Friggin_Taser

Indeed, thanks to internet radio and sites like CDBaby, I've had a hell of a time managing my music collection onto one 80 gig iPod Classic.

I've got well over 1500+ industrial music CDs and I've purchased another 500+ more from places like iTunes, eMusic, or Amazon in the last 3 years. At this point I've essentially begun replacing albums I own physically on my iPod with music downloads. But it's always a rotating door.

You'd be surprised how many CDs you can find from internet radio that are being sold for a penny on Amazon, especially niche genre CDs from the 90s.

Pandora and Last.FM have definitely helped but there's actually someplace else that helped me discover hundreds of bands. I'm not sure they are as good at it in terms of industrial as they were a few years ago, but Music Choice on my cable, especially the Metal and Alternative channels, would also throw in an obscure industrial song ever hour or so.

I discovered bands like Acumen Nation, Raunchy, Girls vs Boys, and Circle of Dust through them.

I found my genre of choice almost entirely by accident. I liked Stabbing Westward's "What Do I Have To Do" which was an alternative radio hit. I usually listened to a Sunday night syndicated band interview show and they were on. One of the call in listeners asked what their music was called and they said "industrial."

So I hit up Yahoo (back in the day) and went through every band in the Industrial Rock Yahoo Group. I also bought any CD that was labeled industrial from Columbia House. Sure, I got a few clunkers that I eventually sold to a used CD store, but most of the time it expanded my knowledge of the genre and led me to other great bands.

If I was just coming into things today, I'd imagine I'd hear a band like Celldweller or KMFDM on a commercial or in a video game, then hit up google to find more like them. It's a thousand times easier now than it was back in the early days of AOL and Yahoo.

Inventory Tetris'd!

It's not like Inception canceled itself after seeing essentially the same dream stuff in the Chinese movie Re-cycle.

I figure I'll add one more Pig show story now that my secret is out.

So we're booked for our first big gig at a real music venue opening up for one of my favorite bands of all time, Pig. Our bassist also bumrushed ANYONE to buy tickets, meaning we sold all the ones they gave us, giving us a pretty sweet spot on the band line up. The venue usually had two stages for each show, one for local bands in the back and one for touring acts on the mainstage. We actually got mainstage for this, right before the first touring opening act. Prime spot.

How did we almost mess this up? Let me count the ways.

1. Before we even exited our van, I almost hit Pig's female lead singer with said vehicle when I took my eyes off the road.

2. The aforementioned Pokemon card incident.

3. As we're unpacking I realized I forgot the minidisc player we use for our backed up drums. We were about 30 minutes away from my house and didn't have enough time to travel there and back (during rush hour) so I had to call a family member to rush it over to us.

4. Just as the minidisc player was dropped off by a caring family member, I realized I also forgot my keyboard stand. This is slightly important for someone who plays two keyboards onstage. Since the only person we could call to bring it to us had just left and was on the way back home, I was stuck. I actually went to the second stage area and looked at the other bands' equipment to see if anyone had a similar two-tier keyboard stand. I actually found the exact model I had. Then I had the awkward moment of asking the 45 year old guy who owns it if I could borrow it for the main stage while his band played first on the second. I still see this guy at any industrial show we play/go to and he always strikes up a conversation with us about this show.

With all the equipment together, we wait and actually put on a pretty decent show for being a newer band (this was back in 2006). As we played, we realized the first touring band, Digital Mindy, were to stage right rocking out to our set. They were really cool guys who helped us tear down and shared compliments of our respective keyboards. During their set they did a Gary Numan cover, asking the crowd who liked Numan. I was the only one who cheered, giving the lead singer a chance to point out that I might like Numan too much. Oh if he only knew.

The show was actually called a "Nine Inch Nails pre-show" because Nine Inch Nails and Bauhaus were playing at another venue across Hartford the next night. Every band that played got two tickets for the NIN show to "give to a member of the audience." We gave our tickets to... me! So I got to see Bauhaus live which was amazing and got to see NIN live for the first time which was even moreso. All for opening up for a band I would have paid money to see myself.

For anyone into the techno or the KMFDM, have you tried listening to Dismantled's Breed to Death?

It's a weird mix of Pretty Hate Machine Nine Inch Nails and 80s R&B/Pop that is insanely catchy.

I also recommend all things innerpartysystem

1. Evangelion!
2. Freakazoid
3. Spider-Man
4. Nadesico
5. Freaks and Geeks
6. Pushing Daisies
7. Archer
8. Clerks

#8 was like my own geeky version of Sophie's Choice. I had to pull the trigger on the show I quote more of, since I only tend to quote "I am Batmanuel" and "That chap is cool for cats" from the Tick.

