So, what Green Day should you buy? In what order? Hmmm....
Dookie: A+ (100)
American Idiot A+ (100)
21st Century Breakdown: A (97)
Insomniac: A (96)
Foxboro Hot Tubs: A (96)
Warning: A (95)
39 Smooth/Slappy Hours B+ (88)
Shenanigans: B+ (88)
Kerplunk: B (85)
The Network's Money Money 2020 B- (81)
Nimrod: C+ (78)
Tough. Have to rank it two ways:
Green Day Plus: 91 A-
Green Day Prime: 92 A-
So, I guess it doesn't matter. If you dig power/punk/pop, Green Day has something for you. The top 3 are must owns. The second 3 are fine. Round out with the bottom 5 if you're a completist.
Showing posts with label Green Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Day. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Monday, June 1, 2009
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
Green Day gives us another Rock Opera. But is it any good?
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown - 2009 (iTunes - Amazon)
"My generation is zero. I never made it as a working class hero."
It's a great line. It follows a bit about being born into Nixon and is followed a little later with the spittle of being "raised by the bastards of 1969".
There's a bit of chatter about the new Green Day album. Some hate it, like Jim DeRogatis of Sound Opinions who thought it has too much bombast, that it owes more to Queen than to Punk.
Some love it, labeling it the sequel to American Idiot.
It is and it isn't.
It's definitely got a gigantic sound. Trading in Rob Cavallo's thick production for an even more wide sonic palette of Butch Vig, I found that the album only really works when it's cranked really loud. Only then does the anthemic nature pour out. This is not a soft record. It's in our faces. Armstrong's got a lot to say, the band has a lot to do, and dammit, you need to hear it in full.
The record is divided into 3 Acts. The first, after the radio tinny sounding a cappella overture "Song of the Century", is called
"Heroes & Cons"
In this song cycle we are introduced to the young lovers who will take us on our journey of life in the 21st century. Christian and Gloria are their names and the song dedicated to her "Viva La Gloria!" is a classic wall of sound Green Day power track with a one minute piano/violin intro. Its a top down fly down the highway piece of gloss and it works on every level. That it has to follow the radio ready power pop/punk of "Know Your Enemy" is a task that the song is up to. But, it's really the album's introduction number, the eponymous track that sets the tone.
Smaller than "Jesus of Suburbia" but with the same multi-style motif, the title track is an explosion and culmination of everything Green Day has been working toward, making good on the promise of American Idiot to be the flagbearers of Stadium Rawk ala The Who or Queen.
Next up is "Before the Lobotomy". This is where I began to notice that these are not just songs, this is not just a pastiche of tracks, there is an order to this. With another one minute long intro, Green Day is not interested in being radio ready as much as they are about telling a story.
I, personally, think there is no coincidence that the male hero's name is what it is. This is an album not about living through the worst and most callous administration in history, its about living in the aftermath. Christians and Glory seekers have to deal with the repercussions of their actions. (btw, 3:30 of this song and 4:25 of 21st Century Breakdown are pure Brian May guitar God-hooding.)
"Christian's Inferno" could have fallen off The Network's Money Money 2020. Trading New Wave verses with panic-punk choruses, this is the song where life begins to fall apart for our heroes. From what I gather, Christian can't get a job and is really pissed about it. In fact, looking around him he's none too pleased with the state of the world that he's been handed and he really wants to lash out.
"Last Night on Earth" is the love song. The music is either an outgrowth of Wake me Before September Ends or a complete Rip off of Lennon. Doesn't matter. Could just be a big ballad, and that's fine, it's the hallucinogenic backing music, almost dischordant effects, with an occasional seagull tossed in for good measure, that makes the song really sing for me. As the ending of a cycle, it's divine.
"Charlatans and Saints"
"East Jesus Nowhere" is a religious army's call to arms. As I see it, this is Billie Joe's warning that the religious right have been mobilized and are preparing for war. "I want to know who's allowed to breed/All the dogs who never learned to read/Missionary politicians/And the cops of the new religion"
Yeah. He's got a bone to pick with the Religious Right alright.
"Peacemaker" follows amidst the static of what sounds like Arab radio, the song itself is obviously middle eastern flavored rock. Or "Misery" on steroids. But, it would follow suit that, after a song calling Christians to the fight of their lives, we would get to see a response from the Muslim side. The song is excellent, by the way.
"Last of the American Girls" shows us a bit of Gloria. She ain't just a girl next door. She's pissed and paranoid. She's mad at corporate America. She's an idealist that might be the template for Patty Hearst if she weren't a descendant. I wouldn't doubt her to be a vegetarian and a member of PeTA.
And if you were feeling like the album didn't have a lot teeth, "Murder City" is every bit as Dookie era GD that you would be likely to hear, except that the boys are 37 not 22. They have more to say. Gloria isn't all that thrilled with the way things are turning out. She feels desperate, useless, her boyfriend is crying in the bathroom and all she wants is a cigarette. I don't have a lot of hope for these two, truth be told.
Much like the Weil-esque Misery is "Viva la Gloria?" I liked the style before. I like it now. I'm not sure what has happened to Gloria, though....Then we get to the first clunker; "Restless Heart Syndrome". If you're gonna redux "Novacaine", make it better, guys. But, then that song's descent to guitar inferno actually helps the song and ends the second act on the right note: Chaos.
Act III
Horseshoes & Handgrenades
After the sound of jackboots marching, Billie Joe screams, "I'm not fucking around!" on "Horseshoes & Handgrenades" and he sounds like he means it. I guess Christian's fed up with being lied to and forced to drink the swill of propaganda. His screams of G-L-O-R-I-A! folds right into the epic pop rock sound of "Static Age", a song I am taking as an indictment of the noise of pop culture. When all is done and the cult of celebrity has clouded the horrors of the world, all that's left is the reality of the battlefield. "21 Guns" is the second single from the record and it's a bold one. (It kind of sounds like All the Young Dudes in the chorus. Just mentioning) We're still at war, but we seem to have forgotten all that. Through all the clutter of 24 hour news and OMG! magazine and MTV's The Hills, we've forgotten that men and women are dying for a cause that has turned out to be a boondoggle.
From there it's a reprise of the opening track, although with more static than before. As that fades into the background, the siren blare of "Mass Hysteria" (with a verse rewrite of Deadbeat Holiday) could be taken for the exact reaction of the world to the economic meltdown. It WAS Mass Hysteria. Blending into the track "Modern World", one gets the sense that there really might be no hope for Christian and Gloria. It's too much, this hysteria, this meltdown, this world of early adopters and technology. Our heroes might not fit in. Nor might any of us. And when it's over, what are we left with? A world at crossroads. There is no happy ending, after all, we are in the middle of this crisis, aren't we? And I've never turned to Green Day for hope. Billie Joe's worldview, with transgendering, absentee fathers, submissive boyfriends, malevolent girlfriends, has never been all that hopeful, has it? Why would we expect it now?
Of course, I might be wrong about all this.
This is an amazing record. Not dull by any means. Maybe it'll fade away from memory, it most certainly won't have the effect of American Idiot, having to live up to that album's legacy and, somehow, outdo it without aping it, it just can't win. And, knowing that, Green Day has decided to make what THEY want to make and leave it to us whether we embrace it or not. I've heard somewhere that these songs were the ones they decided to put on the record of the 40 they recorded.
40. I imagine that another Green Day album might be in the offing not too long from now.
After 20 years of never making one truly bad album, their streak continues.
Grade A
A-Side: 21st Century Breakdown. Know Your Enemy, Before the Lobotomy, Viva La Gloria!,
BlindSide: Peacemaker, Murder City, Viva Le Gloria?, Static Age
DownSide: Christian's Inferno, See the Light
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown - 2009 (iTunes - Amazon)
"My generation is zero. I never made it as a working class hero."
It's a great line. It follows a bit about being born into Nixon and is followed a little later with the spittle of being "raised by the bastards of 1969".
There's a bit of chatter about the new Green Day album. Some hate it, like Jim DeRogatis of Sound Opinions who thought it has too much bombast, that it owes more to Queen than to Punk.
Some love it, labeling it the sequel to American Idiot.
It is and it isn't.
