Thank You David Bowie

Today we have lost a legend in the music business. He was not only a legend in music, but a pioneer, a fashion icon, an actor and an all around great guy. This morning, I turned on my phone, went to Twitter and saw that David Bowie had passed away.

I was shocked.

I first thought it was one of those celebrity death hoaxes. A couple of months ago there was a story being passed around the internet that Macauly Caulkin had passed away. I thought this was bizarre because I'd just seen his band, Pizza Underground, open for Har Mar Superstar. They were terrible, but I didn't think he should lose his life over it. It was found out about an hour later that he was still alive and all was well. That's what I thought when I read about David Bowie this morning. At least, that's what I hoped. But, further research proved that the stories online were true.

We lost David Bowie very unexpectedly. I really didn't know how to process this. I do not know him personally. I just came to his music about a decade ago, I was admittedly very late to his genius. I really liked him in "Zoolander" and "Labyrinth". But, I found myself pretty upset. It's not like losing a family member, but it still hurts. He was an inspiration to me musically. The first album of his I had was "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" and it completely changed my preconceived notion of his music. I assumed he was a disco, rock type of guy. He seemed more poppy than what I really like. Well, "ZSATSFM" totally floored me. It was rock, psychedelic and pop all blended perfectly together. Songs like "Soul Love" and "Five Years" and "Starman" are all classic pop songs. "Soul Love is beautiful and moving. "Five Years" is a very cool intro to this album. I like the quietness at the beginning and I love a song that explodes at the end, much like this one did. "Starman" is just an absolutely perfect pop song. Then there's the mega hits on this record, "Suffragette City" and "Moonage Daydream" and "Ziggy Stardust". "Suffragette City" is such a cool, punkish rock song that only Bowie could pull off. "Moonage Daydream" is the personification of the perfect psychedelic/pop song. And "Ziggy Stardust" has the hippest, coolest and most innovative guitar riff in almost all of rock music. The moment I first heard that riff, I went out and learned it on my Gibson immediately. I was so into the riff, I couldn't go on without teaching myself how to play it. The song, lyrically, is so perfect. I absolutely adore that song. I know that I'm only focusing on one of his albums, but why not this one that is so perfect. I know he has many, many other hits and beautiful songs, but "ZSATSFM" is his best and one of the best albums of all time. It's the perfect rock/psychedelic/pop album.

Bowie was a pioneer of the movement in the late 70's and early 80's of musicians taking on new personas. He became Ziggy Stardust, and all of the sudden, "new" people showed up. Without Stardust, we'd never gotten the band KISS. There'd be no new career for Rod Stewart, he would have disappeared just like Faces did. Mick Jagger, who was already mega famous, started to wear make up at the same time as Bowie and he became even more famous. These guys, and many more owe a lot to Bowie for being the first to do it and do it well.

As far as his acting career, I mean, how great and extremely weird was he in "Labyrinth". That movie is so nutso, but only a guy like Bowie could pull off that role and pull it off so awesomely. Try to imagine anyone else in that role, it's impossible. "Labyrinth" is one of the most bizarre movies I've ever seen, but Bowie's performance is so perfect, it makes that movie very enjoyable and very, very memorable. He was also excellent in his five minute part in "Zoolander". He just shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, and crushes it. He was funny. His hair was on point. He looked dashing. He seemed normal. And him judging the runway walk was so hilarious and so great. I loved when Stiller tried to pull his underwear off like Owen Wilson did, fails at this task and they cut to Bowie making a hilarious ouch face. It was great. I hope he had some kind of role in "Zoolander 2", since they already filmed it, because that would be great to see him one more time so we can remember how great of an actor he was. His movie choices were weird, but he pulled them off like only he could.

David Bowie was married twice, but you never heard of spats or disputes in public like we seem to with every other celebrity. I didn't know much about his first wife, but he's been with super model Iman for 14 years and they seemed to be very happily married and very happy to be with each other. Two beautiful people being married for that long and looking that good in the modern day social media society is incredibly admirable. I feel very upset for Iman. We, the fans, lost a musician and guy that we adored, she lost her husband whom she knew inside and out. I'm incredibly sorry for your loss Iman.

What I like most abut Bowie is the fact that while incredibly famous, he always seemed to come off as a genuinely good guy. There weren't any stories, at least not to my knowledge, of him taking his celebrity seriously. You never heard about off stage demands or illicit affairs from him. I'm sure he did a lot of drugs, who didn't in the 70's and 80's, but it didn't wreck his life. He was super cool all the way to the end of his life. He didn't seem to have any enemies or people that didn't like him. I've never run into someone that is not a fan of Bowie in some capacity. He was just an all around good guy for the most part. I'm sure he's made mistakes, but it was never really aired out in the media and who among us hasn't made mistakes.

David Bowie was an incredible artist and he will be missed. He's an influence to a countless number of people and will continue to influence people posthumously. Rest In Peace Mr. Bowie, you had a great life that was cut way, way too short. Enjoy making music with Freddie Mercury wherever the two of you are now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: LCD Soundsystem

SeedSing is filled with music lovers. We can not agree on who is the best band from the States. The Greatest American Band Debate will be a regular feature where we discuss and compare bands who started in the good old USA. If you have any suggestions of bands we should debate Contact us seedsing.rdk@gmail.com

My nomination this week for the Greatest American Rock band debate on our website I'm going to make the case for LCD Soundsystem.

