The Modern World

The first vinyl I bought that could be classified as 'punk' was London Calling.  That's not earthshattering or even unusual for  a midwestern white boy; but what I found hard to understand was the reaction of the friends I had at the time.

Largely limited to mainstream rock and heavy metal (we were in a fuckin suburb; what else?) I started to branch out in late high school, finding new energy in musicians like Elvis Costello, Devo, the B-52s and the Boomtown Rats; my HS friends could barely tolerate the Cars.  I recall plaintively playing "Train In Vain" for one of these friends, trying to share the attraction I had for some different sounds, only to be met with a bemused, mostly tolerant look.

I have never understood this need to classify music.  Ice-T once tried to defend his heavy band Body Count by saying "If you only listen to one type of music, you're fucked up" but I resist even the idea of music 'types'.  I have argued over this incessantly with Zelmo (usually fueled by several beers); where are the lines?  Iggy Pop was Punk before anybody ever though of it; but he wrote a song that was a hit for Bowie.  Was there ever a more punk song than "My Generation"?  Elvis Costello was once punk enough to get thrown off Saturday Night Live; now he collaborates with Burt Fuckin Bacharach.  Blue Oyster Cult helped define metal, but have written some purely pop songs.  The Clash were self-defined punks, but borrowed liberally from reggae, funk, old blues....

The Mekons started as art-school punks so DIY that they REFUSED to learn their instruments.  But eventually, they blazed trails for alt-country, alternative, and indie rock, refusing to give a shit about their classification, instead following their own muses.  Along the way, they did art shows, performance installations, wrote collaborative books, did a pioneering lesbian punk pirate musical, and hey! also become one of the longest running rock bands of ANY genre, remaining arguably more vital and interesting than other old timers like the Rolling Stones and the Eagles, recently incorporating English folk into their sound...

Music is a continuum. Pigeonhole all you want (and that is part of the misguided "marketing" that is helping to destroy large labels),  but when it comes to the artists, the lines blur.  Neil Young collaborates with Pearl Jam and tours with Sonic Youth.  

 This is odd.  I noticed today that I have my Dad's fingers.  Being a zombie, I guess I probably will not give them back.

I know, I ramble.  But this thinking has been occasioned by a few listens to the new Green Day album, 21st Century Breakdown.  It's a pretty mainstream release for me, I know, but bear with me....

I really loved their last album, American Idiot.  The extended multi part songs, threaded with punk sing along choruses and shouted "hey!"s tripped my punky little zombie trigger, and had a bit of the PROG about them.  It was  a long way from songs about getting stoned, but it recalled the old days of bands like Husker Du and the Clash...

But that's not what I'm here to talk about.  After a long period of work (5 years?) comes the followup, an honest to god I am not shitting you ROCK OPERA that should make Pete Townshend poop bricks and go back to drinking.

The release (does it even mean anything anymore to say 'album'?  CD?  This is a song series; I downloaded it; the constraints of 2 sides, or how much music you can fit on a CD, don't really mean much anymore...) is broken down into 3 acts, for want of a better word.  "Heroes and Cons", "Charlatans and Saints", and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades". You can find more description elsewhere, I am not too worried  about the story, such as it is, just now.

The release opens with a scratchy, tinny radio sounding intro, "Song Of The Century", which sounds like nothing so much as a piece of a mid-70s Queen snippet.  I'm not kidding.  But also, is it an accident that the song title checks The Ramones?

"21st Century Breakdown" is one of the longest pieces, and is the closest to something from american Idiot.

Born into Nixon I was raised in hell

A welfare child

Where the teamsters dwelled

The last one born

The first one to run

Holy, crap, am I the only one that reads that as a Springsteen reference? Also, look at this:

My generation is zero

I never made it

As a working class hero

The Who and John Lennon, in one triplet.  It may not be poetry, but that is a fine weaving of cultural touchstones, that is.  Wait, there's one more:

We are the desperate in the decline

Raised by the bastards of 1969

Is that.. the Replacements?  I would bet "Bastards of Young" is part of the DNA here...

Know Your Enemy has enough power chords and anthemic choruses to bring Joe Strummer back to life.  And one of the prominent lines updates an old PIL song:  Violence Is an energy.  Just don't even try to tell me that is an accident.

Viva La Gloria.  I can't see this as anything but a big old shout out to Patti Smith.

Before the Lobotomy.  Not only a semi acoustic opening, but slamming chords and a nod to the Ramones?  Holy shit.  And the yell-along chorus: 

Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes

Well I'm not stoned, I'm just fucked up

I got so high, I can't stand up

I'm not cursed cause I've been blessed

I'm not in love cause I'm a mess 

Last Night on Earth.  Listen:

My beating heart belongs to you

I walked for miles til I found you

I'm here to honor you

If I lose everything in the fire

Did I ever make it through?

