First album review, music update, and AZ!

So I'm gonna start this blog off with an album review. This will not be a regular topic on my blog, but as my interest has been sparked with a certain new release, I've chosen to comment on it. Most, if not all, of you will not be the least bit surprised with the album which I've chosen to review, so here it goes:

21st Century Breakdown by Green Day

I don't listen to music radio. Yes, that includes the eschewing of XM, Sirius, and all the other satellite radio companies. I prefer instead to listen to 97.7, the new KOMO 1000 FM station when I'm not listening to CDs in my car. Driving from University Place (for the ignorant, that's pretty much South Tacoma) to East Hill in Kent is a bit of a trek daily, so I like to be informed of the drunken motorcyclist crash near the Tacoma Dome (no, really dude, Britney Spears was playing the Dome, but you're no longer gonna see it cause your dumb ass is DEAD) on my way to work.

That being said, my first exposure to "Know Your Enemy," the first single off the aforementioned album, was going to be the first viewing of the video right before an episode of....some piece of shit MTV show that Allie ended up deleting because she thought Tristan accidentally hit the record button on our remote. Thanks. However, she made up for this by recording an episode of Loaded on Fuse that focused on Green Day. Thank you, honey. She's amazing like that. So the first video was....."Know Your Enemy." I watched it.

Really? The first single off the much-anticipated followup to American Idiot is a call-and-response song, the rock equivalent of a mindless club-banger? Even after buying and listening to the whole album, I think this song is (lyrically AND musically) absolute garbage. It's mildly catchy. The lyrics could've been written by a maladjusted twelve-year-old. It's mindless. But sadly, as that's what the majority of the music-listening American public ARE, I can't fault Green Day for pandering to the idiotic masses. After all, it may be tongue-in-cheek....look at their last album title.

Moving on.....so, slightly disheartened, I DVR'd a few live talk show performances and their SNL show. Goddammit, when did Billie Joe decide that emo was the way to go? All the spunk and spark of the five times I've seen them live was fucking GONE. I may as well have been watching reanimated corpses imitate Liam Gallagher....poorly. Jason (White or Freese, I think Freese is their touring 'second guitarist') adds absolutely NOTHING to their stage presence, and reminds me of that curly-haired fuck from the Strokes in that he really doesn't move much at all. I find it funny that all the talk show hosts pass him by when they thank the band for performing. Let's hear it for studio musicians! Being so upset, I cut their second SNL performance short after about twenty seconds, shut off the TV, and hung my vintage Green Day beanie on the corner of the TV with "....is dying." written on a piece of TP taped to it.

Unfortunately, I ended up cutting short (and then revisiting later) a performance of one of the best songs on the album, "21 Guns." Being a die-hard Green Day fan, I was going to buy the album no matter what (much like I did when Warning came out), and had Allie pick it up for me a few days ago while I was at work. I came home to it, immediately ripped it to my mp3 player the next morning for workout purposes, and popped it in my car's CD player on my way to work that day. Got through the first 11 tracks in my 45-min commute (with rewinds for good harmonizing and captivating lyrics) without skipping a single song. Tracks 2 and 5 are my favorites right now. There are unrepentant similarities to MCR's The Black Parade in some songs, but Gerard of MCR has repeatedly stated (as have a lot of the music press) that The Black Parade would not have existed were it not for American Idiot, which they borrow heavily from themselves.

American Idiot was probably my favorite super-produced album since Dookie, but 21st Century Breakdown is really getting up there quickly. Since their cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero," Billie Joe has really gotten in touch with his Beatle "roots," even referencing said song in the new album's title track. The lushness of the album - multipart harmonies that you can easily pick out each individual line in, abundant yet selective use of various reverb and delay effects, imaginative and inventive lyrics, and the basic elements that make us love Green Day oh-so-much (don't fucking deny it, it's the #1 selling album!) are prevalent throughout. "Dreaming/I was only dreaming/Of another place in time/Where my family's from/Singing/I can hear them singing......"

Brief music update: NOT to follow the new musical "thing," but I've found myself working on a suite of songs that seem to be very related.....I'm entertaining the thought of a concept album about Johnny. Stay tuned.

Leaving for Arizona in a little over 24 hours.....maybe the sun will do me good. Wish the fam a safe trip and I'll see you all when I get back, probably with a lot more piss 'n' vinegar to vent upon these fragile pages.

"Singing your songs of discontent
Anger and mass distrust
Another apology to the mass-maligned
Is begging to be discussed
The effigies burnt, and the curses well-spent
On all those you felt deserved
Will come back and haunt you as you sit and rot
'Neath 72 inches of dirt....."

-an excerpt from what I've been working on...... :)