My Top 10 Favorite Comic Strips of All Time

Just to bide time while I get my thoughts together for the epic Bullet in a Bible, 21st Century Breakdown, and Awesome as F**k reviews, I’ve been reading a lot of comic strips, for no discernible reason other than I used to think Garfield was funny.

Oh, how wrong I was.

I’ve discovered that 99.9% of all comic strips ever made are friggin’ awful. There have been maybe twenty in the entire existence of comic strips that are worthwhile, and that’s stretching to include the underground comix from the R. Crumb days.

Newspaper comics are too sterile and boring to qualify as serious entertainment, or they used to be funny but quickly got bogged down into shark-jumped wrecks that try too hard to push their agenda down your throat (I’m looking at you, B.C.).

Fortunately, the future of comic strips lies in the uncensored reckless abandon of the Internet, where people like Mitch Clem make hilarious comics like Nothing Nice to Say and Penny Arcade. No webcomics here, I’m trying to go with newspaper comics.

Also, this is MY personal list. These are my favorites. These are the ones that still make me laugh and think and feel and question.

To say that the comic strip medium deserves the following comics is blasphemous and you should be punished for thinking so. These comics outclass the others more than anything has outclassed anything.

Runner-Up:

Peanuts (1950-2000), by Charles M. Schulz:

Don’t kill me. This has a good reason for not being on the list.

Okay, back when Peanuts had just blinked its way into existence in 1950, it was BORING. Sure, there were a couple funny gags here and there, but mostly, it was a bunch of stupid kids. And Snoopy.

But then something strange happened: Charlie Brown’s kite got stuck in a tree. Cue an arc that went on for days on end while Charlie sat near the tree, and other kids stopped by to make sarcastic comments. I think that’s where it started to get its philosophical footing.

By the 60s this strip was doubtlessly the best that ever got in the friggin’ papers. It was clever, it was radical, and Charles sometimes got hit with controversy over some of the jokes he pulled, or even characters like Franklin (the first prominent black comic strip character) or Peppermint Patty (who people continue to see as a lesbian. Why? I guess because she calls Charlie Brown Chuck. I always thought she had a crush on him, but whatever). This was the peak, the Golden Age of Peanuts. So what happened? Well, what usually happens to popular comic strips? They go on for too long. By the 70s the strip was now in a comfortable repetition.

By the 80s, strips like The Far Side and Bloom County far eclipsed Peanuts in intelligence and quality, and they were really edgy. So Peanuts sat back and turned into a franchise zombie, with Snoopy and Woodstock making banal jokes on holiday cards. This continued for twenty years until Charles decided to retire for health reasons (in fact, he died just before the last strip saw print).

That is why I can’t let this strip be on the list. It fell into boring reruns (Rerun was Linus and Lucy’s younger brother by the way) and the other strips never quite jumped the shark. I also find the rampant commercialism disgusting.

Despite that, I’ll never forget Linus telling us the true meaning of Christmas or eternal loser Charlie Brown’s attempts to kick a football.

Sorry Charlie, but you didn’t quite make the cut.

#10: The Far Side (1980-1995) by Gary Larson

Absurd, surrealistic irony is possibly the only way to describe the Far Side. When this strip did it right, it made you feel really sorry for humanity, and when it completely missed the mark, at least it made you chuckle with it’s nonsensical gags that occasionally bordered on non-humor.

The strip’s strange way if looking at the world inevitably produces a love-it-or-hate-it effect: If you love it you like to point out how clever it is, and apparently other people think you’re smart for being able to “get” the strip.

If you hate it, you just think it’s too stupid and out-there.

The fact is, the strip’s comedy came from how extremely depressing it was. Its misery was the key to your happiness, because let’s face it, almost the entirety of the strip featured morbidly obese people making stupid decision after stupid decision. Either that or it featured anthropomorphic fruit, furniture and animals insulting humanity.

The truth about the strip though, is that no one ever really got every single joke. Even Gary Larson.

#9: Dilbert (1989-now), by Scott Adams

The precursor to Mike Judge’s Office Space, this strip is about, ostensibly, the title character’s miserable office job.

After a while of Dilbert’s stupid inventions, the strip finally settled into a vicious satire of office jobs with deadpan dialog that typically avoided punchlines; the humor was mostly found in the exaggeration of the environment, while still realizing the sad truth.

In recent years the satire has started to delve into dark comedy: A recent arc had the Pointy-Haired Boss being killed and used as a hand puppet. Needless to say, for most miserable cubicle workers this strip became something of an catharsis.

Dilbert’s musings, Dogbert’s dry comments, and the Boss’s wanton cruelty have become iconic in recent years. What a great strip.

#8: Fritz the Cat (1965-1972) by Robert Crumb

Screw Zippy the Pinhead, this is the real counterculture comic. One of the original comix written by the beatnik rejects, this comic was originally distributed in head shops because censorship and the Comics Code had such a stranglehold on the industry.

Aside from being a satire as well as a very pointed attempt to offend any Comics Code enforcers within an eighty-mile radius, Fritz was a smart, suave feline in a turtleneck sweater who was very lucky with the ladies. The strip also delved into the psychedelic visions that R. Crumb endured.

The strip’s humor was very low-brow but the jokes were occasionally clever. That wasn’t the point anyway. The truth was, though, the strip was really funny.

Ralph Bakshi made it into a psychedelic mess of a movie (that everyone should see at least once), and R. Crumb was so disgusted with it he ended the strip by murdering Fritz with an ice pick.

#7: Non Sequitur (1992-present) by Wiley Miller

This strip used to be a fairly generic Far Side rip-off, but soon advanced into a political, viciously satirical strip with a decidedly liberal bent.

The most popular character is Danae Pyle, and she is frequently the lead. She’s also my favorite character, because she is the one used to attack everything with pointed satire, sarcasm, and cynicism.

Unfortunately, this strip isn’t quite as recognized as it should be, despite having been around for so long. It’s fantastic and definitely worth taking a look at.

Nowadays, it’s not quite as pointed as it used to be (it was so political that it got moved to the editorial section in some papers, similar to Doonesbury) and it’s format is fairly standard nowadays, but it’s still extremely hilarious.

#6: Pearls Before Swine (2001-present), by Stephan Pastis

Another fairly recent addition, this comic sometimes seems to exist solely for the purpose of insulting bad comics, but is frequently one of the funniest comics around in its own right.

It’s about Pig, Rat, Zebra, and Goat. These animals are really cute, sweet, and funny, which makes the dives into black (and I mean BLACK) comedy, including strips where Rat’s friend Satan comes a-calling, all the funnier.

The strip also employs shaggy-dog or shoot-the-shaggy-dog stories; long-winded dialog-heavy arcs with either no conclusion, a conclusion that leaves the characters in the same state or an even worse state than they were before, or even character death, are common.

That’s not even mentioning Bush’s plan to bomb Mexico, Canada, and Hawaii, Osama bin Laden living with the Family Circus, or “desperasexuals.”

#5: Krazy Kat (1913-1944), by George Herriman

This cat is the only person in the world who would interpret getting a brick hurled at his head as an expression of love. Basically, this comic is about a naive cat who is in love with a cranky mouse named Ignatz (the gender of Krazy Kat is never known, by the way), as well as Offissa Bull Pup, who hates Ignatz and wants him thrown in jail for throwing bricks.

This comic is about as surreal as it gets; in one memorable strip, Ignatz gets his tail hooked on a branch and completely unravels (ironically, Krazy Kat actually warned him about it– strangely, Kat also knew that Ignatz would unravel. Viva la insanity).

This strip is so classic E.E. frickin’ Cummings wrote the intro to the book collection. It’s impossible to overstate the influence that this strip has had on nearly every comic strip in the past half-century. Also, it’s worth noting that this strip was probably a nice relief during World War II– nothing diminishes reality like a heavy dose of unraveling mice.

This strip was the biggest iconoclast of its time, and completely rejected the unofficial comic strip rules. It also pioneered self-referential humor, and, even better, the dialog was phonetic, alliterative, and poetic, bringing an entirely new sensibility to the simple boring hillbilly comics that were around at the time.

#4: Pogo (1948-1975) by Walt Kelly

Walt Kelly is cooler than Walt Disney.

What this strip did was take the entertaining slapstick jokes of kids’ comics and mix them with the wordplay, wit, and satire of a sophisticated adult comic.

The strip was also edgy as hell, taking on Senator McCarthy at the extreme height of his power and viciously berating political figures and human nature.

Though the characters were innocent and likable enough they all represented some human fallacy or another that would allow Kelly to use it to make a point about politics.

Despite the political fascination and Kelly’s satirical skill, the main focus of Pogo above all was making people laugh, which it did constantly. Kelly would randomly create and discard characters at whim– he only needed them to be funny or make a point, after all. An estimate of every character to appear in the strip is well over 1,000.

However, there were several really cute characters, which Kelly would use to trick newspapers into running his most controversial strips– he called the innocent strips the “bunny strips,” appropriately enough.

One of the funniest aspects of the strip was how Kelly, with his great ear for language, created the “swamp-speak” vernacular for the strip and proceeded to make up random words and phrases for the purpose of laughter. You can probably see how influential that was.

#3: Bloom County and its spinoffs (1980-1989, Outland: 1989-1995, and Opus: 2003-2008) by Berkeley Breathed

Few strips have been so funny as Bloom County yet so pointed. The breathtaking work of art that is Bloom County gave birth to Milo Bloom and Opus the Penguin, two of the most iconic comics characters of all time, and the strip was funny enough that its satire was extremely well-received.

The original strip took place in a small town, but the rest of the expanded universe has introduced such a wide range of characters that it’s probably no longer confined to it (even though it pretends it is).

It’s about a bunch of crazy people and pets living in a boarding house in a small, middle-American town.

The original main character was Milo Bloom, who at 10 years old is probably the smartest of all the characters in the strip. He’s also a newspaper reporter and his parents own the boarding house where the action takes place.

Of course, the naive penguin with a herring addiction who pined for his mother, Opus, quickly became the most popular character and took over the strip as well as Outland and Opus.

Don’t forget other weird characters like Bill the Cat (“Ack!”) who became a replacement for Garfield after the end of the strip when all the characters got fired and looked for other comic strip jobs.

Then there’s the Charlie Brown parody, Michael Binkley, who obsesses over pop culture and has his very own “anxiety closet.”

Or one of my favorites purely for his name, Milquetoast the Cockroach.

Classic.

#2: Life in Hell (1977-now) by Matt Groening

What started as an attempt to explain living in Los Angeles to his friends ended up as one of the most beloved yet the most cynical comics ever made.

And yes, it’s made by the guy who made the Simpsons (funnily enough, originally he was going to pitch Life in Hell as a cartoon series but then he didn’t want to merchandise it, so legend has it he made the Simpsons up in the waiting room).

He sold it at Licorice Pizza, a punk record store (awesome!) for two bucks a copy, and then it got picked up by the Los Angeles Reader where it got really popular in the underground.

Matt made fun of school, work, and love in pre-Generation X fashion and the subjects of the comic were deceptively cute bunnies. Two of them, Akbar and Jeff, were gay lovers, and then there’s the main character, Binky, who is depressed and thus normal. Binky’s illegitimate son Bongo shows up every once in a while, as well as his girlfriend Sheba.

Bart Simpson occasionally shows up in the background as a joke, but usually it’s just confined to cute, self-hating bunnies.

And it is hilarious.

And the number one comic strip of all time is…

#1: The Family Circus!

Hah, just kidding

#1: Doonesbury (1970-present) by Garry Trudeau

Revolutionary is the only way I can possibly describe this strip.

Portraying characters in real time? That might not be influential, but it is so original it’s amazing. Also, it’s so liberal that it got moved to the Op/Ed section of the newspaper to avoid complaints from old cat ladies who read the Sunday funnies.

The commentary is wry, dry, and ironic, and the characters are decidedly quite deadpan. The political commentary (I agree with Doonesbury about many things) always is right on time. In fact, they did a Watergate strip in the 70s and then when Nixon died in the 90s he reran it (slightly edited) to mock the way media was representing him now.

Also in the very early 70s, there was one strip that had a very upfront weed reference, and Garry got in a lot of trouble for that.

One of the funniest things I think is that when Garry sent out strips predicting that Obama would win, a McCain spokesperson said that “We hope that the strip is predictive as it is lame.” I’m good at noticing when other people making stupid mistakes, so if they were implying that the strip was lame, then were they hoping Obama would win? And if they were implying they hoped McCain would win, would that mean that they didn’t think Doonesbury was lame? Eh, politicians are idiots.

Either way, definitely a fantastic comic strip, and the greatest.

I love this joke.

Wait, wait, wait, Milo.

Aren’t you forgetting something?

I don’t think I am.

No, I’m pretty sure there’s a large elephant in the room.

No.

Yes.

No.

Yes, aren’t you forgetting to mention–

Shut up!

CALVIN AND HOBBES!!!!

I love Doonesbury but screw it, the greatest comic strip of all time is Calvin and Hobbes (1985-1995) by Bill Watterson.

This is the sweetest, most imaginative, most artistic, most clever, and FUNNIEST comic strip ever made.

The comic strip medium doesn’t even deserve something as good as this strip.

The comic was always funny even from the beginning, but let’s face it, the the late 80s weren’t as good as the comics early-to-mid 90s heyday. That’s when the art got really good, the characters were cemented into their personalities, and the strip started to write itself. The sight gags got sharper, and the dialog got a lot smarter. Overall, Calvin and Hobbes was the smartest comic strip of all time, and it’s the funniest. It’s also the sweetest– several strips almost made me cry.

I really wish I could say more about it, but words fail me.

I’ll just say that Calvin, Hobbes, Susie, Mom, Dad, Rosalyn, and even Moe and Ms. Wormwood all have special places in my heart.

As do Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, and Spaceman Spiff.

As do the Transmogrifier, the Duplicator, Good Calvin, the Snow Goons, the Time Machine, the Transmogrifier squirt gun…

Man, this comic is just too good! G.R.O.S.S., “2+7 is against my religion,” “But don’t you go anywhere…”

“It’s a magical world, Hobbes, old buddy… let’s go exploring!”

blink-182 “Neighborhoods” Review

Blech, yeah, yeah, yeah, Green Day, shut up.

I listened to this album today and since it’s the first couple days since it’s been released I figure I better toss my two cents in before this is outdated.

blink-182 is:

Tom DeLonge on guitars and vocals

Mark Hoppus on bass and vocals

Travis Barker on drums and additional percussion

Released September 27th, 2011 on DGC & Interscope Records

Argh, can this record be infuriating.

Let’s start with the most obvious: I personally don’t think this is blink at their most heartfelt and honest. In fact, I don’t think they’ve been completely sincere with their music since Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch.

I’m going to address what a lot of people have been saying about this record: “It’s just Angels & Airwaves with Mark!”

Well… yes and no.

First, a little background: blink-182 started out as Blink in 1992 with Tom DeLonge on guitar and vocals, Mark Hoppus on bass and vocals, and Scott Raynor on drums. They played skate-able hardcore in the vein of NOFX and Screeching Weasel with indie-pop influences courtesy of bands like Dinousaur Jr. After three demo tapes and debut album/certified skate-punk classic Cheshire Cat, blink got their first hit with “Dammit (Growing Up)” off one of my favorite pop-punk albums and my favorite blink album, Dude Ranch. This led to their breakout mainstream/TRL hit Enema of the State, an effort catchy and thrashy enough, but too saccharine, leading to the group being hilariously described as “hardcore pop” thanks to crappy single “All the Small Things”; this was followed by their (very slightly) more mature record Take Off Your Pants & Jacket, with arena pop songs like “Stay Together for the Kids” mixed with more punk songs like “Reckless Abandon.” There was more experimentation and darker lyrical themes present here, although it’s overall weak.

Between albums, Tom and Travis formed the post-popcore group Box Car Racer to play with ideas not “blink-friendly;” the songs aren’t terrible but after a while they become tedious. Blink needs the fantastic chemistry between Mark and Tom.

This led to their final record, the extremely dark (Untitled), (unfortunately another pretty weak effort because of the band’s loss of chemistry and Tom becoming a control freak douchebag, dominating the record– all of the bad songs are Tom’s), which foreshadowed both Angels and Airwaves as well as +44. Internal struggles led to blink breaking up and the members went on to separate side projects:

Tom started Angels and Airwaves, who decided to become the “greatest band in the world;” unfortunately their lopsided mix of space rock, “epic-ness,” and Tom’s painkiller-induced haze of stadium pop-rock/laser-light shows dragged the project into the abyss. Tom focused most of his energy on Macbeth Footwear, sold his share of Atticus Clothing, and started his new social networking site, Modlife.

Mark, the more laid-back member, started the gloomy alt rock band +44, which took influence from the Cure, techno, weird indie music, and angsty, energetic post-hardcore. To my shock, it was really, really good, better than Box Car Racer at least.

Mark continues to appear in random side projects, started the website loserkids.com, and now hosts his own show on FUSE, Hoppus on Music.

Travis, previously the least obnoxious blink member, got a few reality shows and was really annoying, then barely survived a plane crash (after which friend DJ AM died), and then released a mediocre solo record entitled Give the Drummer Some.

Afterwards, blink got back together, and they’ve been touring around with the weak support act My Chemical Romance.

So we have Neighborhoods. The biggest mistake I can see with this record is that it’s an unfocused, muddled mess. The biggest compliment I can give it is that unlike other bands like Green Day, who have tried to reclaim the glory of their past, or Metallica, who are trying to erase their past from anyone’s memory, blink seem less focused on their past than not really caring about it at all. I really think Tom could give a damn whether or not people will like this record.

I got the deluxe edition, just so you know:

The album begins with the gauzy, effects-laden Tom song “Ghost on the Dance Floor,” which shows off a contemporary Goth influence. This song wouldn’t be so bad if it were at all memorable, but as soon as it’s gone, it’s gone. You will no longer care about it and instead hope the next song will be good or bad, just anything to end the mind-numbing boredom.

“Natives” is a ‘meh’ song. It’s catchy enough to avoid the sterility of “Ghost on the Dance Floor,” but not intense enough to display actual emotion or talent. The lyrics are good enough. It seems blink’s direction with this album is going for more socio-political, confused, isolated lyrics– much darker than their past material.

Ah, here we go with the big single, “Up All Night!” What a friggin’ stinker. There’s the arena-pop, hip-hop influenced body of the song, which taken for what it is wouldn’t be stunningly bad, but interspersed here and there are these “hard” guitar licks with pounding stadium drums that drown out the bass. The entire composition of the song is disappointing and just lets it all fall flat instead of at least trying to prop it up with some structure, something catchy, a line that’ll stick in your head, good or bad– nada. Blink, please don’t become forgettable. I like you! I care about you! Don’t go the way of the buffalo with songs like these!

“After Midnight” could be forgettable with it’s slacking, mid-tempo pop structures, but the heartfelt lyrics and the sheer intensity of emotion displayed here makes this the first real song worth keeping on this record. It drags a bit and get a bit too saccharine and fluffy, but at least it’s not “All the Small Things.”

Oooh, “Snake Charmer!” What a fantastic title for a song we’re sure will be experimental. And it does start off that way with a little keyboard-influenced guitar, but then BAM! Pounding bass-heavy riff, IN YOUR FACE! Then there’s a little jangly verse, but the riff comes back for the chorus with fast, poppy techno “guitar” over it; it’s alright, I guess. The first time I heard this I thought the lyrics were extremely sexist, but then I figured out that Tom was commenting on the Bible which was sexist itself, so there you go. Lyrics automatically well-thought-out instead of flat-out prejudiced. This song is a B-, man, did I like this after the previous bombs.

I hear this weird little jam, like “The Fallen Interlude” from (Untitled) but a little more rock-and-electronic-influenced. Apparently it’s the “Heart’s All Gone Interlude.” It was establishing the basic rhythm and, though interesting, it was really soft and plush and huggable. I knew this would be the first all-Mark song on the record and I thought, “No, Mark! Don’t go soft on me!”

“Heart’s All Gone” punched me in the face. Fantastic song. Nothing remotely bad about it. In fact, nothing remotely less than spectacular. Super-fast and it recalled the punk days of the band ever so slightly. How-ev-er… it’s much less dense and a thousand times quieter than the rest of the Tom-centric record. Coincidence? I don’t think so. But, it’s a good song. It’s so catchy you’ll have the lyrics burned into your cerebral cortex for at least a month. If I had been in charge of this record this would have been the lead single, I bet people would have bought this record even more then.

“Wishing Well” is a mediocre song on its own. Not especially bad, but it’s like more rock-centric version of “Ghost on the Dance Floor”– just really forgettable. And it would have stayed that way if it weren’t for the lyrics, the lyrics, oh my God you guys, the lyrics. The sheer what-the-hell-does-that-even-mean? obfuscating stupidity just makes this song hilarious. “I reached for a shooting star, it burned a hole through my hand/worked its way through my heart, had fun in the Promised Land.” ¿Qué?

“Kaleidoscope” hurts me, it’s so catchy. Good everything; good lyrics, good bass, good guitar, good effects, good vocals, good drums. Like, ow. I hum this by myself almost as much as I hum “Heart’s All Gone.” The pop song structure might not have worked for another band or even another song on this record but it works painfully well here, except for maybe the debasing fade-out which rips out the support system for the whole song.

“This Is Home,” catchy, poppy, alright lyrics… this song is by no means, at all, bad. But compared to winners like “Kaleidoscope,” “Snake Charmer,” or “Heart’s All Gone…” this song unfortunately just gets left in the dust. And despite the annoying effects on Tom’s vocals this is one of his most endearing performances. Mark’s bass is excellent as well. I hope this song gets recognized, it’s just not as good as it could, would, and should be.

“MH 4.18.2011″ Does anyone else just absolutely love that title? It sounds like a gnarly virus or something. This song is an amazing piece of power-pop despite the bad back-up effects. Mark’s vocals, bass, and lyrics are so compelling that this song trumps up “Kaleidoscope” and is on par with “Heart’s All Gone.” I love it. Why is Mark getting all the best songs?

What is “Love is Dangerous?” It’s practically impossible to confine a song like this to an actual genre… it’s just really mysterious. It’s weak, lukewarm, and lopes off on its own too much, I think. It meanders for so long you can’t remember when it started and it’s slow fade-out makes you think, “Man, I wish this record were better… this song had potential… all the songs could have been good… what a waste…”

But since this is a deluxe edition they haphazardly threw in two extra songs.

The penultimate song is the gross “Fighting the Gravity,” the only bad Mark song on here. I know I’ll get so much flak for this, but it sounds like +44 trying to do Angels & Airwaves. It could have worked. But it doesn’t, and it just floats off into the abyss, like a group of buffalo that the Indians chased off a mountain. And like those poor buffalo, this song goes nowhere but towards doom.

The last song is the rather inappropriate-as-a-closer song “Even If She Falls,” which is more like the three-minute standard radio pop-rock song that I had expected from this record. Despite being a pretty bad choice for a closer (at least “Love is Dangerous” was a logical closure point– this record is starting to feel like Return of the King) it’s very generic and boring when compared to, well, the entirety of the record proper. But I guess on its own it wouldn’t be a bad choice for a single. Then again, “All the Small Things” wasn’t a bad choice for a single, and look where that went.

I’m so legitimately disappointed in this record… gah. This is why I said it’s infuriating.

It’s infuriating because there’s so much wasted talent and potential here, so many stupid decisions, so many missed opportunities. Not only that, but it feels destructive and floundering. It feels like I’m watching Helen Keller set loose in a shopping mall with a bazooka, or Stephen Hawking in the Olympic pool.

This record could have gone places. it could have been good. It could have followed up on the point Box Car Racer left off and been a creative, intense, force.

