Buckethead... I don't remember what the first album of his I got, but it really changed my way of thinking about music. Even though I'm not near into him as I used to be, I have to give him credit for opening my mind to something other than mainstream radio.

4 for me at different stages-

16 years old- SY-Daydream Nation
18 years old- Butthole Surfers-Locust Abortion Technician
- Pixies-Bossanova
22 years old- Hanadensha- Narcotic Guitar

The album that changed Rob Instigator's life.

DAYDREAM NATION - Sonic Youth

I grew up with music in the house all the time. the first bands I dug at age 8-9 were van halen, def leppard, quiet riot was my fave, hard rock and metal. I progressed in that vein for years getting deeper into thrash (remember when it was called thrash? megadeth, metallica, slayer, Anthrax, exodus, nuclear assault, etc.? anyone?) and hardcore punk. I reached a point when i was around 15 that I was burned out. I listened to megadeth's Peace Sells But Who's Buying over and over and over and over again for several months. I had started to feel the stagnant nature of metal, the false posturing, the ridiculous "rock-god" aspirations, the ego of the whole thing. It was getting to me but I did not understand it then. One day I was reading people magazine, and saw a review for Sister, and it included a picture of these 3 dudes and one chick (a chick in a band? and it was not a stupid looking lita ford type? amazing!) standing in a new york alley, wearing reguilar clothes, not posturing like the dozens and dozens of metal pinups and posters that I had sapled to my walla nd bedroom ceiling from hit parader, kerrang, metal mania, Circus magazine and such. I could not take my eyes from the picture. i read the review and it intrgued me. it spoke of noise squalls, of feedback drenched proto-songs, of beauty and bliss in chaos. It sounded to me like this band, sonic youht, who did not look all that young, had what I wanted, what the heavy metal bands tried to fake with satan lyrics and stupid costumes and posturing. That review stuck with me. When, a year or so later, I sw daydream nation come out, I thought "hey, this is that sonic youth band, that band with the ridiculously fantastic name I read about." and bought it.
everything changed. what constituted a song changed, what could be music changed, what was ROCK changed, what was GOOD changed. I found honesty, and artifice, beauty and ugliness, chaos and peace, joy and pain, in just the first song, TEENAGE RIOT! Tag I was it. Kim told me so. she told me again. she re-assured me I WAS IT DAMNIT. That cassette, the blast first one that stunk like motor oil, was on my boombox next to my bed constantly. i woudl sit in my room and my little bro would come in asking why i was still listening to that same album? The damn thing was LONG> i did not know it was a double album at the time. noone I knew had evern heard of sonic youth. Daydream nation showed me the world of true independent-minded music. uncompromising music. daydream nation is the single greatest moment of my life. I can honestly say it changed everything, EVERYTHING in my life for the better.It also gave me something which was MINE> noone else's. noone listened to sonic youth in alief texas. Just me. It was mine. so it stayed until college 5 years later. Only then did I find others who listened to sonic youth, and to this day I have yet to run into anyone who is as blindly devoted to them and their music as I. I will KILL YOU for sonic youth, if they asked.

everyone I know knows that sonic youth is MINE.

Cankersore (Tanked),

I saw Hole perform Pretty on the Inside for $3

They played for only 45 minutes & it blistered like very few shows I've ever been too before or since.

When she came around again with Live Through This, Kevn & I decided that all the little girlies that liked her now were poseurs/MTV babies.

For years after that one would be talking to some young thing in the bar & she would babble on about Courtney Love being her favorite artist & you would ask them about the first record & they would look at you blankly & it would just make you make excuses to excuse oneself.

Definitely it's the youth's Daydream Nation. I know, I know- cliché, but it did everything for me.

I was about twelve or thirteen, and my parents had just broke up. Being at that particular age in which life already feels hard enough, the emotional baggage I had to drag around with me got me down.

On the advice of The Simpsons, I intended to check out Sonic Youth. I need some music that I could hold onto at the time. So I went to a record store and bought two SY records, Dirty and Daydream Nation. I didn't listen to them until later that night, when I went to my mother's new flat (she had moved out because she caused the breakup). My room there was cold, bare, and was lit too harshly by the big light. It had a huge mirror on one wall, no curtains, and a shitty foldout bed. I pulled in a small stereo and stuck on Daydream Nation. I sat on the bed and pressed 'play' as the room's atmosphere started to get me down.

Teen Age Riot, as if from nowhere, floated into the room with a ghostly riff. Spirit desire. We will fall. Spirit desire. We will fall- and then the riff floated back outside with its vocal friends. I felt really sad. But Teen Age Riot was not over, no- it had just began. Just like my life.

The instruments all announced their presence one by one- Thurston's guitar, Kim's bass, Steve's drums, and finally Lee's guitar, as the song exploded energetically. Thurston began to sing. Immediately I felt like I had a friend in the room. His voice was so indifferent to everything- like he'd seen it all before a million times and it had come to nothing. "Everybody's talking 'bout the stormy weather, but what's a man to do but work out whether it's true?". Thurston guided me through the situation calmly, his wisdom sprawling through the song until the end.

I sat and reflected through Silver Rocket. It was just a bit of background listening at that time. Then The Sprawl started. The guitar danced in, and Kim began to tell me what was up. Another friend had come in. "I grew up in a shotgun row, sliding down the hill, out front were the big machines- steel, and rusty now I guess" she chatted, her childhood just a memory now, and though so much had happened, she was fine. She sang me to a thoughtful doze, as the song deconstructed and fell apart.

