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

Do you know what stinks? Radio really stinks.

Back when I had true choice over the music playing

I want to take my time today to talk about the state of pop music currently playing on the radio.

It's terrible and way too repetitive. I swear, they're playing the same songs from a year ago. I guess there's very little in the way of new pop music. On the rare occasion they do play a new song, it's from a band from last year and their new song sounds exactly like every other song they play. I know not a lot of people still listen to the radio since we have ipods, iphones, androids, windows phones, so on and so forth, but, some people still do listen to the radio in their cars.

My wife and son are two of these people. I can't really listen to a lot of the stuff on my devices because I'm a stay at home dad and I have my son with me 99 percent of the time. I listen to a lot of hip hop, so the curse words make it impossible for me to listen while he's in the car. He does like some of the rock music I listen to, but it's usually the same couple of songs over and over again. A lot like the radio. My wife only likes about half of my music, so when we are all in the car together, I'm not going to make the two of them listen to my music, it's not fair to them. This leaves us listening to the radio.

I've had it up to here with song selection and the DJ's that host their respective shows. Most of these DJ's are just terrible. The song selection is just as bad, if not worse. I'm sick and tired of hearing the same Taylor Swift songs over and over and over again. I don't like her as a musician AT ALL and as far as her personal life goes, she's a terrible girlfriend to her many different, famous musician boyfriends. I swear, she only dates these poor guys so she can get new writing material for her next album. She's a bad person and really annoying. If I have to listen to a "pop" star on the radio, I'd much rather hear Meghan Trainor. At least Meghan Trainor's music is fun and danceable. I'm sure she's a better person too. Taylor Swift is UNBEARABLE!

Which brings me to one of her ex boyfriends, whose songs have been playing on the radio for over a year now, and I'm done with them, they're awful. I'm of course talking about Ed Sheerhan. I swear, if I have to hear "Thinking Out Loud" or "Don't" one more time, I'm going to rip my stereo out of my car. Those songs are very, very bad and have been played WAY too much. I feel like George Ezra, the new "pop" star, song "Budapest" is heading towards Ed Sheerhan level. This makes me upset for him. George Ezra has a unique voice and he writes his own stuff, but "Budapest" is getting into the repetitive play on the radio, and I'm getting sick of this song already. The single came out about 3 to 4 months ago, but just recently it's getting over played. The other day, while in the car for less than an hour, I'm pretty sure I heard "Budapest" three times. THREE TIMES IN LESS THAN AN HOUR! THAT'S TOO MUCH!

Lastly, I'm so done with the band Maroon 5. Every single one of their songs sound exactly alike. I can't tell the difference between, "Sugar", "Animals", or any other song they may have on the radio right now. Adam Levine is no Freddie Mercury, no matter how much he might think he is. His band looks like a bunch of rejects from the Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters also happen to be a much better band than Maroon 5. Dave Grohl is ten thousand times cooler than Adam Levine. He's a much, much better musician too. Oh, by the way, I'm not even a fan of the Foo Fighters. It upsets me that a band like the Black Keys, equally as famous as Maroon 5 or the Foo Fighters, has grammy awards, plays arenas, just like those two bands do, get little to no air play. Their songs are way better and different. Their songs actually make an album because, each song is unique in it's own way. Each song doesn't sound the same. Revelatory, right? But, if you're just a bit different, play your own instruments and write your own songs and have your own style, no radio play for you because you don't fall in line with the rest of the pack. You're unique and radio stations are afraid of that. Another band, TV on the Radio, falls into this unique territory. They write and play songs that are radio friendly, but do they get air play? Of course not, they're too different and that scares these dumb ass radio execs. That's a crying shame. I just hope in the future, for my son's case, radio changes it's way and starts to get some original people with original ideas working there.

Diversify and you will get new listeners. The very same listeners who are fed up with your playlist right now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing. He is this close to paying for a streaming music service, but is afraid they will pull the same crap as traditional radio. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Cloves and Fedoras: Ty gives praise to Leon Bridges, the new voice of soul.

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture (or older pieces).  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known. 

This is a follow up an earlier blog post about Leon Bridges.  You can find it here.

The sound of Sixties soul music is back today.

