Music A to Z 08.21.09: H is For...

Posted by Chris Crowing on 08.21.2009

Hatebreed, Hell is for Heroes and some of my personal individual musical heroes - Chino Moreno, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, James Hetfield, Jerry Cantrell, Jon Crosby and Trent Reznor.



OK, H proved to be a hard letter to fill out for me. Of course, I could have selected Hole to fill one slot, but as has been shown in the past, my conversation of that band always ends up being a vitriolic rant on how much I dislike Courtney Love in particular, and a tangent onto how I find most Riot Grrrl tropes to be hypocritical, counter-productive and fundamentally boring. Don't get me started...

So, instead of a third act this week, I'm going to do a quick run down on a few individual musicians who have meant the most to me as my musical taste has grown, Chino Moreno, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, James Hetfield, Jerry Cantrell, Jon Crosby and Trent Reznor and a nod of the head to a few more who I feel walk amongst us as shining with blessed talent and creativity.



For those who are keeping track, the choice of my birthday presents (thus far, theres still some to come in) was an iPod touch from my loving girlfriend and a CD of new material to trawl through from one of my best friends. Top find so far is Russian Circles who come across like an instrumental cross between Mastodon and Tool. Yes, that IS as good as it sounds.

Releases

Oh my, isn't there a LOT to look forward to?

"Check My Brain" the second lead single from Alice in Chains' upcoming album is currently being teased, as well as played on their recent European festival tour. Not quite as good, but a deal more accessible than "A Looking In View", the omens are looking very good that Black Gives Way To Blues could be a serious contender for my record of the year.



September will also see the release of Muse's new record The Resistance and I absolutely refuse to be put off by the mildly overblown disappointment that was "United States of Eurasia." It was a joke, right?

Shows

My autumn seems to be filling up with shows, as I currently have (or expect to receive) tickets for Muse, Depeche Mode, Green Day, Skunk Anansie, Orbital, Alice Cooper, Dream Theater & Opeth, Eddie Izzard, Papa Roach, Shadows Fall & Five Finger Death Punch finishing up with Henry Rollins in January.

OK, this is not all Rollins but it IS genius.



Between that, a few solo acoustic shows of my own and finally getting my rock band into gig shape should keep me occupied. It's good to be busy!

Shock Horror! Calvin Harris Speaks Sense

Petulant dance producer Calvin Harris has blamed poor reviews of his newly released record on the music industry (and the music press in particular) being full of rich people who got jobs from their relatives.

I am forced to say he has a point, as most mainstream music press is clearly defined by how much they get paid to push a band, as opposed to how good the staff writers really think they are. The BASIC mistakes I see in many publications (especially the Daily Record's Saturday supplement) are sure fire signs that these arrogant swine don't care much about music or doing their research.

OK, so I make the occasional journalistic error, but I'm writing in my spare time for no recompense, gimme a break! It's inexcusable if you are getting PAID.

My personal axe to grind here come from spending YEARS sending CVs into DF Concerts (Scotland's premier gig promoter) asking to do any work to get my foot in the door with the company and not even getting a ‘thanks for your letter, but…' note in reply. Then I start working in a major box office and nary does a week pass that some upper middle class oik with a scene haircut and a fake posh accent is demanding backstage passes because he's working the show tonight.

So, Calvin's assertion that the industry is full of idiotic arrogant tools who have power and position through nepotism and brown nosing is almost certainly entirely true, and is proof positive why you should read more on sites like 411 – it's our opinion alone, and NONE of us get paid for putting forward this or that opinion. Except maybe Mitch.

However, Calvin didn't complain when he was the talk of the town two years ago and a vast amount of (paid for) airplay made tunes like "Acceptable In the Eighties" massively successful. So he's happy to trash the system when it doesn't suit him, but willing to go with the flow when it does? Poor diddums! I bet his new album is a pile of stinking monkey-poo in any case…



* Please note, all 'Best...' designations are merely this writers opinion, and stand as a recommendation for new fans, rather than an attempt to make a definitive statement. I'll likely change my mind by next week anyway.

