Top 5 American Bands

It's 4th of July of weekend, which means it's time to fire up the ol' bar-b-que, relax with some friends and watch some (hopefully) controlled explosions. In all this, you certainly can't forget the tunes. Nothing makes a good time like its soundtrack but how patriotic are our listening tastes when it comes to pulling from the collective pool of "popular" music in this day and age?

Before anybody feels like they're being called on the carpet here, I'm just as guilty of it as anyone. I mean, I was born and raised in the classic rock nirvana of suburban Long Island. Holiday weekends are all about a near-religious non-stop cranking of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Pink Floyd staples, right? Yeah, well, for as influential as these "big guns" may be in the rock pantheon, they're all imports to these here shores. The question I'm putting forth is: Once we've dumped the Beatles and Stones in the harbor in the name of holiday festivity, who are our homegrown heavyweights?

This probably could've been a proper Top 10 list, but my selections proved to be tougher (and more unexpected) than I originally thought. Plus, then I'd probably be here 'til Labor Day...
  

1. The Ramones: Mega-infectious early 50s-style three chord ditties served up at twice the speed with somewhat (mentally) unbalanced lyrical content, in many respects the "Forest Hills Fawr" ("one-too-tree-fawr"?) are our American Beatles. Aside from some of the direct, overt homages they took from the Liverpudlians' own early days (the Hamburg leather jacket gang look, McCartney actually toying with the stage-name Paul Ramone), Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy's own actual musical effect was literally a reversal of the original British Invasion. Having already made quite a name for themselves around New York City's club scene, particularly being marquee players at the then-burgeoning CBGB, they hopped the pond to promote their debut album in the bicentennial Summer of '76. Their historic July 4th show was witnessed by none other than soon-to-be notable London scenesters such as Malcom McLaren, John Lydon, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, among others who may have been somewhat influenced by what they saw. Results may be back from the lab soon, I dunno...
2.   Kiss: Love 'em or hate 'em, you would be hard-pressed to find another band that genuinely personifies all that is gloriously, crassly American! The story of an immigrant boy who dresses himself up like a firebreathing clown and makes bank singing Beatle songs though a Zeppelin filter. Yessir, it's quite near impossible to ignore their fist-pumping staying power, even as the Kabuki Quartet has made themselves pretty transparent in creating veritable economic institution out of sleeping with yr sister, yr girlfriend and yr mom and all the while selling you back the t-shirt...
3.  Velvet Underground: Our own early-run anti-Beatles? If the Fab Four on the Ed Sullivan Show inspired god knows how many future musicians to commit to the fun and frivolity of the rock n roll lifestyle, then what evolved out of this art project mash-up experiment certainly became a focal point for every disenfranchised youth who didn't necessarily cotton to squeaky-clean mop-top rompery yet still felt compelled to climb on a stage and evoke something darker and more primal. There are probably 50 billion American bands that can and will be argued deserving of a Top 5 slot in their own right, but really, they're all just gonna have to take a back seat to Lou and the VU-- whether they consciously know it or not...
4. Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention: Perhaps not only one of the greatest American composers of the 20th Century, for over 20 years, Frank was able to host a huge ever-changing ensemble that was basically like getting yr phD in shred-- and he was able to do all of this without a great deal of major label support, d.i.y.'ing it every step of the way! I firmly believe that if he was alive and that if the current throes of the music industry was also to be his heyday, he'd actually be some sorta shining beacon to thriving in these digitally-uncertain times. Musically and lyrically (once you get past the dual potty humor AND hoity-toity avant leanings), there is great social commentary (and balls-out jamming) to be had. This being said considering that the body of Frank 's work runs from the late 60s into the late 80s and that he constantly shines the mirror down on both "establishment" and "anti-establishment" alike. It also helps that this kinda manifested itself in real life when Frank testified in front of a Senate sub-committee during the infamous PMRC hearings of 1985.
5. Jimi Hendrix/ Band of Gypsys: Not "The Experience". Not the "Gypsy Suns and Rainbows" big band from Woodstock. By virtue of English drummer Mitch Mitchell being such a lynchpin player in those incarnations, they're disqualified. And I really love Mitch, so... sorry, really. But Band of Gypsys? Despite only being together for just the two-night stand at the Fillmore East, New Year's Eve/Day '69/'70 and a handful of subsequent studio sessions that attempted to enshrine that initial magic, the legacy of the two-headed hydra of Jimi Hendrix and funk singer/drum-monster Buddy Miles really only needs to rely on two simple words: Power. Trio. Rounded out by Jimi's old Army buddy, Billy Cox (also from the Woodstock gig and, essentially, nothing short of being another pair of Hendrix's own arms on bass), they positively crushed grooves in a way the Experience never could! It can also be speculated that the direction this group ideally would've blazed would have eventually worked Miles Davis into the fold-- which truly would've been the greatest unturned corner in American music. Ah, what could've been...

 Anyway, that's my five. I'm gonna go watch some fireworks now. Enjoy!