Introduce Yourselves!

I have never been implicated in terrorism of any kind.

Didn't realize this was here. So ok:

I'm 33, male, live in San Francisco, Ca., and am a graphic designer.

I don't look much like a young Anthony Perkins, but have been told I do more than once.

I have broad musical tastes, and don't want to blather on about all my faves, but I don't care for dance, techno, and rap. I try to listen primarily to vinyl LPs, and own about 1700.

I'm the best person to ever live .

No offence, Mike, but you can't be. The Greatest Man To Have Ever Lived is David Hirst.

i am ambrose. i live in russia (although only for a week longer). i study russian, obivously at sheffield. my reason for going to sheffield? home of warp....they moved to london a year after i got there. dicks.... so i am into that sort of thing etc etc boring boring. also the usual high llamas stereolab tortoise (everyone hates them here dont they) shit. i like tortoise best though. now i am into garage as it is funkier than anything i have ever heard and i love dancing it makes sense to buy loads of garage tunes. io have a website which is almost defunkt cos i am about to leave russia: it is a sort of blog/journal about living hee, so if you want to read what a bunch of idiot students do in a country where beer costs 25p then go to http://www.geocities.com/ambrose_in_russia/home.html

also there are picutres of some constructivist buildings in moscow, russian graffitti, aforementioned students, other shit there.

i help run a night in sheffield that is called non.sense and is pretty turd. we dont really play any indie , or pop.

Oh sorry, I forgot this one.

Im a 23 year old finishing off a computer science/physics double major from the east coast of Canada. Currently working in Toronto as a programmer which is a nice break from my past incarnations as a midnight shift gas attendant.

Past 5 years I've held down a college radio show and a few years of editting the entertainment section of the student paper till I grew tired of filling at 2am in for contributers who didnt make their contributions so I switched to the radio station staff.

I spend too much time listening to indie music, I have a fear of silence and an extremenly short attention span if Im not wearing headphones. I am currently suffering through this recent trend towards roots/bluegrass in college music cause I tolerated enough celtic music in my life through over exposure due to a close proximity to Cape Breton. Bands I like include Eric's Trip, Sloan, Spiritualized, MBV, BJM, most of the whole postrawk thing and what little I've heard from Puffy In Japan. I dont hate pop music I just have a hard time stomaching commercial radio.

I tend to ramble.

Puffy In Japan = Puffy AmiYumi???

Aw, yeah.

I'm Andrew, I live in Dublin, and I like pop music as filtered into everything, followed shortly by everything (except post-rock). Dublin not being a large town, I know both Ian Moore and Irene O'Dowd. I don't post as much as I'd like, because ILM's download-read-reply- submit cycle isn't well suited to pay-per-minute internet connections like what I'm on now. Maybe I'll sort that out.

Everyone knows David Hirst comes second to me.

I'm 21. New River Valley/Southwest Virgina. Might hang around after I finish being a Va Tech Stud(ent). Self-amusing, obviously. I like to fish or pretend to socialize when not listening to, reading about, downloading, or buying music - in that order, simultaneously. I'll listen to anything once... or twice. Most of the time I keep quiet on ILM, but I'm paying attention. Been lurking since the begining, seems like. The nick came from "What color does a smurf turn when you freeze him?", but it doesn't go anywhere from there... it's a coincidence that my first post to ILM was in a blues-related thread. The nick's been around lots longer than that, though. I love you people. Later.

19 year old Japanese/Korean UC Berkeley Student. Grew up in 2story glass house in forest-like suburbs. Raised on and improper diet of undie hip hop, techstep (yes that dark putrid shit), assorted dance/IDM type things, and Japanese visual gender-bender glam rockers. As you can see I know nothing about music but.... I still love it......Oh yeah, to make matters worse I make music too.

OK, it took me two months to find this.

21, Montreal, Vietnamese, computer engineer 3rd year, Velvet Underground, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, procrastination, highway sightseeing, old decrepit buildings, painting landscapes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, misanthropy, 69 Love Songs, Old Port, Kids in the Hall, bored, bowling bag, immaculate freshly cut grass, mountain, Soft Bulletin, drugs, Japanese wrestling, Emergency & I, biking, $1 plastic guns, David Bowie, T-Rex, Trainspotting (the book), cubicle fever, Brian Eno, water fountains, Nirvana and the grunge era, white velcro shoes, night driving, waterfronts, High Fidelity (the book), the Beatles, Calvin & Hobbes, you.

My name's Greg. Do you mean David Hirst that used to play for Wednesday?

