The Greatest American Band Debate: Pearl Jam

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

Today I will be getting back to the greatest American band debate and I will be getting back to the grunge era. I know that our head editor RD will disagree with this choice, but I am, and always will be a very big fan of Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam made grunge music accessible to everyone. They weren't as influential, or as good for that matter, as either Nirvana or Soundgarden, but I find myself listening to Pearl Jam more than I listen to most music from the 90's. They made grunge music top 100 type music. Usually I don;t care for top 100 music, but I always get happy when a good band, a band like Pearl Jam, makes music that everyone deems top 100. That means that everyone can hear them, not just their fans.

I was not a fan, I had never heard of Pearl Jam, until I heard and saw the video for the song "Jeremy". This song is brutally tragic and so is the video. It is about a bullied kid coming into his school and massacring everyone and everything. This song came out before all the tragedies that happened in the 2000's, and even the stuff that goes on now. Pearl Jam was ahead of the times, by a wide margin, with the song "Jeremy". What stuck out most for me from the song was how catchy it was. It is a very sad, very gut wrenching song, but as I sit here typing this, the chorus is rattling through my brain. It made every top list the year it came out. The video was played everywhere. It had the desired effect. The song made people think about this tragic event, and people started to do things to try and curb bullying in schools. It is a very important song and everyone should listen to it at least once in their life. "Jeremy" opened the Pearl Jam door for me.

After hearing "Jeremy", I went out and bought the album "10", which featured "Jeremy". It also had mega hits like "Even Flow", "Alive", "Porch" and "Garden". These songs are quintessential grunge songs, especially "Alive" and "Even Flow". Those songs are timeless and it gave the world Eddie Vedder's incredibly unique singing voice. I love that, still today, I can put the "10" on in my car and be shocked back to when I was a 10 year old in the early 90's, rocking out to this incredible album.

With the success of "10" Pearl Jam put out "Vs", another classic. "Vs" has choice hits on it like, "Daughter", "Animal" and "Dissident". Again, Pearl Jam was writing thoughtful rock music that appealed to the masses. I don;t think there is a sadder, more poignant song than "Daughter". Go listen to it right now and try not to be moved by how sad those lyrics are.

Having only released two albums Pearl Jam was proving to be some of the best song writers on the planet. They had more hits than pretty much any grunge band and the songs that were hits had meaning behind them. They weren't pointless pop songs, they were rock songs with a message. Two years after "Vs.", they released "Vitalogy". Now, full disclosure, this was the last Pearl Jam record I bought. It is not as good as "10" or "Vs", but there is till some very good songs on the record. I personally really enjoy songs like "Not For You" and "Immortality". They show a more grown up version of Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam. It is still grunge music with a message, but the band is a bit tighter and they sound like they fully formed on "Vitalogy", especially on "Not For You" and "Immortality". But, "Vitalogy" as a whole isn't that great. It's good, but not as good as their earlier stuff. I admit, it has to be hard to try and follow up two great records, but Pearl Jam tried their hardest and it almost worked. They continue to release albums, but they just don't match the greatness that was "10" and "Vs".

Pearl Jam became much more active politically and socially throughout their careers. They had the huge lawsuit with Ticketmaster. They believed, and I agree, that Ticketmaster is a bunch of thieves. They charge you the face value for the ticket, but then they surcharge the hell out of you. Pearl Jam thought this was wrong, so they took them to court and let the world know that Ticketmaster was taking advantage of them. I will be forever grateful to Pearl Jam for doing this. I used to buy all my stuff through Ticketmaster, but after reading and hearing about this lawsuit, I jumped ship as soon as possible. Now, I will only go through bands, comedians or venues webpages to buy tickets because I know that Ticketmaster can't do a damn thing to me. They cannot add charge after charge on my bill and all my money goes to the artist and the venue. Sure, the artist doesn't get all of it, but at least Ticketmaster isn't gouging me and the artist can control the price of everything. That is all due, for the most part, to Pearl
Jam. They have always been the champion the of the little man. The people that aren't the 1 percent. Pearl Jam wants to help out anyway they can. I don't see a lot of artist do that, but Pearl Jam does it, and then some.

