Your greatest musical experience

[Meridian]

What comes to mind as your greatest memory in which music played a large role, and what was the music involved?

It is of course hard to choose just one, but I have perhaps the best memories of cross country skiing to King Crimson's early albums. If I'd have to choose a song, maybe this one:
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For the record, I can recommend listening to great music while skiing or walking in general.

So, let's hear yours. Concerts are okay too but be specific.

[Fawkes]

I owe so much to the movie School of Rock. It was pretty much single-handedly responsible for getting me into music and playing instruments.

Also, a Street Dogs show a while ago had a big impact on me. Devil's Brigade and Time Again were opening. During this show, I was getting so pissed off and annoyed at the generic nature of all these "punk" bands, and I came to the realization that if I ever want to have any respect for myself, I need to do things my own original way.

[Proukunin]

When I was 15, I met a girl who was into The Grateful Dead. At first I wasn't a big fan of their music. But then later when I turned 16 in high school, we started to chill more and I listened to them more often. When I listened to my first live grateful dead song I think it mightve been eyes of the world..I was fuckin amazed. and ever since they have been the basis for me playing guitar and keyboards.

[thesadmafioso]

I have some rather fond memories of walking around my town in the later hours of summer nights while listening to a bit of Elliott Smith. Either/Or in particular is one of my favorite albums for that sort of environment, something about the overall feel of the album makes it seem fitting enough.

[Rusty Shackleford]

there was a girl i had a crush on, she was into music i never heard of. she showed me godspeed you black emperor.

i had an eargasm.

first song i ever heard, i full screened the video and sat back with the volume up.


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whenever i feel down, or just in the right mood, i lay in bed in the dark and play this band.

[Widerstand]

When I was fucking pissed off as hell over my general life situation and saw Across The Border live, first time I ever went seriously apeshit in a crowd. This song especially:

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Also was at the very beginning of my explicitly leftist phase.

[Broletariat]

The first time I listened to the album The Antlers - Hospice was pretty ballin

Bro

[Political_Chucky]

Well I have two.

The Clash has molded and shaped my mind. I feel like a badass when ever I hear them and when I first heard Bankrobber, that was it. That was me.
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My best live set i've heard was at a rave(I know I know). My first one to be exact. It was at the L.A. Colliseum on New years Eve 2008-09 and it was holding over 40,000 people that night. It was Crazyyynesssss. Anyways, I just remember rolling and tripping out to Deadmau5 playing mix of MGMT kids and that was it, another Political_chucky Born.

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[psgchisolm]

Joseph Alessi Playing Bourgeois
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and Butterfly Boucher- For the love of love.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

First time I heard Circle Takes the Square (track: Crowquill) I was blown away. I thought "this is hardcore... but in such a different way." That began a lot for me.

I randomly came across A Place to Bury Strangers. I wasn't really aware of what "shoegazing" music was, but I looked up a list of bands and that name stuck out. I got ahold of their self-titled, listened to it from start to end in one sitting, and thought "whoa... what did I just experience?" Many of their features I had never heard before (insanely distorted guitar, more effects, reverb, and delay pedals I knew even existed, and vocals that were subdued in the music)

I started out Post-Rock with Explosions in the Sky (how generic, I know...) but that really made me interested in music that had major build-ups and knowing music that can be so chill and intense in the same song. It eventually lead me to GY!BE, 65dos, Do Make Say Think, etc.

[brigadista]

Camaron de Isla and Tomatito in malaga just before Camaron died..

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[ed miliband]

I have some rather fond memories of walking around my town in the later hours of summer nights while listening to a bit of Elliott Smith. Either/Or in particular is one of my favorite albums for that sort of environment, something about the overall feel of the album makes it seem fitting enough.

Each Elliott Smith album takes me back to a particular, usually dark, point in time like no other music can. Honestly, I'll be listening to Figure 8 and be transported back to January 2007, lying on my bed and filled with self-pity; New Moon reminds me vividly of my time in Hessen, Germany, the same year. I kind of burned out Elliott Smith, listening to each of his albums so much in such a sort period of time, and now that I am not nearly as miserable as I was then part of the magic is gone, but it's a great feeling wallowing in nostalgia sometimes.

[Meridian]

there was a girl i had a crush on, she was into music i never heard of. she showed me godspeed you black emperor.

Indeed, another one I have listened to a lot while mountain hiking.

Godspeed deserves to be listened to in good quality, though.

Perhaps my second best musical experience was seeing Neurosis live, when they played this including the visuals:
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[#FF0000]

The first time I heard Bright Eyes really opened my eyes to a lot of things back when I was, like, 13? Maybe younger. Either way, I never heard anything like Conor Oberst's music before. It was quiet, his voice was worlds away from what I was used to in pop or rock music I heard on the radio, but it was way more powerful to me than anything I ever heard before that.

Bright Eyes (And almost every other Saddle Creek band) got me into independent music, and, to a degree, even played a role in me eventually looking into socialism (songs like "Light Pollution", and Conor Oberst's side-project, the Desaparecidos).