Hatebreed

What:Hardcore Legends, also described as Metalcore or part of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Lol!
From: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
In the Beginning: Formed in 1994 to be a 'back to basics' hardcore band, three well recieved EPs were followed by debut record Satisfaction is the Death of Desire becoming Victory Records best selling debut ever.
Best Album*: Perseverance, The Rise of Brutality
Best Song*: "I Will Be Heard", "Live For This"
Recently...: a self titled album is set to be released on September 29th, 2009.

I'll admit at the start that I've never been the biggest fan of the Hardcore approach, finding the shouty vocals and incessant beat-downs a bit dull after a while. However, I fully appreciate that elements of this style have become some of the most important things which define the metal of this decade from that of previous times, and when it's done well, it's some of the catchiest, most anthemic heavy music going.

Hatebreed are probably the most popular or well known modern hardcore band going (notice the ‘modern' designation, so don't beat my nut about Bad Brains or whatever), and while their thunder has been somewhat stolen by some of their NWOAHM or metal-core brethren (damn them for pussying out and using melodies!) they have a clutch of songs which would be mainstays of my DJ set if I ever got a gig in a rock club. I am accepting offers…



Hatebreed, while IMHO often falling into the common hardcore trap of monotony, have at times perfected the art of the rolling, fists-in-the-air, pit-inducing rock anthem with their own personal style.

While I don't subscribe to being a hardcore kid (in fact, they bug the hell out of me with their wildly wheeling arms in the pit) I have rarely heard songs as stark and emotive as "Live for This" or "I Will Be Heard" for declaring my choice of lifestyle, music and personal integrity to the world.



Of course, the multi-tattooed and pierced, kick throwing teenage bitches who tend to style themselves as ‘hardcore kids' bug the hell out of me for obvious reasons (flame me if you like, I'll set it all out in small words for you next week if you don't ‘get' that,) and I can't subscribe to some of the more worryingly right-wing tendencies espoused by some such acts, but I must doff my cap to Hatebreed's ability to carve memorable songs which have me baying along for more, and light a fire inside my alternative soul declaring my uncompromising autonomy and right to exist.

Is that a tad too cerebral? Perhaps it is, but it best explains the appeal of such music to such as me.

Hell is for Heroes

What: Post-Hardcore (apparently), alt-indie group
From: London, England
In the Beginning: Having tasted some success as part of Symposium (who I loved) in the late 90s, Joe Birch and Will MacGonagle recruited school friends Findlay and O'Donoghue and singer Justin Schlosberg to start again. The band were picked up by EMI after a few independent singles and released the debut album in 2003.
Best Album*: The Neon Handshake
Best Song*: "You Drove Me To It", "I Can Climb Mountains", "Retreat", "Slow Song"
Recently...: following being dropped and the lack of success of Transmit Disrupt and Hell is for Heroes the band went on indefinite hiatus from October 2008

I LOVED Symposium as a teenager. They were one of those bands, like Ash, Placebo and My Vitriol who managed to tread a line between my previous affiliation to indie music and my newfound passion for alternative music. Basically indie with riffs and attitude. Anyways after a self released last single "Killing Position" – which is awesome and well deserving of being checked out by the way – the band split up under internal pressure.

The drummer and ‘other' guitarist decided to try again and formed a band with some old school friends and eventually found a new singer. Their experience and reputation allowed the band to get signed reasonably quickly and their debut album The Neon Handshake did pretty darned well, powered by catchy singles "I Can Climb Mountains" and "You Drove Me To It" getting some decent radio and MTV rotation.



That album was one of only a few dozen in my collection that has cover to cover quality, which I can happily listen to from the first track to the last. Reviews at the time and my own opinions favourably compare the Neon Handshake with many contemporary releases by bands like Funeral for a Friend or Hundred Reasons.



