DC ROCK CLUB
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

What's Yr Take On: Green Day

The Band: Green Day
From: Berkeley, California
Formed/Brokesed Up: 1987--

Sound & Vision: Green Day first crackled through our transistor radios in 1994 with “Longview.” Despite, or perhaps because of its reference to self-abuse (i.e., whackin’ it) and use of the word “fucking” (bleeped, of course), “Longview” got pretty heavy airplay and Jam-lookalikes Green Day were featured in the “Cute Band Alert” feature of the late, much lamented Sassy magazine, an honor previously bestowed on the likes of The Pogues, the Bay City Rollers, and Duran Duran. Within a year you couldn’t fucking self-abuse yourself without hearing a Green Day single as the Bay Area crooners busted out “Welcome to Paradise,” “When I Come Around,” and "Basket Case" in quick succession. So we are here now to decide—Green Day, threat or menace?

PRO: 1993? The sound of a convent of nuns being raped by a hundred morbidly obese New York Jets fans would have been preferable to the grunge being forced down our throats at the time. They were a spiky-haired infusion against a flannel-clad scene that was no longer alternative and had regressed to aping 1970s hard rock. Besides, the songs are definitely keepers. Green Day had alternative cred in a way that Stone Temple Pilots did not.

ANTI: It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right….tonight, on a very special Party of FiveI hope you had the time of your life...Concept albums, concerts at the Patriot Center, endless promos on DC101. If that’s punk then I’m a 25-year-old pool party attending scenester. Green Day also tended to make wacky, plot-heavy videos that put them perilously close to Foo Fighters territory. Did you form a band as a backdoor to becoming the next Jerry Zucker? Spawned a legion of mediocre imitators and one could build a credible war crimes case against “Time of Your Life” for launching emo and allowing Pete Wentz to find gainful employment as an “entertainer.” We must judge the tree by its fruit and personally I find Blink-182 and All Time Low quite mealy and sour.

VERDICT: PRO. If someone had to get massive and play arenas, then it may as well have been Green Day, and not Seven Mary Three. I also think Billy Joe’s dirt-eating at Woodstock was a pretty bad-ass move.

So, do you like the Green Day? Do you not like the Green Day? Do let us know. We treasure your feedback.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

on the whole of course it's a PRO. dookie, insomniac and warning are all great albums. but they've pretty much outlived their usefulness. the last album was awful and their show was at verizon center was even worse.

Potsy said...

you can't begrudge every band that gets popular and makes a few shitty songs along the way. Green Day started strong and maintained it for a good long haul. Gotta respect that. And Billy Joe is just small enough to seem like a little person, which adds its own novelty to the band.

Jimbromski said...

He definitely could have been a top class jockey, if not for music

Jumbo Slice said...

Just the other week a guy was telling me how he used to see Green Day out in CA for $3 a show. Those guys played a lot of crummy places before making it big. I have no problem with them hitting it big. Put me down in the PRO column as well.

Donald Wage' said...

That bro in 7mary3 had an awesome moustache.

Anonymous said...

Blink 182 are better than Green Day, but both suck. Husker Du wrote concept albums; are they nore more punk that Green Day? Jet Age Eric (can't seem to log in)

Jimbromski said...

Jet Age Eric, we set a filter so you couldn't log in and comment on concept album-related posts.

/Saucy Jack'd

Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, Sack and I went to college w the members of Seven Mary Three, and yes, we're bitter b/c they got far more ass than either of us did.

sacklunch said...

This could be made up, but I swear I read in a magazine some story about Billie Joe sucking the teet of pregnant cat or dog to get milk for cereal? That is kind of punk rock.

Did anyone else read this?

Potsy said...

you're asking the wrong guy.

sacklunch said...

Actually, it was Tre Cool that drank the pregnant dog milk. Confirmed on the internet (which is always correct). Sounds like a Rod Stewart stomach pump story to me....

Unknown said...

I'm pretty sure he recounted the story in their Behind the Music episode.

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