“Silence is the enemy/
against your urgency/
so rally up the demons of your soul”
~ “Know Your Enemy”

Is it just me, or is that idea terrifying? It’s asking you to dig out all the shadows from the back corners of your mind and not just set them loose but expand them. Give them life and let them run rampant through the burning city in your brain. Yikes.

Scary or not, I’ve really missed that kind of music over the past few years. I’m beyond excited that Green Day is back for a number of reasons, but mostly because of the way their songs crash out of your speakers like they’re trying to start a riot. Reading the other lyrics they posted reinforced that idea. There’s a powerful sense of standing on the edge of the end of the world. If real life were a movie, this would be the scene right before the massive fight to the death between the good guys and the bad ones. I can certainly see Billie Joe stomping across a stage yelling incendiary encouragement into a microphone. In those movies people always make an odd kind of peace with the gigantic fight they’re about to run into, and I think the idea of the album is to do the same thing.

We’re not engaged in a physical fight, but we are trying to battle our way out of a serious hole. Nothing says it better than the lyrics to “Restless Heart Syndrome”. It perfectly captures the idea of being picked up and stomped on by something you can’t even name. You just know it’s there and it hurts.

I wish I could say there was a happy ending. For a moment, in “Horseshoes and Handgrenades”, there almost is. Anything and everything is being torn down to make space and create something better. This is the end of the idol worship. Then there’s a stillness in “See the Light”, as if everyone has stopped madly running around and is trying to figure out what to do next. The problem is no one can tell you that. It’s easy to tear down every structure within reach, but what to replace them with? You’ve rallied and rampaged your demons, leaving an eerie silence like a fading echo in their place. The human impulse is to fill it with something.

But maybe that’s where we’re wrong. Maybe you’re supposed to just stand there for a minute. Take things in and try to remember what it was you were fighting for, really. What sunlit vision you had in your head that drove you to create a new future. We need some kind of silence. If there’s a problem with this last bunch of years it’s that people have gotten lost in their own heads. It’s all noise, noise, noise. That breathing space after the destruction, terrifying though it is, is exactly what is worth the fight in my mind. Just to have the luxury of staring at a barren landscape for once, not one littered with billboards and spray paint and five hundred smudges of chewed gum. Just being able to ask what is worth the fight is worth it, because it proves you won.

It’s not a fairy tale ending. It’s a cautiously hopeful one. At the moment it’s the best we can ask for. Hey, from up here you can really see the stars…

So it’s official, now. They’re back out in the spotlight. I’m just as thrilled about this idea as the next person, believe me. In a way, it’s oddly comforting for them to be out and about. It reminds me of summer and concerts at night and an uncontrolable smile across my face. And all this talk of the guys and the new album gets me thinking about how far they’ve come. It’s quite amazing, when you take the time to think about it. Not that long ago they were just three kids running around in the East Bay, playing music simply because they wanted to.
…And I’ve realized how appealing that simple little belief is.
The East Bay has been a place of great interest for me, and I can’t really explain why, aside from the fact Green Day stemmed my liking for it. I don’t know… there’s something about it that has a certain ‘mythology’ I just can’t put my finger on. There’s really something facinating about the whole thing; I want to go there and be able to see Gilman St. To think abou the place’s history and all the cool graffiti on the walls…it just makes me smile. I like picturing myself someplace where people can just come together and share this love of music and experience something all at once. I love that whole idea- that music brings us together and we can all take something from it no matter who we are.
…But there’s a teensy dilemma that comes with all this knowledge. I’m not a native of the East Bay, nor will I ever truly be. No matter how much I’ve read and dreamed and heard about Gilman St., I’ll probably never be able to fully understand. That saddens me a little, because I want to go to a place like that and experience everything first hand. I want to walk in there with the sam sense of awe Billie and Mike had- to put myself in thier well-worn shoes- and be at a place solely out of my love for music.
Unfortunately, the door to Gilman is closed to me, now… I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to set foot in inside the brick building and stand wher my heros have stood. Suddenly, that line from “the Grouch’ comes to mind: ‘Wasted youth and a fistful of ideals/I had a young and optimistic point of view.’ I do believe I have a fistful of ideals- that’s where all my dreams are. I’m just afraid of that fist suddenly unclenching, letting all the ideals float away like pathetic leaves. I don’t want to become that person Billie Joe is singing about- lazy and jaded at 24 or however young. I want to be able to go places and do whatever my heart’s desire is…
It’s kind of amazing, isn’t it? That a song and a band can make you think so much about yourself? I don’t know why I’m drawn out to the East Bay… I guess I’ve just heard about it so much and I still have that youthful idealism that fools me into thinking every place outside my ‘picket fence’ is better than what I’m used to. Isn’t it ridiclous that I know the names of streets and clubs in a city I’ve never been to?? Sometimes it’s a bit maddening to have all these visions in your head of what those places look like. Unfortunately, the Romantic aspect of my brain kicks in, and I picture everything bathed in warm sunlight and blue skies.
But I still want to go. I’m jsut afraid that it won’t be like I expected- that it’ll turn out like that Rancid song, “Journey to the End of the East Bay.” ‘This isn’t Mecca!’ Tim Armstrong bellows. And I’m left feeling stupid for wanting to go. -That’s not optimistic of me, though. I know that if I go, I’ll like it.
I hope it’s a cesspool of music and history and Green Day and California-ness. :) I owe it to my teen-age self to go, at least. I have to know, for some reason, what it’s like. I don’t want to go on thinking what could have been… so maybe someday I’ll get out there. And I’ll owe it to Green Day; I owe so much to them as it is… ;)
I guess…I’ve got my fistfull of ideals held sky-high.

