This list will not be a foundational Top 10 American Bands list, but will focus on the Top 10 American Bands of our contemporary time. Rather than feign a love for things past that we never experienced, we will give credence to the few American bands that actually made a worthwhile dent into the recent history of pop music. This list was incredibly hard to make because of the few worthy bands that have come from America. Rock and pop have not been the American strong suite, musically speaking. That being said, what genre really has been? Regardless, we had to use all our brainpower to think of our favorite bands and eventually come up with 10 bands worthy of this Top 10. These are all the great bands who happen to be American, past these 10 bands though, you got us.
10. The Beachwood Sparks
The Beachwood Sparks just have the internal harmony that makes for great music. Their melodies are superlative and their musicianship is incredibly strong, way beyond their ages. That they don’t get any coverage in the music media shows how aimless American music is knowing what good music is or not. The Beachwood Sparks first eponymous album was filled with harmonies and slide guitars that were perfectly overdubbed in the chorus’s of the song’s showing a sense of pop dynamics unknown to all the shitty indie bands of today. Listen to a song like “This is what it feels like” and you would hear a band with an internal sense for the groove also. Their 2nd album Once We Were Trees was another solid country/pop work from them. The Make the Cowboy Robots Cry EP had a song on it called “Drinkswater” that was seriously one of the best pop jams of the past decade, if not the only real one. This band was a convolution of different references point, all never getting away from internal harmony.
9. French Kicks
The French Kicks are an unnoticed band with a penchant for amazing hooks and undeniable rhythms. They are a band who come up with some of the most creative rhythms but still hit a groove. It’s creative without losing it’s step. They’re early albums are somewhat reminiscent of the easy beats and other British invasion bands in the 60’s which is probably why they have a strong sense of melody and rhythm unlike most American bands. Check out the song “Close to Modern” and one will hear minimalist pop done to perfect with a bass kicked high in the mix and a drum beat hard on the snare. Check out their latest album and you will hear classic 50’s melodies spun in a web of unique beats on every song. And afterall this, finally a good old crooner of a vocalist in Nick Stumpf who voice has a relaxed range inaudible to most American bands.
8. Pinback
Pinback came onto the scene in 1999 with their This is Pinback CD which showed promise of a band who was in the midst of joining some really good influences together. Their 2004 album Summer in Abaddon is where they became one of the best contemporary American bands. This album was full of singles from beginning to end. Starting off with the punchy rhythm of “Non-Photo Blue” all the way to the passionate delivery of “AFK”, this album had timeless written all over it. The single “Fortress” was a song that is surreptitious and catchy as hell. There’s an underbelly to that song though that just screams of substance though beyond it’s obvious pop instincts. The lyrics to this album are arcane which supplements it’s moodier musicality. Autumn in Seraphs continued the musical motifs of Summer in Abaddon by never releasing it’s grasp of good songwriting. This is a band that OW hopes can keep making albums as good as their past two into the future.
7. The Strokes
At the coming of the past decade, The Strokes made arguably the greatest album of the decade in Is This It. Nothing had ever sounded so old but yet so new at the same time. That they would be thrown into the “garage rock revival” crew was a discredit to them because they were much more than garage rock. They had the rhythm of classic Mo-Town and the songwriting of the best of British Invasion bands. Songs like “The Modern Age”, “Someday” and “Last Night” were unforgettable songs. That they were able to almost match the quality of their first album with Room on Fire and First Impressions of Earth was a testament to their talent. They became more refined musicians but never lost sense of what a good song was. For this they will always get the credit they deserve from OW.
6. Pete Yorn
Pete Yorn made a classic album with Music for the Morning After. This album was a pile of hits with “For Nancy” and ‘Life on a Chain” proving to be great singles. The true classics on this album though were “Black” and “Murray” with insatiable hooks and guitar lines straight from The Stone Roses best work. Pete Yorn basically had good influences and infused them into his inherent structural songwriting that made for this pop masterpiece of an album. His second album Day I Forgot wasn’t nearly as strong as his first but there was still a sizeable amount of tunes on this album including “Come Back Home” and “Crystal Village”. There’s a timelessness to Pete Yorn’s voice as much as there’s a timelessness to his songwriting. He’s one of the few American musicians who just gets it.
5. Beach House
Beach House keep writing great music. They’re three albums in and they can’t stop writing timeless songs. While their first two albums were full of timeless songs that found their motif in mood and slow tempos, their newest album Teen Dream found the duo embracing their pop roots without any sense of self-consciousness. As listeners we are treat to perfect pop songs on that album like “Walk in the Park” and “Used to Be”. Don’t let this pop gem of album fool you from check out their eponymous debut album and Devotion though. You don’t know what your missing with songs like “Wedding Bells” and “Gila”. Beach House you take along with you for a hike or a long drive. They’re easy on the ears and full of musicianship with a vocalist in Victoria Legrand who never misses pitch even live. This is what makes them transcend the pits of indie music and earns them the title of great pop.
