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 ...
Green Day couldn't have had a blockbuster without Nirvana, but Dookie wound up being nearly as revolutionary as Nevermind, sending a wave of imitators up the charts and setting the tone for the mainstream rock of the mid-'90s. Like Nevermind, this was accidental success, the sound of a promising underground group suddenly hitting its stride just ...
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 ...
On their third album, Dude Ranch, blink-182 follow in the same path as their first two, turning out 15 tracks of juvenile, adrenaline-fueled punk-pop. Some listeners will find their potty humor ("Dick Lips") somewhat irritating, but the group has written some surprisingly catchy hooks, which might win over skeptics. The songwriting is still a ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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), ...
Flogging Molly boasts a feisty Irish heart and pub rock influences aplenty on Drunken Lullabies, an boisterous collection of hyper-energetic songs rendered in a rush of patriotic frenzy. Lead singer Dave King leads an raucous army of guitars, violins, whistles, and accordions through torrid tales of freedom, political struggle, love found, and ...
The Offspring's second album for Epitaph did the impossible: it landed in the Top Five, unheard of for independent records. The Offspring crossed over due to the raucous, Eastern-tinged single "Come Out and Play," which stopped and started just like Nirvana, only without the Seattle trio's recklessness. The record stayed in the charts because the ...
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 ...
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 ...
Contrary to the popular belief of music critics, listeners and artists alike, a band that doesn't deviate from its genre on its albums isn't musically limited. There are many layers to any given genre of music, and growing into it is just as much of an accomplishment as, say, experimenting with several different categories. What's wrong with ...
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 ...
Less Than Jake's major-label debut, Losing Streak, is a reasonably engaging collection of frenzied, party-ready metallic ska-punk. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
With their debut, 40 Oz. to Freedom, Sublime attempt to have it both ways. The group wants to appeal to alterna-punks, but they want to cut a little deeper and make some sort of social statement, both with their lyrics and their self-consciously eclectic music. Since the group has a knack for combining dancehall reggae with hardcore punk, the ...
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 ...
Though adamantly anti-major-label at one point in their career, Anti-Flag finally decided to emerge from the underground and make the leap from the indie world to the realms of RCA in April 2005. Thus, after being together for over ten years and boasting almost as many releases, For Blood and Empire marks Anti-Flag's entry into the big leagues. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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