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Snapzu! What is your all-time favourite band or musical artist? How did you discover them?

Also, why do you love them?

You can only choose one.

"B-but but..."

Yes I know. Me too. Sorry, them's the rules today. ONE artist, no exceptions.

8 years ago by imnotgoats with 35 comments

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  • Kysol
    +8

    Black Sabbath - One of the first albums I listened to. It was a change in my life that was much welcomed at the time. When you start looking into the early days of Sabbath you start to appreciate what they did more and more. Even with Ozzy these days, if you see what he has done to turn his life around its a great story. Personally and I'll be flamed for this, the Dio age of Sabbath doesn't exist in my collection. I just can't stand it.

    • imnotgoats
      +3

      I saw them at Ozzfest in 2001. I think I still have a piece of the Black Sabbath ticker tape they shot from cannons in an old wallet somewhere.

      • Kysol
        +3

        Only seen them once, and that was on the 13 tour a few years back. I hope they tour one last time before retiring so my partner can go see them as well.

    • ColonBowel
      +1

      Metal in general was the shit if you didn't fit in with the main crowd. It was different, rebellious, and many times justice oriented.

  • imnotgoats
    +7

    Let me get this started. Hmm...it's hard to pick just one. What kind of jerk made up that rule?

    Okay, I'm going with The Mountain Goats.

    I discovered them initially by hearing three covers by Atom and His Package on his album, Redefining Music.

    I loved the simplicity of the songs and the intensely brilliant lyrics (this became more pronounced as they released more albums). I also love how there's often a few bars of music after the lyrics finish in many songs. I like to consider this 'reflection time'.

    Here's one of their less lyrically intense songs.

    • Wenjarich
      +2

      Do they have anything to do with your username? :P

      • imnotgoats
        +3

        Hah! Yes.

        • Wenjarich
          +2

          I feel like I disproved your theory, that you stated in that link, that the only way someone will get your name origin is with a "what is the story behind your name?" thread seeing as I guessed it in a "what is your favourite band?" thread. ;P

          • imnotgoats
            +3

            Curses! Foiled again.

            Wait. You had to go to the thread to actually know exactly where it came from...

            • Wenjarich
              +3

              I did ask if the band had anything to do with your name, without going to the thread. But you are right, for me to know exactly what it was about, I had to go to the thread. ;)

  • extraheck77
    +5

    chvrches has enough influences from depech and new order to keep me interested enough to say, they will be the next big thing!

    • BucksinSixxx
      +1

      So excited for the new album. September 25 couldn't get here fast enough.

  • gremlin
    +5

    Your rules have made this difficult, but I decided to cheat.

    Pre-2002 Drowning Pool, specifically their Sinner album. I love it, all of it. Their later stuff is sort of a negative slope in terms of quality. Desensitized was good, but everything that came after that was not really that great.

    I guess I discovered them in early High School? That was when I actually had time to listen to music.

    • imnotgoats
      +3

      I don't see how you cheated. :)

      I remember when Bodies was really big, that's the only song I really know.

      • gremlin
        +3

        Because I only picked one album of theirs XD.

        If you liked Bodies, you might dig some of their other tracks. The only track that really differs from the others is Tear Away, which is a bit more mellow.

        • Kysol
          +3

          I liked Sinner when it came out. I haven't heard it in a while. Might spin it up shortly.

          • gremlin (edited 8 years ago)
            +2

            In return I should listen to some Black Sabbath.

            What albums/songs do you recommend?

            • Kysol
              +2

              Personally I'm a sucker for Black Sabbath. but also Paranoid, Master of Reality, and Sabotage. 13 is good but I think that it requires you to understand the band to fully appreciate it.

              It's worth reading about the album before listening to them as it will give you an extra depth to the listening experience as you will be able to pick up on all the subtle little things, like how:

              According to Black Sabbath guitarist and founder member Tony Iommi, the group's debut album was recorded in a single day on 16 October 1969. The session lasted twelve hours. Iommi said: "We just went in the studio and did it in a day, we played our live set and that was it. We actually thought a whole day was quite a long time, then off we went the next day to play for £20 in Switzerland." Aside from the bells, thunder and rain sound effects added to the beginning of the opening track, and the double-tracked guitar solos on "N.I.B.," there were virtually no overdubs added to the album. Iommi recalls recording live: "We thought, 'We have two days to do it and one of the days is mixing.' So we played live. Ozzy (Osbourne) was singing at the same time, we just put him in a separate booth and off we went. We never had a second run of most of the stuff."

              When you realise it was pretty much all one take, you appreciate it more.

  • Endymion
    +5

    gulps I'll say it... Backstreet Boys! Just musically speaking I'll straight up say Iron Maiden, but holistically and also considering how you absolutely want only one answer, I'll have to go with BSB. I think it's because their songs are basically soundtracks to most of my fun memories growing up. Whenever I hear their songs it takes me back to those days of growing up, all that fun times with family and friends, all those girls I had crush on, all those innocent days.

    Back during their prime, a cousin of mine had to stay in our place for like a year. She used to be play BSB everyday, so that's basically how I got introduced to them. I think it was around when I was in middle school. Started getting in Iron Maiden and the whole metal and rock stuff during high school, also when I started to play the guitar.