It's definitely got a gigantic sound. Trading in Rob Cavallo's thick production for an even more wide sonic palette of Butch Vig, I found that the album only really works when it's cranked really loud. Only then does the anthemic nature pour out. This is not a soft record. It's in our faces. Armstrong's got a lot to say, the band has a lot to do, and dammit, you need to hear it in full.
The record is divided into 3 Acts. The first, after the radio tinny sounding a cappella overture "Song of the Century", is called
"Heroes & Cons"
In this song cycle we are introduced to the young lovers who will take us on our journey of life in the 21st century. Christian and Gloria are their names and the song dedicated to her "Viva La Gloria!" is a classic wall of sound Green Day power track with a one minute piano/violin intro. Its a top down fly down the highway piece of gloss and it works on every level. That it has to follow the radio ready power pop/punk of "Know Your Enemy" is a task that the song is up to. But, it's really the album's introduction number, the eponymous track that sets the tone.
Smaller than "Jesus of Suburbia" but with the same multi-style motif, the title track is an explosion and culmination of everything Green Day has been working toward, making good on the promise of American Idiot to be the flagbearers of Stadium Rawk ala The Who or Queen.
Next up is "Before the Lobotomy". This is where I began to notice that these are not just songs, this is not just a pastiche of tracks, there is an order to this. With another one minute long intro, Green Day is not interested in being radio ready as much as they are about telling a story.
I, personally, think there is no coincidence that the male hero's name is what it is. This is an album not about living through the worst and most callous administration in history, its about living in the aftermath. Christians and Glory seekers have to deal with the repercussions of their actions. (btw, 3:30 of this song and 4:25 of 21st Century Breakdown are pure Brian May guitar God-hooding.)
"Christian's Inferno" could have fallen off The Network's Money Money 2020. Trading New Wave verses with panic-punk choruses, this is the song where life begins to fall apart for our heroes. From what I gather, Christian can't get a job and is really pissed about it. In fact, looking around him he's none too pleased with the state of the world that he's been handed and he really wants to lash out.
"Last Night on Earth" is the love song. The music is either an outgrowth of Wake me Before September Ends or a complete Rip off of Lennon. Doesn't matter. Could just be a big ballad, and that's fine, it's the hallucinogenic backing music, almost dischordant effects, with an occasional seagull tossed in for good measure, that makes the song really sing for me. As the ending of a cycle, it's divine.
"Charlatans and Saints"
"East Jesus Nowhere" is a religious army's call to arms. As I see it, this is Billie Joe's warning that the religious right have been mobilized and are preparing for war. "I want to know who's allowed to breed/All the dogs who never learned to read/Missionary politicians/And the cops of the new religion"
Yeah. He's got a bone to pick with the Religious Right alright.
"Peacemaker" follows amidst the static of what sounds like Arab radio, the song itself is obviously middle eastern flavored rock. Or "Misery" on steroids. But, it would follow suit that, after a song calling Christians to the fight of their lives, we would get to see a response from the Muslim side. The song is excellent, by the way.
"Last of the American Girls" shows us a bit of Gloria. She ain't just a girl next door. She's pissed and paranoid. She's mad at corporate America. She's an idealist that might be the template for Patty Hearst if she weren't a descendant. I wouldn't doubt her to be a vegetarian and a member of PeTA.
And if you were feeling like the album didn't have a lot teeth, "Murder City" is every bit as Dookie era GD that you would be likely to hear, except that the boys are 37 not 22. They have more to say. Gloria isn't all that thrilled with the way things are turning out. She feels desperate, useless, her boyfriend is crying in the bathroom and all she wants is a cigarette. I don't have a lot of hope for these two, truth be told.
Much like the Weil-esque Misery is "Viva la Gloria?" I liked the style before. I like it now. I'm not sure what has happened to Gloria, though....Then we get to the first clunker; "Restless Heart Syndrome". If you're gonna redux "Novacaine", make it better, guys. But, then that song's descent to guitar inferno actually helps the song and ends the second act on the right note: Chaos.
Act III
Horseshoes & Handgrenades
After the sound of jackboots marching, Billie Joe screams, "I'm not fucking around!" on "Horseshoes & Handgrenades" and he sounds like he means it. I guess Christian's fed up with being lied to and forced to drink the swill of propaganda. His screams of G-L-O-R-I-A! folds right into the epic pop rock sound of "Static Age", a song I am taking as an indictment of the noise of pop culture. When all is done and the cult of celebrity has clouded the horrors of the world, all that's left is the reality of the battlefield. "21 Guns" is the second single from the record and it's a bold one. (It kind of sounds like All the Young Dudes in the chorus. Just mentioning) We're still at war, but we seem to have forgotten all that. Through all the clutter of 24 hour news and OMG! magazine and MTV's The Hills, we've forgotten that men and women are dying for a cause that has turned out to be a boondoggle.
From there it's a reprise of the opening track, although with more static than before. As that fades into the background, the siren blare of "Mass Hysteria" (with a verse rewrite of Deadbeat Holiday) could be taken for the exact reaction of the world to the economic meltdown. It WAS Mass Hysteria. Blending into the track "Modern World", one gets the sense that there really might be no hope for Christian and Gloria. It's too much, this hysteria, this meltdown, this world of early adopters and technology. Our heroes might not fit in. Nor might any of us. And when it's over, what are we left with? A world at crossroads. There is no happy ending, after all, we are in the middle of this crisis, aren't we? And I've never turned to Green Day for hope. Billie Joe's worldview, with transgendering, absentee fathers, submissive boyfriends, malevolent girlfriends, has never been all that hopeful, has it? Why would we expect it now?
Of course, I might be wrong about all this.
This is an amazing record. Not dull by any means. Maybe it'll fade away from memory, it most certainly won't have the effect of American Idiot, having to live up to that album's legacy and, somehow, outdo it without aping it, it just can't win. And, knowing that, Green Day has decided to make what THEY want to make and leave it to us whether we embrace it or not. I've heard somewhere that these songs were the ones they decided to put on the record of the 40 they recorded.
40. I imagine that another Green Day album might be in the offing not too long from now.
After 20 years of never making one truly bad album, their streak continues.
Grade A
A-Side: 21st Century Breakdown. Know Your Enemy, Before the Lobotomy, Viva La Gloria!,
BlindSide: Peacemaker, Murder City, Viva Le Gloria?, Static Age
DownSide: Christian's Inferno, See the Light
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Kerplunk!
One of best selling Indie records would pave the way for superstardom
Green Day - Kerplunk! - 1992 (iTunes - Amazon)
You know what you notice on Kerplunk? Mike Dirnt. Yeah, I forgot about him completely on the band's first album. But, he's right there, all prominent and shit on 2000 Light Years Away, the opening track.
One for the Razorbacks follows and I'm trying to keep in mind that I haven't heard Dookie yet in 1992. It hasn't been written or recorded yet. It's hard, you know, to not compare this record to the monster that would follow, but, from the first two tracks it might as well be the same one. And then, wham, there's the original version of Welcome to Paradise and what I realize is that the band is the same, it's that they were in need of a producer to flesh out the sound and an engineer to help broaden the pallette. Because the song is almost exactly the same.
The songs here are more melodic, as in Christie Road and Light Years, these are kids who have been playing since they were little kids. Tre Cool was drumming for The Lookouts since he was 12. Armstrong and Dirnt have been playing together since they were at least 15. Here they are all about 22. And they sound like accomplished musicians.
Private Ave is more a harbinger to the collection of songs on Insomniac than what was around the corner. And the ridiculous twang punk, more reminiscent of a Bloodhound Gang song, is funnier than that band has ever been and is a memory before it wears out its welcome. With this and "All by Myself" I can't help but wonder what a Tre Cool album might sound like. I imagine it would be goofy and fun but a trifle. Perhaps he's best left to the brilliance of skin pounding.
I can't help but feel there is a certain freshness to this sound even though it's 20 years old, for all intents and purposes and this album, released in 1992, came just 9 years after...Thriller. I don't even know what that means.
For a record made for 2 grand, it's pretty good.
As a bonus, the Kerplunk! CD comes with the Sweet Children ep. Sweet Children was Green Day's original name.
The eponymous track, "Sweet Children", is a punk trifle that in no way points toward what their future might be.
There is also a cover of My Generation. It isn't all that exciting or great. But it does show where, if you pulled the covers back, Billie Joe's head was at. He may be punk, but only in the same way that Townshend was. No wonder they just covered "A Quick One While He's Away". I gotta pick that up....