Then there is Eddie Vedder. Me personally, I adore Eddie Vedder. I thought he was the perfect front man for Pearl Jam, and he has proven to be an excellent solo artist. He is extremely multi talented and will continue to have a very long career in music. When I saw him at the Fox in Saint Louis about 5 years ago, not only was it one of the best concerts that I have ever been to, but he crushed the show. It was during his ukulele phase, and the show was incredible. Vedder is, by far, the biggest "rock star" that I have ever seen live, and he totally delivered. The show lasted for almost 3 hours and I could have easily watched another 3 hours and I would have been enamored. Eddie Vedder is what every "rock star" should strive to be. He stands for all the right things, he fights for the little guy and he does his best to help everyone, be it through his music or otherwise. I adore Eddie Vedder.

I also adore Pearl Jam and they 100 percent belong in the greatest American band debate. Tell me why I'm wrong RD. I await your ruling.

ed response: In the podcast, I did not say Pearl Jam is bad, I said they were overrated. They made one good song, and have been playing variations of that same song for decades. Mic drop.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Who is the Greatest American Band, Ty has many nominees you should take a look at. Get to know the next Greatest American Band by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Nirvana

For the greatest American band today, I'm going to go back to the grunge era. Grunge was pretty pivotal in my life. I was a pre teen and teenager right when the music style became huge. Grunge was a newer style of music that I had never heard before and I was into it. I liked the drums, guitars and the gruff singing that came along with it and it got no better than Nirvana.

Nirvana may be the greatest grunge band of all time. They are definitely the most influential, and I don't think that is arguable at all. Nirvana exploded on the scene with their mega hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This was like no other song that I had ever listened to before. The guitar would start out kind of slower and quiet, then it would build and get much more rough, in a good way, and Kurt Cobain would squeal the chorus. That chorus, while it may be impossible to know exactly what Cobain was singing, is the most memorable chorus from the 90's, in my opinion. The video was pretty groundbreaking as well. The band playing in a school gym with some cheerleaders and kids dancing to this very gloomy song about the plight of teenagers. The video was sad, but it was made to be sad. The teenagers were brain dead, that is what the song is essentially about.

After seeing the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", I needed to hear more music from this band. I was very intrigued by their sound. They only released three albums of original music, but I only ever bought two of them. "Bleach" was put out a few years before "Smells Like Teen Spirit" hit it big, but I never really listened to that record. But "Nevermind", that was where it was at. That record is wonderful. It is the best grunge album, hands down. It takes every good thing about grunge music and makes it truly great. There is obviously "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the record, but there is some other big time hits on that record. Songs like "Come As You Are", "Lithium", "On a Plain", "Drain You" and "Polly". Let us not forget their 20 minute epic, it's actually 13 minutes, then 10 minutes of silence, to close out the album, "Something in the Way". That song is their best Velvet Underground impression, and it sounds like something that could have easily been on "White Light, White Heat". But, those other songs I mentioned, they are grunge classics. They use distortion and loud drums and exceptional bass playing and Cobain's perfectly written lyrics are phenomenal. The songs on this record are, by far, the best music of the entire grunge era. Nirvana came at the exact right time and they capitalized on their gift for writing and playing grunge music.

Once Nirvana had the enormous success that was "Nevermind", they released "In Utero" two years later, and that album is also very fantastic. There are some mega hits on that record as well. "In Utero" has songs like "Heart Shaped Box", "Dumb", "Pennyroyal Tea" and "All Apologies". I mean, come on, those are some massive hits just two short years apart. No matter if you like or dislike Kurt Cobain, you have to admit, he was one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He had a knack for writing some touching, yet very sad and very gloomy music, and in the early 90's, that's what the people wanted to hear. Most people were sick of bubble gum pop and how boring and generic rock and roll had become, but then here came this band singing and playing sad, touching and poignant music, and the majority of the country was enthralled. The video for "Heart Shaped Box" was almost as weird and scary as Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", but both of those songs were great. I prefer "Heart Shaped Box", but that's just me. "Pennyroyal Tea" is a beautifully written and played song. It is one of my all time favorite Nirvana songs. "All Apologies" may be the saddest song to ever make the top ten of the Billboard charts. That song is heart wrenching, but damn if that chorus is not catchy as hell.

