Music That Makes You Wonder...

...why you didn't get into it earlier.

I think that most of us here have had that moment, first listening to a band that we'd heard of before—usually in a praising context in conjunction with a band we already liked—yet long overlooked, in which we at once find ourselves feeling overwhelming joy and complete self-disappointment—why hadn't we listened to that band before?

I had one of those moments yesterday, with Fushitsusha. In case you're wondering, they are the primary "band" vehicle of the ever-deranged guitarist/vocalist Keiji Haino, a man known for his prodigious solo catalogue, warped chops, noise inclinations and, well... Fushitsusha, frankly. This is why:

Granted, I've had similar moments before: Test Dept, Múm, Sigur Rós, Animal Collective, KK Null... but this one was the one that spurred me to bring up the subject, and I'm really not sure why. I suppose it's just the fact that Haino's group, like AMM, is such a bizarre sui generis entity that the fact that I hadn't heard such music before was a double-shock.

So there it is. Anyone else care to share their moments of musical "I am such an idiot" revelation?

Now, do you mean "listened to" as in "actively sought out" or "heard of"?

I mean this: You hear about a band, likely when someone else is talking about a band you like. You put them into your mental filing cabinet, then basically forget about them. Later, you either remember the recommendation and acquire a recording, or stumble upon said music accidentally; which of these is not particularly important here, though the revelation that ensues most certainly is.

This was my experience with Stereolab. I don't know where I'd heard of them before, but the name sounded vaguely familiar when I saw some albums at my local used music store. I bought Dots and Loops on a whim, listened to it at home, and wondered Where have you been all my life?!

Foetus. It was always that band I was "Gonna get around to one of these days".

I was an idiot, Foetus has become easily one of my top 3 favorite bands.

Well, in my case I'd probably say Cage The Elephant is one example for me. A friend of mine kept singing "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked", and eventually he played the song for me. Now? I can't get enough of 'em.

Two others I s'pose would be Kanye West and The Civil Wars, though they were more "I heard one or two songs and meant to check 'em out but put it off for too long"-types of things. The former was from hearing "Gold Digger" and liking it a lot (and now I finally checked out the rest of his discography about a month ago). As for the latter, I remember getting their song "Barton Hollow" as a free download on iTunes and liking it, but not really checking them out past that. What drove me to check out the rest of their album was their brief but glorious appearance on this year's Grammys.