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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: Zydar on April 12, 2024, 08:19:15 AM
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Is there a band or an artist where you've been a fan since practically day one of their career? Where you started listening to them around the release of their first album and been following them ever since? Maybe even saw them live before they had an album out?
I'm talking about the type of band/artist who has been around for quite a number of decades now - like Metallica, DT, Iron Maiden, Yes, Rush, Kiss, Springsteen etc.
I'm trying to find one for me, but since I mainly listen to stuff from the 1960s-1980s, there's no way I can say that it applies to me :lol Even newer bands like Haken I discovered two albums into their discography and then started to follow them. I started listening to Oasis early on, but that was around the time of their 2nd album, so that doesn't count either.
Do you have any examples that applies to you?
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Don't think anyone who's been around for many decades.
Been there for Alter Bridge from the start, and that's 2 decades now?
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WOW, great question. I have to think about that a bit...
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Maybe I could lower the bar a bit, "a number of decades" sounds like there should be lots of old geezers here on DTF :lol
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There are some for sure.
Linkin Park got me into music and Hybrid Theory was the first album I ever owned. They're not necessarily among my favorite bands but I have a lot of appreciation for them and nostalgia and I've been with them all these years, even though they're currently on a hiatus for obvious reasons.
A couple of names that pop up in my head as artists I like a lot and have been with since their first albums: Kimbra, Submotion Orchestra, The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Black Country New Road, Bruit < and Squid.
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Maybe I could lower the bar a bit, "a number of decades" sounds like there should be lots of old geezers here on DTF :lol
Luckily there are!
We already have a number of people following DT from WDADU. I think even a few following Metallica from KEA or even prior.
I have no doubt we'll have a person or two say they've followed the Beatles from their days in Germany or taught Cab Calloway how to scat.
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A few that come to mind:
- The Mars Volta: this used to be a proud feather in my cap, but I stopped liking them after the 3rd album...
- Haken: bought "Aquarius" on a blind-buy at Vintage Vinyl when it still existed
- Periphery
- Tesseract (at least from the first EP)
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A few that come to mind:
- Periphery
I forgot about Periphery! I'm also on that boat of finding them through their debut album.
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Nine Inch Nails for me. Trent was in a band with my first drum teacher called The Exotic Birds, and my Dad and I actually met Trent when he worked at a keyboard store in Brookpark, OH called Pi's Keyboards. So, when I heard that Trent had a new project called Nine Inch Nails, I was all about it, and grabbed a cassette copy of Pretty Hate Machine as soon as I could. Still a fan!
I know DT had put out WDADU prior, but I think those of us that got into DT with I&W can count that as well.
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"Weird Al" for me, thanks to my brother buying his debut album. We listened to the hell out of that. Then "In 3-D" came out. We went to meet Al at Sound Warehouse and saw his show at the old Rainbow Music Hall here in Denver. Both places long gone. I still love his music to this day.
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Closest for me are YYNOT (which may or may not count) and DT (which I started following more or less immediately after I&W was released).
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do they have to have had a long career? like a certain number of releases in their catalog?
All started in the last 25 years
The Dear Hunter
The Reign of Kindo
Kimbra
Pure Reason Revolution
In Vain
East of the Wall
Bend Sinister
Hotel of the Laughing Tree
Local Natives/Cavil at Rest
Warpaint
Foals
Mutemath (not active anymore)
House of Fools (not active anymore)
also how to do solo artists/side projects apply when they had previous bands?
Steven Wilson
Amanda Palmer
Liquid Tension Experiment
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I think for me, the only band that meets the criteria is Disturbed. While I'm not nearly as interested with their music, I certainly keep an eye out for what they are doing. I guess Plini as well.
There are a lot of bands I was following early in their career but lost interest afterwards.
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The one that first comes to mind for me is Nile. I remember seeing Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka when it first came out in my local music shop in 1998. I had heard about them, as they are from South Carolina (the upstate area, I am from the lowcountry of SC). I thought I'd give it a chance, as I had started getting into death metal. I loved it from when I first put it on. It was one of the most brutal things I had heard. One of the things that stood out was the Egyptian lyrics were so cool and a cut above the usual gore lyrics of death metal. I have bought all of their subsequent albums on release day, and seen them live 5 times. They are one of my favorite death metal bands.
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I've only started listening to bands formed later than the 80's in 2006 with Sonata Arctica (who were four albums in) and seriously wading new releases in 2010, so I'll have to think about this. What a great question!
