3 albums that shaped your musical identity.

[bigchiefbc]

YES! DJ Shadow fucking rules!!!!!!!!! As does Isis!!

Probably the ones that got me into playing were

Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral
Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Helmet Aftertaste

LOTS more though.

Shit, yeah "The Downward Spiral" should definitely be on my list. Every damn song I try to write sounds like I ripped it off Trent.

[Mudfuzz]

If I dig down deep ... and really think about about it... and going by when I first started playing [cuz I've been playing for over 20 years so 3 albums don't cut it at all] then..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9KxZqDaO-I[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yaz5V6OFQlo[/youtube]

and not a album but I feel it should be treated as such cuz for me the impact was huge!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x62NxxQis3o[/youtube]

[jfrey]

Not quite 3 cds. I sort of heard these all at more or less the same time, so I don't know which I'd pick by Tool and Metallica.

Tool - Aenima & Lateralus
Metallica - And Justice for All & Ride the Lightning
Dream Theater - Train of Thought

[myrrh]

Ok I´ll try to be honest rather than make a fancy list.

If I go way back the Beatles and Nirvana has probably influenced me the most.

But if we´re talking about important for what I myself ended up doing it would be :

1. Sonic Youth - Washing Machine (The following two albums should really be here as well, NYCG&F is my second favorite of theirs.)
2. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Weld ( My first meeting with fucked and weird guitars, that blown out sound has been an ideal to me since.)

The third spot was really difficult, but I think Im going with:
3. Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (The live part of the record! Not a big fan of the band but that live record is just amazing. Early Noise rock.)

[wozzly]

[myrrh]

Wipers is pretty much the best band that ever existed!

[sylnau]

Tom Waits, Real Gone
Rowland S. Howard, Teenage Snuff Film
Bach, The Well Tempered Clavier (by Glenn Gould)

** Notice, this selection could change every day.

[wozzly]

Wipers is pretty much the best band that ever existed!

pretty much!

[MEC]

Minor Threat - Complete Discography
Jane's Addiction - Jane's Addiction/XXX Records
Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version

[spacefuzz]

Formative years-swinging utters "streets of sanfrancisco"
20's-Reversal of man-
now-do make say think -every album

[odontophobia]

DUDE SEXLESS NO SEX YES

Dudes. Yes. Iron Lung rules.

Anyway.

Paranoid by Black Sabbath.
Not because it's some pinnacle Sabbath record that I still worship but because I remember riding around Michigan with my dad and listening to this record on cassette and thinking that it was pretty cool, particularly for something my dad was showing me.

Burn Piano Island, Burn by the Blood Brothers.
I think that this record is pretty polarizing. Maybe less polarizing then their future output but the high-pitched shrieking from one of the vocalists is usually enough to turn people off. But this was my first foray into aggressive music post-Sabbath. Interestingly, this bad is agressive in the most anti-machismo way. As far as "heavy" goes, this record isn't really heavy -- though some of the synthesizer work is gnarly -- it's not driving and sludgy and "heavy" like we tend to think of the term. This led me down a really weird path while simultaneously just moving down a heavy and aggressive hardcore/punk/metal path. I had a lot of Three One G worship and Level Plane worship around this time.

As the Roots Undo by Circle Takes the Square.
I was thinking about putting Rush's 2112 on this list because as far as concept albums and rock-journeys are concerned that is definitely the first I listened to and, like Sabbath, bonded with my old man over. But this record just kills so fuck it. This record does that 90s/00s screamo thing. It is metal-tinged. Taught me the valuable lesson that songs didn't need to be simple bursts of aggression.

[rustywire]

Albums:
NIN - Pretty Hate Machine
Polvo - Cor-Crane Secret
Sublime - Robbin The Hood

EPs:
My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise
Cherry Forever - Headstrong EP
Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway

3 singles:
The Beatles - Come Together
Beck - Loser
and most crucially...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocZK5DHzkh4[/youtube]

[phantasmagorovich]

So let's say albums that influenced my playing as it is now. Because otherwise it would be nowhere near possible to narrow it down to less than 20.

David Grubbs - A Guess At The Riddle


To me he is the perfect balance (on this album) of artsy playing and texture while still retaining songs that work. I love his playing and songwriting a lot and I hope to some time achieve the mastery he has. I know I am slowly getting there and not by copying. (I would not want to play any of his songs. That's just not a thought that ever crossed my mind before right now.) But I can see where he comes from and it's not so different than where I come from. But I think I would need a) a more bandleader-ish pesonality and b) fellow musicians that understand the greatness of odd songsmithery.

Sample:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAtLEKIgSMo[/youtube]

Hot Chip - The Warning


Alright. This is sort of a cheat, because I don't even own the album. But I have seen Hot Chip twice on festivals and of course I know the unavoidable singles by heart. This is sort of what I wanted to achieve with my main band when we started out. Make dance music as a band. We still attempt to do that but with me as the songwriter the stuff we do ends up much more melancholic than we ever intended. But so what. These guys still stand out as a lighthouse I sometimes think of when we're jamming out in the practice room.

Sample (the unavoidable single):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mdgLn5BFRQ[/youtube]

The EX - Catch my Shoe


This is another guiding light in my band. (We're only talking about myself here, the other guys probably don't even know this stuff. I am sure they don't love it like I do.) I just love the mashing up of afro beat elements and overall artsyness with a piss in your face punk attitude. These guys just rock so hard it's not even funny anymore.

Sample:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVbIMAqJ1o0[/youtube]

[bob the r0bot]

Hot Chip (and lower dens to an extent) pretty much taught me how to program drums.

[myrrh]

Good taste!
David Grubbs and The Ex.
The Ex are ridiculously good live...