Blogcritics: Comments on Green Day - Dookie

Comment by kudd45

Sat, 29 May 2004 22:26:59 EDT

funny stuff aaron, i was hardly suggesting that anyone who is a true fan must know EVERYTHING there is tto know about a band. i was just saying people who have only heard of dookie ans eveerything after it, don't fully know the scope of the band. Jeez yall are sensitive here.

Comment by Aaron, Duke De Mondo

Sat, 29 May 2004 11:39:47 EDT

kudd, i presume you refer to Kerplunk and 1039 / Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. i bought both of them on cassette, but since upgraded kerplunk to CD on account of The Duchess bought me it a couple years ago. Although i don't have the 7 inch singles that made up a third of the first album ,so maybe im not a "true fan"?

Comment by Mark Edward Manning

Fri, 28 May 2004 19:26:02 EDT

Thanks, RJ. It's so ironic that just before you posted this, I'd just broken out my CD copy of "Dookie," and I'm still listening to it. I'll never forget that warm May evening in 1994 when I arrived home with the CD; I'd previously heard "Longview" on the radio, and knew I'd like the band. I was entranced. It was punk rock, but not too hard. You could tell that these guys had pop chops, and that they laced their angst-ridden rock with it. "Basket Case" is definitely the high point of the album, the best song and centerpiece. "In the End," "Chump," and "She" are also great songs. The whole album flows, from one pithy song to the next, but the fact that these guys write about abuse, depression and inter-city boredom is what makes them authentic. The Ramones began out of inner-city boredom too, and a genuine desire to raze the music scene back down to the ground of four chords and something real to say. Green Day, after wallowing through the mess that was the late '80s and early '90s, did the same thing and contributed a lot to the changing rock scene in the mid to late '90s. Maybe Green Day are washed up today, but it will happen again. The music scene has grown tired, poisoned by American Idol/boy band/Britney Spears type garbage. The airwaves have been polluted by this faux music for four years running. It won't be long, I suspect, before some other band shakes things up and did what Green Day did, and the Ramones before them. (Sum 41 made a valiant effort, but didn't quite make the ultimate breakthrough.)

Comment by kudd45

Fri, 28 May 2004 09:51:34 EDT

Thanx EO. knew someone here had to know.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Fri, 28 May 2004 09:42:59 EDT

Blog: contraction of "web log," i.e., personal journalism web site. + Critics: those who discuss and evaluate cultural artifacts. = Blogcritics.org: News and reviews of popular culture by over 400 superior bloggers

Comment by kudd45

Fri, 28 May 2004 09:34:15 EDT

got one more really quick question, it's extremely irrelevant but i see your name posted all over this site brick so i figure who better to ask than you. What is Blog? A word im unaware of, or just slang im unaware of? Is it B.L.O.G. where each letter stands for something? just curious

Comment by BRICKLAYER

Fri, 28 May 2004 09:22:46 EDT

KuDD, dude I was just playin'. I do disagree with you about Green Day being passe'. I think they've made consistently quality music, and yes, I do have the pre-Dookie output-on cassette mind you-and I remember the whole major label signing controversy, and I'm glad that they (unlike some other faves of mine like the Replacements, Husker Du, Jawbox, Jawbreaker) survived the jump to the bigs and have continued to thrive as a band. I think that in terms of live energy, and quality albums they are still very relevant. Then again, I'm listening to Venom right now, so take what I say with a flake of meth.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Fri, 28 May 2004 08:52:44 EDT

I believe Bricky's other distinction is that Green Day is a punk(ish) band, not a grunge band, which, other than Nirvana which derived from both traditions, is a very different kettle of phish, rising up from the smoldering remains of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath rather than the tadition of the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks, X, etc. So the humor derives not just from the fact that side projects of defunct grunge bands are some of the farther tendrils on the great tree of musical relevance, but also they are drawing what little sap they can muster from a different trunk entirely. RJ, you're a smart and clever guy: there is some truth to the observation that fully-formed thoughts expressed at some length from you would dispel some of the criticism that is really about style rather than content. Tossing bombs is fine, but interspersing them with well-tended and fruitful furrows would be very nice as well.

