the five, most important bands in your life

1.  pink Floyd -  when I lost my mind for a while when teenaged angst met the understandings of the trials of living as a soon to be adult hit, the wall and dark side controlled me and really contained the negative feelings inside tight.  no other music mattered but them and I loved the emotional issues it gave me.  don't listen to pink Floyd if you have mental problems.

2.  the dead milkmen  -  back after that, but still in the youth of high school days, this band got me through when I was feeling like a weirdo and some kind of introverted dork who could not relate to the jock or the redneck or the party people.  the dead milkmen speak to the unwelcome.

3.  ween -  the pod and pure guava were two albums that defined my upbringing when I became senior year and what was to be as a post high school into college craziness, where I finally blossomed into a socialable functioning freak.  ween helped me learn how to party.

4.  dinosaur jr.  -  I do love heavy guitar oriented music, and always have.  j defines what heavy and guitar god should be, to me.  never changing, always destroying.  yes, older age has mellowed the man, but during the days of green mind and where you been, my neck muscles from head banging and face muscles from smiling during solos, never hurt so good.

5.  phish  -  they were the band that started it all for me into jam.  this guy played  me a shitty sounding tape of a live show he got from trading god knows who for, and I just fell in love.  how does that happen?  you just listen and then you can't stop, and you have to see them and you have to find other people who listen to them and you have to then listen to every other damn jam band because you love that first band, so much.

the end.

Currently, or, of all time?

I think, since the fact I chronicled my loser self as a human pupa, with music, I would say . . . all time.

I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could give a serious list. So many bands meant the world to me growing up and still mean a lot to me even now. I could easily write a book that would just be a giant love letter to all the bands I have loved. I know that I can name 2 bands right now that would always be on this list, but the other three spots is impossible for me. Also, if this was to include solo artists, I would absolutely be in deep shit. Oh the angst of being a music nerd.

I no order,

The Smiths
The Rolling Stones Drive By Truckers
Old 97's
Wilco
Neil Young

but that list is so male-centric so I'll add:

Lucinda Williams
Gillian Welch

well I think he said "bands" so I take that to not include "solo acts"…..

hutch wrote:
well I think he said "bands" so I take that to not include "solo acts"…..

A majority of bands have one chief songwriter/leader, and some other people playing with that person because that person can't play all the instruments on their own at the same time. Whether they call themselves some faux moniker "band name" or go by their birth name seems like a technicality, doesn't it?

1) Fugazi - The kings of the DC scene that got me through middle school/high school when I felt terribly out of place and very lost and unsettled.  A relatively wholesome and protective scene that really helped me mature and grow. I am forever thankful that shows were all ages, that there was a straight edge component and that it really wasn't violent. 
2) Bikini Kill - Huge influence on my world view.  It was only much later that I realized just how much. 
3) Bob Dylan - Made me think about social justice in important ways.  Definitely helped shape my world view.  I wish that he wasn't such a disagreeable weirdo now, but his political music is still poignant to me even 50 years later.
4) Pete Seeger - Was really important to me at two distinct points in my life.  As a really young kid Pete Seeger sings animal songs was absolutely my favorite album and I listened to that thing till we'd worn the grooves down.  Later his labor songs were a huge part of my thought evolution.
5) Dead Kennedys - Yet another one of those bands that shaped my world view.  My cousin gave me a cassette of the Dead Kennedys when I was too young to understand them and what they were about.  I also thought the music was just horrible but I absolutely looked up to him so I kept trying.  Took me a long while before I appreciated it but no question is had a huge influence on my politics at a young age that continues today.

Space wrote:

hutch wrote:
well I think he said "bands" so I take that to not include "solo acts"…..

A majority of bands have one chief songwriter/leader, and some other people playing with that person because that person can't play all the instruments on their own at the same time. Whether they call themselves some faux moniker "band name" or go by their birth name seems like a technicality, doesn't it?

your own list belies your assertion as the Smiths had two songwriters working together as did the Stones… moreover, a "band" is usually a working "live unit"….the Stones without Charlie Watts on drums are hard to imagine…. even on record- sometimes- his contributions have been very noticeable.. he has a very distinctive drumming style….

Wilco is definitely the Jeff Tweedy show and calling them a band is a joke…… I dont' know who does what in the Old 97s……

Crazy Horse matters a lot to a hell of a lot of Neil Young fans….and Neil….

gavroche wrote:

4) Pete Seeger - Was really important to me at two distinct points in my life.  As a really young kid Pete Seeger sings animal songs was absolutely my favorite album and I listened to that thing till we'd worn the grooves down.  Later his labor songs were a huge part of my thought evolution.

I count myself very lucky to have seen him live around 2000….a privilege…

nine inch nails.  Nirvana.  Beastie Boys.  Radiohead.  Master P.

Placebo.  the Strokes.  Neil Diamond.  Cat Stevens.  CCR.

Pantera.  Helmet.  Quicksand.  Sepultura.  Metallica.

Modest Mouse.  Death Cab for Cutie.  The Polyphonic Spree.  Pearl Jam.  Pink Floyd.

Stop, cheating.  And please give some lengthy diatribe as to why such 5 bands control,  you so.  Please.

:o

All the music that I like is important to me, and I do not think I could make a top list of what is more important to me than other music.  Also I do not think I would want to get that deep into my personal life and explain stuff like why I was obsessed with Modest Mouse starting in 2004.  Maybe one day if we ever hang in person.  I try to watch out what I put out there in the digital world; always have, and always will.

Black Sabbath - they started it all and are better than most that have come after. Been listening to my Mom's Paranoid LP my whole life.

At The Drive-In - My best friend was obsessed with them way back when and showed me the way. I wasn't into punk at all until I heard ATDI. I have followed everything the guys have done since the initial break-up too. Love it all. Shaped my entire life since middle school.

Helmet - Something about them always resonated with me. I always felt like Page Hamilton and I were….uh..on the same page. He always sounds like he is strangling his guitar and that mixed with John Stainer's excellent drumming grab me and don't let go.

Killing Joke - Most consistent band of all time? These guys can do no wrong and it pains me to keep seeing them cancel shows. I thank Dave Grohl for introducing me to these titans.

Faith No more - ever since I got a second hand copy of Angel Dust on cassette in the late 90's I have been a super fan of Mike Patton and the boys. I got turned on to tons of other music through my love of FNM.

Picking five was hard, really hard. These are bands I constantly go back to and mean a lot to me.

forever changing:
love
miles davis bands and his band member's bands
velvet underground
nick cave & the bad seeds and side projects
fela kuti & africa '70/egypt '80

walk,on,by wrote:
Stop, cheating.  And please give some lengthy diatribe as to why such 5 bands control,  you so.  Please.

I enjoyed your diatribes, but can honestly say that though I'm a music fan, no band is all that important to me in the bigger picture of my life.