How I Discovered (most of what I ever listen to):

(I wrote this, so I might as well post it)

Acid Mothers Temple: Through my cousin, Boyd—one of the primary influences on my musical taste. 2008

Agalloch: Jakehammeran of Otakuboards’ second-favorite band. He introduced me to metal music through all the bands he talked about on there. 2006

Alcest: Jakehammeran again. 2007

Amebix: Otou-san, via a google+ post. 2012

Amon Amarth: First through Jakehammeran, then rediscovered through my friend Josh being really into them. 2007

Andrew WK: Knew about him since he came out, but didn’t start listening till the buzz about Gundam Rock. Led to his older work. 2010

At the Drive-In: Because it’s the past work of The Mars Volta. 2007

Ayreon: Through Mikael Akderfelt of Opeth’s involvement with The Human Experiment. 2007

Bad Rabbits: Through last.fm’s Foxy Shazam radio. 2012

Black Sabbath: Obviously I’d known of them forever, but only started listening after I got into Electric Wizard, and then ghostlightning sold me on them. 2011

Blind Guardian: Probably through Jakehammeran. 2007

Bloodbath: Through Mikael Akderfelt’s involvement. 2009

Boom Boom Satelights: The opening to Xam’d. 2008

Boris: One of Boyd’s favorite bands. 2008

Burzum: Learned of while going through Boyd’s collection of burned CDs. 2008

Circa Survive: Knew of from a long time ago because of their relationship with The Sound of Animals Fighting. Didn’t start listening until they toured with Coheed and Cambria. 2010

Circle Takes the Square: Through Rifles at Recess of Otakuboards. 2007

Coheed and Cambria: Discovered through radio singles in 2004, but didn’t get to actually buy one of their albums until late the next year. 2005

Comus: Through Boyd and the references made to them by Opeth. 2010

Cynic: Discovered when they opened for Dragonforce. They were infinitely better than Dragonforce was that night. 2008

Daft Punk: Known about forever. Don’t know what exactly caused me to go out and but their album, but I did so in late. 2009

Dalek: Through Boyd’s collection once again. 2008

The Dear Hunter: Had heard of them before, but started listening because they were touring with Coheed and Cambria. 2010

The Delgados: The opening theme to Gunslinger Girl. 2007

The Dillinger Escape Plan: Listened to some of their songs starting from 2007, because of Rifles at Recess. Didn’t start listening to more of their stuff till later. 2011

Dredg: Through Pandora’s (or maybe last.fm’s?) Shabutie radio. 2007

Earth: Through Boyd. 2011

Electric Wizard: Through Boyd also. 2010

Enigma: My mom had the album. I’d heard it before as a kid but only like twice. My mom randomly played MCMXC on the way home one day and I loved it. 2010

Ensiferum: Jakehammeran once again. 2007

Falkenbach: Not sure, but most likely Jakehammeran once more. 2008

Fall of Troy: Rifles at Recess again. 2008

Fever Ray: My cousin Sarah posted about them on Facebook and I gave a listen. 2010

Foxy Shazam: Through last.fm’s Shabutie radio. 2008

Galneryus: I want to say through Boyd but I can’t honestly remember. 2008

Goatsnake: Through Boyd. 2008

Gorillaz: Discovered through Clint Eastwood, via TV. 2001

Green Day: They babysat me in 1994.

Guitar Wolf: Through Otou-san via Twitter. 2010

Harvard: A friend of mine told me about them through email. 2012

Hexvessal: Randomly looking through Encyclopaedia Metallum. 2011

Hey Ocean!: Through Ashleigh Ball’s involvement in My Little Pony. 2012

Iron Maiden: Known about forever, but started listening to them after I heard Run To The Hills in 2005. Also knew Hallowed Be Thy Name through the Cradle of Filth cover in 2004.

Isis: Boyd told me about them. 2006

Jane’s Addiction: My mom’s favorite band since the 80s. I didn’t like them growing up, but rediscovered them in 2010.

