Well, here goes my explanation for my pick.

I remember seeing "Dirty" (deluxe edition) on vinyl in my local record shop. & before that point, I hadn't heard much of SY, maybe a tid-bit here or there, but never a whole album. & so I see this glamourus box set of SY vinyls, so I figure why not go all out & get as much of SY as possible to listen to. As it turned out, that was the best money I ever spent.

That's the acquiring part of my story, now actually listening to the record.

Up until that moment of hearing "Dirty", I was expecting something different than what I was hearing, & I was happy for that difference. SY taught me that you can incorporate ANYTHING into music if you want. That there's no such thing as the perfectly structured song. That you can go all-out w/ yr music. & not to mention all the music, arts, & culture that album would open my eyes to. I've learned so much from that album, being it my first SY album, that I had no other choice but to pick "Dirty"

I hope tthat's a good enough explanation. ;-)

Sonic Life
JDR

Mine was Never Mind The Bollocks.

The year was 1978, I was about 12 and my favourite band was Showaddywaddy. I shared a bedroom with my older brother & he played NMTB constantly, to my disgust.

We had pretty violent fights over it for months until one day I found myself actually LOVING it. I didn't admit it for a while, but eventually ripped down all my Showaddywaddy posters and bought The Clash's first LP.

It was no looking back after that: The Clash led to The Damned led to Ramones led to Dead Kennedys led to Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Sonic Youth........etc.

my way was like that:

void void void -> Radiohead -> Sonic Youth (this is the point when it all exploded) -> Mogwai, Flying Saucer Attack, Tortoise, GY!BE and post-rock in general -> experimental electronica (Oval, Autechre, ambient in the likes of Terre Thaemlitz, Ghislain Poirier, Desormais and 12k, mego, touch labels) -> now I'm really fond of free rock such as Lightning Bolt, Pink&Brown, Erase Errata and japanese noisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssseeeeeee

baaaaaad moon rising.

for me its got to be The Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness and SOAD's Toxicity, I know nobody here like that album, but for me its kinda defined my youth. Daydream Nation was also a huge influence. But if I was to pick 3 (sorry cant pick less) albums that have had the most obvious and lasting effect on how i write music it has to be Mellon Collie, Daydream Nation and Dark Side of the Moon.

Dirty, by Sonic Youth. You may know this band.

For me it has to be offspring's smash. It's what lead to my love of rock and eventually my discovery of sonic youth.

Up until 1994, I listened to straight hip hop. Growing up in the bay area, my friends, and my older cousins, basically everyone I knew was into hip hop. So I developed the same tastes. We all shared a hate for rock, and couldn't stand it.

Anyways, I was watching MTV one day and on comes the video for self esteem. I was about to change the channel like I always did for rock songs, but the bass line into had me hooked. Plus the video was visually pleasing. So I watched the video, and after I remember thinking that rock music is actually good.

Of course now, with my taste for rock so developed, The Offspring is just another pop band to me, but that was still the turning point.

There are at least several, but whenever asked this, I always think first of Patti Smith's Horses.

Then probably Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.

Then Never Mind the Bollocks, the first Ramones LP, the Talking Heads' More Songs about Food and Buildings, Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, Elvis Costello's My Aim is True, and Devo's Are We Not Men?

All of those had a huge impact on me and how I listen to music, especially since I bought them "in their time" (except Dylan), and that made them especially significant for me.

blonde on blonde

Jim Kerr = Worst hair

ever

Once upon a time I had Once Upon a Time (1985).

I really believe mine is this: (the cassette's cover is so much better)


or this:

For me, Leaves Turn Inside You by Unwound at the time I heard it was really different but still sounded so good and actually beautiful at times. I was getting into bands like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Blonde Redhead, Yo La Tengo and Unwound at the time. While all these bands were great, I didn't quite understand Daydream Nation the first time i heard it through and I heard some older YLT album that didn't make my jaw drop like some of their other stuff (Painful, Electr-O-Pura) and Fugazi was kind of more straight forward rock to me at the time.

I went from listening to whatever the media was into and what was on mtv to these bands that had a lot less mainstream attention and were more of an effort to find and get into, which was part of the fun in it. It was a bit more challenging to discover. The sound and stories and characters presented in Leaves Turn Inside You were so real and fantastic that I listened to it on repeat for months at a time and got really lost in it.

From these first few albums, like Leaves, I started to listen to the bands' older work and got into bands that had ties via location or record label and am still constantly looking for new bands that wow me or just are really enjoyable to listen to. But i'll always think of Leaves as the first album that really sprung my interest in music and got me more involved in the music culture/world, whatever you want to call it.

For me it would have to be Nirvana's Nevermind. I vividly remember seeing the video premier of Smells Like Teen Spirit at the age of 13 and just being completely blown away. Nirvana eventually led the way for discovering many of the great bands I listen to today such as: SY, Meat Puppets, Butthole Surfers, Boredoms, VU, etc. Before that time I largely listened to alot of thrash/death metal and rap. Which I still listen to somewhat, but not nearly as much as I did.

I'm sure there is several other albums I could choose as well, but I think Nevermind had the largest impact on what I listen to in general.

I can see how Nevermind would do it for ya. It would have had a huge impact on me, I'm sure, if I'd been a little younger. I'd already heard of Nirvana and was very familiar with their first SubPop LP, Bleach, and so I also was kind of into the grunge thing--Melvins, Mudhoney, etc.--before Nevermind broke. When Nevermind came out, it was like, what the fuck, and then wow, I guess I was onto something all this time.

As it was, I fell hard for that one, and played it constantly for like six months, driving friends, family, and pets nuts.

In my case it was Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. I heard a track from that album on the radio at the end of 2000. I was completely charmed by the sound and I thought that it might be one of the best albums ever made. I bought it after two years of searching and since then I consider it as the most important record in my liife.

Of course before I found out about MBV I've listened to a lot of bands (like Radiohead or Smashing Pumpkins) but none of them had such a huge impact on my perception of music.

Ramones Mania - got this in 8th grade coming off a teeny-bopper girl phase and went from cheerleeder-type to skater-lover punk wannabe in a matter of a month. i was never all that hardcore a punk though, just kinda "different." but this definitely opened my mind to new music.

its impossible to say one but ill go with-

sunburned hand of the man - shitless

Sonic Youth - Goo
Because that's the album that opend a new world for me and got me here.

the album that opened up the "new world" ie alternative rock for me was hole's live through this.

Led Zeppelin - II

That's cool. Yeah, after I purchased that album I played it non-stop for such a long time. I'm sure my friends and family were very annoyed. But I was just in love with it.