I'm seeing some Pumpkins here, nice! They're my favorite band.
I was born in '89, though my mom favored rock of 60s-whatever decade it was, so I became familiar with "grunge" and 90s alternative when it was popular and have always most identified with that music, and even that movement (missed the ship and now I'm surrounded by emos
). Though I very much like
shoegaze influenced music, of even this time.
Strawberry Fields by The Beatles (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ywg-PdeGVL0) was my favorite song as a child and still makes me cry sometimes . Cellos are my favorite instrument (automatically make me want to weep for some reason) and I just adored this song. It reminds me of all my little emotions as a child.
They come back with this song. The lyrics always spoke to me as well. I think it might have to do with drugs, but I equated it to imagination as a child, so I like to leave it at that.
Something in the Way by Nirvana (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rg-yYi8saZY) is the same for me, with the cello. That song is something of a Piscean martyr anthem though.
Glass and the Ghost Children by The Smashing Pumpkins (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aDKO8jxZbYs) is generally my favorite song (from Machina, their 2000 album.) It's a bass driven shoegazey tune, very heavy (in tone) and 10 minutes. It's written about Billy's religiosity... in a way. There's a lyric in this song that touched me from the moment I heard it the first time: "as she counted the spiders, as they crawled up inside her." I have no idea what Billy means by this but it's always somehow meant a lot to me. I have no clue why.
Many other albums that rank high are simply songs that remind me of my childhood in Oneonta, NY and on the road:
- Purple by Stone Temple Pilots (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8BDQ6mQzOKQ - skip to 00:40)
- Jar of Flies by Alice in Chains (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qRbLvtcMk4U)
- The Globe Sessions by Sheryl Crow (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zxkZLb89Z0Q)
- Nevermind by Nirvana (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sUUHNf0S5cA) (In Utero is my favorite but less nostalgic)
- Collective Soul's hits (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hqkPcAzS4Yg) (Before my mom was a trucker she made very little money but would always bring my sister and I to our favorite pizzeria once a month and we would always order the same thing and play the same songs in the jukebox. Two of them were Collective Soul songs so they remind me very much of happiness through hard times.)
- No Need to Argue by The Cranberries (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P4nG302UCso) (Irish, can't help it)
- Virtually all Led Zeppelin (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tTaOvzZKRxA)
- Soundgarden hits (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i89rLvjnCFg - you can see all Chris Cornell's Can/Leo cusp yumminess in this video, haha)
- Ten by Pearl Jam (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9SPMfr38fCA)
- Just Between You And Me by The Kinleys (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cycrFIo69q8) (I've been partial to country and bluegrass since I was a child, for no apparent reason, but I got my family to appreciate it)
- Pieces of You by Jewel (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YK55GYyMs8I)
Then there's newer stuff (mostly for their shoegaze value, I like a song to make me feel something):
The Smashing Pumpkins' Adore and Machina (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JluKDPtuHV0) are my favorite of their's. All of their albums rank higher than most other albums though.
Zwan's (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HT2dAIoTHgg) album is great too.
Billy Corgan's The Future Embrace (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JnUnhCHE0Iw) is amazing, he said he wanted to make music where a song would remind someone of a color, as if the song was literally painting a picture and that's exactly what he came up with.
Sean Lennon - Would I Be The One (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8qxdOTLskCs) (the harmonies in this song are heartbreaking)
Both
Silversun Pickups (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2YiUXl0TwR8 - looove this video!) albums are the perfect music to me - perfectly alternative and organized but also perfectly shoegaze and ecclectic. It speaks Merc in Pis to me.
I'm discovering
Poe's album Hello (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zcISzPXaiAc) right now. I've liked the song
Trigger Happy Jack (Drive By A Go-Go) (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=96r732oF1yM) for ages, since my sister put it on a mixed tape for me and I played the thing to death (also where I first heard Bjork and Ani DiFranco) and now I'm finding the rest of the album to be just as great. I especially love the song Hello. Her voice is so clear.
I love the band
Mira (
http://mira.nu/mp3/mira_Cayman.mp3). They've very much underground but on a great label, Projekt, which is home to many bands I appreciate.
Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head and Parachutes (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fwGHQ6WyQFU) are shoegazey in their way. Another Piscean lead band.
I also just plain old love
Hole (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UeLXwFRKK_Y).
EDIT: I can't believe I forgot such a big favorite of mine! Melissa Auf der Maur's band
Auf der Maur. (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=m2lSa8Bnx_M) Pisces, photographer, musician in 3 of my favorite bands: my HERO!