The Greatest American Band Debate: The Mars Volta

For the greatest American band today, I'm going to nominate the Mars Volta. I truly adore this band, but it took awhile for me to get on board. When I first heard them, I just didn't get it. It sounded loud and weird and very distorted. I'd be lying if I didn't say, it kind of felt unlistenable. But, I gave them another try and I'm very happy that I did. I started to get it after three and four listens. I started to understand what they were doing and the type of music they were playing.

This could be a surprise to some, but Mars Volta was my first taste of prog rock. I had never heard anything like it before, so I feel like that's why it may have been so weird to me at first listen. But, before I gave them a second try, I started to listen to bands like King Crimson, Tool, Procol Harum and ELO. I allowed my musical mind to be expanded to different and newer types of music. I was instantly intrigued by both King Crimson and Tool. Those two bands are absolutely incredible. I've already made quick mention of King Crimson on the site before, but they're not eligible for this debate because they're from England. Tool, who I will most definitely write about at a later date, is eligible and they are some of the most talented and eccentric musicians that I've ever listened to and seen live. They're awesome. Procol Harum was a bit more rock heavy, but they still did prog rock stuff and it was great and way ahead of it's time. And ELO, a band that I avoided for years and years because I thought they were too poppy, is so good. People out there, give them a listen, especially if you like prog rock, because they are tremendous.

All  this new prog rock I had found made me want to give Mars Volta another chance. They also had a semi popular song come out around the same time that I revisited them. That song was "The Widow" off the album, "De-Loused in the Comatoruim". I loved the song. When I heard it on MTV, yes they still had videos and played songs once upon a time, I couldn't get enough of it and I also couldn't believe it was from a band that I once thought was not very good. The song was weird, but in a good way, loud, but in a good way and the distorted vocals and guitar were there and they were excellent. This is one time on my life when one song actually made me change my mind about a band. "The Widow" converted me to a big fan after one listen. It's a great and epic song from Mars Volta. 

After falling back in love with this band, I did some research on them so I could learn more. I learned that the two founding members, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, were in a band before this called At the Drive In. I researched and listened to them, and while they are good, they lean a little more emo rock and they are not as good as Mars Volta. I also learned that Bixler-Zavala was a pretty heavy drug addict and he barely survived after At the Drive In broke up. Thankfully, he had a great friend and a real professional musician, Rodriguez-Lopez, that helped get his head back on straight and convinced him to get back to making music. After getting clean, Zivala teamed back up with Lopez and they formed Mars Volta. What a great friendship and band they had after getting clean.

Their sound was weird prog rock, and after my first misstep, I'm so glad that they stuck around long enough to make excellent and weird music. I've already mentioned "The Widow", but they also have some other great, classic prog rock songs like, "Roulette Dares", "Televators", "Viscera Eyes", "Wax Simulacra", "Goliath", "Since We've Been Wrong" and "The Malkin Jewels". Now, when listening to these songs, know that most of them are 8 minutes plus and they go in very weird and odd directions. They constantly change time signatures, chords, keys and drum beats, but it all works to perfection. Zavala's vocals are some of the loudest and most ear piercing words I've ever heard sung, but he makes it so good. Go and listen to "Roulette Dares" and "The Widow" and be blown away by how extremely awesome his singing is on those songs. It's incredible.

But, the crème de la crème of Mars Volta is Lopez's guitar playing. He is a wizard playing six strings. He does some of the weirdest and wildest stuff that anyone has ever done on guitar. He is my generations Jimi Hendrix and no, I don't think that's blasphemy. Lopez is a guitar genius. I love guys like Dan Auerbach and Tom Morello and think that they are some of the best guitar players ever, but Lopez is better. While I may like the overall music of the other guys better, the things Lopez does is like nothing I've ever heard before. He uses distortion like no one has ever used it before. His pedal board holds all kinds of different effects and noises that he manipulates wonderfully. When I saw them live about 7 years ago, I was amazed at what he was doing and I couldn't take my eyes off him while he was on stage. Lopez held my attention for the entirety of the show and I couldn't have been happier. Lopez is one of the best guitarist of all time and he is probably one of the most underrated as well. The dude is a wizard.

Mars Volta has won Grammy's and been in the Billboard 100 multiple times and they've had their albums ranked in top 100 lists by most publications, but they never seemed to get mentioned as an al time great band. Well, that changes today, because they belong in our greatest American band debate for all the reasons I mentioned above. I may not have liked them at first, but I adore them now and I will adore them forever. Mars Volta rocks.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. For ever a decade he thought height of prog rock was Styx. He has since learned of better music. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Ramones

For the greatest American band debate on Seed Sing, I'm going to nominate another band that I'm not really a fan of, but to be reputable, we have to acknowledge these bands that most of the music listening population recognizes as an all time great. The band I'm going to talk about today, I actually dislike almost as much as I dislike the Beach Boys. That band is The Ramones.