Grade B
A Side: Welcome to Paradise, 2000 Light Years Away
BlindSide: Christie Road, Private Ave, One of my Lies
DownSide: No One Knows (While I want to love the attempt at something grand, it just falls flat.)
Green Day - Kerplunk! - 1992 (iTunes - Amazon)
You know what you notice on Kerplunk? Mike Dirnt. Yeah, I forgot about him completely on the band's first album. But, he's right there, all prominent and shit on 2000 Light Years Away, the opening track.
One for the Razorbacks follows and I'm trying to keep in mind that I haven't heard Dookie yet in 1992. It hasn't been written or recorded yet. It's hard, you know, to not compare this record to the monster that would follow, but, from the first two tracks it might as well be the same one. And then, wham, there's the original version of Welcome to Paradise and what I realize is that the band is the same, it's that they were in need of a producer to flesh out the sound and an engineer to help broaden the pallette. Because the song is almost exactly the same.
The songs here are more melodic, as in Christie Road and Light Years, these are kids who have been playing since they were little kids. Tre Cool was drumming for The Lookouts since he was 12. Armstrong and Dirnt have been playing together since they were at least 15. Here they are all about 22. And they sound like accomplished musicians.
Private Ave is more a harbinger to the collection of songs on Insomniac than what was around the corner. And the ridiculous twang punk, more reminiscent of a Bloodhound Gang song, is funnier than that band has ever been and is a memory before it wears out its welcome. With this and "All by Myself" I can't help but wonder what a Tre Cool album might sound like. I imagine it would be goofy and fun but a trifle. Perhaps he's best left to the brilliance of skin pounding.
I can't help but feel there is a certain freshness to this sound even though it's 20 years old, for all intents and purposes and this album, released in 1992, came just 9 years after...Thriller. I don't even know what that means.
For a record made for 2 grand, it's pretty good.
As a bonus, the Kerplunk! CD comes with the Sweet Children ep. Sweet Children was Green Day's original name.
The eponymous track, "Sweet Children", is a punk trifle that in no way points toward what their future might be.
There is also a cover of My Generation. It isn't all that exciting or great. But it does show where, if you pulled the covers back, Billie Joe's head was at. He may be punk, but only in the same way that Townshend was. No wonder they just covered "A Quick One While He's Away". I gotta pick that up....
Grade B
A Side: Welcome to Paradise, 2000 Light Years Away
BlindSide: Christie Road, Private Ave, One of my Lies
DownSide: No One Knows (While I want to love the attempt at something grand, it just falls flat.)
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours
Right in the middle of the Reflecting Pool, we jump in the wayback machine to cast a glance at the earliest GD had to offer.
Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours - 1990 (iTunes - Amazon)
So this is early Green Day. Before Tre Cool. When John Kiffmeyer (who wrote the terrific Husker Du-ish "I Was There") was the drummer.
The first thing you notice, after 7 Green Day albums from Dookie to Foxboro HotTubs, is that, well, these guys were really a great band from the start.
It's weird to think of this as an 18 year old record. It predates, barely, Nevermind. But, no one was writing about the boys from Berkeley. Who have been a band for 20 years!
A lot of the tracks could be rewritten, rearranged and sound like they fell off Dookie. But let's not forget what this is: This is a small band, barely in their 20s, trying to kick down doors with a calling card. This is a first record. An amateur outing and it's much better than a lot of the crap you pick up at small gigs for bands just starting out.
The first 10 tracks are the album 39/Smooth. It's a stronger attempt at relevance than I have heard on many other small punk bands' albums of the time. And when I was reviewing for Home Theater I was deluged by tons of bands like Kiss the Clown, et al. Nothing was as strong as this. The "ballad", Rest, with it's multi-tracked harmonies, notwithstanding. I see what they were trying, but it doesn't really work. It would, with a better producer. That much is obvious.
The next four tracks are from the Slappy EP. From 1990. wow. Really.
Paper Lanterns features some of the strongest vocals from Bille Joe so far. He isn't just a feature of a punk band. He's carrying the melody and he's secure with it. "Why Do You Want Him" is actually the first song Armstrong wrote, when he was 14. It sounds like a boy was listening to a LOT of Husker Du. But, that's fine, I mean, he's fucking 14, right? In 86 punks SHOULD have been listening to a lot of Du. Candy Apple Grey, Zen Arcade, Warehouse around the corner....maybe that should be a Reflecting Pool.....I digress.
According to the Wiki, the song is written about his stepfather. Putting into motion the father issues that would pervade much of Billie Joe's work (moms and Brads are away....). The Operation Ivy cover, "Knowledge" feels a little out of place. It would probably fit better years later on Warning.
The bottom four tracks in this set are from the ep "1000 Hours" recorded 20 years ago. Good for them. They were on to something and didn't give up. In fact, I prefer the production on this ep to the rest of the album. I can hear the band moving into their own and they've only just begun. Dry Ice is much better than it deserves to be. And while, "Only of You" may be by the numbers, it features a guitar solo, that, if it is Billie Joe, makes me wish he had done more
What's crazy is how prominent the drum fills are, I thought that was an obsession brought in with Tre Cool. I was mistaken. It has been an integral part of the Green Day since the beginning.
Grade B+ (I'm always a little forgiving with debuts. But when the players are 16 and this good, yeah, they deserve it)
A Side: I Was There, At the Library, Paper Lanterns, 1000 Hours
BlindSide: Road to Acceptance, Dry Ice
DownSide: Green Day (A pot song that is superfluous at best. But it did give them that name....), Rest, Knowledge
Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours - 1990 (iTunes - Amazon)
So this is early Green Day. Before Tre Cool. When John Kiffmeyer (who wrote the terrific Husker Du-ish "I Was There") was the drummer.
The first thing you notice, after 7 Green Day albums from Dookie to Foxboro HotTubs, is that, well, these guys were really a great band from the start.
It's weird to think of this as an 18 year old record. It predates, barely, Nevermind. But, no one was writing about the boys from Berkeley. Who have been a band for 20 years!
A lot of the tracks could be rewritten, rearranged and sound like they fell off Dookie. But let's not forget what this is: This is a small band, barely in their 20s, trying to kick down doors with a calling card. This is a first record. An amateur outing and it's much better than a lot of the crap you pick up at small gigs for bands just starting out.
The first 10 tracks are the album 39/Smooth. It's a stronger attempt at relevance than I have heard on many other small punk bands' albums of the time. And when I was reviewing for Home Theater I was deluged by tons of bands like Kiss the Clown, et al. Nothing was as strong as this. The "ballad", Rest, with it's multi-tracked harmonies, notwithstanding. I see what they were trying, but it doesn't really work. It would, with a better producer. That much is obvious.
The next four tracks are from the Slappy EP. From 1990. wow. Really.
Paper Lanterns features some of the strongest vocals from Bille Joe so far. He isn't just a feature of a punk band. He's carrying the melody and he's secure with it. "Why Do You Want Him" is actually the first song Armstrong wrote, when he was 14. It sounds like a boy was listening to a LOT of Husker Du. But, that's fine, I mean, he's fucking 14, right? In 86 punks SHOULD have been listening to a lot of Du. Candy Apple Grey, Zen Arcade, Warehouse around the corner....maybe that should be a Reflecting Pool.....I digress.
According to the Wiki, the song is written about his stepfather. Putting into motion the father issues that would pervade much of Billie Joe's work (moms and Brads are away....). The Operation Ivy cover, "Knowledge" feels a little out of place. It would probably fit better years later on Warning.
The bottom four tracks in this set are from the ep "1000 Hours" recorded 20 years ago. Good for them. They were on to something and didn't give up. In fact, I prefer the production on this ep to the rest of the album. I can hear the band moving into their own and they've only just begun. Dry Ice is much better than it deserves to be. And while, "Only of You" may be by the numbers, it features a guitar solo, that, if it is Billie Joe, makes me wish he had done more
What's crazy is how prominent the drum fills are, I thought that was an obsession brought in with Tre Cool. I was mistaken. It has been an integral part of the Green Day since the beginning.
