Dbinterz (over in buddies) leant me Troublegum in ’97 when I was 15, when everyone was saying the band had split up. Knives came on at full blast and I nearly shat myself. I just thought it was the darkest, most evil noise I’d ever heard (and it probably was). Nowadays you can see it’s a bit more tongue-in-cheek, but the fact that they paid attention to their lyrics more than
most heavy bands means they’ve stood the test of time for me, and, of course, great hooks never die.
4- The Jesus And Mary Chain - JAMC were one of those bands I always meant to listen to as a teen, just from reading about them in “top album polls” and who they influenced etc, but I never got around to it. Then I downloaded Psychocandy about 3 years ago and was immediately smitten by their 60s pop tune stories of drugs, girls, and boredom buried under a wall of feedback. Psychocandy is a great album to drink wine in the sun to. Really!
5- Liars - I first heard Liars on Andrew Collins’ Round Table show on BBC 6 Music, reviewing There’s Always Room On The Broom. It was like nothing I’d ever heard before, and when I heard it was from a concept album about 16th Century Germanic witches, well, that was me sold. Their new one is my album of the year so far.
6- The Black Heart Procession - Here’s where it gets interesting - it was actually lastfm’s neighbour radio that got me into these guys. It was just after I created an account, and I immediately fell in love with the gothic soundscapes of ‘2’… although since then there hasn’t really been anything that’s blown me away on lastfm’s recommendation. Controversial!
7- The Arcade Fire - Everyone seemed to be listening to Funeral last Summer, and I was no exception. Can’t remember exactly who got me into them, but dhcmrlchtdj gave me their first EP after Funeral was played to death.
8- Nine Inch Nails - I have no idea how I discovered NIN, but I have fond memories of playing Final Fantasy VIII with The Fragile on, and Zelda on the N64 with Broken on in the background too. Innocent times.
8- The Mountain Goats - This was another BBC 6 Music one - Palmcorder Yanja was on their playlist when it came out. I thought it sounded great, and went out and bought We Shall All Be Healed right away. My favourite of theirs is All Hail West Texas now though.
10- The Smiths - When I was at school I always thought of this band as being Joy Division’s embarrassing brother. I picked up ‘Singles’ for £2.99 in my first year of Uni anyway, knowing that they were supposedly legends, but didn’t play it for ages as another singles collection (by Alice In Chains) got in the way. Then one morning I woke up so hung over I could barely see. I couldn’t get out of bed or even move I was so sick. The only thing soothing me was the CD I had stuck on the night before. I remember the room spinning round as I tired not to throw up absinthe. As I slipped in and out of consciousness, I heard the most beautiful lyrics and melodies in the world. Those lyrics and melodies were by The Smiths.
So anyway, that's that. I've only seen 3 of them live. Can you guess who..?
liarsTherapy?KnivesThere's Always Room On The BroomThe Black Heart ProcessionThe SmithsThe Mountain Goatselliott smithNine Inch NailsThe FallThe Arcade FireThe Jesus And Mary Chain