The new issue of Q says, “And as we sink deeper into recession, and the news is so thick with doom and yet so perplexingly convoluted that the most human response is to throw up your hands, only Green Day are volunteering to write the soundtrack” (page 49).

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This is the second time that Green Day has stepped up to actually say what the rest of us are thinking. Again they are the only band who looks around and says, “Wait a minute. What just happened?” In that respect especially we’re lucky to have them. Not all Americans are idiots, but we do tend to be complacent. It took us about six years to get thoroughly disgusted with our last president, at which point all we could really do was wait out his term. Short of impeachment, it was too late to fix what so many people regarded as a huge mistake. I’m guilty of it too. I’m always being told not to let life happen at me, because then I have no choice in how it turns out.

More important than politics, American Idiot proved that bands could speak their minds about the state of the world. It reminded people of the power of music as protest. It reminded people of the rebellious nature of rock and roll, which is supposed to challenge and confuse. By being brave enough to say plainly that there was something wrong, it made us feel like we weren’t alone or crazy. I know I needed that. And still, even after the path has been laid out for them, other bands refuse to try their luck. Not even after hearing Billie Joe shout “Sieg Heil to the president gasman” will they try to make a statement of their own. It makes me wonder, what do you have to do to shake people loose these days? We would be in trouble without Green Day.

Add that to the list of reasons I can’t wait for the new album; the way Green Day’s fearless honesty makes us all feel… better.

This was posted recently on a forum about custom cars. It’s a story about seeing Green Day in 2001. It was written in 2008, but the guy writing it is just as excited about it seven years later, and it’s a pretty cool read, because you can really feel how awed he was. Below is an excerpt. Read the whole thing here.

The smell of the place is incredible, it’s terrible. The smell coming off of the great salt lake. The smell of all of those people in a un-air conditioned building in the middle of summer. It was humid, muggy and gross. Everyone was soaking wet from everyone else’s sweat. The lights go dim again. Everyone goes crazy. The energy is un-real. The guys come out on stage. They start playing. It was so amazing I can’t even remember the song. I was practically blacked out and in shock. I was standing fifteen feet from Billie Joe Armstrong. It was AWESOME!! After the first song, Billie starts to introduce some people. First Mike Dirnt, then Tre Cool. Then he points up on the balcony, he then says, “See that lady right there? that’s my wife Adrienne. See that beautiful lady next to her? That’s my Mom, Her and my Dad fucked, and here I am!” Everyone went crazy. It was awesome. Then they started playing music.

Yep, this post is handwritten. Typing kills my back these days. Think of it as a letter from a boring friend… with bad handwriting. ;)

Read the rest here.

“Redundant” is my favorite love song. I know it sounds weird to say that about a song with lines like “now the routine’s turning to contention”. It showcases a big problem in a relationship. So why does it reach out and nudge me in the soul?

