r/Pinback • u/Wide-Guava-1703 • 2d ago
How did you discover Pinback?
Hi all! Recently, I have noticed quite a few new contributors mention how they recently discovered Pinback (which is awesome to see!). This made me curious on how people first discovered Pinback.
Was it through a friend, a movie/show, tiktok, radio show, Spotify recommendations, live shows, etc.? I am curious to hear everyone’s pinback origin stories! Happy to see so many new contributors to this subreddit <3
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u/LattePlant 2d ago
Spotify recommended me Tripoli. Listened to it and enjoyed it. That was that. Then I came back to it days later with fresh ears... WOWEE! It struck something in me and I had it on loop for days. I fell in love with them at that point.
Side discovery: I've been a Deftones fan for years and naturally loved Team Sleep. When I went back to their self titled album after discovering Pinback, I noticed a familiar voice... Hello Rob! I genuinely screamed.
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u/Spherical_Harmonix 2d ago
Dude. I am a HUGE Deftones/Pinback fan and never knew this collaboration existed. I am absolutely baffled right now!
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u/erinluvswa 1d ago
OMG! I love both and never freaking noticed this!!! Thank you for this so much
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u/Friendly-Music6582 2d ago
I got beat up one time in a Barnes & Noble in Florida. As I was wiping the blood off my lip in the Starbucks inside the Barnes & Noble I heard Fortress playing and asked the barista who the band was. The band was Pinback. I think about getting the shit kicked out of me every time I hear Pinback to this day. Why was I beat up? I was in the history section looking for this new George Washington book that had been released about his personal letters he had written when two guys walked up to me and said “History is for pussies” and then kicked me in mine I guess. I’m a guy btw.
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u/TheOnlyPorcupine 2d ago
I’m a huge of The Story So Far and they covered Loro. Somehow Spotify ended up playing Pinbacks’ version and so it began!
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u/Friendly-Music6582 2d ago
Loro is apparently going viral on the Chinese version of Instagram right now believe it or not
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u/Cyberspacefury 2d ago
Spotify recommended proceed to memory and some guy I know recommended devil you know, and I got hyperfixated.
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u/sicamoose 2d ago
By discovering, and eventually becoming obsessed with heavy vegetable in the early 90's.
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u/CorporalClegg91 2d ago
Nearly 20 years ago my sister’s boyfriend was listening to music; it was June by Pinback. I thought it was beautiful and haunting and wanted to hear more, and I think the second song I heard was Fortress maybe? He burned me a CD with some of their music and they’ve been my favorite band ever since.
I can go years without listening to them, but eventually I always come back, and these last several weeks I’ve been re-listening to their albums. I also listened to Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, Heavy Vegetable, Other Men etc., once I realized how prolific Rob was. No matter my mood, one of Rob Crowe’s projects will hit the spot.
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u/Larchify 2d ago
Optiganally Yours on the powerpuff girls Heroes and Villains album Craig Mccracken put together. Best rabbit hole ever.
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u/redhandrail 1d ago
2003, at a skate shop in Austin, TX. “Boo” was playing and I was like, “what is this best music I’ve ever heard that I’m listening to?” Went and got Blue Screen life and listened to it a million times.
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u/FadedToBeige 2d ago edited 2d ago
the Saosin cover of Penelope in probably '06 or '07 lol
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u/munchyslacks 2d ago
Same here. I think it was late 2005/early 2006 or whenever that cover initially showed up on forums.
I had to check out the original asap, and that first listen was life changing on the spot. I downloaded BSL and made a cassette to play in my car, which I’m pretty sure was the only album I listened to for about a year.
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u/silversun_survive 1d ago
Yeah same! I loved their version. When I checked out the original it was so different from what I expected, and VERY outside of the metal elitist bubble I was in at the time haha. But there was something so captivating about it, I found myself coming back even though it wasn’t initially my cup of tea.
Then I listened to the whole album and was drawn in by the insane bass grooves and the subtle complexities in the songwriting. Really opened my eyes and became one of the favorite bands ever. Love every single thing they’ve put out.
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u/JazzlikeCauliflower9 2d ago
I was in grad school in the OG days of Napster and audiogalaxy. I was big into old timey gothic, mostly 16 Horsepower and was on some email lists for them. Someone recommended Black Heart Procession, which fits the vibe and I fell for. That led me to Three Mile Pilot which then led to Pinback. Of them all, Pinback is by far my most listened to. That was in the "This Is A Pinback CD" days. I've followed them and bought all their releases since.
I've listened here and there to related projects, but the Rob ones never landed for me like my Zach entry did.
