The Greatest American Band Debate: Robert Johnson

For the greatest American band debate, I'm going to go off the board and nominate a solo artist. I know this is "against the rules" and it doesn't fit the title, but without this musician, modern rock and roll and modern blues wouldn't exist. Those are, arguably, the two most important genres of music. This person is also a personal musical idol of mine and it pains me that I've waited this long to put this person in the conversation. I know, people will tell me that this opens up a while new can or worms and makes solo artists viable for this discussion, but the person I'm going to talk about today is so groundbreaking, he deserves to be talked about more than any other American musician, in my personal opinion. I did a whole article on influential bands, but this guy deserves his own, separate piece. He is a blues god and, without him, I never would have even thought about picking up a guitar. The artist I'm talking about is Robert Johnson.

It does not get any better than Robert Johnson for me. He is a legendary figure in music. He is, at least to me, the greatest musician of all time. He even has a very cool, very crazy backstory. Anyone that knows blues music, and knows of Robert Johnson, has heard the story about him meeting the devil at the crossroads and selling his soul to be an excellent singer and guitar player. If he did truly do this, he got what he wanted for the large price of his soul. He is the greatest guitar player ever. Go back and listen to him play.

Some will say that it sounds simple and blues music is just three chords and 12 bars. Not true. The stuff he was doing, in the 20's mind you, was so far ahead of the game, it's astounding. He was so ahead of his time as a guitar player. Take a song like "Come on in My Kitchen". It is one of the first times anyone had heard this incredible 12 bar blues and that sliding sound he was playing on the guitar. It was so foreign to people back then and he was just getting started. Some of his songs, which he wrote, are some of the most famous songs in music history and have been covered thousands of times by hundreds of musicians and bands. "Sweet Home Chicago" is one of the most famous blues songs. Robert Johnson wrote that. "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", the first song I learned on slide guitar and has been covered by some famous musician every decade since the 50's, Robert Johnson wrote that. "30-20" blues, the first blues song to break away from the traditional 12 bar blues, Robert Johnson wrote that. "They're Red Hot", the first blues/rag time type song, Robert Johnson wrote that. "Stop Breakin Down Blues", the first rock/blues song, Robert Johnson wrote that. "Phonograph Blues", one of the first songs about getting a phone call, Robert Johnson wrote that. "Rambling On My mind", one of the first country/blues songs, Robert Johnson wrote that. I mean, I could go on and on, but I feel like that is a great sample size of all the brilliant stuff that Robert Johnson created.

Robert Johnson is THE most influential artist of all time. Yeah, he was taught and brought into the music world by Son House, another one of my favorites and a legend, but Robert Johnson took what Son House taught him and rose it to a historic level. He made blues music that much better and that much more influential. And when Son House turned to religion, Robert Johnson stayed dark and continued to make excellent, groundbreaking music.

Let's take a look at some of the artists that have covered his stuff. and yes, not all of these bands are American, but the point is the influence Robert Johnson had on all music. Led Zepellin and the Rolling Stones have covered pretty much every song written by Robert Johnson and a lot of those songs are some of their biggest hits. "Traveling Riverside Blues", on the album "Led Zepellin: Live at the BBC" is one of their biggest and best songs. Jimmy Page does his best Robert Johnson impression and he crushes it. The Rolling Stones "Love in Vain" is a humongous hit for them and that wouldn't have been possible if not for Robert Johnson. Eric Clapton has covered a ton of Robert Johnson songs, hell, he made an entire album that is all Robert Johnson songs, but his best is "Sweet Home Chicago". Clapton shreds this song and he owes it all to Robert Johnson. A band I wrote about last week, The White Stripes, do an excellent cover of "Stop Breakin Down Blues". They make it a rock song, but they also pay homage to Johnson by keeping the lyrics the same. "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" has been covered by everyone from Elmore James to The Red Shirt Freshman(my brothers loving name given to my "band").

Robert Johnson was taken far too young, at the tender age of 28. Some people say it was the devil coming to collect payment, others say he died from syphilis. While the syphilis is the more likely scenario, I like to believe the other version. He could have done so much more, but what he did was so earth shattering and so influential, he 100 percent belongs in this conversation. Without Robert Johnson, we would never have gotten some of the greatest songs and greatest bands of all time. Robert Johnson is the best musician to ever walk the face of the earth.

No doubt about it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The head editor is going to send Ty a dictionary with and open to the page with the defination for the word band. Have you followed Ty on twitter? Get to it @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Black Keys

In the Great American Band debate that we have ongoing on the website, I'd like to nominate my personal favorite band, the Black Keys.

