Back between the years of 1999 and 2001, if you'd asked me who my favorite musician was, I'd have said 'hide', without a second thought. The king of J-rock back in the day, one of its true pioneers, Japanese rock artist 松本 秀人(Matsumoto Hideto) was iconic in the Japanese music scene. Toward the end of his life, hide even was friendly with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and a handful of other great musicians of the late 90's.

It began for me as an obsession caused by a want to latch on to one of the few pieces of my first five-month experience in Japan I could understand, music. Regardless of not being able to understand the lyrics of the music at the time, the one thing that I knew for sure was that I enjoyed the sound of hide's music, and that was enough for me. One of my classmates knew that I loved music, played the guitar, and had long hair, so he made a mix tape for me to listen to, and some guitar tab of the song, 'Pink Spider', for me to learn on the electric guitar, so that we could be a hide cover band.

I ate that stuff up.

hide was the musical equivalent of crack for me in my last year of high school, and during essentially the entire time that I spent in community college. My windows background was black, with hide's face in blue, my WinAmp sported a 'hide with spread beaver' (Spread Beaver is one of hide's backup bands) skin, and I eventually dyed my hair a handful of funky colors inspired by his band members (and a desperate want to change myself, at the time).

Recently, I haven't really listened to much of his music - I still own every CD he's released solo, and one or two X-Japan cd's as well. And those I don't already have, were not for a lack of trying or money. Even a 'Teach yourself hide music - unplugged!' CD - but it's not at the top of my list anymore. Still, when I listen to his music, I get a great sense of nostalgia, and the tumult of mixed emotions that that particular chapter in my life brought along with it.

hide with Spread Beaver - Pink Spider

hide (Zilch) - Bacteria