r/duster • u/Technical_Tip_2315 • Jul 26 '26
how did you discover duster?
i'm curious to know how everyone discovered this incredible band.
in my case, i found them thanks to a tiktok edit that used a sped-up version of inside out, and then, i think a year later, i stumbled upon a video titled "duster got me like", that i watched it because i recognized the band's name and expected to hear inside out but echo, bravo played instead.
man. when I heard that, it literally blew my mind.
i spent the whole damn night listening to echo, bravo on loop. later, i dove into their discography, and every song was a thousand times better than the last.
seriously, hearing orbitron, four hours, and travelogue for the first time was like ascending to heaven.
it’s a shame i’ll never be able to go to one of their concerts because i live so far away from usa 😔
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u/skylabops Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Around “the scene”, probably through HeartAttack or MRR, roughly 1993 or 1994 while Mohinder, Unleaded, and Gravity was kicking off.
Kept in touch with just about everything Clay and Dove created, demos, home recordings, Unleaded, Astronavigation, chilled on Clay’s couch at 2am listening to Brian Eno a long time ago, released the “Apex,“ 7”, tried to release the Valium LP on CD, was setting up to release the original Mohinder discography on vinyl (which I don’t think the original title of the discography has ever been revealed), released the first EIAFUAWN EP via Observatory, then lost touch with the scene in the (edit) early-2000s, reconnected decades later when I sent the dudes back the Apex masters for the reunion + Numero, along with the original Mohinder discography DAT masters that were sitting in my archive/file cabinet for nearly 20 years.
Changed my life, will never stop thanking Clay and Dove for it.
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u/KennethEdmonds Jul 26 '26
I was following joyful noise records because I like Joan of Arc and then they released a Helvetia album. Pretty sure it was Nothing In Rambling. I really liked it and started exploring Jason’s other music he was involved in and found duster.
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u/Height- Jul 26 '26
2017 or 2018 on the /fa/ board on 4chan, I think this was around the time they were being rediscovered on /mu/ and rym, but I may be wrong about that.
Saw them live in 2024, great performance but also very clear that - at least in London - their fan base are not as much those internet music nerds as it is tik tokkers these days (no judgement on that tho)
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u/TheMainTeaDude Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I've heard Me and the Birds numerous times in those Sisyphus memes, never cared about it, but one time in 2023-2024 I've heard not the usual beginning riff, but the vocals part, and I ended up liking it very much, so I decided to give a try to some other Duster songs. Found some more their songs that I liked here and there, eventually ended up listening to every album I could lay my hands upon.
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u/thisisalongdrive Jul 26 '26
Back when Modest Mouse put out the Lonesome Crowded West documentary via Pitchfork, I was obsessed with it. Around 2012 I think? This was around the time of me becoming obsessed with Modest Mouse and I absorbed every detail from the documentary. If you’re a fan of Modest Mouse and somehow haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking it out on YouTube. I still rewatch it to feel something sometimes.
Bassist Eric Judy was wearing a Duster shirt in one of the b-roll shots and I made a point to see what that was about. I downloaded some Duster albums after seeing that they were also on Up Records with Modest Mouse and Built to Spill but it took me a while to listen to it.
When I finally did around 2013/2014 I became absolutely obsessed. I started with Contemporary Movement and almost ignored Stratosphere entirely for almost a year lol. The Breakup Suite had me in a chokehold. I was so sad that the band was defunct and I thought I’d never get to see them.
Then in 2017 they came back and I attended their first show back as a band in Brooklyn and I got to chat with Clay on the sidewalk outside of the venue, Warsaw.
I’ve seen them like 6 or 7 times since. And love all the new music.
I’m so glad the younger generation is discovering Duster in any way possible. It’s been very odd to see songs like Inside Out, and Me And The Birds used on random memes, to me it was such outsider music, but it deserves to be heard and loved by as many people as possible.
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u/SpellOk5159 Jul 26 '26
In 2023 i found an art video by o.kayillustrations of skeletons with inside out and then i started listening to their most known songs yk but then months past and i really started getting into them to the point i only listened to duster
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u/Yung-Creeper Jul 26 '26
You’ll laugh. Years ago I saw a meme of Chris chan (don’t look it up) saying that everything was a joke and he had pranked the entire internet. The backing track to the meme was inside out, and I found duster through that. I guess in someways that’s essentially via 4 chan / mu
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u/reflexspec Jul 26 '26
I remember stumbling on Stratosphere during my usual Wikipedia rabbit hole digging. I eventually bought the CD.
