My Own Summer (Shove It) - Deftones
This song opened my ears when I was about 15 years old, about a year or so after it's release. I'd always listened to whatever my dad picked for the car and now I had something to listen to that was mine.

That year I discovered the untold pleasures of the (drop D) electric guitar and met two of my now best mates as I bought a deftones hoody and wore it to school.

Everytime I hear this song it transports me to being sat on James' bed and rolling rubbish spliffs. Brilliant.

Note - 10 years later and I'm rolling marginally better spliffs at University listening to Lamb of God, so not much has changed.
(mrmonkfish yolo420weedwizard, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 22:03, 2 replies)

The Theme from Taxi
Because it's one of the clearest and earliest memories I have; the very first time I didn't just hear music, but found myself listening back for some reason, and truly feeling it's entrancing powers to my very core. Think I must have been about 4.

Surfer Rosa by The Pixies for sticking by me through the years and not ever growing boring or falling victim to negative associations.

And The Wall, for changing me so radically as an impressionable teen, and later on helping me ride out a couple of savage break-ups.
(Twenty Camels, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 21:51, 1 reply)

A mix
I have a couple of songs I adore. If I can be arsed, I will tell you you them. I know, I know, you await with baited breathe.

Anyhoo.

While at Uni i had a portable CD player, in which lived a CD. A mix CD if you will. I can't recall the whole play list but i remember the last track was was Roads by Portishead (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg1jyL3cr60). This is one of my most treasured songs.

I remember one morning, i had taken the bus to Uni, as usual, headphones on, music blocking out the world and lost in thought. The bus arrives, i disembark and start my walk to my lectures. This song came on, a moment of silences, then the intro, i open a set of doors and encounter people, the lyrics start. I walk thru the crowd, with "Can't anybody see" in my ears. I felt so alive, tranquil and disconnected. Things seemed to be moving in slow motion.

A bit of backstory on the song. I first heard it when i was watching a movie i had flicked off half way thru. It was about a small boy who was uncared for and lost. At the end of the movie he shot some old bloke, ran home, set fire to the kitchen. Then went to his room and hit in his cupboard and started to draw. This was his happy place, the song played as smoke filled the house and the flame engulfed his home.
(StyX is staring at you, yes YOU!!!, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 21:49, 4 replies)

x factor
A couple of years ago the wife and I got a very surprising Christmas gift in the form of an unexpected pregnancy.

I've always wanted kids but neither of us had a stable job and weren't even living together as I was working in a whole different city 2 hours away from her. We spent all Christmas debating back and forth about what to do with both of us switching sides at least 3 times until we finally decided that this just wasn't the right time and so we reluctantly called the local family planning centre. It is certainly the hardest decision we've ever made.

Don't believe anyone who says that abortion is an easy way out for women. It's still carries plenty of risks. Apart from infections there's always the ever present danger of massive uncontrolled bleeding both internal and external that can leave you sterile or even dead.

Thankfully I wasn't required in the room for the procedure so I'm left sat in the waiting room, heart thumping away, wondering what my poor wife must be going through and listening to the tinny music that's being piped in.

Just then the best selling single of 2007 comes on, remember that one?
It's the one with Leona Lewis screaming "keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding love"
It actually made me cry. Something I hadn't done in public since I was 12.

F**king Leona c**ting Lewis I can't listen to her now without remembering how she made me cry thinking that my wife would die and wondering how old my kid would be now if we chose differently.
(Bo Nidle Coming back in from the cold., Thu 28 Jan 2010, 21:34, 2 replies)

Imagine the scene...
first year of uni I come down with the flu bug from hell, proper lie in bed and crawl on your hands and knees to go for a piss job!

The lad in the next room plays radio head creep constantly at top volume whilst throwing a tennis ball against the wall..

He truly only lives cos I couldn't make it as far as next door!

Crap storey but *pop* anyways :P
(bottle_cap, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 21:24, Reply)

Sitting around at Secondary School, waiting for a class to begin...
And someone's got an mp3 player with tinny speakers going with Chop Suey by System of a Down.

One lad pipes up, "Oh man, this song, story of my life"

"..."

"... Really? You cry when angels deserve to die?"