Because it’s honest, beautifully pensive and hopeful. All this in spite of stifling frustration. The train hasn’t crumpled into a smouldering wreck yet. There is still time to save it. You can hear the optimism in Billie Joe’s voice as he sings, “cause I love you’s not enough, I’m lost for words”. If you can be so tired of your life that it feels like an endless loop on an assembly line, but still love the person who helped put you there, you know you’ve got a chance.

He’s determined to go for it. That spirit of never, ever backing down is probably the thing I love most about Green Day. From signing to a major label to exhausting tours to slogging through personal hell, these guys have seen it. At the end they always come out a little stronger. It doesn’t matter if you have to leave a huge tangle of emotions and happenings behind. It matters that you got out and kept going, aiming to make sure the future would be different.

“Redundant” resonates with me because I’m always screwing up something. I can’t go a day without making a dumb remark or tripping over my own feet. The latter is a backwards kind of talent, but I digress. The idea behind the song is that all you have to do is be willing to try. That’s love.

[This essay was written by Tatiana. Thank you for sharing it. -Delfina ]

Hi everyone, my name is Tatiana Podstavkova, I’m from Slovakia, a small country in the heart of the Europe. Let me share with my feelings of being a fan of one of the greatest bands ever. I would like to describe some of my favorite songs those mean something to me. I will use some Billie Joe’s lyrics. But first, sorry for my English, if it sucks.

When I was younger so much, in spring of 1994, I was 14 and sitting in front of the TV and suddenly, Basket Case video started. At the beggining I was impressed by Billie’s voice. I liked it. After seconds he started strongly strumming his guitar, Mike and Tre joined loudly and I was like “wow this certainly will be one of my favorite bands!” And it is. Not only one of my favorites, but my the most. It was for the first time, I’ve heard something about Green Day. Did I have the time to listen to them whine about nothing and everything at once? Yes, I did. So, Basket Case graved in my mind forever.

The other old one, Christie Road, oh I love it so much! I feel like it’s about me. In my teens, I probably had the same feelings about being lonely as Billie had. I had nothing to do, I was bored, confused and disappointed, I just wanted to run away, wherever, just gotta get away or my brains will explode! If there’s something that I need, that’s makes me feel complete, it’s Christie Road, home to me and I feel like me once again.

Good Riddance, this great one reminds me all the things I made to change my life. It was another turning point, something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. And I can tell I have the time of my life now. Good Riddance brings back good memories.

Minority makes me think about the wrong things those happen, about the people who don’t know how to change their lives, even if they want to. Minority opened my eyes. I found out something about myself what I’ve never knew before. I realized who I am and who I want to be my entire life. This song taught me to be myself, how to live, not to be scared to tell the truth and to march out of time, to my own beat now, the only way I know. This powerful song describes everything Green Day stands for. They challenge people to think about who they are, tell them to be an individual and to stand for their beliefs. And it’s really awesome to see how much they enjoy performing songs like this. It’s makes me happy and it fills my heart with joy.

For the first time I was listening to Jesus of Suburbia, I was feeling something unbelievable.
Was that true or was I only dreaming? Is that boy named Jesus thinking about his life in the same way as I’m thinking about mine? I was confused. I realized Billie wrote lyrics for this song as if he was writing about me. It’s the same like when I’m listening to Christie Road.

The best song ever, for me of course, is Wake Me Up When September Ends. I love it the most! It’s mainly because of the amazing lyrics. It’s too much emotional, sad, but beautiful and it always makes me cry. It reminds me close people I’ve lost, although they’re not dead like Billie’s father is. I love the way Green Day plays this song live. You can feel Billie’s heartache, his crying and his shaky voice. I know, it’s difficult for him, but he’s a strong person, he has never ever let the sadness break him down, even if he sings with tears in his eyes. That’s why I love this such a beautiful song the most.

