My Top 10 Favorite Bands of All Time (at the moment, 5/4/09):
1. They Might Be Giants
2. Modest Mouse
3. Mountain Goats
4. Dinosaur Jr
5. The Jesus and Mary Chain
6. Ramones
7. The Who
8. Neutral Milk Hotel
9. Velvet Underground
10. Atom and His Package
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My Musical Taste Life Story: I am going to attempt to truthfully list what my favorite music was during different phases of my life growing up. I’m a nerd, so this seemed like a fun idea.

Elementary School (4th and 5th grade more specifically): ’90-’92
Weird Al Yankovic, MC Hammer, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie soundtrack and stuff my parents influenced- The Beatles, Paul McCartney (Ram), The Who, that Dire Straits song “Walk of Life”

Middle School: ’92-‘95
Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Weezer, Aerosmith, Weird Al Yankovic

High School: ’95-‘99
Lagwagon, Rancid, Nofx, Green Day, Goldfinger, Bad Religion, Strung Out, Mustard Plug, Less Than Jake, The Hippos, Mock Orange, They Might Be Giants, Aquabats, Alkaline Trio, Broadways, MU330, Blue Meanies, The Ramones. High School also included a period where I felt the need to sell everything that didn’t fit my narrow view of ‘punk’ including my Nirvana and Weezer albums which I later bought back.

College: ’99-‘03
Alkaline Trio, Saves the Day, Braid, Hey Mercedes, Modest Mouse, Atom and His Package, Mock Orange, Ben Folds/Five, Elliott Smith, Bad Astonaut, Red Hot Valentines, MU330, The Rentals, The Hippos, Moog Cookbook, They Might Be Giants, Weezer, Mates of State, Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion, Thursday

Post-College: ’03-Current
Modest Mouse, Mountain Goats, Mock Orange, Cougars, They Might Be Giants, and an increasing interest in older music including filling out my Stones, Beatles and Who collections, 80s SST albums, classic 70s punk and new wave, 50s rock n’ roll and earlier stuff in the folk/country/blues realms.