It's a bit tempting to peg Green Day's sprawling, ambitious, brilliant seventh album, American Idiot, as their version of a Who album, the next logical step forward from the Kinks-inspired popcraft of their underrated 2000 effort, Warning, but things aren't quite that simple. American Idiot is an unapologetic, unabashed rock opera, a form that ...
Sublime's eponymous major-label debut arrived a few months after the band's leader, Brad Nowell, died tragically of a heroin overdose. As a show of sympathy, the album tended to be slightly overrated in some critical quarters, who claimed that Nowell was an exceptionally gifted lyricist and musical hybridist, but Sublime doesn't quite support ...
Following the cool reception to Insomniac, Green Day retreated from the spotlight for a year to rest and spend time with their families. During that extended break, they decided to not worry about their supposedly lost street credibility and make an album according to their instincts, which meant more experimentation and less of their trademark ...
If the title Enema of the State didn't give it away, it should be clear from songs like "Dumpweed," "What's My Age Again?," and "Dysentery Gary" that moving to a major label isn't a sign of maturity for blink-182. "Dammit (Growing Up)," the first single from their third album, Dude Ranch, brought them a wider audience and the attention of major ...
In the heady days of the post-grunge mid-'90s, it was hard to see who were real and who were pretenders -- and that didn't even take into account whose music would stand the test of time and whose wouldn't. Which is a roundabout way of saying that even if Green Day's breakthrough record, Dookie, sold millions upon millions of copies, it was hard ...
By 2000, Green Day had long been spurned as unhip by the fourth-generation punks they popularized, and they didn't seem likely to replicate the MOR success of the fluke smash "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." Apparently, the success of that ballad freed the band from any classifications or stigmas, letting them feel like they could do anything ...
If anyone ever got the feeling that, in spite of its success, blink-182 has strayed much farther from its roots than the band ever expected possible (and possibly ever wanted), one listen to the eponymous disc from the side project of members Travis Barker and Thomas DeLonge would provide even more evidence. Boxcar Racer removes the tongue-in-butt ...
Sing the Sorrow, their DreamWorks debut, isn't the wholesale departure from AFI's roots that some longtime fans griped about. It is merely the next step on a path that began with 1999's Black Sails in Sunset, the first album to feature guitarist Jade Puget. Assuming the role of principal songwriter, Puget wrapped vocalist Davey Havok's gothic ...
Pieced together rather quickly, Robbin' the Hood wasn't really intended to be the follow-up to Sublime's debut, 40 Oz. to Freedom, but what is shocking is how much better the record is than its predecessor. Boasting a wider range of influences -- including elements of reggae and old-school hip-hop -- the record is a loose, infectious blend of ...
Power punk funny guys blink-182 capture their witty stage presence on the limited-edition release The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back). Celebrating the quick success of their major-label debut, 1999's Enema of the State, The Mark, Tom and Travis Show showcases playful live cuts and previously unreleased tracks and, in keeping ...
Boston's Dropkick Murphys exude an energetic rowdiness, a definite slice of punk-o-rama appeal. Fans raise their fists in the spirit of Oi!, and the Dropkicks playfully snarl into Irish-American song traditions and musical unity. On Sing Loud, Sing Proud, it became more than a family affair. The band's new lineup featuring James Lynch (guitar), ...
On their fourth studio album, Blackout, the Dropkick Murphys work with their soused punk rock style for their tightest material to date. Sure, the intensity that made The Gang's All Here and Sing Loud, Sing Proud so great is intact, but there's a bit more polish and the Dropkick Murphys' Irish-colored rock jigs have never sounded better. Bassist ...
Dookie gave Green Day success, but it was never really clear whether they wanted it in the first place. However, given the incessantly catchy songwriting of Billie Joe, the success made sense. Green Day were traditionalists without realizing it, learning all of their tricks through secondhand records and second-generation California punk bands. ...
God knows why Bon Jovi felt the need to recut its best songs in an adult alternative style with Patrick Leonard as the producer. In the thorough liner notes -- presented as an interview between Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora -- by the suddenly ubiquitous David Wild, Jon claims that the roots of the album derive from a Japanese show he ...
There comes a time in every punk's life where he or she has to grow up, or at least acknowledge that maturity is just around the corner. blink-182 put it off for as long as they could, but ten years into their career and two albums after their big breakthrough, 1999's Enema of the State, they decided to make a stab at being grown-ups for their ...
When Green Day's first album appeared, anyone predicting that fame, MTV, top-selling albums, and more would be on the horizon in the near future would have been happily patted on the head and then sent to the insane asylum. It helps to remember that Nirvana's breakthrough was still a year away, for one thing, and, for another, 1,039/Smoothed Out ...
With Prison Bound, Social Distortion began to metamorphasize from a rather ordinary L.A. hardcore band into a roots rock band willing to make with more than their share of the attitude, and this process continued on their self-titled third album (which was also their major-label debut). Musically, Mike Ness and company had learned to split the ...
Not too much has changed since we last left blink-182. You might hear the same snap, crackle, and pop that the trio has prided themselves on for almost ten years. There's even the continual cabbage-patch screech of Tom Delonge and support for rampant teen angst. But five albums later, these San Diego natives grab their rosy-cheek punkadelics and ...
In the wake of the Offspring's success, Rancid became a hot band, earning a dedicated cult and sparking a major-label bidding war. After flirting with a handful of major labels, the band decided to stick with Epitaph and returned with And Out Come the Wolves. While the title is a veiled reference to the attention the band gained, the album doesn't ...
It's clear that a lot care goes into the Hives' seemingly immediate, fired-up sound: this is a band, after all, that has only released three full-length albums in its 11-year lifespan. While the 2002 collection Your New Favourite Band ended up winning the group many more fans thanks to its fortuitous timing with the garage rock revival craze (and ...
Rancid never win any points for originality, but originality isn't their goal. Rancid want to be, to quote an old Clash slogan, "the only band that matters." Where the Clash earned that title by mixing genres, blending the old with the new, Rancid decide to be traditional, spiking the Clash's sound with ska-punk and hardcore. Musically, that might ...
Longtime fans of independent punk giants NOFX will be happy that for Pump Up the Valuum the band changed absolutely nothing about their sound. All the songs follow the group's now standard three-chord punk style with witty songs that rip on the world around them. The most notable tracks are those that take aim at the music business. "Dinosaurs ...
With no desire to ease fans into the explosive terrain of II, Billy Talent immediately detonate the ominous "Devil in a Midnight Mass" with an electrified energy that most bands need cases of Red Bull (or actual electrocution) to pull off convincingly. Presided over by the furiously snotty vocal cords of Ben Kowalewicz -- who can yelp, sing, and ...
Coming off the heels of a stellar debut release, Kutless releases its sophomore disc Sea of Faces. Produced by Aaron Sprinkle, Sea of Faces is the type of disc to make a band's career. The discs rockers, like "Not What You See" and "Treason," are studio spit-shined. Sprinkles production touches throughout give the opus the legs to stride to the ...
Gogol Bordello is a group that will never slow down. Album after album, show after show, Eugene Hütz and his group of enthusiastic, disheveled gypsies continue to make fantastically inventive, provocative, smart, raucous music that refuses to be categorized or confined. But Gogol Bordello isn't trying to separate itself from the crowd in order to ...
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