Most people know who they are now, but that was not the case when I stumbled upon them in 2002. I was living with my brother at the time and watching an award show on MTV2. This was when MTV stopped showing music videos and only aired reality shows, but MTV2 still showed music videos and the award show I stumbled upon was giving awards to new and unheard of bands. I can't recall the name of the show, but I laid there on the couch watching late into the night and these two guys, one with a bushy beard and shaggy hair named Dan Auerbach and the other, a tall, lanky dorky looking guy named Patrick Carney, introduced me to the concept of a two piece rock band that actually rocked and rocked hard. I couldn't believe that just two guys could make that much sound and make it sound that good. It was like Led Zeppelin came back to perform as a two piece. They're that great.

The next day I immediately went out and purchased their first album, "The Big Come Up". I was in love. These two guys were so very, very awesome. Dan Auerbach is the lead singer and guitarist. He is, by far, the best user of distortion in the history of rock and roll music. The things he did and still does with reverb and distortion is like nothing I've ever heard before. He is a wizard. His voice, while gruff, but in the best possible way early on, has gotten better and better with each album they put out. Patrick Carney has his own make shift drum kit and he smacks the hell out of the skins. I've never seen anyone live that puts as much effort and excellence in their drumming. He's dripping sweat when they get off stage. He's the best drummer alive in my opinion. No one is even a close second.

Back to their debut album. "The Big Come Up" came out in 2002. It has a few originals on it, but about half is covers. Except, they do the covers in their style, and it's awesome. They do the Beatles, "She Said, She Said" like it's an old blues/rock and roll song. Dan Auerbach, once again using his distortion wizardary, crushes the song on guitar and, with the gruff voice, almost makes it a brand new song in the best possible way. Patrick Carney attacks the drums like a machine and I think if Ringo Starr heard his version on the drums, he would be embarrassed by how much better a drummer Carney is. It's a great cover of a great Beatles song. Their version of Junior Kimborough's "Leavin Trunk" is a great homage to one of their biggest influences. It's a great blues song, made better with Carney's excellent drumming. Some of the originals are fantastic. "Heavy Soul" and the "Breaks" are two great introductions for any Black Keys virgins out there. Those two songs will tell you everything you need to know about the band. They're hard rocking, heavily distorted bluesy songs with very, very excellent drumming. My personal favorite Black Keys song is on "The Big Come Up". The song is called "Yearnin" and it's a masterpiece. The distortion, of course, is there but Auerbach's vocals are top notch and I love absolutely everything about this song.

A year later they released their second album, "Thickfreakness". This is my favorite Black Keys record. The story goes, they locked themselves in a studio and recorded the whole album in 14 hours. Holy cow, that's impressive! The opening track, "Thickfreakness" is phenomenal. It starts with a very loud, heavy guitar riff and morphs into a four minute gem of a song. The rest of the album follows suit, with Auerbach excelling on guitar and vocals and Carney rocking out on the drums. There's even two slower songs on the record. They do another Junior Kimborough cover, "Everywhere I Go" and turn it into an even more bluesier tune than I think Mr. Kimborough himself ever thought it could be. It's epic. The last track on the album, "I Cry Alone", has a very slow, repetitive guitar riff and quiet, sleek drums. It's a step in a different direction and it works for them.

The very next year, they released "Rubber Factory". This was the album that I first saw them touring live with. This album was recorded in an old rubber factory in their hometown of Akron Ohio. They started to get a little notice from critics and gained some new fans. Hell, David Cross directed and starred in a music video for the song, "10am Automatic". That is also the first Black Keys song I learned on guitar. It has a simple guitar riff, but there's an epic solo at the end. The drums are immediately noticeable as well. I could pick the song out if I only heard one tom or high hat being hit at the start of the song. "Rubber Factory" features other great songs like, "Girl is on my Mind", "The Lengths" and "Keep Me". Each song is uniquely a Black Keys song and each song shows growth in the band. They also cover The Kinks "Act Nice and Gentle" to perfection. It's a fitting cover to another UK 60's rock band, but the Black Keys still put their spin on it with Auerbach's signature distorted guitar. They also give us their version of an old blues standard, "Stack Shot Billy" with some phenomenal slide guitar being played.

They finally took a year off after releasing three albums in three years and in 2006 they released, "Magic Potion". Some may say that this was a disappointing effort, but I'd kindly disagree. I know every word to every song on this album. There's some great songs on it like, "Your Touch", "Elevator" and the best song on the album, "Goodbye Babylon". "Your Touch" has a cool guitar riff, it's fast and choppy and Carney shines on the drums. "Elevator" reminds me of something that could have been on the album "Thickfreakness". It's a hard driving, Zeppelin esque rock and roll song. It's very good. "Goodbye Babylon" has some of Auerbach's best vocals and the guitar and drums are top notch. It's an excellent song.