Yes, in retrospect I guess that if it was released now, it would be regarded as an emo record but that just goes to show what an overblown and effectively meaningless designation emo actually is. I'd call them an alt.rock band with indie and nu-metal tendencies (Hmnn … topic for essay – are the Deftones rap-rock, nu-metal, post-hardcore, alternative metal or what?)

Of course (as I have discussed at length in the past) such labels are meaningless, and the songs produced by this band interest and move me to this day. They really are better than their relative footnote in musical history

Unfortunately for whatever reason (I'm going to suspect the likes of Funeral for a Friend, Lostprophets and Bullet for My Valentine getting better press, sales and tours eroding their confidence) their following albums were not as good and received virtually no press, meaning the band went on hiatus in 2008.



I'd love to see them back, or even better a Symposium reunion, but in any case, Hell is for Heroes brief career shines as an example of how a good band can virtually vanish due to industry apathy and how a ‘one record' career doesn't necessarily mean you were a bad band.

My Own Heroes (Love It)

Chino Moreno

What: Nu-metal veteran, vocal legend
From: Sacramento, California, USA
Bands?: Deftones, Team Sleep
Best Album*: Around the Fur, White Pony
Best Song*: "7 Words", "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)", "Digital Bath", "Change (In the House of Flies)", "Minerva"

Following my initial headlong rush into alternative music with the likes of Metallica, Pantera and Fear factory, I looked up from the mix tapes I had been given and started looking about for new bands. The Deftones figured heavily in Kerrang!'s year end polls, and I saw the single for "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" on-sale for £1.99 (about four dollars at the time) so I took a chance, bought it, took it home and fell in love. Chino's voice had a quality which was lacking in the rest of my collection at the time. The Deftones as a band had an element which I'd been missing.



By that time, I was more than at home with aggression in music and vocals, and with the sort of happy-go-lucky pop punk exuberance. The Deftones were heavy, yet subtle. Chino's voice soared more than it roared, and there were little extra bits to the guitar parts that showed they were a cut above the rest.

Around the Fur and Adrenaline were swiftly added to my burgeoning collection, and the discovery of the Deftones set me off on a new path to discover heavy bands who also had that sense of melody, of grandeur without pretence. That one CD purchase has eventually led me to the likes of Tool, A Perfect Circle, System of a Down and a better understanding of why Faith No More are good (that one took me years to get.)



Chino is on this list of heroes as he showed me that a rock singer doesn't need to affect a southern drawl, grunt, snarl, scream or growl into the mike. He can sing. He can soar. He can harmonize. Being a product of a choral/musical family, that meant a lot to me and it ripped one of those walls we build to segment our musical taste tumbling down.

Dave Grohl

What: Best drummer in the world, nicest man in rock, also happens to front the best mainstream rock band in the world. If he wasn't so nice, you'd hate him.
From: Warren, Ohio, USA
Bands?: Foo Fighters (guitar, vocals, drums), Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Killing Joke, Probot, Scream, Them Crooked Vultures (drums)
Best Album*: Songs for the Deaf, The Color and the Shape
Best Song*: "No One Knows", "Everlong", "Monkey Wrench", "My Hero"

Dave Grohl is the nicest man in rock, and his place on this list is assured because he has written a sizeable proportion of my favourite ever songs. "Everlong" and "My Hero" are possibly the two songs which move me the most and "Monkey Wrench" is the most fun you can have on guitar, possibly the best ‘dumb fun' rock song I've ever heard.



However, Grohl is an even more talented drummer, and it is no coincidence that he occupied the stool for Queens of the Stone Age's best album. The interplay between the bass and the drums ion "No One Knows" is an absolute master-class in my opinion – and as a singer/guitarist for a rythmn section to stand out for me, it has to be pretty damned special.



Dave Grohl played in LEGENDARY hardcore band Scream, made Nirvana the best band they could be and has led the Foo Fighters to being the most consistently good straight up rock band on the planet. Lemmy, Max Cavalera and Cronos jump into action when he asks them to play with him, he's played guest drums for QOTSA, Pearl Jam and Killing Joke. Now, he's jamming with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones.