Kenji Ohtsuki: Welcome to the NHK ending, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei openings. 2007

King Crimson: Probably through Boyd. 2008

Krallice: …I honestly have no fucking clue. I feel like it was later than Jakehammeran was around, but I don’t know how else I would’ve heard of them back then. 2008

The Lonely Island: Internet ubiquity. 2009

M83: Through LBrevis of Oi, Hayaku!. 2009

Mach 1.67: Soundtrack to Electric Dragon 80,000V, which I watched with Boyd. 2008

Manchester Orchestra: Discovered through their headlining tour featuring The Dear Hunter. 2011

Mark Lanegan: Boyd. 2008

The Mars Volta: My mom discovered them from the radio when The Widow was playing, and became interested because of the trippy music video. 2005

Mastodon: A combination of videos on TV and word-of-internet hype surrounding Blood Mountain. 2007

Maximum the Hormone: Through Rolling1000TOON being used in an AMV showcasing the works of Imaishi Hiroyuki. 2010

Mindless Self Indulgence: I’d heard of them a few times, and then I foung three songs by them that Boyd had left on my computer years before. Explored further. 2006

Mirrorthrone: Not really sure, but I think I discovered them through my adventures on Encyclopaedia Metallum. 2008

The Misfits: Boyd. 2009

Mogwai: Vast popularity among post-rock circles, and on Megatokyo forums. 2007

Mumford and Sons: This really loud girl in my public speaking class would often go on tangents and mention her love of this band. She played a clip of Little Lion Man on her laptop and I thought it sounded cool. 2011

Nick Drake: Boyd. 2008

Nine Inch Nails: My mom’s been a fan of them since they started. I first began listening after With_Teeth came out. 2005

Nujabes: Soundtrack to Samurai Champloo. 2008

Oingo Boingo: Started listening when I was doing extensive research on the musical references in Boogiepop and Others. 2009

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Through being part of The Mars Volta. 2007

Omokage Lucky Hole: The post about them on Mistakes of Youth. 2010

Opeth: Jakehammeran’s favorite band. 2006

Pearls and Brass: Through Pandora’s Tool radio. 2007

The Pillows: Soundtrack to FLCL. 2004

Pink Floyd: Known about forever, and then I saw The Wall. 2006

Pink Martini: Someone was posting on tumblr about how they were looking for subtly creepy music, and Que Sera Sera was linked to. 2012

A Place To Bury Strangers: Through Brandon Tolentino, via Facebook. 2011

Portugal. The Man: Through Rifles at Recess. 2007

Primordial: Through Jakehammeran’s top picks of 2006. 2007

The Prize Fighter Inferno: Being a Coheed and Cambria side project. 2007

Protomen: Through a recommendation thread on the Megatokyo forums. 2009

Queens of the Stone Age: Year-end best-of lists on Otakuboards. 2007

Red Hot Chili Peppers: I grew up with them, so like, all time? But the first album I bought and actively listened to was Stadium Arcadium. 2006

Red Sparrowes: Through their involvement with Isis. 2006

Roxy Music: Through Otou-san, via google+ post. 2011

Rush: My dad is a lifelong fan, and I got into them through 2112. 2006

Scars on Broadway: Through being made of members of System of a Down, my mom’s favorite band of all time. 2008

Science of Shape: Music of one of the mods on Megatokyo forums. 2008

Serj Tankian: Another result of the System of a Down split. 2007

Seven Kingdoms: Discovered from their touring with Blind Guardian, even though I didn’t manage to get tickets to the show. 2010

Shabutie: From being the past work of Coheed and Cambria. 2006

Shinsei Kamatte-chan: Opening to Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. 2011

Sigh: Boyd. 2008

Silversun Pickups: First through Lazy Eye on the radio and TV, and I listened to other songs as early as 2006, but didn’t end up getting into the band until someone linked to Panic Switch I think. That or I found it on my own through researching the band again. 2010

Slint: Through Otou-san posting about it on tumblr. 2011

Solstafir: I randomly read a thing about one of their live shows in the back of a Revolver magazine. Their name caught my eye because of Agalloch. 2010

Sound Horizon: I honestly have no fucking idea. 2009

The Sound of Animals Fighting: Rifles at Recess. 2007

Steely Dan: Pure ghostlightning right there. 2011

Subterranean Masquerade: Through their involvement with Agalloch. 2008

Sufjan Stevens: Through Brandon Tolentino, via Facebook. Knew of beforehand. 2012

Sunn: Boyd. Didn’t start listening as of first knowing of them. 2011

System of a Down: I grew up on it because it’s my mom’s favorite band of all time. 2001

Tenacious D: Randomly heard Tribute on the radio one time. 2006

Tool: Knew about forever, but had been terrified of them as a kid. Rediscovered through albums Boyd had left on my computer. 2005