Unfortunately, Travis’ hip-hop and ska-inspired hard-hitting drumming is not highlighted and he is relegated to being a third wheel. Mark gets the shaft as well despite having the best songs, because Tom is a force to be reckoned with in the studio, especially when he recorded this album by himself and forced Mark and Tom to record their parts alone.

The record is lavished with unneeded effects that weigh the songs down– you can only take so many steroids before you get short and bald.

This record needs some sort of adrenalin to push it through the slow, weak, over-long songs. It’s like Radiohead and the Cure had a baby, and it got left in a dumpster, and this is what happened. It has no one to guide it and push away all the unneeded extras or give it more oomph.

In conclusion, this record is weak. One of blink’s weakest, unfortunately, even more so than Take Off Your Pants or (Untitled). It just feels boring and uninspired, like a big muddled mess. They were trying to be experimental with this record while clinging to the tried-and-true pop format, and I get it, I really do. But if you’re going to explore, you need to tidy the record up or else it just looks like an all-over-the-place, broken, over-wrought, un-thought-out mess, sort of like this review.

Or an album like 21st Century Breakdown…

Uh-oh, did that feel like a teaser to anyone else? Just me getting chills down my spine?

I’m Milo “Mix-Tape” Caulfield and I’ll see ya in a few more months, most likely.

Let’s Take a Break… It’s Time for the MASSIVE Heavy Metal Review

In all the years music has been so enormously impactful on my life, fewer genres of music have made heavier impact than metal, except for punk (my favorite metal subgenres are totally punk-influenced).

So, using the liberty of Wikipedia, I’m basically going to do one gigantic review of the entire genre, and trust me, we’ll get to individual reviews of artists later, but bear with me.

Let’s start with the progenitors– the earliest known ancestors of heavy metal are Beethoven and Mozart, but most of the bands they influenced are pretentious and boring. Fast forward a few hundred years for the birth of rock ‘n roll… all the cool country, blues, and jazz-influenced cats like Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, and Buddy Holly. These are pretty much the people the old-school punk rockers looked up to, and metal’s embryonic influences. Basically, what the fledgling punkers looked up to, metal strove, rather pretentiously, to outdo it musically. Right about 1959, when the first wave of rock ‘n roll was dying, the fire was brought back with the birth of psychedelic garage rockers, R&B and Skifflebeat-influenced British bands, rough-and-tumble surf guitars, and the soulful, back-to-roots stylings of folk rock. After the initial wave of that, which gave birth to such amazing artists as 13th Floor Elevators, Count 5, the Seeds, ? and the Mysterians, early and Quadrophenia-era Who, early Rolling Stones, Link Wray,  the Ventures, Woody Guthrie, and Bob Dylan, the freshness became out-dated, tunes began being popped out like tin cans, and so-called experimentation was just pretension and a snobbish (mostly British, what a shocker) attempt to give “artistic credibility” to rock, which it obviously didn’t need. That’s not what rock was about. Unfortunately, that definitely didn’t stop the horrid “progressive” rock bands of the 60s and 70s. Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, ELP– gross. It all became stagnant and over-bearing in no time.

In the meantime, prog rock was being undermined by American underground rock– Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop and the Pyschedelic Stooges, and the Motor City 5. This second wave of (technically, as the Beatniks and the second wave of rock qualifies in this category) classic punk artists heavily influenced future metalheads.

For its part, mostly British psychedelic rock was doing its best to break down the constructs that the prog bands worked to create. Syd Barret’s Pink Floyd era and King Crimson played this role to the hilt, although the ultimate psych rocker was of course Jimi Hendrix.

Elsewhere, blues rock and Southern/country rock had merged to form an entirely new beast– hard rock. Sexy, smirking, strong, and mean, hard rock kicked pretentious rockers right out of whatever galaxy the acid had them believing they were in. AC/DC epitomizes hard rock– sarcastic, three-chord, Chuck-Berry-solo-filled tunes cranked out at an at the time frantic pace. Highway to Hell, High Voltage, and Let There Be Rock definitely stand the test of time, although in decades since Bon Scott died and Brian Johnson took over, the band has unfortunately weakened.

The torch of hard rock was carried however, by the psychedelic, screeching feedback of the Yardbirds (Eric Clapton’s only worthwhile work, trust me), the hard-hitting Deep Purple, and the boozy, drug-hazed blues rip-offs that formed Led Zeppelin. And so heavy metal’s first seeds were planted, although it would be a bit until they reached fruition.

The drenched-in-sonic-terrorism Blue Cheer was obviously the epitome of the metal prototype, but the first true metal band was of course the legend that is Black Sabbath. My proof? In that first song on that first record, the Sabbath are totally working that diminished fifth– the devil’s note. Ironic– Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler never went onstage without their cross necklaces. Either way, that sludgy sound influenced countless grunge, sludge, doom, and drone metal bands to this day.

Thanks to the useless repeats Led Zeppelin and the true originals Black Sabbath, heavy metal craze was everywhere, all throughout England in the 70s. This led to what is now known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which contains possibly the most influential bands in the genre, like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and definitely one of the best in Motörhead.

And that’s pretty much the birth of metal as we know it. Let’s take an alphabetical journey into the realm…

Alternative metal

So they took watered-down, commercial “alternative” (the bastardized offspring of Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, and Nickelback– none of which were solid in the first place) and combined it with metal. Unfortunately, for the most part this does not work. Breaking Benjamin is the most obvious example of this failed genre. Some stars shine bright in the blackness however– System of a Down and Tool are rock-solid 90s bands. Aenima is pure gold all the way through and SOAD have even gained recognition amongst hardcore underground metal fans. Not bad for a genre that willingly includes Linkin Park. Clutch is also a very good band.

Avant-garde metal

Gross. The descendants of Yes and Genesis. Arctur, Fantomas, and Meshuggah, the most popular bands, would probably turn most mortal men off of “Trve metal” forever. Fortunately, some daringly original and talented acts like the refreshingly jagged, darkly comic Mr. Bungle (no need for time-signature restrictions, and boy, do we love those irregularly-structured chords played high on the neck, yes sir!) have shown us prog doesn’t need to be dragging and boring. Unfortunately for the rest of us, KoRn and Papa Roach basically stole the Mr. Bungle chords, sanded them down, laminated them, and made them safe for children. This I can never forgive.

Black metal

Whenever you see a pimply teen who doesn’t understand the “less-is-more” concept concerning piercings wearing the T-shirt of some obscure, certainly horrid band saying that they enjoy real, brutal metal and enjoy the power of Satan, they’re talking about this kind of metal.

Pioneered in the late 70s and early 80s with proto-speed and -thrash bands like Venom and Celtic Frost, this pretty much guaranteed the fury of Tipper Gore’s PMRC witch-hunts. The problem is, no one really liked these bands, and no one took them seriously, so their influence was weak. Celtic Frost was, at the time, monotonous and couldn’t play well enough yet to make their songs sound powerful, with weak lyrics– pretty much the epitome of failing to bridge talent and self-expression. Venom on the other hand were pretty much the exact opposite of musos, and couldn’t play at all, and failing to disguise this, just decided to bash their songs out as fast as possible and scream shockingly offensive lyrics about Satan. The issue here is that none of the members believed in any of it at all and they were shamed in the Norwegian community in the 90s after this was discovered. However, they did influence several very early speedy semi-thrash bands like Hellhammer, Mercyful Fate (metalheads can’t spell) and the truly scary Bathory. Venom’s best contribution to the metal world was inspiring Slayer, indirectly through early thrashers Exodus.

However, the shrieked, fast songs of Venom reached some oblique, isolated place in Norway where people don’t understand shock value, camp, or sarcasm, and evidently where true Satanists reside. In recent years Norwegian black metal has become increasingly popular, despite church burning and gay beatings in the early 90s (not cool. At all.) but also bringing unconventional structures back to metal. This is where the term love metal came from. Keyboards and irregular songs in generally blast-beat-filled, shrieking metal created a feeling of dread, despair, or outright depression in most listeners. Add to that intensely personal, sincere Satanic lyrics, and you have some very powerful songs for misled fans. Currently the most popular black metal bands are Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal, Satyricon, Emperor, and Gorgoroth. Scary music.

White metal

The direct antithesis to all that black metal stood for, Christian metal generally disgusts most listeners, but recently melodic death metal Christian bands have gained some metal mainstream acceptance– about that, thanks. As a non-demoninational Christian myself, I seriously dislike serious (underlined) religious themes in heavy metal music. Awful metalcore bands like Norma Jean and As I Lay Dying, has-been hair metallers Stryper (Salvation Through Redemption, Yielding Peace, Encouragement, and Righteousness– gross), lame nu-metal band P.O.D. and “extreme” metal band Mortification are just a few members of the unofficial “Holy Alliance.” What an awful genre altogether. Leave Christian rock to Christian rockers.

Crust punk

Possibly the only metal genre I see no issues with. Crust punk combines anarcho-punk (Crass, MDC, Flux of Pink Indians) with hardcore punk (Exploited ((crap band)), Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat). This fast, distorted, and heavy music with furiously socio-political anarchist, Marxist, or leftist lyrics is combined with heavy riffs and technically talent of “D-core,” or “D-beat–” created by the British anarcho-hardcore band Discharge– the first band to combine angry UK82 music with the American hardcore sound and attitude, along with the crunchy, punchy, punky, thrashy speed metal of Motörhead and Black Sabbath-level down-tuned distortion, basically creating an entirely new genre. This intense, fast, angry, negative music, when combined with the original formula for crust punk and given a dash of technical skill, gives birth to probably the greatest metal subgenre ever. Vocals range from shouted to shrieked to growled to Cookie-Monstered. The best bands are Amebix, Doom, Final Conflict, Litmus Green, Naked Aggression, the Resistance, and Antisect. A notable point, the fans are known as gutter punks, are usually homeless, have stark outlooks on the universe, and are the most fiercely devoted fans of any musical genre ever. They also typically smell really, really bad.

Death metal

The most popular genre among “real” metal fans, although in reality 13.8 % of all purported death metal listeners actually support the genre, death metal is defined as the extreme of metal. Take everything you know about thrash metal– in the 80s, the be-all, end-all of extremes in music– and magnify it by a million. Add in a touch of hardcore anger, some black metal lyrics, vast technical skills, an ability to play in perfect synchronized harmony, and the most vicious vocals ever, and you’ve got the formula for an intensely generic death metal band. I love the support true death metal fans show, trading tapes from Belgium to Panama. However, fake listeners and increasingly average death metal bands have run this genre so far into the ground it’s near extinction. The biggest problem with this genre, however, is how it started as stripped down and vicious but became really pretentious, really quick. Melodic death metal bands like Killswitch Engage, At the Gates, and In Flames, and tech death like Nile, Pestilence, and Atheist have ruined the genre– I much preferred it before the endless, dual/trade-off guitar solos, the strict time signatures, and the pointless melody. Then you have terrible, terrible deathcore bands, the insincerity of blackened death metal, the redundant deathgrind (a subgenre which does its best to ruin grindcore) have further made the genre less viable for any true fan. On the other hand the incongruous refreshing wonder that is death/doom as well as the hilariously original death ‘n roll do provide one with hope.

The first death metal band was Possessed, and they are one of the best. The best death metal band is Chuck Schuldiner’s legendary band Death. Other listenable bands include Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse (not to be confused with the much-better Cannabis Corpse).

Doom metal

Now we’re talking. Doom metal takes Black Sabbath sludge, combines it with 70s minimalism, slows down the speed to the point where the tectonic plates are faster, and creates one of the most original metal genres ever. The guitars are very, very low tuned–the first string sounds like the sixth string if that’s any indication– and the noise is very, very dense and heavy. In fact, it’s early pure noise. The lyrics are similar to black metal in reaction, if not content. The best doom metal band is probably St. Vitus, because they had the guts to sign to SST Records (the label of legendary hard-and-fast hardcore like Black Flag and Descendents but also home to experimental weirdos like Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Sonic Youth, the Meat Puppets, and the aforementioned Flag) when the underground was focusing on pure speed, and they were one of the originals, as well as the most/least tuneful in alternating amounts. Pentagram and Candlemass are solid too. Gothic metal, drone metal, stoner metal, and sludge metal all credit St. Vitus as their grandfathers.

Drone metal

Ow. My ears hurt after one note of a Sunn O))) song, and they play that same note for ten minutes. That’s not even the first fraction of the song. While drone metal is very. very. very. very. very. very. very. very. very. very. very. very. very. redundant (that’s not even close to being the written equivalent of drone metal) its’ required as a dose of energy. This is the music that makes you want to listen to loud, fast, thrash or crushingly heavy early grunge.  It’s also tightly related to noise rock, but it’s nowhere near as cool and it does indeed have strictly defined rules. In addition to the crushing Sunn, the least painful bands include Earth and Boris. Ow, my ears are bleeding heavily.

Extreme metal

Despite the name, it’s not normally more extreme than Slayer or maybe Morbid Angel, but the speed, the awful– I mean, strained– vocals, and the propensity for endlessly stupid makeup have landed many bad bands the “extreme” label. Among these include wastes of decibels like Cradle of Filth and Strapping Young Lad.

Folk metal

Not as original as ska metal (an awesomely underground subgenre that combines Operation Ivy, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Suicidal Tendencies, and DRI. Listen to the Flaming Tsunamis and Ninjaspy NOW if you want to hear this great combo), but still pretty entertaining, if only for the fact that the mostly Swedish bands are bad. Very bad. Even their names are terrifyingly awful– Finntroll? Really? Subway to Sally is possibly the only respectable folk metal band, thanks to their very medieval sound. If you want real folk, go to a coffeehouse in Portland where some strapping young college student is strumming two chords on a guitar and singing soulfully. If you truly like this genre, it’s most likely because you can’t stop laughing while listening.

Funk metal

Oh, yeah. I think a common misconception, and something that turns a lot of people off of funk metal, is that it came out of alternative metal. That’s downright slander, in my opinion. Funk metal started with “funkcore”– a brutal fusion of hardcore punk and trippy funk epitomized by the Big Boys, inspired on either end of the spectrum by DC go-go favorites Trouble Funk and the post-punk British weirdos Public Image, Ltd– who were originally inspired by the soundscape blending of Brian Eno and the sheer insanity of Iggy Pop’s Fun House. The first true funk metal band, and the best, is Fishbone, whose punishing mind-bending fusion of ska, reggae, funk, punk and metal would make George Clinton and James Brown wish they could sound half as funky in their prime as Fishbone can spin out effortlessly. Currently, runners-up to the title would include the incredibly funky, hard-hitting Rage Against the Machine, a bit of mid-period Mr. Bungle, and especially Mike Patton’s pioneering power group Faith No More. I’d have to say though, without Fishbone, the best would probably the shredding guitar and beautiful asymmetric basslines of Primus. Primus Sucks! And Living Colour, although not entirely original, are among the closest that blacks have ever been to mainstream metal acceptance (the closest is Ice T’s excellent Crossover Thrash combo Body Count).

Glam/hair metal

I tried to like the original glitter rock artists, I really did. The New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, David Bowie– all amazing artists in their own right, incredibly solid work. But Gary Glitter? Absolutely downright disgusting. So when hair metal hit the airwaves in the mid-eighties, it was like the neutron bomb went off on the mainstream music landscape– everything of organic matter gone, to be replaced by artificial rock walls of plaster and steel, to be knocked down and replaced by the next scarily fast. And they were all of shoddy build, not solid at all. Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, and Poison are the most-remembered of this pathetic, worthless lot of bands. Do you remember White Lion, Skid Row, or Def Leppard? Didn’t think so.

Gothic metal

Generally very symphonic and powerful, and as such, boring. This is what happens when you combine power/symphonic metal, death metal, doom metal, and classic goth rock (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Alien Sex Fiend, Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children, et al). See what you get? Pretentious, endless waves of crap that thinks it’s blowing you away. Stay far, far away from Lacuna Coil and Theatre of Tragedy. I will say, however, the death/thrash/grind influenced troupe of Type O Negative are very good.

Grindcore

This used to be the downright best subgenre of metal. Ever. But then it was poisoned by death metal, whose originality was already in its dying throes– even that classic Napalm Death went death after their classic second album. Nowadays the best bands are probably Terrorizer, Brutal Truth, and Pig Destroyer– all of whom are too technical, on-time, and let’s face it, death-influenced and melodic for my taste. Originally, this combined the precision and speed of thrash metal with the drug-fueled, disturbingly fast chaos of crust punk. Napalm Death were the first to figure this combo out, starting as one of the better UK82 Brit-core acts before figuring chaos out in time for their most brutal and best record, 1987′s Scum. Napalm Death wove a tapestry of angry, chaotic noise, a disturbingly cathartic and unsettling experience when one is through listening. The stark, minimalist chaos, characterized by extremely fast, off-time instruments, blast beats, discordant guitars, bass distorted to offensively raunchy levels, growled socio-political lyrics, and a preference for noisy feedback over tune, reached its peak in ’88, the year Napalm Death released its classic From Enslavement to Obliteration album, its last grindcore album, and in some ways, the last truly good, original, or even really grindcore album for any band in the genre. Just listen to the vocals on FEtO; they range from deep, throaty, brutal growling to high-pitched static shrieks of a scream. After this, it was death metal all the way, unfortunately…

Groove metal

After so much negativity, this a relatively good genre. Slowing down thrash and adding in a really heavy blues influence and a slight sprinkling of power metal (without the stupid keyboards) this genre can give someone a really good feel for moshing. It’s mechanical, precise, and very hard-hitting, but at the same time emotional, fluid, and heavy. Pantera, originally a thrash band, were one of the first to make this combo work, with the help of their legendary guitarist Dimebag Darrell (R.I.P.). Lamb of God (their fans invented the infamous Wall of Death in moshing– their singer was legally bound to stop calling for it and attempt to halt it at shows after an over-zealous fan was killed in a pit), the death-influenced, very thrashy Sepultura, and the funk/rap-influenced groove of Machine Head are very good as well.

Grunge

I feel this genre is certainly worth mentioning. Although grunge is much more influenced by sloppy punk and indie rock, that Black Sabbath in the guitar sound as well as the influence of bands such as Alice in Chains and Soundgarden have made grunge one of those neutral grounds where punks and metalheads can meet in peace. The latter-day crushingly droning stoner/groove metal of grunge pioneers and professional sludge-punks the Melvins has helped as well. Grunge began when bored kids, mostly in the Pacific Northwest, fed up with the death of hardcore punk in ’86 and the sterility of metal (thrash had pretty much peaked around ’85 or ’86, and all the mainstream metal bands sucked) combined the droning Black Sabbath and bluesy Led Zeppelin riffs with sloppy, distorted, dissonant hardcore punk. The original batch of grungers included bored hardcore hipsters Black Flag (My War contained epic sludge metal riffs and 7-minute songs like “Scream,” “Nothing Left Inside,” and “Three Dog Night,” Slip it In had atonal, feedback-filled proto-grunge blues rockers like “You’re Not Evil,” “My Ghetto,” “Black Coffee,” and the title track, and the gnarly hard rock/neo-thrash of Loose Nut and In My Head) and Redd Kross (’85 was the year of their trash rock opus Teen Babes from Montesano, while 1987′s Neurotica is frequently cited as the first grunge record) as well as the aforementioned Melvins (literally every grunge rocker owned a copy of Gluey Porch Treatments and the sound was basically super-fast, sloppy hardcore slowed down to a glacial pace).

Sub Pop was the premier grunge label. The most famous grungers in the late ’80s, Mudhoney, put out the debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff (named after, appropriately enough, distortion pedals) and automatically were preened and put on pedestals by the Sub Pop crew. In the meantime, Alice in Chains took the hard-hitting precision musicianship of thrash, slowed it down, and imbued it with the gloomy, depressing atmospherics of post-punk like goth favorites Joy Division, the Cure, and Siouxsie Sioux. In the process, they created numbingly dirty, heavy, slow, grungy, and sad thrash metal on great records like Facelift and Dirt, making Layne Staley an icon and Jerry Cantrell a guitar hero. On the other end of the spectrum, famously eccentric alt rock/crushing metal artists Soundgarden epitomized feedback-laden, out-and-out weird grunge/metal songs, best exemplified on albums like Ultramega OK, Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, Down on the Upside, Screaming Life, Fopp, and especially Satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas (it’s a palindrome).

Of course, I can’t forget to mention Nirvana. Unfortunately their recording history was extremely brief, and Kurt Cobain was a thousand times more informed by punk rock than metal. However, Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero are bona-fide alt rock classics– even Iggy Pop loves them. Sadly, Kurt was murdered– sorry, committed suicide, in 1994, which pretty much killed grunge and left the world open for punk, because Nirvana were the biggest band in the world at the time.

Industrial metal

Samples, computerized beats, extremely heavy. Nine Inch Nails, Ministry (ironically started out as a synthpop band) Rammstein, and KMFDM probably epitomize the style best to fans. I was never a fan of much more than that first Ministry record and Nine Inch Nails’ discography, but millions of fans across the globe love it. I’m quite ambivalent on this type of music, so listen to it and decide for yourself.

Metalcore

AAARGH! An assault on my senses! The problem with this genre, once again, is melody. I’m not completely against melody in metal, seriously, don’t get me wrong. In fact, in the late 80s and early 90s, when this was like a more melodic form of crossover thrash, with a more pronounced thrash/death influence, I liked it. Bratty, hard-hitting bands like Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, Converge and Unearth practicing in their garages seemed to revive the scene. Unfortunately, these bands managed to weasel their way far into the Midwest by the mid-90s, where emo and post-hardcore (nothing wrong with the original few waves of these genres) were in full tilt. Screamo had become prevalent on both coasts and this had a profound effect as well. As I Lay Dying, Norma Jean, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, blessthefall, and more epitomize this new wave of bad, bad, bad bands. The originators were melodic but retained the chugging guitar of thrash and the aggression of hardcore punk. Even when they started to slow down outside of breakdowns (heavy music conducive to moshing, usually introduced in the middle of the song as the vocals become “brutal” and the guitarists play open stringed) and introduced a more extreme vocal styling than screamo “shrieks” it wasn’t bad. But now that the melody, “heavy vocals,” and relatively glacial speed compared to the ripping thrash of the first wave have taken control, this became another genre I’ve lost interest in.

Neo-classical metal

My older readers will remember an outgrowth of hair metal in the 80s called shred metal, created and popularized by (the fun, but tremendously overrated band) Van Halen. Classical metal is like that, but way more pretentious because it overuses classical music’s elements, overly mathematical compositions, and dizzying array of instruments. This genre is a stranger to modesty and minimalism. The reason that I dislike this genre so is because it’s little more than a medium for “talented” performers to show off their skills. Anyway, these performers are little more than fast. After a few years of hard practice, one can definitely master the elements of neo-classical– sweep picking, economy picking, cross-picking, “shred” guitar, as well as whammy bars, distortion pedals, and other over-used effects. Yngwie J. Malmsteen (“the prodigy”), Steve MacAlpine, and Vinnie Moore are the most “respected” of this group of musicians.

Nintendocore

Created in the 90s by the punk, hip-hop, and rave-influenced digital hardcore artist Atari Teenage Riot (the first digital hardcore band, by the way), a bunch of metalcore kids heard the Atari record and thought, “Hey, I can do this!” (Rave and hip-hop being the most DIY-friendly music forms today, as anyone with a Mac can create interesting music) My favorite part of this genre are the samples from classic 8-bit Nintendo and Sega games. Interesting and challenging groups like Horse the Band, the Advantage, and Minibosses (note the video game reference) are the most popular bands in a vastly underrated genre.