Again and again the lyrics work around the ideas of resilience, of persistence, of insurmountable odds... this seems to me to be one of the central ones.

Also:  East Jesus Nowhere.  Regardless of the music and the lyrics.  The title is just... classic.

Peacemaker is such a complete nod to Gogol Bordello, that if not Armstrong's singing you would never guess....  down to the hey hey!  hey hey hey hey hey!  It totally fuckin rocks.  Even Shane McGowan would approve, if he could get off the floor.

Last Of The American Girls.  Listen:

She plays her vinyl records singing songs on the eve of destruction

She's a sucker for all the criminals breaking the laws

She will come in first for the end of western civilization

She's and endless war like a hero for the lost cause

Like a hurricane in the heart of devastation

was that a shout out to fuckin BARRY MCGUIRE?  Okay, I'm a sucker for that song, and totally love that Grizzled taught it to one of Jennifer's lamblets, but holy hell, that is so fricking uncool... followed by a Judas Priest shoutout?  Now this is getting ridiculous.  But kind of fun, too, isn't it?  Damn, I think so.

Murder City might as well be a Rancid song.  what the hell, let's throw in some current references also, and make it a punkin gumbo.

followed by a reprise:  Viva La Gloria?  a pretty little song that slows things down a little bit.  Holy shit, it's starting to feel paced, like a musical.

Restless Heart Syndrome would be a great Coldplay song.  If it was done by Radiohead, even P-Fork would like it.  As it is, it's better than either of those bands, but I predict will be disregarded because it was released by the guys who released an album named after poop.

One of the centerpieces is Horseshoes And Handgrenades, opening with a stomping boot sound like something from Stiff Little Fingers.  But I'll tell you the guitars sound like the Figgs to me, and the lyrics do just as well...  G-L-O-R-I-A  shows up here, also, harking back to Patti, and U2, and Van Morrison...

21 Guns slows it right the hell down again, and it's about time.  But it makes Armstrong reach for some high notes out of his range, and he makes them, apparently through sheer emotion.  And I know it's probably just me, but I hear the echoes of the Alarm's 68 Guns in the background guitar lines...

 Song of The Century is reprised... leading into American Eulogy, which has two parts.  The first is Mass Hysteria, and the second is The Modern World.  Thus the title of the post.  In a seeming resonance to the Jam, the band recites " I don't wanna live in the Modern World, I don't wanna live in the Modern World..."

And finally, the band tries to reconcile with See The Light.  What resonates:  "I set a fire just to see the flame"  When the world is senseless and heartless and uncaring, sometimes the individual acts are the ones that count.

As if to drive the fucking point home with a corked aluminum bat, the itunes release includes a cover of " A Quick One (while he's Away).  You Are Forgiven, indeed.  Green Day is not just wearing their influences on their sleeve on this one, they are weaving them into a tapestry of anger and emotion and energy that does the heritage proud.

You know, when you are young, unbridled energy and anger can be enough.  The Rolling stones and the Replacements showed that, among others.  But getting older adds ... weight.  And you can try to ignore that, but it makes you look kind of stupid.  Some people write the same songs over and over, and some get hairpieces, and some take viagra, but here's the thing:  we all get old, we all are going to die, and that's what makes what we do now important and vital and sweet.  Ignoring it is a dead end.

The major record labels have turned to WalMart for much of their hard copy distribution.  especially since their own policies have driven non-corporate record stores and radio stations out of business.. Stupid MBA weasels...  But WalMart wanted GD to remove the fukcs and the anti-religious rants; Green Day said no, they didn't give a shit.  Who do you think will suffer more from that?  

Some call Green Day punk, some punk-pop (usually saying that as if it's a bad thing), some just call 'em alternative.... To me it doesn't matter.  If you listen to music based on the pigeonholes, I will guarantee you that you're missing out on something, somewhere, that you will like.

I refuse to restrict what I listen to because Pitchfork or somebody else calls it one thing or another.  I will not discard something merely because it is popular.  I refuse to stop looking for new sounds that make me shamble and lurch.

These guys have been listening to fucking EVERYTHING, and are not shy about making references in what they are writing.  The Jam, the Clash, Springsteen, even enough Journey to make Zelmo happy; 

"Hope I die before I get Old"  "Better to burn out than it is to Rust"  as Brando said recently, the irony is that the people who wrote those powerful lines are living long beyond some of their contemporaries.  I would counter by saying the people who wrote those lines have never allowed themselves to rust, to get old.  

I may be dead, but I don't have to be old.