How did you get into Post-Rock?

[batman]

your hand in mine

same here probably. i was a little late though, didn't start listening until '08 or so. i always really liked soundtracks and modern classical so that was my gateway.

[DarcX]

I would use it 90% of the time. Haha.

But if I'm going to answer the question, it was hearing God Is An Astronaut's All Is Violent, All Is Bright and Caspian's You Are The Conductor back in 2005. Every since them I've been in love with the genre. Simple as that.

That GiiA album is also what got me into it. I remember I was really bored one day and plugged my iPod into my TV, and played that album right when some Curious George animated movie started, and I swear it was like a perfect match. I don't know if I'll ever forget that.

I discovered and fell in love with the album before that happened though.

[llamaface]

I didn't.

[abovetheearth]

BEAT IT CHUMP

[llamaface]

BEAT IT CHUMP

jk jk I saw Caspian. It was rad.

[abovetheearth]

welcome to the thread young man.

for me it was Pelican - March into the sea, Mogwai - HSFHP and Godspeed. had no clue what they were. they were on sale in '05.

[birdwell]

Went to hang out with some kids that I would later become great friends with. Hopped in a car to go to the gas station and Mogwai was playing in my now friend's car. Had never heard any of it. He burned me a copy of it, Sigur Rós, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Gave me a little background on each of them. I processed them over the course of the next three weeks. My band played a show and dude was there. We became pretty damned close immediately....we traded music (and still do) regularly ever since....this was '01/'02?

[Sad Heart]

welcome to the thread young man.

for me it was Pelican - March into the sea, Mogwai - HSFHP and Godspeed. had no clue what they were. they were on sale in '05.

 

2005: the year of post rock.

[Gumbo72203]

I would use it 90% of the time. Haha.

But if I'm going to answer the question, it was hearing God Is An Astronaut's All Is Violent, All Is Bright and Caspian's You Are The Conductor back in 2005. Every since them I've been in love with the genre. Simple as that.

Go further. How did you encounter those albums? What were the circumstances? Were they suggested by a friend? Did you happen upon them on some website?

Edit: Also, most of you guys suck at providing details. You're terrible story-tellers!

[abovetheearth]

2005: the year of post rock.

 

i didnt even know the genre had a name, but it wasnt really used then. i worked with some insanely knowledgeable prog rock fans and i played March Into The Sea and they said, 'no man, cant do it...too heavy' i said well, they dont even sing, what is this?' lol i was such a n00b.

 

that feeling of hearing it for the first time, and even new bands to this day make me all kinds of excited, not Gumbo excited, but still....i get it.

[kjkenney]

Was recommended Sigur Ros- () when it came out. Followed a year later with hearing Mogwai- Happy Songs on a listening post at a Borders. Same year I bought Elliott- Song In the Air. Then got turned onto this band called The Player Piano that was from Utah signed to a local label, Sunset Alliance. Got into heavier stuff when I saw Russian Circles open for Appleseed Cast, who was touring for Peregrine. Good times, great oldies. Long winded but since I was first exposed in high school I had a hard time "getting it" at first. Was used to my skramz, which also leant a hand with stuff like City of Caterpillar.

[Sad Heart]

Go further. How did you encounter those albums? What were the circumstances? Were they suggested by a friend? Did you happen upon them on some website?

Edit: Also, most of you guys suck at providing details. You're terrible story-tellers!

 

Oh, man, I honestly don't really remember how I first came across it. 2005 was a different time. Even though it was only ten years ago we went about finding music in a completely different way. I wish I could remember what it was. I didn't have Facebook, Spotify, a smartphone, ... fuck. I really can't remember. Maybe last.fm, maybe; can't be sure. I remember listening to it for the first time though. It was cold out, really fucking cold. I was sitting in my car in some church parking lot cause I knew there wouldn't be anyone there at 3am. The windows were all fogged up, and I put on All Is Violent. Before I knew it I had listened to it 3 times and the sun had started coming up. I drove home listening to it and then passed the fuck out. Caspian was soon to follow when I started investing post rock via GIAA online.

