Nick Cave: I didn't know who Tom Waits was until Pearl Jam tagged "Hold On" onto "Daughter" a few times in 2000. I sought him out, got wicked into his tunes, and wanted to find more artists like him. Someone suggested Nick Cave who, in hindsight, isn't very much like Tom Waits, but he stuck, too.

The National: Downloaded and listened to a leaked version of Boxer based on its cover art alone.

Sun Kil Moon: Came up on some musical service (Last.fm?) as similar to artists I liked, but only listened because I thought the name was cool.

Pearl Jam: My mom had copies of Ten and Vs. when I was a super little kid. It's stuck with me ever since.

Super weird ways, dudes.

St. Vincent: I was walking down a grungy alley in NYC when a hobo in a Big Bird costume attacked me, held me down, and forced me to take some bad LSD. I tripped for fucking hours. I saw things undreamed of - the dark Egypt which you call ancient, the cruel empire of Tsan-Chan which is to come three thousand years hence, the worlds that reel about the red Arcturus, the insect-philosophers that crawl proudly over the fourth moon of Jupiter. Through it all, a sound emanated, permeated, suffocated - a deafening roar, a peaceful hum, an ominous drone. It licked the pit of my stomach and made my muscles quiver. It was the most profoundly beautiful and miserably perverse sound I had ever heard. Then, after what felt like days, I began to awake from my psychedelic slumber, and I heard only the words: "She fucks her guitar."

That's more like it.

I have it on good authority this is how the new Tool album will end... complete with cockfighting noises heard in the background.

That's like 99% of the bands I check out.

Buddy and I were walking around New Orleans one weekend afternoon when we were about 18, ended up talking to and getting stoned/drinking beer with a couple of guys who had just finished unloading a van of instruments. Eventually kind of invited ourselves into the bar with them and hung there a few hours til the show started.

Modest Mouse.

get out,

Well it would've been, could've been, worse than you will ever know.

yeah. probably one of my favorite music memories. but I cringe with such embarrassment when I look back at what I might have said / acted like. actually hung out* with James Mercer too that day, they were opening for MM but it was when they had just changed their name from Flake Music to The Shins. I remember they played a couple of songs that ended up being on Oh Inverted World, and they were catchy as hell, but I had no access to them (they weren't even selling cd's or 7-inches) and pretty much forgotten about the whole thing until I heard that album, and my brain exploded.

*and by "hung out" i mean "being an annoying teenager following these people around like a lost dog"

i assault quiet, unassuming, message board posters, begging for music suggestions - that usually works out pretty well.

i got into Janes Addiction bc of the boobs on the "Nothing's Shocking" cover

Funnily enough, that cover is actually what got me into boobs.

Good post, bart.

I went from barely a casual Pearl Jam fan to full-blown obsessive fan after hearing some mates play a certain PJ song at our school's Battle of the Band contest. I had no idea who the song was by and had to ask the singer afterwards - to which he replied "Der! Pearl Jam!". Anyone wanna hazard a guess at what the song was?...

State of Love and Trust

Honestly, this is how I got into St Vincent. I think it was psychobain that posted the cover to the new album in the albums of 2014 thread and I saw it and decided to download. I think I saw her live less than a week later.

Got laid to a Shins song. Was hooked on them soon after.

At night I woke up with the sheets soaking wet. That's how I got into Bruce Springsteen.