The sound comes in the form of a young man that was born thirty years after Stax Records and guys like Otis Redding and Rufus Thomas were making their strides in the soul music world. He's a twenty five year old music genius named Leon Bridges. His first album "Coming Home" was released today and it is so perfectly a throwback to the golden age of soul/R&B. This record is phenomenal. I didn't think I'd hear an album the rest of 2015 that I liked as much as Alabama Shakes "Sound and Color", but I've already listened to "Coming Home" two and a half times and I've got to say, it's now my album to beat for the year. Leon Bridges vocals are so damn smooth. I like to call this type of music "baby making music". He sounds like a much better version of Raphael Saadiq, and I love me some Raphael Saadiq. His guitar playing and his band are really tight. I seems like they've been perfecting this sound for sometime now, and they hit a grand slam. This may sound like it's from the Sixties because Leon Bridges asked to record on vintage equipment. He was taking a huge chance doing this because, in my opinion, you have to be one hundred percent committed to the equipment being used and you can't succumb to the technology today. That's got to be pretty difficult. But they did a wonderfully masterful job. It sounds like a recording from Stax in it's heyday. I've mentioned Leon Bridges on this site before, stating that I thought he would be the next great soul star, and today has not changed my mind at all. In fact, I feel even stronger about this prediction after listening to his record. He is going to be HUGE. There's ten songs on the album, with the longest being about four and a half minutes. This is great because that's how songs were back in the day. Singers back then only needed two to three minutes per track and they packed each song with as much soul as possible. Leon Bridges is no exception. He effortlessly flows from upbeat, drums and guitar heavy songs to slower songs with horns being his main background music. For example, for the more up beat songs, check out "Smooth Sailin" or "Twistin and Groovin". Both these songs are powered by Bridges vocals and his excellent guitar work. His drummer is superb with the groove of these songs too. With songs like "Shine" he lets the keyboardist take front stage and, accompanied by his vocals, they sing a sweet, slow soul song. My favorite song on the record is a slow song, which is very unlike me. But, "River" is a beautiful closer to this excellent album. It starts out with strumming from an acoustic guitar and soft vocals. It builds until the last minute of the song and it's just Leon Bridges and an all female chorus singing "take me to your river, I want to go". It's beautiful. I literally got goose bumps while listening. I hope his tour brings him to Saint Louis. I'd love to see him perform live. "Coming Home" by Leon Bridges is fantastic.

Go out and get this album as soon as possible.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing. He has made two babies, we do not know what kind of music was on. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Cloves and Fedoras: Is Leon Bridges poised to be the next great soul singer?

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

I'm always on the hunt for new music that sounds like old music. By this I mean it sounds like a throwback to older music. For example, I started listening to the Black Keys because they sounded a little like Led Zeppelin to me. I started listening to Gary Clark Jr because he had that old blues feel to his music. Saint Paul and the Broken Bones sounded as if they'd just recorded with Rufus Thomas. Well, I think I may have heard the next Otis Redding, or dare I say Marvin Gaye. He's a 25 year old soul singer named Leon Bridges. His music sounds like he just got done recording at Stax Records in the 60s. This guy is legit. He writes and plays, on guitar, all of his own music and he uses vintage equipment to record. How cool is that. This guy is going to be a star. I know comparing him to an Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye is a bit much, but this guy has the chops. His album doesn't come out until June 23rd, but do yourself a favor and go check out his stuff on YouTube. That's where I found out about him. So, next month, go out and buy his album "Coming Home".

Remember the name Leon Bridges. He's the next big thing in soul music.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  He likes listening to the musical styling of his parents generation being sung by people of his generation.

Cloves and Fedoras: Alabama Shakes refuses to submit to a sophomore slump.

I just recently bought the new Alabama Shakes album "Sound and Color."

This is a work of art. People and critics talk about sophomore slumps when bands put out their second album after the first was a surprise success, but let me tell you, Alabama Shakes knocked it out of the park with "Sound and Color." You can really hear the growth and exploration of the band through all twelve songs. They are taking chances and stretching limits more than most rock bands making music right now. Their first single off the album "Don't Wanna Fight" is a great rock/pop song with Brittany Howard's beautifully gritty singing voice driving it home. Her guitar playing on the song, and throughout the whole album, is a distorted, crunchy pleasure to the listener. The opening track, "Sound and Color" is a very trippy, slowish tune with, what I believe to be a marimba, accompanying the whole song. It's a great tune. I love every song on the record. This is an album you can put on, press play and let the whole thing go with no skips. If they continue to grow and explore on forth coming albums like they do on "Sound and Color" the sky is the limit for them. Last year they were playing small rock clubs, now theaters. Keep this up and they'll be selling out arenas in two to three years.

Very, very good album. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  He is eagerly anticipating the next great album from Alabama Shakes.

Cloves and Fedoras: Favorite artist Saul Williams does a not so favorite live show

I attend a lot of live shows. Most are good, some great and some not that good.(I don't like to say bad, because these people are performers and I'm sure they work very hard) Recently I unfortunately saw a not so good show.

Saul Williams was playing the Duck Room in Saint Louis last month. I was very excited when the show was announced and got my tickets immediately. I did this because I'm a huge fan of Saul Williams. I've seen him do his poetry live, I've read all his books, I own all his music and I've seen pretty much every movie he's been in.(The best being "Slam" in my opinion)

My problem with the recent concert was, it wasn't really a concert. In his own words, it was a "workshop". This had me off guard from the get go. I went there expecting to hear music, but all I got was a damn "workshop". He would move back and forth between doing half a song and then reading poetry and then just talking to the crowd. Another problem, this must have been the sound and video people's first live show. They did not know what in the hell they were doing. First, their video playing on the screen froze before Saul Williams even got on stage. And then, the sound mix was so bad, Saul Williams himself had to tell the guys to turn the bass down and turn his microphone up. He was impossible to hear at times. It was unbearable.

There was another thing that had me frustrated. The show started at 9pm with two openers and Saul Williams didn't even get on stage until 11:30pm.  Once on stage he only performed for about an hour. Two and a half hours of standing around and the payoff was a "workshop". Even after seeing this, I will still probably see him if he comes back to Saint Louis, but I will definitely think long and hard before purchasing tickets.

Still a big fan, but this "workshop" was a huge disappointment.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  Look for him around St. Louis at any number of live shows.  Do not expect him to attend anymore workshops.