Nu metal

Oh, my god… I hesitate to use the word “bastardization” again, but that’s what happened when early 90s rap metal and rapcore artists were combined with a poppy, commercial edge and became the most popular bands in the world around ’98, mostly thanks to that god-awful band KoRn. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this genre at first listen. Listen to “Nookie” by Limp Bizkit, the instrumentals are cool and hard-hitting, and then FRED DURST, I WILL COVER YOU IN HONEY AND FEED YOU TO SUGAR ANTS ONE FINGER AT A TIME! Seriously, what this genre did was take three great genres: rap metal, grunge, and hip-hop– combined them with pop, and completely decimated them. NOTHING in this genre is worthwhile. The “heavy” bass mostly just gives you a headache (even without the aid of subwoofers) and for the most part, the vocals are agonizing! Metalheads, for the most part, should not RAP about how their girlfriends left them! Even bands that were somewhat respectable (Slipknot’s first album was decent death metal) just turned to crap under the sensitive spotlight of mainstream success. In my honest opinion, once a band starts doing stuff that’s not for themselves as artists, they’ve sold out. And I almost never use the word sellout, but it’s useful here. This entire genre exists as a sellout point. Seven-string guitars and samples can be cool, when applied correctly, but not when these boneheads are using them. Stay far, FAR away from this genre.

Post-metal

When the angular, mathematical geeky music of post-rock began gaining popularity in metal circles, this is what happened. The guitars are tuned low, there’s less emphasis on vocals, and the atmospherics of a song are stretched. Bands of this genre usually write very long, very pretentious songs about philosophy. Mostly the song structure will gradually evolve over the course of the twenty minutes of the songs. While it can be interpreted as a pretentious phenomenon, the diversity of the sound can be used as a sort of wind-down from listening to Napalm Death. The most renowned artists are Neurosis, Isis, Cult of Luna, and my personal favorite, Pelican.

Power metal

Most people are acquainted with this genre due to Dragonforce’s cotribution of “Through the Fire and the Flames” for Guitar Hero III. However, I must warn you that band plays at about a tenth of the speed live. These bands place emphasis on happy vocals, in contrast, to, well, every other metal genre. They also tend to have gang vocals in the background, operatic, melodic vocals, fast instrumentals, and a strange affinity for keyboards. Helloween is the best power metal band, but other popular acts like Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica, and Firewind are decent as well.

Progressive metal

Oh, no. Most of you will know that I hate prog rock with every fiber of my being (when all those fibers aren’t preoccupied with the multitude of other things I hate). Therefore, as far as I’m concerned, this genre is the spawn of Satan (they might as well be, Yes and ELP are close enough to Satan to qualify). The only exception to this rule is Rush. Everything else, screw it. I don’t really care about “sweeping structures,” “soaring guitar solos,” or “flutes.” And I especially don’t care how skilled the artists are at showing off. Queensryche and Mastodon are the least pretentious/offensive on my ears bands in this genre.

Rap metal

This genre often gets a bad rap for being the father of nu metal. However, great bands like Snot/Tons, the Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More, and Stuck Mojo cannot be held responsible for what untalented musical morons do to their music. Despite what Wikipedia says, turntables and samples are used quite often– just look at the Beastie Boys’ License to Ill album (their only rap metal album, and the punk influence basically invented rapcore). Funk is an abundant influence as well.
Sludge/stoner metal

These two genres are closely linked enough for me to combine the two, although sludge metal often use feedback, dissonance, and d-beat for their signature sludgy sound, and stoner metal sounds, well, like what happens when stoners pick up instruments and start playing for a very long time, with a more pronounced influence on blues and psychedelia, where sludge takes its cues from country as well. Stoner metal also has lo-fi, retro production. Both of these genres are very good once one is accustomed to them (which, truth be told, may take a while) but if you’re an adventurous soul, check out Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Acid King, Acid Bath, and Sleep.

Southern metal

Like the blues-and-country inflected bands of southern rock, but heavier and more aggressive. Imagine a very angry Lynyrd Skynyrd on speed. Superjoint Ritual, Spiderbait, and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. There’s actually not a whole lot more to this genre. Like industrial metal, I’m kind of ambivalent.

Speed metal

The direct father of thrash metal. It took NWOBHM’s technicality and melody and combined it with punk’s speed and aggression, stripping punk of it’s amateurish texture and getting rid of metal’s pretentious bombast. This genre was AMAZING when it first came out. The best are Annihilator, Accept, and especially Motorhead.

Symphonic metal

Two words: Skip it.

Thrash metal

Oh. YEAH! I adore early thrash metal. Chugging riffs, insane solos, drums that sounded like an old car revving up… man, are those early thrash records cool! If I had to make an all-time, desert island top five thrash metal album list, I’d say… Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, Hell Awaits, and Reign in Blood. Not counting Slayer’s classic Haunting the Chapel EP. Where this genre went wrong? See, it was birthed from early 80s hardcore punk, and thus had an automatic short lifespan, and at least an expiration date of ’84-’86. So the problem is that it lasted waaay too long for its own good. Strangely, the (arguably) first thrash band, Exodus, started in ’80, donated Kirk Hammet to Metallica, and then released an incredibly lackluster, monotonous first album in ’85 (Bonded by Blood). This is what I’m talking about. Slayer is the only band to put out at least an average record past ’86 (South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss are arguably two of the best metal records ever produced). The rest of the Big Four crashed and burned. Metallica hasn’t released a worthwhile album in 25 years, and Anthrax and Megadeth always sucked. My advice? Stick to the classics. And the European “Teutonic Thrash Triangle” of Sodom, Kreator, and Destruction. They’re good too.

So yeah. That’s my review of metal (under no circumstances will I EVER  listen to a genre of music called Viking metal, and I went over classic heavy metal, so it ends at thrash metal). Tell me what you think. And yes, I know this is far, far too long, but believe it or not, I tried to be as succinct as possible. It’s just implausible for me to sum up metal in the space of a Tweet.

Tune In, Tokyo… Mini-Review

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up. I know it’s been a long time coming, especially since I should have reviewed this right after Warning:, but I never ever ever got around to procuring and listening to it.

Well, I did it, so shut up and be happy.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitars, lead vocals, and harmonica

Mike Dirnt on backing vocals and bass

Tre Cool on drums

Jason White on guitars

Released 2001, month unknown, Reprise Records

This Japan-only import starts off with some crazy siren and Green Day testing a few chords before launching into Warning:‘s first obligatory pop song, “Church on Sunday.” I admit that this song was relatively catchy yet still bland when I first heard, but Green Day does it justice here, with Tre’s crazy drum rolls, the bass-heavy guitar line, and a nice acoustic back-up that proves that even when they’re not successful at all, Green Day can still put on a pretty good live show.

Although Green Day admirably improves “Church on Sunday,” they still prove that when they play an excellent song live, it’s really good, with “Castaway” standing out even though we’re only on the second song. One of the best cuts from Warning:, the song turns into an absolute anthem (still using the word!) here.

Another strong track from Warning: (this EP is dominated by Warning: tracks) is “Blood, Sex, and Booze,” Billie’s dominatrix ode which, even lacking a mandolin, manages to sound pretty cool based on sheer catchiness alone.

It was at about this point in the EP that I realized the crowd were only audible when Billie makes them scream really loud. Did they tap the amps for this performance? I’m not sure.

The fourth track is the only one that isn’t from Warning: and it’s “King for a Day” from Nimrod, which sounds absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately there’s no information on who played the brass section, but they really made the song. It sounds great, even when it collapses at the end.

I like the band’s interactions with the crowd on this EP. They tell several people to “Shut up!” and the crowd laughs. One woman requests “All by Myself” and the band starts playing “Waiting.” “Waiting” sounds unimaginably good live, though I can only imagine what Billie is doing that makes the crowd cheer so loudly during the “acoustic” interlude.

“Minority” is the longest track on here. Billie screws with the crowd and does his annoying and dated “Hey-ho” routine, but it’s worth it to get to the harmonica solo. You read that right.

The last song on here is “Macy’s Day Parade,” which sounds far better live than on the album.

Yeah, it’s short, but every single track on this Japanese-exclusive live EP is sweet. If you can find it, I definitely recommend it.

American Idiot Review

Ha-ha! You thought I wasn’t gonna live up to your expectations, eh? You thought I was just gonna flake out on you and never write another review? Well, think again, ladies and gentlemen, for I, Milo Caulfield, your snarky, sarcastic purveyor of all things alternative, have finally caught up with my to-do list! What’s it been, like four months? Sorry for the wait, but I had stuff to do, and at least I don’t update twice a year like a certain blog I know (cough bloggerbeware.com cough).

Now, I’m going to review this album how I view the musical adventure itself: triple-layered. That is, I’ll be looking at it from a musical perspective, from the perspective of the storyline (we’ll get to that, don’t worry) and from a political perspective (yeah, we’ll get to that as well). As an added plus, I’m also going to review the B-sides, which are fantastic, but inexplicably didn’t make it onto the album for one reason or another, although they’re better than several songs that did (and we’ll get to that, too)!

First, a little background. Green Day was kicking it, after the immense flop that was the mellow, poppy Warning, in their big suburban houses, having been demoted from the mansions they acquired from Dookie (I kid, I kid).

Basically, the group was no longer functioning as a cohesive unit. They were a complete mess, so disenfranchised by their environment, disillusioned in their hit-making skills, and above all, filled with a burning hatred for stupid rednecks and BS political practices (take a bow, Bush administration!), that it finally started boil over in early 2003, but the fury didn’t explode into a degenerative mess of curled lip, extended middle finger, snot, and renewed political practices– with a well-thought out backstory behind it all serving as both a metaphor for the fall of the American government and for the inherent screwing-up of American youth, with a bonus of acid thrown in the face of the political apathy of the American public– until 2004.

Work on American Idiot started as a loosely-produced album called Cigarettes and Valentines, which I’ve heard bootlegged fragments of, and honestly, it doesn’t impress. The acoustic song “Olivia” sounds as cheesy as stale Kraft and the title track sounds like the twisted love child of “Walking Contradiction” and “Burnout” without the clever songwriting and exceptional musicianship, despite the band’s claim it was a return to loud, fast, hard music. So I guess it’s a good thing the master tapes got ripped off. Apparently Money Money 2020 (by Green Day’s alter-ego the Network) was a re-recording of the album, but since it has a really New-Wave sound, I disagree. And no, I’m not reviewing it.

Despite the devastating theft, Green Day shrugged it off like a cheap striped sweater, believing it to be a blessing in disguise, as the album wasn’t considered “maximum Green Day.” If that’s what helps them sleep at night.

The album started construction with the relatively simplistic eponymous track, but as the band members met to conduct group therapy sessions, they started conducting impromptu jam sessions. Each member would create thirty-second song, then the next would create another thirty-second song and connect it to the last one. They did this until they had about ten minutes. This became the suite “Homecoming.” Billie Joe very quickly wrote “Jesus of Suburbia” as a companion piece and the band became emboldened to continue writing these “songs with a story and political backing” into a big concept album, with influences indebted to bands like the Who (why not, they “borrowed” from the Kinks on Warning) and Queen, with a touch of Broadway flair thanks to musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar. The band even made a pirate radio session to broadcast their jams, and occasional prank phone calls.

Anyway, now that you have a brief background on the album, and the state of the political atmosphere the band was in at the time, here’s a primer for the story, which will be explained more in-depth at the end:

Jesus of Suburbia resides in JingleTown USA (hey, that’s the company that released Stop, Drop, and Roll!!! by the Foxboro Hot Tubs– yet another Green Day side project) and is severely disenfranchised and bored with his life, having sex and bumping stepped-on cocaine to numb the pain of his own worthless life. Sound like anyone you know?

Anyway, Jesus gets sick of the suburbs, heads out the city, gets addicted to black tar heroin (as far as I can tell), develops bipolar personality disorder, falls in love with a radical named Whatsername, gets dumped, OD’s on coffee, and goes back to the suburbs to live miserably ever after. There’s more to it than that, of course, but that’s what the review is for!

As a side-note, none of the music videos from the album, nor the stage play adaptation, should put any influence into your personal interpretation of the story. And trust me, everyone has some variation. What you see here is what I’ve gleaned solely from listening to album, with complete disregard from anyone else’s opinions.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on rhythm, acoustic, and lead guitar and lead vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass, backing vocals, and lead vocals on “Nobody Likes You” and “Governator”

Tre Cool on drums, percussion, backing vocals, and lead vocals on “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girlfriend”

Rob Cavallo on studio piano

Kathleen Hanna (from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, as well as one of the coolest feminists ever) on guest vocals on “Letterbomb”

Jason Freese on saxophone (and a lot more live)

Jason White on lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and backing vocals live

Released September 21st, 2004 on Reprise Records

So, before kicking into the first act (it’s a rock opera, remember?), Green Day clouts us in the face right out of the gate with opener and lead single “American Idiot”.

Released August 31, 2004

Apparently, Billie Joe wrote the after hearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd song declaring redneck pride. Billie, aghast at such a concept as being proud of being a beer-swilling, conservative, homophobic, misogynistic, sexist, racist conservative (the dictionary definition of a redneck, actually– not all country folk are rednecks, and not all rednecks are country folks, by the way), was fueled by his anger and wrote “American Idiot,” basically the kickboard for the coming firestorm of political lightning.

MUSICALLY: When I first heard this, I was surprised and happy– Green Day, although fine with alternative pop, took the more melodic approach from Warning and married it with the old spark of punk rock left inside of them, and sprinkled dashes of Broadway, Quadrophenia (the Who), Zen Arcade (Husker Du), and Double Nickels on the Dime (the Minutemen) to create the intro to a politically-minded yet storyline-driven rock opera to put such overrated “classics” as Tommy (the Who’s second-biggest mistake, the biggest being not quitting after Keith Moon died) and The Wall (or any Pink Floyd released after Syd Barrett’s departure, for that matter) to shame. “American Idiot” displays some curled lip and spits in the face of the mainstream establishment. The riff is incredibly infectious, the vocals seem exciting, and despite weak drums and bass, the guitar solo shines through as anthemic in a way.

POLITICALLY: Finally, Green Day took the political-satire torch down from their Bay Area brethren the Dead Kennedys, et. al (I’m sorry, Green Day and the Dead Kennedys do have the smartest politically-minded as well as funny lyrics in Bay Area punk rock). These lyrics are great, “Maybe I’m the faggot America, I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” (and that’s not homophobic because Billie Joe is bisexual). It manages to tackle many different subjects in the same song, from Bush’s ill-fated reelection, helped by voter apathy (despite the efforts in Fat Mike’s punkvoter.com) to the uneducated fight in Iraq (manipulated by false claims of WMDs, and don’t you forget it), to the general fall of the American system at large and the dominance of complete morons. Green Day did not jump on the Bush-hating bandwagon; they, along with NOFX, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, and other like-minded punks, created the bandwagon.

STORYLINE: Despite what many others believe, I think that “American Idiot” doesn’t describe the Jesus of Suburbia, per se, but rather voices his opinion on everything, which will eventually lead to his running away. Despite it just being the introduction to a rock opera, to be followed by twelve fleshed-out songs, “American Idiot” manages to hold its own in the storyline department simply on its ability to make us easily visualize such an agitated, fed-up individual who’s decided to be disaffected after being let down by the system one too many times.

“American Idiot” is a prologue to the main story, and should be treated as such, but the first chapter, when we get a feel for not the character that Jesus is, but rather what drives him to leave town and a description of the surroundings that frustrate him so, follows in the track “Jesus of Suburbia”:

Released October 25th, 2005

MUSICALLY: Green Day have arrived! This song, an epic nine minutes long, displays some serious instrumental chops from Tre, Mike, and Billie. Tre, having advanced from “fast with a lot of fills” to “arena rock” in “American Idiot” combines the marching-drum punch of arena and the acrobatics and speed of punk to serious effect in this song, while Mike gets a few bass solos and some really cool playing in “I Don’t Care.” Billie Joe plays mostly power chords through, but plays a bit of piano and includes a pretty cool-sounding guitar solo in the end. This song marries alternative/punk with progressive rock in that it’s kinda long and there’s five sub-songs inside: “Jesus of Suburbia,” “City of the Damned,” “I Don’t Care,” “Dearly Beloved,” and “Tales of Another Broken Home.”

“Jesus” is the most straight-forward, “Green Day-ish” segment here, and is fast, with an anthemic chorus and lyrics that all suburban devo-rats can relate to.

“City of the Damned” switches between a pounding verse and a loud, thrashing chorus with some heavy lyrics.

“I Don’t Care” is a punk anthem practically lifted from the entire 80s hardcore scene. Fantastic.

“Dearly Beloved” is the softest segment, mildly acoustic but with mentally tortured lyrics filtered through soulful vocals.

“Tales of Another Broken Home” starts off heavy, delves into a short piano ballad, and ends out even heavier than before.

POLITICALLY: Yet another very wide-ranging song. Topics vary from divorced parents, to your mom’s stupid boyfriend Brad, to the typical suburban apathy towards the poor kids panhandling outside the 7/11, to the abuse of drugs, alcohol, and TV, to uneducated sex, to the impact of soda and Ritalin on the human psyche, to why religious brainwashing can shatter a youth’s perception of the world around him, to complete distrust and disregard and hatred of authority figures, to paranoia and the feeling that you can’t reach out to anyone and ask for help, to considering suicide, to running away from your wreck of a hometown towards the city in hopes of a brighter future.

STORYLINE: See above.

“Jesus of Suburbia” is a fantastic way to start a rock opera: epic, hard-hitting, smart, and cutting deep into the soul of every apathetic yet inexplicably depressed, detached, and disappointed American suburban youth.

“Jesus of Suburbia” is an amazing song, but is about to be outdone by a song only one-third its length with a handful of its musical virtuosity: “Holiday.”

Released May 7th, 2005

Along with having one of the best covers for a single I’ve seen in a very long time, “Holiday” is arguably the best song on American Idiot period, a perfect slice of pure pop genius.

MUSICALLY: Catchy as all hell. Great solo. Fantastic bridge. Cool, simple yet strung-out bass. Drums that are relatively low in the mix but pound and rattle your head. Awesome vocals. If you thought that “anthem” and “anthemic” were already overused in this review, too bad. Not Green Day’s best anthem, but a great one for the little ones to listen to and expose themselves to the wide world of punk rock.

POLITICALLY: This song has really one thing on its mind: Screw the American government. This song has so many great lyrics, I wish I could just translate them all for you. From the choking of civil liberties (“A gag, a plastic bag on a monument”) to taking potshots at John Kerry and other “liberals” who lost their way and stopped fighting the good fight (“Another protester has crossed the line to find the money’s on the other side”) to finally calling out George W. Bush for the murdering war criminal he should be condemned as (” ‘The Representative from California has the floor…’ Sieg Heil to the President Gasman, bombs away is your punishment! Pulverize the Eiffel Towers ((a veiled reference to the World Trade Towers, which Bush so obviously used as a ploy to attack Iraq, which unfortunately Green Day was too coy to say point-blank)) who criticize your government! Bang, bang goes the broken glass and kill all the fags who don’t agree! Trial by fire, setting fires, it’s not a way that’s meant for me…”), this song has it all and is a great way to attack the Stalin, er, Hitler, er, Reagan, er, Bush administration.

STORYLINE: Basically, Jesus discovers what a mean world it is out there and hates it, as the real world can be even stupider than the suburbs he grew up in. He begins to retreat into a shell.

Released November 29th, 2004

I’ve heard the song that “Holiday” directly flows into, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” described as the “hangover” to the party atmosphere of “Holiday.” I agree.

MUSICALLY: Cliche. Softly-sung vocals with an underlying guitar line and acoustic assistance, followed by the loud, in-your-face-yet-still-safe-for-radio chorus, and an all-acoustic interlude? Basically they ripped off all the classic rock bands, and “Boulevard” single-handedly revived those cliches for liberal use for future faux-punk and femo (fake emo) records. Yet, this is a very densely-layered song, with heavy, audible bass and piano backing. Not to mention, the climactic breakdown featuring slow, precise, bass-heavy power chords and a screeching distorted guitar played at the speed of light is pretty cool live. On the downside, Tre’s studio-produced drum sound is too deliberate and simple to be exciting. It’s like a bad Peter Frampton drummer in slo-mo. Despite all this slagging, “Boulevard” is, I suppose a solid track, if unoriginal. It hardly deserves all of the over-playing and adoration it still receives seven years later, however.

POLITICALLY: The political overtone is definitely not as heavy in this song as most others on the album. It’s about alienation in the government, specifically how we all seem so alone and detached from our so-called leaders, and they could care less about what happens to us in the cold, lonely world out there. There’s also a bit about organized religion trying to control people, but it’s not very present. But it’s not really varied, far-reaching, or intense as the previous three songs and several that follow.

STORYLINE: Jesus is very, very lonely. And he walks a lonely road. This song is one of the most storyline-driven on the album, but there isn’t a lot that the band does with it. Jesus is lonely, walking the thin line in his head that separates his sanity from out-and-out schizophrenia. In laymen’s terms, The City sucks, and Jesus is all alone in the world. One of the parts in this song is Jesus losing the faith in religion that was so strongly instilled in him in the suburbs. These themes are explored more in-depth in the next song, “Are We the Waiting.”

MUSICALLY: “Are We the Waiting” should not be considered a song. It’s a bridge between two musical ideas, the isolation of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and the unrestrained insanity and joy of “St. Jimmy.” It’s simply put, boring to the core. Arena rock at its very worst. Green Day can luckily make a turgid pile of buffalo feces sound good live after being around for so long, but in the studio, I don’t know what they were thinking. Trying to be anthemic (there’s that word again!), I suppose, but the drumming is boring, the bass has completely disappeared from the mix, the guitars are low and dismal, and Billie Joe’s vocals are abysmally echo-y and pretentious.

POLITICALLY: I think Green Day were trying to reach out the lost and tortured souls of their demographic, ie the femo kids who believe Billie Joe wrote “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” about them. It didn’t work.

STORYLINE: Storyline-wise, it’s almost the exact same song as “Boulevard.” Jesus is lonely, he’s starting to lose himself, wah-wah-wah. “The Jesus of Suburbia is a lie.” People say that this is the point Jesus (in their mind, Jimmy) becomes schizophrenic and creates the alter-ego St. Jimmy, a punk rock freedom fighter/drug dealer, yet believes them to be two separate people. I humbly think that St. Jimmy really is a completely separate person that Jesus befriends, because it gives my version of the story that much more impact later on in songs like “Give Me Novocaine” and “Homecoming.” But yeah, it’s mostly whiny. There’s no reason for this song’s existence other than live fodder.

“Are We the Waiting” tries to be a full-on arena anthem, and truth be told it sounds fantastic live, but it’s far too short to be considered anything other than a bridge between sadness and joy. “Are We the Waiting” is a bloated piece of pretentious filler that should be forgotten entirely unless you’re a die-hard enthusiast in American Idiot who knows that they won’t be able to handle a song that instrumentally bleeds into the next song (me, unfortunately).

Luckily, a loud blast of bass-heavy guitar noise, crashing, speedy drums and a fast, palm-muted back-up guitar line leads into the fantastic song “St. Jimmy.”

MUSICALLY: This is the closest Green Day has ever come to crossing the line between pop-punk and melodic hardcore. It’s fast, Tre Cool actually plays the drums instead banging on them oompah-style, and it’s extremely catchy, with a great climax and the shortest guitar solo Green Day has ever composed.

POLITICALLY: This song is the “Thank God” for all those down-n-dirty drug-dealer urban folks who prove to be the “needle in the arm of the establishment.” It’s great that Green Day recognizes these people for what they are: Self-destructive and poisonous to those around them, but necessary as an all-around call to arms for rebels everywhere. Plus, it’s the truth that the mainstream can’t survive without these folks feeding the ability to steal liberally from the underground. Drug dealer/slacker/violent types are the messengers from the volatile, ever-shifting underground society to the complacent mainstream sheep. Jimmy seems satisfied with his role of “that junkie everyone knows and likes.”