TV On the Radio: Through Wolf Like Me being on the radio. 2007

Type O Negative: A friend of my mom’s burned her a copy of Bloody Kisses and we both got into it. 2006

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats: Random Encyclopaedia Metallum searching. 2011

Uvall: Randomly reading Encyclopaedia Metallum reviews. 2009

We Were Promised Jetpacks: I have no earthly idea. Probably some post somewhere. 2010

Witchcraft: Boyd. 2008

Wolves in the Throne Room: Hyped by Jakehammeran. 2007

Woods of Ypres: Same as above. 2007

Ye Olde Relic: Probably from looking for avant-garde metal on Metal-Archives. 2008

Also oodles of other random shit, especially individual songs that I discovered via anime or the My Little Pony fandom, etc.

—-

I was surprised in making this list how the biggest percentage of music that I listen to regularly remains stuff that I discovered in 2008. Mind that this list doesn’t include anything that I’ve totally stopped listening to over the years even if I was into it heavily for a time. I just got into so many bands that year that it’s shaped my tastes forever.

I got really into music in 2005, and you can see the first “wave” with Coheed, The Mars Volta, and Tool, the original “holy three” that I celebrated as favorite bands when I got into music. Back then I was actually buying albums, and youtube didn’t just have all of a band’s music, so I’d usually try to find at least three songs that I liked by a band, and if I did, I’d go buy the album. Over 2006, I bought a good deal of albums, including what would make up the second wave of stuff, and then a bunch of really shitty albums like Trivium.

The second wave is all that shit I learned about from Jakehammeran and Rifles at Recess between 2006 and 2008. Jake really opened my eyes to extreme metal and got me to appreciate growling vocals between Opeth and Agalloch, then Ensiferum, and so forth. Rifles got me to appreciate high-pitched “hardcore” screams, through bands that blended hardcore and screamo with prog elements (CTTS, SoAF, Fall of Troy). Then, I had managed to meet up with Boyd once in 2006, the only time I’d seen him in years, and he alterted me to Isis. Between that and the huge popularity of post-rock at the time, I got into post-rock as well, though not many of those bands have survived the years.

After slowly picking up bands over the course of 2007, 2008 was a big explosion because at the start of the year, I got back into regular contact with Boyd, and he started coming over, bringing with him his literal truckload of burned CDs that he listened to in his truck. I put most of them on my computer, and that not only got me into a huge number of them at the time, but left me with them so that stuff I didn’t like at first, I got into later.

In fall of the same year, Boyd and I made this massive musical pilgrimage, wherein we spent like a month doing nothing but surfing Encyclopaedia Metallum and listening to a metric fuckton of new bands. The majority of those also didn’t make it, but you can see the ones that did above.

Since that time, there’s been a slower drip of bands that I get into, because I don’t actively seek them as often. A lot of the stuff I’ve really taken to comes from groups that toured with my favorite bands, leading me to check out their material so that I’d know it by the time I saw them live. There’s also been otou-san and other friends who post about music and some of it I check out and like.

In Which I Get Needlessly Upset Over The Term “Sadcore” (A Conversation)

Brandon Tolentino: Trapped in an odd cycle of very soft sadcore/folk music…

Conrad Aaron Collins: what the flying fuck is sadcore. link NOW.

Brandon Tolentino: All the David Pajo music I’ve been posting plus stuff like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoH5MPIgM7c

Conrad Aaron Collins: HOW. THE. FUCK. IS. THIS. SAD. CORE.

Conrad Aaron Collins: I am calling epic level bullshit on this genre title

Brandon Tolentino: Haha It’s a genre man… Its weird…

Brandon Tolentino: Plus those Pajo tunes are Misfits covers… DANZIG SHOULD HAVE TOTALLY WRITTEN FOLK SONGS

Conrad Aaron Collins: no fucking way. For that Slint song I’d accept plenty of other titles besides that, and those Pajo songs are just folk

Conrad Aaron Collins: Slint I’d accept prog, post-rock, grunge, sludge even, but there’s nothing remotely “core” about it

Brandon Tolentino: Haha I can tell… Its just a sub genre of a sub genre

Brandon Tolentino: Its not a scene, so the core is often mislabeled..

