but at the moment if I hear anything that sounds remotely like gorky's I fizz up a little bit inside.

Got me into Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Godspeed, Joy Division.

december 2002.

but previous the shine albums haha.

Everything seems to spawn from them.

If so it was the Velvet Underground, at about 12.

simultaneously

oh, ok, magnetic fields.

in that they were a band I listened to when I first developed my own tastes (aged about 13) that I still listen to now (aged 30). So I've loved Sonic Youth longer than I haven't if that makes sense...

rather than the above, Subpop and Canada

got me into Sonic Youth, Guided by Voices, Throwing Muses, Sleater-Kinney, Pavement etc

definitely

and

The Doors

they are mommy and daddy

would show my age.

I think a number of bands were important when I was "of that age" namely 12 or so.

Seeing Nirvana on TOTP in 1992 was pretty significant, esp as my mum commented that she couldn't understand why anyone would listen to something that awful.

Iron Maiden, Levellers, Megadeath, Metallica and oddly enough Erasure circa 1991/92 were all important at that tender age too.

my cousin played me 'Nevermind' on holiday, and I bought it the next day. otherwise Quicksand, who got me into Hardcore a few years later

buying Sonic Mook 2 when I was 16 and going to see the Eighties Matchbox as my first gig. Before I just liked the manics and suede and other glittery stuff.

Experimentation, lyricism, knowing how to write a proper song, humour, personality etc

I first heard them when i was 12 in art class in school (on the doors soundtrack that someone was playing) and remember thinking "wow - what the fuck is that"

It was the first time i got really passionate about music and even now i love everything they have done, the way they look and the myriad of bands that they have inspired or that have ripped them off... from J&MC to Felt to Sterolab :)

undoubtedly I don't think there's any need to explain :)

I guess got me into music, not personaly unfortunatly.

pretty much completely defined what i listen to know (well, that and the person that introduced them to me)

I pretty much didn't listen to anything else for about 2 years. Seeing them at Ozzfest was one of the best moments of my life =)

I was 12, Nevermind had been out for six mohts or so and had managed to penetrate my consciousness at the sleepy Surrey board school where I was being held against my will.

From there I got to Tad, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and then Riot Grrrl, Sub Pop, Smashing Pumpkins and then along came the 1993 pop punk explosion, Epitaph/Fat Wreck/Lookout which lead me to Jawbreaker and Samiam then melodic hardcore and through to the mid 90s second wave emo stuff and then back to hardcore and through that to At the Drive-In and onwards and upwards.