STORYLINE: Jesus meets St. Jimmy (in my mind, a real person and not Jesus’s crazy alter-ego) and they quickly bond and become drug buddies as Jimmy exposes Jesus to stuff like pills, heroin, and other downers, but also uppers like ecstasy, meth, and hard drinks like vodka and gin made in a toilet, et. al, much stronger and more potent than the bad weed (well, that’s still ever-present), cheap beer (that too), and second-rate cocaine Jesus was taking at home. St. Jimmy introduces Jesus to the rebellious underbelly and cool people, and by default, becomes one of the main characters in the storyline by introducing Jesus to the rebellious freedom fighter Whatsername. But that’s later. This song is pure drug-fueled fun as Jimmy inducts Jesus into the underground society, tells him that St. Jimmy is the undisputed caller of the shots (“I’m the resident leader of the lost and found”) and foreshadows future chaotic events (“It’s comedy and tragedy, it’s St. Jimmy”). St. Jimmy is personally my favorite character in this storyline. He’s so sarcastic and cool, it’s hard to believe he was envisioned as an alternative to Jesus’s ever-looming depression. He’s the son of a bitch and Edgar Allan Poe, not the son of rage and love, like Jesus. He’s the product of war and fear, the hero of the victimized, the mascot for the lost-and-found bohemian misfits, the “patron saint of the denial.”

Jesus and St. Jimmy very quickly become the best friends in The City’s underground punk scene, far more developed than the rag-tag loser misfits in the suburbs. St. Jimmy is a drug-dealer and occasional user, and thus cannot afford to be an addict, but he becomes the de-facto supplier for Jesus as an accidental drug run ends up with Jesus becoming dependent on street drugs. That’s the next song, “Give Me Novocaine.”

MUSICALLY: Nice and acoustic, but becomes brash, bold, and distorted in the chorus. This makes it sound like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” but it’s far more mellow with a power-pop sound. There’s a repetitive solo in there, but the song itself falls apart near the end as Green Day apparently doesn’t know how to finish it.

POLITICALLY: Once more, this song is about druggies, but this time Green Day are calling them out for being lazy and numbing themselves to the terrible world around them instead of attempting to do something about it. This is the point of the song: Junkies need to get off their ass and do something about the way the world works instead of trying to make it all disappear for a short time.

STORYLINE: Jesus is an addict and St. Jimmy is his empowerment. Jesus spends so much time drunk off his ass  nodded out on dope or messed up on speed that he doesn’t notice that his life hasn’t exactly gotten better. He’s nearly homeless, residing on the streets with a developed collective of alternative bohemian kids, which might sound great (to all you bohemians reading this at an Internet cafe in Portland or Seattle) but there’s nothing to do other than sleep in a rundown tweaker pad and get screwed up. My money has it that Jesus would be happier on the streets if weren’t so high or drunk all the time.

Through streetwise junkies and basic drug and alternative culture, Jesus starts actually getting involved in politics, riots, and protests, because he meets the love of his life, Whatsername, through St. Jimmy in the next song, “She’s a Rebel.”

MUSICALLY: I guess I understand how some people might call this filler, but I really like it for some reason. The “chorus” (it only semi-exists) is really catchy and the lyrics are great. Plus, the simplistic yet fast and catchy instruments remind of the Green Day of the old days. If you take away the poppy guitar line that’s higher in the mix and clog up Billie Joe’s vocals with snot, then it could sound like something that just came off Insomniac.

POLITICALLY: This song really is a call-to-arms, the basis being that if a girl can be a crazy rebel, then everyone else can too. Won’t someone please start a riot and clear the space to restart?

STORYLINE: The relationship between the drugged-up, static (continuously the same) Jesus and the constantly evolving Whatsername hasn’t quite developed yet. And, this is just my opinion, I think there might end up be a triangle going on between the two and Jimmy.

There are currently only five songs left. As “Extraordinary Girl” expands the relationship between the three main characters (although the focus is on Jesus’s not-quite-platonic relationship with Whatsername), the middle section ends.

MUSICALLY: “Extraordinary Girl” starts out with kooky African instruments, probably the closest Green Day will get to “experimentation” this entire album. Sure, their sound expanded and incorporated different instruments, but when it’s all said and done, Green Day are still defined as a pop-punk band. This song definitely starts out promising, but never goes anywhere. It stays completely monotonous all the way through and lacks even the slightest element of excitement. The only reason to keep this song is the storyline aspect.

POLITICALLY: Many people say there are no political meanings to this song. Not true. Whatsername herself symbolizes America in a way, as her entire attitude represents what we as a country have been going through with the war in Iraq. “Extraordinary Girl” also calls out the girls who wish they could be on the cover of fashion magazines, trying to pretty, as they try too hard to make themselves exceptional.

STORYLINE: Jesus and Whatsername try to continue their relationship after their initial whirlwind romance in “She’s a Rebel.” Jesus learns through their uncomfy dating that Whatsername really is a natural rebel– she was just born that way. While Whatsername likes and loves Jesus for who he is, Jesus is fake. He attempted to carve out a new identity in The City by being a cool junkie and being active in riots, but that’s not who he really is. He’s just an insecure depressed loser from the California suburbs, the Holden Caulfield (from Billie Joe’s favorite book, Catcher in the Rye, which I’m sure helped inspire this story) or Clay (from Less Than Zero) for his new generation. Because he’s not a true-blue rebel, he prefers to be safe, and can’t provide the constant change in the relationship Whatsername craves. To get that, she gravitates into a disastrous relationship with one of her oldest friends, St. Jimmy (if this were a movie, this would be offscreen), but he’s too self-destructive and volatile from being strung out all the time to provide the nice-guy love that Jesus provides. Add to that I think that the bromance between St. Jimmy and Jesus may mean a bit more, this is one of the most confusing and exciting parts of the entire album, despite being musically boring.

As “Extraordinary Girl” fades into staticky record-player noise, the final and most chaotic chapter of American Idiot begins with “Letterbomb.” The whole album has been a pressure cooker, with nothing really happening but slowly building up to something big. As everything around Jesus’s life falls apart, the album reaches its climax in the second nine-minute suite, “Homecoming,” and an epilogue in the form of “Whatsername.”

MUSICALLY: “Letterbomb” is the lost gem of American Idiot. The production quality is dirty and grunge-like, and at times Billie Joe’s voice is distorted. It’s fast, it’s furious, it’s fun, it’s catchy, and it’s much more like classic Green Day than even “She’s a Rebel.” Very highly recommended. One of the greatest songs on the album, with “St. Jimmy,” “Holiday,” and “Jesus of Suburbia.”

POLITICALLY: Instead of inciting riots, Green Day is asking where all the riots have gone. It’s asking why a rebellion hasn’t happened yet, and why we are now so apathetic as compared to how we used to be. In addition, it warns of the coming end of the world, although not in a 2012 way, in more of a “What are we gonna do?” way.

STORYLINE: Whatsername abandons Jesus and St. Jimmy, leaving them alone to rot, saying good-bye with a letter. Whatsername begins by casually mocking Jesus’s failure at having a social life (“Nobody like you, everyone left you, they’re all out without you, having fun”) before deconstructing their beliefs. Jesus is a fake rebel, and therefore his entire “new life” is a lie, based completely on how he tried to make other people feel about him, and it all collapsed. Whatsername is dissatisfied with him and calls him on his self-pitying depression– “You’re not the Jesus of suburbia–” don’t whine about everything. You’re not being nailed to a cross, don’t bother trying to make it seem like you deserve such a better life. She disconnects St. Jimmy’s and Jesus’s close friendship– “St. Jimmy is a figment of your father’s rage and your mother’s love,” harkening back to “I’m the son of rage and love,” and in my opinion, helping enforce the opinion that Whatsername thinks they’re brothers. St. Jimmy does love Jesus, but as a younger brother. “Letterbomb” is the first in a series of events that deconstruct Jesus’s life.

Oh, God, here we go. I was dreading this part of the review…

Released June 13th, 2005

“Wake Me Up When September Ends,” the heartfelt ballad of American Idiot. By the way, the cover of the single for “Holiday” is a million times cooler.

MUSICALLY: Boring, basic instrumentals. Bored vocals. No emotion, just calm acoustic plucking, then a wall-of-pop-rock chorus. Much like “Are We the Waiting,” this song fails to deliver unless played live. The Bullet in a Bible performance of this song is truly touching. In studio, “Wake Me Up” is boring, repetitive, and insincere.

POLITICALLY: I don’t want to knock this song too hard, as it is about Billie Joe’s dad dying. But that happened when he was ten. Green Day has had six records, a greatest hits, and a B-Sides compilation to feature a song about this subject. I understand about closure and it being tough to release emotion, but it Green Day was nearly twenty years old as band and celebrating Dookie‘s tenth anniversary when this record was created. Aside from the personal aspect, I’m sure this song is anti-war, anti-loss-of-loved-ones, anti-invasion-and-occupation-of-Iraq. So am I. I think this song might also be a second veiled reference to 9/11, as “September” is the eleventh track.

STORYLINE: Jesus has lost his innocence. He thought he was happy when he was with Whatsername, but she Letterbombed him. He thought St. Jimmy was his friend, but Whatsername was cheating on Jesus with him, and neither of them told him. He’s more depressed in The City than he ever was in the suburbs, and he is losing connection with the rebels in the underbelly because he wrote off Jimmy. Jimmy himself is also extremely depressed. He can’t stand to see who he just realized is his brother so depressed, and was cut deeply by Jesus’s hatred of him. They both reflect on how happy their lives used to be before they met each other, but now that they know they’re estranged brothers, they can’t separate from each other, however desperately they want to.

After the epiphanies of the two guys, the album climaxes in a fiery explosion of chaos and tragedy with “Homecoming.”

MUSICALLY: More developed than “Jesus of Suburbia,” and doesn’t drag at all, although it’s longer than its fellow sweet. Strong instrumentation with no solos, surprisingly, and Mike and Tre both get to sing in two of the movements. The movements are as follows: “The Death of St. Jimmy” (Spoiler), “Nobody Likes You (Mike),” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girlfriend (Tre),” “East 12th Street,” and “We’re Coming Home Again.” All of which are very strong segments.

POLITICALLY: This song isn’t very politically motivated, and describes the everyman who leaves home for the city and finds out it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

STORYLINE: This is the final chapter of the album, so everything climaxes. In the first movement, St. Jimmy confronts Jesus and says, “We’re f–ked up and we’re not the same, and mom and dad are the ones you can blame.” Having the realization that Jesus will never come to terms with him, and that he is living an overall worthless life, Jimmy goes down to the bay and blows his brains out into the ocean. Everyone in the underbelly treats Jesus like a pariah after Jimmy dies, seeing it like Jesus murdered their leader. The entire underground scene pretty much disappears, leaving Jesus all alone with his thoughts in “Nobody Likes You,” and his thoughts parallel what his mother is thinking at home, as well as what Whatsername had said to him before he left. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girlfriend,” besides being a Tre Cool biography, is what sparked my theory that Jesus and Jimmy are brothers: The letter is about a rock star who’s living the dream life, but he has a few ex-wives and “A kid in New York and a kid in the bay.” I know New York has a bay, and I think that’s where Jimmy killed himself. Tre’s “bay” refers to the California Bay Area, known for its sterile, boring suburbs like Rodeo. “East 12th Street” outlines Jesus’s futile attempts at living a normal life, either signing up for community service (for possession of drugs and stealing, as detailed in the outtake/B-side “Shoplifter”) or for a desk job, although I’m betting the former because Billie Joe paid for his D.U.I. at East 12th Street. Jesus realizes that trying to live a normal life isn’t working, and so he flees back to “Jingletown” and to the safety and sanctity of his home in the boring suburbs that frustrated him so. Kind of anti-climatic, huh? But it was inspired by Zen Arcade, a hardcore punk concept album that was also anti-climactic. And they already had Jimmy kill himself, a la Jimmy from Quadrophenia.

The album ends with an epilogue that doesn’t explain anything, “Whatsername.”

MUSICALLY: I used to just end the album after “Homecoming” because the beginning of this song was so boring. But for review purposes I sat through this and the climax, featuring “Remember, whatever, it seems like forever ago,” is actually genuinely alright. Definitely not a fantastic song that would perfectly cap off the album like “Homecoming,” though.

POLITICALLY: The one song that actually isn’t politically charged. This is probably the most politically-detached song on the album.

STORYLINE: Jesus burned Whatsername’s photos. He remembers her face, but can’t remember her name, which is probably why she’s been called “Whatsername” the entire album. Despite his attempts to live and let live, Jesus can’t help but ponder what ever happened to her. “Did she ever marry ol’ Whatsisface?”

“Whatsername” is probably the second-most inconsequential song on the album, next to “Are We the Waiting.” I don’t think Green Day has ever played it live. Useless.

I kinda wanna discuss the B-sides to the album. “Shoplifter” explains why Jesus would be doing community service. It’s a pretty solid song, even if it’s barely two minutes long. “Governator” has awesome bass, is sung by Mike, and has some great satirical criticism aimed at Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Too Much Too Soon” is very catchy, the most Green Day-esque song to be culled from the American Idiot sessions. Finally, “Favorite Son,” Green Day’s contribution to Fat Mike’s Rock Against Bush series is a fantastically funny and catchy indictment against George W. Bush.

And that’s American Idiot. This was probably the longest review I’ve ever done, and if you’ve managed to read it all the way up to here, you deserve a frickin’ medal. I couldn’t handle my rambling for this long. But just bear with me for a few more paragraphs here as I attempt to reach a conclusion on this album.

American Idiot is a fairly good album with the most filler/bad songs of any Green Day album so far. “Are We the Waiting,” “Give Me Novocaine,” “Extraordinary Girl,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and “Whatsername” are all thoroughly useless studio tracks that can be overlooked if you’re solely in it for the musical aspect, leaving about an EP’s worth of material left. However, since I’m obsessed with musical consistency I’m stuck with the entire album taking up space on my hard drive. Anyway, each of the B-sides could technically be used to fill the gaps left by the first four songs I mentioned, while “Whatsername” could be forgotten entirely.

The politics should be decimated under their own weight, but Green Day manages to create a solid ideological statement and make it stick. Despite the claims it’s full of liberal back-slapping, just listen to “Holiday.” Green Day’s sentiments ring true– liberals, Democrats, conservatives, Republicans– they’re all the same, and we’re being brainwashed by the new media.

Many people cry “sell-out”– aren’t Green Day a part of the new media? At least they’re trying to do something about the crummy way the world works.

The story is intense and solid. If you’ve ever heard Zen Arcade (which I’ve name-checked like nine times in this review alone) then you’re familiar with the concept of the disaffected youths who ran away from the boring lives in search of better things, only to realize they can’t handle the outside world and have a mental breakdown, returning home. This is obviously inspired by Catcher in the Rye in more ways than one. I think works like stage musicals– the “underbelly” of The City is obviously heavily inspired by RENT– and movies like the adaptations of Quadrophenia and Jesus Christ Superstar played a huge role in the story development.

The impact of American Idiot is huge. Obviously it’s inspired such overbearing, pretentious albums by second-rate poseurs like Sum 41′s Underclass Hero or My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade. But on the other hand, it single-handedly revived real punk in the new millennium like they did in the 90s, along with Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and the Descendents, plus inspiring a relatively solid, from what I’ve heard, stage musical.

But possibly the best thing about this album is that the band of teenage snot-nosed punk brats from the Bay Area who sang about masturbation, girls, weed, apathy, and depression who named their breakthrough album after poop have woken up to how bad the world is right now, and they’re asking us to help them do something about it. Ultimately, the message is telling all of us apathetic, sarcastic, snarky suburban kids living in a chaotic world full of malcontent and hatred to WAKE UP! and do something to make our surroundings better.

While this was Green Day’s weakest album (for a while, anyway) they could have done much worse. I mean, just look at my descriptions of the album. It’s a mess, and it should have fallen apart, but Green Day were lucky enough to make it work.

Why would I give this a below-average rating? Simple: This album is not Green Day.

There are several good songs, even fantastic songs. It’s a solid album, sure. Everything works and is musically consistent. It’s a darling at awards shows. And yet, there’s something very Green Day-ish missing from the whole experience. It’s the same band, sure. But something’s gone, hopefully not forever. Something I don’t feel quite right without. And honestly, I don’t like that feeling. The feeling that Green Day has shed us old-school fans like this is what they’ve always wanted to do, the record they’ve always wanted to make. Maybe it is. But frankly, it’s not their best.

It’s too political for its own good. It’s very poppy, harming the band’s credibility. The fact that all of a sudden they dressed up in “punk fashion,” dyed their hair black instead of green or blue, and are all dolled up in make-up (especially poor Tre) is inexcusable. Yet, unlike the future disaster 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day sincerely put their back into the whole thing, and that makes the album worth a few listens.

International Supervideos! Review

This is possibly the ultimate nostalgia trip for Green Day fans today. To see all of the band’s music videos from their “classic” period, except for “Welcome to Paradise” (just a dubbed live performance) and “Macy’s Day Parade” (an insanely boring video to complement an actually decent song) must be like heaven for their old school fans, and Green Day has put out tons of classic music videos. Even though it was released at the same time as International Superhits!, I decided to wait to review this one, give people a little bit of suspense. Without any further ado, I present the Dookie videos:

“Longview” was the band’s first video, filmed in the flophouse they lived in rent-free. Featured here are their classic tiny bathroom, old ripped up couch, rabbit-ears television, and butter-smeared plate– all actual artifacts from their punk-house. This is probably their most punk rock video, with the real stars being not the band, but the carefully cultivated zits on their faces. It’s still a pretty good video, dead fantastic for a first try.

After the jaw-dropping MTV success of the “Longview” video, Green Day whipped out their immensely successful “Basket Case” video, which was nominated for nine awards at the 1994 Grammies: Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Hard Rock Video, Best Alternative Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Viewer’s Choice. The video was filmed in black in white, with the colors of the band added in later for both an otherwordly feel and to make the band seem like the only lively people in the hospital they filmed this in– yes, an actual hospital, where they found old dental molds, scratches in the walls, and patient files. The band prove themselves to actually be surprisingly good actors in this video, from Tre’s medication to Mike’s angry fit in his room to Billie’s continuous panic attack throughout the video. There are plenty of references to to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the black-and-white patients are wearing the torturer’s mask from Brazil.

Green Day burst onto the mainstream pop charts with “When I Come Around,” which was the biggest MTV hit for the band yet.  It’s simply the band walking around San Francisco and Berkeley, occasionally messing with people, along with several shots of interrelated (unbeknownst to the participants) events. jason White (Green Day’s back-up guitarist) and his girlfriend can be spotted here. It’s the worst video from Dookie, but still decent for an early effort. Billie’s striped sweater inspired mobs of people to wear a similar one for the rest of the 90s.

The Insomniac videos start immediately:

“Geek Stink Breath” takes place partly at the dentists, with a punk rocker getting his tooth pulled for no apparent reason. This is inter-cut with grainy VHS shots of the band playing in a basement, cementing this as their most punk video since “Longview.” Apparently, the shots of the tooth getting pulled were so graphic that MTV was forced to relegate it to late-night television, mostly on their alternative block 120 Minutes. Excellent video.

“Stuck With Me” was filmed half in black-and-white, and half featuring color animation created courtesy of punk artist Winston Smith, who not only did the art for Insomniac, but also did an immense amount of artwork for, most notably, the Dead Kennedys as well as several other notable hardcore bands. It’s more like a sarcastic politicized version of Terry Gilliam’s artwork for Monty Python. Good video, but not as good as “Geek Stink Breath.”

“Brain Stew” and “Jaded” had videos that melted into each other, similar to their songs. “Brain Stew” was filmed entirely in sepia, with the band being dragged through a landfill by a bulldozer. There are lots of really strange things that appear: Old ladies with chalkboards, Hawaiian hula dancers, etc. Most likely, they were intended to simulate the effects of hallucination that insomnia and meth use have on your brain. Pretty soon the “Brain Stew” video bleeds back into color when “Jaded” jumps onto the scene. The video was filmed in an insane punk rock style, with wobbly cameras, fast editing, and the reappearance of the Hawaiian hula dancers briefly. The video style was intended to mimic the feel of the song, and boy did it work. Both videos are equally fantastic.

Up next is Green Day’s best video of all time, “Walking Contradiction.” The members of the band, all did their own stunts, even though Billie had to be talked into it by Tre. The video is pure orchestrated chaos. Completely unaware of their actions (allegedly), the band go around the city causing mayhem and destruction everywhere they go. In the end, they drive off in a Ford Pinto!

Now, we’re onto the Nimrod videos.

“Hitchin’ a Ride” kicks things off with a Jazz Age club foolishly allowing Green Day to play. They soon instigate chaos and flee the club. It’s a pretty good video, actually. I like the stylized imagery and the visuals during the bridge and solo are downright hilarious.

Now we get “Good Riddance,” another great video. For a hate song, the video is actually pretty touching, with the other members of the band making brief cameos, as well as featuring several people pondering life and their respective situations.

“Redundant” is an interesting little video, mocking all the mundane things that people do over and over throughout their daily existence, without even really noticing it, but still stuck within a routine. At the end, when Billie interrupts the cycle, we see how terribly entrenched in our routine ruts we actually are. The message of the video is to live life spontaneously.

With the subversively clever “Nice Guys Finish Last” video, Green Day show their satirical side, not only mocking both mainstream and elitist punks alike, but also football jock-ism and undying devotion. Possibly the best of the Nimrod videos.

After finishing that up, we head into their batch of songs from Warning:

“Minority” is an okay music video for a fantastic song. I like Billie’s double horns to the buildings in the “F**k ‘em all!” line. But the CGI effects are downright awful.

“Warning” more than makes up for “Minority”‘s faults. The video is one of the smartest ones ever made. It uses subversive humor to make a point of questioning authority and not being an idiot, along with some pretty hilarious pratfalls from the central character (who, judging by the video, is probably dead by now).

“Waiting” is another fantastic video with amazing special effects and almost an actual plot that seems to go hand-in-hand with the message of the song. Brilliant way to cap off this music video collection.

International Supervideos! is the second-best music video compilation I’ve ever seen (don’t worry, friends, I’ll get to the best soon enough).

But unfortunately, all good things must come to pass, and this is the end of the best part of Green Day’s career. It’s depressing, especially considering where we are now. But don’t worry, friends, good things come to those who wait, and this is Milo Caulfield promising a spectacular review of American Idiot as soon as I can find the time to sit down and write the whopping three-tiered review that Iactually had to plot out and rewrite drafts of.

See you ASAP, guys!

Shenanigans Review

So, Green Day decided not to finish with their greatest hits like so many bands. They released a collection of their hard-to-find songs and B-sides so that fans didn’t have to go through a whole mess to find them.

Around the same time, a few of their new songs had started to float around, including:

“Angel and the Jerk”: An excellent collaboration between the band and Penelope Houston.

“I Fought the Law”: A cover of a 50s rock song. Surprisingly good.

“Godzilla Brain Stew”: Their contribution the Godzilla ’98 soundtrack. Just as crappy as the movie.

“American Pie 2 Scumbag”: No difference between this and the version of “Scumbag” on here. American Pie 2 was the only good sequel in that series, though.

These are pretty easy to find. However, there are a few annoying, glaring omissions:

“409 in Your Coffeemaker (Dookie version)”

“Haushinka (Dookie version)”

“Walkin’ the Dog”

“2000 Light Years Away (Jerky Boys soundtrack)”

“Good Riddance (Insomniac version)”

“Ballad of Wilhelm Fink (Short Music for Short People)”

“19th Nervous Breakdown”

“Alison”

“World vs. World (only ever played live)”

“Don’t Wanna Know if You Are Lonely (Husker Du cover)”

With that said, this is a pretty decent compilation, but being a B-sides compilation, there are several weak tracks. Let’s get started!

