The album that changed your life
Discussion
This isn’t an album review, just some nostalgia.
I found my record collection this evening, that’s it, just the one…
Reading festival, 1998, some guy is selling Victory Records compilation CDs, he clocks my Pennywise T-shirt and sells me one claiming I’ll enjoy it. There are some good tracks on the compilation, some duffers but one absolute stand out track, “Keasbey Nights” by Catch-22
They are a US ska punk band, so many influences it’s impossible to list them. The guitarist and singer, Tomas Kalnoky, wrote this album when he was 17-18. It is just sublime, raw, melodic, beautiful composition. I ordered the record from Virgin Megastore in Bristol the day we got back from Reading because this was 1998 and online shopping wasn’t a thing, especially not for obscure US punk bands signed to independent labels.
A few weeks later it arrived and it was vinyl, which was slightly annoying, but red vinyl, which was awesome. This actual record has been played twice, once to copy it on to tape for me and once for a friend called Maffro (he was called Matt and had an Afro). We played them to death, within days we knew every word, hook, solo, the entire album. if you were at Motion Skatepark from the Autumn 1998 to god knows when, this was the only album you would have heard. Turning it off or attempting to play something else just wasn’t going to happen. Copies of copies of copies of the original tape are probably still around though most people will have now bought the cd. It’s like the origin of man, my original is long gone but I’d love to think in some old s
tbox car with a tape deck, someone is playing a descendant of one of those two originals.From this album, my tastes widened, less of the heavy stuff, more straight edge stuff like Minor Threat or upbeat stuff like Dancehall Crashers or their influences like Jimmy Cliff. Catch 22 eventually played a few UK dates right in the middle of my finals and I just couldn’t make it (barely scraping a 2:2 as it was!). I saw Catch 22 a year or two later with a different line up and the songs were good but it missed something when Kalnoky had left but a few years after the little genius formed Streetlight Manifesto who are even better…. But this is the one that changed my life. It’s so complex but so simple. Some would say, just like me…
Being lent Yes: Fragile at new school after family move aged 16.
Before that I was chart rock/pop.
Expanded by listening to post 22:00 radio - Peelie, Annie Nightingale etc.
And despite loving most other music styles/eras as they came along 70's prog. is still (64 1/4) what I "listen" to most. By listen I mean vinyl, sitting in the sweet speaker spot, no more distraction than a book & perhaps a tincture.
As opposed to background to the rest of life.
Before that I was chart rock/pop.
Expanded by listening to post 22:00 radio - Peelie, Annie Nightingale etc.
And despite loving most other music styles/eras as they came along 70's prog. is still (64 1/4) what I "listen" to most. By listen I mean vinyl, sitting in the sweet speaker spot, no more distraction than a book & perhaps a tincture.
As opposed to background to the rest of life.
pablo said:
This isn’t an album review, just some nostalgia.
I found my record collection this evening, that’s it, just the one…
Reading festival, 1998, some guy is selling Victory Records compilation CDs, he clocks my Pennywise T-shirt and sells me one claiming I’ll enjoy it. There are some good tracks on the compilation, some duffers but one absolute stand out track, “Keasbey Nights” by Catch-22
They are a US ska punk band, so many influences it’s impossible to list them. The guitarist and singer, Tomas Kalnoky, wrote this album when he was 17-18. It is just sublime, raw, melodic, beautiful composition. I ordered the record from Virgin Megastore in Bristol the day we got back from Reading because this was 1998 and online shopping wasn’t a thing, especially not for obscure US punk bands signed to independent labels.
A few weeks later it arrived and it was vinyl, which was slightly annoying, but red vinyl, which was awesome. This actual record has been played twice, once to copy it on to tape for me and once for a friend called Maffro (he was called Matt and had an Afro). We played them to death, within days we knew every word, hook, solo, the entire album. if you were at Motion Skatepark from the Autumn 1998 to god knows when, this was the only album you would have heard. Turning it off or attempting to play something else just wasn’t going to happen. Copies of copies of copies of the original tape are probably still around though most people will have now bought the cd. It’s like the origin of man, my original is long gone but I’d love to think in some old s
tbox car with a tape deck, someone is playing a descendant of one of those two originals.From this album, my tastes widened, less of the heavy stuff, more straight edge stuff like Minor Threat or upbeat stuff like Dancehall Crashers or their influences like Jimmy Cliff. Catch 22 eventually played a few UK dates right in the middle of my finals and I just couldn’t make it (barely scraping a 2:2 as it was!). I saw Catch 22 a year or two later with a different line up and the songs were good but it missed something when Kalnoky had left but a few years after the little genius formed Streetlight Manifesto who are even better…. But this is the one that changed my life. It’s so complex but so simple. Some would say, just like me…
Anyway, thanks, great album. Surprised I missed it first time round, love that music.
Edited by S100HP on Friday 17th September 21:41
I wouldn't say it changed my life, so to speak, but it certainly led me in a direction I (now) never thought I'd travel.
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Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
cherryowen said:
I wouldn't say it changed my life, so to speak, but it certainly led me in a direction I (now) never thought I'd travel.
Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
Was that born slippy ?lager lager lager?Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
Christmas 1976 I got ELO's New World Record and Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak as presents. I must have asked for them because nobody else in my family would have even heard of Thin Lizzy!
