First listened April '06, I think, when "Code Monkey" showed up on Slashdot. Then I found Spiff's videos and got further hooked. Really started listening avidly around mid '07.
I guess sometime in '05 I heard Mandelbrot Set and thought it was great (I was a math major way back when). Then in the summer (or spring) of '06, a couple blogs I read had Spiff's video for Re Your Brains. I thought that it was awesome. In the comment section, somebody was saying that the singer was even better live because the whole audience gets to sing the zombie parts. The commenter also recommended Code Monkey. So I went off to YouTube where I found both Spiff's and Emily's Code Monkey videos as well as several live recordings of many of his songs. My destiny as a JoCo fanboi was sealed the moment I realized "ZOMG! That's the Mandelbrot Set singer!!"
Thanks Robgonzo, for bringing this awesome thread back from the dead.
I've been listening since Jan/Feb 2008, when I happened upon a couple of Spiff videos, which led me to a long, happy night watching as many JoCo youtube vids as I could find. Actually, I guess it's been nearly a long, happy two-years now.
What I really want to say though, is who is Murgatroyde, why did he only post here once, and how can we persuade him to post his "Greatest Hits" tape for all to hear??
Sometime in 2006, a friend played several songs for me like Better, Code Monkey, Skullcrusher Mountain and First of May. Started reading the blog towards the end of TaW. Went to my first show in October 2006 with maybe 40 people in the audience, listened endlessly in my car for months to the two CDs I bought and have been slavishly devoted ever since.
My memory for details and dates is terrible, but I _think_ the first JoCo song I heard was an episode of Escape Pod -- episode 42 from 2006. That podcast included "Skullcrusher Mountain" at the end. At some point past that I heard "Code Monkey" and made the connection, found his web site, started listening to tracks, and eventually bought just about everything. I'm pretty sure Thing a Week was done by that point -- I kind of regret not having been able to follow that as it developed. But through listening endlessly, I was pretty familiar with this work by the time I saw the Pontiac, MI show.
Cool, I often wonder the year I found JoCo, and here in this thread I say...2005.....of course I could always figure it out, but that is too much like hard work.
Spring of 2007 I think, when I first saw "Re:Your Brains" and then "Code Monkey" by Spiff. "Brains" got me interested, "Monkey" got me hooked on Spiff and from there to JoCo. Went to my first concert on September 2007 up near Philly, and I have gone total fangirl ever since. Considering my age, I gotta admit- this second childhood thing is kinda fun!
I managed to miss several opportunities to learn about JoCo. I skipped PAX '07 for various reasons. When Portal came out, picture this conversation with my boyfriend:
BF: "...and the end song is by Jonathan Coulton!"
Me: "Who?"
BF: "... Jonathan. COULTON!"
Me: "... Who?"
After which he immediately played the two JoCo songs he really liked ("Skullcrusher Mountain" and "Ikea".) I thought they were ok, but did not pay much attention and promptly forgot all about it.
As a result, I know exactly when I became a Jonathan Coulton fan: August 30, 2008, shortly after midnight, two or three songs into his set at PAX. When I tell this story I normally include the exact words that I said to my boyfriend at the time, but it seems unwise to commit them to writing. I upgraded to "total fangirl" at about 12:30am, September 6, 2009, when JoCo sang a song about Wil Wheaton.
I had first heard Re Your Brains on GKOL (It's a radio station run by players of Kingdom of Loathing) during spring or summer 2007. I enjoyed it, but didn't give it much thought. Sometime later I decided to see if I could find it on YouTube, and I found Spiff's video. The video was pretty meh, but the credits song he had used for that video was Mandelbrot Set. Being a total math nerd, I fell in love. I didn't look up anything else for awhile, though. When I did, I listened to every single song on the Music page. I didn't really care for most of them the first time I listened to them, but that happens a lot with me.
I had a co-worker play me Code Monkey on his iPod about two years ago, and I immediately went online to find my own copy of the song, which led me to the rest of JoCo. Inevitably Spiff's videos were involved, as tends to happen when you search YouTube for a JoCo song. The weird thing is that said co-worker never got into JoCo fandom beyond casual Code Monkeying.
Well if everyone is telling stories...Like everyone else, I'd heard a joco song hear n there. I think the first one was the chiron beta prime video; but, I really didn't take notice until this ukulele chick I knew of won a remix contest.
Sure, why not. I first heard JoCo on October 28th, 2007. It was about 9 pm. The song was re: Your Brains.
I found it because of this blog post by Wil Wheaton, in which he linked to Week 26 of the Thing A Week blog. I liked the song and listened to the rest of TaW. Instant fan.
I started listening to Jonathan Coulton when I heard "Still Alive" in Portal, somewhere around April or May 2009. I thought it was the most hilarious song I've ever heard.
According to my iTunes 'added' date, the first song I listened to was Bacteria on 23 May, 2006. This surprises me a little, since I thought I'd discovered him via the link to Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms from the MASSIVE database. In fact that album (along with 17 other songs, probably the free ones) wasn't added to my iTunes library until 5 June, 2006. But Bacteria is also linked from MASSIVE, so I assume that's where I found it. Then I subscribed to Thing a Week and I can see that on 17 June I went through and downloaded all the old Things A Week. I remember being surprised to discover A Laptop Like You (which I first noticed listed on last.fm) and a few others on 17 October 2007 because by then I was a bona fide fan who visited his site often and had actually paid for some stuff (though I admit, I went through and bought only the tracks I couldn't get for free. I've bought a lot more stuff since then), and I thought I had everything.