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on lead vocals and guitar

Mike Dirnt on back-up vocals, bass, lead vocals on “Outsider”, and baseball bat on “Desensitized”

Tre Cool on back-up vocals and drums

Released July 2nd, 2002 on Reprise Records

First up is a song about Billie’s alcoholic days, “Suffocate.” It’s a pretty good way to start off the album, a standard Green Day song.

Next up is “Desensitized,” which passes “Suffocate” up completely. With great lyrics and powerful instruments, this is definitely an album highlight.

After such a great song, unfortunately, we hear “You Lied,” a song so awful I don’t even want to talk about it.

Luckily we’re rescued by a great Ramones cover, “Outsider,” where we hear Mike take lead briefly for the first time.

“Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” feels brief and restrained, not very good at all.

After that is their contribution to the Austin Powers in the Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, the instrumental “Espionage.” It may sound repetitive on first listen, but trust me, it does grow on you.

The band follows up on that with the insane hardcore punk cover “I Wanna Be on TV,” originally by Berkeley favorites Fang.

After that is the snarling “Scumbag,” which has great lyrics.

Then comes a really weak Kinks cover, “Tired of Waiting for You.” It’s insanely boring.

“Sick of Me” is average, but fun, while “Rotting” just flat-out sucks.

“Do Da Da” was supposed to be “Stuck With Me,” but the names got switched. It’s still a fun song.

“On the Wagon” has harmonica and alcoholic lyrics. Reminds me of that terrible “Walking Alone” song from Nimrod, and this song sucks just as much as that one.

Fortunately, this album climaxes with perhaps Green Day’s best concluding song ever, “Ha Ha You’re Dead,” a furious hate song written by Mike Dirnt, and it’s purely amazing.

So Shenanigans is the worst of Green Day’s three compilation albums, with a total of nine good-to-tolerable songs and five complete trash songs. Average/mediocre by all means, but there are enough good tracks to warrant snatching them from iTunes.

This is Milo Caulfield saying, get ready for a nostalgia trip and a political firing squad soon…

International Superhits! Review

Well, here we are. It’s time for us to review Green Day’s inevitable (but good) greatest hits album, International Superhits!

We all know that a normal band puts out a greatest hits album when they’re on the verge of breaking up forever. Which Green Day was. However, while most bands usually just toss out some of the songs that got an exorbitant amount of radio airplay, Green Day graces us with every single one of their singles, an album track from Warning, a soundtrack contribution, a Warning B-side, and a brand-new track. That’s nearly twice the length of an average greatest hits compilation, and boy, did Green Day know it.

And no, I’m not going to put all the single covers up for this review. Far too time-consuming.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on lead vocals and guitar

Mike Dirnt on back-up vocals and bass

Tre Cool on back-up vocals and drums

Released on November 13th, 2001 on Reprise Records

The album kicks off with the B-side to “Waiting,” one of the superior tracks of their most recent album. “Maria” does its best to one-up “Waiting” as best as it can, which means including a sample from an interview Billie Joe did when he was five (that’s when the prodigy cut his first single) and a surf-rock solo that hearkens back to the Green Day of old. It even has a political fire burning in its gut.

Next up is Green Day’s original track for this album, “Poprocks and Coke.” What a disappointment after the fantastic “Maria.” It’s boring, the bass doesn’t do anything, the drums aren’t given any love, and the solo is just a glorified riff. The lyrics are also really, really, really creepy, despite the pop-rock ruse. Reminds me of “Special Delivery” by the Offspring.

Very fortunately, here comes the Dookie cavalry to save the day. “Longview,” “Welcome to Paradise,” “Basket Case,” “When I Come Around,” and “She” are all represented here in their full glory. Sometimes, maybe too full; at the beginning of “Longview” you can still hear the echo of the final guitar chord from “Chump.” Oh, well. All these singles are absolute gold.

Released July 10th, 1995

Next up is the single that absolutely should have been on Insomniac. This depressing song about Mike Dirnt’s old friend Jason Andrew Relva (who died in a car crash) is absolutely fantastic. Green Day at their lyrical best, and the bass and drums are downright amazing. Billie’s vocals are almost haunting, and the chant at the end is sad, but hopeful as well.

Now they hit you straight in with the powerhouse of the Insomniac singles. “Geek Stink Breath” kicks things off in all its meth-fueled glory, closely followed by the one-two punch of “Brain Stew” and “Jaded,” the sarcastic lyrical assault of “Walking Contradiction” and the loser call-to-action of “Stuck With Me.” In my personal opinion, these are the best songs on this album, very, very, very slightly winning out against the Dookie singles (my third-favorite Green Day album).

Then comes the casual violin of “Hitchin’ a Ride,” announcing Green Day has changed. After that is the emotionally charged hate song “Good Riddance,” the indie pop “Redundant,” and the punk firing squad “Nice Guys Finish Last.”

After the last snarling sneer spits out of “Nice Guys Finish Last” we hear Billie pluck an acoustic before full-out attacking us with “Minority,” making us think in “Warning,” and making us sing along uncontrollably with “Waiting.”

The last track of the album is an album track from Warning, “Macy’s Day Parade.” I think they would have been better off finishing with “Good Riddance,” but this works just as well.

And that’s International Superhits! For a band in its death throes, Green Day still managed to put out a jaw-droppingly fantastic album, excluding “Poprocks and Coke.” Unfortunately, this would be the LAST dazzling effort from this band. To be continued…

Warning Review

Hey, remember Green Day? You know, those guys sang punk rock anthems and led a generation of sad grungers to happiness, as well as breaking boundaries of what could be considered punk and busting open doors for literally hundreds of bands? Well, they’re gone. The Green Day from the 90s no longer exists. In its place comes this “evolved” offering, taking the logical step from the more complex musical offerings of Nimrod, as well showing the group’s heavier pop influences. The lyrics have started to take a turn in a new direction: politics and social commentary, which, while always being underlying themes to the band’s previous work, have never been highlighted in such a poignant manner before in their songs.

Green Day produced Warning themselves. Rob Cavallo was the executive producer, but the band used the knowledge they’d gathered while on Lookout! Records to make this album. Be warned now: the drumming can sometimes sound muddy and mix with the bass (I used to be unable to tell if Mike was hitting the root notes or if  Tre was pounding the bass drum), it’s hard to tell the difference between distortion levels, acoustic is meshed sometimes awkwardly with electric, sometimes Billie’s guitar is absent from the mix almost entirely due to palm-muting, his vocals can sound strange and the computers they used to mix them chops them up in a few songs, and there are several other odd instruments that Green Day wanted to prove they could play which, while working well in the songs, sometimes do not mix well. All that is not to say the record sounds bad all the time– in fact, sometimes the production is great and the pop hooks work well. Also, if you listen to the songs on jazz level with suitable-grade headphones, the bass doesn’t drop out and the drums are crystal-clear.

The record incorporates elements of acoustic alternative and power pop, moving the sound into a distinctive folk-punk direction and the political lyrics add to the flavor. Green Day is still one of the only mainstream bands to stick out in terms of honest politics, along with the Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and U2 (we get it, Bono– you care!), and also brings them closer to their older Berkeley brethren. Meanwhile, the pop hooks allow mainstream appeal, which gives the chance of educating the public in politics. It’s obvious the band was inspired heavily by the Kinks’ early work and the work of bands like the Clash, the Jam, the Undertones, the Boomtown Rats, the Buzzcocks, the Descendents (all of which were hinted at in their albums until Nimrod) and even Blondie.

Unfortunately, the album was a flop. It only reached gold status (500,000 copies sold)– extremely low for a Green Day record, all others reaching multi-platinum status. Clearly this is, however, the first alternative pop album– it didn’t sell well, but everyone who heard it started a shoegaze, jangle, or twee band. Not to say people hated the album, because critics loved it. I, personally, thought it was Green Day’s worst, narrowly beating out Nimrod, but still better-than-average. Then Green Day put out American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown… (oh, I’ll get to those later. Now’s not the time to be throwing salt in open wounds.) I’ll digress and move on with life.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on lead vocals, all guitars, harmonica, and mandolin

Mike Dirnt on backing vocals, bass, and farfisa

Tre Cool on drums, random percussion and accordion

Jason White on back-up, rhythm, and lead guitar live

Stephen Bradley on horn

Gary Meek on saxophone

Released October 3rd, 2000 on Reprise Records

So the album opens with this:

Released December 11th, 2000

“Warning” is probably the best sign that Green Day has changed. It has acoustic guitars, strong bass, simple drums, and this is one of  the best lyric sets on the album. The vocal melody carries the song strongly and the lyrics convey the meaning perfectly obviously without subtle metaphors. This song is about not being an idiot, to question authority but not to do stupid stuff that will end up turning you into an example for a stupid warning label like “Do not eat fish food.” It’s like the politically charged version of “Words I Might Have Ate.” Live without warning.

Next up is the ode to a dominatrix, “Blood, Sex, and Booze.” It’s the more mature, rocking cousin of “Dominated Love Slave” from Kerplunk!. Not only does this song show off a distorted solo and great melody, but it has a mandolin. That’s a good song about a dominatrix, one that also shows musical evolution.

All right, now we have the first real POP song, “Church on Sunday.” It’s about having to make compromises when you’re in a relationship. To tell you the truth, it’s not that bad, but it’s pretty formulaic and obvious. I would have preferred if Green Day had put a couple of unexpected twists in. (Mandolins in a song about a dominatrix. Now THAT’S innovation.)

Next is another poppy song, “Fashion Victim.” The drums are simple garbage, the bass is boring, and the guitar is average. But it has great lyrics… so if you can find a program to block out the instruments and only let the vocals bleed through, do that. Or just write the lyrics down in a little pocket-book and pretend that it’s an original poem. Not bad once you get to the instrumental, and then Billie and Mike do show us some nice harmonizing.

After showing us why a punk band playing power pop can suck, Green Day shows us the absolutely BRILLIANT side of pop songwriting– “Castaway.” It’s an amazing example of how pop hooks, a fantastic bass line, and a cool guitar lick combined with great lyrics about individuality can totally redeem any band from any wrongs they have previously committed. Best example of the pop formula on here.

After “Castaway” ends, we hear a weird electronic beat, before Tre bursts in with a fast drum roll and acoustic guitar and bass start playing against each other in a folk rhythm. Accordion, farfisa, and mandolin are added. This turns the song into “Misery” when Billie starts signing. Don’t even ignore the fact that it’s Green Day. Just enjoy the song for what it is: a pessimistic warning to all those who put immediate gratification before long-term satisfaction. If you make a stupid choice, you’ll live to regret it, or you’ll just die in the name of “Misery.”

Next up, we hear Billie sing, “Wake up, the house is on fire” in an exceedingly cheerful tone. To pull us out of the depths of folk hell in “Misery,” we get another above-average grouchy power pop anthem about how awful the holidays can be for some people, but at the same time, holding out and hoping for the best.

As “Deadbeat Holiday” ends, we get an example of the “Church on Sunday” formula gone wrong: “Hold On.” Ew. Terrible lyrics. Boring guitar. Bass is nearly inaudible, and the drums are so muddy I swear Tre’s playing in quicksand. Don’t even get me started on the useless harmonica. By far the worst song on the album. Unfortunately, without it the flow is actually screwed up, so we’re stuck with it.

Next up, the lethargic malaise of “Hold On” is skewered by the hilarious “Jackass”– the instruments are insanely entertaining after slogging through the previous snooze-fest, and the lyrics– about all the useless pop-punk bands that ripped them off and are incredibly juvenile, but mainly a stab at Enema of the State (the second awful blink-182 album– the only song of theirs released after Cheshire Cat worth anything was “Dammit”) and there’s an awesome sax solo, so there.

The next song is so full of ridiculous pop hooks you’d swear you were listening to a Big Star song:

Released October 29th, 2001

Oh, my God. This song consists pretty much of both great lyrics and rocking instruments, combined with a series of the best hooks Green Day has EVER concocted. Lady Gaga could take a cue from these guys. On second thought, she’d never be able to match the amazing lyrics and the sense of deepness this song has. It’s simply awesome.

After, that we hear a small acoustic riff before bursting in with the most fitting penultimate song Green Day could come up with.

Released August 31st, 2000

After the acoustic riff, the song launches into the most straight-forward punk chorus in the album (with lyrics about Moral Majority! And turning the Pledge of Allegiance upside down! Cool!) before Mike’s catchy bass and the underlying harmonica turn it into one of the finest folk-punk songs ever made. This is one of the first songs Green Day wrote for this album, and it’s the point where there songwriting started to become a bit more politically conscious. This is one of the greatest songs they’ve ever made, in my opinion.

After that, the album cools to a halt with its final song, “Macy’s Day Parade.” Billie’s sad, experienced vocals combined with the VERY simple acoustic guitar line turn it into a ballad along the lines of… “Good Riddance”!? But before Green Day can descend into the land of self-parody, you’ll get what makes this a fitting end to the album as you hear the lyrics. Definitely no “Good Riddance,” but a fine climax if I do say so myself.

And that’s Warning. After Nimrod was released, I thought that was Green Day’s worst– still a good alt rock album, but not up to par with their previous work. Then when this came out, I was convinced this was their worst.

This was by no means an awful album. Green Day would certainly go on to make much worse (I’m getting there, don’t worry), but this album has a few outright stinkers on it, although it carries enough instant classics to bail it out.

Billie Joe was starting to overshadow the band at this point. Although he was frightened to share his ideas and lyrics with his fellow band members, the others thought he was hogging the spotlight and they felt rejected, not like members of the band.

Green Day was actually technically still broken up when they made this. They started practicing for fun at each other’s houses, keeping their minds off the stress of their break-up after Nimrod, and had twelve “inspired” moments and decided to produce their own record. The combination of alternative acoustic, power pop, and folk-punk made this a tantalizing treat for critics, but Green Day was still incredibly strained.

What does any band teetering on the brink of complete self-disintegration do? Why, release their greatest International Superhits!, of course! And what better way to get into a nostalgia trip than to watch all of their International Supervideos! again? This is Milo Caulfield signing off from our local Alternative News source. Don’t get up to any Shenanigans while I’m gone!

Green Day Goes Acoustic

Well, on Halloween 1999, Green Day did a benefit show in Shoreline Amphitheater, with a twist– they went acoustic on us. Remember how people always say a song has to sound good acoustic before it can sound good on electric guitar? Green Day obviously performed most of their songs acoustically before putting them on record.

It starts off by announcing the “Godzilla Gang from Berkeley…” before Green Day erupts into an amazing acoustic rendition of “Geek Stink Breath.” Now, you can finally understand the words.

After they head into the mandatory-crowd-participation number “Hitchin’ a Ride,” they unveil a new song, “Warning,” played nearly exactly how it would be on next year’s album.

Then they a version of “Longview,” which is surprisingly enjoyable despite not having the original echo and acoustic bass pretty much always sucking.

After that is a spirited “She,” which the band cannot play a bad version of live, no matter how different it is from the original. I’m sad that they don’t play it anymore.

Then is an amazing performance of “King for a Day,” which features Billie strumming and humming through a kazoo for the swingin’ ska horns.

Quickly following this is a beautiful version of “When I Come Around,” with a surprisingly good acoustic solo.

After this is one of the boring songs from Nimrod, “Scattered,” which actually sounds good and like it has depth when played acoustic. I have no idea what this says about me.

Unfortunately, Billie descends into the boring “Hey-ho” routine. Thankfully, it’s short (unlike Bullet in a Bible’s crap), and then they kill the stage.

They end this short benefit concert with the obvious choice, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”. Although it’s a touching version when stripped of the pretentious cello, it’s a still a hate song. Personally, I think they should have finished with “F.O.D.” (yes, I know, another hate song, but it has depth) or “All by Myself.”

Yeah, it was probably good I didn’t write their set-list.

Anyway, Green Day proves that they aren’t only adept at distorted punk anthems, but also at playing acoustic ballads for the average adult. This performance has depth and is touching. If you can find a bootleg, it’s very well-recorded. Ignore the extra live performance, though, it’s boring and badly-recorded.

Nimrod Review

After the punk rock mania that was Insomniac and the chaotic tour that ensued, Green Day was physically and mentally exhausted. They were sick of being of being the “go-to” example for sell-outs in the punk rock community, they were sick of being praised as the snottiest band alive by Rolling Stone (and other music publications like SPIN, plus “hipster” magazines like Vice and Clash), and they were sick of the media confining their music and the band themselves in the “punk rock” label. They were frustrated, tired of being away from their families on tour, and wanted to something more with their music. Green Day took a short recording hiatus mid-1996 while they took time to mull over their lives and their situation in general. Billie in particular took some time to write songs.

What was the result? This album. Re-entering the studio in summer of ’97 armed with musical maturity and much more sophisticated lyrics, the sound on this album is notably more varied and complex than in previous albums– the guitar and vocals in particular seem to have nearly completely taken over. The entire album seems to focus on Billie’s songwriting prowess in particular, and I can’t help but think this album is the beginning of the fall– him taking over as the main face of the band.

But that’s a rant for another time. Green Day has matured, and let’s dig into their first “sophisticated” offering, Nimrod, which includes everything from standard punk to dark blues rock to acoustic rock to pop jams to ska to surf to hardcore, taking on the brunt of Green Day’s transition from pure punk rock to a softer, more alternative rock-oriented approach.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and lead vocals, harmonica on “Walking Alone”

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

Tre Cool on drums

Petra Hayden on violin on “Hitchin’ a Ride” and “Last Ride In”

Gabriel McNair on horns on “King for a Day” and “Last Ride In”

Conan McCallum on violin on “Good Riddance”

Released: October 14th, 1997 on Reprise Records

Released March 23rd, 1999

The album opens up with the not-exactly-hit single, “Nice Guys Finish Last.” What else can I say but “It’s catchy”? Truly, it’s a fast punk rock tune that does utilize the drums and bass fairly well. The song is about people who suck up to others to get what they want, but when they’re fed up, their true colors show, and they always end up “finishing last.” Strangely, although it’s the first track, it was released as the last of the singles from Nimrod.

Released September 22nd, 1997

Next we have the decidedly bluesier “Hitchin’ a Ride,” which pretty much ripped off its main riff from “Stray Cat Strut,” by, well, the Stray Cats. Lyrically, it’s about alcoholism, but let’s face it, no one listens to this song for the lyrics, they listen to it for the raw, distorted solo in the middle of the song and the powerful chorus. This song’s main riff may be a rip-off, but it has a certain element about it all its own.

The next song is the viciously skewering “The Grouch,” in which Billie assumes the role of a miserable old man who blames his family for dragging him down in his life, turning into a grouchy old alcoholic man who is going to end up like his father, whom he detests. This song pretty much just takes the regular idea of a suburban dad and kills it dead with satirical criticism which is right on the mark, right down to the universal family grouch rally call, “The world owes me so f— you.”

Released May 26, 1998

The next song is “Redundant,” officially an alt-rock song, and you mainstream types can keep believing that, but the style of this song is completely indie-rock-oriented– I’d go so far as to declare it jangle pop, maybe even twee pop. This is one of only a handful of songs where Billie uses an effects pedal, and the effects do work rather well, giving this song and out-of-this-universe sound quality. Once again, this would probably be considered jangle or twee pop if the recording was more lo-fi and this was released on an indie label. The lyrics concern Billie’s relationship with his wife– where they’re just saying “I love you” as a routine, when everything seems scripted and tired. It’s a beautiful, depressing, and uplifting song all in one, and a fitting pop jam that establishes Green Day’s variance in style on this album.

Unfortunately, after this we have a couple forgettable, standard pop-punk tunes, a collection including “Scattered,” (which includes the mysterious and obtuse lyrics “I’ve got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor, reminds me of the time we spent, makes me wish that you were here,”) “All the Time,” (it’s catchy and it’ll stick in your head, but there’s no real point to it) and “Worry Rock” (“What did you do with the directions?” What did you do with Green Day’s melody and clever writing?) I don’t have much to say on these songs, except for the fact that I’ve listened to this album three times in the past week and I STILL don’t remember these.

Fortunately, we are saved at the last nano-second from boredom by the fierce punk rock hate song, “Platypus (I Hate You)”. Apparently the song is called “I Hate You,” but Billie always wanted to name a song “Platypus” so there you go. No offense to platypi or platypus enthusiasts anywhere. This song is fast, violent, and brimming with energy and pure emotion, even if it is hate. My favorite part of this song is probably the bridge, where foul-mouthed Billie typically spews out a froth of profanities clearly illustrating his disgust with the subject of the song. This was so fiery that the band didn’t even include the lyrics to the song in the booklet, but luckily, I can decipher what he’s saying pretty well, from such a long time of listening to punk.  Lightly censored (don’t hold me responsible for this), the string of epithets reads: “D—head, f—face, c—-smoking, motherf—ing asshole, dirty t—, waste of semen, I hope you die!” This was written in response to a critic who panned Dookie, and they waited until this record came out to put it out to show that they “matured.”

After the honestly boring “Uptight” (the bridge is cool, and the line “the future’s in my living room” makes me want to destroy stuff, but overall, a weak, formulaic songs that manages to rip off “1979″ by the Smashing Pumpkins as well as have atrociously bland lyrics about suicide) the album slows down (with the help of a crashing wave transition) into a relaxation period of sorts. Remember “Intermission” from the Offspring’s Ixnay on the Hombre? This is like that, except with no talking and surf rock instead of elevator lounge music. The strangest thing about this song is that it has a music video although it wasn’t really released as a single. It’s very relaxing and although it isn’t boring by any means, it’s good to listen to when you’re trying to wind down after a tough day or you’re trying to go to sleep.

Next we have another transitional set of songs, “Jinx” and “Haushinka,” both of which are very nice tracks. “Jinx” is sneeringly sarcastic track reminiscent of the Green Day of yore, snapping at people to stay away because he’s “cursed,” while “Haushinka” is a remembrance track about a Japanese girl the band met while on tour, which was originally recorded during the Kerplunk! sessions (and left out) but re-recorded, mixed, and mastered for this record. It’s a pretty fun track for what it is: mindless, catchy pop-punk, but I’ve come to expect a little something more intelligent from Green Day.

The next track, “Walking Alone,” incorporates harmonica and yet more alcoholic lyrical themes. It’s simply horrid. Skip it.

Fortunately for us, the record takes a fast trip up musically for the remainder of the time. “Reject” is another fast punk track, inspired by a duo of letters. One letter was sent from an angry mother. Her son had received Insomniac as a present and had begun singing the rather explicit and “disturbing” lyrics out loud. Her mom was frightened that her son would actually be exposed to something (gasp!) “bad for the family,” and tried to tell Green Day to make happier songs. Billie actually sent a letter back. Without further ado, letters’ text transcripts, complete with typos directly from the source material:

MOM’S:

“To whom it may concern,

I am a parent, and I am very disturbed by the cassette tape my 8 year old son was listening to. His 66 year old grandmother bought it for him as a birthday present and was totally unaware of its explicit content. The store in which she bought it did not have any ticket or color on it to warn parents of the contents within. A issue I plan to pursue with the right people.

Isn’t it possible to make music anymore? That tape is not something any singer/songwriter should take any pride in at all. It is horrifying and has to be one of the worst interpretations of an “artform” I have ever had the misfortune to hear. I know it is possible for the group to make ‘good music’ because I have heard them sing before. For example, the song entitled ‘When I Come Around’ is one of my son’s favorites. It is a song that he and his Dad sang together whenever it was on MTV or when they were driving in the car together.