Conrad Aaron Collins: no it just simply Should Not Be

Conrad Aaron Collins: it is not a thing which is a thing

Conrad Aaron Collins: it’s bullshit

Conrad Aaron Collins: until I hear an actual sad, core song, this is my stance

Brandon Tolentino: Its a different take on the blues, like a slacker more bland version of the Blues…

Conrad Aaron Collins: i don’t care if that’s core as in electronica or core as a branch of hardcore punk, those can go REALLY far but this just isn’t in the realm

Brandon Tolentino: Hahaha

Conrad Aaron Collins: you can’t just slap core onto an emotion and call it a genre, you can have the emotion and it not be core

Conrad Aaron Collins: core applies to techno and punk variants it does not need to branch away from those

Conrad Aaron Collins: otherwise it has no meaning

Brandon Tolentino: Core implies that there’s a scene involved with the genre.

Conrad Aaron Collins: this is like saying “sad song” is synonymous with “sad core”

Brandon Tolentino: ‎-L- Ugh… Nevermind… hahaha

Conrad Aaron Collins: You just said there’s not even a scene so then where the fucka re you getting this??

Conrad Aaron Collins: And obviously you can’t create a scene or genre around a band which has been broken up for 20 years, i.e. Slint

Brandon Tolentino: Its a very odd genre of music… I never said I was getting into it haha… It just happens to be there

Brandon Tolentino: Nope… There’s other sadcore bands

Brandon Tolentino: Supposed “sadcore” bands

Conrad Aaron Collins: It is a thing which is not a thing man. People calling it a thing are being retarded.

Brandon Tolentino: I’m trying to define it myself now… haha

Conrad Aaron Collins: This would be like taking a bunch of bears of various species at random and deciding the specific group of bears you’ve collected are now called “purplebears” because you said so

Brandon Tolentino: Its like a ghost that’s not entirely dead

Brandon Tolentino: Hahaha This is exactly how modern musical genres were named though

Conrad Aaron Collins: genre is meant to be a system of classification. it seperates like things form unlike things. Giving a genre name to something that is already like certain things, and which compares it to unlike things, is the opposite of making sense

Conrad Aaron Collins: Slint sounds nothing like those Pajo songs. But Slint sounds a bit like, say, Isis. So it might make sense to but Slint and Isis in a category together, even if not absolutely, but it makes no sense to put Slint and Pajo together, moreover in spite of Slint’s other classifications

Brandon Tolentino: Which is where techno and electronic music kinda loses its grasp on classification haha

Conrad Aaron Collins: Yeah with electronica I just can’t tell the difference so I don’t say anything. But I can tell genres outside electronica

Conrad Aaron Collins: and I’m calling bullshit on this sadcore thing

Brandon Tolentino: Hahaha Well its an almost existent genre that has been labeled by magazines… I wonder if anyone can add to its definition haha

Conrad Aaron Collins: The problem here is that while subjectivity at some level is unavoidable, genre should be as objective as possible. Songs should be considered members of a genre because of definitive traits that they share. If you can’t explain what traits define a genre, then it doesn’t deserve to be called one.

Conrad Aaron Collins: Magazines are at fault for almost every kind of core. Fucking hipsters.

Brandon Tolentino: Magazines are where the majority of genres got their names coined… But I agree…

Conrad Aaron Collins: The name isn’t what’s really important here, though, it’s the concept behind the name

Conrad Aaron Collins: the name has to mean something definitive

Conrad Aaron Collins: I mean you can play most kinds of hardcore for me, and I will tell you what genre of core it is, and I’ll do it BY SOUND, not by having read what someone called it

Conrad Aaron Collins: these “sadcore” songs sound nothing alike

Conrad Aaron Collins: You’ve given me really simplistic, minimalist folk covers of punk songs, and a band that uses heavier distorted guitars and complex time signatures

Brandon Tolentino: Haha Music has lost its marbles in this decade

Conrad Aaron Collins: YOU ARE NOT HELPING MATTERS

Brandon Tolentino: GWUH GWUH!

Tool (With Yob) - Wish I’d Seen This Six Years Ago Instead of Now

I wish I’d seen Tool back in 2006, back when I was really really into them, particularly when they toured with Isis and Mastodon; two bands which I was just discovering at the time of that tour, and which became some of my favorites at that time. So many things would’ve been better. 10,000 Days probably wasn’t even out then, but even if it was, I probably still liked that album at the time. And I know I gave a thousand and one shits about all of their songs and lyrics and shit. Time hasn’t been as kind to my relationship with Tool as it has with other bands I liked back then. I still like them, but I suspect a lot of what I like involves nostalgia, like a less embarrassing version of why I still enjoy old Linkin Park songs.