4. Ryan Adams
The music press goes back and forth on Ryan Adams for reasons that never have anything to do with his music. There’s not one second of his music that isn’t filled with heart and a desire to create the best songs known in the world today. The amount of good to great songs in his holster is staggering. Just count how many he has on Gold and you will have more than any American band today. His most creative world came from Love is Hell and his work with the Cardinals, especially Cold Roses which took the spirit of the Grateful Dead and made it less hokey and more at home with pop’s inherent quality. This guy makes albums like he’s eating a regular day meal. He has too many albums to count and too many good songs on these albums to count. Ryan Adam’s has a spirit that American musicians in general don’t grasp.
3. Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age were one of the few bands who really couldn’t give a shit about what the mainstream and underground music media had to say about music. They just got tanked, geeked up, and made some of the best stoner rock of the past decade. Rated R was beyond it’s time. “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” was wallop to your ears and your musical senses of what hard rock was able to do, which was having the ability to be creative and not just angry. Songs for the Deaf was their breakthrough with the massively big single “No one Knows”, soon to be followed by the hard rock pomp of “Go with the Flow” as the 2nd radio single from the album. See these guys live and you’re in for a treat. They’re brutal and out to bend the music listening experience to edges it has never been.
2. Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev became good when they moved from hipster Ville New York City boroughs to the Catskills where their imagination flew with the inspiring Deserter’s Songs album which was full of timeless music on every part of the album whether they heard the grand orchestration of “Holes” and “Opus 40” or they heard the majestic romp of “Delta Sun Bottle Neck Stomp”. They would continue on this glorious path with their latest album The Secret Migration that was a perfect combination of haunt and pop heard in the past decade. Only when Mercury Rev moved into the mountains and hills of the Catskills did their imagination open up from the closed garbage of inner city New York’s indie gestures.
1. Wilco
Wilco refuses to be labeled, but that hasn’t stopped them from acquiring a trunk-full of them. They’ve been called alt-country, lo-fi, indie, experimental, art-pop, avant-garde, and just about anything else you can think of that would help a person find them in a record store. Wilco is a rare band that has been consistently and simultaneously an amazing live band and an amazing recording band. I can’t recommend an album that they’ve made that couldn’t be my favorite record-of-the-moment. With no end in sight (they’re currently writing their follow-up to the amazing Blue Sky Blue) and seemingly no fumbles along the way, Wilco is without a doubt THE GREATEST American band…in our opinion.
Related article: Top 5 Music Countries
Good list but I think Weezer should have been on there.
You officially have the worst taste in music ever.
I agree with Modest Mouse but that’s about it. To each his own though.
This was a well written article. I like the music lists you guys come up with. Seeing Wilco on your Top 10 90′s Bands List, and on this one made my day. You guys should do a Top 10 Australian Bands list next.
Not bad but I would have liked to see Phish or the Grateful Dead on this list.
They only put 90′s band’s on, otherwise they would have made the list too long. I’m amazed they found any good modern bands. Music these days blows ass.
No Talking Heads?
What happened to Sonic Youth?
As with all of our music lists we were forced to leave off some incredible bands. Sonic Youth was one of them.
You guys should stick to video games.
Karl: I guarantee you that if they did a Top 10 Australian Bands list they would put the Bee Gees on it.
Why do you guys bother to keep posting these stupid lists?
No Nirvana = EPIC FAIL
Once again Old-Wizard loses.
Your top 3 are genius. I’m not quite certain about the rest (although the White Stripes are most certainly amazing). I could argue that Modest Mouse and Wilco are possibly some of the most amazing bands of all time – for American bands, that is. They are both incredibly poetic and almost fantastic in their inventiveness.
i like the majority of the bands mentioned on your list but I don’t know if I’d consider them the best American bands.
Seems like most of the bands would fall under Indie or Alternative. So why is it missing bands like The Bravery and The Strokes?
Next time you do a top ten american bands list, you should do it by genre. Just a suggestion.
It’s all about Metal. White Stripes have no talent. Most of these bands seem to be on the list simply for being anti-industry and are all easily forgotten.
Great list. I love all these bands with the exception of moe.!
moe sucks and wilco isnt that great
Thanks 26, for that intelligent and insightful argument
Top 10 WHITE American Bands.
Good list otherwise and has got me thinking about Ween again. Thanks.
the White Stripes is on this list and Metallica isn’t?!?! WTF?!?!
One word SLAYER, grow a fucking pair and listen to some Metal!
this is a joke. right?
the person who owns this site is more full of themselves than rolling stone mag
this list shouls have been labled top ten bands that nobody knows or cares about.
again, this has to be a joke site. right
funny how som of you are pissed that the bands are too knopwn & generic and others are mad that they’re too unknown…instead of whining like little b*&^$s why don’t you tell us YOUR opinion so we can all be exposed to new bands.
Personally, I loved this list. I know I’m in the minority here, but that’s actually why I like it so much. I never thought I ever see a list of Top X American Bands that was FRESH. No Nirvana, no Dave Matthews, no Sonic Youth, no Bruce Springsteen…. I don’t know what to say! This list totally caught me off guard.
Not only that, but the paragraphs about each band were insightful and well written.