Unfortunately, one doesn’t have to sing trash to have a following. And if that creates a following one would do well to wonder what type of people he wants following him! This may do nothing to change the type of music performed or change your views on the art of making music but it helps me to know one less family who will be buying this rubbish and I have a big mouth so I’ll make everyone I know aware. That tape is trash, as you can plainly see, and you’ll find it enclosed.

Why don’t you do something positive and clean up your act!!!! Isn’t there enough garbage in the world? All the thoughts you are helping to put in the minds of our youth is scary. You have so much influence why not use it for something GOOD?

Signed, *censored*”

Oh my God. Where do I begin with this? Obviously the fact that your pseudo-intellectual stew is so thick that you can’t see your hand three inches in front of your face has something to do with the fact that you can’t appreciate music for what it is: self-expression. So what do you want Green Day to do, change the way they view the world and its people? Change the mistakes they made in the past, or how they represent them in music?
Obviously, you are a pop fan, so what would you do if I told you that almost everything the Beatles did was inspired by LSD? Have you taken into account the lyrical tendencies of the Doors? How about the sexual, hard-edged rock of Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Kinks, etc.?

The fact is, you can’t deal with the fact that maybe your kid will be exposed to stuff he’s not conveniently prepared for, but that’s part of being a parent! You can’t just shelter your kid from everything, he’ll grow to resent you. Of course there are limits, but I think the parameter of listening to music falls within those limits.

It all boils down to the fact that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of what will happen if your kid, by some awful stretch of the imagination, isn’t exactly like you, living the safe, conservative life of your everyday suburbanite. God forbid.

I find it amusing how you obviously consider yourself so smart, but fail to finish your first paragraph correctly. “A issue”?! How about “An issue”?

Whatever, my words are obviously wasted on some over-protective mom. Go back to shielding your kids from any hint of mature themes, or anything that makes them think, because that would insult your intelligence. Don’t forget to bring cookies to the neighborhood watch, campaign against the construction of that nearby skate park in typical “Not in my backyard” fashion, sign a petition banning gays and minorities from your neighborhood, and oh yeah, “F.O.D.”, you stupid sheep.

Luckily for the rest of us, Billie actually wrote back in typical snide and sarcastic Green Day fashion. Here’s what he had to say:

“I just received your letter and this is my response.

I don’t write music for parents, grandparents, or eight year olds. I write music for myself and I’ll say anything I damn well please. That’s the difference between you and me… I do what I want, you do what you’re told.

Obviously we’re not on the same planet, let alone the same ballpark. I find people like you offensive and it ‘helps me’ to know you won’t be buying anymore of our records. Next time I suggest you do a bit of research before you purchase such ‘rubbish’ for your little boy. It might save you a few extra bucks.

Billie Joe and the rest of Green Day

P.S.

You’re right about one thing… you do have a big mouth.”

Well said, Billie.

The next track, the inexplicably hardcore punk “Take Back” is another highlight. By far is it strange, with Billie growling low and fast in the microphone and even pulling off some grindcore vocals in the chorus. It’s a very interesting song, and I enjoy it, although others more used to Green Day’s family friendly pop like “21 Guns” will be put off by it.

Next up is the undeniably fun and catchy “King for a Day,” which is about a drag queen of all things. Yes, it has ska horns. Yes it has a catchy chorus. Yes it is amazing live. This song rules.

 

Released December 23th, 1997

Of course now we have “Good Riddance,” the acoustic song at the tail end of the record. Most people regard it as a ballad and think that it is sugary sweet, when actually it’s more of a “screw you” song, despite its rather ironic use of acoustic guitar. You’ve heard this song. Listen to it. It’s goooood.

Now, it was a risky move, but Green Day decided not to end the album with “Good Riddance,” opting to put the song “Prosthetic Head” last. “Prosthetic Head” has electric guitar. It features Billie’s signature snotty vocals yammering about Hollywood fakes and people trying too hard to impress others. It’s classic Green Day. Of course, almost no one wants to listen to this straight after “Good Riddance,” but taken as a song on its own merit, it’s quite an impressive track. Very catchy with smart lyrics.

So that’s Nimrod. While I can’t exactly say this record is a big winner like Green Day’s earlier material, it’s certainly good, and features future Green Day classics and live staples like “Hitchin’ a Ride.” It also sets up the alternative pop music and experimental tone of Green Day’s most controversial album, Warning. So, yes, you should listen to it, but be wary of too much pop.

Stay tuned in, I’m Milo “Mix-Tape” Caulfield, and I’m dropping out ’til next time.

 

Foot in Mouth/Bowling Bowling Parking Parking Review

In short, Green Day’s Insomniac tour, well, it sucked. Not to say the band didn’t put on great performances (demonstrated by this duo of live albums), but there was so much stress put on the band that they actually canceled most of the last leg of the tour, fearing the band would break up. So in the interim time of the lost tour, Green Day released a duology of live recordings. The first, Foot in Mouth, is a Japan-only release featuring performances from several dates on the Dookie and Insomniac tours, perfectly demonstrating the style of the band at the time.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

Tre Cool on drums

Released: April 26th, 1996 on Reprise Records

The cohesion of this album could be brought into much question, considering that most of the performances were recorded on a multitude of different dates, and the songs aren’t in chronological order.

The first song is a classic from 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, “Going to Pasalacqua.” The first thing you’ll probably notice is the crowd cheering. The next thing is probably the recording quality, which seems the right mix of professional and amateur, if that makes any sense (which it probably won’t). Meaning, you can hear the crowd cheering, but it perfectly accentuates the band playing and doesn’t overtake the sound. The song starts off with a unique little jam, and you hear Billie’s live voice, which is just as slurred and faux-accented as it is on the record. Unfortunately, by the time Bullet in a Bible comes out, Billie’s live voice will have mutated into something much different.

Next is “Welcome to Paradise,” which was recorded a year prior to the “Going to Pasalacqua” performance. The recording suffers a drop in quality, but the band appears jumpy and amiable as ever, despite Billie’s somewhat quavery voice. This one of the only live performances of the song not to feature the breakdown at the beginning, before they start the song proper. The audience and poor recording drown out most of the bass sound, but Billie does a cool little jam during the breakdown, so it’s all good.

Going back to the first show, we have a performance of “Geek Stink Breath.” Once again, the bass is barely audible, but that seems to be a problem plaguing the whole record, so we’ll let it go for now. Billie is much more on form here with the vocals, once again sounding exactly as on record, except for some parts where Mike spins the harmony out of tune. The guitar also seems to be suffering from a bit of feedback and sometimes Billie hits the wrong chord progression, but in this song, it’s charming when the live mistakes happen, because the band quickly recovers and the amateurish moments sort of add to the magic.

Going back to the location of “Welcome to Paradise,” is one of my favorites from Kerplunk! (then again, the whole record is my favorite), “One of my Lies.” Unfortunately, Green Day nearly butchers the song live. Billie’s quavering vocals sound nervous now and the guitar sounds almost intentionally sloppy. Thanks to cruddy recording and little effort, Mike’s bass is once again inaudible, and his back-up vocals sound rather bored and half-hearted. Tre is the only one to put much effort in the song, and he rocks, but with the recording putting much of the weight on Billie’s cruddy voice and his boring guitar, Tre is barely audible, which is a shame, because if you listen closely, this is some of his best drumming live.  Billie just seems like an irritated person in the recording, he even mucks up Tre’s fill/solo. The only redeemable quality of this one is Billie’s endearingly amateurish solo, which sounds great, but after he messed up Tre’s, it sounds like he’s just hogging the spotlight. Only listen to this one for the solo.

Now we go into an Insomniac highlight (“Stuck with Me”), and returning to the “Geek Stink Breath” location. So far it seems like Billie is more slurred and quavery and the band with less effort on the Dookie tour, which is strange, considering how stressful the Insomniac tour was. Anyway, this is from the Insomniac tour, and I don’t want this one screwed up like “One of my Lies.” And this one is a bit of a recovery, but still a bit of a screw-up. Billie’s voice is shaking once again, the guitar is incredibly loud and sloppy, and sometimes out of tune. Mike’s backup vocals once again suck, and near the beginning they attempt to highlight the bass, but after a while it fades into the background, overtaken by the massive sound of Tre’s cymbals, another unfortunate occurrence because you can’t hear his brilliant drumming over the crashing. Not even the brilliant bass solo can save this song as the guitar and cymbals drown it out.

Going back to the “Welcome to Paradise” place, I brace myself for the record to go downhill from here, becoming especially cautious when I find the next three tracks all take place in this location. I bite my lip, praying for a savior… and the first thing I hear is out-of-tune guitar with slight feedback playing the wrong chord progression for “Chump.” I /facedesk, but then Billie’s voice kicks in and I gasp. It’s nearly perfect. I can understand the words better here than on the album. And although Mike’s vocals are terrible and his bass is disappearing, and the guitar is sloppy, Tre’s drumming and Billie’s singing magnificently lift this album from mediocrity. When the bridge kicks in, there is a real effort to make Mike heard, although Tre’s drumming is still the real backbone. The song kicks it into overdrive at the end, with Billie jumping around wildly strumming his guitar and Tre drumming frenetically, so fast it seems like they’re on meth (quite a possibility).

Then the guitar fades out and a nice little drumbeat starts up, with Mike’s bass soon joining in. I bob my head happily, knowing confidently that Green Day has never performed a bad version of “Longview” live. Billie’s voice is once again great and the guitar is faster and more confident than on record, although Billie sounds like he stops singing midway through the second chorus. Unfortunately, Mike does not yell at Billie “What you will!” (in response to the line “Call me pathetic, call me what you will”– Mike says it on the album, but they tried to get rid of it so it just sounds like a cat meowing) like he has on other occasions, but as the song ends it’s still great, especially with the band just climaxing with Tre’s drumming because they can’t fade out live.

Then it kicks into Kerplunk! opener, “2000 Light Years Away,” which is STILL a crowd favorite. This song is all about Billie, so Mike and Tre are only audible during the bridge, until Billie does neat mini-solo. Some of his riffing seems off, but it’s mostly a good performance, and I’m just beaming at this album. How did it manage to go from dismal to amazing in one fell swoop?

Somehow, this album jumps from its two main show areas (Stockholm, Sweden for “Going to Pasalacqua,” etc. and Florida for “Longview” and its ilk) to Tokyo for a performance of “When I Come Around.” Billie’s vocals are excellent, and the bass is much more audible, thank you very much. This performance is great and the closest this album has got to staying close to the record while putting a live spin on it. Billie’s solo is nice and carries a certain charm around it. There’s none of that “letting the crowd” sing stuff either, although they are extremely audible while singing along at some points. The song ends with a big bang as well.

We head back to Florida for a performance of “Burnout.” This song is amazing, and although the bass has been relegated to inaudible status again, the guitar and drums more than make up for it, not to mention Billie’s perfect little sneer during the chorus (“I’m not growing up, I’m just burning out, and I’ve stepped in line to walk amongst the dead.”) Near the middle of the song, you can hear the tension and pulse pounding into your brain, and Tre pulls off four– count ‘em, four!– absolutely, purely, amazingly perfect solos. After the song ends, Billie shouts out “GUITAR SOLO!” and chugs out a fast riff that Dave Mustaine would be proud of.

After that, we head into Czechoslovakia, of all locations, for a performance of “F.O.D.” It’s an electric version of the song. ‘Nuff said. Sheer brilliance from all parties involved.

At the end of the day, I guess you can’t say that Foot in Mouth was exactly groundbreaking, and you can’t really say it’s very cohesive, and you can’t say every bit of it was flawless, and you can’t say it was everything you wanted from a live album. But you can say that it featured some great performances, and you can say it’s got some nice foreshadowing of the performances from New Green Day, and you can say that some performances were downright touching, as in the cases of “When I Come Around” and “F.O.D.” I guess, when it’s all said and done, it’s real and it’s been fun, but aside from some nit-picking, my only real gripe with this is that it doesn’t feature the requisite cover of Operation Ivy’s legendary “Knowledge.”

Here’s a live EP issued to keep up interest in the band. Like Foot in Mouth, it was mostly recorded on different dates, and it wasn’t released in American, for some reason. It was released in Europe, South America, and Japan. The Japanese version includes “Dominated Love Slave.”

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals, drums on “Dominated Love Slave”

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

Tre Cool on drums and backing vocals, guitar on “Dominated Love Slave”

Released: July 25th, 1996, on Reprise Records

Picking up on the band in Prague, they blast through a version of “Armatage Shanks,” or, as it says in Engrish (TM) on my CD, “Armatang Sharks.” It starts with a little jam from Billie, before Tre’s drums kick in and Mike’s back-up vocals pick up. It’s a very nice performance, and best of all, the bass is crystal clear, which, after the cruddy recording of Foot in Mouth, is a huge gulp of fresh air.

Staying in Prague, we hear Billie’s familiar (and now very, very tired) “Hey-ho!” routine, but thankfully that torture is brief and we head into the simplest song in the world, “Brain Stew.” The bass takes a backseat here, but that’s okay. The song is played surprisingly fast, and the “chorus” and climax of the song are very well done. I especially like Billie’s “hahahaha!” after the “The clock is laughing in my face” line. Of course, after a quick “1234!!!” it explodes into the fiery “Jaded,” and Mike’s bass is present once again, while Tre plays his drums so well I’m surprised his drumsticks haven’t broken yet.

Taking a detour from Prague, we return to one of the Foot in Mouth locations, Florida. Remember how angry I was with that record that Green Day’s cover of “Knowledge” wasn’t included? Well, I’m happy to amend that now, as the lost song from the Florida show is included here in all its splendor. The song is quite short here, none of that “We’re gonna start a band onstage” stuff that came later on, just straightforward, fun ska-punk with an amazing solo from Billie. Not to mention the excellent drumming and jazz-style bass present. Overall it’s just excellent. Who would have thought a cover would become one of Green Day’s best live songs?

Now we head to the “When I Come Around” show in Tokyo from Foot in Mouth, which features two songs. When the first song started up, after a moment of suspenseful feedback, everyone started singing along, and I actually got a warm feeling in my stomach. I really love this song. Even if the bass is hazy, even if the chords get messed up at times, even if there’s a big drum roll and guitar feedback moment at the end instead of a simple fadeout, there is absolutely no way I could hear “Basket Case”, on record or live, and not be happy and satisfied. It’s just that good.

The next Tokyo song is “She.” I don’t even need to say anything. The band takes an already amazing song and completely nails it live. Amazing bass, perfect drums, and just the right combination of endearingly naive guitar and snotty vocals make this song a great deadlock. I also adore Billie’s magnificent scream just before the solo in this song. Why is it the songs they perform in Tokyo are so much better than their others?

Now we head back to Prague (Bowling Bowling Bowling Parking Parking seems to share a consistency problem with Foot in Mouth) for a rendition of “Walking Contradiction.” The vocals are spot-on sarcastic and the drums are amazing. In fact, aside from Billie accidentally palm-muting here and there and Mike shockingly screwing up a few chords (I was incredibly surprised as well, although I guess I should just be thankful that I can hear the bass), there’s really nothing wrong.

Now here’s where most pressings of the EP would end, but in Japan, they included another song from the Tokyo show, a quick performance of Tre Cool’s opus “Dominated Love Slave.” I think it would have been better if they threw “All by Myself” in there as well, but whatever. It’s Tre Cool singing a funny love song, what more do you want?

I think the majority of you will agree that Green Day’s first live album outings, while at times amateurish and, in the case of Foot in Mouth, included some terrible filler tracks, really showcased a fun band with talent who were on the rise. Some songs, like “Basket Case,” were so perfect that the entire crowd was touched by them. Others, like “Knowledge,” invoked a feeling of being there with the band as they performed something magical. You can certainly say that Tre outdid the others in terms of pure musicianship, but you can also say that Mike put his heart and soul into most songs and that Billie really demonstrated skill with his guitar and charisma with his vocals. At times the band were one with the crowd. Altogether, these are great songs performed very well live, and you really can’t say that Green Day were a bunch of Nimrods when it came to putting out live, can you? Hahaha, oooh, I need to hire better writers.

Insomniac Review

After the multi-million selling Dookie, Green Day was living the high life while still being low-lives. Although now they had put out the defining punk rock album of the 90s and gotten an entire new generation of fans, their earlier fans from the 924 Gilman Street scene in Berkeley had rejected them entirely. They called them “corporate sellouts” and Green Day was nearly assaulted by several “true punk rockers” all over the country on their Dookie tour. And due to the fact that they were on a major label, the Gilman Street’s stigma of “no corporations” banned them from playing at the Gilman, where they first broke out in the underground.

Add to this that the commercial success of Dookie was met with high-and-mighty reviews from old curmudgeons who thought that punk died with Sid Vicious in 1979 and Green Day was just stupid and derivative, you have a very unhappy band, and this album shows it. The lyrics were much darker and the instruments were played heavier and faster. Overall, this album is much harder and more vicious, lyrically and musically, than anything the group had put out up until that point, and because of this, it didn’t sell as well as Dookie, although it is still the group’s third-highest selling album, after Dookie and (insert disdainful sneer here) American Idiot.

In early 1995, Green Day released the single “J.A.R.”  for the Angus soundtrack, which immediately rocketed to number one, although in the end the song did not make it on the album, which immediately followed in the fall, and was met with much warmer critical praise than Dookie and high album sales.

The record was actually originally supposed to be called Tight Wad Hill after the thirteenth track, but when Winston Smith completed the cover art in a short time, the band asked him how he did it and he replied, “It was easy for me, I’m an insomniac.”

Speaking of the cover art, you must have noticed that Green Day ditched the cartoons in favor of a collage. Winston Smith, the cover artist, was a friend of Tre Cool’s from the Gilman scene, told the band to call him if they ever needed cover art. The result is a collage full of subliminal images like three skulls representing each member of the band, a naked woman, three fairies, and several ghostly faces in the flames. The collage on Green Day’s cover is slightly different from the original, featuring Billie Joe’s guitar “Blue” instead of an acoustic. The collage is called God Told Me to Skin You Alive, named after a quote from the Dead Kennedys’ song, “I Kill Children.” Funnily enough, the dentist on the cover is from a collage on the art of the Dead Kennedys’ album, Plastic Surgery Disasters.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

Tre Cool on drums

Released: October 10th, 1995 on Reprise Records

The album kicks off with the furious “Armatage Shanks,” which, although fast and brutal, has kind of a soft side to it. It’s about panic and doubt, how the narrator “doesn’t trust anyone.” At this point, I guess you’re pretty much taking paranoia and self-doubt and turning it into an ideology. It’s no surprise that Billie Joe Armstrong was contemplating suicide while writing it, just after a break-up with his raving punk rocker of a girlfriend who dumped him and moved to Ecuador, saying she couldn’t abide him being on a major label. Anyway, it’s a good song, and a fitting opener for Insomniac.

The next song is the vicious “Brat”, which is about a nasty kid sitting around waiting for his parents to die so he can get his inheritance. The song is basically criticizing people who are born with a free ride to a rich life and don’t have to work all the time to pay their rent. Another good song for Green Day, but a bit too angry and stereotypical to be anything other than an average punk song.

Here we head into an album high point, one of the singles:

Released December 27th, 1995

“Stuck with Me” was originally a different song, but in a studio mix-up the name got switched to this song, but the band felt that this title was more appropriate for it. As for the other song? They gave it the nonsense title of “Do Da Da.” We’ll see it later on Shenanigans. Anyway, this song is about being too much of a push-over to stand up for yourself, although it does have some undertones of not fitting in, and being called a useless slacker so much that even you start to believe it. It’s a nice fast track, and Mike gets a great bass solo. Definitely a standout. However, the next track pretty much passes this by with no effort.

Released September 25th, 1995

This song is definitely the album highlight, and blows almost the entire rest of the album out of the water. The lyrics describe the effects of methamphetamine on Billie Joe, who was really heavy on speed at the time, because apparently he “wanted to go faster.” The lyrics themselves are very sarcastic and hateful in nature, featuring such lines as “wish in one hand, and s— in the other, see which one gets filled first” (remarkably, that one got by the censors when Green Day performed it on Saturday Night Live because they couldn’t understand what they were saying. Closed caption called it “unintelligible lyrics.”). “Geek Stink Breath” rightly became a fan favorite and is played live very often. This is definitely another example of Green Day putting their best track in the 4 spot, just like they did with “Longview” on Dookie.

The next song is “No Pride,” a very fun little ditty about having to swallow your pride if you don’t want to fall behind in life.

Then comes the song, “Babs’ Uvula Who?” Disregarding the inane title, you’ll find the song is incredibly fast-paced. You’ll be lucky to understand what Billie says even if you do read the lyrics, considering how fast and slurred the words are. Basically, it’s describing hyperactivity, bursts of rage, loss of control, anxiety, and panic attacks. It’s a song with incredibly dark lyrics, but so fun you kind of forget what you’re listening to. You’ll notice there’s no chorus to speak of, but that just adds to the fast and to-the-point rage and panic tone of the song.

The next song is “86,” which contains some great harmonizing and a dark chorus chant of “There’s no return from 86…” The song describes the band’s alienation from their original fanbase at Gilman, and despite idiots saying the lyrics make no sense, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. A great punk track that leaves you saying, “Man, 86 sure is a cool number.” Plus there’s a cool bass solo in the middle.

The next song is probably the second-best on the album behind “Geek Stink Breath.” It’s called “Panic Song,” and it’s the only song on the entire album (besides “Brain Stew”) that’s more than 3 minutes long. It was written by both Billie and Mike. The first half is an instrumental. There is some insanely fast tremolo bass playing from Mike, later joined by a fast, “Longview”-esque drum roll. Then the guitar kicks in, adding some much-needed melody over the fast rhythm behind it (in fact, some of the melody reminds me of “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground). You can slowly begin to see the song build and build and build to something amazing. The tension is increasing exponentially and you want the song to put you out of your misery and go BANG! Then the guitar shreds down the fretboard and Billie sings… which kills the entire build-up, leaving you feel almost disappointed at first but it luckily fires straight into a fast punk rock tune about isolation and paranoia. It almost feels like they should have made this a transitional and made the instrumental “Panic Song” into a separate entity from the vocal element, although both parts are good in their own right. They just don’t fit well together.

We then fire into the highly underrated “Stuart and the Ave.” It’s sort of a love song, but it’s more about guy realizing he doesn’t love a girl as much as he thought he did. It’s a very good song, and more Green Day “fans” should listen to it. It’s got some great bass, by the way.

Released July 3rd, 1996

The next two songs are transitional, meaning “Brain Stew” bleeds into “Jaded” without stopping the music. Green Day has done this before, with “Chump” and “Longview” on Dookie. However, while “Longview” was released as its own separate single, Green Day packaged “Brain Stew” and “Jaded” together as one single, although the alternative metal “Brain Stew” was definitely more of an alt radio staple than “Jaded” was, probably because most alt radio is just as mainstream as pop radio and “Jaded” is too fast and punk… ahem, sorry, lost my cool for a second. Anyway, “Brain Stew” is probably the easiest song you’ll ever learn. It’s just five power chords. Over and over again. With some scratchy sounds thrown in and a drum playing the same note over and over and over. The bass plays the exact same thing as the guitar. However, despite its easiness to play (it’s the reason people say “anyone can be Green Day,” although I usually direct them to 1,039 and Kerplunk! for great guitar work, and of course Mike and Tre are always brilliant, although no one seems to notice them), Billie Joe’s voice carries the song very well. The song is about the insomnia caused by meth use. It leads into the fiery, cynical “Jaded,” similar to a day filled with adrenaline after not being able to sleep at night. It’s great play-as-fast-as-you-can song that describes in a sarcastic manner both the narrator’s distress with his mundane job and the advancement of the human race, how life is so fast we won’t be able to make any choices in time. The song has a great punk rock chorus: “Always move ‘forward,’ going straight will get you nowhere/There is no progress, evolution killed it all/I’ve found my place in nowhere.”