Much like Silver Rocket, 'Cross The Breeze was a song for background listening as I thought away. I sat with my ghostly sonic friends in the cold room, staring at my reflection in the mirror. Things aren't so bad, they tell me. Achoo... brancafest.. Lee whispered. What? "I can't see anything at all! All I see is me." - I nodded in agreement. I couldn't see anything past myself at that moment. I had another friend. Eric's Trip might as well have been Danny's Trip.

Thurston told me the whole thing was just Total Trash- and I believed him. I was open for any suggestions. The cold harsh room had just disppeared now- I was transported to that NYC street corner as depicted in the CD photo. Lee told me to put it all behind me. These times are such a mess. So just pick up the past and say 'yes'. KICK IT! Hey Joni..

By now I was convinced that Sonic Youth were the shit and nothing else I'd heard before was worth listening to. Rain pattered onto the window and I looked outside. It was nighttt. Providence faded in rather unnoticably- Mike Watt left me dreamscape messages about some shit as Thurston played piano in a distant room. The album was just blowing my mind. It was my new best friend.

There it was again, a guitar announcement- Candle. Thurston was back. I didn't know what the fuck he was singing about but it all made sense. Cocker on the rock? Man. I was just going with whatever he said because SY was all that mattered at that point. Lee got me a bit apprehensive with Rain King, but Kim reassured me I had Kissability.

The Trilogy played out very well. Whatever had happened, the city was still a Wonder town. I was feeling a little sleepy as Hyperstation kicked in. This album was pretty demanding. I fell out of sleep and hit the floor when it all kicked off and Eliminator Jr. came on. The rhythm was kicking and the drums were thumping and the sonix just keep playing, and, and..

snap. Daydream Nation was gone, and the only sound left was the whir as the CD span round to the beginning.

I was motherfucking hooked on Sonic Youth. I went out and got all their records, scoured biographies and sought thousands of pictures of them. Through that time though, I discovered everything else I listen to today (other than SY of course): Dinosaur Jr, Cat Power, Nirvana, Black Flag, The Ramones, The Stooges, The Beach Boys, Sun Ra, fucking BECK. Sonic Youth had enough sophistication in their music to keep me open minded to all avenues of genre- Jazz, rock, punk, [tasteful] pop. Musically, I was BORN! Daydream Nation entered me into another world, in which I live in right now.

And I'm loving the world I live in.

Without Daydream Nation, music probably wouldn't have been as important to me as it is these days. I would have never picked up an instrument or joined a band. Music is my world, thanks to this album.

Danny you are my sonic brother


SONIC LIFE!

it has to be either Ballads by Derek Bailey, or The Mysteries by Branca.

TO SONIK DEATH!!!

When I saw SY right after their gear had been stolen when Teenage Riot came in, the begiining intro with Kim, it just brought me to tears!!

The sprawl is on of the best least talked about songs on that album!

The Sprawl is undoubtedly one of the best songs on that album.First time i listened to the record that song stuck with me even more than 'Teenage Riot'.

Nice to hear I'm not the only Sprawl fanatic.

ha ha! i' m that person in my group of friends aswell.

yeah, same here

Radiohead - Kid A

This album got me into electronic music singlehandedly. If it wasn't for this I would never have been able to listen to Yellow Swans, Hair Police, early Xiu Xiu, etc.

Fucking right....I will always love those bands.

Hooray for Fables!

"154" by Wire was the first strange record I ever bought. This was my first introduction into the world of musicians that are strange or sometimes even noisy on purpose.

Other records that were watershed moments in my life from first listen...

"Hex Enduction Hour" by the Fall
"EVOL" and "Sister"
"Since the Accident" by Severed Heads
"Trout Mask Replica" by Capt. Beefheart
"Tragic Figures" by Savage Republic
v/a "Not So Quiet on the Western Front" 2xLP
"Need So Much Attention" by Septic Death
"War and Pain" by Voivod
"Slave" by Infest
first three Wipers LP's
v/a "Killed by Death" #1 & #4
"Smash Hits" by Teengenerate
"Revenge" by the Flying Luttenbachers
"Jouhou" by Discordance Axis

mob - vs.
sy - goo
gybe! - lift your skinny fists
go4 - entertaintment

I'm going to rule myself out of the beautifully generous prize by not choosing an LP, as it wasn't an LP that changed things for me. I'm going to choose a freebie 7". Those of you who actually bother reading my missives wil have read this before, whilst those of you who very wisely skip the nonsense I spout won't be reading anyway. So I guess I'm typing this for precisely zero people.

When I was 14, a magazine came out called The Hit. THe best description is to say it was a more mature Smash Hits. Free with the first issue was a 7" disc, featuring The Redskins, Simply Red, Style Council and a new band called The Jesus and MAry Chain. The other tracks are nothing special, but Taste of Cindy grabbed my attention, first time by being 1 minute 35 seconds unlistenable noise, but on second listen by being the most original and invigorating thing I'd heard. At that time (1985) I'd heard nothing else even remotely comparable in terms of just being different. It's still one of my top listens (slightly different to the LP version), and it was that track that was my musical epiphany; I tirelessly sought out sounds that were new, discovering two very important things, namely John Peel's radio show and Probe Records in Liverpool (still there, and still wonderful). Thus The Fall, Sonic Youth and much more came within my aesthetic grasp.

(The Hit really was rather good, as I recall. Apart from the music articles, Tony Parsons [now quite a famous writer, I believe] wrote a good column at the back that discussed serious non-musical matters. The whole thing impressed me, but it didn't last for too long.)

Yeah, I got a record from there the other day. They have Rhys Chatham and endless SY. I like Hairy Records too, which is just a block over on Bold St.- I got James Brown's "Say It Loud!" LP there.