What a legend!

Eddie Vedder

What: The most recognisable and imitated singer of the last twenty years. Grunge Godfather.
From: Evanston, Illinois, USA
Bands?: Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog
Best Album*: Ten, Vs.
Best Song*: "Black", "Jeremy", "Rearviewmirror", "Given to Fly", "I Am Mine"

Eddie Vedder is on this list for three reasons.

One, his lyrical and vocal skills are legendary. Songs like "Black", "Jeremy" and "Rearviewmirror" and seared into my soul, both from the power of the words, and the force of their delivery. It is no mistake that two whole generations of alt.rock/grunge singers have been adding some Vedder-esque throat to their vocals in an attempt to capture some of the man's power.



Two, when he saw Ticketmaster were basically raping both band and fans over their ticket pricing policy, he turned and walked away from a massive payday in the name of his principles. You've got to respect that in a man.

Three, he has always been one of the most intelligent and articulate rock stars I have ever heard. His occasional untterances on a variety of issues, and the regular depth, insight and thoughtfulness shown in his lyrics (which have increasingly been a highlight as Pearl Jam's music loses it's urgency and verve in favour of a more restrained, folksy tone) make me respect him deeply.

From "Jeremy", to "World Wide Suicide" he apprroaches tough isses, both social and political with a maturity and empathy that a million bands try to channel and never can.

James Hetfield

What: The best rythmn guitarist ever. The face of heavy metal since 1986. My ultimate hero.
From: Downey, California
Bands?: Metallica, Spastik Children
Best Album*: Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets
Best Song*: "Fade to Black", "Master of Puppets", "One", "Enter Sandman",

If it wasn't for Metallica, it is entirely possible that I would not be the music fan or musician that I am. That thought horrifies me on a deeply personal level. While credit must be shown to the whole band (whichever incarnation pleases you) it is undoubtedly Hetfield's charisma, riffs and songwriting which changed me from being AN Other Oasis fan to the ravening consumer of music, and appreciator of passion, sogwriting, creativity and riffage that I am today.

For all (as I have said before) it was "Until It Sleeps" which started that transformation, the real damage (or good, depending on your PoV) was done with Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. I have simply never heard heavy music played with such virtuosity, passion and songwriting verve.



But you don't get to be my ultimate hero just by being a virtuoso. Hetfield's larger-than-life persona appeals to me. yes, he is an alcoholic, a control freak and a bit of a prick, but he is also the greatest walking example of what a rock frontman should be, strong, confident to the point of arrogance, able to back up his bluster with furious riffage or evident physicality.

It almost increases James' stature in my eyes that he has talked so eloquently about his issues, and makes no apology for the way he strikes poses, aknowledging that his tattoos, rckstar persona and loud cars are all a front. Would that more rock stars were as self aware!

But of course, it is the songs which seal the deal, and this is the man who wrote "Master of Puppets" and "Fade to Black" as well as showing he's a cut above the rest twenty years in with last years sterling effort in Death Magnetic.



The best musical accoalde I could EVER be given would be Hetfield telling me I wrote a good riff. End of story.

Jerry Cantrell

What: Grunge godfather.
From: Tacoma, Washington, USA
Bands?: Alice in Chains
Best Album*: Dirt
Best Song*: "Would?", "Rooster", "Down in a Hole", "Get Born Again"

I discovered Cantrell late on, what with not getting into Alice in Chains until mere weeks before Layne Staley's tragic demise. However, I soon fell in love with his work, seeming as it does to me to be an ideal bridge between Sabbath influenced, Metallica & Pantera style metal riffage, with the more thoughtful, even sedate indie and folk music which characetrised my early teens and infancy respectively.



Many set more store by Layne Staley's legendary voice, but without Cantrell, Staley is a voice without a song, and it is worth remembering that on almost every memorable AiC song, Jerry sings either a lead or strong backing vocal.

