this is not pitchfork

[Jason suggested I review an album that I picked up, hated and then grew to love. This is one of those. You can make suggestions/requests here]

I like Green Day. Even when I found them to be simplistic, even when they put out albums that weren’t worth buying, even when Billy Joe’s voice sounded like someone with a perpetual sinus infection, there was still something completely likable about them.

Which makes it strange that my first reaction to American Idiot was something bordering on hatred. I just couldn’t get into it. None of the songs grabbed me and everything seemed forced and contrived. Perhaps it was the mood I was in during 2004, which wasn’t a very good mood, or perhaps it was the fact that every damn song on this album seemed to be on the radio at any given time. Whatever it was, it made me not like Green Day at all.

Todd, the boyfriend, calls Green Day “The Taco Bell of music.” Basically, it’s the same five or so ingredients presented in as many different ways as possible. You’re eating the same damn thing every time you go to Taco Bell, you’re just eating it in different form, depending on what you order. It’s all the same, but different. Todd’s right, but I think this can also apply to so music, not just Green Day.

The point is, I always liked Taco Bell. But there came a point where I just had too much of it and stopped going there. I feigned hatred of the place. I acted as if I were too good to ever enjoy a Taco Supreme or Meximelt ever again. “It’s all just a variation of the same garbage,” I would say, as I drove off to Chipotle instead. Hey, this is Long Island. It’s not like there’s a taquería on every corner. Well, one day I found myself forced into a trip to Taco Bell. I cringed as I walked through the doors. But then I looked at the big board with all those wonderful, crappy food items listed and it was like being home again. Sure, it was all the same crap wrapped up in different ways, and sure, it wasn’t fine dining or anything close to real Mexican food, but it would do. It was ok. I learned to like Taco Bell again, for what it is, without expecting it to be something it wasn’t.

When I picked up American Idiot again after a self-imposed Green Day hiatus, I learned to really like the band once more, and I heard the album not as a series of consecutive radio hits, not as a message being shoved down my throat, but as pieces of a whole. I know it’s supposed to be a concept album, but I took it apart much like I once took apart a Burrito Supreme to see if it was indeed the same ingredients as a Mexican Pizza, which was the point where I said, who the hell cares what it’s called? I like the way all the ingredients taste apart as well as together. Just enjoy it.

American Idiot is a veritable feast of tastes. Yes it’s the same tastes Green Day has been serving all along, but this time there’s extra sour cream and fire sauce instead of mild. Jesus of Suburbia is a Nachobell Grande with extra everything and When September Ends is a soft taco and, I’m just going to end this analogy here before this gets out of hand.

Favorite song: Jesus of Suburbia
Taco Bell

Back when Dookie came out, I was only vaguely familiar with Green Day. I dismissed them as another pop punk band that was going to ruin the reputation of punk music and didn’t bother with them. Then came this album and suddenly Green Day was all over the radio. I resisted the call of the catchy songs until about a year later, walking through an outdoor flea market with my daughter, who was about five years old at the time. She reached up to a display of cassettes and said “DOOKIE! Mommy, buy me Dookie! Please!” It was pretty obvious she had been influenced musically by her uncle, because she did not learn the name of that album from me.

When your kid is standing in the middle of a very crowded market screaming for dookie, you do the only logical thing. You buy it for her, and bite your tongue on the “this is not punk rock” lecture that would be lost on a five year old who only wants to sing When I Come Around.

She played that cassette endlessly and I learned to appreciate Green Day for what they are: Catchy, simplistic rock music with punk rock roots and pop sensibilities, sung by a guy who sounds like he a nose full of snot. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It wouldn’t be until much later in the band’s career when someone would point out that they are the Taco Bell of punk rock. But that’s another review, later on.

My daughter still has that Dookie cassette, by the way.
Official site

Favorite song: She