The year 2008 marked a big change in the band and they brought in a new producer. Luckily for the fans, that producer happened to be Danger Mouse. He helped them with their fifth album, "Attack and Release". This album showed the band taking big chances, like adding bass and keyboards to their sound, and it really pays off. The opening track, "All You Ever Wanted" is a slow song, accompanied by Danger Mouse on the keyboard. The keyboard is the main instrument on this song. That had never happened on a Black Keys song before, and it took me by surprise how much I loved it. I didn't even think about the guitar until many, many listens later. "I Got Mine" and "Strange Times" are a return to form, with heavy drums and guitar. But then songs like "Oceans and Streams" and "So He Won't Break" and "Psychotic Girl" show the band using bass, keyboards again and even flutes and banjos. "Attack and Release" showed me that the Black Keys still rocked, but they were taking chances and hitting home runs. I was pleased with the growth and the taking of chances.

In 2010, the Black Keys released the album "Brothers" and this was when they became famous. They started winning Grammy's and playing "Saturday Night Live". A younger me would have thought that they were selling out, but "Brothers" is so damn good, I didn't care. They were still doing their style of music, but made it a bit more accessible to all listeners. Check out songs like, "Next Girl", "Tighten Up" or "Howlin For You" and you can see the pop and hip hop influence in their music, but there is still heavily distorted guitars and Carney wailing away on the drums. Other great songs on the album include a slower ode to a brother never met called "Unknown Brother" and "Sinister Kid" that has a heavy hip hop sound with some excellent vocals by Auerbach and a cool drum groove from Carney.

Continuing their assault of great music, a year later the Black Keys returned to their rock roots and released the excellent, straight up rock and roll album, "El Camino". "Lonely Boy", the opening track, has the coolest, most innovative guitar effect I've ever heard. It sounds like the guitar is going in circles. It's so incredibly cool. "Gold on the Ceiling" is a true throwback to rock and roll from the 70's with the Black Keys putting their twist on it. "Little Black Submarines" has a two minute opening that's just Auerbach and an acoustic guitar and then, it turns into a heavy rocker with some of the best solos I've ever heard. "Dead and Gone" is a great singing in the car song on long road trips. It's awesome. The closer, "Mind Eraser", is a classic rock and roll song with expert drumming from Carney. Clearly, working with Danger Mouse opened the band up to trying new things.

Last year, with Danger Mouse once again back in the studio with them, they released their most ambitious album to date. Their eighth album, "Turn Blue" has them taking on an almost Pink Floydian type of sound. The opening track, "Weight of Love" has a trippy, psychedelic three minute instrumental that morphs into a rock and roll song and ends up back at the psychedelic beginning. The title track, "Turn Blue" is a lot like "Weight of Love". The lone exception being, "Turn Blue" has the psychedelic sound of the 70's throughout the entire song. It's spacey and awesome. The Black Keys still have bluesy rockers like "Fever" and "It's Up to You Now", but this record is not like any of their other albums to date. "Waiting on Words", "Bullet in the Brain" and "In our Prime" are all psychedelic rockers with cool bridges and insane solos, both on drums and guitar. I love this new direction they're taking.

As with most great bands, the Black Keys have changed record companies three times. They started at Alive Records, moved up to Fat Possum and are now with the heavy hitters at Nonesuch Records. As you get better, you have to be on bigger labels, that's the music industry. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have worked with other bands and have side projects, but they are best when it's the two of them(also really good with Danger Mouse) doing their thing. I love the Black Keys and will go to bat with them any day. They have a new, yet throwback sound to their music and they just keep getting better and better. All the things I've said should tell you how great of, not just an American band, but just a band, that they are. These dudes rock and will continue to for many years to come.

The Black Keys rule.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. What he does is called rockin out and you are to old to get it. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Influencers

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

When  it comes to music, no one is completely unique.

Continuing our discussion on the website of the greatest American band, I want to focus on influential bands today. I'm not going to single out one specific band, I will give my readers many examples. The one problem I ran into doing research for this piece, it was hard to find American bands that were truly influential. It was easy to find bands from the UK that were influential. You can take Pink Floyd and see their influence on many current bands like Radiohead or Muse. You can take Led Zeppelin and see their influence on bands like the White Stripes and Black Keys. There's so many more from the UK that have influenced American bands. Doing further research, I found that these bands from the UK were influenced by American musicians, but not bands. Zeppelin and Cream were heavily influenced by guys like Robert Johnson and Son House. In fact, a lot of the UK musicians were very influenced by blues musicians from the 20's and 30's. So, like I said, it was tough, but with help from my father, we found a good number of influential American bands.