The Ramones are widely considered the founders of punk rock music, a genre of music I'm not that into, but I recognize how important and influential it is and has been. For my punk rock, I go to Iggy and the Stooges, who I will write about at another date, or more prog type punk rock like King Crimson or Mars Volta, I'll also be writing about Mars Volta at a later date. King Crimson is from England, so they don't make the cut in our debate. Those three bands, in my opinion, are way, way better than The Ramones, but they aren't recognized like The Ramones. The Ramones are credited with starting punk rock because every single one of their songs is a tight 2 minutes and they only play three chords and the lyrics are sung muffled. That, for all intents and purposes, is the definition of punk rock. When it comes to my personal definition, punk rock is anarchy and disestablishment and great, complicated guitar work, especially solos.

When it comes to front men, Iggy Pop is a much better punk rock singer than Joey Ramone. You can understand most of what Iggy Pop is saying and as far as on stage theatrics, there is no one that comes close to Iggy Pop, especially not Joey Ramone. But, Joey Ramone is widely looked at as the essential punk rock front man, much to my shock. He just kind of stood on stage and garbled his way through each song. People will call that punk rock, I say, he was hiding the fact that he was not that good of a singer and he had some form of stage fright.

Then, when you look at the musicians in King Crimson or Mars Volta, they are so much better and so much more proficient than Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone. Robert Fripp, of King Crimson, is ten thousand times the guitar player that Johnny Ramone ever wished he could be. And oh my god, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is one of the greatest, most innovative and weirdest guitar players I've ever listened to in my entire life. I think he's an alien that was put on Earth to show us humans what a real guitar god looks and plays like. He is the Millenial's Jimmy Page. He's a guitar wizard that people will call legendary in about 20 years. I guarantee I will be telling my son about him when he's in his twenties and asks me about music from my generation. He's the man. Do people really say the same thing about Johnny Ramone? Is he a legendary, all time great guitar player? I don't think so. He doesn't have any memorable solos and he basically plays three chords on every song. Anyone that takes one guitar lesson can pretty much learn the entire Ramones song book. It is literally that easy. Just learn a G chord, a C chord and an F chord and you are good to go.

Let's get back to why some believe they are so influential. I will bend and say that without The Ramones, we would have never gotten The Sex Pistols, another band I'm not so fond of, but people love, Jello Biafra, who is a genius musician, there'd be no Black Flag, who is a much better band and Bad Brains, who are a great, great punk rock/reggae band. They did influence these bands and musicians and countless others, but the people I just mentioned took that influence, ran with it and made much, much better music than The Ramones. I know that people love the "simplicity" of their songs. Critics love the fact that they got their message out in 2 minutes or less. In my opinion, they could only handle that small amount of music because they were not that skilled. They needed to get everything done in a short amount of time because, if their songs lasted longer, they would be seen as subpar musicians and songwriters. They wouldn't be as highly regarded as they are now. Big time magazines and publications like "Billboard" or "Rolling Stone" even went as far to name them the second greatest rock group of all time, behind only The Beatles. That's down right insane. No way are they better than The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Kinks, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Janis Joplin and the Holding Company, the Flying Burrito Brothers, I could literally go on and on with bands that are far superior to The Ramones.

I also acknowledge that the Ramones had a big stake and were very influential in making the cult classic movie "Rock and Roll High School" that many people adore. Have any of these people that claim to love that movie seen it lately? It does not hold up well. The movie is a lot like The Ramones music. It's kind of a muffled, garbled look at a Detroit high school in the 70's. It's boring and pointless too. I don't get the love for that movie. It's very overrated.

Look, I understand that a lot of people think The Ramones are one of the greatest American bands, I'm not one of those people. But, I also realize that we at SeedSing have to recognize and write about things we don't like or disagree with if we want to be taken seriously. So, I made the best case that a non fan of The Ramones can make. I believe that there are thousands of bands and musicians that are much, much better than The Ramones, but not everyone sees it that way. Much to my chagrin, these are the "reasons" that The Ramones belong in our greatest American band debate. Please tell me why I'm wrong in the comment section, but also check out some of the people I mentioned above and go listen to the people that The Ramones influenced instead of listening to The Ramones.

That's the best advice I can give you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once adored the Ramones, then learned their entire catalog in one afternoon and moved on. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: TV on the Radio

Getting back to the Greatest American Band debate, today I'm going to nominate a band that's only been around for a little less than 10 years, but I feel like they're on the verge of becoming one of, not only the greatest American bands, but just one of the greatest bands of all time.

I found out about this band in 2006, and since then, I've been a huge, huge fan. Their debut album, "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" had me on the name alone, but after listening to it over and over again, I was immediately hooked. I'm of course speaking of TV on the Radio. I know that they're fairly newish, they've been around for almost a decade like I said earlier, but they're so innovative, and just really, really good musicians. TV on the Radio formed in New York, Brooklyn to be exact, but they didn't release the aforementioned "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" until 2004. They had released one EP before, entitled "Young Liars", and it's awesome, but it doesn't even begin to show you how great of a band they are. "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I heard one of the songs on MTV2, when they still played music videos, "Staring at the Sun", and it was everything I wanted it to be. It was emo, alternative, bluesy and very rock and roll. I love "Staring at the Sun", it was my gateway to TVOTR. What made this album so unique was all the different genres they showcased. Songs like "Ambulance", with Tunde Adebimpe singing acapella and the band giving him an almost doo wop background was incredible. "Poppy" is a 7 minute epic that builds and builds and builds to an epic awesome rock and roll ending. "Bomb Yourself" and "Wear You Out" are two great ending songs to this album. Both songs are like the band King Crimson came back together, found the fountain of youth and played their songs a bit more listener friendly. The guitars are distorted and funky, but not as hazardous to your ears as some King Crimson tunes are. This album came out of nowhere and I still love it as much today as I did in 2004.

