“Growing up I was fortunate enough to live in a house that always had music playing. My Dad favored Kiss.”
“My Mom on the other hand preferred Fleetwood Mac. My brother went for Led Zeppelin, and I loved all of the above in addition to classical, particularly nuts over Chopin, George Winston, and Rachmaninoff. It was a rather eclectic mix of sounds at our house.
My brother, forever the collector, still has our brown plastic cassette tape suitcase packed with the sounds of my childhood laden with synths: Depeche Mode, Peter Gabriel, Art of Noise, and Kraftwerk to name a few, all of which are still regulars in my headphones.
Art of noise specifically instilled a love of synths in me. “Paranoimia” (the 7” single version) to this day is still one of my favorite songs. It’s just so cool. I mean come on, Max fuckin’ Headroom. As someone who has had a life long battle with ever-elusive sleep, I find this version of the song quite poignant. And musically, the transition from the driving bouncy main theme to the open airy breathing section is killer. For me, it’s a song that I just HAVE TO move to and I love that in a song. A song that just stands up and says, ‘Hey you, I’m gonna make you move your body whether you like it or not.'”
—Katie
“There are several seminal records that I have gravitated toward throughout my life and these LPs have retained their relevance and influence for me, even if my perspective has changed.”
“In terms of Technophobia one record that has been hugely influential for me is Twitch by Ministry. I feel that this is one of the records that changed everything not only for me, but for music in general. The second track on that album “We Believe” is still one of my favorite songs of all time.
I would say I am quite nostalgic in my music consumption; my 5 most played records would be Ultravox Vienna, Naked Eyes self-titled, Nitzer Ebb Belief, Visage Visage, and of course Ministry Twitch.”
—Stephen
“Growing up in the deep south, pre-internet, and without any in-the-know older siblings or friends to look to, my availability to the outer reaches of music were slim to nil. And yet, somehow I still managed to stumble upon a few choice and memorable artists.”
“In early college I was obsessed with west coast power violence, and knew during a trip to NYC that I would have to grab a few albums by the likes of Spazz and Man is the Bastard. Desperate for more, I flipped the Spazz CD over and wrote to the address on the back, which yielded me a catalogue of strange and wondrous sound options.
One in particular caught my eye, as it promised a sickly slow brand of sludge. That last descriptor was a term I actually was familiar with after I had the stupefying fortune to see a self-proclaimed “sludge hate core” band from Alabama, Silt, erupt on a stage near my campus. I took a chance, and crossed my fingers on this one.
When the large disc finally arrived, all I could do was stare. This was unfortunately because I didn’t actually own a record player, but was ecstatic to have a real piece of vinyl. I eventually discovered that our library had record players, and could not wait to finally experience this treasure. What I heard was some of slowest, lowest, and sickliest music that had ever entered my world. Every bleated note filled the space of ten, the drums seemed mere punctuation, and the vocals were so eerily off-putting. I’d never known anything remotely like it.
The album in question is the legendary “Towers…” EP from seminal sludge act, Burning Witch, whose disbanded members would go on to form Sunn O))). Its cold and misanthropic exuding was the perfect expression of my own life at the time, filled with living somewhere I did not belong, being an outsider, grappling with depression, and discovering disease. I felt a kindred spirit in every crushing blow that I have not shared with many records. From that moment on, I was a die-hard Burning Witch fan.
I still am today, I still own that piece of vinyl, it is still a treasure, and I still listen to Burning Witch with regularity.”
—Denman
Technophobia Official | Facebook | Twitter
TVD Presents: Drop Electric, Honest Haloway, and Technophobia
The Fillmore Silver Spring
Thursday, October 3
$12 | Doors 7:30pm
Purchase tickets!
RSVP on Facebook
