~Idiot Club members have until Nov. 30 6pm EST to send in their entries to the “Macy’s Day Parade” contest. The song is “the band’s commentary on commercialism” and the IC is asking us what matters to us on Thanksgiving.

~GDA posted scans of Q magazine’s interview with Billie Joe, part of their Artists of the Century issue.

~21st Century Breakdown goes platinum in the UK but is not as successful as American Idiot.

~Pop Matters posted part 1 of 14 of their analysis of Dookie.

~Video of Green Day performing at the AMA awards on GDA.

Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God and the Native Americans for helping the Plymouth Plantation pilgrims survive the brutal winter. Although half of the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower had already died, many more would have, had it not been for the native Americans teaching the pilgrims to harvest food (source: wikipedia).

I guess you could say the pilgrims were the first American Idiots…arriving here in America without a fuking clue how to survive. On this Thanksgiving I give thanks here at our NWWM Thanksgiving table to all that is GREEN DAY. As much as I whine about being nothing more than a speck in that heaving ocean of GREEN DAY fans (ocean analogy source: Delfina), I am so thankful that there is an ocean of us to bob around together in…i’ve come to realize that it’s the ocean of togetherness that is an unseparatable part of my love of GREEN DAY. I imagine myself standing alone in a stadium with my “fuking hands in the air” shouting my “HEYYYYYYYYYY-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHs” and ya-know it just wouldnt be the same without all of us experiencing it together. It is in the sharing of GREEN DAY with all you other nutters out there that make GREEN DAY…well…a community. It is a community open to all ages, all religious beliefs, differing political views, and people from all walks of life that come together to share our love of this music and of the GREEN DAY trio: Billie Joe, Mike and Tre.

As odd as this might sound, I am thankful that Billie Joe, Mike and Tre grew up in Northern California…a place so foreign to me in so many ways. I could not have grown up farther away in either geography, ideals or experiences to where the boys are from. They have taken me to mythical places like Gilman, to punk squats, into the pages of Cometbus, and thru an incestuously east bay punk world. They have exposed me to a sliver of their world that weaves the joy of all things GREEN DAY together in one east bay sloppy punk hot mess.

On this 2009 Thanksgiving I am thankful for the gift of 21st Century Breakdown. It’s hard to believe that 21CB has been a part of my life since only May - it cracked open a part of my brain that I didnt even know existed. That brain-crack is starting to fill in with honesty and meaning - the beauty of what 21CB and all GREEN DAY music does for us - it asks us to live in the moment and in truth, as painful and joyful as that is at the same time. I hope you have a wonderful first Thanksgiving 21CB, and my wish to you is that you find your way into the hearts and brain-cracks of millions more.

I give thanks to Billie Joe, Mike, Tre, Jason W, Jason F, Jeff, and all the folks in their traveling circus. I especially thank their families for letting us share in their talents and allowing us into their lives. I have no idea what it is like to be a family on the road, away from your physical home, but I thank you all for hauling your asses and your families around the globe to share GREEN DAY with us. I especially wish the GREEN DAY families a soulful and restful Thanksgiving with tables full of wonderful food, laughing children, perfectly dysFUNctional families, and much much love.

Fellow GREEN DAY friends, I am thankful for all that we are blessed with, especially our famillies and all us friends here today, let us raise our glasses to honor the feast of the original American Idiots. Amen.

Billie Joe pass the turkey!

There’s a new interview with Antonino D’Ambrosio, the author of the books Let Fury Have the Hour, about Joe Strummer of The Clash (which I read a few years ago), and A Heartbeat and a Guitar, about Johnny Cash, two artists known for their passionate commitment to political issues in their music.

When asked if there are artists today who are carrying on the tradition of Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash, he says:

“There are scores of artists that say something, but they’re just not at level where they’re affecting the wider culture the way that Johnny Cash or Joe Strummer did. Green Day is at that level, and American Idiot is a powerful statement. I would say certainly Green Day is there, but they’re an exception.”

Wow. Seeing Green Day compared to Strummer and Cash almost gave me goose bumps. And seeing them get credit as being in a class of their own, by someone whose own interests are deeply grounded in the power of art and music to affect social consciousness, is gratifying as well.

D’Ambrosio sees all artistic output as political in some way, because whether an artist directly addresses broader issues or skirts around them, he or she cannot avoid making some kind of statement. Avoiding political issues is not necessarily non-political, in his view, because built into the silence is a tacit acceptance and support of the status quo.