The next two songs are where the album reaches the home stretch. “Westbound Sign” is another typical punk rock track, nothing special musically, but the lyrics are what make this one. They describe a girl who has made a big decision to move from her crappy town to the big city, although she is faced with doubt and contradictions, like whether she really wants to go there or if she’s just trying to escape from where she was… but it’s too late, she’s leaving…

The next song is “Tight Wad Hill,” the original name of the album. Musically, it’s like saying, “Let’s take ‘Westbound Sign’, change the three chords up a bit and play it slightly faster,” but lyrically is very different. Like most songs on Insomniac, the lyrics are where it’s at, what makes the song. This song is all about a real “Tight Wad Hill” in Crockett, California where people would gather to sell drugs and/or get high, which may sound like fun, but nowadays the band is glaring at the location with malcontent, sarcasm, and bitter hatred, hating that place for nearly ruining their lives, and hating themselves for leading that kind of life, because we all know how junkies end up in the end– lost, lonely, pathetic, and pitiful. It’s another nice punk rock track and a lyrical achievement.

Now we’re on the last track of the album, which is, interestingly enough, a single. When was the last time you saw an album that ended with a single?

Released August 20th, 1996

This track is, once again, nothing special musically, but it’s the lyrics you’ll want to pay attention to. They’re clever, sarcastic metaphors for selling out, a reaction their Gilman Street peers dumping them off, similar to “86.” You can listen closely to hear Tre and Mike being their old awesome selves on drums and bass, respectively, but you’ll be sucked in by Billie’s sneering, sarcastic voice giving you his wildly contradictory opinions. Green Day is now a punk rock band on a major label: effectively a “walking contradiction.”

So that’s Insomniac. Although it sold well upon its release, most people see it as Dookie 2: Harder, Faster, Darker, and overlook it completely, which is sad, considering this album is severely underrated. The only real hit was “Brain Stew,” although “Geek Stink Breath” later became a fan favorite. This is probably my second favorite Green Day album after Kerplunk! so check it out now. This gets a heavy recommendation from me.

Green Day at Woodstock ’94 Overview

This is pretty much just kind of intermission between Dookie and Insomniac to let you know the state of the band at the time.

After Dookie, Green Day were pretty much mega-stars. They won a Grammy for “Best Alternative Performance.” Younger and younger kids were coming to their shows (although I doubt many of them saw the subtle humor and societal critiques of songs like “Longview”.) and they were almost constantly touring.

Green Day decided that they finally had enough alt rock cred to land a few gigs on Lollapalooza, although since many of these “alternative rock fans” (aka indie snobs) saw Green Day as major label tools for “the man,” completely ignoring how hard they worked to build their fanbase in Berkeley, Green Day only played a few dates, and ditched one to play at the Woodstock ’94 reunion (which should have been enough reunions, lest we forget Woodstock ’99).

Basically, the played 9 songs which began with a bunch of kids singing along, and ended with complete, muddy anarchy.

Things kicked off with a short version of “Welcome to Paradise” which only featured the breakdown, the bass solo, and the last verse. Then they blasted through “One of my Lies” (Billie remarked it was from Kerplunk!, which connected with Dookie, because “You take a dookie and it kerplunks in the toilet.”) before going into the half-song, half-instrumental destruction that is “Chump,” which led into “Longview.” At around this time, the rain was coming down terrifyingly hard and people were getting restless, and a few fans tossed mud at the band. Green Day happily reciprocated, catcalling and shouting out quips, before heading into the massive sing-along “Basket Case.”

After that, they launched into the fan favorite “When I Come Around,” with Billie doing the first verse solo until Mike and Tre kicked in during the pre-chorus.

They then performed a song “dedicated to all the hippies from the original Woodstock,” the energetic “Burnout.”

By now, the crowd was glaring at the band with a little bit of amusement as well as some hate for forcing them to sit in the rain and kept tossing mud at the band, which they tossed back and played with. “You guys are just mad because it’s raining,” sneered Billie, “well f— you!” before he jumped into a distorted rendition of “F.O.D.”

As Green Day descended into “Paper Lanterns,” the crowd pretty much turned into a riot and swarmed the stage in mud, and eventually Green Day abandoned the song and just got into the mud fight. The stage was so covered in mud that a security guard mistook Mike for a fan and tackled him off the stage, breaking a few of his teeth. Upon discovering his stupid mistake, the guard said something along the lines of, “Woo! Rock and roll! This sure is fun, man!”

Eventually, Billie said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “You guys don’t want us anymore? Bye.”

After Green Day left, the crazy fans kept fighting in the mud, giving Woodstock ’94 the nickname “Mudstock.”

I wonder if Woodstock ’99 should have been called “Riotstock.” (cue booing)

Dookie Review

Well, here we are. The magnum opus. This was Green Day’s breakthrough album, Dookie.

Back when Green Day signed with Lookout!, there was one big rule that everybody on the Berkeley scene adhered to: NO CORPORATIONS. So when Green Day outgrew the distribution capacity of Lookout!, and the success of Nirvana’s Nevermind combined, it sent hungry record executives sniffing into the caverns of indie rock and punk for the next Nirvana, Green Day held fast to the rule, until eventually the indie Lookout! decided they couldn’t keep distributing Green Day’s stuff. The band finally found an A&R guy they could work with, Rob Cavallo, who ended up producing all their official studio albums up to Warning.

Unfortunately, their original fans at the 924 Gilman Street scene saw them as corporate sell-outs. This was touched upon in their next record, but Green Day were focused completely on the music at the moment.

Green Day had already written all the songs, they just had to play them. They wanted the production to be dry, similar in sound to the Sex Pistols’ Nevermind the Bollocks or the first Black Sabbath albums.

Two early Green Day song, “409 in Your Coffeemaker” and “Welcome to Paradise” were re-recorded and remixed for this album, although the band ultimately decided that “Welcome to Paradise” was a better fit for the album and “409″ didn’t make the cut.

When everything was done being recorded, the only thing left to come up with was a name. Green Day originally meant to call it Liquid Dookie because of the diarrhea they got from eating spoiled food on tour, but then thought it was too gross, so they ended up just calling it Dookie instead.

The cover art is a cartoon by Richie Bucher, of bombs being dropped and the band’s name in the middle of the explosion.

Billie Joe Armstrong explains the artwork thus: “I wanted the art work to look really different. I wanted it to represent the East Bay and where we come from, because there’s a lot of artists in the East Bay scene that are just as important as the music. So we talked to Richie Bucher. He did a 7-inch cover for this band called Raooul that I really liked. He’s also been playing in bands in the East Bay for years. There’s pieces of us buried on the album cover. There’s one guy with his camera up in the air taking a picture with a beard. He took pictures of bands every weekend at Gilman’s. The robed character that looks like the Mona Lisa is the woman on the cover of the first Black Sabbath album. Angus Young is in there somewhere too. The graffiti reading “Twisted Dog Sisters” refers to these two girls from Berkeley. I think the guy saying “The fritter, fat boy” was a reference to a local cop.”

On early copies of the CD, the back cover had a little picture of Ernie from Sesame Street, but was removed due to fear of litigation.

Green Day later went on a tour in support of the album, appearing at Lollapalooza and Woodstock ’94 (where they started the infamous mud fight), and a performance of “She” at Madison Square Garden where Billie Joe played naked.

Billie eventually got homesick because his wife, Adrienne, had gotten pregnant a little after Dookie was released, and Billie was a little guilty for not being able to care for her. The strain, after a few albums, temporarily broke the band up.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals, percussion on “All by Myself”

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

Tre Cool on drums and backing vocals, guitar and vocals on “All by Myself”

Released: February 1st, 1994

The album opens strongly with “Burnout” and “Having a Blast”, two fast punk songs with exceptional drumming courtesy of Tre Cool.

Next up is “Chump,” which is pretty much a love-sick punk song like Green Day’s earlier material, and focuses around one of Billie’s ex-girlfriends (what a surprise), until about the middle of the song, where it turns into an instrumental. Mike Dirnt shows off some amazing bass skills, a trend that continues through this album. After the instrumental riot of “Chump,” we discover it transitions into the first single.

 

Released February 1st, 1994

“Longview” is a bit of a depressing song about hanging around the house, doing absolutely nothing, smoking weed, and all-around being bored. Apparently, the brilliant bass line was written by Mike Dirnt while on acid, and he couldn’t remember the whole thing when they recorded the song, just what he remembered. This song was pretty much what broke Green Day out. Everyone knows this song. Surprisingly, Green Day still plays it live.

The next song is another single.

 

Released October 4th, 1994

This song, “Welcome to Paradise,” is a re-recording of the Kerplunk! song. It’s about the band members moving out of their parents’ house and living with punk rockers and other such people in a run-down shack without paying rent. Eventually, the slum begins to feel like home.

The next song, the rather hook-filled “Pulling Teeth” was inspired by a peculiar incident when Mike Dirnt ended breaking both his elbows while having a pillow fight with his girlfriend. This song is about a man surrendering himself and his love to his girlfriend because he’s afraid of being hurt, although, of course, it comes off in a humorous manner. Although Mike and Billie sing in harmony the entire song, Billie does get a guitar solo in the middle of all this, and it would be his last true solo for a while.

The next song is yet another single.

 

Released November 29th, 1994

EVERYONE knows this song. This is actually probably Green Day’s most popular song. Whenever they play it live (usually right after finishing up “Knowledge”), Billie doesn’t even sing until the second verse, the crowd does it for him. This is a fast-paced punk rock song about Billie Joe’s anxiety and panic disorder. At the time he wrote it, he didn’t know what was going on, he just thought he was going crazy. The only way he could deal with it was to write an AWESOME song about it. If you haven’t heard this, you must not live on this planet or you were just born. Either way, listen to it!

This next song was released on the album, but also as a radio-only single.

 

Released April or May 1995 as a promo CD

This song is about trying to be a non-conformist but at the same time shackled by the need to fit in. One of Billie Joe’s girlfriends showed him a feminist poem called “She,” and Billie responded by showing her the lyrics to this song. She dumped him and moved to Ecuador later, prompting him to put this song on the album. This girlfriend is the same subject of “Sassafras Roots,” “Chump,” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”

The next song is “Sassafras Roots,” and it’s basically a roundabout way of asking if you can keep someone company: “When I’m a waste like you, with nothing else to do, may I waste your time too?”

This is followed by the last single (finally):

 

Released January 31st, 1995

Another song that everyone knows. It’s just a bittersweet ballad with distortion, really, inspired by a fight Billie had with his wife Adrienne, where he stalked off to be alone. It’s just saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon, just wait for when I come around!”

The next song, “Coming Clean,” is a breakneck punk song about the issue of coming out of the closet as a teenager, which was based off of Billie Joe coming to terms with his bisexuality as a teen. He thought the persecution of someone over their sexual orientation was disturbing and wrote the song as sort of consolation for people going through the same problem. The song was later covered by Jello Biafra with Pansy Division.

“Emenius Sleepus” is all about musicianship. Mike co-wrote it with Billie, and it’s another fast punk rock track, with AMAZING drumming from Tre Cool. That boy has got real talent with the sticks. And people have the nerve to say Travis Barker is better?

Then we go back to Billie’s lyrics with “In the End,” a song about his distaste of his mother’s new boyfriend, similar to “Why Do You Want Him?”, except this time it’s more about his anger with his mother than his disdain of the boyfriend. He’s basically telling her, “You want someone to hang out and look good with? So you can betray me? Fine, but I’d better not see you pop up again and try to be my ‘special friend’ in the end, because I know that’s a lie.”

Now we’re finally at the end of the album. The last track is “F.O.D.” It starts off nice and acoustic, a very soft, relaxing track compared to the other songs, trying to give you a breather. But then, just when you think the song is ending, you think, “Wait! It’s not over, F.O.D. stands for F— OFF AND DIE!” but then it’s too late, the bellowing distortion wails you away. This is a great track about the two stages of a hateful relationship. Part one is when you suffer quietly, part two is when you scream and let it all out.

After “F.O.D.” ends, stick around for a few more minutes to hear a funny little Tre Cool song, “All by Myself”. It’s about a relationship that’s a bit TOO obsessive.

And that’s Green Day’s album Dookie. DEFINITELY check it out, it’s yet another winner from this group. Although not as good as Kerplunk!, it gives it the good ol’ college try. This is Green Day’s best-selling album of all time, their most popular, and their best in the eyes of many. Obviously that means it’s worth a shot!

Unfortunately, the older, “punker-than-thou” fans and the “derivative wannabe” drivel-spewing critics did put a damper on Green Day’s parade. Their next album, Insomniac, would prove to be one of their hardest lyrically and musically…

Kerplunk! Review

Today, I’m reviewing the album that really broke Green Day into the underground mainstream (contradiction?), Kerplunk!.
This was their last album on an independent label, and it was the first to feature Tre Cool on drums, who is still their drummer today.
The album was one of Lookout!’s best-selling releases, and surprisingly, there were more people singing along to Green Day’s songs than their albums were getting to (but we’ll get to THAT later).
One good thing about getting this on CD or cassette was that it included the 4 tracks from their last EP (Sweet Children, which was, incidentally the name of the embryonic stage of the band, which included Billie on vocals, Mike on guitar, “Al Sobrante” on drums and some Sean Hughes guy on bass, and the EP was the only material until Dookie not to be released on Lookout!, being released on the Minneapolis-based indie Skene! Records imprint).
This album got pulled from Lookout!’s catalog after royalty disputes in 2005, and Reprise Records has reissued it twice, once on CD on January 9, 2007 and once on vinyl on March 24th, 2009. The vinyl reissue also includes a copy of the original Sweet Children EP.
Now onto the liner notes and inlay of the actual album, which I think is interesting enough to warrant it being here. Well, actually, not really all of them, but in particular the story of Laurie L. (a tribute to Lawrence Livermore, who, I think, wrote the story if I’m correct). It was originally published in the Tales of Blarg! fanzine and later reprinted for the insert of the CD. A little while later, I guess Green Day didn’t really like the story there, but we can’t really do anything about that now. Anyway, in my opinion, the story is a classic, and I’m printing it here so people can see just how great and funny it is. Lookout!, Reprise, or Green Day, if you’re reading this, I’m not making any money off of it, and additionally, I’m sorry if it offends anyone, although I think it’s just some hilarious dark comedy.
“My Adventure With Green Day
by Laurie L.
Dear Diary,
I still can’t believe it!!! Me, Laurie L., the plainest, most boring girl at Pinole Valley High School, the girl that all the boys bark at when I walk by, the girl whose mother wouldn’t even let her go to a New Kids On The Block concert because “there’s often a bad element at those rock concerts, dear,” I got to go on a four day tour with my total heartthrobs, GREEN DAY!!!!
Little did I know that when I entered that “Win A Dream Date With Green Day” contest in Tiger Beat magazine (my lame-o brother calls it Puberty Beat, but what does he know, he’s probably a homo anyway) that I, out of all the millions of Green Day fans in America would get picked! The day that letter arrived was the happiest day of my life. But before I could get too excited, I realized I had a biiig problem…. my parents!!
I knew they’d never let me go off with a rock band for even one night, let alone four days! So for once I decided not to put up with their crap. I wasn’t sure what to do, so at school the next day I went around to all the weirdos and asked them what would THEY do? See, I figure people who have blue Mohawks and only come to school when they feel like it and make these home magazines with weird names like Flipside and Bomp! must have figured out a way to handle their parents.
So I went to this guy Eggplant (boy, I feel sorry for him, his parents must have really hated him to name him something like that), and he looked at me like, “You really want to go on tour with Green Day?” And I said, “Oh yeah, I’d DIE to go on tour with Green Day.”
He looked at me kind of funny and said, “Yeah, but would you KILL?” I thought he was joking, but I wasn’t sure. Then I looked at his beady little eyes piercing deep into my soul and I KNEW he wasn’t. I thought, hmmm, why not, you only go around once, might as well go for it, blah blah, blah… So I said, all kind of hoarse and everything, “Yeah, I guess I would….” And he said, “Then the one you should talk to is Claude.”
Omigod!!! Even I had heard of Claude. He’s so evil that he’s practically…SATANIC!!! He dropped out of school in eighth grade and all he ever does is take drugs and read weird books and molest little girls. I was always afraid to even look at him. But I’d gone too far to stop now. After school instead of going home I went to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley where all the scummy people hang out, and sure enough, there was Claude. He looked all perverted and he was smoking cigarettes and all these girls were standing around him like they wanted him to do bad stuff to them.

But they got out of the way when they saw me coming, and Claude wasn’t mean or dirty or anything. He was actually kind of nice. He said, “My friend Eggplant tells me you have a problem.”

I said, “Two problems, actually. Two really big ones.”

“Parents, huh? This ought to take care of them.”
He handed me a brown bottle it was full of pills. “How many of these should I take?” I asked him. He laughed, kind of heh-heh like. “No, you don’t take them, THEY do. Your parents.”
“Oh no,” I said, “my parents wouldn’t take drugs. They’re Christian Scientists.”
“You look like a smart little girl. I’ll bet you can figure something
out.”
And you know what, he was right, I DID. That night I offered to help my mother with dinner. Then, when she wasn’t looking I emptied all of Claude’s capsules into the mashed potatoes. Then I said I didn’t feel like eating, and went upstairs and listened to all my Green Day records five or six times. After a while I stuck my head out the door. “Yuck!” I heard my father saying. “These are the worst mashed potatoes I ever tasted in my life!”
“Then cook your own g—— dinner, you lazy scumbag. I’m not your slave.” I was surprised, my mother didn’t usually swear.
My dad said, “I’m not going to eat these, they taste like s—.”
But my mother yelled at him, “You eat those potatoes or I’ll dump them over your head and shove the dish up your a–.”
“Shhh” he said, “Laurie will hear you.”
“She’s asleep, the stupid little b—-. I swear, I don’t know how my daughter could be such an idiot. I bet the babies got switched at the hospital.”
“Now, now, she’s just a little bit slow.”
“Yeah, and I wonder who she got it from. Are you going to eat those potatoes?”
My dad always does what mom tells him. I even heard him scraping the bowl. After a while I heard a clunk and a crash and then the whole dining room table fell over. I went downstairs and they were both flopped out on the floor, like totally dead. It was pretty weird.
I realized that I’d better do something before my brother came home, because I didn’t have enough pills to get rid of him, too. Luckily we have a brand new garbage disposal, so I took a butcher knife and cut mom and dad into pieces and put them down the garbage. It took a long time and it was kind of messy, but I kept singing all my favorite Green Day songs, and it made the work easier.
The only trouble was, the bones wouldn’t go down the garbage disposal, and now I was getting nervous, because my brother would be home any minute. Then I got an idea. I gathered up all the bones and carried them out into the backyard and threw them over the fence to our neighbor’s pit bull. He was so happy he didn’t even bark at me.
Then my brother came home. “Where’s mom and dad?” he asked.
“Uh, they went away. To… uh… Utah!”
“Utah! Why would they go there?”
“Uh, I think they decided to become Mormons or something.”
He looked at me kind of weird and went upstairs to watch TV. I went in my room and started packing my bags.
The next morning, I was at the airport. My own private jet waiting for me there, and you know what, it was all painted GREEN, and on the side it said, “WELCOME ABOARD LAURIE L., GREEN DAY TOUR ‘90.” So I went on the plane, and I was the only passenger! And all the stewardesses just waited on me! And we listened to Green Day records all the way to Arizona, where the tour was going to start.
When I got there, there was a limo, a GREEN limo, of course, waiting for me, and this guy in a top hat opened the door for me, and when I got in the back seat THERE THEY WERE! All three of them, Billie Joe, Mike , and Tre!!! I was so excited I didn’t even know where to sit. I mean, I didn’t know which one I wanted to sit next to first.
So I sat in between Billie Joe and Tre and they both started talking to me, and I didn’t know which one I liked best cause they were both so nice, but then I decided I liked Billie Joe better because Tre kept singing these rap songs that had a lot of bad words in them. In fact, I was surprised that they let him be in the band, because I didn’t think Green Day ever said swear words. Well, they did on that one song, “Knowledge,” but that’s only because it was written by that other band, Operation Ivy, who I heard were a bunch of punk rockers.
Then we went to a show at this place called “Hippycore” and there were all these people with long hair standing around eating vegetables and stuff. It was kind of icky. But the worst thing was when I found out that some OTHER bands were going to play, too. I got really mad and said, “Why can’t Green Day just play for three hours. Why do you have to have these other stupid bands?”
Everybody told me to be quiet, that the other bands were good too. But they weren’t. I mean they weren’t Green Day. They didn’t even have any songs I could sing along to. So I kept yelling, “BOOOOO! You’re terrible! We want Green Day!!” until some punker girl told me to shut up or she would rearrange my face with her bottle opener.
I wondered if she was just trying to be friendly, then I decided she wasn’t, so I went outside to wait for my heroes. But when they finally played, it was worth everything. Billie sang every one of my favorite songs, and then, right in the middle of “Disappearing Boy,” he stopped and said, “I’d like to dedicate this song to our special friend Laurie L., who came down from Pinole to be with us here today. She’s just so beautiful and nice, gosh, I know if she was my girlfriend, I’d never disappear again.”
That’s when I fainted. When I woke up, the show was over and they were packing up the equipment.
I said, “Billie Joe, did you really mean what you said on stage?”
And he looked at me all sincere, and said, “You know it, babe, but our love can never be, because I already belong to another. Besides, you’re too young and innocent for the life of a rock and roll wife. Take my advice, go back to Pinole and finish high school, and some day you’ll make some lucky man very happy.”
“But Billie, I’d do anything to be with you. I already did! I killed my parents just so I could be with you here tonight!!!”
He laughed and said, “Really? Killed your parents, huh? That’s pretty cool.”
Then we all got in the Green Day tour bus to drive to Los Angeles. I was pretty excited because I never was in Hollywood before. I had a map of all the movie stars’ houses and everything. But we didn’t see any movie stars, just a bunch of boys with big hairdos and women that Tre said were prostitutes. I never know whether to believe him or not, he’s kind of mean, you know. I’m starting to think that maybe he’s my least favorite member of Green Day, because he kept singing that horrible Ice Cube song that goes “B——killa, b—–killa.” Besides, when I asked him for his autograph, he said I had to talk to his agent, and when I asked who his agent was, he started to unzip his pants.
So I screamed and Billie and Mike told Tre to behave and he did after that, even thought I said I thought they should tie him up or something until the next show, but Mike said a lot of drummers are like that, their brains just get rattled around too much from all that pounding. Then you know what? I saw Billie and Mike drinking out of BEER BOTTLES!!
I was shocked, because they’re not even 21, in fact they’re only 18, so I asked them what was the big idea, but Billie took me aside and whispered, “Listen, you’ve got to keep this a secret, but there isn’t really beer in these bottles.”
“There isn’t?” I asked.
“No, it’s really milk. Everybody in Green Day likes milk best of all, but the thing is, we drink it out of beer bottles because if we don’t people will make fun of us and say we’re sissies.”
Then I understood, and I felt so sorry for the boys. Peer pressure is such a terrible thing. At the show in Hollywood I even got to stay backstage and everything, but just when the boys were getting ready to play there was a knock on the dressing room. “It must be our deli tray,” everyone said, but it wasn’t, it was the POLICE! Omigod!! I jumped in front of the officers and said, “Wait, don’t arrest Green Day, it’s not beer in those bottles, it’s really just milk!”
He looked at me and said, “Is it now? And your name wouldn’t happen to be Laurie, would it, little lady?”
And I said, “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“Then we’ll have to ask you to come with us.”
“What do you mean,” I screamed. “Are you crazy? Green Day are going to start playing any minute now!”
But he said, “Sorry, it can’t be helped,” and they took me in the back of the police car and handcuffed me and everything, and then I thought, oh god, I wonder if this has anything to do with my parents?
Sure enough it did. That stupid pit bull dragged one of my dad’s collarbones into the house and his owner found it and called the police. So I didn’t get to see the rest of the tour, and I had to go to court and everything and now I’m in jail, and I might not get out until the year 2019.
Oh well. Everyone’s pretty nice here and they let me listen to my Green Day tapes. But they all ask me, was it worth it? Killing your parents just so you could go on tour with Green Day?
And I just smile, a deep, knowing smile, because I’ve seen and done things that they’ll never experience, not if they live to be 100, and I say, “Of course it was. After all, everyone gets two parents, but there’s only one GREEN DAY.”
Anyways, enough of my rambling and now onto the actual review.
Green Day is:
Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals, drums on “Dominated Love Slave”
Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals
Tre Cool on drums and backing vocals, guitar and vocals on “Dominated Love Slave”
Released: January 17th, 1992
All I have to say is, I really like this record. This is actually probably my favorite Green Day album. This also happened to be the first Green Day album I listened all the way through, so it hold a special place in my heart for me, which explains all my rambling in the pre-review, and expect this review to mostly be praise and appreciation, as well as admiration of the girl on the cover.
The album starts with the great opener “2000 Light Years Away,” which was written for Adrienne Nesser, whom Billie Joe eventually married. It seems like the band put all they had into this song, because the musicianship and vocals are amazing on the album. Usually Billie pulls a two-minute long solo during the intermission before the third verse when playing the song live, but there’s only a small guitar fill in the actual song. No singles were released from this album (or 1,039, for that matter) but this was remastered and released in the Green Day Singles Japan-only box set. This song was also remixed by Rob Cavallo for the Jerky Boys soundtrack, but in my opinion, this version is inferior to the original.
Next is another awesome track, “One for the Razorbacks.” Not only are the lyrics amazing, but the musicianship once again really shines. It seems like the band really improved their musicianship once Tre Cool got into the band. The solo in this song is one of my all-time favorites.
The next song is notable because it was so good, Reprise Records decided to re-record it and release it as a nice, polished single. I am of course, referring to “Welcome to Paradise,” which is about leaving home for the first time and discovering what a scary world it is out there, living in the slums, but eventually realizing you get used to it, and even think of it as home. I actually prefer the major-label version to this one, because the musicianship in this version isn’t as good or polished and Billie’s vocals sound almost bored for some reason. It’s still a pretty good track, just not as good as it could have been.
The next track is “Christie Road,” which is a real road in Martinez, California, just a little north of Berkeley, where Green Day were living at the time. It really does parallel a BNSF Railroad, hence the train references in the song. It’s definitely a slower number, but I always sing along to it, because it’s so easy to relate to. It’s about being able to have a place to be alone, think, and feel alright, which, hopefully, everyone has.
“Private Ale” is next. I really don’t have much to say on this song, other than that it’s a prediction of greater things to come for this band. it’s one of the best tracks on the album. We also get a prototype of the scream Billie uses later on “She.”
Up next is the first song written by Tre Cool, and the first song he plays guitar on. It’s called “Dominated Love Slave,” and it’s nothing but pure fun, about a man who wants to be a slave to his wife’s will. It’s sort of a country hoedown with distortion, and while it’s really nothing special musically, I can’t help but crack up every time I hear it. It was something of a live staple up until about the time Warning came out, but now they rarely, if ever, perform it.
The next song, “One of my Lies,” is about realizing you can’t stay a kid forever, and eventually you have to grow up, no matter whatever you told yourself. It’s nice catchy little number, and it marks a nice little midpoint for the album.
The next song, “80″ is a masterpiece with excellent bass and drumming, fantastic lyrics, and two great guitar bridges. “Android” is a funny song about crazy people.
Next is another slower number, “No One Knows,” which features (gasp!) multi-track singing from Billie as the song goes into pretty much vocal anarchy near the end. Another fun song.
The next song is another of my favorites, “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?” It’s about wanting to stand up and start a revolution, but being too lazy, and, ultimately, nearly forgetting what you wanted to do in the first place. It’s got a nice bridge. Its title and concept is from one of Billie’s favorite books, Catcher in the Rye,  by J.D. Salinger, narrated by Holden Caulfield, which he ironically refused to read for school, but read it later and loved it. Screeching Weasel later made a song called “I Wrote Holden Caulfield,” which Mike Dirnt plays bass on. Anyway, it’s the damn song on the album. Giving it to you straight.
Now we go into the closer of the original album, “Words I Might Have Ate,” the first Green Day song not to feature electric guitars. It’s definitely more of an introspective nature, and provided a template (and definite standard!) for more folk-punk songs to follow. It was a fan favorite from what I’ve seen, but Green Day rarely if ever plays it live.