Twat.
(Uhmfhshhghd, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 21:02, Reply)

Another Break-up song
Just after the first Mrs V moved out I put this on my Walkman (yes pre-ipod days!!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V7b5FG9cqs
( Vambo, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:58, Reply)

This was playing when I first met my wife
www.discogs.com/Jacques-Lu-Cont-FabricLive-09/release/136661

A live Dj mix with some of the best 80's music ever. He mixes Strauss into Eurythmics!

Every time I put it on I have to listen right through to the end with a huge loved up smile on my face. It comes recommended to those of you who still love the 80's.
( TheFinch is getting to grips with the complex plane on, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:55, 4 replies)

I'm a bit of an aging punk,
so I still listen to some of the old classics.
When my son was about 2/3 years old, he was a bit worried about a HUGE spider in the room.
So I did what any doting father would do and removed it to the garden. When I got back he was singing "No more spiders anymore, whatever happened to the spiders" to The Stranglers slightly better known version.
*swells with pride

He was also a big Clash fan when he was 4.
( social hand grenade I was a lurker before you were a lurker, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:55, 5 replies)

A tear every time
Watched Live Aid - first time round - daughter ill in hospital, on my own because OH is there with her and the older kids are out playing. Who wouldn't weep at Drive, by The Cars. Still gets me . . .
(The Jannie, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:19, 3 replies)

And my Jumping around the House like a LooHooney tune is...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=C54N60OlBTg


Turn it up really fucking loud. really.
(hengushrh is found at the Dole office every second thursday, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:07, 1 reply)

Ibiza - Space
Alter Ego - Rocker.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZKllOr5l-o

That is all.
( TheFinch is getting to grips with the complex plane on, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:06, 2 replies)

leaving home
after a row with my mum, i decided* to leave home. as i packed, she continued shouting at me, yelling such helpful things as "if you walk out that door, you won't get back in!" you know, the usual stuff.
i decided to drown her out by playing some music, so i turned on the radio, just in time to hear billy joel singing "i don't care what you say any more, this is my life"
for some reason, this amused me greatly.
moving out that day was one of the best things i've ever done and, even now, that song makes me smile.


*she threw me out
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:41, 4 replies)

joy division - love will tear us apart
is not only one of my very favourite songs, it also sums up the end of my marriage.

the beloved's "sun rising" might be my new theme song ....
( deodar ant trois minutes douche compris, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:35, 2 replies)

Aesthetics of Hate - Machine Head
Despite myself being a tad too yound to apprecaite all he's done until these last few years, one young man by the name of Darrell Abbot had made quite a name for himself, until one day he was performing onstage and got shot by someone for stupid reasons.

A magazine then slated the aforementioned man, to which a hero of mine then to the stand and wrote this song as a means of retort.

This is a good song for me, simply because it gives me a means to vent unfairness and the like when justice isn't being done, just as Robb Flynn had done.


R.I.P Darrell Abott.

EDIT: Plus it's a very good track :D
( Kyazrael Juan, two, three, floor?, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:31, 2 replies)

This QOTW seems to be veering offtopic...
So, two albums that meant a lot to me once upon a time-

DJ Shadow's Endtroducing. I have bought this four times over the years- original CD, reissued CD, vinyl, then vinyl again because the first one was poor quality and got scratched.

I left school at seventeen and had just exited the usual heavy metal phase common with unhappy teenagers. Growing up musically was rapid, starting with Tricky, Portishead and Underworld then digginga bit deeper. Endtroducing came in to my life in the summer of 97. For the next three years or so it was a fixture. Arriving at uni and moving in to halls, the guy across the corridor from me was listening to Building Steam With a Grain of Salt and we became fast friends. Through the rampant stonery, through to the wonderful period when Mitsubishis were rife, we'd bang on Endtroducing, air scratch to Best Foot Forward, skin up to Building Steam..., savour the drop on The Number Song, giggle at 6 and end up somewhere later on in the night, zoning out to What Does Your Soul Look Like?

Good times. I recently got back in touch with a mate from Uni and he still fondlly recalls our collective obsession with DJ Shadow. Listening back now, with nearly 15 years gone since it was released, it's difficult to get across to people how important to hip hop that album was. Not to mention having to excuse the poor mastering.

Everybody with a decent set of lugs needs Endtroducing in their life. Walking through town with headphones on, there are few joys to match hearing 'One two three four five breakdown baby!' and then that Metallica-sampled drop.