But I loved, and still love, Jailbreak. It took me away from "pop" and set me off in a much heavier direction - although I also loved punk/new wave in the form of the Pistols, Stranglers, Clash, etc.
But I loved, and still love, Jailbreak. It took me away from "pop" and set me off in a much heavier direction - although I also loved punk/new wave in the form of the Pistols, Stranglers, Clash, etc.
Welshbeef said:
cherryowen said:
I wouldn't say it changed my life, so to speak, but it certainly led me in a direction I (now) never thought I'd travel.
Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
Was that born slippy ?lager lager lager?Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
The tune on that album that "changed" me, though, was Dark and Long.
Track #1 here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM9VroV13Wo
1985 - at uni and starting to appreciate classic rock blues and explore the origins of Clapton/Stones/LedZep etc via T-Bone Walker and seeing Robert Cray live at a small venue in Brighton. This was stone-age of course, so no Youtube/internet instant research. I had to visit dingy vinyl record stores so it was a slow process. THEN i randomly saw this album in a High Wycombe general record shop as a 'new release'.
This awakened an incredible insight to what a black, seasoned, blues band can sound like when playing LIVE. It TOTALLY turned me on the live performance - dynamic, reactive, incredible musicianship, presence, showmanship. Pure excitement that i'd never seen before.
The first album track "Listen Here!" (youtube link) encapsulates it nicely. its the intro to the show ....
Edited by ggdrew on Saturday 18th September 06:55
Pink Floyds ‘Animals’
remembering listening to the Dogs guitar solo over and over again on the family stereo cassette when i was about 6/7 years old around 1980. I didn’t know about electric guitars or anything about how music was made but I just knew i needed to make the same sounds myself. Got a guitar in my early teens and played ever since
remembering listening to the Dogs guitar solo over and over again on the family stereo cassette when i was about 6/7 years old around 1980. I didn’t know about electric guitars or anything about how music was made but I just knew i needed to make the same sounds myself. Got a guitar in my early teens and played ever since
cherryowen said:
Welshbeef said:
cherryowen said:
I wouldn't say it changed my life, so to speak, but it certainly led me in a direction I (now) never thought I'd travel.
Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
Was that born slippy ?lager lager lager?Before ^ that, my listening catalogue was blues / classic rock / progressive stuff / metal.
After, I went down the rabbit hole of Trance for........what........five years or so?
The tune on that album that "changed" me, though, was Dark and Long.
Track #1 here:-
Out of the Blue, ELO. My mother bought it for me as a 10th birthday present, on blue vinyl. I still look at the cover to see if I can spot a figure that I haven't seen before.
Sent me on a musical discovery voyage which I remain on 40 odd years later which has stretched from heavy rock to ska to dance to trance and everything in between!
Sent me on a musical discovery voyage which I remain on 40 odd years later which has stretched from heavy rock to ska to dance to trance and everything in between!
You'll be unsurprised due to my username, but for me Ten by Pearl Jam.
I remember it very vividly. It was 1992 and I was 14 - just at the age where you begin to form something of a taste in music above and beyond the generic pap in the charts.
I was at boarding school, and one Saturday was walking past a dormitory where, through an open window, I heard some music that immediately clicked. I went and found the guy who was playing it and on finding out what it was called went straight down to HMV and bought the CD. The actual song I had heard was Alive.
Many hours were then spent with Ten at full volume, me belting out the lyrics from the CD inlay.
That was the time I discovered music and lyrics that not only talked to me, but could describe some of the emotions of life more accurately than I ever could.
I remember it very vividly. It was 1992 and I was 14 - just at the age where you begin to form something of a taste in music above and beyond the generic pap in the charts.
I was at boarding school, and one Saturday was walking past a dormitory where, through an open window, I heard some music that immediately clicked. I went and found the guy who was playing it and on finding out what it was called went straight down to HMV and bought the CD. The actual song I had heard was Alive.
Many hours were then spent with Ten at full volume, me belting out the lyrics from the CD inlay.
That was the time I discovered music and lyrics that not only talked to me, but could describe some of the emotions of life more accurately than I ever could.
evenflow said:
You'll be unsurprised due to my username, but for me Ten by Pearl Jam.
I remember it very vividly. It was 1992 and I was 14 - just at the age where you begin to form something of a taste in music above and beyond the generic pap in the charts.
I was at boarding school, and one Saturday was walking past a dormitory where, through an open window, I heard some music that immediately clicked. I went and found the guy who was playing it and on finding out what it was called went straight down to HMV and bought the CD. The actual song I had heard was Alive.
Many hours were then spent with Ten at full volume, me belting out the lyrics from the CD inlay.
That was the time I discovered music and lyrics that not only talked to me, but could describe some of the emotions of life more accurately than I ever could.
Although not changing my life, Ten is in my top ten albums of all time. I remember it very vividly. It was 1992 and I was 14 - just at the age where you begin to form something of a taste in music above and beyond the generic pap in the charts.
I was at boarding school, and one Saturday was walking past a dormitory where, through an open window, I heard some music that immediately clicked. I went and found the guy who was playing it and on finding out what it was called went straight down to HMV and bought the CD. The actual song I had heard was Alive.
Many hours were then spent with Ten at full volume, me belting out the lyrics from the CD inlay.
That was the time I discovered music and lyrics that not only talked to me, but could describe some of the emotions of life more accurately than I ever could.
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