  • caelreth
    +4

    No way I could pick just one as an absolute favorite, but I'll give you the one that popped into mind most quickly: The Counting Crows. Why? Well, this lyric always gets me: "Step out the front door like a ghost / into the fog where no one notices / the contrast of white on white."

    On a different day, my answer to this question probably turns out differently :)

  • BucksinSixxx
    +4

    Sufjan Stevens. Discovered him when I was bumming around the internet and found a review for Michigan. Decided to listen to it, and fell in love.

    • imnotgoats
      +1

      Yeah Sufjan is good. I like how his stuff is insipid without being boring. Did you ever hear Illinoize, the hip hop remix album?

  • jenjen1352
    +3

    Cardiacs.

    An Australian flatmate had an album.

  • InfernoFire
    +3

    Hell....that's tough. Hmm, Lee Kernaghan because he is the reason I got into country music

  • OldTallGuy
    +3

    The Beatles - I was 8 when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time, my sisters thought they were cute but I really liked the music. Rock 'n Roll had pretty much died in America in the early 60's, the charts were topped by crooners like Pat Boone, the Beatles' music was upbeat and crisp and they looked sharp. As I was growing up their music matured, it went from boy band catchy pop to artistically crafted sound journeys. It took me years to appreciate some of their music like "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I am the Walrus", but I think that was part of their appeal to me, I grew into their music later in life. However, I still don't get "Revolution 9" and I don't care if I ever do.

  • oystein
    +2

    Depeche Mode - I've listened to them since I was 12. My uncle had a compilation album by them and I copied it onto tape. Later on I bought all their albums and almost all their singles, except the latest album which sounded seriously uninspired.

    I love them because Martin Gore is a great songwriter and I am a sucker for good electronic sounds. In addition, Dave Gahan makes it easy for me to sing along since we're both baritone voices.

  • mathematical
    +2

    Avenged Sevenfold. I first heard them on an Amazon Prime music channel called "Rock out your workout". There was only one song on there, but it was my favorite. I started listening to other music of theirs, and now they're my favorite band.

  • massani (edited 8 years ago)
    +2

    Disclosure

    Discovered them when "Latch" became big around the beginning of 2014, I think. Listened to the entire album several times and fell in love. With was such nice, refreshing take on the increasingly stuffy edm scene. Made it even better to see that they were so young and so talented. And now their new singles building up to their new album haven't slowed down at all and I'm still singing along hours after listening.

    EDIT: Also their newest song is really addicting, Holding On feat. Gregory Porter.

  • Matime (edited 8 years ago)
    +2

    Walk the Moon - Around four years ago I was in my high school's technical theatre program and I made friends with a guy we called Reed through a mutual friend. Hung out with the group and heard the song Anna Sun while we were in Reed's white van/bed/party-mobile, asked who it was then when I went home looked up the group and have like them ever since.

  • Aaron215 (edited 8 years ago)
    +2

    Just one?!? How can I compare my favorites from different times/genres? :-(

    No. I can't do that.. I wrote The Cars first, and a long paragraph about why, but I'm going with Rush. No particular album (though I think I've listened to Exit Stage Left and Presto the most), I just love the sound and the skill they have. Very often listened to early on in life, but not as much as The Cars. I still listen to Rush, and I'm not much of a music person anymore. Any time I am in the car and flipping through the stations, if I hear a Rush song, I'll stop and listen. It doesn't give me the nostalgia that The Cars do, but I certainly enjoy them more. Rush is my answer.

  • staxofmax (edited 8 years ago)
    +1

    If I have to pick one I'm going with Tool. They were my soundtrack from basically 1995-2005. My musical tasted have drifted and expanded as I've gotten older so I don't listen to them nearly as much as I used to, but no other band has had so big an impact on my life. Aenima and Lateralus are still two of the few albums where I can listen to the whole thing in its entirety.

    • imnotgoats
      +3

      YES! Since I first heard Prison Sex (the song, not the sex) many years ago, I fell in love with them. Been a bigfan since. Was lucky enough to see them a couple of times over the last decade and a half.

      • staxofmax
        +2

        Lucky! I was only able to see Maynard once in 2000 when he and A Perfect Circle headlined for Nine Inch Nails.

  • Wenjarich
    +1

    At the moment I have to go with Joshua Kadison. He's always been a random artist who my dad had the cd of and who I kind of knew a couple of his songs of.

    Then I actually listened to his cd and realised how he is such an amazing lyricist. He paints some really haunting pictures with the lyrics of some of his songs, describing how he felt invisible (invisible man) in the world, describing a woman he met in a mental hospital (dragon fly wings), discribing a waitress who never reaches her dreams (picture postcards) and others. Even the lyrics of his loves songs come across as different to thd generic formula. He sings about seeing the beauty beyong the physical looks (beautiful in my eyes) and about a woman with lofty dreams who can never make up her mind about whether she wants to be with him or not (Jesse)

    Having actually taken the time to listen to his lyrics I get the sense that he is a man who has been through many trials in his life.

  • Boudicca
    +1

    Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu Yolngu man from Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. A haunting beautiful voice, singing in the Yolngu language.

    I heard him a few years ago and I have probably bought five copies of his first album Gurrumul because I keep giving them away. I highly recommend having a listen on youtube.