Album number two, Spiritualized's Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. For pretty much the same reasons. I still remember hearing the opening track for the first time- I'd been in to town and bought it in the pill packet. Got to my mate's gaff, popped it out of the foil and pressed play. That smacked up voice intoning the album's title, then the builds- I marvelled at the simplicity then the great whooshing chords came in and I went all woozy.

I saw them performing the album in its entirety at the RFH in October last year. The same, but not the same, the same band, but not the same band. It was a great gig, but nothing beats the context or the memories of hearing that album for the first time.

To go thoroughly on topic for a moment, I used to love walking into the office with my cans on, listening to Ill Communication. Get it Together really sets one up for the rest of the day.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:27, 5 replies)

Other side of the world
Two songs for me;
The one that started it all for me was Newton Faulkners - Dream Catch Me... This was playing when my mate and I were still pissed from the night before and booked our first big travels to new zealand and fiji. Everytime i hear it it takes me back to travelling round the south island and fiji doing random stuff and getting pissed up with random people along the way.

For the second, a bit of background of me. Im a bit of a wuss, always did things on the safe side etc... but after the trip mentioned above i thought "fuck it" several months after getting back i had quit my job, sold my stuff and bought my one way ticket and visa, i was on my way to start a new life in New Zealand.
Then one day I was on my way to work on the north shore, it was 6.30am i was on a bus going over Auckland harbour bridge, the sun was coming up over Rangitoto and the harbour and city was bathed in orange/pink light... it was a beautiful sight.
Plain White T's - Hey there Delilah came on my ipod, for me its a song about hope and whats to come and I sat back in my seat and realised I had done it... really done it... I had done something I never thought I would be able to do. I was on the other side of the world, on my own, starting something new.
Over a year later and im still loving every day!
(Fishbone-didi, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:15, 1 reply)

"Coked Up Supermodels Licking Shit Off A Blind Vicar's Cock" by 3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners
It's a cracking song. It really is. And it includes the lyrics 'Onward Christian soldiers - marching off to fucking waaaaarrrrrrrr!'
Except that when you let your (new and ever so slightly religious) girlfriend (who you're trying ever so hard to impress) borrow your mp3 player on holiday...

Like the girl, it didn't go down well!
(bdgr can't think of anything witty to type here, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:12, 2 replies)

Breaking up with the ex...
Clean by Depeche Mode...
(beatpig understands subliminalesbianmessagaying., Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:12, Reply)

"Rooster" by Alice in Chains.
The lovely lass I was seeing at the time that the song was current was quite effected by it. Whenever it came on, she would play a lovely accompaniment on my beef flute. I still get a grin and a twitch whenever I hear it.
(Uniquitous is keeping an eye on the exits, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:04, 1 reply)

But my Happy Tune is
Say Hello to Heaven by Temple of the Dog.

In fact, the whole album - expecially the last track, All Night Thing... try that one with company and I guarantee you'll wake up with a smile on your face :0)
(hengushrh is found at the Dole office every second thursday, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:46, 6 replies)

Frank Turner - I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
It's always been a fucking great song to me.
I'd got chatting to some young chap in the smoking area of our local sticky-floored drinking and dancing establishment, and at some point we'd established that we were both Frank Turner fans - total rarity in Sunderland's so-called alternative scene.
And for no reason I can remember (may have been the vodka) we sang the above song in its entirety, at the tops of our voices. he'd started, I hadn't even mentioned it was my favourite song.

You can see where that evening went.

Fast forward about four weeks later, can you guess why our erstwhile heroine was crying in a shopping centre toilet cubicle, with a hand covered in piss?
For the next seven weeks, until I sorted a hot date with a speculum and a vacuum, that song was off-limits. Even the opening line could make me punch walls and start to cry.

I saw Frank Turner live two days after said procedure. he played this song. I cried shamelessly in the middle of the crowd; not with anger, fear and sadness, but with pure relief.
and I threw my arms up so hard at the beginning of the song that I accidentally punched the bloke behind me in the face. Oops.
(and now for someone completely different, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:46, 1 reply)

Black by Pearl Jam
My missus had been cheating on me for 6 months - I found out about it a couple of months in. I met someone at Uni (I started when I was 30) and we talked a lot before I did the split with my missus, very calmly, lucky for both of them (I was a Bouncer and Rugby League Player at the time).... Lorna and I became very close but nothing more than real affection happened - we were both damaged and what we had was good for us already. I loved her very much. Than she died suddenly, I won't go into the details.

