And these guys:

Hm, I guess I'm just used to the really weird 70's prog rock key changes that throw you a bit more..
YYZ is coming a lot more close, but specifically Yes would do really weird things.
The Ramones bit is like you said just kind of a build up chorus/energy and tension thing.

This is more or less the type of shit I am talking about.
Super gigantic, rock opera bullshit with lots of musical movement.

I think the 70's prog key changes were intentionally meant to be a bit unnatural and jarring. But really, key changes are fairly common in music, but their effect depends on how you implement them.

Troof.
I don't know, I just wish I knew how to use that in my music so I could convey that same huge, I KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I'M DOING sound.

This song goes from E to A once or twice ...

I mostly like droning things. Then ill-fitting changes.

Actually, i don't know all that many chords at all. I usually just mash my fingers around until i find an interesting (to me) blend of pretty and dissonant, and just hammer away at it. A lot of the stuff i like the most, i have come up with without actually looking at the guitar, or even knowing where i am fretting. That is one of the reasons i record stuff. I don't want to think about theory when i write. I want to hack away and make noise. If something comes out i like, i can go back and listen to figure out where my fingers were.

It is only once i have some sort of interesting two or more things that fit together without thinking about the theory, that i will go and figure out what chords and keys are going on, and what i want to do with it from there. Even then, i don't spend much time worrying about the details. Like "it is some kind of minor sounding C chord" sort of vague. I usually just do things that i like the sound of. Which probably means that there might be an awful lot of similarity between some of the things that i write, but again, i don't really worry about it. Even if the chord changes are exactly the same between two things, fuck it, the rest of it is going to be different enough. That is just how it goes. Just thing about how much has been done with the simplest fucking chord changes, it is more than interesting chord changes that make new things.

One case in point:

I'm so glad you posted Neutral Milk Hotel.

Cause evidently, that is the song that defines being a hipster. You hipster.

I am way too old to be a hipster.

This is true for me too. Like when Cam asked me what the chord progression to my song Strings was. I had to really sit there and think of what I was fretting, then look it up in a chord dictionary. That is the day I learned I use some pretty strange chords.

You can never be too old, or too young ...

Yeah, i know. I am pretty hip.

It is too bad actually. I have generally found about 98% of old hipsters to be pretty sad/creepy.

I think as long as you refrain from trying to hang out with young hipsters you are ok. That is what makes old hipsters sad, trying to run with the young guys in their 1930's hobo outfits.

I am not a songwriter in the traditional rock-and-roll way. I'm very much a synth composer in the Trent Reznor/Martin Gore/etc. sense. This came up in conversation re: mixing the other day with my band- I hear the mix in my head as I'm writing. The sonics and timbre of it are as important- more so, probably, as I'm writing, as the actual melody/harmony of the thing. Very rarely do I sit down with an instrument and write a song. I fuck around with sounds and rhythms and work from there. My background is in classical music; I sit down at something that has keys and write from there. Even when I was doing metal, I'd write most of my riffs on keys/piano and figure 'em out on guitar after I had the piece written-ish.

The sound of things and the relationships of sounds are what I'm on about; melody and chord changes are secondary. God(dess) knows I'm not a lyricist or singer. That, much like guitar and bass, are things I've picked up out of necessity to complete the noise I hear in my head. I suppose I've picked up a fair bit of skill at those over the years. They are just tools for me.

I never even liked playing live much until we formed Garda. It was a necessary evil. I would have been content fucking around in my studio for want of being able to put on a big stupid theatrical production- I like being on stage and performing and playing a role. I don't like gigging. There is a difference; think about it for a bit. I like having the lights and the scrim and the projections and the sequencer and all the goodies. As a live player, I'm pretty energetic- I have three broken fingernails and a bloody gash on my wrist and broke strings after two sets this weekend. But I digress.