Influences

[SadFuzz]

What influences your music? Or what started you playing guitar?

[panoramic]

sonic youth evol, dinosaur jr and skate rock from various videos in 1985/1986 also the cure
I played guitar in like 1985 but it wasn't until like 1987 where i actually "played" guitar
then came superchunk and mudhoney, afghan whigs numerous other bands. Locally i was really into the laughing hyenas back in the late 80's

[Maggieo]

Talking Heads. And then Television.

[SadFuzz]

For me, the Ramones made me realise it was valid to do really simple songs, so I wrote loads of Ramonesesque songs while I was learning to play.
Then Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr (the OSG holy trinity) and more recently Slint.

[panoramic]

For me, the Ramones made me realise it was valid to do really simple songs, so I wrote loads of Ramonesesque songs while I was learning to play.
Then Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr (the OSG holy trinity) and more recently Slint.

yeah man, i mean for me Swervedriver is probably the biggest single influence on how i play guitars but i think bands like superchunk and other power chord friendly indie bands really got me into playing to begin with.

[s_mcsleazy]

well for me, i really started off mainly playing a lot of 90's US punk and expanded from there. i dont know how to describe what i do though. someone at a gig said "you sound like sonic youth viciously buggering radiohead while mogwai watches" which actually made me smile, even if i'm not the biggest radiohead fan. honestly, the guitar players that influenced me the most are players like:
justin trosper - unwound
lee and thurston - sonic youth
guy picciotto - fugazi
greg sage - the wipers
all the guys in mogwai.
justin and che - atombombpocketnife
tom verlaine and richard lloyd - television
dick dale
christian hejnel - scarling
omar and jim - at the drive in

[thedude99]

My interests starting we’re mainly:

Bob Mould in Husker Du and Sugar
My Bloody Valentine
Slowdive

After that - it expanded to include:
Swervedriver
Jonny Greenwood - Bends/OKC
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Mogwai
Flying Saucer Attack
Bowey Electric

Then I sort of started doing my own thing.

[parry]

SeBADoh III was the record that really got me in to 4-tracking, early on. Something about the way that and earlier SeBADoh records were cobbled together spoke to me in a way that led me to believe I could do that too. In that time, Bakesale came out and I’d say that record shaped my band aesthetic more than anything. I love the vibe on that record. I wouldn’t say my band sounds like them, but the guitar and bass sounds are landmark for me.

[timtam]

I made a less than successful start in the mid 1970s, when everyone was supposed to aspire to be Jimmy Page or Ritchie Blackmore (and being able to play the Stairway solo was the generally accepted test of high ability). Every band had a 'lead' guitarist who could usually really play and was often the subject of near-reverence, and a 'rhythm' guitarist who often barely got by (and got zero respect). If you weren't good enough to play rhythm you got the bass ! And most songs had to have a long guitar solo. Even worse, some had a drum solo !

But it was the late 1970s that made guitar 'viable' for me (and many others) ... main influences were Robert Smith, John McGeoch, Tom Verlaine, Keith Levene, Andy Gill, Bernard Sumner, early Edge. I could work out what they were playing from wearing out cassette tapes. And more recently youtube made harder stuff more viable.

That era also introduced the radical notion that you didn't need two guitarists (but if you did, they could be equals ... eg Verlaine and Lloyd), and the bass could be a lead instrument too (eg Barry Adamson, Steve Severin, Peter Hook).

[shoule79]

I bought Sonic Youth Dirty and Fugazi In on the Kill Taker around grade 9. Those two albums made me start playing guitar. The Butthole Surfers Independent Worm Saloon and Quicksand's Slip also caught my ear around the same time, but not to the same level as those two..

Later I got really into Dinosaur Jr, Built to Spill, , MBV, GBV, the Pixies, Slowdive, Sebadoh, Sunny Day Real Estate and Pavement. When I got into my 20's Johnny Marr's Smiths output finally made sense to me and that still shows up a lot in my playing.

Some of those I still listen to a lot, some not so much. Beach House and The Raveonettes got added to the list in my later 20's/early 30's.

My 8 year old is getting into metal, so I'm picking up stuff like Ghost and Mastodon to impress my biggest fan.

[countertext]

Hendrix, then R.E.M.

It was the ‘80s.

[panoramic]

SeBADoh III was the record that really got me in to 4-tracking, early on. Something about the way that and earlier SeBADoh records were cobbled together spoke to me in a way that led me to believe I could do that too. In that time, Bakesale came out and I’d say that record shaped my band aesthetic more than anything. I love the vibe on that record. I wouldn’t say my band sounds like them, but the guitar and bass sounds are landmark for me.

yeah sebahdudes got me into the 4-tracking thing and then the secret stars kept me on that tangent for a while

[Velouria]

I would like to say I have broad range of influences... however most of them are quite nineties alt in the main...

PJ Harvey
Placebo
Pixies
My Bloody Valentine
Curve
John Frusciante
Robert Smith
Jack White

[tune_link]

To whoever above listed atombombpocketknife.... are you also from Knoxville originally???????

I saw Justin Sinkovich’s old pre-ABPK band, Thumbnail numerous times when I was in high school (I am from Knoxvillle btw). I might have seen ABPK at some point my memory is foggy. My love for Unwound knows no bounds, I was in a band in high school that was pretty much described as “teenage Unwound” at the time and our biggest influences were early Sonic Youth and Fake Train/New Plastic Ideas.

Anyway uh, I started playing because of Nirvana in 1991 aged 11 and immediately branched our from there. All the usual suspects in my 90s teen years
My Bloody Valentine
Dinosaur Jr
The Cure
The Smiths
Joy Division
The Pixies/The Breeders
Sonic Youth
Sebadoh
Smashing Pumpkins
Hum
Black Flag
Fugazi

Later on got into the rest of the shoegaze stuff esp Slowdive, Flying Saucer Attack, Bowery Electric, Seefeel, etc. and at some point mid 00s discovered stuff like Fennesz and Tim Hecker.

[mackerelmint]

I stole most of what I know about playing guitar from Donald Fagen.

You read that right.