Through Magma and Gravenhurst (mitigation: admittedly my idea to go and see them, but had no idea they were prog rock at all): prog rock!

"Brandy", by Looking Glass is not "me", and yet totally "me". I'd link it, but my real computer is broken.

Also, Dick is a Killer. Dick is a Killer. Dick, Dick, Dickdickdickdick Dick is a killer.

my friend gave me the matisyahu cd for christmas. I'd not really a reggae guy.

My lesbian ex gave me a mixtape that included a lot of old school punk (which was definitely 'me') and a lot of newer stuff (this was 1994) that helped get me out of a self imposed cultural exile I was in at the time. We started dating soon after.

I lost the tape, but I've managed to p2p most of 'em. Still haven't found the Lovedolls "Pearls At Swine," or the Wussies "Baby ran away," though. *sniff*

You mean that you *have* found Jerry Dale McFadden's Country Beat the Hell Outta Me, and Bad Dream House's Barbie and the Rockers? Because I have all of these songs ingrained in my noggin, Jon.

Bluestone, who used to post a lot at metafilter, sent me a song called The Hour of Two Lights, by Terry Hall and Mushtaq. I've mentioned it here before. It's...uhmm....Arabian rock? Middle Eastern folk music? I don't know how to describe it but the song blew me away so I bought the CD, which also blew me away.

But old school punk was your genre which mighve lead to the new stuff, but was there anything outside of rock or R&B, or anything with a guitar thrashed, gentle, punk or otherwise, outside your comfort zone, that you thought, i like that. Three that spring to mind: hip hop/reggae that puke mentioned already, classical (im including opera in this), electronic.

Iconomy, how about middle-eastern music with a hip-hop, slight-weighty bass twist?

I didn't realize I (semi-)liked J-Pop til a friend handed me the OST for Katamari Damacy ... long before I ever got the game.

urbanwhaleshark, are you saying that's the genre that Terry Hall and Mushtaq fall into, or are you offering me some music?

Very difficult to say, because there are so few genres I don't link. I could list various genres that, a few years ago, I could have said I hate but no longer do. Country. Modern R'n'B. I'm now cool with country, having heard Whiskeytown, Son Volt, and some classic Dolly Parton tracks. And I'm now cool with R'n'B, having heard Jill Scott's "A Long Walk". Unfortunately, I have radio to thank for the inspiration, not anyone I know personally.

I'd like to hear the middle eastern with a hip hop twist....

giovanni, when will you start listening to some damn opera? it's in your blood after all...

I dont know Terry Hall except from his UK material. So yes. The point of the thread, however implicit, was for a new swap. Expect a YSI either here or personally in the next 24hrs, cos now i have to go to bed.

jonmc, the Lovedolls song is on a mix tape called "Radio Tokyo Tapes, Vol. 4: Women". I know that much. Where you can get it is another story...It's also on the Lovedolls album called Love One Another.

I'm going to upload The Hour of Two Lights. If anyone likes/wants more (I fell in love within about 20 seconds of my first listen) I'll upload the whole CD.

I had an extended antogonistic relationship with my older sister, because she was a teenage girl, and sort of an alien to me. She seemed to be all hair and neon bracelets.

Also, I have one of those little brothers who idolized me, and I couldn't shake him off. I'd go off walking around the neighborhood, and he'd always want to follow me around.

My sister saw this, and thought of my little brother as a victim, because I was always telling him to stop imitating me, and to stop following me around (I found it extremely annoying, rather than flattering), so she was on his side all the time.

Then my family moved to France, when I was thirteen. We were isolated.

My sister discovered that my little brother was annoying, and she and I became friends.

One day, I was out of music, and I went down to her room, because she was the only source of music in the whole country that I had access to. We lived in a really small suburb of Paris.

She gave me a tape of Camper van Beethoven's "Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart", and my life has never been the same since.

Now, I give her new music, but she changed my life.

Ok. The closest I have atm is from the Balkans which you can find here since YSI fucked up.