Grade B+ (I'm always a little forgiving with debuts. But when the players are 16 and this good, yeah, they deserve it)
A Side: I Was There, At the Library, Paper Lanterns, 1000 Hours
BlindSide: Road to Acceptance, Dry Ice
DownSide: Green Day (A pot song that is superfluous at best. But it did give them that name....), Rest, Knowledge
Reflecting Pool: Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!
Hey, is that Green Day....?
Green Day as Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop And Roll! - 2008 (iTunes - Amazon)
The old axiom goes: bands spend their whole loves writing and performing their first album and then they have on year to write another one. That's why the sophomore slump is almost always dead on. With Green Day, there doesn't seem to ever be this problem. The problem is, it seems, what to do with all the extra songs that Billie Joe writes that don't end up on Green Day albums or on B-Sides? The guy just seems to be a writing machine.
Sure, GD's output has been limited to 8 studio albums in 19 years, but there has also been Shenanigans, the b-side collection, The Network, Green Day as angular New Wave retro band and The Foxboro Hot Tubs. At that rate, they have been pretty much releasing an album's worth of music every 2 years.
I took Foxboro Hot Tubs to be a smart move on GD's part. After all, how do you top the biggest record of your career (American Idiot) which was a smash success AND a political manifesto. Surely your fans, the rock community, the world, would be looking at your next release with baited breath.
In stead of slapping that target on themselves too soon, the boys released Stop, Drop & Roll as Foxboro Hot Tubs (which is Green Day under pseudonyms with the addition of the two players who joined them for The Network).
This album is a decidedly better offering than the new wave Money Money 2020. From the artwork on the cover and the retro title, you know what to expect.
Garage Rock.
The Zombies, the Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Who. These are the forefathers of Stop Drop and Roll.
So, if you like that kind of music and you like Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting, you will enjoy this record. It goes without saying, right?
You would be right.
This is a tasty little confection, from the congas on Broadway, to the Jam-like Mother Mary and the organ festooned Zombies-esque track, Ruby Room. There isn't a false note on the record. They are at once true to the form and true to themselves.
You will hear elements of a dozen or so other songs in these, but these aren't ripoffs as much as they are homages and launching pads.
An excellent record.
Grade A
A Side: Mother Mary, Ruby Room, Stop Drop and Roll, Dark Side of Night, Pieces of Truth
BlindSide: She's a Saint Not a Celebrity, Alligator (which owes so much to "You Really Got Me" they should pay royalties), 27th Ave Shuffle,
DownSide: Truly, there isn't a bad track on this spinner.
Green Day as Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop And Roll! - 2008 (iTunes - Amazon)
The old axiom goes: bands spend their whole loves writing and performing their first album and then they have on year to write another one. That's why the sophomore slump is almost always dead on. With Green Day, there doesn't seem to ever be this problem. The problem is, it seems, what to do with all the extra songs that Billie Joe writes that don't end up on Green Day albums or on B-Sides? The guy just seems to be a writing machine.
Sure, GD's output has been limited to 8 studio albums in 19 years, but there has also been Shenanigans, the b-side collection, The Network, Green Day as angular New Wave retro band and The Foxboro Hot Tubs. At that rate, they have been pretty much releasing an album's worth of music every 2 years.
I took Foxboro Hot Tubs to be a smart move on GD's part. After all, how do you top the biggest record of your career (American Idiot) which was a smash success AND a political manifesto. Surely your fans, the rock community, the world, would be looking at your next release with baited breath.
In stead of slapping that target on themselves too soon, the boys released Stop, Drop & Roll as Foxboro Hot Tubs (which is Green Day under pseudonyms with the addition of the two players who joined them for The Network).
This album is a decidedly better offering than the new wave Money Money 2020. From the artwork on the cover and the retro title, you know what to expect.
Garage Rock.
The Zombies, the Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Who. These are the forefathers of Stop Drop and Roll.
So, if you like that kind of music and you like Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting, you will enjoy this record. It goes without saying, right?
You would be right.
This is a tasty little confection, from the congas on Broadway, to the Jam-like Mother Mary and the organ festooned Zombies-esque track, Ruby Room. There isn't a false note on the record. They are at once true to the form and true to themselves.
You will hear elements of a dozen or so other songs in these, but these aren't ripoffs as much as they are homages and launching pads.
An excellent record.
Grade A
A Side: Mother Mary, Ruby Room, Stop Drop and Roll, Dark Side of Night, Pieces of Truth
BlindSide: She's a Saint Not a Celebrity, Alligator (which owes so much to "You Really Got Me" they should pay royalties), 27th Ave Shuffle,
DownSide: Truly, there isn't a bad track on this spinner.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - American Idiot
After Liz died I couldn't listen to this record, let alone any other Green Day, since it was her favorite band. Time heals a lot. Let's see if it's as good as I recall...
Green Day - American Idiot - 2004 (iTunes - Amazon)
"...while the moms and Brads are away."
I think, with that lyric, Billie Joe shows just how strong a songwriter he is. Evoking contempt for and a callous, shallow acceptance of, divorce that pervades generation X's lives, he steps up his game, the band's and we are all the beneficiaries of it.
American Idiot is the Screed Political Punk Rock Opera as fully realized art form. It's angry as hell and there's a story in there somewhere and it resonates as a bully retort against a government gone awry.
It's also hummable as hell.
Now, I'm a big fan of suites. My band used to make fun of me because I would try to write songs that would link together and make them learn them that way. I loved the way songs would flow together on brilliant albums like XTC's Skylarking or Queen 2. Even if they weren't supposed to be interlocking, it made for a listening experience that much grander. It's a meaty listen when it's done right and it's done SO right on Idiot.
Legend has it that the band had recorded Cigarettes & Valentines only to come to the studio one day and discover the masters stolen. And rather than rerecord that album they decided to start from scratch. Whatever they were working on would be prelude to this. Someone find the thief and shake his hand.
Much ballyhoo is made of the 9+ minute epic "Jesus of Suburbia", a song which could also, like the second side of Abbey Road, be a series of unfinished song ideas that have a common thread linking them. On top of creating a piece of music that is a success on all it's pistons like this one, they managed to get this almost-10-minute frankenstein airplay!
But, for my money, it's the OTHER suite, Homecoming that is the unsung hero of the album. Not as poppy, more aggressive andschizophrenic. Almost an equal is size, it never gets it's due. It's a brilliant series of songlets, a denouement to an album of despair and desperation.
There are so many other great moments on Idiot. "We are the Waiting", with it's assured elegiac chorus of "Are we? We are the waiting (unknown)", the voices desperate for leadership followed immediately by the speed punk show of "St. Jimmy" who is the "Patron Saint of the denial, with an angel face and a taste for suicidal."
It's no wonder this is being made into a stage show up in Berkeley. I, for one, will stand in line when it comes to LA.
The characters are some of the most excitingly drawn I've ever heard. They give the Rat and Mary runs for their money. From The Jesus of Suburbia, the son of divorce raised on "Soda Pop and Ritalin" to St. Jimmy, the "punk Rock Freedom Fighter" as Wikipedia describes him (who, might actually be a personality of JoS, the American Idiot) to Whatsername, the rebel chick "extraordinary girl". She is the kind of punk I would have fallen in love with in college. You know the type...army jacket, mini-skirt, jack boots. Ah, college....
[Special mention should be made for the exceptional "American Edit" mashup by the DJ "Dean Grey". You can get it here and I recommend it. Because it's one of the best concept mashups of the decade. Or just google "American Edit"]
While Armstrong has claimed that "Wake Me When September Ends" is actually about his father who died in September in '82, I would hard pressed to believe that he didn't expect the song to be taken as a post-9/11 cry for salvation. Even if he didn't it works too well here and I will take it that way.
Everything comes together on American Idiot; the angry punks of Dookie, the rock-appreciators of Insomniac & Nimrod, the ambitions of Warning, the years of listening to Boomer music (The Beatles, The Who, Queen are all in here), the wide-awake, open eyed clear understanding of the shithole those aforementioned Boomers were leaving in their wake, it's all here. Billie Joe is 32, a father, a punk, a husband, a citizen & taxpayer and he really doesn't like the world he is inheriting.
THIS is the album that defines the Bush administration. Or at least it should be.
I guess I like it after all.
Grade A+
A Side: Jesus of Suburbia, American Idiot, Holiday, Wake me When September Ends
BlindSide: Homecoming, Are We The Waiting, Letterbomb
DownSide: Nothing. If you don't like this album then Rock has nothing for you. Go listen to Belle & Sebastian and get outta the way.