With "Nevermind" and "In Utero", it seemed like Nirvana was going to be making great music for many years to come. But, Kurt Cobain took his own life, if that is what you choose to believe, because he couldn't handle the fame. I'm going to go on a bit of a rant here, but I don't think, for one single second, that he killed himself. At the time of his death, Cobain was married to another musician, Courtney Love, and I firmly believe that she was incredibly jealous of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain's fame, and I will go to my grave believing that she had something to do with the death of Cobain. I am not the only one who believes this. She couldn't handle the fact that her significant other was so much more successful and, quite frankly, better at making music than her.  Cobain's death gave her immediate fame and people came to her defense and started talking about how good her band, Hole, was. Courtney Love became the poster child for someone that lost someone they loved way too soon and she started to get more acting jobs and Hole was a band that everyone wanted to play at their venue or their festival. Many people think Courtney Love did something, I don't know if she actually killed him, but I have my thoughts. You will never shake my belief of this.

After Cobain's untimely death, the remaining members of Nirvana, who are the exceptional Krist Novaselic and the still working Dave Grohl, released a couple of albums posthumously. A lot of them are straight up greatest hits records, but they released their "MTV's Unplugged" record almost right after his death, and that record is incredible. The band was stripped down and they did mostly covers and it is one of the best records of all time. It is, by far, the best of the entire "Unplugged" series. Kurt Cobain, who was usually stand offish and quiet and could even be mean during one on one interviews, seemed to be happy and was cracking jokes and playing and singing some great, great songs. Cobain seemed at peace doing this unplugged sets. That record is exceptional and everyone should go out, buy it and listen to it right now. You will be amazed at how great of a band Nirvana truly was.

I don't know any other word to describe him, but Cobain was a musical genius. He had a knack for written lyrics and composing music. He was the lynchpin to Nirvana being as famous as they were. The other members of the band were very talented as well. Krist Novaselic was and is a great bass player. He can play almost any style of music and play it well. He is one of the better bass players of all time. He is still making music to this day as well. Then there is Dave Grohl. Everyone that has heard any music knows something about Dave Grohl. He is the front man for Foo Fighters. He has produced many metal bands, especially RD's favorite, Probot. He has a great HBO series that is all about the roots and start of music. He has done tons of things with Tenacious D. Basically, Dave Grohl is one of rock and roll's hardest working men. And he is pretty darn good at making and playing music.

Look, we couldn't do this debate without adding Nirvana. I feel like, as the millennial of the website, it would be best that I write about them because they were so influential in my formative years. I love Nirvana and they are definitely one of America's greatest bands of all time. I do not think anyone will disagree with me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He may buy into some conspiracy theories surrounding Nirvana, but he does not buy that Kurt Cobain faked his own death and is really Rivers Cuomo. That is just silly. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Soundgarden

For the greatest American band debate today I'm going to take my first, but definitely not last, plunge into grunge music. There is a lot of influential grunge bands out there and the first one I want to highlight is Soundgarden.

Now, let's get this right out of the way at the start, I did not listen to Soundgarden until much, much later in my life. I mean, they had been broken up, reunited and broken up again before I came to their music. When they first hit the music scene, they were not anywhere near my radar. I was listening to more hip hop and comedy records when Soundgarden made their first appearance. But, as I got older, in my late 20's, I "rediscovered" Soundgardean and, my god were they incredible.