Between "Them Bones", "Down in a Hole" and "Would?" (all on the same album no less) Cantrell and his cohorst show everything that is good in rock music. Emotion, aggression, empathy and bundles of talent. The quality of the 'new' Alice in Chains material just goes to show exactly HOW good Jerry Cantrell actually is. This is not a comeback, it's a reaffirmation of awesomeness.



Riff lord, singer/songwriter par excellence and all round nice guy - Jerry Cantrell is the musician I would most like to be.

Jon Crosby

What: Musical prodigy, best songwriter I have ever heard.
From: Los Angeles, California, USA
Bands?: VAST, Jon Crosby & the Resonator Band, Bang Band Sixx
Best Album*: Visual Audio Sensory Theater, April
Best Song*: "Touched", "Pretty When You Cry", "Flames", "Lost", "I Need to Say Goodbye", "Take Me With You"

The least well known of my heroes, Jon Crosby is the driving force behind VAST and as such is my favourite songwriter.

His first album Visual Audio Sensory Theater taught me that music can be emotive and dark without conventional heaviness, with it's sweeping electronic melodies and Gregorian chanting over some very effective guitar work.



His later albums are perhaps more conventional, but each is full of songs of such sweeping musical power and the most incisive lyrics I have ever heard. Most bands I like have one song which can move me to tears, Jon has at least six.

(Apologies for the cheesy Supernatural video, I couldn't find the official one)



Furthermore, he was the only 'name' musician who responded when I sent out questionnaires for my Honours Dissertation, and he'll always have my respect and thanks for that ten minutes of his time he took to e-mail that back to me.

Trent Reznor

What: Electronic & Alternative Music Deity
From: Mercer, Pennsylvania, USA
Bands?: Nine Inch Nails and others
Best Album*: Pretty Hate Machine. The Downward Spiral, Year Zero
Best Song*: "Sin", "Heresy", "Hurt", "The Great Observer"

Along with Pitchshifter, Nine Inch Nails are the act who finally allowed me to reoncile my guitar-based rock persona with a growing respect for electronica and my early teenage dabblings with techno and such, but that's not why I love Trent.



Trent was possibly the most brutally honest and direct songwriter of the past few decades who retained his intelligence. Unafraid to bear his emotions in visceral style on songs like "Hurt", creating the starkest agnostic statement I have ever heard with "Heresy" and venting his wrath at all the ills of the world in a long list of songs which will be know to you all, including "March of the Pigs", "Starfuckers Inc." etc. etc.

More punk than any pop-punk or emo band, more metal than a lot of metalcore, from Pretty Hate Machine to the Fragile, Trent WAS the alternative aesthetic made flesh. Some say he's mellowed out, but you have to admit, if he hadn't he'd be dead, and we can do withiout someone else following Layne's example...



That said, With Teeth is a masterclass in production and Ghosts I-IV and Year Zero were brave leaps into overtly less commercial ground.

I don't believe he's given up touring, give him a few years of rest and he'll be climbing the walls to come back to us...

--- --- --- --- --- ---

and because I am OF COURSE, very much in love with more than this handful of talents, I present the best of the rest for a brief round of applause...
Billy Corgan (the Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan), Bjork (Snot, KUKL, Sugarcubes, Bjork), Burton C Bell & Dino Cazares & Christian Olde Wolbers (Fear Factory), Claudio Sanchez (Coheed & Cambria, the Prize Fighter Inferno, Kill Audio, Fire Deuce), Cliff Burton (Metallica), Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), Darrell 'Dimebag' Abbot (Pantera, Damageplan), Matt Bellamy (Muse), Maynard James Keenan (Tool, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle), Mark & JS Clayden (Pitchshuifter, This Is Menace), Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas, Mr Bungle, Peeping Tom), Nic Holmes (Paradise Lost), Phil Anselmo (Pantera, Superjoint Ritual, Down), Rob Flynn (Machine Head), Serj Tankian & Daron Malakian (System of a Down), Shirley Manson (Garbage), Skin (Skunk Anansie), Stephen Carpenter & Chi Cheng (Deftones), Stone Gossard & Jeff Ament & Mike MaCready (Pearl Jam), Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne) - plus probably a few more I'll think of just as soon as I post this. In all seriousness, every single act mentioned in this list is worthy of hero worship as a whole and should be checked out.

