August 3, 2009 Earworm

It's been obvious for sometime that Billie Joe Armstrong is enjoying being a rock star. As Green Day has morphed into whatever it is that Green Day now is, their television appearances have captured a band leader in full swing and control of his audience. Fortunately, none of that Bono smug smudged him when both bands came together to herald the arrival of the saints.

After seeing them jump start my August last Saturday, it became clear that Billie Joe's idea of "one" is more about the audience than it is about him or his band. Considering the personalities the trio have shown, both individually and collectively, that is no small achievement. Arena sized acts rarely include audience participation and I can't think of another that polls the audience for anyone who can play a particular song on guitar and then give hand guitar duties for said song to a lucky musician to be. And, while it is not unusual for an arena sized act to allow the audience to take the chorus on a song, I'm unaware of one giving up the microphone for one of their biggest songs - in this case, "Longview" - to one audience member per verse. To be clear, these were not "let me jump in the audience and point the mic" moments, these people were brought on stage and unleashed and, in the case of the not so novice guest guitarist, an energy that matched Billie Joe's was set loose, keeping perfect manic pace with the leader of the band's cheerleader on black beauties antics.

Still, the moment my heart briefly stopped was when "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" stopped being the (first) cell phone waving moment and opportunity for the crowd to fill in the "I walk alone, I walk alone" lyric. Going into the second chorus, Billie Joe didn't bother coming in at all, and allowed a surprised audience to take it all the way home. And they did. They struggled a bit with the first two lines but nailed "Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me" and upon completing "'Til then I walk alone" you could see the surprise in everyone's face that they weren't, in fact, walking alone at all. And if you think I was being a sentimental fool imagining things but I've talked with many attendees of this tour, including my bro-date for the evening, and they all saw it, too. The kids were alright and, for a few moments, no one was alone. For the sake of brevity, I won't even go into the "21 Guns" moment except to say that I knew he'd never be able to hit that note night after night and that it really didn't matter at all.

I'm glad to see Billie Joe's rock and roll dreams come true because I think that right now we need a rock star who still has snot on his nose and isn't afraid to let his audience be offended by the things he stands for or against and who will let an obviously intoxicated six foot pink bunny warm up the crowd by leading them on the "YMCA" dance. And, all for the low, low price of fifty-bucks. Regardless of where you sat.

June 17, 2009 Earworm

Psychopharmacology fall out, information overload, or emphatic ennui? That's best left for the listener to decide but "Restless Heart Syndrome" is currently my favorite track from Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown". How 'bout those strings!

May 21, 2009 Earworm

The hand wringing and cries of "Sell Out" that greeted Liz Phair's fourth album, you know, the one on the major label, were stupid enough - Matrix produced tracks and all - but when you factor in that precious "indie", Matador, had already rejected her first take on a third album, asking her to create some radio friendly songs for it, the whole notion of indie credibility becomes as transparent as the emperor's ensemble. The same holds true for the Gilman Street crew and its reaction to Green Day signing with Reprise in 1993 after giving the indie label of choice, Lookout, its biggest seller with "Kerplunk". While the slick production of Liz's self-titled Capitol album was a far cry from the lo-fi noise of her debut, a chronological review of her albums to date revealed a logical progression toward a cleaner sound and a more pop sound and when your album features a song called "HWC" (Hot White Cum, the accusations of selling one's soul to the Avril Lavigne set seem a bit off. As for Green Day, they never claimed to be anything other than three nimrods making pop punk records and the transition to "Dookie" from "Kerplunk" proved to be little more than a producer who knew what he was doing.

Liz's success with Capitol - a label that had, at one time, owned 49% of Matador, by the way - was short-lived. The fault may lie in the fact that she really didn't seem to take the whole thing seriously or with the outraged parents who found their kids singing along to the previously mentioned "HWC". If "Why Can't I" is her most lucrative pop moment, her best is "Supernova" from 94's "Whipsmart"; a girly love song from, and for, those who know better. Liz's fancy may have eyelashes that sparkle like gilded grass but she sounds more impressed by the fact that he's a flying, giant friction blast.

Green Day, of course, are on top of the charts this week with "21st Century Breakdown", selling over 200,000 copies in three days and without the support of Wal-Mart, the nations largest music seller, who refuse to stock any product that comes with a parental advisory label. When pressed for a clean version of the album, the band declined just as they had with their last two releases*, proving once again, that the band recognizes that no label should trump art. I can say I love this new album but I'll toss out the song that stopped me in my tracks in '92 - "No One Knows" from "Kerplunk" - because Billy Joe's wrestling with growing up the way in which one is expected hit a nerve back then and still does.

I throw both these tracks together for two reasons:
1) I've been away for a while
2) I discovered both of these acts in the best way; from a bunch of music loving employees in a real record store. Bite me, Wal-Mart.


*Their previous albums somehow having avoided the P.A. warning

July 15, 2008 Earworm

Now that the (not much of a) mystery as to the real identity of The Foxboro Hot Tubs - Green Day, in case you weren't there when those meddling kids...- I move on to figuring out just which Kinks record it is that "Red Tide" emulates. Calling in Inspector Kmatt for clandestine conferences in the opium lounge helped to narrow the list to "Tired Of Waiting For You" and "Set Me Free" with "All Day and All Of The Night" as the opening shot. Still, there's something else in there and it's right on the tip of my stylus...

Turning to lyrical content and "Baby's hour of darkness", I hope that red tide is a crafty play on chemical based depression as algal bloom and not the more obvious, and therefore sophomoric, monthly upheaval. If it's all three, well... then it gets an A+ for doing it's science homework and passes on to begin junior year and a seat at my lunch table.