Hate to derail the thread, but I love this story:

Years ago I saw Slick Idiot on their first tour with my friends. On the way out the door, I thought it'd be a goof if I got them to sign Pokemon cards. The drummer couldn't care less, he just signed away. The female singer thought it was a-dore-eblay that I'd even ask. En Esch, who I gave a Meowth to sign, looked at it and said "I need this one" and pocketed it. Guenter Schulz, their guitarist, couldn't have been more pissed that I dared to ask him to sign it.

Cut ahead a few years and Guenter is player guitar for the band Pig. I managed to book my band to be the opening act for them, and it was our first big gig at the venue. So during load-in we're hanging back talking to all the bands when I see Guenter sitting there tuning his guitar. I foolishly decide to go break the ice.

"Hey, remember me? I'm the idiot who asked you to sign a Pokemon card here a few years ago."

He gave me a look of "I'm going to punch you in the face," dropped his guitar on the stage, and walked out of the venue.

Luckily I saw them live in a small bar again last year, so I think our longstanding Pokemon-bred feud is over.

Or Slick Idiot, which is the better parts of 90s KMFDM with more insanity. None of their songs are serious and all are highly danceable.

What I found odd is that, while teaming, I tended to gravitate towards industrial music like a KMFDM or more coldwave industrial stuff like 16 Volt or Acumen Nation or Cyanotic. When I was soloing, I'd tend to go for stand up comedy CDs like Mitch Hedberg or George Carlin or Paul F Tompkins. I guess it's just a matter of how much focus or attention I had to give the game at the time vs. how much I could listen to the background music/jokes.

For reasons I'm can't fully understand yet, I've been in love with the music of Medicant Downline for a while. A mixture of industrial rock and video game music that seems to go along with any CoH play session? Yes please!

*cough*

Firefly
Profit
Happy Town
Warehouse 13
Twin Peaks
Cop Rock
Jim Henson the Storyteller
Nowhere Man

Brisco County Jr. might have made a better wildcard choice.

1. Kindred
2. Flashforward
3. The Prisoner
4. Eerie, Indiana
5. Misfits of Science
6. Dead at 21
7. Brisco County Jr.
8. Dollhouse

I haven't guess-voted this much since the last mid-term elections...

The music was produced and recorded by Jason Miller, he who is the lead singer of the band Godhead and the voice actor for animes such as Dead Leaves and Morbito as well as being Guy in Street Fighter 4 and Prince Valanar in WoW.

He's the bald guy in the Real Life gang.

My love of his music + my love of Felicia Day = Super Win!

1. Pushing Daisies - I love me some Chuck and Pie-Man
2. Better Of Ted - Haven't watched it yet, but it's in my Netflix queue. Being from the northeast, NYE Honeymooner marathons have turned me against it.
3. Archer - Daaaaanger zone! One of the best shows on TV today.
4. Dead Like Me - I was surprised how much this show engrossed me on Netflix. I even went out and bought the entire series on a whim.
5. Clerks - Because there was this big bee out near Undergrads
6. The Tick - I have to vote against my own pick here, if only for Bat Manuel
7. Andy Ricter Controls The Universe - I remember liking this when it was on briefly and will probably rent the entire series someday
8. That's My Bush - But only because I am so strongly anti-Apatow that I will never watch Freak and Geeks

I think Archer, Clerks, and Clone High might be in the Comedy vote. Just guessing.

My picks:

1. Trigun - For love and peace!
2. Zim - Who am I to doubt the will of the ZIIIIIM?
3. Evangelion - Because I mustn't run away
4. Freakazoid - Because without him we'd be unemployed
5. Baccano! - I have watched neither of these, so I picked the anime sounding title
6. Nadesico - From the opening theme song I knew I'd love this anime... bakas
7. Spider-Man - NPH is still one of the best Peter Parkers ever
8. Cowboy Bebop - I didn't like the rebooted artstyle of Spectacular, plus Bebop gives us Tank! and the awesome killer leftovers episode. And lots of Faye

Okay, I just checked out the first episode of Ookami-San and her Seven Companions and enjoyed it much much. Very weird mix of fairy tales and high school comedy going on there. I love the narrator and the breaking of the fourth wall.

I can't believe I haven't found a truly boring or bad anime yet this season.

That or you can wait for the official release on DVD from Funimation or Sentai Films to compel you...

That or the power of fansubs compel you.

After last season with B Gata, Kissxsis, and Mayoi Neko Overrun I actually looked to this season's premieres and thought I'd pass.

I'm glad I didn't, because there's a lot of good comedy anime debuting this season mixed with a lot of zombies and horror stuff.