|
|
Posted: 8/9/06
July Green Day Report
It's July, and Punk is on Holiday
It's the middle of the freakin' summer. Everybody just wants to chill out and go on vacation. Green Day is on vacation. Billie Joe and Adrienne just celebrated their 12th anniversary on the 2nd, so you KNOW that it's the summer of love up at the Armstrongs. Based on recent Billie Joe sightings, Green Day's ringmaster has also been spending a lot of qual - T with the kiddies (do a google search for some GREAT family pics).
Hmm, where would you be right now if you were a member of the Armstrong family? In Aruba on the beach? Camping and canoeing in the Rockies? Helping out at refugee hospital in Kenya? Or no, no - you'd be with mom and pop on a spiritual journey of discovery in India.
According to the Farmer's Celebrity Almanac, it really is high time that Billie Joe goes off on some crazy head-trip life-changing adventure where he embraces Krishna or Buddha or whoever and comes back ready to create some freaky new sounds that no one was expecting. After all, hippies do it, and as we know here at G--D, punks are just a hair's breadth away from hippies on the cultural food chain.
Yup, Billie Joe just might start pumping out some weird-ass shit and become the next Frank Zappa, the next John Lennon, or maybe the next Alanis Morrissette (Bet you'd like that). Well, maybe not, but the signs are definitely clear: whatever happens, the next Green Day album is going to be WEIRD. Guaranteed. You heard it hear first.
Tre Warped
Lucky for us, the other members of Green Day are basically keeping it real. Tre was recently spotted hanging out at the Warped Tour on July 8th in San Francisco. Hmm, and where was Tre? Maybe checking out fellow punk vets NOFX? Or is he the type to stand backstage and groove casually to Motion City Soundtrack, From Autumn to Ashes, and the Casualties.
One definite Cool sighing occurred at the Warped Anti-Flag show (of course) which had on of the craziest pits anyone had ever seen. Hmm, Tre couldn't have been involved in that insanity. He's way too old for that stuff…isn't he?
Mike Under the Radar
We may be spotting Billie Joe and Tre at the occasional high profile event this summer, but the word on Mike is that the Green Day bassist is maintaining his notoriously low profile. Out of all the Green Day guys, Mike is the most difficult to track down. Is this because Mike's just a regular guy, chillin' in his backyard barbequing weenies? Or is it because he doesn't tan well in the spotlight? A little camera-shy perhaps?
Mike's always been the one that is the least affected by the band's extreme highs and lows of mega-stardom. Whenever he's photographed, he always looks into the camera with this cynical grin on his face, like he knows it's all so crazy and weird - the world of celebrity super stardom, that is - but he's happy to role with it as long as he can get lost when he wants to. And hey, that's okay with fans. Here on the Planet Earth, we like our music loud, our cars fast, and our celebrities mysterioso. That's what makes it so interesting when their bizarre secret lives are exposed (Mel, we're looking at you, you crazy drunken anti-Semite!)
ANWAY…
As you may have discovered at this point, there wasn't too much in the way of exciting Green Day news this month. The media circus is basically just trying to keep up the life of the fan with tons of contests, Green Day trivia, and of course, endless opportunities to vote for the goodness of Green Day in Best Ofs and Award shows.
For example, vote, vote, vote for Green Day in Kerrang's Esteemed Rock Video Honors List, where they are nominated for Budget Buster ("Wake Me Up When September Ends"), Rock God (Billie Joe), and the all-important Rock's Greatest Video award ("American Idiot"). Actually, the voting was supposed to end on the 22nd, but it's still up there on the website, so there's practically zero point in not cramming in a little Green Day fan-mania while the cramming is good.
Fight for Your Right to Love Green Day
Since there's not much going on in the world of Green Day news, the media is allowing itself to take a deep breath and a moment to wax philosophic on Green Day, MTV, music online and the state of the music industry at large. It's a good time for doing so, as the music industry is changing radically, and bands like Green Day that can still sell millions of albums are becoming increasingly few and far between.
In fact, just recently the RIAA (God bless their black, shriveled little souls) was absolutely DELIGHTED to announce that "American Idiot" has gone multi-platinum, which means that it has sold more than three million copies worldwide. That's not too bad for a band living in a world where albums that would have once sold 10 million copies are now selling 500,000.
And this should be a lesson to the industry at large because seriously, mainstream bands aren't selling as many albums as they used to for two very important reasons, and dealing with those reasons would go a long way towards putting artists LIKE Green Day back in the mainstream, and "artists" like Paris Hilton and the Pussycat Dolls back to the pound where they belong. Bow-roooo!
First very important reason: mainstream music largely sucks balls, and hasn't sucked this bad since the late eighties. We were all saved by the early 90s, when Green Day, flanked by bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, was part of a gritty, authentic music revolution that changed the scene in amazing ways by shifting musical interests away from contrived, phony acts that were created to make money, and towards genuine, unique artists that just wanted to make some noise and be heard.
Second very important reason: The only band making any money out there is Green Day because a music revolution is occurring once again, but it's just not mainstream. In fact, it's destroying the mainstream music scene as we know it.
The fact is that we no longer need MTV, producers, trend-makers, and marketing executives telling us what kind of music we like. The Internet is full of cool, free, legal music being produced and put out there by independent artists, which means that we all get to listen to what we want, and tons more bands get famous. Instead of one band selling 10 million records, 20 bands get to sell 500,000; we get a lot more selection and freedom from corporate mind (and wallet) control; and everybody gets to eat and play and go to tons of concerts.
What does this have to do with Green Day? Everything! The amazing thing about the band is that they get to be famous and sell millions of records at a time when the concept of the ultra-rich rock star is becoming old and cliché. Why is this cool? Because it proves that people are still listening to good music. It's just not - with the exception of Green Day and few other new school pioneers - being produced by the big names and the big labels anymore.
Since Green Day's taking a little break and not doing much this summer, fans should desist in their mopings-around and check out some of the great alternative music to be found online and locally. Go to some concerts, check out Reading at the end of August, pay a visit to the Warped Tour if and when it comes your way, and don't just be into Green Day, be into the scene they helped to create. It's worth it, and will help you enjoy the guys that much more when they come back with their new album, which will definitely be just as heavily influenced by the world around Green Day as was "American Idiot."
|
|