Me: 19 Yr old artist/ennui avoidance technician. Currently residing in Santa Fe, new Mexico. Going to ahrt skoo in Chicago Ill. Don't really know that much about music or anything else but a guy can DREAM right?

You: SWF, 5'6" 140-180 Lbs, Green Eyes, Dark Hair, Sense of humor a must.

Oh-wait-I'm on ILM.

My, this is a big thread. Does anybody even read the new posts?

Yes.

Age 47. In 1964 was a folk music fan hence the only person in Mr. Nielson's 4th grade homeroom not to watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Took me two years to realize this was a mistake. Been trying to catch up ever since. Am 20 to 30 years older than most of you. Am impressed by the fact that each of you has listened to more music than I have, more attentively. Can say with confidence, however, that I've read nearly half as many books as any of you has.

What I do with my time: There was a period of several months in the mid-'90s when I would get a word in my mind and just have to fit it into that awful Joyce Kilmer "tree" poem ("I think that I shall never see/A poem lovely as a tree" - except that, being a doubter more than a thinker, I misremembered it as "I doubt that I shall ever see/A poem lovely as a tree"). So one day my friend Elizabeth and I go to the tidal pool down on Half Moon Bay, and the phrase that embeds itself in my mind is "sea anemone." For three days I can think of nothing but how to fit "sea anemone" into the Joyce Kilmer format. Finally I come up with this:

I doubt that RuPaul, tall and feminy Has lips as gay as sea anemone.

The accents don't quite scan on "RuPaul," but it was the best I could do.

Grrr. HTML "corrected" my poem. How about this: I doubt that RuPaul, tall and feminy
Has lips as gay as sea anemone.

Or this:
I doubt that RuPaul, tall and feminy
Has lips as gay as sea anemone.

I feel kinda like a cad posting this after the poem...I also feel stupid for not posting here first, but hey, I never did read packaged directions anyway...

Jess, 23, live outside Philadelphia, currently unemployed and aimless (a catch, ain't I?), amateur writer but professional procrastinator, NOT a musician (I just can't bear to add more mediocre crap to the mountain) but I AM a critic (why else would I be posting here if I didn't think my opinion was god-like and unimpeachible), I likes...well, I likes what I likes, and there ain't a single genre I can think of (outside new age) that I don't likes somethin' from...but I've been an inveterate hiphop junkie since I was a wee lad and currently a recovering indie rock kid (who's finally almost worked through the alt-rock crock handed to me by the mass media *and* fanzine cartels while growing up in the 90s.)

Hello I'm 18 and I live in Arkansas (so you can imagine the boat loads of interesting music that never makes it over here). I'm studying anthropology. That's it.

Not sure if my email address is working. However, I'm a grad student in Broadcasting at San Francisco State, former college radio D.J. and avid purchaser of covers (obviously). If you know of any cool ones, let me know -- cover-versions.com

I want THE OTHER KOGAN to post. Or did Frank just make him up?

Meta-question (can't find apter thread):

??? Where is Dr C ???

almost-thirty mostly-online journo-editor type who likes to use dashes. proud of writing for respected underground magazines in multiple genres, but none lately. ex-pat american living in london, for now. my favourite album today is his name is alive's 'someday my blues will cover the earth', but the most recently listened to is the richard pryor box set.

embarassing firsts: show - billy joel album i made mom buy for me - 'hot trax' tv compilation featuring styx. album bought on my own - neil young, which wouldn't be too bad, except that it was the NY & the bluenotes album.

HOWDY!
I'm David (30) from the UK!!

Been here ages but no matter what they put me through I'll STILL believe in love.

Jay 30 lawyer Columbus, Ohio USA obsessed with Captain Beefheart lacking in fashion sense appreciative of taste waiting for the love of a good woman currently reminiscing with Eric B & Rakim

Some kinds of ice cream taste really good.

[my conscience: "don't waste your one shot at glory on the 'introduce yourselves' thread talking about ice cream! there will be other opportunities to talk about ice cream! say something about music!"]

I'm 20 yrs old, quite fond but not in love with [band I: a 5-piece from Glasgow] and [band II: a 2-piece from Paris], in love with [band III: a defunct 5 (not 6!)-piece from Stockton] and brackets, not naming the bands because they're pretty much interchangeable with a bunch of other bands, into old movies, a lapsed anarcho-socialist, a (slowly) recovering cool junkie, shy, too eager for value commitment, thirsty, I'll stop now.

Oh, shit, I just found this thread. Right after discovering the 'Recent Answers' button.

