3 albums that shaped your musical identity.

[DADGBD]

The ones that seem to creep in/out, no matter what:

Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin'
Minutemen - Double Nickles...
Sebadoh - Bakesale (especially, the Loewenstein tracks) (okay, always the Loewenstein tracks...)

And I know it's three, so you aren't seeing that I'm sneaking in WARSAW (s/t), too.

[Achtane]

The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
Swirlies - Blonder Tongue Audio Baton
So - So

[Chankgeez]

You guise! Just list some stuff, damn the rules.

OK. Just didn't wanna mess up the thread.

Agharta/Pangaea - Miles Davis
Introducing Roland Kirk - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic
pick an album produced by Lee Perry, any album
My First Bells - The Minutemen
The Mystic Fiddle of the Proto-Gypsies: Masters of Trance Music - V/A
Afternoon Ragas - Nikhil Banerjee
The Clash - The Clash
Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash - The Replacements
Entertainment! & Solid Gold - Gang of Four
Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes
Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Tauhid - Pharoah Sanders
Buy - Contortions
Sweet Black Angel - Earl Hooker
Houston Ghetto Blues or Steel Guitar Flash! - Hop Wilson
The Wild Sound Of New Orleans By Tousan - Allen Toussaint

Sorry, you asked.

[foomanfat]

Mine aren't particularly cool.

Norma Jean - Bless The Martyr And Kiss The Child
Less Than Jake - Anthem
Every Time I Die - Hot Damn!


Man, that list makes me feel wicked square in the midst of everyone else's.

[WeHuntKings]

Loveless
Unknown Pleasures
and more recently
Earth 2

[myrrh]

There is no way I can narrow it down to just three, my tastes are a bit too varied...

I tried a list, it seemed pretentious so I just deleted it.

Maybe I´ll try again tomorrow.

[space6oy]

man...


turned me into a grunge kid instead of just whatever was popular & made me start playing guitar again (tried in 5th grade & wasn't into it).


random cheap record store find before a trip, my favorite album ever.


got it when da funk was their breakthrough, dug some of it but found others annoying, then years later got into synthesizers and now i freaking worship that album start to finish. amazing what they did with good ol' hardware.

[zRobertez]

overall, prolly
John Frusciante - Inside of Emptiness
Ugly Cassanova - Sharpen Your Teeth (or one of the earlier Modest Mouse albums)
Nirvana - In Utero

i used to listen to a lot of heavier (compared to me now, not you guys now lol) stuff like 5-6 years ago, system of a down, tool, nirvana. I still listen to some every now and again but recently (past 2ish years) its been like all grizzly bears, foals, tw walsh, david bazan. And all the music I write is just heavier than what I listen to but still indie-ish stuff, probably from the stuff I listened to in high skool. Im not that old anyway

[nuclearfamily]

Holy shit this is tough. I'm going to cheat.

High school:
- Tool - Aenima
- Radiohead - The Bends
- Sonic Youth - Goo

... More high school/Just out of highschool:
- Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
- The Jesus Lizard - Goat
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Still just out of high school:
- Slint - Spiderland
- Stooges - S/T
- CAN - Ege Bamyasi

College:
- The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
- Television - Marquee Moon
- Captain Beefheart - Lick My Decals Off

I'm gonna stop there
I think this is probably kind of the incorrect order but it's something like that.

[Chankgeez]

nuclearfamily, you've got a good list there. Includes lots of records that I should've had on mine.

[Casavettes]

chankgeez and nuclearfamily reminded me of os mutantes and can.
such amazing bands.

[andtheLiquidmen]

The scores of movies I watched growing up definitely shaped my musical identity more than anything. I never really was introduced to music until middle school, so until then that was all that filled that part of my brain.
Akira Ifukube and Masaru Satoh's scores for Godzilla/Kaiju/Scifi films of the '50s-'70s.
John Barry's early James Bond scores.


As far as bands, artists, etc
High School:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In (this changed EVERYTHING for me when I heard it)
Flower Travellin' Band - Satori
Can - Tago Mago
Daikaiju - Daikaiju
Boredoms - 77Boadrum (ok, it isn't an album. It was a performance that I attended, and they subsequently released it on DVD)

This is a tough thing to answer, because I feel like my musical identity is constantly shifting. I can honestly say albums I heard 3-4 ago have really altered my way of writing, playing, arranging, and approaching music

[kbit]

In chronological order:

Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3


One of the early albums that hooked me into music for good. The song-writing, the expression, the arrangements, the rhythms, I can still see it in my musicality today.

Hella - Hold Your Horse Is


It broke my mind. I haven't been the same since.
I was led in this direction by The Fall of Troy, but Hella was a challenge on a deeper level.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#00


Yup.

[benjuro]

Great question, if only because it's such a challenge to narrow it down...
I don't know if they'd make my top 3 but GY!BE is in constant rotation these days....SO GOOD.

[coldbrightsunlight]

This is super hard but for things that influence my playing/writing I can think of I'd have to go with (right now, sure I'll change my mind)

Weezer - Pinkerton
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Weld
St Vincent - Actor