When we talked, the first band that came up was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. If you listen to our most recent podcast, you know that's my dad's favorite band. What makes them so influential, they had great musicians playing great, rocking blues music. Their writing was top notch. You take a band like the Black Keys, and as much as Zeppelin influenced them, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was just as important to shaping their music. The same could be said for a band like Buffalo Springfield. This is another band that had great musicians and wrote great songs, and members of Buffalo Springfield would break away and do some really big things in the music industry. Stephen Stills and David Crosby were in Buffalo Springfield before they were Crosby, Stills and Nash. I love music that has distortion in it. It's my favorite effect on guitar. That's where a band like Ike Turner's Rockin 88's come into play. The story goes, while traveling, their amps fell off the car and were sliced. Ike and the band didn't know what to do or where to get new amps, so they used them. While playing, the guitar sounded gruff, but they all liked it. Distortion was born. Look at any number of rock bands, be it RATM or Soundgarden or Alabama Shakes, and you can hear how important distortion is to their music. Another, bigger band, Sly and the Family Stone, brought the concept of playing funky rock and roll, while having a big band feel. The way they injected horns and funk in their music reminds me a lot of what a band like Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears are doing right now. You can take bands like the Eagles and Three Dog Night and see the influence they have on bands that focus on the vocals and harmonies in their music. Take a band like the Killers and see how much the Eagles and Three Dog Night meant to them getting started in music. A band I never really listened to until my dad told me about and have recently listened to and kind of enjoy is ELO. They have a unique electric sound and most of their music is all instrumental. I can see how a band like Ratatat was influenced by ELO. Some of their songs sound identical. It's uncanny.

Even bands from the 80's have influenced current bands. Look at Blondie, they had a cute blonde girl as their lead singer, and a bunch of dudes begin her. Tell me Grace Potter and the Nocturnals weren't influenced by that. They have the exact same makeup to their band. The Talking Heads were this avant garde, take all kinds of risks kind of band. If you just listened to them, I bet you wouldn't be able to guess what they looked like. I look at someone like Har Mar Superstar and feel the same way. He and his band play funky, R&B music, but Har Mar looks exactly like Ron Jeremy. When I first heard him and the Talking Heads, I felt the same. I loved the music, but I had no idea what these musicians looked like. Devo had a big influence on electronic/rock music. They took big chances and hit home runs every time. I look at a current band like TV on the Radio and see they were heavily influenced by Devo. Aerosmith, with their accessible to all ages rock music reminds me a lot of the Foo Fighters. Even a band like Nirvana has influenced younger musicians. I look at Conor Oberst and I just know that he listened to a ton of Nirvana. His lyrics are almost as poetic as Kurt Cobain and just as sad sometimes.

So, there are a lot of influential American bands. You have to do some research, but you can see how influential a lot of the bands from the 60's and 70's are on current day musicians. Go check out some of the bands I've mentioned today and compare them to who you are currently listening too, it may surprise you.

Go out and seek older music too, you will see the influence, I promise you.

Ty (With a little help from his dad)

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the co-host of The X Millennial Man Podcast. The biggest musical influence in his life is Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Introduction

Time to get the records out.

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

I'm a lover of all music.

All music except for jazz and new age country that is. People often pose the question to me, "Who's the best band"? There is any number of answers to give. Some may say The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, etcetera. The one thing you may have noticed in those answers is, those are all bands from overseas. Mainly the United Kingdom. Why no American bands? Is it because most great American musicians are solo artists? We have Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Robert Johnson, BB King, Miles Davis and Woody Guthrie just to name a few. And before I get yelled at online, I don't count Janis Joplin's backing band, The Holding Company, or Bob Dylan playing with The Band(who are all Canadian except for Levon Helm) as great American bands. They're very good, but not great.

So, let's break it down. Who is the greatest American band? Do they come from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or 2000's? Is there even an American band that can hold a card to the great bands from overseas? I don't know that for sure, but I'm going to throw out a lot of great American bands today and we can all decide together.

Let's take the 50's. One band that comes to mind for me is The Crickets. You may know them as Buddy Holly and the Crickets. The Crickets played on some of the greatest songs in the history of music and were just as important to Buddy Holly's music as Buddy Holly was. Some people may put The Crickets into The Holding Company category, but go back and listen to some of their stuff and you will see how influential they were on modern day rock and roll.