I found out on sunday morning at about 10am. Turned on my computer and pressed play - the random shuffle chose this song. And they say computers are dumb tools. Just had a warm slightly teary moment :0)

X
(hengushrh is found at the Dole office every second thursday, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:40, 4 replies)

I lost my virginity the Pulp album that includes "Do You Remember The First Time"
She chose it, I wanted PWEI's ...This is This!

Dammit.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:34, 3 replies)

Unintended by Muse

Reminds me everytime I hear it of when I fucked it up with my ex/ex/ex....



*That's all sorry
(Kip, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:30, 1 reply)

I lost my virginity
to the sound of "Pigs" by Pink Floyd.

Now oinking makes me feel a bit strange.
(Axeman Jim, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:26, Reply)

"Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown, this time I'm comin' down"
We climbed into the car after what had been an emotional funeral. My mother had died suddenly of an illness that may or may not – for we will never know - have been accelerated by the medication she had been taking for another condition.

Her slide from a healthy, happy 60-year-old to death had been sudden and shocking, my abiding memory of the time being driving up and down the M5 for weeks on end, working nightshifts and sleeping in my old bunk-bed back at the family home.

The car pulled away from Truro Crematorium, and we headed toward home in silence. I forget who in the front seat – either my brother or my sister – turned on the radio just to do something about the deathly atmosphere, but it was tuned to the local FM station and this song:

The Verve – The Drugs Don't Work

"Stop. Stop the car."

We pulled into a lay-by, and cried and cried. I still blub a bit when I hear this song, but turn it to happier memories. It was a sad, heart-wrenching time in my life, but now, ten years on, I've learned to remember the past and not live in it.
( Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:22, 4 replies)

Obscure
Summer 2008 was a good one, a great one, for me. I'd been playing with my band around two years by then (and still going strong, although not without several minor and major crises since then), and that long, long summer after A-levels when there is absolutely nothing to worry about in the world was spent gigging. Pretty much every weekend was spent taking enormous journeys across the length and breadth of the country, meeting beautiful people, making them happy with music, and generally having a right old laugh with six other people who I would count as my closest friends. How lucky we are, and have been, to play in such a big band where everyone gets along famously!

Yes, that was freedom, genuinely footloose and fancy free, I had no money but I didn't really need any. The van was full with finkbrau, the cheapest beer aldi practically give away, and you can feed eight people for twenty pounds a day thanks to Asda's roast chicken. Happier times I can't recall, especially since it was really the first time I'd tasted that sort of carefreeness.

One of the reasons I think that line-up of the band worked so well is all of us had different musical backgrounds and tastes; song-writing never came hard to us because someone would always come up with the perfect solution to a problem that no one else would have seen. It also made the soundtracks to our long trips in the van a real education, everyone sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm for what was out there musically. One album we listened to over and over again, though, was by band called RX Bandits. It's called ...And the Batte Begun, and while I doubt many of you have heard of it, repeated listening has lead me to the conclusion that there is no more perfectly conceived album ever. Sure, it has its flaws, as do all artistic endeavours, but I honestly think it is a musical high watermark and a genuinely astounding piece of art, not to mention a lot of fun and sometimes achingly beautiful.

So this perfect album was played again and again, each time only being improved by the perfection of my life during those golden few months and improving them each time in turn. A symbiosis of wonderfulness, if you will.

Am I crazy
Cause I want to touch your skin,
Is it ludicrous,
That I've got nothing to believe in, that was
Built by human hand,
Or controlled by demand?
So if love it true,
Lets burn the factory,
Take of your shoes, babe,
It's time for dancing.

Eh, song lyrics always somehow look less good written down, but my spine tingles every time I hear it, the sort of beginning to an album that makes you sit up and take notice, that hints that what's to follow may be something a bit special. Every time I'm transported back to being with my dear friends doing crazy things in the back of our van in the sun.
(WarneMarsh My priority for frivolity begets quality jollity, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:11, Reply)

Mesh
Mesh got me through the highs and lows of my final year of university. Mesh got me on the dancefloor in party mode and consoled me in my darkest hour. They pumped out the car stereo whilst I loudly sang along. Mesh helped me appreciate how good a remix could actually be. Mesh are the only band I get excited about to hear have a new album coming out. Mesh will never be off my iPod.

They are not Depeche Mode-lite.
(Rilux might be pregnant and has bum-aids, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 18:02, 2 replies)