 

Fuck, it's not like I kept a diary. Haha. I can remember my intro to music, my first punk album, my obsession with grunge, but for some reason post rock is just a blank. I blame the ambient undertones. I was in such bliss it's just a fragment now...

[Derek™]

I wish I could remember what my first post-rock album was.  I recall reading nothing but praise for the likes of Godspeed and Mogwai, but me being 15 and just starting to get into a lot of [what is currently] VC-core – Thrice, Brand New, Circa Survive, Coheed & Cambria – a lot of it went over my head.  I couldn't wrap my mind around songs that went on for 8-20 minutes and featured minimal lyrics, if at all.  Where was my bombastic chorus?  Where were all the hooks?  Where was that angsty post-hardcore energy?  I made it halfway through the snoozefest that was F♯ A♯ ∞.  The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place sure did sound pretty, but... was that it?  For a whole album?  I dug the movie Gremlins as a kid, but why the fuck would someone name their band Mogwai, and more importantly, why were they so boring?

 

I was a lost cause.

 

These and more resided in my iTunes, untouched.  They became albums that I'd "eventually get around to" and explore more, once I got Thursday and Underoath out of my system.  I recall having Russian Circles' Enter in there, too, and being both impressed by the aggression of it, but also iffy about the song structures and lack of lyrics.  It wasn't safe enough for the genre kick I was on.  But somewhere along the way of exploring new music (and lots of shitty post-hardcore that I still warmly cringe over, upon reflection), I stumbled across Moving Mountains' Pneuma.  I've always said that that record does a swell job at bridging the gap between post-whatever and post-rock: there's enough structure in it that it's relatable for teens who've never crawled out from under the Thrice rock, and enough instrumental finesse that it cracks open a few doors into the post-rock world.  Before I knew it, I was living for those builds and climactic jams, and actually digging the instrumental passages more than the choruses themselves.  I began chasing something similar in sound... hunting down blogs and RIYL lists in hopes of scratching my newfound itch.  That's how I bumped into The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl: Volume I + II.  The first volume, in particular, really opened up my eyes.  Like a lighter, softer version of Pneuma that I could really groove to.

 

I believe that was how I became introduced to Mylene Sheath - perhaps from distro links - and I remember placing a pretty ballsy vinyl order based off just a few samples of songs.  I grabbed a maroon, first press of Caspian's Tertia, a swamp-blue split copy of GFE's From Fathoms, and a translucent-green press of ITTCT's Above The Earth, Below The Sky.  I was working part-time and fairly new to the vinyl game, and there was a moment where I was wondering whether or not I had sunk $80 into a handful of albums I wouldn't warm up.  But the day they arrived was nothing short of glorious, and those fears quickly melted away.  (I'm sure I still have that invoice somewhere, too.)  It didn't take long for me to fall in love with all 3 of those; something had clicked, and my brain had conquered the post-rock roadblock I was hung up on.  I was pleb no longer.  Those soaring crescendos and gargantuan riffs were enough to keep me coming back for more and more.  Russian Circles' Enter became appealing overnight, and Station was released immediately after.  Excellent.  EITS' back catalog suddenly knocked me on my ass, and everything was coming together nicely.  It still took me a bit of time to get into the brooding atmosphere of Godspeed, or the abstract likes of Sigur Rós' vocals.  But obviously those have become favorites over the years.  I can probably, honestly, trace it all back to Pneuma.

[Shelby]

Him ^

[Sad Heart]

I save all of my Mylene Sheath invoices. J and L's hand written notes on there, I just can't bear to let them go.

 

And back tracing it to Pneuma makes so much sense. I know that was a gateway album for me into like minded genres.

 

Cough.

Still waiting on that top 10 list.

Cough.

[Derek™]

I save all of my Mylene Sheath invoices. J and L's hand written notes on there, I just can't bear to let them go.

 

And back tracing it to Pneuma makes so much sense. I know that was a gateway album for me into like minded genres.

 

Cough.

Still waiting on that top 10 list.

Cough.

 

I've also kept every single invoice (with personalized notes from L&J,) from over the years.  I always thought that was the coolest thing.