And here's the song that started it all.

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[Il Medico]

If I had to pick one band out of all of them in my eclectic musical repository to define my music taste, it would be of Montreal. of Montreal was the first band I ran into a few years ago. My musical taste was very limited back then(almost entirely classic rock). Internet and musicians for friends help me get out of that muck and catapulted into the music world. of Montreal was really the first 'modern' band I listened to and they amazed me then as they do now. Also, they gave me the most intense and trilling concert experience of my life a few weeks back. They're a great band that I never get tried of.

[bcbm]

punk rock changed my life

[Rusty Shackleford]

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[the last donut of the night]

punk rock changed my life

This. Listening to hardcore and metal, along with punk, introduced me to a kind of music so powerful yet subtle, aggressive yet caring at times, and overall part of a scene more people should be part of. It's the music that keeps me going when the times get really tough, and I'm glad I came across it.

[Fawkes]

Iggy and the Stooges and the Velvet Underground showed me you don't need to be a technical-genius on any given instrument to create amazing, abrasive, innovative, and ground breaking music. Johnny Thunders and Jack White showed me it's alright to be sloppy. Big Black and Atari Teenage Riot showed me the potential of a drum machine.

[gorillafuck]

When I was a freshman in high school and went to see The Queers play, and even though I went to that show as a 14 year old with absolutely nobody I knew, it was some of the most fun I've ever had.

bcbm: I can't tell if your kinda kidding but that applies to me in all seriousness.

[Widerstand]

I can't tell if your kinda kidding but this applies to me in all seriousness.

same here. without punk I prolly wouldn't be a leftist.

[Lyev]

the first time I have ever cried due to a piece of music - of course compounded by my general mood at the moment - was a few days ago late at night to uDRLW748j68

[Il Medico]

same here. without punk I prolly wouldn't be a leftist.
Oddly enough, I didn't start listening to punk till after I became (at least vaguely) a leftist.

Still fucking love punk though.

[Fawkes]

Oddly enough, I didn't start listening to punk till after I became (at least vaguely) a leftist.

Still fucking love punk though.

same

[bcbm]

bcbm: I can't tell if your kinda kidding but that applies to me in all seriousness.

was thinking of intro to sublime 40 oz to freedom where that line is a sound clip but it also applies to my life.

but by "changed" i mean "ruined"

[Os Cangaceiros]

Seeing the Black Keys play at the House of Blues (in New Orleans) and seeing the Jesus Lizard play at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland.

[bcbm]

seeing christina aguilera at the superbowl

[Rusty Shackleford]

Oddly enough, I didn't start listening to punk till after I became (at least vaguely) a leftist.

Still fucking love punk though.

same. seeing that thats 3 people so far that had this type of experience, im going to go out on a limb and say that maybe its not that odd for a person to become vaguely leftist and then to start listening to leftist music.

[Os Cangaceiros]

seeing christina aguilera at the superbowl

At least you didn't say seeing the Black Eyed Peas at the Super Bowl.

[bcbm]

i was too busy inhaling the free buffet at that point

[Ele'ill]

They sold it well- I couldn't resist. No actually I heard these songs on a plane trip once when I was young- that shit helped me out back then- then later on when I paid full price for the album as an adult it helped me as well. This is the original Pure Moods I album. There's one song on that album for each portion of my life- I skipped over the x-files theme always because I didn't want a trip into the unknown- I felt like I was already in the unknown and that whole tv line up while extremely entertaining left me feeling sick and empty- (xfiles, Millennium, gothic america, etc..) Did you all catch the unicorn at :34

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[Rusty Shackleford]

play this.
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cliche i know but listen as you read.























back in my THC induced high school days me and my friends went to the levee one afternoon a couple hours or so before twilight.






























we brought 2 blunts.

only smoked one between 4 of us.


























i sat down on the river shore.

i put my headphones on and turned this song on.





































i sat there looking across the river.

as the song picked up.






































i saw a white bird.






































it flew along the river.

































into the horizon.









































for that moment.

i experienced something akin to nirvana.

[Delirium]

Two hits of l at a bassnectar show. kinda got lost... in a good way

[nickbrise5]

Thanks for sharing some of those look Great

[Invader Zim]

In 1994 Oasis released Definately Maybe. It was one of the first albums I ever bought. Nuff said.

[praxis1966]

I know I'm gonna take shit for this one because it's so cliched around here but whatevs... For me it was Rage Against the Machine. I became politicized (but not yet radicalized) at a really early age. By 14 (way back in 1992) I was listening to a lot of metal, hip hop, and grunge rock so when their first album dropped it was a perfect synthesis with perfect timing. In the intervening years between their debut and Evil Empire, I had branched out into a ton of punk and started reading Marx and Freire. I was well on my way to becoming a hardened leftist anyhow by age 17, so the inside cover of Evil Empire served as sort of an elementary level recommended reading list.

So yeah, Rage + Punk + Books = longtime leftist, lol... Without the music and literature to help me put Deep South US oppression into perspective I don't think I'd have made it this far.