Another song of American Idiot album, Whatsername, it’s one of best, cause it’s like the song describes my own experiences. While listening to this song I’m remembering my friends I’ve lost. I haven’t seen them for years, even though I didn’t make a point to burn all the photographs, but they went away and I took a different path. And now I’m wondering how they are.The first half of the song is just like a silence before the storm, but the second imposing half with awesome loud guitars makes me sad, cause, I must confess, I forget about my friends but not the time!
More » » »

Now that we have a new President and the White House is getting revamped, I couldn’t help but think of “American Idiot.” I’m not sure why, but I just did… I think it’s the fact that the album protested the Bush administration clearly and it was always something you had to deal with. Now all we have are ‘memories’ of the past four years. I thought it was so amazing how I could learn and love so much about something so simple. For me, there is much, much more to it than what people think. It was something I’d never heard before; It was so different and it meant something. It punched you right in the gut- unapologetically. The songs leaped right out at you, shook you by the shoulders and told you flat out what was going on. Obviously, I won’t forget that; there are so many things I can take from “American Idiot,” and I’m certain it’s affected many people besides me.
We all love the songs like the title track, “Holiday,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Wake me up When September Ends,” and “Jesus of Suburbia.” But…what about the other songs? When I talk with others about the album (or try to), those are the only songs they know. Just “Boulevard” seems to have captured their attention, mainly. Am I the only one who actually loves the rest of the album?! It seems so!
Take for example, “Are We the Waiting.” It’s sandwiched between two attention-grabbers, “Boulevard” and “St.Jimmy,” so it’s prone to being ignored. I can safely say that this relatively poignant song means more to me than “September.” This song is realtively all drums, with a small buzzing guitar in the background; you can almost hear each string being picked individually. As soon as the vocals come in, you’re sold on the song. At the risk of sounding all ‘gushy…’ the voices rise and fall so sweetly and at first listen you feel relaxed and even a bit ’smitten,’ even though you haven’t grasped what the lyrics mean to you yet. Plus, it’s great when the chorus comes around and the guitars come roaring in. It’s powerful stuff. For me, the lyrics paint great pictures of night, watching a glittering city from the outskirts; the place to got to think about if you belong there…. Sometimes I ‘hate’ Billie Joe’s romanticism. :) What’s great about the song is that it sweeps you off your feet, and then “St. Jimmy” comes gnashing in, and suddenly you’re thrown for a loop. That’s why I love the whole Jesus/Jimmy thing; the transistion is just so cool.
To continue on to overlooked tracks, I’ll mention “Give Me Novacaine.” Again, with the strength of the drums, only this time there’s a gentle acoustic in there, later to be completely destroyed by a wall of Gibson Les Pauls. A whining, lazy guitar follows during the bridge, which of course, turns me into a shameful puddle of goo. This song is so powerful to me, especially with that section to the end, where everything is thrown into one giant, gnashing crescendo, with Billie singing his heart out about falling in love.
Sorry, but I’m floored after this song. Whoever makes the ridiculous claim that Green Day are not good musicians needs to listen to that track. The boys know exactly what they’re doing.
Also a great song: “Homecoming.” It always bothered me that this was critically trashed. Yes, it can be a bit strange in some parts, but that’s half the fun. Tre sings, for crying out loud! There are saxophones and pianos and all kinds of instruments to be heard, along with my favorite effect, the ‘guitar through the telephone’ at the beginning of “The Death of St. Jimmy.”
So yes, crazy in parts, but a wonderful track to listen to. It’s Green Day at their most ambitious. My favorite section is “East 12th St.” especially at the end of it, when Billie and Mike cry, “Somebody get me out of here!” It just gets me every time.
So….have I rambled on waaaay to long? Most likely. But I thought I’d mention some of the tracks that get swept wrongfully under the rug. I encourage you to look back through all you Green Day albums- there might be a hidden gem to find.

I have never been to a Green Day concert. It’s terrible, but it’s true. Having grown up in a family whose music appreciation basically stopped at buying albums, I was really late to the game. By the time I realized how amazing Green Day were and made the connection that I’d like to see them live, every stop on the American Idiot tour was sold out. Over four years later I still wish I had gone to the concert near me that fall. The next day at school I watched people strutting around in their souvenir t-shirts and burned with envy. It was as if they had reached cloud nine and I was still waiting for the elevator on cloud two.

The feeling of bursting anticipation has calmed down a fraction since then. I realize it’s just a concert. I can’t expect too much, or it will seem anticlimactic no matter how amazing the show really is. I keep telling myself it won’t be a defining moment in my life.