Green Day - American Idiot - 2004 (iTunes - Amazon)
"...while the moms and Brads are away."
I think, with that lyric, Billie Joe shows just how strong a songwriter he is. Evoking contempt for and a callous, shallow acceptance of, divorce that pervades generation X's lives, he steps up his game, the band's and we are all the beneficiaries of it.
American Idiot is the Screed Political Punk Rock Opera as fully realized art form. It's angry as hell and there's a story in there somewhere and it resonates as a bully retort against a government gone awry.
It's also hummable as hell.
Now, I'm a big fan of suites. My band used to make fun of me because I would try to write songs that would link together and make them learn them that way. I loved the way songs would flow together on brilliant albums like XTC's Skylarking or Queen 2. Even if they weren't supposed to be interlocking, it made for a listening experience that much grander. It's a meaty listen when it's done right and it's done SO right on Idiot.
Legend has it that the band had recorded Cigarettes & Valentines only to come to the studio one day and discover the masters stolen. And rather than rerecord that album they decided to start from scratch. Whatever they were working on would be prelude to this. Someone find the thief and shake his hand.
Much ballyhoo is made of the 9+ minute epic "Jesus of Suburbia", a song which could also, like the second side of Abbey Road, be a series of unfinished song ideas that have a common thread linking them. On top of creating a piece of music that is a success on all it's pistons like this one, they managed to get this almost-10-minute frankenstein airplay!
But, for my money, it's the OTHER suite, Homecoming that is the unsung hero of the album. Not as poppy, more aggressive andschizophrenic. Almost an equal is size, it never gets it's due. It's a brilliant series of songlets, a denouement to an album of despair and desperation.
There are so many other great moments on Idiot. "We are the Waiting", with it's assured elegiac chorus of "Are we? We are the waiting (unknown)", the voices desperate for leadership followed immediately by the speed punk show of "St. Jimmy" who is the "Patron Saint of the denial, with an angel face and a taste for suicidal."
It's no wonder this is being made into a stage show up in Berkeley. I, for one, will stand in line when it comes to LA.
The characters are some of the most excitingly drawn I've ever heard. They give the Rat and Mary runs for their money. From The Jesus of Suburbia, the son of divorce raised on "Soda Pop and Ritalin" to St. Jimmy, the "punk Rock Freedom Fighter" as Wikipedia describes him (who, might actually be a personality of JoS, the American Idiot) to Whatsername, the rebel chick "extraordinary girl". She is the kind of punk I would have fallen in love with in college. You know the type...army jacket, mini-skirt, jack boots. Ah, college....
[Special mention should be made for the exceptional "American Edit" mashup by the DJ "Dean Grey". You can get it here and I recommend it. Because it's one of the best concept mashups of the decade. Or just google "American Edit"]
While Armstrong has claimed that "Wake Me When September Ends" is actually about his father who died in September in '82, I would hard pressed to believe that he didn't expect the song to be taken as a post-9/11 cry for salvation. Even if he didn't it works too well here and I will take it that way.
Everything comes together on American Idiot; the angry punks of Dookie, the rock-appreciators of Insomniac & Nimrod, the ambitions of Warning, the years of listening to Boomer music (The Beatles, The Who, Queen are all in here), the wide-awake, open eyed clear understanding of the shithole those aforementioned Boomers were leaving in their wake, it's all here. Billie Joe is 32, a father, a punk, a husband, a citizen & taxpayer and he really doesn't like the world he is inheriting.
THIS is the album that defines the Bush administration. Or at least it should be.
I guess I like it after all.
Grade A+
A Side: Jesus of Suburbia, American Idiot, Holiday, Wake me When September Ends
BlindSide: Homecoming, Are We The Waiting, Letterbomb
DownSide: Nothing. If you don't like this album then Rock has nothing for you. Go listen to Belle & Sebastian and get outta the way.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Reflecting Pool: The Network - Money Money 2020
Oh, Green Day. You pranksters.
The Network - Money Money 2020 - 2003 (iTunes - Amazon)
The Network were a side project of Green Day's plus a few friends in the early 00's. Apparently there was a "feud" between the two bands, which generated interest in The Network. Remember that? Me neither.
In the early 80s I had an album called Red Snerts, the sounds of Gulcher Records. (That's a link with a rapidshare download. If you know, you want it.) It was a compilation of midwest new wave bands. I got it for like a buck. I bought shit like that when I was 16. The Network sounds like just about every band on that album.
Or like you took a Devo cover band, made them learn Green Day's music, then forced them, after sleep deprivation, to write an album of their own. And it would be good!
This is piffle, a trifle, just for fun. And it is.
The boys have studied very hard at the feet of the minimalist hi-tech (for the 80s era) purveyors of New Wave and come up with a 30 minute retro party curio.
One of the most fun tracks is Spike, a spoken word one sided telephone call between a kid named Spike who is trying to score some drugs. But it's also way out of place on here because it sounds too much like just a small tweak in production and ditching of the keyboards would have turned it into a great Green Day tune.
But Spastic Society is like a leftover from Are We Not Men.
There is a great synth record called Group:Xex from a New Jersey band called, appropriately, Xex. I might review it here sometime, it was a favorite of mine. I bring it up because, although it sounds very little like any of the songs, the ominous synth-laden X-Ray Hamburger reminds me of Xex. And, it is therefore, one of my favorite songs on the record.
And there's a Misfits cover, "Teenagers from Mars". How cool is that?
Worth every second.
Grade B-
A Side: Joe Robot, Reto, X-Ray Hamburger
BlindSide: Spike, Spastic Society
DownSide: Love and Money, Right Hand a Rama
The Network - Money Money 2020 - 2003 (iTunes - Amazon)
The Network were a side project of Green Day's plus a few friends in the early 00's. Apparently there was a "feud" between the two bands, which generated interest in The Network. Remember that? Me neither.
In the early 80s I had an album called Red Snerts, the sounds of Gulcher Records. (That's a link with a rapidshare download. If you know, you want it.) It was a compilation of midwest new wave bands. I got it for like a buck. I bought shit like that when I was 16. The Network sounds like just about every band on that album.
Or like you took a Devo cover band, made them learn Green Day's music, then forced them, after sleep deprivation, to write an album of their own. And it would be good!
This is piffle, a trifle, just for fun. And it is.
The boys have studied very hard at the feet of the minimalist hi-tech (for the 80s era) purveyors of New Wave and come up with a 30 minute retro party curio.
One of the most fun tracks is Spike, a spoken word one sided telephone call between a kid named Spike who is trying to score some drugs. But it's also way out of place on here because it sounds too much like just a small tweak in production and ditching of the keyboards would have turned it into a great Green Day tune.
But Spastic Society is like a leftover from Are We Not Men.
There is a great synth record called Group:Xex from a New Jersey band called, appropriately, Xex. I might review it here sometime, it was a favorite of mine. I bring it up because, although it sounds very little like any of the songs, the ominous synth-laden X-Ray Hamburger reminds me of Xex. And, it is therefore, one of my favorite songs on the record.
And there's a Misfits cover, "Teenagers from Mars". How cool is that?
Worth every second.
Grade B-
A Side: Joe Robot, Reto, X-Ray Hamburger
BlindSide: Spike, Spastic Society
DownSide: Love and Money, Right Hand a Rama
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Shenanigans
Hey! It's Green Day's B-Sides! I don't know why that excited me so much.
Green Day - Shenanigans - 2002 (iTunes - Amazon)
Let's just go through this track by track, shall we?