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I guess the "still follow" descriptor might throw things off a little for me. But since the beginning;
Heart - still follow, buy and listen.
Dokken - been on board since the beginning but didn't buy the latest album.
QR - been on the train since the EP with a few derailments but still follow and buy.
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Alter Bridge is the first one that comes to mind. I was on board from the first song they released.
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Haken - I heard their demo Enter the Fifth Dimension back in '09, but I can't remember how or where I heard it, but I loved it and bought the first album the day it was released.
The Dear Hunter - I was already into Casey's other band The Receiving End of Sirens, so when the first Act album was released I was all over it.
The Mars Volta - Similar to The Dear Hunter, I was already into At the Drive-In, so this was a logical next step.
Coheed and Cambria - Bought The Second Stage Turbine Blade on a whim a couple months after it released and have been a fan since.
Riverside - I heard Loose Heart on Progulus back in early '03, was an instant fan.
I'm sure there are a lot more....
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This is a surprisingly difficult question. On one hand, I could say Secret Garden, since my father bought their first album when it came out in 1996, and I took over the CD at some point and continued listening to it. But I haven't really continuously followed them beyond the next few albums, and haven't even heard their last few yet.
On the other, I feel like there has to be something in the late 90s/early 00s, but scanning through some of my lists I can't find any that I got into on their first album and have continuously followed since then (and the artist hasn't fizzled out by now). I guess for now that leaves someone like either Delain or Kate Havnevik, who both released their debuts in '06, I discovered them in '07, and have pretty consistently kept up with their new releases as they've come out.
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I discovered Animals as Leaders because they sent me a friend request on MySpace. :lol
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Flying Colors, maybe?
EDIT: there are more than I thought:
Bruce Dickinson solo
Blackmore's Night
Velvet Revolver
Twisted Sister
Temple of the Dog
Stevie Ray Vaughan
The Cars
Night Ranger
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Gov't Mule
Fish
Dio
Ozzy Osbourne (Blizzard was a game changer for me)
Cinderella (saw them open for David Lee Roth right when they released their first record; it's still my favorite)
Oh, the biggest one: ASIA
I saw Queensryche and Bon Jovi on their debut tours as opening bands, but I can't honestly say I got into QR until Operation Mindcrime, and never really got into Bon Jovi.
Honestly, there's probably just as many bands that I got into the first album and lost connection with them. Live, Train, Motley Crue
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Halford
Ashes of Ares
Blaze/Blaze Bayley
Cavalera Conspiracy
Soulfly
Witherfall
Poisonblack
Hail of Bullets
These are all bands where I enjoyed the debut when it was released and have followed since, though some may have disbanded.
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Side projects are a bit of a cheat I guess 'cause you were already interested in the main band to begin with. I could say I followed James LaBrie's solo carrer from the beginning which is actually true, but the only reason I know James is obviously DT and I started to follow them properly only when they were about to release Scenes from a Memory.
With Sonata Arctica I don't remember if I got into them only with Silence, their second album, or I already got notice of them with the debut Ecliptica.
Another minor cheat is Cellar Darling, which is made up of ex Eluveitie members.
Halestorm come close as well, I came aboard with their second album.
There's a local folk metal band, Folkstone, that I've followed for dozens and dozens of concerts, and it was basically the beginning as well even though they were gigging already since a year or two, and were not far from releasing their second album when I started to follow them; case in point, my second concert of them was the release party of the second album.
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I don't know if Flying Colors count, as the band members were around for quite a while.
Vola is probably the one that does count. I'm listening to them since the debut came out in 2015. :tup
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I was on board for Metallica's and Dio's debuts in 1983 as well as a whole bunch of other metal and thrash from that decade. Can't think of any others atm.
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I came across Nemophila when they had only two singles out and had done two live shows before the pandemic hit. During the shutdown they released weekly cover videos and amassed a huge YT following to where their first live show post pandemic sold out in hours.
Since then, they've released 3 albums, done a USA tour and played Aftershock, done multiple Japan tours, and recently headlined at the infamous Budokan.
It's been a treasure to watch their hard work pay off, and to have seen them 4 times now.
In the time I've been following the band I've been a part of...
- their first album release
- seeing their first show post pandemic on stream, a tremendously emotional event
- attended their first show outside of Japan, and their first where the audience could speak (Japan was very strict with their covid protocols)
- their first outdoor festival, and until the Budokon event, their largest crowd. At this show we had their first moshpit, and their first crowd surfer which I proudly passed to the security at the rail.