I accept this list is very much biased towards singers and guitarists from bands across a relatively narrow and dated band which you could loosely call 'alternative' music, ranging from metal and industrial to alt rock and grunge. I think I've managed to show over the 9 months or so I've been writing for 411 that my frame of reference is a great deal wider, but I'd say this quick homage is a pretty good example of my 'home territory' musically speaking. As such, it's a malleable, changeable and intensely personal list, so don't even THINK about telling me I'm wrong because you'd have included so-and-so and think that A.N. Other is crap and not worthy of inclusion.



Bake and 411's own Jesse Coy wanted some GWAR.

Alex said G= GUNS N' ROSES

I have to say that nether GWAR nor GN'R even occurred to me. GWAR didn't get in because I've scarecely ever listened to them, and to me, they are just that band who play in monster suits who are older and somehow more worthy than Lordi. I know there is more, please forgive my ignorance.

Guns N' Roses on the other hand didn't get considered because when I was initially writing up the shortlist for inclusion, they were Artist of the Month, and I've submitted or contributed to at least three articles to this site referring to them. They are undoubtedly worthy of discussion, but everything that can be said, has been said in the aftermath of Chinese Democracy and I figure talking about them is a tad redundant. Best to let the dust settle, and thus perhaps they'll get in next time.

The marvelously monikered Chungles did NOT approve of my Green Day rant, thus...
Urgh, the only thing worse than whiney little scene-jumping emo bitches is formerly whiney little scene-jumping pop-punk bitches who discard of bands they like the second that band begins to appeal to a wider audience.

So you think, rather than grow up and display a little more maturity in their music, they should have stuck to their natural immature, scatological-tinged tendencies, yet you complain about them dumbing down for their new, more populous younger audience?

You dismiss them for growing up, yet simultaneously accuse them of playing up to the apparently 'dumber' new fans?

I'm personally not the most avid listener of their stuff, nor am I particularly enamoured with the notion of 'scenes' or the concept of musical interests being dictated by fashion, but I can't help but scoff at your pathetic little tirade.

Boo hoo, a whole new audience of little kids like their music. The problem isn't with Green Day, but with your sad little display of elitism ('I can't be seen as being one of them! I listen to Fugazi!'). You're letting the popularity of the band decide your opinion on them, rather than the music; attempting to disguise that fact behind several whiney paragraphs doesn't fool me.

-sound of cracking knuckles-

Thank you Chungles, (if that is your real name) you have given me an excellent platform with which to further back up my prior rant.

Firstly, I was never a 'scene-jumping pop punk bitch' because I have NEVER called myself that. Indeed, back when Green Day and the Offspring were tearing up the charts, I was too rabidly consuming all forms of music to claim one genre like that. I'll freely admit the first Offspring song I bought was "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy". I guess I called myself a metalhead, but in truth that wasn't true, as I listened to as much Garbage and Stereophonics as Metallica, Pantera or pop punk, or indie, or dance music.

I believe in alternativity and individuality, and don't get overly precious about any particular scene or genre.

Secondly, I never said they dumbed down for their new fanbase, and I do not dismiss them for growing up.

As a rule, I am all in favour of a band maturing. In fact, I tend to lose respect for bands who do not mature, as it shows they are still teenagers inside, and that's quite a worrying indictment of their character and shows they have nothing but a catchy melody and hooky lyrics to offer.

My reason for taking offense to Green Day's current style is the way it all seems so premeditated, like they sat down and had a meeting and said 'we need to maintain mainstream success, so let's slow down our stuff, stop being likeable scamps and gain credibility by starting to talk about politics and call our music punk rock opera, the critics and the kids will eat it up.'

