two roads diverged

i'm diverging from veterinary medicine briefly to talk about another passion of mine...

i've loved music for as long as i can remember. for the first decade of my life, i was very limited in my musical tastes. my parents raised me on "oldies" - the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. johnny cash, marty robbins, elvis presley, the big bopper, chubby checker, the beatles...for the longest time, i thought that was the only music that was worth a damn. when i was 10, i started to branch out on my own and experiment with my own musical tastes. i retained a love for the oldies and that has never waned. yet at the age of 10, i was ready to forge my own way.

my tastes since then have been eclectic - to say the least. in 5th grade when i first heard '3am eternal' - i thought i was hearing genius. i worshipped KLF - a forgotten (and undeservedly so, i contend) British acid house/ambient band (according to the all-knowing wiki god), although compared to current ambient (aka boards of canada, age of rockets, explosions in the sky, M83, appogee) - it's a completely different sound. much more frantic.

i still love KLF and i think the white room is genius.

another offbeat band that i was introduced to in high school (my best friend was way more cool and way more up on the underground scene) was messiah - a techno/trance/? group that heavily sampled other songs and artists to create a frenetic album (21st century jesus) that had a huge impact on my appreciation for techno/trance/ambient/dance/house, etc. i still love it, although finding a copy of the original is a bit of a challenge - mine having gone the way of many of my CDs.

i still have a very strong taste for techno. i still, after all these years, love lords of acid - shock sex techno though they were. i'm not "up" with the underground music scene as much as i wish i was - having lately moved over to the prog rock side of things.

i think that my love of techno has kind of bled over into the ambient rock genre. appogee is one of my recent acquisitions that i'm rather fond of, as well as caterpillars.

caterpillars i cannot take credit for - my brother put them on his myspace, i merely followed my ears (and the link). i've been sucked in entirely - which - since they only have 2 songs on the web currently - is not a good thing. i need more. as yet unsigned, they are releasing their EP soon. i'm happy about that, since at the moment, i cannot tote them around with me on my ipod. that makes me sad.

the song 'bury your words' does something to me. it's dreamy, ethereal, and makes me feel a yearning i can't really describe. maybe only a yearning to strive for something better, to strive for something beyond the here and now.

i love it.

"bury your words beneath this insane earth,
in a silence found only beneath the dirt.
no i don't want to hear what i've heard before,
wanna escape this place and find something that offers more."

and the lead singer works at a vet clinic (a kindred spirit musically and with the fluffies!).

check them out: www.myspace.com/caterpillarss

if anyone has any other musical suggestions - i am ALL ears. i'm in a musical rut as of late, sadly. i'm going to see the avett brothers in november, so at least i have something to look forward to - but other than that...nada. the hellsayers are playing sporadically in asheville, but i can't get away to go see them. another unsigned band that i adore: www.myspace.com/thehellsayers.

albums everyone should own:
grandaddy: the sophtware slump, under the western freeway
the hellsayers: the lonesome sea
the avett brothers: emotionalism
rogue wave: descended like vultures
band of horses: everything all the time
cary ann hearst (still unsigned DAMMIT!): dust and bones
anything by arcade fire

i go back on emergency work tomorrow through monday - 12pm-12am shifts for 4 days. i'm sure i'll be back on tuesday with lots of stories to tell. for those that pray, pray for my sanity.