In the 60's, we got some more psychedelic rock bands from America, but I'm not too crazy about some of these bands. First, we have The Doors. I am not a fan of the Doors, but they were hugely popular and definitely put their stamp on rock music. Jim Morrison was fine as a poet and songwriter, albeit super overrated in my opinion, but his band was really pretty good. They just had an unfortunate choice in picking their lead singer and were stuck with Jim Morrison. Then there's the Beach Boys. I CANNOT stand the Beach Boys. They made crappy pop music and are an abomination to rock and roll. That being said, they are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a lot of people not only like the Beach Boys, they love them. Their fans will also defend Brian Wilson to the heavens, no matter how difficult of a person he is to work and deal with. My favorite American bad from the sixties, by far, is Creedance Clearwater Revival. Their brand of rock music, mixed with blues and soul is undeniably great. They've had a ton of hits and a ton of fans, are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and John Fogerty is still making pretty good music as a solo artist.

The 70's brought along a lot of great talent to American rock and roll. We got the Eagles, Aerosmith, ZZ Top and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Each one is great in their own right, and in the case of Aerosmith and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers they are still making music. In Tom Petty's case, he is still making great music. Many people might even say that The Eagles are the greatest American rock band of all time. I disagree. The 70's did put out some great music from all corners. We also got KISS, the Ramones and Sly and the Family Stone. Another band from the 70's that people love is Grateful Dead. Not me though. In my opinion, they are a jam band that has no structure to their jams. I don't want to hear one song that's usually three and a half minutes long turn into a 30 minute song. no thanks. My older brothers will be pretty upset at me for trashing the Grateful Dead, but I just don't like them. When it comes to 70's American bands, it gets no better than the Allman Brothers Band. They played great songs with a beautiful mixture of rock and blues. Robert Johnson introduced me to the blues and Son House introduced me to slide guitar, but the Allman Brothers made slide guitar and rock/blues music cool. They are not just one of the best American bands, they're one of the greatest bands of all time period.

The 80's changed what rock music could be in America. Bands like Heart and The Runaways showed that girls can rock just as hard as guys. Blondie blended all different types of music, and did it very well. And yes, Blondie is the band name, Debbie Harry is their lead singer's name. But, when it comes to 80's rock bands in America, the Talking Heads are the greatest. David Byrne is a genius and still making fantastic music. The Talking Heads were innovators and way ahead of their time. They tried so many different things with their music and, more times than not, hit it out of the park.

The 90's brought on the grunge era in American rock music. We got great bands like Green Day, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Each band is great in it's own way. Green Day brought back punk/pop music. Soundgarden brought back the psychedelic rock from the 60's and 70's and Pearl Jam was dark a brooding. A very cool version of emo. Then came Nirvana. Kurt Cobain was a musical genius. Especially as a lyricist. His lyrics are profound and prolific. He died way too young and became way too famous too fast. His two band mates, Kris Novaselic and Dave Grohl were excellent. Most people know Dave Grohl and all the work he's doing right now and Kris Novaselic has played bass for many different bands. When it comes to 90's American rock for me, it gets no better than Weezer. I love Weezer. Rivers Cuomo is a great writer and very excellent, very underrated guitar player. Their first album, "The Blue Album" is a work of art. Then, they released "Pinkerton" which is just as good and maybe even a bit better than "The Blue Album" Weezer is awesome.

Which brings me to the 2000's. Time will have to tell with this era. It's only been 15 years and these bands still need a bit more seasoning. That being said, there are some bands on their way to greatness for sure. The White Stripes could've been on their way if they were still making music. Jack White has also become an unfavorable character and a shell of his former self as a musician. He's also a well known asshole too. Bands like the Black Keys and TV on the Radio still need time, but in the Black Keys case, they are well on their way. There are other bands such as, Alabama Shakes and The Shins, but like I said earlier. Time will tell.

See, in this long piece I couldn't single out just one American band. There's a lot to choose from and if I was told that I had to name one right now, I'd pick the Black Keys, strictly because they're my favorite band. I didn't even touch on rap groups and yes, rap groups can be considered great American bands. I'll leave that for a future piece. So people out there reading this, let me know which American bands are great in your eyes. Who did I leave out or who did I bash that you like. Or, do you agree with me. Leave a comment and until later, keep listening to good rock and roll music.

Be it American rock or otherwise.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X-Millennial Man Podcast. He is eager to write another 1000 words on music. Follow him on twitter @tykulik