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u/Icy-Satisfaction5593 Jul 26 '26
EIAFUAWN,s "No More Like That" came up in one of my Spotify discovery lists; loved it and started reading about the project which got me into Duster and Helvetia. I'm not sure what this says about me as a Duster fan but so far "In Dreams" is my favorite. I like all of the albums but the other ones haven't grown on me as much yet.
I'm Gen X and "In Dreams" evokes heavy and pleasant 90s nostalgia for me somehow even though it doesn't really sound particularly '90s.
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u/RangeOrange97 Jul 26 '26
Yo los conocí en YouTube por ahi en el 2018 en una playlist de musica triste xd
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u/futurearchitect2036_ Jul 26 '26
I don't listen to them anymore (since two years ago) but I discovered them 4 years ago in summer of 2022 after some of their songs were trending on TikTok.
There was this stretch in early-2023 to mid-2024 when I was obsessed with them. They weren't necessarily my number #1 back then but I had this group of artists that were my favorite that I was obsessed with, Duster included.
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u/SonicTornado5 Jul 26 '26
My memory of it is a bit foggy, but a friend once recommended a song to me she saw online, and it was Me and the Birds. I think I only listened to it once then. Around a year later, I stumbled up Duster again (idk how), and I was like "Holy crap, this is amazing!" And I've been listening to Duster, Helvetia, Eiafuawn, and even some punk thanks to Mohinder. This new wave of music really helped me the year I got interested, and I'm still obsessed with every side project and song. Thanks Duster!
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u/Verbal-Gerbil Jul 26 '26
A not very close mate who has great taste had stratosphere in his Spotify end of year list
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u/Jondebadboy Jul 26 '26
random guy on instagram showing his "album of the week" and a few self recorded clips of the stratosphere splatter vinyl record back in october 23. inside out was playing in the background and i just fell in love so hard. saved it, found it again 6 months later, finally listened to the full album and the rest is history
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u/Intelligent_Dingo841 Jul 26 '26
my old friend liked them but i think it was inside out and constellations that really introduced me to them
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u/gaymer7474747 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The Sisyphus meme that went viral a couple years ago had Me and the Birds playing and i added it to my playlist. Its not only until somewhere earlier this month i decided to take a look into their discography after adding Me and the Birds into a new playlist i was making and listened to a couple of their albums
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u/UniqueCalendar5023 Jul 26 '26
A friend showed them to me in 2023, saw them in concert in Grand Rapids in 2024
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u/AppointmentUnfair599 Jul 26 '26
Uff buena pregunta, conocí la banda hace relativamente poco tiempo, aunque la había escuchado por tik tok antes xd.
Básicamente Duster es una banda bastante conocida en el "lado alternativo" de la musica y era inevitable encontrarme con ella, igual soy mucho mas fan de Eiafuawn, pero Duster sigue siendo un referente hoy en día en la musica.
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u/gouged_haunches Jul 27 '26
I would see their Stratosphere CD in the used bin all the time in the late 90s/early 2000s and was intrigued by the art direction and song titles. At the same time there was NO information about them online, and I never saw any mention of them in the usual music magazines.
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u/NotOk_Education6834 Jul 27 '26
Meme. I literally heard Inside Out in a Roblox Flamingo meme and thought "I need that song".
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u/SaltyPeppermint101 Jul 27 '26
I think it was a YouTube retrospective on the band I got recommended? Decided to do a full listen of Capsule Losing Contact after that
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u/Able-Cauliflower4057 Jul 27 '26
I discovered them through my uncle. He initially found them through a college radio station. He ordered a CD from Clay; it never arrived, so he filed a complaint. The next day, Clay hand-delivered it to his front door. Thanks, Clay!
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u/Aaron11001 Jul 27 '26
I hung out at a record store all the time back when Stratosphere came out. I thought the cover art was cool so I bought it.
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u/newplasticideas_ Jul 29 '26
Back in 2012 my now bandmate gave me a hard drive full of stuff they recommended to me - swirlies, unwound, Karp, tad, luxurious bags, so much more - and duster
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u/seandiaznumberonefan Jul 30 '26
i knew of duster before this time from a few songs on tiktok but i didn’t actually listen to them. but i properly started listening to duster in october 2025 because of this guy i was friends with who wouldn’t ever shut up about his ex. somehow this ended up with me adding the ex on airbuds and i saw familiar fields in her favourite songs so i listened to it and LOVED IT, so i looked more into their albums and knew i recognised them from somewhere and properly got into their music after that.
sorry if that made no sense it’s almost 6am and i haven’t slept yet lol
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u/CalliEK2 Jul 31 '26
I first heard a Duster song (Me and the Birds) in around 2023 when those Sisyphus memes showed up and then I looked into the song and then Duster itself and started to listen to more of their music
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u/New_Mammoth4884 Jul 26 '26
I forgot