What artist or band changed your music taste forever? Pick your favorite song of theirs..

I had known of them for a year or more before I ever heard them.. The record store in the student union at Mankato State had an import selection kept in a locked case. Cocteau Twins CDs always seemed to be featured. I liked their name, wondered if there was anything to do with Jean Cocteau, and found their cover art mysterious, but they cost enough more than domestic releases that I didn't feel like I could afford to gamble and lose.

Then, one day watching MTV in my third year, circa 1988 or 1989, I saw and heard "Carolyn's Fingers" -- and I recognized the band name from the import discs. And then I knew.

In the intervening years I think I have every album represented in my collection, though I may not have every EP.

So, yeah, I was already listening to Depeche Mode and Frankie, and The Cure and New Order, so perhaps it was inevitable. But if you ask me, Finding Cocteau Twins kicked open some other sub-genres for me which fundamentally affect what I choose to listen to, today.

No one other band I'm aware of sounds like them, but I've been surprised by how many artists mention them.

I won't try to describe or define their sound. I have always found language completely inadequate and I find myself wanting to make musical noises instead. It's easy enough instead to find them on YouTube or Spotify or Apple Music. Or your library if you're into the legacy media thing.

There is a YouTube documentary called Before Loveless: How Shoegaze Became Shoegaze, which centers around a different group and sound, but it holds Cocteau Twins in a place of honor and gives you an idea of a place and a time.

If you hang around me, you may get sick of me recommending Cocteau Twins. But I expect I always will.

Also, when I mention them, it's a test.

We never wax steady we wax and wane.

This one hits a little harder. Very faithful cover but with Deftone’s drummer handling the rhythm where I’m certain the ‘Twins used a machine.

Echodrone is definitely one of my favorite bands. I have been listening to them since I rediscovered bands were still making Shoegaze in the 2000s. They just released Music for 6 Musicians I think on the 27th, and today I noticed Apple Music recommended the new album to me. I bought it 4 tracks in, and basically listened to it twice straight through. The version of the album I bought has a 40+ minute Director's Cut at the end which is effectively the full album as a single track. Loved it both times. Movement II, which I have linked to for the purposes of this post, is exemplary.

I found out about this song reading a Wikipedia entry about another possibly infamous performance art track that stole or borrowed heavily from it. I wish I had known about Sleeper in Metropolis sooner. This is very much a product of its era, released in 1983, and now I have another artist's entire career to explore.

At any rate, the parallels musically between Sleeper in Metropolis and Tales of Taboo are inescapable and unmistakable. For that reason, the second track falls a little in my esteem, even if the production is amazing and it would have been an excellent 2AM track in an early 90s underground dance club. I won't link to Tales of Taboo for a dozen reasons. Read about it first. Read about Karen Finley's work.

But Anne Clark, I didn't know you before now. You have helped me make some musical connections that didn't exist before. (See also: Nicole Blackman)

And I'm grateful.

I personally feel that Crystal Method’s music has a kind of rock and roll swagger.

This track uses audio of Iggy Pop talking about an aversion to classification, describing what he does not want in favor of just being.

This reminds me of a Buddhist practice I have heard of in which you state internally “I am not x” in response to an adjective or role that may occur to you in order to get to the non-self.

This track won’t take you to that place.

It does have a mean groove. It’s deconstructed and has a good amount of reverb, which I dig.

I listened to it on the way to work this morning and let it play out in the parking lot before heading to my desk.

I love it.

Shout, the original Tears for Fears song, was the reason for one of the few times I heard a song in a store and bought the album immediately.

This cover of Shout, by Child Seat, a group I only learned existed tonight, is amazing.

Share a song that tells a great story.

Well, I'm a Minnesotan and I was listening to radio stations when this song was released in 1976. As a very young man at the time, this story hit me hard.

It is a sad song about a wreck on the Great Lake they call Gitchi-gami

IYKYK

I just reread the Wikipedia article about the song and I learned some facts, including that the melody was taken from an Irish dirge. It occurs to me that the famous guitar sound would also work on traditional acoustic instruments. Forgive me if there are covers of the song done just that way.

Perhaps surprisingly to folks who know me well, I have a playlist called “Happy.”

It started with It’s Alright, by Pet Shop Boys, specifically the version from the Introspective compilation.

The rhythm is pretty straight disco, but the synth baseline is kinda funky and staccato. The version from the Introspective comp begins with a choir singing the eponymous phrase.

And for me, another selling point are the various harmonies that come and go, various break downs, and points at which it becomes almost orchestral in its vastness.

It’s a mood.

I hope you can pick up what it lays down.

What was the first album you ever bought? Pick your favorite song off that album.

Well, I honestly do not remember the first album I bought. I had some supervised purchases with my parents over several years, which included some good and bad choices, mostly from the Columbia Record and Tape club.

But the first time I bought music of my own volition with money I had in my pocket, I could not have been more than about 12 or 13 years old. I was in the local Ben Franklin drugstore and found a 7" 45 RPM single of Gary Numan's Cars from The Pleasure Principle LP. The flip side was I Die: You Die, which was not released on an album. Atlantic had reissued it as an Oldie, so I bought it because I liked and remembered Cars from Top 40 radio.

At the time, I didn't have my own turntable or cassette player. My brother and I shared a portable record player in a rec room space, and I think that is how I listened to it when it was new.

Doing research while writing, I learned that I Die: You Die itself was only released as a single. Then I spent even more time confirming that my memory was correct. I did find the single as I remembered it on Discogs and eBay.

The actual full album of The Pleasure Principle did not come into my possession until the 1990s, when a colleague at the record store told me that he, too, was a Gary Numan fan. He shared his copy with me, which I immediately dubbed to cassette. Subsequently, it was the first Gary Numan album I purchased digitally.

I saw Gary live much later at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. It is still one of my favorite concerts.

Now, after all of that, my favorite track from The Pleasure Principle is Films. We know Gary Numan for synth-pop, but we forget that he used human musicians. Films has the synth you expect, but the bass line and drums drive the song, and it has been one of my personal favorite tracks for many years.

Share a song that got you through a difficult time.

Ah, limerance.

Stellar, by Incubus, was a favorite song for several years, that I used to sing loudly, awfully, while cleaning my house and wearing big, over-the-ear headphones jacked into a portable CD player (or my pocket PC with the flash card).

This song was less about getting me through trouble as much as it was referencing the trouble. I have admitted having trouble, pieces to different people at different times, but never precisely what trouble.

That’s for me.