Comment by kudd45

Fri, 28 May 2004 08:39:02 EDT

Hey 3rd teir is just not the status of AIC, at least in many people's minds. I wasn't trying to tell people something brilliant and revolutionary, i was just suggesting a couple albums that have been overlooked by most grunge fans and i thought it good to spread the word about quality music. Whether staley is dead or not makes no difference about the quality of his side projects, but i do agree it was pretty funny that i went on to praise n actual dead guy. nice obsevation bricklayer

Comment by BRICKLAYER

Fri, 28 May 2004 08:26:10 EDT

And then KuDD goes on to tip us off on a band whose lead singer really IS dead! Thanks for the heads up! Can you recommend any other 3rd tier "grunge-folk" bands for me? Dude, that is way too funny! You are killing ME!

Comment by kuDD45

Fri, 28 May 2004 08:02:33 EDT

Green Day is dead! don't mean to be rude but come on. I liked as much as anybody at one point but.... it's time to wave goodbye. By the way anyone know the names of the albums before dookie? there's a sign of a true fan... knowing it all, not just the popular stuff. Couple suggestion for you fellows grunge-folk..... there was a couple spin-offs from Alice in Chains, Mad Season which consists of Layne staley(AIC lead singer) and some Pearl jam members. It is fuckin sweet but has never got much attention. Also Jerry Cantrell's (lead guitarist, AIC) has released two solo albums which are both good, not AIC good, but still well worth your time. P.S. sorry if I come off as an arrogant dick, don't mean to be, it just the way i write.

Comment by Dan

Thu, 27 May 2004 18:43:35 EDT

I like "when I come around" best, then "basket case".

Comment by Aaron, Duke De Mondo

Thu, 27 May 2004 18:18:28 EDT

RJ, this is one of my fave albums too, and a highly influencial one in the life de duke. i still get all obsessive about green day, and own pretty much everything they put out since dookie. (i have the two earlier albums too, but obviously they were purchased in retrospect or whatever). They got a lot of flack for being succesful. And for the major label carry on and so on. Remind me again, how many major labels were the sex pistols signed to? uh, 3. Before they released a single album. thats 3 right there. 3 major labels. And yet no one shouted sell out until they reformed twenty years later.

Comment by RJ Elliott

Thu, 27 May 2004 17:16:20 EDT

Yeah, Smash was one of my early favs as well. And Nevermind by Nirvana too.

Comment by brown_boognish

Thu, 27 May 2004 17:09:19 EDT

This album and Smash by the offspring got me into music. Before I was pretty much a passive listener, after those two modern punk albums I became obsessed with music.

Comment by Mark Saleski

Thu, 27 May 2004 10:51:49 EDT

yea, they sure do know what early punk means. their performance of the Ramones tunes kinda reminded me of when Foo Fighters played along with Queen on "Tie Your Mother Down". cripes, i thought Grohl was gonna have an orgasm right there on stage.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Thu, 27 May 2004 10:07:08 EDT

B, I agree it's been overlooked, which would give it the underdog appeal, but I don't think it's as strong as Dookie and Warning from the song standpoint. Another thing that really opened up my eyes about Green Day was their performance of Ramones songs when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock Hall and chose not to play. They ripped through those tunes liked they owned them.

Comment by BRICKLAYER

Thu, 27 May 2004 10:02:50 EDT

Mr. O, What do you think about "Insomniac"? I feel that album has been overlooked because it didn't produce as many hits, but it is a great record, maybe my fave of theirs.

Comment by Eric Olsen

Thu, 27 May 2004 09:34:23 EDT

It's still smoking hot - in some ways Green Day is underrated due to their tremendous commercial success. I talk about Dookie here and Warning here.

Comment by BRICKLAYER

Thu, 27 May 2004 09:17:09 EDT

They were cranking this album at a nice juicy loud volume at Hot Topic the other day and it stills sounds great. I had to stay a little longer to check out the West Coast Chopper diecasts and Quincy punk honeys behind the counter, just to hear a few more songs.

Comment by Kudd45

Thu, 27 May 2004 02:48:00 EDT

People still listen to this album? how strange. Was one of my first albums too but i gave it up by twelve. Good to here tht someone actually stuck with em though, seems like everyone kinda let green day fade without much thought. If you like this album may i suggest checking out what i believe was there first album, it's called 1000 hours of slappy something something something, i can't recall. This album is not as catchy and goofy as dookie but is far superior in my mind. Keep rockin to green day..... someone ought to.

Comment by Lono

Thu, 27 May 2004 02:34:57 EDT

um... no. But, you have inspired me (and hopefully others) to discuss their favorite album. Thanks, lono