The stuff I heard sounded like grunge mixed with psychedelic music. It was intense and weird, but it was also really good and very interesting. I obviously remember "Black Hole Sun", but to be quite frank, that video scared the hell out of me. All those weird, melting faces with permanent smiles, it was terrifying. But, listening to the song as an adult, it is incredible. I love that a song like that got so much airplay and so much face time on MTV and popular radio stations. That is a dark and depressing song, but it sounds catchy, so the people at those radio stations and at MTV deemed it okay enough to be played. The song is basically about an apocalypse of sorts. Lyrics like, "black hole sun, won't you come and wash away the rain", I mean, that is some depressing stuff. Or, you get stuff like "boiling heat, summer stench, beneath the black the sky looks dead" and that is immediately followed by, "call my name through the cream and I'll hear you scream again". Those are some of the darkest lyrics I had ever heard on pop radio and MTV. This song is about death and decay, but it's got Chris Cornell's unique voice and the band wailing away on their instruments to perfection, and it sounded oddly upbeat. This was a great way to get airplay back in the 90's. You could write dark and depressing stuff, but if it sounded nice, filled with major chords and a kick ass guitar solo, you got airplay. And Soundgarden did it all so well on "Black Hole Sun". Now, in my 30's, not only do I really like the song, but I also LOVE the video. It is so weird and bizarre, but it is perfect for what that song is about.

Soundgarden isn't just about "Black Hole Sun" and Chris Cornell, not by a long shot. First of all, the band behind Cornell is dynamite. Matt Cameron is a very good drummer. They've had five or six different bass players that are all very good, Cornell, while being lead vocalist, also played guitar, but then there is Kim Thayil on lead guitar. Thayil is a master guitar player. The way he used effects and distortion and reverb was quintessential 90's grunge and he was damn good too. He was a joy to watch play. He would whip his incredibly long hair while thrashing away on his guitar. Some of his solos are some of the best that I have ever heard. Thayil was, and still is, one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time. In fact, I personally think Thayil is a much better guitar player than a guy like Slash, but he doesn't get the acclaim. That's a shame. Go back and only listen to Thayil and be amazed at how wonderful and unique and awesome his work is on guitar. Thayil is a legend. Chris Cornell has his place, but I think he is a bit overrated as a singer and guitar player. He got very lucky to be in a band with Thayil. But, without his unique vocals, Soundgarden may have never hit the big time. Cornell has gone on to do other things, but nothing comes close to comparing his work in Soundgarden. The band that he and the members of Rage Against the Machine, minus Zack De La Rocha, started, Audioslave, is a joke. Don't listen to Audioslave. Listen to Rage or Soundgarden. They are both far superior. 

Then there is the actual music. I have mentioned and talked about "Black Hole Sun", but that whole album, "Superunknown" is awesome. It was their fourth album, but it is the one that put them on the map and it is the only one of their albums that really needs to be mentioned. "Superunknown" is incredible. It perfectly melded grunge with rock and had elements of psychedelic music as well. We have the aforementioned "Black Hole Sun", but there is also some great songs like, "Spoonman", "The Day I Tried to Live", "My Wave" and "Fell on Black Days". All these songs are dark and depressing and beautiful. The musicianship is incredible. These guys know how to play and play very well together. I know I said before that I'm not a big fan of Cornell's, but his vocals are perfect on this album for this genre of music. As I said before, I came to this band very late in my life, but this album one hundred percent holds up. They made some records before, and even 2 after "Superunknown", but we don't even need to touch on those because "Superunknown" is so great and such a perfect representation of grunge and 90's popular music. I'm serious, go back and listen to that record and you will be transported to wherever you where in that time of your life. I hear it now and I think back to hearing it for the first time and not understanding it and being scared by it. I was too young to get it when it first came out in 1994. But, 22 years later, I understand and recognize how truly great that record is. That album gave the whole world Soundgarden. Before then, the only people who knew of them where people that lived in Seattle and big time grunge nerds that needed to listen to every grunge band. "Superunkown" unleashed this incredible band for everyone to hear. It is truly one album that allows me to put this band in this conversation. Most of the other bands I have written about have multiple albums that makes it easier to put in the debate, but Soundgarden, while having 6 full EP's, only really needs just this one, and it's more than enough to put them up for greatest American band.

I'm a pretty big Soundgarden fan now. They have tried to make it work recently, but they will never be as good as they were in 1994. They came along at the exact right time for them and they grabbed their chance and ran with it. I really enjoy Soundgarden, especially Thayil, and you really only need to hear "Superunknown" and I think you will agree with me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Have you missed any of our previous Greatest American Bands? You can find them all right here. Ty has a twitter, go follow him @tykulik.