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: Rage Against the Machine

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

With our ongoing debate about the greatest American rock bands continuing, I want to talk about one of my personal favorites today, Rage Against the Machine.

I'm a millennial, as most of you know by now, so 80's music wasn't really on my radar until I discovered it at an older age. Nineties music however, that's when I was coming into my own, both as a person and my musical taste. I still remember, albeit vaguely, when MTV still showed music videos and not crappy, mindless reality shows. This was where I would find out about new artists and hear new songs and see new videos of the bands I was beginning to listen to and enjoy. When I first saw a Rage Against the Machine video, or heard one of their songs on the radio, it was hard for me to like because, it was completely different from the version on the record. They used profane lyrics and took very strong political stands, and you can bet, MTV or the radio wasn't in the business of losing out on sponsors, so they edited their music. That was quite a bummer.

 One summer, a great friend of mine, who happens to be one of the biggest Rage Against the Machine fans that I've ever met, let me borrow me his copy of their album, "Evil Empire". I took it from him, begrudgingly, and told him I'd give it another shot, but from what I heard on the radio, I assumed I wasn't going to enjoy the album. He told me to trust him, make sure I didn't listen with my folks because of the profanity and he promised I'd like it. He was 100 percent correct. "Evil Empire" opened me up to a whole new world of some of the best music I'd ever heard. I've always been a fan of rap and hip hop music, so I naturally enjoyed Zack De La Rocha's delivery on the microphone. Throw in Tom Morello's perfect guitar playing and two other decent musicians and I was hooked. The fact that I could hear everything he said and sang was revelatory. No edits, I got all the curse words, which for a 14 year old, was pretty nifty. I didn't understand their political message until I was older, but I'd like to think a part of me at that time agreed with what they were talking about. I know for a fact now that I agree with about 95 percent of their political beliefs.

Back to "Evil Empire". When I first heard "People of the Sun", the opening track, I was sucked right in. Morello's guitar playing on that song, and for that case the whole album, is impeccable. The next track on the record is probably their most famous song, "Bulls on Parade". This song introduced me to a wah wah pedal and I will forever be grateful and indebted to RATM for that. Lyrics like, "rally around the family, with a pocket full of shells" being said over and over again at the end of the song made me feel scared, but in a good way.. The best lyric, and probably my favorite song in RATM's catalog, is "Yeah, I'm walking down Rodeo with a shotgun, these people ain't seen a brown skinned man since they grandparents bought one" from their song "Down Rodeo" is epic on so many levels. De La Rocha calls out a bunch of rich, coddled white kids in a fancy Californian town and claims that their families were garbage people in the past. He is such an awesome and fearless writer. He has no problem calling out anyone anywhere. He's great.

After listening to this record on repeat for about a month straight, I had to get all their other records. Fortunately that was easy for me since they, unfortunately for me, only put out four records. Their first album, which is self titled, is a pretty great first record. Some songs on it include, "Bombtrack", "Bullet to the Head, "Fistful of Steel" and "Killing in the Name" These are four, epic rock songs. "Killing in the Name" has a lyric, "some of those who work forces, are the same that burn crosses". Not only are they saying that police a corrupt, but they also do horrible, awful things when off duty. I couldn't agree more with them. That's not to say all cops are evil, but the majority of them are extremely evil. "Fistful of Steel" has some of the most innovative, cool guitar I've ever heard in my entire life. Tom Morello is a GENIUS and all the things he does on guitar, be it, playing expertly, making it sound like a slide guitar by just muting strings and sliding his hand up and down the guitar, using his whammy bar at the exact right time every time or any other number of things he does is so impressive. This guy is a LEGEND. I got the chance to see him perform a live, acoustic set when he was touring and calling himself, "The Nightwatchman" and it was awesome. He's the best. Their third album, "The Battle of Los Angeles" came out in 1999. A lot of people say this is their weakest album, but I still think it's pretty damn awesome. Songs on this album include, "Testify", "Calm Like a Bomb", "War Within a Breath" and "Guerilla Radio". Those are four classics if you ask me. "War Within a Breath" hearkens back to their heavy political stuff. "Calm Like a Bomb" is a great song about being so angry at the government that you want to explode on it and take over the broken, rundown system that it truly is. "Guerilla Radio" is classic RATM, once again, accompanied by Morello doing some crazy, awesome, unheard of shit on his guitar. "Born of a Broken Man" is another great track on this album about, what I assume, is a strained relationship with De La Rocha's father. It's a great, but pretty depressing song. Lyrically that is.

They released their fourth and final album "Renegades" in 2000. Rumors were going around that they weren't getting along and that this would be their final record. I was, at first, bummed out when I heard it was going to be an album of covers. But, after listening to it, I changed my mind immediately. Yeah, they're covering songs, but they're doing it in their style. They do Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm", but turn it into this funky, distortion heavy, hugely epic rock song. It's pretty great. They also do Eric B and Rakim's "Microphone Fiend". This was a perfect cover for them, because it let De La Rocha do what he does best and rap. The music is pretty awesome as well. Other covers include, Bruce Springsteen's "Ghost of Tom Joad", Rolling Stones "Street Fighting Man" Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man", amongst many others. The best song on "Renegades", in my opinion, is "Renegades of Funk", one of Afika Bambaataa's best songs. This was a great song for them because the lyrics are progressive and have heavy political overtones. It may be blasphemous, but I prefer RATM's version over Afrika Bambaataa's. "Renegades" is a very good record of covers.

Rage Against the Machine was, and still is, very important to me. When I was still playing in a "band", one of our favorite songs to play was "Bulls on Parade". I even got to play the solo. I still listen to them on my way to play basketball to get myself pumped up. RATM was my pump up music before football games in high school. I will be forever grateful to my friend for me pushing and pushing me to give them a second try.

It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of The X-Millennial Man Podcast. To get pumped down he usually listens to slow covers of Air Supply. Follow him on twitter @tykulik