Still, Tool are known to put on a good show, right? Well, of course they are, their fanbase is gigantic and full of people who, and I don’t mean to sound elitist, don’t know the difference. I heard the phrase “album quality sound” tossed around a lot tonight which is simply a crock of bullshit, and that’s not even Tool’s (nor, Yob’s not that the crowd liked them) fault. I knew going into this show that it was at Hampton Colosseum and therefor the sound quality would be absolute ass. I knew that everything would sound muddy, the bass would overpower the mix and occasionally be louder than the speakers could handle, and that the vocals would sound awkward if audible. I was right. 

Yob, as a doom-metal band, are supposed to be described as a “wall of noise,” but in this case it was more like a wall of *just one noise,* since the guitar was nigh inaudible throughout their set (which consisted of three ten to fifteen minute songs). Tool similarly had an overpowering bass and both bands suffered from that effect where transitioning from a thundering bassline to a different one makes everything suddenly sound quiet thanks to the speakers, even though the transition was usually meant to be into a guitar crescendo or something. Anyway.

Aside from the shit speakers and my not being a huge Tool fan anymore, it was a pretty cool show. The band didn’t move much, with Maynard doing his whole wear-all-black-and-stand-in-the-background-with-no-light-on-him thing, but there were lots of cool lights and dramatically timed shit. It was coolest when they didn’t play their singles, because for those they usually had the actual music video playing on the background monitors, which wasn’t as cool as some of the more dramatic visualizations. 

They played ten total songs, opening with Hooker With a Penis, which is fun and a good way to get the blood flowing, then went into Jambi, which so happens to probably be the only Tool song I really *don’t like*. I think it’s a fan favorite for live shows just because of the talk box guitar solo which, well, I’ve seen cooler ones >.>. 

Next they played Stinkfist and Sober which is a good place to mention the holy fucking shit audience participation. So, Hampton Colosseum is a pretty fucking gigantic place, and this was practically a sold-out show. And everyone in that god damn building knew Tool and knew their songs, so suffice it to say they were very damn into it. I don’t get to see this too often, since I mostly go see smaller bands which don’t have this kind of rabid, obsessive, guys behind you won’t shut up about every single time they’ve seen Tool and any related acts kind of fanbase.

Anyway next was Push It which was cool, since it’s one of my favorite Tool songs probably, though it was one of those where I really wished Maynard would have sung the song the way it is on the album and not with a bunch of minor differences.

Schism had a random jam intro which I don’t know, was it for a sound test while they changed tuning? Someone before the set had mentioned seeing it on the setlist and hoped it would be new material, but if 4 minutes of essentially a generic shoegaze song is new material I don’t look forward to it lol. 

Intension would seem odd for a live show unless you were there when the point was obviously let’s have a crazy fucking array of lights going on everywhere and as my mom put it (she was with me) “this one’s for the trippers.” Indeed. And now I want to bring up trippers. My mom said she saw a couple behind us dropping acid at the start of Tool’s set. Meanwhile next to me was this dude who was really, really, really tanked from the start, and this guy cracked me up. When I sat down, he shook my hand and introduced himself, and I gave him my name. So a few times, before Tool, he’d randomly call to me and then tell me a fucking strange riddle. Such as:

What kind of meat does a fish eat? None.

…yeah. What cracked me up though was that this guy kept leaving for super-long periods of time to where he only caught maybe half of Tool’s set… even though when he was there, he actually seemed like a big fan and knew all the words to the songs. Did I mention we were in $60 balcony seats? 

Anyway they played Forty Six & 2 which that dude was really into, and then they played Lateralus, which is not only my favorite Tool song, but was by far the highlight of the show. Smack in the middle of this most aesthetically pleasing of songs, at a part where there’s a simple, repetitive bass riff, they suddenly called out a second drummer, whose kit had been set up before the song, and the two drummers had an awesome five-minute dueling drum solo, without ever breaking the flow of the song, and then we rode that spiral to the end and I loved it.

In lieu of an encore, Tool left the stage while an 8-minute drone song played, which was actually pretty cool. If only it were played on better amps! I wouldn’t mind if that one actually was new material lol. Also during that 8 minutes, a game of asteroids was suddenly being played over the visualizer for about a minute. After that they closed out with Aenima.

I think Tool has probably played more intense and interesting shows in the past, regardless of the sound system, but anyway this was fun I guess.