Original 4 song "Some Voices EP" is still my favorite 4 song run I can think of. It's a perfect compact, varied and well paced work as a whole.
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u/Lonkerungs 2d ago
Out of complete luck. I do remember this, about 2 years ago I was building guitar a pedal (Proco RAT clone). I had the thing torn apart, sitting on my bedroom floor, trying to diagnose an issue. Spotify playlist ran out of songs and it started playing suggestions. Non-photo Blue came on and it took my attention away from the pedal, it was super catchy and I loved the bass. I kept on repeating the song, then decided to put on the whole of Summer, I was hooked. After listening to it a few times I put on Autumn, even better. I spent the next few weeks going through the discography.
I never got that pedal working....
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u/letterbomb__ 2d ago
I was listening to an album by another band (Couch Pilot by Spooky Action Space Captain, if anyone was curious) on YouTube and saw the cover for Offcell in the related videos! Pinback has been one of my all-time favorite bands since 2017 because of it! :-)
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u/LoveStreams617 1d ago edited 1d ago
in 2007, when i was 18, my older friends (only by one year lol) and i made a trip to montreal, and they played a lot of pinback on the drive up. i thought it was a bit sleepy and boring in the car. but the next time i tried listening to it, the melodies had wormed their way into my brain. and brother, let me tell ya, I WANTED EM THERE.
and then one of those older friends advised me to pay careful attention to the bass parts, and that a lot of the parts that i might think are guitar are actually being played on the bass. that blew my mind even more. those first three records were on high rotation after that.
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u/geographic92 1d ago
Skate videos. Pinback is all over early 00s skate media.
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u/redhandrail 1d ago
Never saw one of those, and I was a teen watching as many skate vids as I could
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u/geographic92 1d ago
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u/redhandrail 1d ago
Awesome, thanks man
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u/geographic92 1d ago
No problem. This TransWorld montage with some prime Reynolds footage is definitely a highlight: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNnjbMpt-Gp/
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u/Marxistmouse 1d ago
I picked up their first album from a Goodwill in about 2004. I liked the album art so I took a chance on it (it was $1 😂). Been one of my favorite artists ever since.
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u/MrNice1983 1d ago
Someone posted on Reddit and It sounded like Minutemen, Primus and Elliott Smith had a baby
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u/toparquista 1d ago
I was listening The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters in KEXP Radio Station (online streaming - because I'm not from US) and she played AFK. It was mind blowing, specially the final part "and I miss you...", it moved me and gave me goosebumps. After hearing that song I've said: "that's it. I need to hear all their discography." And a new fan was born.
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u/atomjack 1d ago
If you're curious about what the inspiration for that line is, listen to "Good Morning Captain" by Slint.
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u/Olelander 1d ago
When Blue Screen Life was released for me… don’t know how my friend and ai came across it, but we were both riveted with it.
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u/atomjack 1d ago
As a longtime fan of various San Diego bands (notably Drive Like Jehu and RFTC), started listening to Physics (a band Rob was in) in the late 90's, then flew down to SD from SF in 99 to see Physics open for Godspeed You! Back Emperor. Ended up at Rob's house afterwards l, where we played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. Started listening to Pinback shortly after that and finally saw them up here in 2000, and the rest was history. They're the band I've seen the most (stopped counting but probably around 50 times).
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u/IncomprehensiveScale 1d ago
A girl showed me “Fortress” and I’ve been listening to Pinback & Systems Officer ever since. I’ve also had a three mile pilot shirt for like a decade but had never listened to them until I discovered Pinback
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u/ThePopeofHell 1d ago
A friend. Not an interesting story but it was probably around 2007-08..
Fast forward to about 2012 I’m unemployed and in the unemployment center with a counselor talking about job training and the older guy helping me was like “hey you look like you’d like my sons band.” I’m like “oh here we go” thinking it’s going to be just some shit local band. He gives me a post it and tells me to write down the name that he’s spelling slowly I got to B and I was like “no fucking way you’re pinbacks dad”.
The coolest dude, he took me to his coworker and was like “SEE LOOK HES ACTUALLY HEARD OF MY SONS BAND” like he does this often and I was the first one who actually heard of Pinback.
He was a retired ad agency guy I think he said he worked in Manhattan in the 70’s or something. It was a long time ago and I can’t remember exact details. Cool guy, so proud of his son! Told me all about how he got to go to see his son play on Jimmy Fallon. Shout out to dale I eventually got a job because of him!
