[Mondogarage]

If we're truly trying to find the "five greatest American bands of all time" (frankly, a pointless exercise), it helps to have a rational set of criteria.

1. The band should have some longevity -- a career of 3-4 albums shouldn't be allowed to cut it (sorry, G'n'R, Doors, Television, and even Pixies fans), because far too many bands have pulled that off. Flaming out after a couple of great records doesn't make you the greatest *band* (sorry, Nirvana).

2. The corollary to that is, longevity itself shouldn't be overrated (sorry, Aerosmith). A handful of good albums, coupled with a ton of mediocre ones, does not make you great.

3. "Greatest" should not necessarily equate to "most influential on future bands" (sorry, V.U. and Big Star), because we're not measuring how they affected future music, but rather the output of the band itself.

4. "Band" means band, not solo artist. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band would fit. Just because the band is named after the frontman doesn't make it a solo act. Those cats played together for years and years. Tom Petty would work, as well. James Taylor would not. Jewel would not, and etc.

With that said, I think the following is a representative Top 5 list (and for what it's worth, there's two bands on my list whom I can't stand, and another I can barely tolerate). In no particular order:

The Beach Boys
R.E.M.
The Eagles
Sonic Youth
Metallica

My own personal five all timers would disregard a couple of those more objective criteria and look like this:

Pixies
R.E.M.
The Woggles
The Go-Go's
Dressy Bessy (gotta give Denver some luv)

But then, that's just personal taste, and most of my favorite bands are, ironically, from Canada or the UK.