Jesus of Suburbia

I admit it. For all of my "I heard them first" and "I'm over it" record snob bullshit, the first time I heard Green Day was when their third album came out: "Dookie." My punk rock scorecard was in the negatives before it ever began.

So, when Dookie came out in 1994, I was working at a record store in a small town an hour north of Detroit. Of course it was big, and in the wake of the 'alternative' successes of Nirvana, anything remotely different (and young) sounding was rotated to death on mainstream radio and MTV. I got sick of it right away. The owner of the store asked me if I thought we should order the band's older albums and I said it was a good idea because the kids are eating it up. I quickly tired of Dookie and latched onto the older records.

But then college radio happened and I suddenly had access to so much new music. I had a four hour show each week to explore everything going on in modern music. For me at the time, most of that was punk. Fat Wreck Chords started getting big, I discovered the other joys (besides early Green Day) of Lookout! Records like Screeching Weasel and the Queers and Green Day was left behind. They got too corporate for me. Okay, the band didn't, but the marketing of their music did. So I left them behind. The album "Warning" from 2000 had an interesting single, but I was too wrapped up in the local garage and trash-rock to care. Then it happened.

Their latest album, "American Idiot" from 2004 started creepin' up on me. I kept hearing the first single ("American Idiot"). I would come across it on MTV in a rare and brief moment when they were playing a video AND it wasn't a mediocre hip hop or r'n'b video. Then, barely an hour after going to the second of two funerals within a few days, I was at a bar downtown, and someone had asked them to put on American Idiot. Maybe it's just because I was in an emotional state, but it stuck with me.

Three months later, I gave in. I just got it two days ago and I can't stop listening to it. It's a fucking rock opera. Yeah, you read that right, I said rock opera. Like "Tommy" or "The Wall." Seriously. Two songs into it, and they hit you with "Jesus of Suburbia," a medley (or is it a suite?) that's almost ten minutes long. I'm floored. Early on in the song, the verses follow the chord progression and vocal phrasing of Motley Crue's "On With the Show." I am impressed. They got my attention. Then it speeds up, then it slows down and goes into an early motown riff. Amazing. I'm a seriously opinionated bastard when it comes to music, but I like this a lot. The protagonist of the story seems to be St. Jimmy. I can't quite figure out the plot (if there is one), but the record is engaging. There's so much that grabs me. Themes of isolation, loneliness, depression, disgust with American consumerism and greed.

I could get all esoteric and write something about the philosophy going on with the album, or the parallels with The Who's "Tommy," but I won't. You don't need that, you don't want that. What you do need to know is that Green Day can no longer be discounted as just another '90s punk band putting out records that all sound the same. The songwriting, the lyrics, and the themes have progressed, the band has evolved, and hopefully they'll be around much longer.