I used to absolutely hate Animal Collective and I had a couple close friends who were really into them. I sat down and listened to Sung Tongs like a couple months ago though, and now it's easily one of my top 10 albums of all time.

Suppose I could say Frank Zappa. Albeit I wouldn't say my 'peers' were his fans but rather the world. Early Zappa I was exposed to was just his later 70s, and 80s gimmicky stuff. Stuff like "Don't you Eat that Yellow Snow", and "Vallley Girl". Didn't really discover what he was about until years and years later.

i suppose i could say The Residents also

and it wasn't a "peer", just an electronic friend who was ranting and raving about them

only one day 5 years later after his recs did "The Commercial Album" suddenly clicked with me and i've been digging them ever since

"Meet the Residents" is awesome as well

I despised, hated, loathed King Crimson the first time I heard them. My friend let me borrow In the Court and I despised the whole album. But, I had a 30gb iPod with only 6 gigs of music, so I put it on there for the hell of it. I heard '21st Century Schizoid Man' on shuffle one day, and I kinda liked it. After like 20 listens, I convinced myself to listen to the rest of the album, and I absolutely loved it. I would probably have to say King Crimson is probably my favorite band of all time and one of a few I feel in debt to for expanding my musical horizons.

ditto "Duck Stab/Buster & Glen"

ween, caribou, the octopus project