I tend to agree. I think telling the truth is political in itself, because it’s liberating to both artist and audience. Even Green Day’s early songs about girls and loneliness are liberating, because they’re so painfully honest. The way that Green Day has gone about making music has always been very down-to-earth, and the stories they tell are about the things people care about and that affect their lives, whether privately or publicly. (A lot of other music that’s out there, on the other hand, that’s about making money, gaining fame, or looking at women as objects, is political too, but in a negative sense, not because it’s liberating but because it’s oppressive.)

I’m not sure if the public is terribly receptive to the political and liberatory potential of popular music these days, but D’Ambrosio is hopeful, and I want to close with his encouraging words:

I’m always ultimately hopeful and optimistic because there are always going to be artists out there who respond to the moment. They’re going to produce work that becomes the next chapter in the progressive movement of humanity. I think ultimately, in a way, music is that. The very idea of making music is a rebellious act.

~NPR included American Idiot in their list of the decade’s 50 most important recordings “that challenge, inspire and captivate.”

~Billie Joe posted on Twitter that Green Day will be recording “21 Guns” with the American Idiot musical cast. And the Idiot Club posted Green Day drum tech Kenny Butler’s answers to fan questions.

~Live and Lossless posted the full audio of Green Day’s Oct. 30 concert in Manchester.

Another critic posted a predictable backhanded critique complimenting Green Day’s American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown while simultaneously dismissing Dookie as “nothing particularly groundbreaking.” He writes that while it’s “ridiculously infectious,” it is made up of “crude lyrics and derivative arrangements.” This is the kind of thing that’s been written again and again by critics and has become mind-numbingly tiresome. But even Green Day fans have been known to ask why it is that older fans, who are presumably not captivated by Dookie’s themes of teenage alienation, would take a shine to an album like Dookie.

I fell in love with Dookie when I was 30 years old. And “fell in love” is too weak a phrase. I loved it obsessively, listening to it incessantly and finding myself carried away on its combination of infectiously bouncing giddiness and no-holds-barred musical attack. Even though I’m not particularly musical — and perhaps because of it, since I could fully grasp the directness of the music on Dookie even without any particular sophistication on my part — what I adore about Dookie is the music. The taut, powerful guitar riffs, the drums and bass that pound in your chest, the delicious melodies, the lovely nasal, whiny, heartbreakingly sweet voice. I would love this album equally if the lyrics were in a foreign language that I didn’t understand.

I went to art school years ago, where I learned to look at things for what they are, rather than running for some explanation that relies on words to tell me how to feel about something I can see right in front of me. It gave me a frame of reference to appreciate all the arts, including music, on their own terms, without expecting that everything should be “groundbreaking” or somehow wildly original or intellectually complex, as if that were the ultimate goal of every artist. Art is not about showcasing one’s ability to be complicated or deep, it’s about creating a disarming, perfect expression that touches another person’s heart or mind. Simplicity is highly valued in the visual arts, because directness is an elusive accomplishment, and, when it works, it just knocks you flat on your ass.

Green Day didn’t invent rock and roll, they didn’t invent punk rock, and they didn’t invent jangling pop hooks. The history of popular music is a continuum, in which all artists build on one another’s accomplishments. (That’s actually true of all human endeavors, which is why it makes little sense, in general, to value individual contributions so highly over the contributions of the whole canon of human output.) So what if Dookie is not groundbreaking? Rock and roll is a traditional art form, and punk rock, in particular, sticks pretty closely to some very specific parameters. It isn’t meant to be innovative, it’s meant to kick ass. When they recorded Dookie, Green Day didn’t re-invent the proverbial wheel, but they made a really fucking kickass wheel, the likes of which had not exactly been seen before, not with quite that same power, appeal or perfection.

Dookie was such a revelation to me that I thought I had just not been paying enough attention to the music scene, and that if I sought them out there would be other bands that I would love as much as Green Day. And I did start listening to a lot of other great bands at the time, but none of them were quite Green Day. Dookie may be easily dismissed by critics for not meeting their particular criteria for pretentiousness or complexity, but it’s a gem. If critics still don’t get it, tens of millions of fans certainly do. There is a reason why Dookie is such a beloved album, and the reason is not that we’re all crazy-in-love with songs about masturbation (not that I’m knocking them…).

~Spanish-speaking fans, check out the fansite Green Day F.O.D. (Sent by Luis)

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