After that I start seeing evidence of real fandom with the various tracks from awryone's page, and a whole lot of live shows (including ones I recorded myself), fan covers/remixes, etc. It's partly because of this that JoCo is by far my most listened artist on last.fm... with 495 tracks (many live) I can't help but listen to him a lot.
Like a few of the above, I can't resist the smart alecky post. First heard JoCo when I purchased a copy of the Spizzwinks(?) CD "One Coin, One Play". That must have been when I was on campus for The Game in the fall of 1993 and then went to a jamboree of a capella singing groups during the evening. Of course, I had no clue who he was at the time other than simply a member of the Spizzwinks(?)
A few months ago, my 14-year old played "Mandelbrot Set" for me and that's the first time I heard him in his current incarnation. My son had been introduced to him through "Still Alive" while playing "Portal".
I hate to break it to you, but you'd most likely be sorely disappointed by a 1993 Spizzwinks(?) concert. JoCo was class of '93. The Whiffs consist solely of male seniors who are almost invariably "tapped" (i.e. selected) from other singing groups in the spring of their junior year to join for the following year. So, JoCo would have been tapped in the spring of '92 and during the 92-93 school year would have been singing with the Whiffs after having been with the Spizzwinks(?) the past 3 school years. He very well might have joined the Spizzwinks(?) in an occasional concert during the year, though. The life of a Whiff is a demanding one. It's not that uncommon for members to take at least one or both semesters off from school to devote themselves to performing. They have a large number of performances during the year. For example, I'm going to see them in a few weeks at Carnegie Hall where they'll be joined by the Harvard Krokodiloes and the Princeton Tigertones. And they almost always conclude the year with a world tour during the summer.
The short answer, though, is that you'd probably want to see that video from sometime during the 91-92 school year. Even though JoCo was most likely with the group for three years, he'd most likely have more solo roles in his last active year with them.
Sorry for the confusion. I bought the CD in the Fall of 1993 when I saw the Spizzwinks(?) sans JoCo. At that point it must have been the most recent CD they had recorded so they were hawking it. Yale singing groups usually didn't record a new one each year.
I started listening to JoCo a couple of months before I joined these boards, so that would have been four years ago. I was listening to The Sound of Young America archives and heard acoustic versions of three songs there. It was "The Future Soon" that really hooked me.
Around Jan 11th 2009 apparently. I can't remember if I got The Orange Box June 2008, or June 2009, but I didn't listen to JoCo hardcore until I started posting on the forums.
I just found out that my "The Aftermath" folder only has the first four songs in it... now I have to go and find them on his blog myself... [I also only have the GLaDOS version of Still Alive right now].
Comments
I've been listening since mid '07
I've been listening since Jan/Feb 2008, when I happened upon a couple of Spiff videos, which led me to a long, happy night watching as many JoCo youtube vids as I could find. Actually, I guess it's been nearly a long, happy two-years now.
What I really want to say though, is who is Murgatroyde, why did he only post here once, and how can we persuade him to post his "Greatest Hits" tape for all to hear??
BF: "...and the end song is by Jonathan Coulton!"
Me: "Who?"
BF: "... Jonathan. COULTON!"
Me: "... Who?"
After which he immediately played the two JoCo songs he really liked ("Skullcrusher Mountain" and "Ikea".) I thought they were ok, but did not pay much attention and promptly forgot all about it.
As a result, I know exactly when I became a Jonathan Coulton fan: August 30, 2008, shortly after midnight, two or three songs into his set at PAX. When I tell this story I normally include the exact words that I said to my boyfriend at the time, but it seems unwise to commit them to writing. I upgraded to "total fangirl" at about 12:30am, September 6, 2009, when JoCo sang a song about Wil Wheaton.
I found it because of this blog post by Wil Wheaton, in which he linked to Week 26 of the Thing A Week blog. I liked the song and listened to the rest of TaW. Instant fan.
After that I start seeing evidence of real fandom with the various tracks from awryone's page, and a whole lot of live shows (including ones I recorded myself), fan covers/remixes, etc. It's partly because of this that JoCo is by far my most listened artist on last.fm... with 495 tracks (many live) I can't help but listen to him a lot.
And thats all I have to say about that.
Hope that made you feel better
A few months ago, my 14-year old played "Mandelbrot Set" for me and that's the first time I heard him in his current incarnation. My son had been introduced to him through "Still Alive" while playing "Portal".
I hate to break it to you, but you'd most likely be sorely disappointed by a 1993 Spizzwinks(?) concert. JoCo was class of '93. The Whiffs consist solely of male seniors who are almost invariably "tapped" (i.e. selected) from other singing groups in the spring of their junior year to join for the following year. So, JoCo would have been tapped in the spring of '92 and during the 92-93 school year would have been singing with the Whiffs after having been with the Spizzwinks(?) the past 3 school years. He very well might have joined the Spizzwinks(?) in an occasional concert during the year, though. The life of a Whiff is a demanding one. It's not that uncommon for members to take at least one or both semesters off from school to devote themselves to performing. They have a large number of performances during the year. For example, I'm going to see them in a few weeks at Carnegie Hall where they'll be joined by the Harvard Krokodiloes and the Princeton Tigertones. And they almost always conclude the year with a world tour during the summer.
The short answer, though, is that you'd probably want to see that video from sometime during the 91-92 school year. Even though JoCo was most likely with the group for three years, he'd most likely have more solo roles in his last active year with them.
I guess I misunderstood your previous post though. Didn't you say you saw him with the Spizzwinks in the Fall of 1993?
I just found out that my "The Aftermath" folder only has the first four songs in it... now I have to go and find them on his blog myself...