Now we head into the Sweet Children portion of the CD, which features a laughable drop in production quality, but the songs are still pretty good. The EP was recorded on a break from Green Day’s ’90 tour, and is pretty much just a collection of songs the band were playing live at the at the time (although their cover of “Johnny B. Goode” is absent, probably because the band thought their cover of the Who’s “My Generation” was enough covers for one recording). The funny thing about the EP is, besides its absolutely TERRIBLE quality, was the fact that no one is quite sure about its release date. The inlay on some states 1990, but it could be wrong like other early Green Day releases. We also know that it was officially recorded in 1990, but for a while, the official Green Day website said it was released in 1987 (the current website doesn’t care about EPs anymore, however). Also, a 1989 performance of “My Generation” differed from the recording and a 1992 performance matched, but that pretty much doesn’t mean anything. Also, Allmusic says it was released in 1988, but that makes no sense, because 1,000 Hours wasn’t out yet, and we know for a fact that was Green Day’s first released material.

Another curious thing about the EP is the many different pressings it has had. The first just featured a picture of Mike’s leg during a concert and had 1,500 pressings. The second pressing was a black-and-white picture of a trashed Volkswagen with the caption “What do you think Mike…” It only ran 600 copies and included a handwritten insert which read, “Not a lyrics sheet, so don’t get your hopes up.” The next pressing was the same as the last just tinted red and it had no insert. So basically it just sucked. The last Skene! reissue was from around 1991. It featured a cover which was mostly blank save for a picture of the band, and the back sleeve had a rather long explanation of how the songs were also on Kerplunk!, so this was obviously a reissue.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

John Kiffmeyer/ “Al Sobrante” on drums

Released: Summer 1990 on Skene! Records, reprinted on March 24th, 2009 on Reprise Records

The first track is the blisteringly fast punk rock song “Sweet Children,” about the lost innocence of youth.
What follows is a sort of sweet love song called “Best Thing in Town,” where the narrator touts his girlfriend as, well, the best thing in town. It has an awesome solo. A Green Day standard.
The next song is called “Strangeland.” I like the rather nonsensical lyrics, and the song is pretty ideal to listen to if you just want to get away for a while.
Now we go into the perfect album closer, a cover of the Who’s “My Generation.” Just as the Who paved the way for the first wave of punk rock with the original, Green Day’s cover is sort of a precursor the punk rock explosion of the mid-nineties. It’s a fast track, and during the breakdown in the middle where John Entwistle plays his little bass fills, each member of the band does a small solo, and during the fourth and final fill where John had a solo, there’s a sound clip from the movie Blue Velvet, of Frank Booth screaming, “Heineken? F— that s—!” and a bottle smashing. The song ends with a blistering solo from Billie and, apparently, the sounds of the band smashing their instruments and destroying the set, in the vein of, well, the Who.
So, if you’re looking for a recommendation from me, I say, GO OUT AND GET IT NOW! It’s worth it just for the story of Laurie L., not to mention the brilliant songs themselves.
Like I said before, this is my favorite Green Day record, and ever since its release, its gotten some very deserved recognition. It’s one of the best-selling indie albums ever and Blender magazine named it the 47th greatest indie rock album ever made. Now that’s an accomplishment.
However, when Green Day started to outgrow the capacity of their small label, major labels started to take notice, now that they were sniffing around for the next Nirvana (The brilliant Nevermind became a smash hit the year before and put punk and alt rock on the map), and eventually, Green Day “betrayed” their fans by signing with Reprise in late 1993. And the rest, as they say, is history…

1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Review

Well, I finally got around to it. I am reviewing Green Day’s first compilation album, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. The reason I’m reviewing this comp instead of the material Green Day released before this? Well, this is easier, so leave me alone. This is a collection of Green Day’s first two EPs (1,000 Hours and Slappy) and their first album 39/Smooth. It also contains a bonus track from one of Lookout! Records taster comps.
The cover art was contributed by Jesse Michaels of ska/hardcore punk band Operation Ivy, Lookout! Records’ first real success. Track 14 is a cover of Op Ivy’s song “Knowledge.”
It should also be noted that this is the only album that original drummer John Kiffmeyer has a songwriting credit.
Anyway…
Green Day is:
Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals
Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals
John Kiffmeyer/ “Al Sobrante” on drums
Released: July 1st, 1991 on Lookout! Records
When you first hear “Green Day” nowadays, what do you think of? Perhaps, a bunch of middle-aged guys whining about politics and making epically melancholy songs? Well, then you need to go back to the nineties, when Green Day was a bunch of snot-nosed brats from California singing loser’s anthems. This comp pretty much showcases Green Day’s older material– really, it was just a way to get their older, out-of-print stuff out there to the world. It proved a consistent seller, and still has moved enough copies to go gold.

First, we go into the 39/Smooth section. This was Green Day’s first full album, and was surprisingly well-recorded. It originally featured hand-written lyrics by Billie Joe. This was their first album with John Kiffmeyer. For some reason, people love to confuse this 1,039 as Green Day’s first full album because these tracks were included on it.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

John Kiffmeyer/ “Al Sobrante” on drums

Released: April 13th, 1990 on Lookout! Records

The album opens with the powerful “At the Library,” about a girl that Billie Joe saw at the library all the time and thought was ugly, but figured she would say yes if he asked her out… until he was rejected and she walked off with her boyfriend. This is pretty much the epitome of Green Day’s early work– love-sick punk songs.
This is followed by the rather average “Don’t Leave Me,” (another love song, surprise!), which leads into drummer John Kiffmeyer’s song, “I Was There,” which is about both all the awful and wonderful things he’s seen in life, and despite the difficulties he’s been through, he’s happy to say, “I was there.”
Then there’s the teen angst piece about disappearing in a house full of other kids, “Disappearing Boy,” and the stoner’s anthem “Green Day.” Where do you think the band got their name? It’s about a day spent doing nothing but smoking weed!
Then we head into the rather melancholy “Going to Pasalacqua,” another song about kids in love, but in this particular tale the title refers to Pasalacqua Funeral Home in Benicia, California, a reference to the boy in the story throwing his life away for the girl he loves.
This is followed by the average, yet fun, punk romps “16,” which sounds A LOT like “When I Come Around,” “Rest,” which sounds almost psychedelic, it’s so slow, and the fast and furious “Road to Acceptance,” before going into the closer of the first half, “The Judge’s Daughter,” which is about wanting someone you can’t have. It’s a pretty fun punk rock track, with great guitar work to boot, especially in the solo.

Now we’re in the Slappy portion. This EP was recorded in a few hours on April 2oth at the Art of Ears studio and produced by Green Day. The front photo is a picture of a dog named Mickey, taken by John Kiffmeyer, but Mike Dirnt’s friend Jason Relva nicknamed him Slappy.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

John Kiffmeyer/ “Al Sobrante” on drums

Released: Summer 1990 on Lookout! Records

We go straight into an old live staple, “Paper Lanterns,” which has a solo that sounds really easy, but apparently would have stumped Eddie Van Halen, because I cannot find a good tab for it anywhere.
Then there’s the rather angsty “Why Do You Want Him?” about Billie Joe’s mom marrying another man after his father’s death, and Billie’s angry, uncomfortable feelings about it. It’s a rather awkward song, probably because it’s allegedly the first Green Day song Billie ever wrote (at age 14) but luckily leads into the next album standout, “409 in Your Coffeemaker,”  a fun little ditty, with a title referring to Billie Joe pouring 409 cleaner in his teacher’s coffeemaker as a joke, that has a really cool solo near the end.  That’s something I’ve noticed about this album: Billie Joe is able to craft wonderfully catchy pop-punk tunes throughout Green Day’s career, but you only seem to find real solos (or solos of any value, I spit on American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown) on Green Day’s older material. Anyway, “409″ was re-recorded for Dookie along with “Welcome to Paradise,” but the band ultimately didn’t want it on the album.
Anyway, now we reach a staple of the live show that still holds true to this day: Green Day’s cover of “Knowledge,” originally by Billie Joe and Mike’s heroes Op Ivy. You know this song if you’ve ever even heard of a Green Day show: the awesome solo, the fun ska horns, the energetic singing, and of course, the moment when Billie Joe stops the music and puts a band together on stage to finish the song, although now he usually just picks a guitarist. Anyway, it’s a fun track, although, it sounds like they were stoned out of their minds when they recorded this.

Now we’re into the 1,000 Hours portion of the comp. This was Green Day’s first EP and release, period. It was recorded in 1988 when they were still named Sweet Children and released on vinyl only in early 1989. It was released in a variety of colors although the most common to see was green after Sweet Children changed their name to Green Day AFTER THIS EP’S RELEASE, much to the disdain of Lookout! owner Larry Livermore. It remained in print even after the tracks were released on 1,039 until Green Day pulled it from Lookout!s back catalog in 2005 like all their other Lookout! releases. It was later reissued as a bonus (along with Slappy) to Reprise’s March 24th, 2009 vinyl reprint of 39/Smooth.

Green Day is:

Billie Joe Armstrong on guitar and vocals

Mike Dirnt on bass and backing vocals

John Kiffmeyer/ “Al Sobrante” on drums

Released: April 1989 on Lookout! Records

The next four songs, “1,000 Hours”, “Only of You,” “The One I Want,” and the insanely catchy “Dry Ice,” compose a short punk rock opera (oh no, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown foreshadowing again!) about a girl Billie Joe wants to ask out. According to a KALX interview, John Kiffmeyer changed the name of “Dry Ice” from its original title, “Whupped,” because he felt “Whupped” was stupid. Ironic, because Green Day ended up having to record “Dry Ice” 18 times to get it right, as John kept making drumming mistakes. At the end of the recording, you can hear the band saying, “Yes, yes we did it.”

Then there’s “I Want to Be Alone,” a fun little track from a Flipside compilation, The Big One (funnily enough, the Offspring also recorded “Take it Like a Man” for the same comp and also became one of my favorite bands). It has a metal-esque solo in the middle but is mostly a power pop song. It’s catchy, though.

All in all, this is really good album, and I’m surprised more people don’t know about it. It’s solid, and really, there isn’t a single terrible song to be found in the bunch. My recommendation? Go and listen to it. It’s fun, it’s really catchy, it has great solos, and it’s a throwback to the three bratty punk kids from California that you’ve come to know and love, back when they were just teenagers. Oh, yeah, and make sure to get the CD, and if you’re gonna put it one your iPod, rip the extra last four tracks, which is a radio performance and interview.

Pinhead Gunpowder News/Stop, Drop, and Roll!!! Review

I will be reviewing Pinhead Gunpowder’s entire discography.
However, I will not be able to fully review Money Money 2020 by the Network as of yet.
I can’t seem to find the right copy anywhere online, so I have to buy the actual CD, unfortunately.
Anyway, I will have a mini-review of Stop, Drop, and Roll!!! by the Foxboro Hot Tubs up here as well, as a precursor to my (*sigh*) rather extensive foray into Green Day’s massive territory.

As a side note, I think I should say that “Highway 1″ was supposed to be in “Broadway”‘s place, but it got switched.

Release Date: April 22nd (digital download), May 20th (CD), and June 10th (vinyl), 2008 on Jingle Town Records
Lineup:
Reverend Strychnine Twitch (aka Billie Joe Armstrong): Lead vocals
Jason White: Lead guitar, backing vocals
Kevin Preston: Rhythm guitar
Mike Dirnt: Bass, backing vocals
Tre Cool: Drums, percussion
Jason Freese: Keyboards, saxophone, flute
Put quite simply, Stop, Drop, and Roll!!! is garage rock perfection. Inspired after one too many shots of alcohol, Billie Joe Armstrong and his friends were inspired to make some “rockin’ eight-track recordings.” Well, this rock ‘n’ roll revival record sure is rockin’.
I can’t explain just how great this album is. Clocking in at just over half an hour, you could listen to it over and over and not get bored, as the songs are for the most part, fast-paced and heavy, and the ones that aren’t, are sweet, fun, and slow rockers. The title track, also the opener, is probably the best track on the album. It’s really fast, at times profane, and filled with tight, aggressive garage rock that evokes the likes of the Who and the Sonics.
Another track, like the blast of calculated distortion “Alligator”, recalls the Kinks (and even sounds a bit like “You Really Got Me” at times), while others, like the slow-burner “Dark Side of Night” makes you think of the 13th Floor Elevators or similar psychedelic garage bands.
In fact, the entire album sounds like it could have plucked off of the Nuggets compilation, and that doesn’t make it sound any less amazing.
Thank you, Green Day, for making one awesome garage rock side-project, and thank you, side-project, for making one awesome garage rock album!

A Tribute to Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain performing

On February 20th, 1967, Kurt D. Cobain was born into this world.
Then he became one of the most legendary figures in rock history. Kurt Cobain popularized grunge, busted down the door for alternative rock (and the punk revival of the 90s), and, more importantly, fronted one of my favorite bands of all time, Nirvana. I love Nirvana. I think they are amazing and they are the greatest grunge band. Not to say there aren’t other grunge bands that are good, but Nirvana is the best grunge band, mostly because singer-songwriter-guitarist Cobain’s lyrics were amazing, easy to relate to, completely unintelligible most of the time, nonsensical at others, and above all else, extremely catchy.
Kurt Cobain might be one of the most famous and influential figures of the past half a century, let alone his impact in rock history.
But let’s rewind a second: As a kid growing up in the 70s, Kurt’s life was, well, not the greatest. His parents were divorced, and while he was living with his father (who had remarried), he found himself the witness to some favoring of the new wife’s kids.
A paraphrased quote from Cobain’s grandfather says, “One his wife’s kids could take a bite out of an apple on the counter, and he’d do nothing. Kurt could take a bite and get a slap upside the head.” Kurt became dissatisfied with his life with his father, and his life with his mother was no better. Her boyfriend was abusive and at one point sent her to the hospital with a broken arm.
After a stint of bullying and insolence towards adults (as well as his first song, which expressed his distaste of police), Kurt’s mom granted his father full custody.
Unfortunately for his dad, Kurt was a rebel and became to much for Daddy Dearest to handle, and he soon gave Kurt up to family and friends.
Kurt rejected the Christianity of his friend Jesse Reed, had no interest in sports, and befriended a gay student, making him the target of the homophobic student body (Kurt later said that he was “gay in spirit,” and his Journals say that he wasn’t gay, but wished he was to piss off the homophobes at school).
Kurt was an artistic kid, and received awards at school for his amazing works of art. On the flipside of his artistic tendencies, Kurt was also arrested for spray-painting the phrase “Ain’t got no how whatchamacallit.”
Kurt was also got into music at an early age; he got a guitar for his fourteenth birthday, and as a teenager, he found solace in the Pacific Northwest punk rock scene; he soon became a patron of sorts of the practice space of local sludge-punkers the Melvins, of whom he was a huge fan. Cobain also later championed his artists (often of the obscure variety) when Nirvana achieved fame. His signature Chuck Taylors have the saying “PUNK ROCK MEANS FREEDOM” scribbled on them.
By the time Kurt was a sophomore, he realized he didn’t have enough credits to graduate, so he dropped out and moved in with his mom, who gave him a choice: Get a job or get out. Next week, Kurt found all his stuff packed up for him.
After this banishment, he slept at friends’ houses, occasionally sneaked back into his mom’s basement, and during a few periods, hung out under the bride at the Wishkah River, although Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic later said that it was impossible to sleep there, so we can assume Kurt would have just hung out there.
In 1986, he got a job at a Polynesian resort, got an apartment, and formed a relationship with Tracy Marander (whom I personally think he would have been better off marrying), about whom he wrote the song “About a Girl”, featured on the albums Bleach and Unplugged.
After Marander broke off with him, he began dating Tobi Vail, whom he was deeply infatuated with, but she found the maternal comfort of a normal relationship sexist in the counter-cultural punk fantasy world they inhabited. Hanging out with Vail and her friend Kathleen Hanna, Vail spray-painted the phrase “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” (actually a reference to a deodorant that Hanna joked Kurt smelled like), which Kurt took as having a revolutionary meaning, inspiring the title to the legendary teen angst song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Most of Kurt’s political and philosophical discussions with Vail inspired much of the lyrical content on Nirvana’s breakthrough second album Nevermind.
In 1985, Kurt formed the band Fecal Matter, which recorded just one demo, Illiteracy Will Prevail, before their breakup in 1986. However, the song “Spank Thru” convinced Kurt’s longtime friend and fellow punk rock devotee Krist Novoselic to form a band with him. In 1987, the band Nirvana gelled.
Host to a three-ring circus of drummers before finally settling on Chad Channing, as well as briefly adding second guitarist Jason Everman in February 1989 (whom Kurt lists as second guitarist on their first album Bleach, although he wasn’t actually on any of the tracks– Kurt had included it as a tribute for Everman contributing $606.17 to record the album. Everman left the band in July 1989 on friendly terms).
In June 1989, Nirvana released their debut Bleach, which Cobain named for an anti-AIDS ad he saw advising heroin addicts to bleach their needles. Most of the lyrics on Bleach were written just a couple minutes before recording, as Kurt adamantly supported his melody over what he was actually singing.
After this album, Kurt promptly fired Chad Channing and settled on new drummer Dave Grohl, with whom they recorded their major-label release, 1991′s Nevermind.
Oh. My. God. I cannot even begin to describe the impact this album had on mainstream music. It busted alternative rock and even some of the poppier punk bands out of the underground and into the dominant form of music on radio and music television.
This was followed up by 1992′s compilation album Incesticide, containing B-sides and rarities that were being heavily bootlegged at the time. The liner notes of Incesticide read: “If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us- Leave us the f— alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.”
They also released the grungier, filthier, raunchier album In Utero in 1993.
By this time, however, Kurt felt persecuted by the media, and was having a hard time conciling Nirvana’s, well, mammoth success with his underground roots.
He also hated people who claimed to be fans of the band, yet were ignorant of the political and social views that Nirvana held: opposition of homophobia, racism, and sexism.
With Kurt throughout these troubled times was his wife Courtney Love, whom he had met in 1990 when both still were members of strictly underground bands.
Love began pursuing Kurt and the two often were seen together, and bonded through their mutual drug use.
In 1992, Love discovered she was pregnant with Kurt’s child. On February 24th of that year, they got married Waikiki Beach, against the advice of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, who warned Love that marrying Kurt would destroy her life.
Their child, Frances Bean Cobain, was briefly taken away from them because of reports the couple allegedly used heroin while Love was pregnant with her.
Heroin was found in Kurt’s body at the time of his death.
Kurt officially died on April 5th, 1994, and was found dead in his greenhouse on April 8th, at the age of 27 (making him the youngest member of the inner circle of the 27 Club).
People say that he was the victim of a shotgun suicide. I believe that he was murdered by Courtney Love… but that’s a story for another article.
The legacy that Kurt left behind was enormous. We can’t comprehend just how important he was to alternative rock and rock music in general. In fact, we could probably say he is one of the most important figures in music history, and I have to say, without Kurt, I probably would have an amazingly terrible taste in music.
So thanks, Kurt, and I’ll see you sometime, wherever you are.