trevor the sheep on 10/7/2006 at 17:35
listen to 'Dead Cities' and 'ISDN' (ignoring very dated modem reference). They've aged pretty well to my ears. Their early ones like 'Accelerator' haven't aged that well but there's more to FSOL, they got better when they got more reclusive.
The only bands I can think which probably 'changed' my life were listening to things like eels and Verve and yer Radiohead when I was like 7 or 8 and thinking 'WOW MUSIC MAKES ME *FEEL* things'. Beyond that it's pretty much been "that's some funky fresh music" ever since even with the bands I now hold closest.
Comedy on the other hand continues to have the power to 'change my life' because it affects my ways of thinking and dealing with situations and people and all that gayness, even something extremely stupid like listening to Adam & Joe on XFM take the piss out of R Kelly has a constant effect on my state of mind.
Ulukai on 10/7/2006 at 17:53
Grandaddy. Grandaddy have a somber peculiarity which they managed to fuse with optimism, resignation, contentment, isolation and the inevitable in nearly equal measure. Pretty much every song Jason Lythe has ever written is about some event, worry, or transitional point in his life and he puts down the lyrics in such a way that I can always get a comfortable feeling of where he's coming from - and we're not just talking about the well trodden and predicatable path of singing mournfully about the opposite sex here either. The band pretty much never made any money to speak of, and Jason just sang because he needed to sing. Which is the best reason to sing, after all.
You might want to skip this paragraph, because this explanation is going to suck. Their songs take all this weird garbage that's floating around in your head and roll it into quantifiable balls of Stuff. And this Stuff makes sense and it's no longer weird. Grandaddy think and express this stuff this with more eloquence than you or I ever could; and whilst it may still be a somber ball of weird Stuff, the realisation that other people have this Stuff makes me happy and all understood, like. That's a great feeling and I'm a more grounded person because of it.
stop staring k thx
For example then - I think their most successful single was
The Crystal Lake. On the face of it, and if you're casually singing along to the radio, this is about not wanting to leave a lake you might have been to with the bonus of catchy guitar riffs. But no. The lake is everything we loved and left behind in our lives and it dawns on us that there is no going back. The lake mocks us as we realise we grew into what we promised ourselves we'd never be, and that we're now trapped in an urban rat-race.
"for areas where trees are fake and dogs are dead with broken hearts, collapsing by the coffee carts".
At this point the guitar kicks in and we need to break free and
get out. We need to find ourselves again, not back to the utopian lake where we can never return, but onwards; the alternative is to turn into the personification of our jobs. Whoa.
Second example -
Jed's Other Poem. Jed is a robot who, before he is neglected and deactivated writes poetry that no-one listens to. You can hear the track along with an animated video (written, and I shit you not, on an Apple II) (
http://www.stewdio.org/jed/) here. Bear with the beginning, it's a beautfiful thing, ladies and gents.
Air conditioned TV land, 20 grand
Walk to the bank
With shakes from the night before
Staring at the tiki floor
You said I'd wake up dead drunk alone in the park
I called you liar
But how right you were
So many of their songs are this thoughtful and put things into perspective. Of course, there's other bands, but for me none of them has ever come close to being Grandaddy.
trevor the sheep on 10/7/2006 at 17:57
That post needs 50% less words.
Ulukai on 10/7/2006 at 18:00
This is where I insulted trevor because I've had a long day and I missed his Grandaddy reference :(
trevor the sheep on 10/7/2006 at 18:06
Call yourself a grandaddy fan?!
Ulukai on 10/7/2006 at 18:08
Ok, so I haven't listened to the Fambly Cat as much as you :D
Random_Taffer on 10/7/2006 at 18:17
1-System of a Down
2-Rammstein
3-Queens of the Stone Age
4-Static-X
5-Led Zeppelin
Paz on 10/7/2006 at 22:05
Quote Posted by trevor the sheep
Adam & Joe on XFM take the piss out of R Kelly has a constant effect on my state of mind.
This was the greatest moment of radio comedy I've ever heard. Oh dear, this is going to be a terrible derail - I'll get to the thread question in a moment so I don't feel too guilty - but do you know if anyone is uploading their new XFM shows anywhere? Their previous stint was always available from uknova, but I'm not sure they will be any more because the shows are now available as XFM (hnnggh) 'podcasts'. Except they're not really, because the podcasts edit half the show out, which RATHER MISSES THE POINT. Idiots.
So yes, if you know anywhere that *whole* (minus the shit indie music, of course) shows are now gettable from, that would be ace.
Oh right, the thread.
"changed your life" is a pretty major caveat, but I'll do my best.
#1: The Cure This one actually fits the bill, they were the band who made me think "oh ... so all music ISN'T shit - hooray!" More accurately, they were the only band from Virgin Radio who made me think "I'd actually like to hear that song again .. and again, and also again". From this humble beginning I was able to explore more avenues of musical delight! Obviously that's a pretty major life change, from no albums to lots of albums over the course of a few years.
Plus I stole all their imagery to help me pass GCSE English.
#2: The Sisters of Mercy Wandering into more dubious territory here, because they didn't "change my life". However, they revealed the cunning duality of a group who were fearsomely intellectual if you cared to delve into the lyrics a little bit ... but were also an extremely clever joke, possibly at the expense of people who thought the band were fearsomely intellectual and delved into the lyrics. I've still not really got my head around that one, but it's all quite funny. Probably.
#3: Catherine Wheel Not so much for the band itself (though they're pretty solid, on the whole - especially
Adam and Eve), but for providing the gateway drug to swirling guitars and fantastically introspective/self-absorbed records. Step forward My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, etc.
#4: Kate Bush Just because she should be in here. When you hear
Hounds of Love 'correctly' for the first time, it's rather special.
#5: TBA There is no 5, as yet. Still plenty of time.
thefonz on 10/7/2006 at 22:09
I've been thinking about this thread all day today before I threw my two cents into the lot. Unfortunately, I cant think of 5 distinct bands which cover difffering individual aspects of my "life". Therefore I'll settle on two:
1. Agalloch
2. The Smurfs.
For detail on Agalloch, visit their websites:
(
http://www.myspace.com/agalloch)
(
http://www.agalloch.org/)
If you have never heard of them, I highly reccomend you listen to the track called Not Unlike the Waves from their forthcoming album "Ashes Against The Grain" to give you a taster of what they are like. And I will be very surprised if you're not in the least bit curious about the rest of their stuff.
For the Smurfs:
(
http://www.smurf.com/)
They're a group of sexually confused blue things running around a forrest, who also have time to make some catchy covers of popular pop tunes and christmas carols...what more do you want??
Thanks.