The only ME hip-hop, the closest-i-can-find is Niyaz, which you can find on the following mix: track 4.

Three that spring to mind: hip hop/reggae that puke mentioned already, classical (im including opera in this), electronic.

I'm actually a big fan of hip-hop. I used to roller skate to Rapper's Delight when I was 10. Opera and electronica I'm only starting to explore, and I have a lot of reggae (Toots & The Maytals 'Pressure Drop' is an all time fave), but I can only take so much of it in a sitting. I love guitar rock & r&b but it's not the only thing I love.

Man, there's always at least one song from any given Radio Mecha set spun by our bevy of kickass DJ's that knocked me out and was unheard prior.

One that immediately comes to mind was the band Khanate, that Panoptican played awhile back. Some of the harshest, meanest music I've ever heard, but boy, did I like it.

My parents took my brother and I to see the Metropolitan Opera do Cosi Fan Tutte at Glimmerglass. Our seats were in the front third of the theatre, so it was very up close. That was an utterly amazing experience, and it opened the doors to opera for me.

Not technically a person, but MOJO magazine used to come with mix CDs (perhaps it still does) - and I got one with this song "its only the end of the world" by Black Box Recorder.

I need to post that when I get home.

'bang, love that story! It makes this post of yours all that much sweeter.

You're awesome.

That's a great story, interrobang.

My edit didnt make the cut. Fris/iconomy, i concur; interrobang, a great story.

Someone sent me a mix that had four discs, I think, and one of them has the complete version or this track by Godspeed You Black Emperor, which I simply adore even though it's leagues outside the bounds of what I would normally enjoy.

Interrobang's story reminds me of the beginning of Almost Famous.

You mean that you *have* found Jerry Dale McFadden's Country Beats the Hell Outta Me, and Bad Dream House's Barbie and the Rockers?

No, sadly. and thanks for reminding me. The quest continues.

Can I answer "almost all of it"?

Up till last year I really had a tiny, baby's footprint of a comfort zone. The stuff I grew up with -- like (after weaning myself from my parents' folk) Springsteen/Dylan/Petty, and then the stuff from college, like Eurythmics/Police. And pretty much hardly anything since then, though I did get some Smaashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam when they were big. Then Doom got me into Nine Inch Nails and Filter for a blip. Then there was Magnolia and I rediscovered Aimee Mann, like a lot of other people, and then there was Neutral Milk Hotel. Megnut recco'd Aeroplane and I just got it on a whim, and it blew my fucking mind. Then I got my feet a little wetter with Elephant and Funeral, and then I found Last.FM ... and Metachat. And so this year I finally had enough albums between the ones I liked and the ones I rejected to have an actual top ten list.

Without MeCha I wouldn't have a hard drive bursting at the seams with singles from every genre imaginable. It's completely broken my album orientation.

I'm going to have to go with "Witch Jam" by the Whitefield Brothers. I'd never really listened to much funk before, but now I'm understanding the appeal. I think I got the track off of either a Mecha or Mefi swap. If you know who you were, let me know so I can say thanks.

A few years ago a friend gave me Rob Zombie. Now I'm hooked.

My sixth grade teacher gave me a tape of U2 and that was a major turning point for me. Up until then it was all about what was on the radio or what my parents were playing (which was pretty decent stuff: Led Zepplin, the Who, Love, Jimi Hendrix). U2 was an entry point into a whole new set of good music that was "my own" as opposed to that of my parents.

While hip hop is not totally alien to me, my exposure was pretty much limited to Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, Outkast, etc... but Aesop Rock and Mr. Lif were both on a mix by a friend. This friend is also the reason I like the first two Steely Dan albums (I would've never have listened to them, ever, if it wasn't for him). You were a roller skater! Indeed. He has also put the jazz fusion band Return To Forever on my plate as well.

I have another friend who gave me a couple of CDs of indian music which are both really great, but I admittedly couldn't tell you who the artists on them are.