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.