I'm Curt, 48, but I'm still prettier than any of you. I'm a graphic designer living in Michigan. I remember when Elvis was new. Not that I thought at age 3, "This means a big change for pop music," or anything, but I remember the commotion around the house. My older brothers were entering their teens. One was a huge Jerry Lee Lewis fan with a big rebel DA. I grew up on my brothers' singles and their box record players like every kid in America had at the time. Elvis, Jerry Lee, Everlys, Chuck Berry - I get a rush seeing the sleeves now. My first records, and my first fave, was Ricky Nelson. Lonesome Town. Because he was on TV, I guess.

I remember the 60s, of course, but I don't have anything new to say about it.

I stopped listening to pop records for about two years in the mid-70s. I got into classical. Nothing weird, just Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and those boys. In '77, punk called me back. Actually, it was Cheap Trick that first made me want to listen again. The next few years were a third golden era.

I sat out another stretch later, roughly 1989 to 1997, when I bought next to nothing that was current. The ony contemporary pop CDs I recall getting were:

Charlatans Some Friendly (my 1st CD purchase)

Monie Love Down to Earth

Talk Talk Laughing Stock

Concrete Blonde Bloodletting WHY??

Breeders Last Splash

Morphine Cure for Pain

Until the End of the World Soundtrack

Crime and the City Solution Paradise Discotheque

It started when I quit buying new vinyl before i even had a CD player. Then, with the price of CDs, I spent my money on sure things, old rootsy catalog releases that had never been available before. Lots of old jazz, blues, 60s ska boxes, pre-rock adult pop, as well as pre-'89 rock. So I missed out on grunge. More like, grunge came knocking and I said go fuck yourself, dude, I'll take Count Basie. I felt like the culture of youth rebellion was hopelessly beyond played out, and I wanted no part of its attitude in music, art, fashion, anything.

Eventually, I felt like I'd go insane if I heard another saxaphone solo. Some other factors came together, too. Different friends with different interests, one with a record store. More interesting new music - electronic, ambient, all variety of stuff with more pop input. Record guides, especially All Music, the Internet, used CD stores, CD burners., oh, my head!

I dropped in on ama from time to time but always found it hard to follow. Now, I've read all of the ilm archives, and I wish you'd all wrap up your ile hippie chitchat and get your sorry asses back over here.

Damian,going on 23.Fresh out of University of Auckland,NZ.Likes and loves - Radiohead,2001 - A Space Odyssey,Stereolab,Idaho (the band,not the state),Faust,Brian Eno (singing and non-singing),Joy Division,MBV,Kraftwerk,Neu!,some prog.Will never succeed in hating Pink Floyd again.

"I've read all of the ilm archives" = Purple Heart.

27, in Dallas. I won't waste any time: I need a band. Reference points would be Ruins, Debussy, Beach Boys. Anyways, I've already noticed people I know in this thread, but if you're near me and want to play, sign up today!

Re:ILM, I too made the mistake of discovering this thread after I'd already posted a few. How's that for a first impression?

is it rude of me to introduce myself now when i've been posting here for months?

i'm di. i am 22. i love music. some current faves are bikini kill, sleater-kinney, bratmobile, king loser, the kinks, the rolling stones, the aesthetics, now i'm getting stuck and i wish i had my record collection with me so i could remember what bands i like but you know, there's heaps and i guess you guys will probably find out while i am posting. i play guitar and sing in a band called LD50 in Dunedin, NZ , and in the daytime i am an assistant in the Music Department at a local high school. and yes, my nickname is a dumb joke about a certain dead princess. whaddaya gunna do?

My name is Ronan, at the time I was born (1983) this name was blissfully unknown in the world of pop. I live in Dublin. My favourite bands are(to name a few) Mogwai Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown, Will Oldham, Jim White, Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys, Primal Scream, Doves, and many many more...........oh yeah and I fucking hate Aphex Twin. Sorry I had to get that in there

i'm young, but i feel old i'm grey, but i dye my hair red

i find it almost impossible to list what kind of music i like - bjork, kylie, old manics, showtunes (not lloyd webber), punk where you can hear the words, singer songwrittery stuff that is not too general (read Blood On The Tracks rather than Tapestry), pop!, tv themetunes, george formby, old skool hip-hop, nasty electro beeps music, anything(almost) not in english...

whatever

I think you've got an alarming amount in common with me, Bounder ...

Hey all. I'm Justyn, from Tucson, Arizona, the most boring city this side of Aberdeen. I'm a hopeless guitar player along the lines of Richey Manic. A would-be poet who thinks most poetry written today is crap, including my own. I'm madly in love with Winona Ryder. I'm 19 and a college student. I lead a very boring life matched only by the hero of Sartre's "Nausea."