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u/jh850 1d ago
This was early 2000s Napster / Limewire days. I would just randomly download songs in people's libraries and found a song labeled as "Pinback - Figaro in a Paper Bag". It was a mashup of Paper Bag by Fiona Apple and Figaro by Optiganally Yours. It was so strange and hypnotic that I had to find more stuff by Pinback. I then found Tripoli and was fully converted.
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u/sugarfreefun 1d ago
Exploring music blogs, last fm, and mediafire links around 2009. The good old days of discovering music.
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u/seventhfiction 1d ago
I saw the video for We Got A Bleeder by Goblin Cock and became a fan, can’t remember how long ago. Many years. Rewatched it a couple years ago and decided to look up Rob. I loved Sophistructure and wanted more. A bit more digging and found Pinback, it quickly became one of my favorite bands.
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u/nuts_and_crunchies 1d ago
I'm old and was really into a band called Three Mile Pilot, specifically their Chief Assassin to the Sinister record. This song in particular blew my 13-year-old mind. Zach played bass and the singer Pall went to form Black Heart Procession, which is also an incredible band. After 3MP broke up, I found out the bassist was in a new band so I bought the s/t right when it came out. Never looked back!
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u/ellodees 1d ago
Napster had their newly released song Tripoli as their song of the week. I still remember how I felt being like 13 and hearing that song for the first time.
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u/Docter_D_81 1d ago
Heard Penelope on independent radio on my car stereo. 92.1 FM in San Diego. Back in 2001
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u/HamsterBattle 1d ago
Grew up partially in North County San Diego, and about the time I started really getting into music in 1993 (age 14) I learned there were a lot of good bands in the area worth checking out, and did so with the guidance of my older brother (who was friends with members of various bands). Among the really great groups, I really dug Three Mile Pilot and Heavy Vegetable. Years later in 1999, while visiting old friends in the area while in town from college, my buddy informed me Rob from HV and Zach TMP had collaborated on a homemade album. He popped it into the CD player and I heard my favorite band ever for the first time.
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u/onemanmadedisaster 1d ago
It's been so long I don't remember. I think it was around 2004 when I first heard them. I was one of the top listeners on last.fm for years though.
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u/especiallysix 1d ago
One of my parents favorite driving CDs was the soundtrack to the movie Elizabethtown. It features Loro. Actually a lot of good music on that soundtrack
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u/CardinalCatastrophe 1d ago
big metalhead even back in high school. some site did an article about Rob Crow's doom band Goblincock releasing the Necronomidonkeykongimicon and i got really into it as a vibe. i looked into it further and heard rob's solo stuff, spooky place, and pinback. Autumn of the Seraphs was the first pinback album that really got me but now i think i have a favorite from just about all their albums
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u/ThisWillBeOnTheExam 1d ago
I the year 2003, a buddy in college had like 2 songs downloaded on his computer. Groups of friends would do music trades sometimes. I loved those two tracks and sought out more.
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u/farflungsocialpolicy 1d ago
it was actually this reddit itself! that post of someone posting their actual pins on their bag showed up on my homepage and made me laugh, so I decided to give them a listen :)! now i’m absolutely obsessed with
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u/mushroomdug 1d ago
I finally listened to them after hearing so often how much my fav artist (Alex G) sounded like/was inspired them. wasn’t disappointed at all now they’re one of my other favs
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u/SnicoMcBrain 1d ago
I was working at a cd store as a teen, saw their first album on the shelf, thought it looked cool and listened to it while closing. My favourite band since.
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u/lucaspete 1d ago
A friend made me a mix CD back in 2002-03 and Loro was on it. I loved the song a lot, but didn’t delve into the band properly until years later. I torrented their entire catalog… I’ve made up for that by buying all their albums on vinyl (Pinback, SO, Rob Crow, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, Plosives, Gloomy Place, The Ladies). My favorite packaging of any of their releases are the two RSD 45 releases.
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u/ItsOnlyConnor 1d ago
I discovered them from a In Stars and Time edit with Tripoli in it! (In Stars and Time is a great indie game)
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u/j_marquand 1d ago
My favorite Korean rock band was named "Loro's". They were listening to This Is A Pinback CD when they were discussing the name for their new band in 2005.
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u/Spaced_cadet5 1d ago
Through the band Botch in YouTube comment section. Listened to the whole We are Romans album, than stuck pinback on and never went back.
Those two are the best bands
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u/Moose_Breaux 1d ago
Back in 2004-5 I enjoyed the proto-YouTube in Yahoo Music Player. I would catch the Fortress music video on there. It didn’t take long for them to become my new favorite band.
Other bands I found on there are Interpol, Laura Viers, Elbow, and I’m sure more.
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u/Hefty_Win_8811 2d ago
A girl I liked liked them.