1. Suffocate. B-Side for Good Riddance
Classic Dookie type GD. (A)
2. Desensitized. B-Side for Good Riddance
Well, the beating at the beginning should scare the shit out of you. And the song, another pop/punk classic delivers. (B+)
3. You Lied. B-Side for Good Riddance
Lazier than the others. The first track that really doesn't belong on an album. (C)
4. Outsider B-Side for Warning
I wish this had just a little more teeth. Armstrong's vocals are more Joey Ramone than ever. It's really a Ramones tune at heart. (B)
5. Don't Wanna Fall In Love - B-Side for Geek Stink Breath
Terrific punk skiffle. (A)
6. Espionage - B-Side for Hitchin' A Ride
Green Day's take on The Peter Gunn Theme. Instrumental 60s era surf-rock, TV Spy theme. (B+)
7. I Want to Be On TV - B-Side for Geek Stink Breath
Black Flag would be proud. Cover of a Fang tune (A)
8. Scumbag - B-Side for Warning
A rare Mike Dirnt track. Good enough to be included on the first three records. Wouldn't really have fit on Warning. (B+)
9. Tired of Waiting for You - B-Side of Basket Case
The Kinks' Classic! This proves where GD's roots really were. 60s Pop. Much to their chagrin, I'm sure. (A)
10. Sick of Me - B-Side for Hitchin' a Ride
Like it fell off Insomniac. In a lot of ways a rewrite of Walking Contradiction. (B)
11. Rotting - B-Side for Good Riddance
Surf Punk that calls to mind, believe it or not, The Beach Boys. To me, at least. (B+)
12. Do Da Da - B-Side for Brain Stew
That Classic GD Sound. I would have played this track more than the A Side. It's more fun to Air Guitar while driving. (A)
13. On the Wagon - B-Side for Basket Case
Terrific Cow-punk. If Hank Williams was a GenX punk, he would've written this. Or covered it. (B+)
14. Ha Ha You're Dead - Previously Unreleased
Another Mike Dirnt Track! Tight, Taut, simple punk. (A)
All in All. A blast. Do you need Shenanigans? Probably not. But the band would never really sound like this again.
Grade B+
A Side: (Of a bunch of B-sides) Ha Ha You're Dead, Suffocate
BlindSide: Desensitized, Espionage
DownSide: You Lied
Green Day - Shenanigans - 2002 (iTunes - Amazon)
Let's just go through this track by track, shall we?
1. Suffocate. B-Side for Good Riddance
Classic Dookie type GD. (A)
2. Desensitized. B-Side for Good Riddance
Well, the beating at the beginning should scare the shit out of you. And the song, another pop/punk classic delivers. (B+)
3. You Lied. B-Side for Good Riddance
Lazier than the others. The first track that really doesn't belong on an album. (C)
4. Outsider B-Side for Warning
I wish this had just a little more teeth. Armstrong's vocals are more Joey Ramone than ever. It's really a Ramones tune at heart. (B)
5. Don't Wanna Fall In Love - B-Side for Geek Stink Breath
Terrific punk skiffle. (A)
6. Espionage - B-Side for Hitchin' A Ride
Green Day's take on The Peter Gunn Theme. Instrumental 60s era surf-rock, TV Spy theme. (B+)
7. I Want to Be On TV - B-Side for Geek Stink Breath
Black Flag would be proud. Cover of a Fang tune (A)
8. Scumbag - B-Side for Warning
A rare Mike Dirnt track. Good enough to be included on the first three records. Wouldn't really have fit on Warning. (B+)
9. Tired of Waiting for You - B-Side of Basket Case
The Kinks' Classic! This proves where GD's roots really were. 60s Pop. Much to their chagrin, I'm sure. (A)
10. Sick of Me - B-Side for Hitchin' a Ride
Like it fell off Insomniac. In a lot of ways a rewrite of Walking Contradiction. (B)
11. Rotting - B-Side for Good Riddance
Surf Punk that calls to mind, believe it or not, The Beach Boys. To me, at least. (B+)
12. Do Da Da - B-Side for Brain Stew
That Classic GD Sound. I would have played this track more than the A Side. It's more fun to Air Guitar while driving. (A)
13. On the Wagon - B-Side for Basket Case
Terrific Cow-punk. If Hank Williams was a GenX punk, he would've written this. Or covered it. (B+)
14. Ha Ha You're Dead - Previously Unreleased
Another Mike Dirnt Track! Tight, Taut, simple punk. (A)
All in All. A blast. Do you need Shenanigans? Probably not. But the band would never really sound like this again.
Grade B+
A Side: (Of a bunch of B-sides) Ha Ha You're Dead, Suffocate
BlindSide: Desensitized, Espionage
DownSide: You Lied
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Warning
Consider this a different kind of Listening Post and more like a Reflections Column. With Reflecting Pool I will be going back through the catalog of bands that I love and have been following for years. I will try to be as impartial as possible, but I admit that I am biased. This is a little more loosey than the LPs.
"Everybody loves a joke, but no one likes a fool."
Green Day - Warning - 2000 (iTunes - Amazon)
Opening with the acoustic, unplugged anthem, "Warning", this album sorts of suggests either a band at a crossroads or stifled by their roots.
Then, what's this? Another mid-tempo, melodic, bass driven, hook laden song! "Blood, Sex & Booze" is the thematic cousing to Dookie's "Pulling Teeth". A theme I'm all too familiar with. Only this time the narrator's not afraid of his captor. No, he longs for the punishment. It fulfills him.
Then we're on to Church on Sunday. A ramp up, rave up relationship song of compromise. And it's excellent.
I'm going with stifled by their roots. There's only so much power/punk one can do. If you have the songwriting chops the songs can fit in any idiom. Hell, they could be country, disco or coffee shop singer songwriter, right?
So why not stretch the boundaries? There's still enough bombast, as in the forementioned, "Church".
In the past, a great band would switch things up. The Beatles just wrote good songs. Queen played everything from Gospel to punk to disco. You have to. To keep things fresh.
This is what Green Day does here. Their punk roots have turned their back on them. I think by this time they had been banned from the very club they started in, right? While Bille Joe has railed against the hippies of the 60's and the boomer generation he is, at the same time, a victim of his own roots. All sorts of styles bubble through these songs and, while they are not "punk" they still all sound like Green Day.
Only this sort of confidence and punk "no fear" aesthetic could allow them to put out the brilliant "Misery", which owes more than just a passing glance to Kurt Weill and might well be one of the best songs the band has ever recorded. By virtue of it's "Fuck you, we're doing the oompas, anyway! You don''t like it? Here's a mariachi band, too!"
Then, just when you wonder what the hell you are listening to..."Deadbeat Holiday". Classic Green Day.
They wear their influences on their sleeves, too. Who can't hear "Stand by Me" in "Macy's Day Parade"? Or Petula Clark's "Downtown" in "Waiting"?
Billie Joe is wresting those great songwriters of the past and jamming them through his own taffy machine and coming up with fresh takes and new ideas.
I don't like to quote other reviewers but I will for this recap. AllMusic's Stephen Erlewine gets it right when he says:
Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft and performance, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It's the first great pure pop album of the new millennium.
Amen.
Is it better than Dookie? It's not the same. Not by a long shot. This is a different band even though the players are the same. Warning makes me happy and giddy with every song. It's the kind of album you love to rediscover.
Grade A
A Side: Misery, Waiting, Macy's Day Parade, Minority (In it's heart it's just an Irish shanty jig, right?)
BlindSide: Fashion Victim, Jackass,
DownSide: Hold On
"Everybody loves a joke, but no one likes a fool."
Green Day - Warning - 2000 (iTunes - Amazon)
Opening with the acoustic, unplugged anthem, "Warning", this album sorts of suggests either a band at a crossroads or stifled by their roots.
Then, what's this? Another mid-tempo, melodic, bass driven, hook laden song! "Blood, Sex & Booze" is the thematic cousing to Dookie's "Pulling Teeth". A theme I'm all too familiar with. Only this time the narrator's not afraid of his captor. No, he longs for the punishment. It fulfills him.
Then we're on to Church on Sunday. A ramp up, rave up relationship song of compromise. And it's excellent.
I'm going with stifled by their roots. There's only so much power/punk one can do. If you have the songwriting chops the songs can fit in any idiom. Hell, they could be country, disco or coffee shop singer songwriter, right?
So why not stretch the boundaries? There's still enough bombast, as in the forementioned, "Church".
In the past, a great band would switch things up. The Beatles just wrote good songs. Queen played everything from Gospel to punk to disco. You have to. To keep things fresh.
This is what Green Day does here. Their punk roots have turned their back on them. I think by this time they had been banned from the very club they started in, right? While Bille Joe has railed against the hippies of the 60's and the boomer generation he is, at the same time, a victim of his own roots. All sorts of styles bubble through these songs and, while they are not "punk" they still all sound like Green Day.