Favorite artists include Billie Holiday, Syd Barrett, The Beatles, Le Tigre, The Clash, Bikini Kill, Manic Street Preachers (up till 95), McCarthy, X-Ray Spex, Public Enemy, Sex Pistols, Marvin Gaye, Stone Roses, Pulp, Suede, the Pixies, Sleater-Kinney, Kenickie, the Ronettes, and Subway Sect. My favorite single of all time is "One Chord Wonders" by the Adverts.

Favorite writers - Salinger, Philip Larkin, Ballard, Burroughs, Greil Marcus, Allen Ginsberg, Albert Camus, and Gore Vidal. My favorite film is "Taxi Driver." The two books that changed my life, when I was 15, were Catcher In The Rye and Nik Cohn's Rock From The Beginning. I've spent much of the following four years obsessively reading the rock press - Christgau and Bangs and the rest are like old friends to me, but I've recently gotten into the U.K. crowd like Reynolds and Roberts and Penman, who are pretty hard to find here outside of the pages of UNCUT. My favorite magazine, although I recognize its mediocrity compared to the greatness of NME and Melody Maker in the Eighties. I've been reading this forum for months and it only recently occured to me to post anything. Hope to get to know you all soon enough...

For some reason I considered reading the entirety of this thread (in one sitting, no less) an absolute pre-requisite to posting about myself. About 1/4th of the way through, someone already wrote that he thought it unlikely that anyone would read his introduction given the already enormous number of posts. Where does that leave me? I'm hoping that the fact that I most definitely read your introduction will be enough to motivate you to read mine. This is, by the way, my first post.

I used to tell people that I listened to every kind of music, except the kind that "they" play on the radio. Then, and perhaps eternal favorites would probably be Joy Division, PIL, Gang of Four, and Pere Ubu (which probably makes me sounds like some boring, self-absorbed asshole, who wears black, goes on at length about "transgressive culture" and Marxist politics, and does whatever it is that Pere Ubu fans do... which isn't [entirely] the truth) Then I joined the Peace Corps and moved to Kazakhstan (which will be my home for another year, unless events occurring a couple hundred miles south of here get hot enough to require Peace Corps's withdrawal from Central Asia). Whoever has previously claimed to be living in the middle of nowhere has obviously never been to Kazakhstan. This move basically cut off any connection I once had to all of the realities I once enjoyed, including the resources that allowed me to listen to music other than what "they" play on the radio. By resources, I mean not only access to stores that sell non-commercial music, but the money with which to buy it (those of you who already find it hard to scrape together enough money to "feed your addiction" should try living on 100 dollars a month).

I mention this because I think I have a slightly different history than most of you when it comes to a personal relationship with mainstream, "pop music." Which is to say, I started listening to it not out of a) dissatisfaction/frustration with the underground/non- Top 40/indie music scene or b) my own self-willed recognition/revelation that mainstream music is not necessarily absolute crap. No. I started listening to mainstream music because I had no choice. I could either resign myself to the retro-hell of listening incessently to the same CDs from the (admittedly large) cache I lugged here from America (a fate which I know that those of you who share my sickness, ie probably all of you, would never willfully endure) and hope for the kindness of mix-tape making friends (In the year I've been here, I've recieved exactly one package from America containing mix-tapes. There were, admittedly, seven tapes, but that was over 9 months ago...) - OR - I could suck it up and start listening to what is available here. I should mention, just in case anyone thinks I'm actually complaining here, that I am glad that circumstances forced to me broaden my horizons a bit - in hindsight, I was starting to slip into a rather predictable funk. But I think this gives me a slightly warped perspective on things - I am an avid listener of pop music who has yet to be entirely sold on the pop aesthetic. At least, it feels warped.

So my current batch of favorites include, in addition to the Russian pop music that is played incessently over here (and was I hallucinating, or did someone on ILM mention Tattoo and Detsl?!), Aaliyah, Missy E, Nelly, Outkast, Radiohead, Eve, DMX, Jay-Z, Destiny's Child, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx... And after consuming a large ammount alcohol, I've been known to admit to liking some Britney. All of these are available (in bootleg format, of course) at the local kiosk for the cost of a bottle of vodka. I should mention that the only two from this list that I would have bought had I been living in America this last year are Outkast and Radiohead.