But maybe it will. If I do get to go to a concert (she said, hoping so hard it almost hurt), I’ll actually be in the same room with a band who made a profound impact on me. They didn’t just change the music I listen to, they changed the way that I see the world. As I’ve said before, I was brought up in a very sheltered environment. One that was very clear about how things should and should not be. Appearances were very important. It wasn’t uncommon for a couple to take out a second mortgage just to finance their accustomed lifestyle. Cutting back on the dinner parties and the private schools wasn’t done. While there is something to be said for keeping up your reputation, it doesn’t work if that reputation is built on a sham. Listening to Green Day I realized that the world is full of things that are not as they appear in your rearview mirror. (Sorry, couldn’t resist). So I wandered around and investigated. Wouldn’t you know, there were all kinds of fascinating ideas outside of my McMansion-lined bubble. It bent my mind into knots that I’m still unraveling.

A concert is my opportunity to travel even further from the strange little place I call home. To hear the music the way Green Day meant it, without any preconceptions standing in the way. To tangle up my brain all over again. It will test everything I think I’ve figured out so far and it will make me love every minute. That’s why I’m so incredibly excited to see Green Day live. I may be just another face in a mammoth crowd, but I’ll be having the time of my life. No pun intended.

~GDA posted a sweet new essay, written by Cheryl. See all the essays posted on GDA here.

I thought this was a really nice piece, by Stephanie Kuehnert, author of the novel I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, about not fitting in and not feeling accepted in high school, but finding a lot of inspiration from music, including music that one’s peers may not consider edgy enough, because it’s too mainstream, too popular, or not “punk enough.” Below is an excerpt. Read the whole post here.

Ultimately, I was a kid who felt rejected and hurt and angry and sad and had only a couple friends and no real outlet until I started discovering music, bands with a certain sound and lyrics that expressed the way I felt. How did I discover these bands? A couple of them through friends, but mostly through MTV. People forget that in the late 80s and early 90s there was more to MTV than Britney Spears and reality shows about rich kids. There were REM and Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More and Depeche Mode videos. Those were my early favorites.

Rancid was considered kind of mainstream. They played “Time Bomb” a lot on the radio then. Was it punk enough to like Rancid? It certainly wasn’t punk enough to like Green Day. You could admit that you liked their albums on Lookout!, but not Dookie. I hated that crap, HATED it. And I don’t mean Green Day. I mean not being punk enough because you liked a band that was getting mainstream attention. I mean not feeling punk enough because heaven forbid my all-time favorite band was Nirvana and not Crass. I never thought that just because a band signed with a major label so their sound could reach a wider audience, they’d “sold out.” What’s so wrong about Rise Against or Against Me!, for example, reaching more people with their political songs. They’re opening minds. But maybe that’s not a punk enough opinion.

This is my first post as a member of the Nothing Wrong With Me team. Hope you enjoy!
I thought I’d take the time to think back about this year, seeing as how 2009 starts tomorrow. This year was one of history, especially with the Election and the economic situation. It was one of great achievements; the Olympics certainly verified that.
Of course, musically, I’d like to say things were a bit stagnat. For us Green Day fans, however, it was promising. Everyone was completely taken aback by the Foxboro Hot Tubs, and it was even better when they announced their “World” tour. I for one, will always remember this. I was one of those frustrated individuals out there, who didn’t really see anything great in the music world, especially since one of my favorite bands had stopped doing everything. I admit it: I missed seeing them on t.v., their songs on the radio, finding out what they would be doing next. I had stopped listening to the “American Idiot” album every day roughty two years ago. Before that, they were everywhere. I thought maybe they had gone away for the sake of not doing anything…
The Foxboro Hot Tubs was the remedy I needed. I think we all needed it. And what a great way for them to come stomping back into the spotlight. They certainly got some attention, and these scruffy dudes seemingly stuck in the Sixties stole my heart all over again. “Stop, Drop and Roll!!!” was the shot of adrenilne I needed. I still listen to it, and it’s been how long?
As if that wasn’t enough, Pinhead Gunpowder made a notable return earlier this year, and a vinyl was realeased on top of it all. I’m the proud owner of the blue .45 EP, now, and I can’t wait for more.
News broke of Green Day’s new album, which was the last great burst of optimism we had this year. I can safely say that I’m keeping an eye/ ear out for more news. The article in “Alternative Press” is only a tantilizing glimpse at what’s to come; new characters, new themes, and above all, new songs! I don’t think I can wait until spring to hear the those gnashing guitars, pounding drums and that twangy bass again.
So…2008 was a very good year. It definately gave us all it could.
But something tells me 2009 will be even better….

« Previous entries Next entries »