Only this sort of confidence and punk "no fear" aesthetic could allow them to put out the brilliant "Misery", which owes more than just a passing glance to Kurt Weill and might well be one of the best songs the band has ever recorded. By virtue of it's "Fuck you, we're doing the oompas, anyway! You don''t like it? Here's a mariachi band, too!"
Then, just when you wonder what the hell you are listening to..."Deadbeat Holiday". Classic Green Day.
They wear their influences on their sleeves, too. Who can't hear "Stand by Me" in "Macy's Day Parade"? Or Petula Clark's "Downtown" in "Waiting"?
Billie Joe is wresting those great songwriters of the past and jamming them through his own taffy machine and coming up with fresh takes and new ideas.
I don't like to quote other reviewers but I will for this recap. AllMusic's Stephen Erlewine gets it right when he says:
Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft and performance, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It's the first great pure pop album of the new millennium.
Amen.
Is it better than Dookie? It's not the same. Not by a long shot. This is a different band even though the players are the same. Warning makes me happy and giddy with every song. It's the kind of album you love to rediscover.
Grade A
A Side: Misery, Waiting, Macy's Day Parade, Minority (In it's heart it's just an Irish shanty jig, right?)
BlindSide: Fashion Victim, Jackass,
DownSide: Hold On
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Nimrod
Consider this a different kind of Listening Post and more like a Reflections Column. With Reflecting Pool I will be going back through the catalog of bands that I love and have been following for years. I will try to be as impartial as possible, but I admit that I am biased. This is a little more loosey than the LPs.
Green Day - Nimrod - 1997 (iTunes - Amazon
I've never heard this album. Something must have happened between Insomniac and....wait a minnit! Yep. I had a lot of....personal shit going on. Divorce, sick kid, custody....hmm. In fact, upon reflection, I didn't even get Insomniac until around the time that this came out. So I was pretty behind in my Green Day.
And then I heard so many bad things about this record that I just eschewed it completely.
I don't really think I was missing anything.
It's not bad, per se. Billie Joe Armstrong is such a good pop/rock song writer that it's a fait accompli that the album will be listenable. And it is. It's still aggro-punk in places. But, right at the middle of the album, there is this instrumental track, Last Ride In, which many punks may have taken for a little bit o' irony. It's a surf tune in the Ventures vein. But i think it's more of a harbinger of things to come.
This is the longest GD record so far and it's packed with the familiar strains, the great chord progressions, the catchy as hell choruses, the fury and speed. 18 songs and only two clock in at over 3 1/2 minutes. The aforementioned instru-ventures track and the ballad that would cement the rejection of the punk world that turned it's back on the band after they went multi-plat with Dookie and give them their biggest single crossover hit; Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). A song lucky enough to carry on the grand tradition of angry songs mistaken for having uplifting messages. One by U2, Born in the USA, By Springsteen are examples.
Songs like Platypus and Take it Back are SO punk that I am surprised that that community turned their backs on Green Day as traitors to the cause so vehemently. Their loss. But these songs, while harkening back to GD's roots, are bad.
I do love that Reject was written as a response to an exchange that Armstrong had with the mother of a kid who was a fan. (From Wikipedia: "Reject" came from an incident where a boy received Green Day's previous album, Insomniac for his eighth birthday from his grandma. The boy started singing Green Day's songs (with explicit lyrics), and his mother got angry and wrote a complaint letter to Armstrong; Armstrong wrote an actual letter back to her, and this song was based on his response.
At the time this came out, I would have been bored with Dookie and Insomniac and I would have welcomed more songs by the band. This is a good pace holder. But you don't need anything but the singles. Well, King for a Day is fun.
Grade C+
A Side: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), Hitchin' A Ride, Nice Guys Finish Last
BlindSide: Jinx, Haushinka, King for a Day
Downside: (I'm gonna catch hell for this but....) Platypus & Worry Rock.
Green Day - Nimrod - 1997 (iTunes - Amazon
I've never heard this album. Something must have happened between Insomniac and....wait a minnit! Yep. I had a lot of....personal shit going on. Divorce, sick kid, custody....hmm. In fact, upon reflection, I didn't even get Insomniac until around the time that this came out. So I was pretty behind in my Green Day.
And then I heard so many bad things about this record that I just eschewed it completely.
I don't really think I was missing anything.
It's not bad, per se. Billie Joe Armstrong is such a good pop/rock song writer that it's a fait accompli that the album will be listenable. And it is. It's still aggro-punk in places. But, right at the middle of the album, there is this instrumental track, Last Ride In, which many punks may have taken for a little bit o' irony. It's a surf tune in the Ventures vein. But i think it's more of a harbinger of things to come.
This is the longest GD record so far and it's packed with the familiar strains, the great chord progressions, the catchy as hell choruses, the fury and speed. 18 songs and only two clock in at over 3 1/2 minutes. The aforementioned instru-ventures track and the ballad that would cement the rejection of the punk world that turned it's back on the band after they went multi-plat with Dookie and give them their biggest single crossover hit; Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). A song lucky enough to carry on the grand tradition of angry songs mistaken for having uplifting messages. One by U2, Born in the USA, By Springsteen are examples.
Songs like Platypus and Take it Back are SO punk that I am surprised that that community turned their backs on Green Day as traitors to the cause so vehemently. Their loss. But these songs, while harkening back to GD's roots, are bad.
I do love that Reject was written as a response to an exchange that Armstrong had with the mother of a kid who was a fan. (From Wikipedia: "Reject" came from an incident where a boy received Green Day's previous album, Insomniac for his eighth birthday from his grandma. The boy started singing Green Day's songs (with explicit lyrics), and his mother got angry and wrote a complaint letter to Armstrong; Armstrong wrote an actual letter back to her, and this song was based on his response.
At the time this came out, I would have been bored with Dookie and Insomniac and I would have welcomed more songs by the band. This is a good pace holder. But you don't need anything but the singles. Well, King for a Day is fun.
Grade C+
A Side: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), Hitchin' A Ride, Nice Guys Finish Last
BlindSide: Jinx, Haushinka, King for a Day
Downside: (I'm gonna catch hell for this but....) Platypus & Worry Rock.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Insomniac
Consider this a different kind of Listening Post and more like a Reflections Column. With Reflecting Pool I will be going back through the catalog of bands that I love and have been following for years. I will try to be as impartial as possible, but I admit that I am biased. This is a little more loosey than the LPs.
Green Day - Insomniac - 1995 (iTunes - Amazon)
Who turned up the guitars?
Seriously? What's with the gargantuan guitar sound? Dirnt is buried so far in the mix he's barely audible. And Armstrong's fighting against his own playing just to be heard.
Which is a shame, because there is a LOT to love on this record. The first half dozen songs clock in at under 2.5 minutes. The punk aesthetic isin full bloom. Say what you have to say, say it with force, get the fuck out. And they do just that. Before you have a chance to latch onto a theme or chorus they're off to the next salvo. It's about 4 songs in, on Geek Stink Breath, that any sing-a-longability can be found. If you can get past those fucking guitars. Why are they so LOUD?????
And it's frustrating, you know? Because the songs are fantastic. They better be because they are mired in the wash of GUITARS. Pound for pound I would put these tracks up against Dookie's and they would measure up. In some cases they are better. if you can hear them. (Is that horse dead yet?)
The record is relentless and I mean that in a good way. It has that, as I said, Punk Quality. Like teens/young 20somethings afraid they won't ever find someone else to love them so they marry the first girl that gives them a blowjob. Or like they are so worried that they aren't supposed to be in the club that they play as fast as they can before you figure out that they aren't worth their hype. The CD acts the same way. Before you can get bored and turn it off there's another track blistering through the speakers. Like when Panic Attack rumbles through with it's nervosa bassline, you have already forgotten the previous track, 86 and keep the record spinning, which it's doing just to avoid being discarded like some piece of used jet trash with no self esteem.
Brain Stew is another example of what this record sounds like. There is no air in that opening guitar section. Just the chords. Loud, brash and powerful. This is punk as metal. And it works. It works hard and it builds upon itself and offers a brain melting guitar solo while evoking some real lennonesque songwriting.
Oh, by now I've accepted the guitars and I'm perfectly happy with it. My only complaint is that I can't get my ipod to go any louder. Why doesn't this go to "11"?
My favorite song on this album is Walking Contradiction. Just a great track.