The seven mix-tapes I mentioned above were all death metal/harcore/out-of-controlcore like At the Gates, Refused, Cave-In, Dillinger Escape Plan, Today is the Day, Converge, Coalesce, Deadguy, Cavity. This has been another recent revelation - metal does not always suck.

Guess I should include... Name: Matthew Cohen. Age: 24. Graduated from a small liberal arts college with a BA in Political Science. Planning on going back to school for a PhD in same. Speak Russian, but not fluently (what does "fluent" mean, really?)...

I should also mention my propensity to go on and on at length (interspersing my writing with parenthetical remarks that are often longer than the senteces they are intended to supplement).

My name is Dickon Edwards. I was reluctantly born in Ipswich, Suffolk shortly after they outlawed shillings, two events from which I still have not fully recovered. I share my birthday with the anniversay of the outbreak of World War Two. I have tried, at various points over the last six years, to be anyone other than myself in a vain attempt to understand Other People, but no one was convinced and I just ended up making even more enemies than when I was actually being myself. So now I am resigned to waltzing around North London with an air of fatuous affability, baiting schoolboys, and maintaining my appearance so that my friends can spot me in a crowd and my enemies can see me coming. www.fosca.com

Idea for a thread (though I'm too busy to start one): "What is it that Pere Ubu fans do?" Here's an answer: They (well, one of them, at any rate) think, the first time they hear it, that there's a line in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" that goes "Intellectual dragon locked in time."

"So, Frank, how would you describe yourself?"

"I'm an intellectual dragon, locked in time."

(Pause). "Oh."

Never got around to actually doing this, so I guess it's about time I do. Real name's Vinnie Prabhu but I go by Palpable for just about everything online. I'm a 19 year-old student at Virginia Tech studying computer engineering. Some of my favorite artists: XTC, Bjork, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Orb, Orbital, Barenaked Ladies, New Order, Cure, Smiths, Underworld. Outkast and Blur are also moving quickly up in the ranks. I also have a crappy website (http://palpable.dhs.org) with album reviews, movie reviews, and my journal.

Me Brian. Me 29. Me almost 30.

I used to be now FT editor Ned Raggett's roommate, until I moved here to Seattle in February 2001. Like Ned, I was a college radio DJ at KUCI in Orange County for several years. Occupation: video game programmer. Favorite bands of the moment: Pinback, Hochenkeit, Buckfunk 3000, Pell Mell...

Side interests: Making music... indie/droney stuff and electronic stuff. Also DJing all sorts of dance music.. hip hop/experimental/weirder techy house/80s/whatevah

No personal home page... but here's a recent mix CD I made, as well as a couple of electronic tracks I did for some tributes. And here's what I look like...

I should have done this a long time ago. Sorry.

..and just so other IL*'ers won't give me grief about it. Yes... the goatee is now gone.

I've made a few contributions in the last couple of months but only just discovered this thread. I'm 30 years old and living in Amsterdam. Happily married since last May. I am what's possibly called a contributing editor at OOR, which is a bimonthly music magazine here in the Netherlands. I cover mainly hip-hop and dance music. My other job (I have two) is doing a weekly two-hour radio show on VPRO Radio 3FM late on Saturday nights. It's called Elementaal and I'm very proud of it. It is archived in Real Audio here. If you look around on the site, you'll see I also do three different, weekly one-hour internet-only shows.

im boring. and i make mix tapes. A picture of little ol me question the existential nature of life. ~chameleon

oh yah. im 18 and a painter/photographer, and i love cats. hemingway, london, yolen, piers anthony, old mccaffery, and eliot rock my world.

38, SWF from Brooklyn, now living in Hoboken NJ. Grew up reading NME, listening to punk/post-punk stuff, going to clubs Hurrah, Mudd Club, Peppermint Lounge, the Ritz. I read and enjoy ILM and ILE everyday! St. Etienne, Teenage Fanclub and the Kinks I've liked the most for the longest stretch of time. Recent listening: Le Tigre, Clinic, Tuesday Weld, King Tubby, John Cooper Clarke, Goldfrapp, Francoise Hardy, Mary J. Recent reading: Sarah by J.T. LeRoy.

Wow, Lesley. Let me know if you ever want to go to a show in the city. We could get Arthur to come!

Unfortunately, Tracer, I live in Los Angeles. But I hope to be back in NYC for good next summer. And I'd love to tag along--sounds like Lesley and I have a lot in common. Isn't Sarah great?

Tracer- There's great stuff at the Knitting Factory soon, and Ludacris at S.O.B.'s! I saw him last winter, he was fun.

Arthur-I love Sarah's solo work as well as St. Etienne. Hope to meet you when you get back to NYC