- the first two shows of their first US tour
- along the was I've procured 12 shirts, 1 hoodie, all the girls picks and the drummer's sticks, two setlists, one signed.
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Haken - I heard their demo Enter the Fifth Dimension back in '09, but I can't remember how or where I heard it, but I loved it and bought the first album the day it was released.
Were you on DTF at that point? If so it was probably me. :P
There are loads of bands I've got into with their first album, which is what most replies seem to be about. Too many to be worth listing really.
But in terms of Zydar's actual question in the OP, Haken is the obvious one for me, for obvious reasons. I knew their pre-demo demos and was one of about 15 people at their first ever gig.
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I was on board for Metallica's and Dio's debuts in 1983
Yup..
Also:
Armored Saint
Anthrax
Queensryche
Flotsam & Jetsam
Bruce Dickinson solo
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I was fortunate enough to have gotten into 90s British alternative in the beginning, like Blur, Oasis, Radiohead etc. I got all of their first albums and most of their singles. An album and new b-sides almost every year. That was a fun time.
NWA/Eazy E - I lived north of LA when they first came out, and the local rap radio station was playing them before they got popular.
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Nice thread!
Let's see...
- Alter Bridge (yep, from the beginning too)
- Ghost
- Anathema (incidentally, I bought but wasn't terribly into their debut, Serenades, despite the fact that even now it's considered an important record for the death/doom canon. But more or less starting with their second full-length, The Silent Enigma, I was fully on board)
- Moonspell (I always keep tabs on what they are doing, but they don't excite me as much as they used to anymore)
- Pain of Salvation (this is cheating a bit - I bought One Hour By the Concrete Lake when it came out, and it was the first album of theirs to be released in Europe. At the time, Entropia was Japanese-only, I believe)
- Saviour Machine (although their discography is not very extensive, in the end)
- Threshold
- Enchant
- Nightingale
- Dark Tranquillity
- In Flames (lost interest, though)
- Muse
- Opeth
- Nevermore
- Novembre
- Pearl Jam (kinda lost interest here as well)
Close, but not quite:
- Dream Theater (discovered with I&W)
- Amorphis (Tales from the Thousand Lakes)
- Dredg (El Cielo)
- Katatonia (Brave Murder Day)
- Evergrey (Solitude Dominance Tragedy)
- Paradise Lost (Gothic)
- Mastodon (Leviathan)
More might come to mind later...
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Off the top of my head, The Warning. I remember their Ted Talk video and how great "Survive" was, and I casually followed them for a while. 7 years later and they just get better and better. Maybe one of my favorite bands these days.
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From my 1st phase of musical discovery (ie, mid 80s)
Poison
Slaughter
Winger
Firehouse
Europe
Harem Scarem
Hareline
Skid Row
GnR
Tesla
White Lion
Mr. Big
From my 2nd Phase (bands that have more 2+ albums)
Circus Maximus
Flaming Row
Rhapsody
Borealis
Damnations Angels
Neonfly
Hemina
Magnus Karlsson's FreeFall
The Ferrymen
Mindmaze
Lords of Black
Noveria
Dec Burke
Evership
Ad Infinitum
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- Dredg (El Cielo)
I've got this one also!
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I got into dredg around Catch Without Arms, but I don't consider that anywhere near the beginning.
I know people though who became fans before Leitmotif came out..like the Orph EP. And I gotta believe from their perception, El Cielo was hardly "the beginning" really. They certainly grew in popularity around that time, but that album came out more than 5 years after they were a band.
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I was fortunate enough to have gotten into 90s British alternative in the beginning, like Blur, Oasis, Radiohead etc. I got all of their first albums and most of their singles. An album and new b-sides almost every year. That was a fun time.
NWA/Eazy E - I lived north of LA when they first came out, and the local rap radio station was playing them before they got popular.
Jealous
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I guess also Slipknot and Stone Sour. Remember when they both came out with their first singles and I’ve gotten most of their records since.
I remember a bunch of nu metal bands starting but I never really stuck around.
I guess Evanescence too? Just kinda stopped caring about them for a good while now.
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Jealous
Over Radiohead?
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Over Radiohead?
I assume he meant Eazy E.
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I guess also Slipknot and Stone Sour. Remember when they both came out with their first singles and I’ve gotten most of their records since.
I remember a bunch of nu metal bands starting but I never really stuck around.
I guess Evanescence too? Just kinda stopped caring about them for a good while now.
Slipknot and Evanescence for me too!
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If super groups count, I will give myself A Perfect Circle under my belt.