 

That top 10 will happen someday.  It needs to be done justice and not just plopped down as 10 lines.

[abovetheearth]

I keep mine too. even have that Halloween crime scene kit they did awhile back. gloves and everything.

PO parties on that forum ruled.

[Sad Heart]

I've also kept every single invoice (with personalized notes from L&J,) from over the years.  I always thought that was the coolest thing.

 

That top 10 will happen someday.  It needs to be done justice and not just plopped down as 10 lines.

 

I feel that. <3

[parkinglot]

The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place was my first post rock album. I still remember, I was in the West Edmonton Mall with my mom, and she was looking for some CD's to play around the house when she was doing house work stuff. I talked her into buying that Explosions in the Sky CD. She never saw it again. I think I would have been 13 or 14 at the time.

[The Vool]

What's with all the hate from you recently?  You just made a thread and asked for people to discuss music and why they like that music.  You were just talking about making a specific thread for "top 10 punk albums".  You were just talking about making a thread for  "top 10 influential albums".  

 

:D   my thoughts...

 

...and Post-Rock sucks!

[Kurazz]

Trying to think back here. First Post-Rock exposure must have been Tides - Resurface and first Post-Metal was Supercontinent - Vaalbara roughly 8 years ago. It didn't take me long to find Rosetta and Isis via the Youtube recommendations after that. It's safe to say since that day, my musical taste change in a way I never thought possible. Disturbed turned to Godspeed You Black Emperor, System of a Down turned to Russian Circles, and Lamb of God turned to Sigur Ros. Post-Rock/Metal also turned me on to some genres I had long ignored. I found myself listening to more Black-Metal, Sludge, Crust, Experimental and Drone than ever before. Post-Rock truly has brought a new light to my world .

[caninesapien]

I'm not a huge fan of post rock, but there are a couple of albums in the genre that I really love.

 

I saw Sigur Ros support Radiohead on the Kid A tour in 2000 and a couple of months later I bought Agaetis Byrjun and loved it. It definitely did the trick for my state of mind at the time. I don't really like that album now but it did open some doors. I somehow got from that to finding out about Mogwai and then in about 2004 I bought Happy Songs for Happy People and figured out that that album was all I really needed from the genre. After that I started listening to Earth 2 a lot.

[The Vool]

Disturbed turned to Godspeed You Black Emperor, System of a Down turned to Russian Circles, and Lamb of God turned to Sigur Ros.

Beautiful! Although I have to say I still enjoy some LoG at times...

 

I saw Sigur Ros support Radiohead on the Kid A tour in 2000 and a couple of months later I bought Agaetis Byrjun and loved it.[...] I don't really like that album now [...]

WHAT???

[caninesapien]

WHAT???

 

Like I said, it really just fit neatly into where I was at the time. It's not something I would really listen to now, though I still really love Svefn G Englar (spelling?). I remember going home and setting my download client to download that song and it took all night. At the time I think it was the longest song I'd ever heard. I never listened to any other Sigur Ros stuff, apart from ( )  a couple of times.

[omik11303]

I was much later to the party than a lot of other users on here, but it was love on first listen for me.

I used to frequent the Bandcamp "post hardcore" tag all the time back in 2011, and I remember coming across the pre-release of Apart's Gray Light and being totally floored by a style of music I had never known existed. It's still one of my favorites, but I remember at the time being obsessed with all the nuances of the music - the heavy and the soft, the abrasive and the soothing - and it opened up my eyes to both the old-school skramz world and that of post-rock. Like Derek, discovering Moving Mountains' Pneuma was pivotal for me. "Aphelion" was a featured song on a Youtube channel I frequented and it was a great bridge song between two newly-discovered genres (for me). I picked up that album that same week and Explosions' Those Who Tell the Truth... on a whim for $9 because I had heard so many good things about them. Of course, when I first spun the EITS album, I fell in love (a feeling that album seems to have a tendency to induce). Through Youtube I ingested most of EITS' back catalog, and through the simple sidebar suggestions I came across God is an Astronaut, Maybeshewill, and This Will Destroy You, and the rest is history.