They followed "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" up with the fantastic "Return to Cookie Mountain". This album couldn't be more different than their debut, but that's a good thing because, it showed that they had range. They could play more than alt rock music. Take a tune like, "Wolf Like Me". Sure, it's got heavy guitars on it, but it's almost played like a radio song. It's got a great chorus, and Tunde's vocals are absolutely incredible. The opener, "I Was A Lover", features lead guitarist, Kyp Malone, providing lead vocals, and he's just as good a singer as Tunde, he's just different. There's also a really cool, really odd drum beat as well. On "A Method" and "Dirtywhirl", we get a glimpse of what they will sound like on future records with their big booming guitars and their really cool instrumentation. Tunde sings both of these songs and his vocals are perfection, especially on "Dirtywhirl". Another song sung by Kyp Malone, "Blues From Down Here", is really, really good. It starts out with Malone singing solo, no instruments and then pow, it hits you with fuzzy guitars and loud drums. The chorus is really catchy and memorable. It's an awesome song.

In 2008, TVOTR came out with their most critically acclaimed album yet. They released "Dear Science" and in 2008, Rolling Stone named it Album of the Year. This record is a masterpiece. TVOTR is crushing it on every level on this album. "Halfway Home", the opener is an awesome rock and roll song. Great distorted guitars, a really nice drum beat and great vocals from Tunde. "Dancing Choose", their "single" from this record is a really good song. It has elements of rock, alternative and even a little bit of jazziness to it. "Golden Age" is a phenomenal song that lets TVOTR do what they do best and mix genres of music. "Love Dog" is a really cool rock song. It starts out with a faint piano and drums, and just keeps building, gets louder and is met at the bridge by a crescendo of sounds that all come together perfectly. It closes as quietly as it starts, and everything in between is sublime. "Lover's Day" is a neat little song to close out the album. It's kind of poppy, but in a TVOTR type of way. "Dear Science" is a perfect album from start to finish. If someone were to ask me where to start with TVOTR, this would be the album I'd give them first.

They followed "Dear Science" up with the very underrated and under appreciated "Nine Types of Light" in 2011. It's hard to follow up a great album, but I feel like TVOTR did just that with "Nine Types of Light". This album is a bit more radio friendly and poppy, but TVOTR makes it work to their advantage. My gateway to this record was them releasing the song "Will Do" a couple of months prior to the release of the album. "Will Do" is a great radio rock song and the music video is really cool and trippy. Check it out if you haven't seen it. There are some other really great songs on this album. "Second Song" is a really cool blues/rock song that opens this album. "Keep Your Heart" is a sad song, and Malone's singing and lyrics make it even sadder. "Killer Crane" is a really unique slow song with some cool use of different instruments. "New Cannonball Blues" is Malone doing his best Howlin Wolf impression. This song is awesome. It's like Zeppelin, but Malone sings it as if he's channeling Howlin Wolf. "Caffeinated Consciousness" closes out the album and it's the best three chord rock song I've ever heard. Malone's guitar and Tunde's singing are so good on this song. This was the last album that featured original bassist Gerard Smith, who died of lung cancer nine days after the record was released. The song "Killer Crane" is almost a hymn for him, with the video being mostly still shots of the band, with the majority of them featuring Smith. "Nine Types of Light" was also released as a movie. It's more music videos for each song than a movie, but it moves like a movie. I highly recommend listening to the record and then watch the movie. This was a really good idea by TVOTR and it totally works with their persona.

Last year, they released "Seeds". They took time off due to the death of Smith, and "Seeds" was the result of their off time. This is a really good record and it kind of gave TVOTR the little bit of fame they have always deserved. Songs like "Careful You", "Test Pilot" and "Loved Stained" are all slow burners with very cool and innovative music accompaniment. "Careful You" has one of the coolest guitar effects I've ever heard. Other tracks like "Winter", "Lazzeray" and "Happy Idiot" are straight up rock and roll songs with TVOTR's distinct sound. My favorite song on the album, "Seeds", is love song esque, with great lyrics and simple yet sophisticated instrumentation. "Seeds" seems cathartic for the band and it's a fitting tribute to Smith.

As I said earlier, I know that TVOTR is still semi new, but they belong in this conversation for all of these and many more reasons. They will continue to keep making cool, interesting new music and I'm very excited for what their future holds.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He wants to know what American music makes you rock. Come write for SeedSing, then follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.