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I don’t think there is one for me. At least not one with multiple albums. I guess to some extent some 90s bands like Pearl Jam or Counting Crows who’s debuts I grew up with on the radio but didn’t really get into until later.
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Haken - I heard their demo Enter the Fifth Dimension back in '09, but I can't remember how or where I heard it, but I loved it and bought the first album the day it was released.
The Dear Hunter - I was already into Casey's other band The Receiving End of Sirens, so when the first Act album was released I was all over it.
The Mars Volta - Similar to The Dear Hunter, I was already into At the Drive-In, so this was a logical next step.
Coheed and Cambria - Bought The Second Stage Turbine Blade on a whim a couple months after it released and have been a fan since.
Riverside - I heard Loose Heart on Progulus back in early '03, was an instant fan.
I'm sure there are a lot more....
Were you on DTF at that point? If so it was probably me. :P
I wasn't, I didn't come over here until the Mike Portnoy forum was shut down. I believe somebody over on Mike Portnoy's forum turned me onto the demo in '09. Were you over on that forum back then? Maybe it was you, or perhaps someone that was here and there at the time.
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Just looking at my Last.fm profile and the closest example I can see is maybeshewill. Their debut album came out in May 2008, but they had an EP before that that I was listening to in February of that year. Though you can't really say I was with them from the 'beginning' as that EP came out in 2006. I've seen them live and also have one of their t-shirts though :biggrin: They disbanded in 2015, but got back together and released a new album in 2021.
I was hooked on Linkin Park the first time I saw the One Step Closer video, which may have been before Hybrid Theory came out, but I was only a fan of their first 2 albums. A few others I can think of that I got in to pretty early and still listen to sometimes: Muse, System of a Down and Audioslave (though of course they were a supergroup and didn't last very long).
The only one I can think of where I had my foot in the door really early is with Bad Salad. Some of them had done the famous split-screen DT covers on Youtube and I was intrigued when they said they were writing their own album. I remember watching live streams of them discussing the songs, playing snippets of riffs etc. But they only released one album and an EP and seem to have given up.
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I’m almost always in the 2nd stage crowd. It’s not quite “from the beginning”, but it’s way before they hit it big.
I bought Ride the Lightning off the new release rack the day that Elektra rereleased it. So I wasn’t quite there for the beginning of Metallica, but I was definitely in the crowd before anyone knew who they were. Same with all the big 4. I was there for the sophomore albums, but not the debut. Fates Warning as well. I bought The Spectre Within when it was brand new, but I wasn’t there for Night On Brocken.
Same with Jane’s Addiction.
Even my favorite Seattle band Soundgarden. I wore out their debut album, but there was a widely circulated (around here anyway) SubPop EP before that came out.
I guess I was there for the beginning for Mother Love Bone. But that unfortunately didn’t last very long.
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Even my favorite Seattle band Soundgarden. I wore out their debut album, but there was a widely circulated (around here anyway) SubPop EP before that came out.
They had 2 Subpop EPs before their first album dropped, Fopp and Screaming Life. Although Fopp was only released a couple months before the album. They also had a split they did with Melvins, Green River, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, and U-Men back in '86, but I haven't heard it. I'm not sure you can even get it anymore, as far as I know it's been reissued on cassette and CD a couple time in limited quantities, but not for 30 years.
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They had 2 Subpop EPs before their first album dropped, Fopp and Screaming Life. Although Fopp was only released a couple months before the album. They also had a split they did with Melvins, Green River, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, and U-Men back in '86, but I haven't heard it. I'm not sure you can even get it anymore, as far as I know it's been reissued on cassette and CD a couple time in limited quantities, but not for 30 years.
It's out there; I found a copy on Discogs for a reasonable price not that long ago.
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I was aware of Fopp as well. I always thought it was weird they called that an EP when it was a bit more “Maxi-Single” to me. But po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
After Louder Than Love came out I upgraded everything to CD anyway.
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The Aristocrats are probably that band for me. Heard the first single when that came out and have followed them somewhat obsessively since.
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It occurred to me later that I had the same “2nd stage” experience with Dream Theater.
I was working at Tower Records shortly after IAW was released, and I fell in love with it a few months before PMU broke on radio and MTV.
Myself and a couple other employees were playing it on the overhead at least 3 times a day and the rest of the employees hated us. We were also calling the local rock station every week trying to explain to the program director that we were selling out of this album every time a few copies came in and they needed to start playing it. A couple months later, they did.
