Honestly dont remember exactly how I got into them but probably I’m In Your Mind Fuzz. That driving rock was always my jam and then it was just a rabbit hole from there.
I heard Head On/Pill (still my favorite) and shortly after heard Rattlesnake at a local coffee shop.
Then I took the deep dive. I’ve seen them four times now (all in Chicago) and have only heard 1 repeat… that would be Iron Lung. And I FINALLY saw them play Head On/Pill at their Sep. 1, 2024 show! Great setlist!
Live streaming this late summer 2024 tour. I have heard grumblings since 2016. Great band. Picked up the LP’s in this order: Nonagon Infinity, Flight, Banada, Apocalypse, murder, fishing, gumboot, ice. And listening to the tour tapes…
It must have came up on the ol youtube algorithm but I remember Polygondwanaland coming on randomly one night while working on art in my living room and being sort of like…gradually floored by it. I had heard a couple songs prior but not really paid any attention, but Poly just immediately grabbed me. Likely had something to do with the vibe that night. I think this was not long after it came out.
I didn’t become an immediate fan though, that was the only album I listened to for about two years (although I did listen to it a lot). It wasn’t until Omnium Gatherum that the band really started to click and I paid more attention. Did the gauntlet this year leading up to the Gorge show by going through the whole discography. Now I’m a bit obsessed with this band.
I came across Nonagon and thought the concept and music were pretty cool. I tried branching out to other areas of the discography, Microtonal Banana, MOTU, etc… and got a bit overwhelmed tbh, ha. KGLW kinda faded away for a while, though Nonagon stayed in regular rotation for me.
Being a Phish fan for >20 years, I am wary of how deep the rabbit hole can go for bands like this with large discographies and excellent live shows. So I kept KGLW at arms length… “I don’t need another band that takes up as much bandwidth in my life as Phish”, I foolishly thought to myself.
…and then they dropped The Dripping Tap. And that was it. Hook, line, and sinker.
Dove headfirst into the rest of the discography and was blown away by the fearless creativity, blatant disregard for genre norms, and relentless musical output. And its been glorious ever since!
Dripping Tap was easily the tipping point for me after Poly. It goes SO HARD. I’m right there with ya.
Paper Mache was definitely the first album I knew very well. Particularly Bone. My brother got me hooked on Most of What I Like. I enjoyed certain songs on certain albums and didn’t have a full appreciation for what they were doing at the full album level. Beginners Luck, Fishing for Fishies (the song). Were the first 3-4 tunes I really loved. Butterfly 3000 was the album release that got me in deep. Obviously most of my early Gizz is the softer stuff but then those October 2022 release albums accelerated things tremendously.
A good friend of mine was obsessed with Flying Microtonal Banana and has tons of show posters framed from 2017 shows and I specifically remember not really giving him the time of day to sell me on them back then.
Mycelium, honestly.
They kept on popping up on Apple Music metal playlists but I didn’t really engage until IDPLMAL came out.
I put on Mycelium and I was OBSESSED.
Went to my first show last year with my buddy who was already in the know, went on Gizz tour for the first time this year and now I already know this is gonna be a thing in my life for a long time
I listened to I’m In Your Mind Fuzz in 2020 and dug it enough to playlist a few tracks but it took seeing the Bonnaroo performance for it to click and actually seeing them live to fall head over heels.
Discovered them sometime between LW and BF3K. Heard Mind Fuzz and slowly got obsessed by end-of-year. Omnium catapulted me to for-lifer.
First heard of them on a podcast, Perfect Sounds, about Nonagon Infinity, it was about 30 seconds into Robot Stop.
The fourth color. Perfection
Free streams and seen they had no roadies. Stu tuned his g string and I instantly got a weggie!
Checked out the Mind Fuzz album based on some recommendations from a music message board I used to post on. That was February 2016. Over the next couple months I checked out PMDB and Quarters and FAFYL and continued to really like what I heard. But then Nonagon Infinity was released and I was hooked for life! My first show was about 3 weeks later.
My buddy used to work for the Flaming Lips and I guess they were big fans of Gizzard early on, my buddy turned me onto them in like 2011 I think. I’ve been seeing bands like Ween and widespread panic for years, so it was hard for me to break away and see another band live. I’m totally addicted to kglw now though
When I listened to IIYMF all the way through.
Was in 2019 after i heard FMB for the first time. Really dug it but I wanted to hear more. Catalogue was pretty daunting, so I picked an earlier album to try.
From the opening drumstick click, the familiar rhythms, the cover art, etc…everything was screaming to my senses. Amby’s psychedelic harmonica was the clincher. Then I got to the end… listened to Her and I over and over and over.
One day in 2015, I was hanging out with this girl in my dorm. We were in her room and she was playing music, and then this song – I don’t remember which one – came on. It was really good. I was like, “Who is this?” and she said, “This is a band called King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard; they’re awesome!”
I was like, huh, that’s a silly band name, and then didn’t listen to them again for five years.
Anyway, come December 2020 I saw K.G. at the top of the charts on a private torrent tracker and was like, “Hey, I remember those guys! Maybe I should check this out even though they have a silly band name.” So I downloaded it and listened.
It was one of those albums that I fell in love with my first time hearing it.
That said, it was only 2022 when they really “clicked” with me as a whole – Omnium Gatherum catapulted my love of them to a new level, and finally looking into the live albums turned me obsessive. I saw them my first four times that year!
I’m actually very grateful that I got into them when I did, because if I’d have listened to most of their others albums first I would have disregarded them entirely. As it is, I only really like half of their albums, and don’t care much for most of their pre-2017 discography.
I’ve also learned my lesson not to dismiss bands because they have silly names… that kept me from Viagra Boys and GoGo Penguin for a while.
Did not expect a James Acaster reference! I loved his book that the podcast is based on, and always thought 2016 was the best ever year in music (for a very long time at least).
Listened to Nonagon straight through (twice) and it was immediately game over. (Summer 2018)
Nonagon Infinity opens the door