Grade A
A Side: Geek Stink Breath, Brain Stew
BlindSide: No Pride, Bab's Uvula Who?, Stuart & the Ave., Westbound Sign
DownSide: Panic Attack (It's more theme than substance)
Green Day - Insomniac - 1995 (iTunes - Amazon)
Who turned up the guitars?
Seriously? What's with the gargantuan guitar sound? Dirnt is buried so far in the mix he's barely audible. And Armstrong's fighting against his own playing just to be heard.
Which is a shame, because there is a LOT to love on this record. The first half dozen songs clock in at under 2.5 minutes. The punk aesthetic isin full bloom. Say what you have to say, say it with force, get the fuck out. And they do just that. Before you have a chance to latch onto a theme or chorus they're off to the next salvo. It's about 4 songs in, on Geek Stink Breath, that any sing-a-longability can be found. If you can get past those fucking guitars. Why are they so LOUD?????
And it's frustrating, you know? Because the songs are fantastic. They better be because they are mired in the wash of GUITARS. Pound for pound I would put these tracks up against Dookie's and they would measure up. In some cases they are better. if you can hear them. (Is that horse dead yet?)
The record is relentless and I mean that in a good way. It has that, as I said, Punk Quality. Like teens/young 20somethings afraid they won't ever find someone else to love them so they marry the first girl that gives them a blowjob. Or like they are so worried that they aren't supposed to be in the club that they play as fast as they can before you figure out that they aren't worth their hype. The CD acts the same way. Before you can get bored and turn it off there's another track blistering through the speakers. Like when Panic Attack rumbles through with it's nervosa bassline, you have already forgotten the previous track, 86 and keep the record spinning, which it's doing just to avoid being discarded like some piece of used jet trash with no self esteem.
Brain Stew is another example of what this record sounds like. There is no air in that opening guitar section. Just the chords. Loud, brash and powerful. This is punk as metal. And it works. It works hard and it builds upon itself and offers a brain melting guitar solo while evoking some real lennonesque songwriting.
Oh, by now I've accepted the guitars and I'm perfectly happy with it. My only complaint is that I can't get my ipod to go any louder. Why doesn't this go to "11"?
My favorite song on this album is Walking Contradiction. Just a great track.
Grade A
A Side: Geek Stink Breath, Brain Stew
BlindSide: No Pride, Bab's Uvula Who?, Stuart & the Ave., Westbound Sign
DownSide: Panic Attack (It's more theme than substance)
Reflecting Pool: Green Day - Dookie
Consider this a different kind of Listening Post and more like a Reflections Column. With Reflecting Pool I will be going back through the catalog of bands that I love and have been following for years. I will try to be as impartial as possible, but I admit that I am biased. This is a little more loosey than the LPs.
With the new album released I realized that I hadn't heard any of Green Day's older material in years. There was a reason. It was my daughter's favorite band. From the time Dookie came out she was a 2 year old inveterate rocker. American Idiot was a family fave and we sang all the songs together.
Then Liz died and it was too hard to listen to Bille Joe and the Boys anymore. I tried to dip my toe with the Dean Grey, American Edit mashup and that was almost bearable.
The new album hit the digisphere last week. I bought it. It's great. Then I thought: You know what? It's okay. I think Liz would like that I still listen to Green Day.
We're not listening to 39 smoothed out blah blah or Kerplunk becuase this is a reflection more than an LP and I'm currently in the middle of a Judas Priest Listening Post. This is a matinee. An afternoon at the beach. This is 15 years with Green Day
Green Day - Dookie - 1994 (iTunes - Amazon)
Where were you in 1994?
I was sitting in the office of a ramshackle farmhouse in Lancaster, California. Amidst pot-bellied pigs, goats and horses. My connection to the world was through Prodigy. And my music came from the Columbia House record club.
I had to get the album not for me, but for my daughter who, at 15 months was obsessed with the song "Basket Case". Every time it would come on Alternative Nation, Liz would come running from wherever she was and start dancing like a maniac. So, we ordered the record and she and I would listen to it on my boombox. Only Liz would crank the shit out that thing. I mean, loud.
And when Billie Joe Armstrong sing, "Scream at me until my ears bleed", Liz would point to her ears and laugh.
Listening again to Dookie, 15 years later, I am struck by something that I missed. It's brilliant how, on the second album, Armstrong shows his songwriting prowess by embodying the mind of a serial killer with a bomb attacked to his back. Pure genius.
And then there's Chump. Chump with the 1+minute long outro that falls away leaving only a massive and recognizable bassline that is the basis for Longview.
These guys were playing in the classic rock, concept album, rock opera idiom long before they hit it big. They were "punk" because, well, punk is easier.
No leads in punk.
Lots of tude in punk.
Say what you want in punk.
You can be pissed in punk.
And everyone will accept you regardless of your sexuality because you're an outside and they are all outsiders. (Billie Joe as stated that he's bisexual, only I believe that he also said he never has been with a man....)
The guitarist can't play leads. I don't think there is a lead line until well into the album, three songs before its all over.
The drummer is heir to the Ginger Baker/Roger Taylor/John Bonham throne.
The bassist is rhythm in name only. THIS is where the leads are. In Mike Dirnt's hands.
These guys were a rock band from the start.
And this album is perfect. There is not a wasted note.
Grade A+
A Side: In descending Order:
Basket Case
Pulling Teeth
She
Burnout
She
In the End
Welcome to Paradise
Long View
Emenius Sleepus
Chump
When I Come Around
F.O.D.
Sassafrass Roots
All By Myself (Hidden Track)
DownSide: Are you kidding?
With the new album released I realized that I hadn't heard any of Green Day's older material in years. There was a reason. It was my daughter's favorite band. From the time Dookie came out she was a 2 year old inveterate rocker. American Idiot was a family fave and we sang all the songs together.
Then Liz died and it was too hard to listen to Bille Joe and the Boys anymore. I tried to dip my toe with the Dean Grey, American Edit mashup and that was almost bearable.
The new album hit the digisphere last week. I bought it. It's great. Then I thought: You know what? It's okay. I think Liz would like that I still listen to Green Day.
We're not listening to 39 smoothed out blah blah or Kerplunk becuase this is a reflection more than an LP and I'm currently in the middle of a Judas Priest Listening Post. This is a matinee. An afternoon at the beach. This is 15 years with Green Day
Green Day - Dookie - 1994 (iTunes - Amazon)
Where were you in 1994?
I was sitting in the office of a ramshackle farmhouse in Lancaster, California. Amidst pot-bellied pigs, goats and horses. My connection to the world was through Prodigy. And my music came from the Columbia House record club.
I had to get the album not for me, but for my daughter who, at 15 months was obsessed with the song "Basket Case". Every time it would come on Alternative Nation, Liz would come running from wherever she was and start dancing like a maniac. So, we ordered the record and she and I would listen to it on my boombox. Only Liz would crank the shit out that thing. I mean, loud.
And when Billie Joe Armstrong sing, "Scream at me until my ears bleed", Liz would point to her ears and laugh.
Listening again to Dookie, 15 years later, I am struck by something that I missed. It's brilliant how, on the second album, Armstrong shows his songwriting prowess by embodying the mind of a serial killer with a bomb attacked to his back. Pure genius.
And then there's Chump. Chump with the 1+minute long outro that falls away leaving only a massive and recognizable bassline that is the basis for Longview.
These guys were playing in the classic rock, concept album, rock opera idiom long before they hit it big. They were "punk" because, well, punk is easier.
No leads in punk.
Lots of tude in punk.
Say what you want in punk.
You can be pissed in punk.
And everyone will accept you regardless of your sexuality because you're an outside and they are all outsiders. (Billie Joe as stated that he's bisexual, only I believe that he also said he never has been with a man....)
The guitarist can't play leads. I don't think there is a lead line until well into the album, three songs before its all over.
The drummer is heir to the Ginger Baker/Roger Taylor/John Bonham throne.
The bassist is rhythm in name only. THIS is where the leads are. In Mike Dirnt's hands.
These guys were a rock band from the start.
And this album is perfect. There is not a wasted note.
Grade A+
A Side: In descending Order:
Basket Case
Pulling Teeth
She
Burnout
She
In the End
Welcome to Paradise
Long View
Emenius Sleepus
Chump
When I Come Around
F.O.D.
Sassafrass Roots
All By Myself (Hidden Track)
DownSide: Are you kidding?
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