In spite of the easy labels they’ve been given over the years, which prior to American Idiot could be pretty dismissive, Green Day doesn’t sound like any other band. The bands that approximate their sound, like blink 182 or Sum 41 are just imitators. They’re not all bad, but they only skim the surface of what Green Day does so well. And even bands that are more appropriate comparisons, like the Bouncing Souls, or that were around when Green Day got their start, like the Mr. T Experience, aren’t what Green Day is: inventive, edgy, tight, emotional, aggressive but sweet, and always with perfect, catchy melodies.

A lot of pop punk is silly and nerdy, and self-deprecating in a way that ends up feeling self-conscious. Green Day is more serious, in spite of all their goofiness and antics. The music always has a very serious intent. Part of the intent is delivering one’s heart on a tray, but instead of doing it in a bleak way, which is the usual way to serve up woe and mournfulness, Green Day expresses a dark view of life with catchy hooks and happy melodies, so the seriousness is not as obvious. I think the Foxboro Hot Tubs delivers strong emotions too, but in a more playful way. It’s not pure silliness like The Network, which is creative and fun in its own right but not really a favorite of mine (though I think Spike is a brilliant little gem of audio theater).

Recreating a distinctive sixties sound is more like an artistic experiment than a chance to dig deeply into one’s own personal demons. There’s a kind of distance you feel listening to the Foxboro Hot Tubs, unlike with Green Day songs that rip your heart right out. Some of the lyrics are very sixties, even using actual lines from famous songs, like “ride Sally ride,” or words that seem corny today, like “baby,” which is maybe a timeless classic. But the clever plays on words are very Billie Joe, and so is the way they lay emotions bare, even though the storylines seem to be about fictional characters, more like a scratchy, faded movie than autobiography.

But what I really love about the Foxboro Hot Tubs is the music, the kick ass instrumental breaks, like in Sally and 27th Ave Shuffle, or the cool meandering groove of a song like Red Tide, which goes so perfectly with the aching vocals. The more I listen to the songs, the more I love them. (I’m not crazy about every single song, but no need to split hairs…) The breadth of Billie Joe’s musical talent never stops blowing me away. What more gems does he have up his sleeve?

In American Idiot there were influences and even some riffs taken from the history of rock and roll, but that’s part of the album’s genius: reinventing a stew out of familiar flavors and making something completely original from the mix. In the Foxboro Hot Tubs the borrowing is up front, and the reinvention doesn’t stray far from its influences, but the result is fresh anyway. Sally sounds like The Monkees’ version of Stepping Stone, and Alligator sounds like The Kinks’ You Really Got Me, as was pointed out to me, and Dark Side of Night is an awful lot like The Zombies’ She’s Not There, but you don’t listen to these songs and think you’ve heard them before. You kind of think, holy shit, how does something this good come out of territory that was already explored and thoroughly trampled forty years ago?

Write a comment