Lend me your ears
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 11:51 am
I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some of you over the past few months. But I would be keen to get to know your musical history and leanings a bit better. I could probably trawl through old threads and piece this together, but I'm lazy and I've got a lunch hour to kill...
So, if you're up for it, give me a run down on what you're into and how it came to be so!
This is me:
I grew up listening to metal in the 80s - everything from Led Zep and Sabbath to Motorhead and AC/DC to Motley Crue and Ratt to Metallica and Slayer. I was an Iron Maiden tragic from the age of 11 till about 16 - had all the albums, t-shirts, posters, even read Running Free... more than once, truth be told. I kind of lost interest around Seventh Son. I'd started listening to Metallica by that stage, and a big turning point for me was the 5.98 Garage Days Re-revisited ep, which got me into the Misfits. At the same time, a lot of guys at my school were heavily into the American hardcore scene of the late 80s - think Black Flag, Flipper, MDC, Bad Brains, that sort of thing - and I started getting a bit more punkish.
Then grunge came along, which was absolutely perfect for me - all the attitude of punk, but with a higher level of musicianship (relatively speaking!) like metal. I got hugely into the Sub-Pop bands - not just Nirvana and Soundgarden, but Mudhoney, Tad, Afghan Whigs, Screaming Trees. I did an exchange to the US when I was 18, just as Smells Like Teen Spirit hit, where I was the man for owning a copy of Bleach. During the explosion of alterno music that followed I got into things like the Melvins, Helmet, Big Black, Faith No More, the Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth and the Pixies.
When I got back to NZ I hooked up with some friends from school and formed my first serious band, Funkmutha (I know, worst name ever... we weren't even vaguely funky either...). We shared a band room with Shihad and Head Like a Hole - our biggest claim to fame was a b-side on the Faster Hooves ep, and a North Island tour with HLAH (https://headlikeahole.bandcamp.com/albu ... -hooves-ep).
Sort of parallel to all this, while I'd been learning guitar I had developed an appreciation for the blues, which eventually led to some interest in jazz. In my teens and early 20s I listened to things like Muddy Waters, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Johnny Winter, and some other random stuff. Then started listening to bebop - Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillispie. I was especially partial to Miles, and got into his 70s prog stuff like Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson, which led to things like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow.
There was also a bit of a hippie flirtation somewhere along the line when I started digging Dylan, C,S,N & Y, the Byrds, Cat Stevens. I should also mention that I loved the Beatles all through this, from childhood really. And there are some things I shared with my dad, particularly Jim Croce and Simon & Garfunkel. I guess it is the same for everyone, but the evolution of my musical taste wasn't a simple linear progression. There is a whole other side of music I got into with my sister, which was mostly about hip hop. This track includes Prince (massively Prince), Beastie Boys (hugely them too), Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim...
The band fell apart in my early twenties, and for a long time I really lost interest, sad to say. Then in my thirties I started playing again with Tough Love - never really went anywhere, but that was a cool band and I am really proud of the album we did (a couple of tracks are here https://www.facebook.com/toughloveheavy ... page_panel - sound isn't great for some reason... the original recording was better than that). Having kind of lost touch with musical trends I pretty much followed my own path and just stumbled on things, which is still the case now. I did particularly like some of the 2nd wave brit pop bands like Arctic Monkeys, the Libertines and the Fratellis. I dug into a vein of glam a few years back and got really into Slade, T-Rex and Bowie. Then there was a doom/stoner dalliance which left me with a lasting love for Electric Wizard and Sleep. Also developed a liking for big band swing, especially Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald. For the most part it is pretty random these days...
TL:DR - I like all kinds of shit for reasons...
So, if you're up for it, give me a run down on what you're into and how it came to be so!
This is me:
I grew up listening to metal in the 80s - everything from Led Zep and Sabbath to Motorhead and AC/DC to Motley Crue and Ratt to Metallica and Slayer. I was an Iron Maiden tragic from the age of 11 till about 16 - had all the albums, t-shirts, posters, even read Running Free... more than once, truth be told. I kind of lost interest around Seventh Son. I'd started listening to Metallica by that stage, and a big turning point for me was the 5.98 Garage Days Re-revisited ep, which got me into the Misfits. At the same time, a lot of guys at my school were heavily into the American hardcore scene of the late 80s - think Black Flag, Flipper, MDC, Bad Brains, that sort of thing - and I started getting a bit more punkish.
Then grunge came along, which was absolutely perfect for me - all the attitude of punk, but with a higher level of musicianship (relatively speaking!) like metal. I got hugely into the Sub-Pop bands - not just Nirvana and Soundgarden, but Mudhoney, Tad, Afghan Whigs, Screaming Trees. I did an exchange to the US when I was 18, just as Smells Like Teen Spirit hit, where I was the man for owning a copy of Bleach. During the explosion of alterno music that followed I got into things like the Melvins, Helmet, Big Black, Faith No More, the Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth and the Pixies.
When I got back to NZ I hooked up with some friends from school and formed my first serious band, Funkmutha (I know, worst name ever... we weren't even vaguely funky either...). We shared a band room with Shihad and Head Like a Hole - our biggest claim to fame was a b-side on the Faster Hooves ep, and a North Island tour with HLAH (https://headlikeahole.bandcamp.com/albu ... -hooves-ep).
Sort of parallel to all this, while I'd been learning guitar I had developed an appreciation for the blues, which eventually led to some interest in jazz. In my teens and early 20s I listened to things like Muddy Waters, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Johnny Winter, and some other random stuff. Then started listening to bebop - Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillispie. I was especially partial to Miles, and got into his 70s prog stuff like Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson, which led to things like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow.
There was also a bit of a hippie flirtation somewhere along the line when I started digging Dylan, C,S,N & Y, the Byrds, Cat Stevens. I should also mention that I loved the Beatles all through this, from childhood really. And there are some things I shared with my dad, particularly Jim Croce and Simon & Garfunkel. I guess it is the same for everyone, but the evolution of my musical taste wasn't a simple linear progression. There is a whole other side of music I got into with my sister, which was mostly about hip hop. This track includes Prince (massively Prince), Beastie Boys (hugely them too), Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim...
The band fell apart in my early twenties, and for a long time I really lost interest, sad to say. Then in my thirties I started playing again with Tough Love - never really went anywhere, but that was a cool band and I am really proud of the album we did (a couple of tracks are here https://www.facebook.com/toughloveheavy ... page_panel - sound isn't great for some reason... the original recording was better than that). Having kind of lost touch with musical trends I pretty much followed my own path and just stumbled on things, which is still the case now. I did particularly like some of the 2nd wave brit pop bands like Arctic Monkeys, the Libertines and the Fratellis. I dug into a vein of glam a few years back and got really into Slade, T-Rex and Bowie. Then there was a doom/stoner dalliance which left me with a lasting love for Electric Wizard and Sleep. Also developed a liking for big band swing, especially Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald. For the most part it is pretty random these days...
TL:DR - I like all kinds of shit for reasons...