To the author: Its good to see that there are independent thinkers left in this country! I almost gave up hope. I will definitely come back to this site frequently.
To the Old Wizard:
Out of curiosity, what do you think about the Flogging Molleys?
…My Morning Jacket
…My Morning Jacket
I’m sorry guys. I love this website all except the music reviews. Personally I think you have the worst taste in music I have ever seen. You like these indy, “underrated” bands that make you think you are edgy and cool for liking them. Sorry you are not. Most of all the shit you claim is great is just non-talented fluff that all sounds the same.
At least you do not listn to nickelback.
And oasis sucks. period. awful.
Some great known american bands: Pantera, 311, Rise Against, Killswitch Engage, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mudvayne
Some great not as well known american bands: All That Remains, Trivium, God Forbid, Lojic(a must listen)
way to leave off sonic youth, but overall fuck yea to the top 5. also, come on dude, the doors
decent list as far as indy goes but just not complete with out The Bad Brains or Black Flag. Totaly diffrent style though.
are you kidding me? hoe about MC5?! The Sonics?! Frank Zappa? what fag wrote this?
You left out about 100 other IMPORTANT American Bands of the last 30 years or so.
This list seems too modern. And too “indie rock”.
Pavement is great of course but Modest Mouse is horrible, repetetive, boring.
Where is Sonic Youth?
R.E.M.?
The Melvins?
Superchunk?
And the Big Daddy of them all…. Guided By Voices???????
Ever hear of Nirvana, douche bag?
@Relayer71
GBV is too sporadic for me, but Alien Lanes is a classic. Sonic Youth was #11, and it was a tough call.
@Grabo
Yes, I was actually old enough to be around for all of it, the whole scene. Nirvana was great, but without Kurt blowing his head off no one cared. He was an uppity tool bag who couldn’t handle the fame he craved in the beginning. The guy never lived under a bridge in Aberdeen, but his life was pretty tough, and he was a great songwriter. The tidal wave of fans who idolize him and Nirvana are living on some alternate plane…Foo Fighters are a better band than Nirvana was.
GBV sporadic?
Alien Lanes
Under The Bushes Under The Stars
Mag Earwhig
Earthquake Glue
Were all excellent albums. Their last album, Half Smiles Of The Decomposed was 14 tracks. Remove 3 and it would have been a perfect album.
Yes, they probably put too many songs on their albums (14 was a short album for them, heh) and some of them were duds but this doesn’t take away from Robert Pollard’s songwriting genius and the fact that they probably recorded more great and memorable songs in say any 3 albums than most artists in their entire careers.
If anything they’re more consistent (not to mention accessible) than Sonic Youth. Everytime Kim Gordon opens her mouth it’s a good song ruined.
I agree with you on Nirvana though. And I was a fan even before they became huge. Their career was way too short for them to be on any “best” band list. Look at the track record:
Bleach was a mediocre album.
Nevermind was a very good album at the time, a great kick in the pants for the pop music scene in general but it was nothing new or terribly groundbreaking. It was great in that it changed the landscape but it was no The Joshua Tree.
In Utero – personally I like this one more than Nevermind. I liked the feel and sound of it and it had a couple of songs I loved. But you can tell Kurt was stretching it as far as ideas – seemed like every song on Nevermind was a perfect little pop-punk gem where In Utero is a bit rough around the edges. Shortage of ideas maybe? It’s ok, though – Soundgarden should have stopped with Superunknown because the followup album was terrible.
No Nirvana? No Sonic Youth? R.E.M.? Alice in Chains? Soundgarden? Foo Fighters?
And to top it all off…MODEST MOUSE?
You’re a prick.
I agree with Otto
Also, how about Red hot chili peppers
Great list!
Ween FTW!
Hold the phone, you forgot Three Days Grace. I know what you are thinking and they are not a Christian or any other type of religious band. They are heavy metal. One of their songs is called I Hate Everything About You. Now if that doesn’t scream, “Not religious.” I don’t know what does.
Pretty shitty list, and everyone in The National is ugly as hell.
No Black Crowes? Are you kidding me? They’re one of the few “real” rock bands going today. They’ve been churning out great albums for almost 20 years. Plus they’ve had great success both in sales and certainly on the road. They’re as strong now as they’ve been in 15 years. No way you can have a list of greatest American bands and not have them on there. And what about these: STP, Alice In Chains, Aerosmith and the Eagles? Especially the last 2. Based on success alone they’re in there right at the top. Oh yea ever heard of CCR and The Doors? Jeez…
where are Nirvana and R.E.M.?
the doors were American
Jimi Hendrix Experience was American
what-the-fuck
Oh yeah, Red Hot Chili Peppers should be here too.
joel, they sad in the description it was bands of their lifetime, not all time.
This list sucks. how about some recognition of older bands like the eagles or the beach boys.
The list should be:
10.RHCP
9.Aerosmith
8.REM
7.Lynyrd Skynyrd
6.Pearl Jam
5.CCR
4.Beach Boys
3.Tom Petty
2.Bruce Springsteen
1.The Eagles