I'm a huge fan of this band. They only made three albums, but dammit, they're three great albums and James Murphy is an alt/electronica/rock god. This band is so good, and they quit at the peak of their popularity, making their story about a thousand times cooler. I usually talk about albums during my debate, but with LCD Soundsystem, I'm going to talk more about their many, many awesome songs and people that they played with regularly. I'm also going to touch upon why James Murphy is so great. And I'll close everything out talking about the fantastic concert film, "Shut Up and Play the Hits".

So, let's get to the songs. Some great tunes from LCD Soundsystem's catalog include, "Daft Punk is Playing at my House", "Sounds of Silver", "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down", "Dance Yrself Clean", "Us V Them", "Never Tired As When I Wake Up", and "Drunk Girls", among many, many others. These particular songs just happen to be my favorites, and the reasons why I'm nominated them today. "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" is a great introduction to the band. The song has a pretty cool guitar groove with some great drums and vocals. The song is about setting up for a Daft Punk show at James Murphy's home. This song is LCD Soundsystem at their criticizing peak. The song is a joke and it's awesome. Let "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" be your guide to all the great, "silliness" that is LCD Soundsystem. "Sounds of Silver" is a pretty awesome, pretty straight forward rock and roll song. It starts out with some acapella singing from Murphy and then morphs into a traditional rock song, that totally works. While it is a traditional rock song, LCD Soundsystem adds their twist to it, and it works to perfection. It's a great opener to the album of the same name. "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down" is such a sad, yet sweet song about the state that this band formed. It's a beautiful song, accompanied by some eloquent, sad piano playing. when the guitar comes in, it's such a cool change of pace. The song is slow, for the most part, but when the two guitars come in, distortion heavy I might add, it transform into an excellent rock song. I love this song. It makes me feel like I'm in New York, although I've never been there, and I feel their pain about longing for the city that New York used to be. Lyrics like, "your millionaire mayor is now convinced he's a king", or "New York I love you, but you're freaking me out", are so beautifully poetic and at the same time sad. I love this song. "Dance Yrself Clean" is LCD Soundsystem at their absolute best. The song starts out with a 2 and a half minute quiet opening with only Murphy's vocals and what sounds to be either a single bass or piano note. The lyrics are almost unintelligible and you keep waiting and waiting for what's going to come next. After the intro, the song bursts into a heavy electronic/rock song that is so groovy, you can't help but dance to it. There's awesome keyboard, guitar and drums in this song. Murphy's vocals, as you get further and further into the song, get better and better. This is my favorite song of theirs by far. The song goes back and forth between the quiet intro and heavy verse and chorus. I love everything about this song. Stop reading this, go listen to this 7 and a half minute epic, and come back and finish this blog. Best LCD Soundsystem song by far. "Us V Them" is so heavy and fast, I thought it was a punk song the first time I heard it. It's heavy on the guitar and the solos in this song are so awesome. In the live version, this song lasts about ten minutes, and it's so great. Once again, Murphy crushes the vocals, at one point basically screaming the words. This is the heaviest sounding LCD Soundsystem song in their entire catalog. "Never Tired As When I Wake Up" has the band doing another slow song. It's got sweet, quiet, soulful vocals from Murphy and the band playing behind him plays very slowly and sweetly. It's almost like a lullaby. The song is about being tired of life and the things going on around you. But, the worst part is how tired you are when you awake from a deep sleep. They posite the thought, that, at least when you're sleeping, you can dream away the bad feelings. But, in the end, you wake up and go about your day, no matter how tired you are. This is actually a very sad lullaby. "Drunk Girls" has the band back at their punk rock core. Fast paced with lots of bass and drums. It's another "silly" song from the band. It's about how stupid all people get when they're drunk. The title is meant to be satirical. This is a good, short song from the band. These are all great songs and anyone thinking about listening to the band, use these songs as your gateway.

Next, James Murphy's awesomeness. James Murphy is, in my opinion and a lot of others, an alt rock god. He's so cool and confident and great at what he does. He even wore full, three piece suits when the band performed live. He had and has a style that is all his own. People don't compare him to anyone else, because there's no one else like him. He's unique. His contemporaries adore him as well. The band Arcade Fire loves James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem. They were influenced by him and the band in my opinion (ed note: James Murphy did produce Arcade Fire's last album Reflektor). Reggie Watts and James Murphy performed live a bunch of times. Murphy has even gotten into acting lately and made friends with alt comic geniuses Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Basically, James Murphy might be the coolest person on the planet. He's an awesome dude.

Which brings me to my last point and reason they belong in the debate, the concert film, "Shut Up and Play the Hits". This movie chronicles their last concert they ever performed as a band at Madison Square Garden. This might be the best concert film ever made. That's right, I think it's better than "The Last Waltz" or "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" or any other concert movie you put up against it. This is a phenomenal portrait of what it's like to put on a show and how hard it is for a band to quit. There's so many emotions running through everybody in the band, the performers that played with them and even the fans. The fans are so excited for the show, but they also don't want it to end, because they know, this is it. They have never performed live or in the studio as LCD Soundsystem since this show. The movie moves seamlessly from the band back stage being emotional, to them performing their hits, to the crowd cheering and dancing and crying. They close out the show with "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down", and the song lasts forever. They don't want the show to end and neither do the fans. The house lights come up, but the band is still playing and they even drop balloons on the sold out crowd, that's still there. This movie is enough for me to put them in the greatest American band debate, but all the other reasons I've mentioned make my case even stronger.

So, these are the reasons I nominate LCD Soundsystem for greatest American band. Tell me why I'm wrong or right in the comment section, and go out and listen to the awesome band known as LCD Soundsystem.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor and co host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The head editor suggest Ty give Reflektor a listen, he can borrow the editor's copy. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.