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ARCHIVE - 11/7/06:
October Green Day Report
Green Day in October
You’re probably all too busy with your Samhains, Halloweens, Dia De
Los Muertos, and congressional scandals to care about poor old Green
Day this month, right?
On the other hand, you’ll need something to do whilst nursing that
morning-after hangover, something to keep your mind of the bag of
pure sugarary sweetness still hanging around the house, eying you
and making suggestive gestures.
In that case, you can return to your old buddies at G--D, who were
busy filing away all the important bits and pieces of Green Day news
this month while you were out partying your socks off. But just in
case you find yourself a wee bit short on brain cells…
A Recap
The collaboration of Green Day and U2 appeals to the widest demographic
of music fans in the history of the biz. Practically everybody – from
your dorky dad to your lame little sister – likes either Green or
U2, although, not always Green Day AND U2. In fact, when this marriage
was first announced, a lot of Green Day fans were like “WTF? Who in
the hell is the Edge? And what’s a U2? Oh, those guys. Hmm, they’re
not very cool.”
Buy hey, a lot of U2 fans probably said the same thing about Green
Day, and now, a month later, we’re all a little older, a little wiser,
and a little more musically aware thanks to the project. If anything,
we learned something about The Skids, a band nobody had heard of for
twenty years before the taking place of these auspicious events.
Saints Video
Of course, for Green Day, the music is nothing without the message.
Hence, the very dramatic video. Although it was only ‘officially’
released two seconds ago, the video for “The Saints are Coming” has
already been on YouTube for quite a few days, is the second-most watched
video this week, and is on its way to being one of the most-watched
of the month. If only it could defeat that fucking adorable little
Welsh Corgi. Oh well, as they say, if Ifs and Buts were Corgis and
Bok Choy, we’d all have a bowl of chop suey.
In any case, the rabble seems to be in general agreement that regardless
of musical differences, the Green Day – U2 video rocks fuckin’ ass.
Basically, it’s a montage of clips of the bands recording in the Abbey
Road studio, performing at the Superdome, and rescuing victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
Or no, wait, that wasn’t the Edge flying that helicopter, it was the
U.S. military!
Huh? What?
The first time you see “The Saints” video, it can be a little surprising,
especially if you live in the U.S., and followed coverage of the aftermath
closely. It can also be a bit confusing, especially if you’re not
from the U.S. and you didn’t see nonstop hurricane news for a month
after the fact.
Basically, what they did in the video was take footage depicting the
aftermath of the hurricane in New Orleans, and altered it so that
it looked like the U.S. military pulled out of Iraq and returned to
the U.S. in order to save the day. Whenever Billie Joe and Bono sing
the chorus, “The saints are coming! The saints are coming!” you see
fleets of helicopters dropping food and supplies down onto the suffering
people, and generally engaging in rescue heroics.
This is kind of a muddy message, because for many, the first reaction
is, “Um, so ‘the saints’ are the fucking U.S. military? Oh, that’s
just awesome.” But then, the video ends with the military trucks disappearing,
and this sign that says “Not as seen on TV.” This implies that the
military COULD have been the saints that saved the day, as seen in
this dramatic re-creation, but they weren’t, because instead they
chose to focus on their obsession with violently taking control of
the world’s oil supplies.
So the troops did not save the day, did not pull out of Iraq, there
weren’t fleets of helicopters dropping medical supplies and teddy
bears into the muddy flood waters, and as the song says, “I say no
matter how I try, I realize there’s no reply.” No saints for poor
people, no saints unless you’re rich and white and live on top of
a big hill.
Hopefully, no one will take this footage out of context and think
that the powers-what-be are actually worthy of sainthood.
Director Chris Milk told MTV News that the video was designed to make
a really big, powerful statement about what should have happened after
Katrina, and what hopefully will happen in the future. Maybe this
will finally answer the burning question of whether or not music can
actually make a difference. (Says YouTube: “Damn you, Music! You’d
be nothing without meeeeee!)
The Green Day Way
Obviously, some people believe that the music-making-a-difference
debate is long since settled, as we saw this month when Green Day
received the ‘Spirit of Liberty’ award from the ‘People for the American
Way.’ This was one awards ceremony that Green Day did most gracefully
attend. You can see Billie Joe’s acceptance speech here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnYtRmmP1sw
In case you have one of those creepy old shitbox computers that won’t
work with YouTube, just know that you are missing a great speech in
which Billie Joe is totally cuter and funnier than you’ve ever seen
him before. Bwahahahaha!
Seriously though, FYI: in the speech, Billie Joe talks about how this
award means more to the band than a music award because Green Day
has more in common with these ‘American Way’ people than they do with
motherfuckers like Justin Timberlake and Nickleback. Hehe.
Billie Joe goes on to say that American society is fucked, and it’s
the task of every clear-thinking individual to bring attention to
this. He even quotes Kanye West in saying that “George W. Bush doesn’t
care about black people.” And he says that bringing shit like this
to the forefront IS the American way. Everybody applauds.
But What is a Good American?
Despite getting an award for their efforts, Green Day got majorly
slagged by the Killers Brandon Flowers this month for being anti-American.
Petunia claims that the “American Idiot” album portrays Americans
in a negative light, and is misconstrued by people from other countries
as a reason to hate America. This is proven, according to Rosebud,
by the fact that “Bullet in a Bible” was shot in the UK, not in America.
In case you’re wondering where Chrysanthemum came up with this crap,
you may want to consider his follow-up comment, which was that if
people want to see a positive, and more realistic portrayal of Americans,
they should all buy the new Killers album, “Sam’s Town.”
Surprise, surprise.
Seems like Flower-powers’ brilliant marketing ploy here was to:
Put out an album that’s kind of like “American Idiot,” (for example,
check the Jesus reference in the first single, “When You Were Young”).
Try to start an argument with Green Day, thereby implicitly making
the Killers seem on par with Green Day in terms of fame and influence.
Position “Sam’s Town” as the positive, pro-America alternative to
“American Idiot.”
Sell four million copies of your lame-ass sophomore record.
Good luck, Mr. Flowers.
Coming Out of the Woodwork
Of course, anytime you get super, super, super famous and successful,
there are going to be naysayers and mudslingers coming from all corners
to cash in on your golden ticket. This month, some dude from Oregon
named Paul McPike is actually trying to sue Green Day because he says
that he wrote “American Idiot.” The whole album.
McPike claims that he wrote the songs in 1992, and performed them
at his high school, where someone MUST have been taping him, and MUST
have somehow gotten said tape to Green Day. Now, McPike wants his
royalties, so that he can stop working as a clerk at a grocery store.
Hey Paul, if you wrote one of the greatest albums of all time, why
no follow-up? Of course, McPike has zero substantiating evidence and
his case was thrown out of court. He does, however, have the option
to re-file if he can produce some proof to back up his claims. The
media is having a field day with this one, calling him everything
from a goofball, to quite-probably-deluded, to the ultimate “American
Idiot.”
Poor Pauly, next time you try to cash in on someone else’s success,
pick a band that hasn’t already written a bunch of brilliant albums.
Like, hmmm, the Killers, for example.
Anyway, we don’t need Paul McPike, or the U.S. supreme court, or Brandon
Flowers, or anybody else to tell us the truth about Green Day. We
feel it everyday when we listen to their music. And in the end, that
is the only real source of truth, which, you might say, means that
music doesn’t just make a difference, for a lot of us, it IS the difference.
Peace.
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