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The Killers. They’re celebrating 20 years. I bought their debut Hot Fuss after “Mr. Brightside” blew up on the radio. I’ve gotten all of their albums quickly after they’re released but to this day “Mr. Brightside” is probably still my favorite of their songs.
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It's been really interesting reading all the posts here over the last few days. I didn't think there would be so many replies, but I should never doubt DTF.
I still haven't come up with one that applies to me, I'm always late to the party :lol
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This is tough, I'm usually late to the parties when discovering music. The couple I can think of:
Alter Bridge - I remember hearing about their formation and anticipating the debut release which I immediately fell in love with.
Kaki King - Got into her shortly after her first release, still follow her now but her recent work doesn't really do it for me.
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Haken - I heard their demo Enter the Fifth Dimension back in '09, but I can't remember how or where I heard it, but I loved it and bought the first album the day it was released.
The Dear Hunter - I was already into Casey's other band The Receiving End of Sirens, so when the first Act album was released I was all over it.
The Mars Volta - Similar to The Dear Hunter, I was already into At the Drive-In, so this was a logical next step.
Coheed and Cambria - Bought The Second Stage Turbine Blade on a whim a couple months after it released and have been a fan since.
Riverside - I heard Loose Heart on Progulus back in early '03, was an instant fan.
I'm sure there are a lot more....
Were you on DTF at that point? If so it was probably me. :P
I wasn't, I didn't come over here until the Mike Portnoy forum was shut down. I believe somebody over on Mike Portnoy's forum turned me onto the demo in '09. Were you over on that forum back then? Maybe it was you, or perhaps someone that was here and there at the time.
Hmm not sure if that was me. I was a member but not very active and can't remember if I would have been plugging the band there like I did here. Every chance it was someone from the band itself though, a few of them joined some forums to advertise themselves a bit.
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Run-DMC
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Run-DMC
Nice. I didn't get into rap until 1987, mind was blown. I listened to almost nothing but rap from 87-89.
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Nice. I didn't get into rap until 1987, mind was blown. I listened to almost nothing but rap from 87-89.
Yeah, for those early years, I was rap heavy. LL Cool J, Whodini, Fat Boys, Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew, Kurtis Blow, eventually Beastie Boys...it was a fun time.
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The one that comes to mind immediately is Breaking Benjamin. My college friend freshman year had their debut album because they were "local" to his family in Scranton. I even saw them live, almost 20 years ago today, 4/20/2004 in a small club before their second album came out. I still have my ticket stub.
Some others that were mentioned because their first album was a hit so I was a fan from the start... Disturbed and Slipknot.
There's a bunch of other bands I got into by their second album too.
There's a lot of newer bands of recent years that I could list too, but they've yet to really have a full career to list IMO but maybe one day would be a worthy band to mention here.
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Yeah, for those early years, I was rap heavy. LL Cool J, Whodini, Fat Boys, Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew, Kurtis Blow, eventually Beastie Boys...it was a fun time.
No Sir Mix-A-Lot? I dug Doug E. Fresh, though.
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No Sir Mix-A-Lot? I dug Doug E. Fresh, though.
Well, it wasn't an exhaustive list.
Yeah, I listened to him too, but he's no Run-DMC.
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SWASS is an underrated masterpiece
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SWASS is an underrated masterpiece
I'm glad you like it, but I didn't care for it all that much.
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SWASS is an underrated masterpiece
I like Posse on Broadway but couldn't get into the rest of the album. Maybe I'll give it a try again.
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I like Posse on Broadway but couldn't get into the rest of the album. Maybe I'll give it a try again.
When I used to hang out at clubs when that album first came out, Square Dance Rap was a huge underground favorite. Packed the Dancefloor every single time. Everyone here in the Pacific Northwest knew every word.
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Somewhere along the way, I went one way, and this thread went another. What are we talking about?
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Somewhere along the way, I went one way, and this thread went another. What are we talking about?
Square Dance Rap
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Square Dance Rap
Now everybody’s rappin bout
Everybody’s rappin bout
E-e-e-e-e-e-everybody’s rappin bout….
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Somewhere along the way, I went one way, and this thread went another. What are we talking about?
The same thing we were from the beginning. Following bands/artists from the beginning.
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I didn't have any answer for this thread, then the PJ thread reminded me:
Pearl Jam! :smiley:
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I didn't have any answer for this thread, then the PJ thread reminded me:
Pearl Jam! :smiley:
I can second that. Though, as someone in his mid-40's, virtually every alt band falls into that category.