Now, that would be almost acceptable if the music had stayed interesting, catchy and varied. A maturely thought out political tirade would have been just as valid had they kept some of the musical snap which made the albums up to Nimrod so interesting and fun.

Green Day's old style was one part teenage rebellion and one part Beautiful South style social commentary – in truth they were never ‘that' immature, and their old songs are quite heartfelt reflections of the honest concerns of a young person's life. For example "Pulling Teeth" as a song about domestic violence and mental control, or "Walking Alone" as a parable of disassociation. Compare these honest, mature-yet-catchy tunes to the dull, monotonous drone and whine which fills their recent records.

New Green Day is either overblown, half assed or downright dull. Their past two albums have produced exactly one good song - "St. Jimmy" and a few quite dull yet serviceable hit singles. American Idiot isn't BAD as an album, but it is DULL.

I won't deny that it annoys me that Green Day's new material is ridiculously popular with the current generation, many of whom seem to be vapid idiots pretending to be emotive and intellectual. That said, I'm sure the bulk of my alt.rock/nu-metal generation were (and remain) of the same contemptible stock. In fact, I KNOW this to be true.

What bugs me more is that when I go to see them (and I will, for FREE no less) the songs I REALLY want to hear, like "She", "Panic Song" or "Haushinka" will be either cut from the set entirely, or will be thrown out as a sop to the old fans (and to the complete bemusement of the new fans) in favour of all the attention being paid to lame new material like "Know Your Enemy" or worse, "21 Guns."

This is not a display of ‘elitism' and I'll freely admit to listening to old Green Day, Limp Bizkit, Richard Cheese and piles of utter nonsense a LOT more than ‘worthy' bands like Fugazi.

My take on the likes of Fugazi is that they are good, evidently praise worthy and ‘for real' but at the end of the day, don't actually tickle me all that much. OK, I do rate bands on their ‘technical awesomeness' but for all that I love bands like Opeth, Mastodon, Russian Circles or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, I'll always tend towards songs, hence my love for Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl and Jerry Cantrell.

I'm not pissed at Green Day because they fail to be Fugazi, but because they stopped being Green Day.

So, to sum up. My annoyance at Green Day is not down to their increased popularity* – they were pretty darned big back in the day – but in the fact that they callously mellowed out, became musically uninteresting, while adopting a front of maturity which seems wafer thin and woefully and obviously commercial in aspect. It's easy for a band to get older, without growing old, or losing their fire as the likes of Metallica, Blink 182 (before they split, they were proceeding nicely), Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters and many more less celebrated acts shows.

Modern Green Day seem to be the result of a cunning marketing ploy to ensnare the love of the kids – which is fine, if the tunes back up the hype, but the thing is THEY DON'T.

In fact, I'm not so much annoyed at Green Day, as sorry for the kids who have been led to believe that stuff like "Know Your Enemy" is edgy, emotional, political or in any way, particularly good. It's not,

* Also how can you accuse me of being an elitist when I clearly like bands who are massively popular? My Metallica love is well established, and last week I talked about Godsmack and Garbage who have sold MILLIONS of records. A little perspective please.

and lastly Michael James kindly said Good work on the rant, its good to put a "mature" perspective out there....

I don't know if he's being sarcastic, but I'll take that at face value and say thanks. That said, I don't think I'd ever describe myself as mature, given that I still enjoy the potty mouthed pop-punk I did ten years ago and what with me being a big supporter of the 'theatrical' style of heavy metal. There is nothing mature about dick jokes and singing about dragons, but it IS fun.

I'd rather think of myself as experienced, and with an increasingly broad view, based on being able to see over the scenes - because I've seen them before. Sure, I have my prejudices but I'm a lot more conscious that they are irrational prejudices than ever before, and that comes with experience and (dare I say it) a mellowing of temprament through understanding.

Slainte,
Chris Crowing

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