My life started to improve in late 2004. Coincidentally, this is when I downloaded all of the Kyuss albums - Wretch, Blues for the Red Sun, Welcome to Sky Valley, and And The Circus Leaves Town.

I knew, beforehand, that this was going to be something epic so I wrote down all of my first thoughts on the songs. This resulted in a comment from a guy I knew who didn't listen to fucking garbage, telling me to check out the band Sheavy.

I tried to listen but I never gave a fuck about Black Sabbath despite my one-off argument with the ex about them, and didn't really want to hear a vocalist that sounded like Ozzy. This was not appealing. Take your BS obsession somewhere else, asshole.

Then I actually listened to the lyrics in "Electric Sleep". "Cyberspace is no place for the real world" about covers it. My wordy friend went off on tangents about the band, about Black Sabbath, about a whole genre inspired by the same sort of crap... He sent me Unida and Dozer. I gave them all a listen... I liked them better. But, in time, I was coming back to Sheavy and getting used to their 'sound'. Before long I was even broken on Black Sabbath. Apparently, covers aside, I'd just never heard Vol 4.

Meanwhile, I talked to one of the guys from Sheavy. I could not fucking believe it. I was coming from bands like Tool where band contact is pretty much impossible. This guy fucking found ME. THE HELL. Theoretically I'd been friends with people involved with music before, but not a member of a now-favorite band. Crazy.

About that time, my friend introduced me to Dream Theater. I liked some, but... what a bunch of wankery.

He also went off about Fiona Apple. I knew her from 1997 or whenever it was, but singer-songwriter wasn't really my cup of tea. I downloaded some random songs that I didn't already have, anyway... and subsequently became very caught up in the drama going on about the release of Extraordinary Machine. Fucking bullshit. I bought everything she had and pre-ordered the album.

With Teeth by NIN came out. Pretty much everyone around me were saying it was a joke, even though most of these people were not "typical" listeners of NIN. I was a bit sad that it wasn't really that great, but that didn't stop me from buying a ticket to see them the second it went onsale for me.

And I got DSL. I needed to utilize this for music. I found 20 years worth of top-100 billboard songs for each year, and downloaded every single one. I wrote about them all. I was reminded about a lot of artists I hadn't bothered with in years, resulting in a little more downloading. I'd gotten a last.fm account a few months beforehand, and during this time my charts were fucking schizophrenic because I was also listening to a lot of Sheavy, Monster Magnet, Kyuss... 80s and 90s pop right next to stoner rock.

Madonna came out with Confessions on a Dance Floor. I didn't really want to like it, but I was stuck on it for a while.

Extraordinary Machine came out, naturally great.

Sheavy's new one, Republic? came out. I was disappointed.

I listened to Autolux's album in preparation for their show with Nine Inch Nails.

I also did Queens of the Stone Age research, though I was still sick about them. I ended up looking at a link on their site for the band Eagles of Death Metal. I figured I had nothing to lose, I guess, and watched the "Speaking in Tongues" video... and died laughing. HOLY SHIT THIS WAS BRILLIANT. It was a tutu'ed death metal growl about ponies and rainbows short of my ideal band. MORE PLS.

I saw Nine Inch Nails live... In itself, it was a great experience. The first time I saw them, and the first time I saw Tool in 2001, I was a little sick afterward because I didn't have the money to be spending on concerts but I really liked the whole feeling/experience. Now I had some expendable money. I could do this if I tried to. I wasn't sure. I was scared. My friends now didn't listen to my music. And they were "old" in my eyes, "over" the inanity of momentary experience, more interested in security and assurance. Bleh. I didn't want to do this alone but I was going to have to if it was going to be accomplished.

Seeing Queens of the Stone Age... just, what? They'd been this awesome all of this time? How the fuck? Where did I go wrong? I got a bunch of their albums starting with Over the Years, and probably got Desert Sessions at this time as well.

I had to see another show soon, so I went to Fiona Apple. It was my first non-arena, middle-sized venue show, and my first non-rock show. It was really great and just what I needed. Yep, more concerts...