Green Day’s Live Album Will Be “Awesome As F**k”!!!

                            I knew that headline would get your attention. J

So, it’s true that the Grammy awarding winning punk trio is planning to release a live CD/DVD album titled “Awesome As F**k” on March 22, 2011.  The album will feature a CD of live music performed during the band’s “21^st Century Breakdown World Tour” as well as a DVD showing them perform at different venues during the entire concert series. 

The track list contains mainly songs off the band’s 2009 album, “21^st Century Breakdown”, a few of their “American Idiot” hits as well as in addition to some of their older work.  However, what’s really got me and every other die-hard Green Day excited is the inclusion of the infamous “Cigarettes And Valentines” song. 

To those who may not know, it was a couple of years after releasing their album “Warning”, that Green Day went to work crafting a new album titled “Cigarettes And Valentines”.  However, it was never released because the master tracks were reportedly “stolen”.  Rather than rerecord the entire album from scratch, Billie Joe and the gang instead went to work creating another album which would later become “American Idiot”.  The song “Cigarettes And Valentines” along with a few others off that album called “Olivia” and “Stay The Night” have been performed live at some venues.  Sadly, yours truly hasn’t heard these songs performed any venues he went to, but I am eagerly waiting for this album to drop next month just to hear “Cigarettes And Valentines”!

Actually, I may not have to wait that long to do that.  All I can say is thank God for YouTube because I was lucky enough to find video of Green Day performing “Cigarettes And Valentines”!  Go ahead and take a look one of the greatest rock bands out there doing what they do best, putting on an epic performance!

I’ve seen these guys perform three times, so far!  I first saw them play at Central Park as part of Good Morning America’s summer concert series back in May ‘09 and then saw them at Madison Square Garden that summer (ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!).  I also saw them perform last summer at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ (Good show, but not as great as MSG!).  They’re definitely one of the best rock bands to see live and certainty the most fun!    

Linkin Park's Fans Won't Be Burned By "A Thousand Suns"

All right, rockers and rocker chicks!  Gather ‘round, it’s review time!! 

Today, I’m reviewing Linkin Park’s newest album “A Thousand-HEY!, wait a minute, who are all those people getting up and leaving?  Oh, they must be hard core Linkin Park fans…no matter; nothing I can say will make them stay anyway.

The rap/metal band Linkin Park has returned with a new album called “A Thousands Suns” and continue with adapting their sound.  LP first came on to the music scene with their smash hit debut “Hybrid Theory” and followed up that album with their equally excellent “Meteora”.  But beginning back in 2007 with the album “Minutes To Midnight”, LP strayed from their once familiar nu metal sound and began incorporating a more progressive rock sound to their music.

“A Thousand Suns” is a concept album, a first for LP, which sets the stage in a post apocalyptic world.  Surprisingly, given the rather dark setting, a lot of the songs are really optimistic!  And by songs I mean all 10 out of 15 of them.  Yes, you DID read that right. 

Not every track on this album is a song, some of them are speeches!  While some of these speeches work to set the mood (“The Requiem” & “The Radiance”), others are a complete waste of time and space on the album (“Empty Spaces”, “Wisdom, Justice, And Love”, & "Fallout”). 

Despite these flaws, “A Thousand Suns” is a pretty solid album.  While hard core LP fans will ignore it (and this post, too), more casual LP fans like myself will find something to love while listening to it.

My favorite songs off the album are “Wretches And Kings” (which almost evokes the ghost of LP’s nu metal past), “Blackout” (a dark moody industrial rock sounding track) “When They Come For Me” (An atmospheric rap/progressive rock fusion), “Burning In The Skies” (the most beautifully complex lyrics I’ve ever heard in a song!), “Robot Boy” (a nice catchy sci-fi track), “Jornada Del Muerto” (an eerie sounding filler track), “Waiting For The End” (the album’s true gem), “Iridescent” (the perfect closing credit soundtrack for a movie, TV show, or anime), and “The Catalyst” (a pulse-pumping epic 6 minute track).

Sadly, the album ends with a rather loud DUD!  “The Messenger” is an acoustic track which features LP’s metal front man Chester’s trademark angry-sounding vocals; in a word “TERRIBLE”!  It’s almost as tragic as the completely bland album cover.  I mean seriously, what is this thing?! What is it even suppose to be, an ink blot test?!  Does anyone really know what it is?!    I guess we never will…          

Paramore Founding Members Leave Band

It looks like my favorite band Paramore has a real “Emergency”!

The pop punk band known for their smash hits “Misery Business” and “Ignorance” is sadly losing two of its founding members.  It was made public on December 18, 2010 through the band’s official website Paramore.net that lead guitarist Josh Farro and drummer Zac Farro would be leaving.

The message from lead singer Haley Williams, bassist Jeremy Davis, and guitarist Taylor York stated that “A couple of months ago, Josh and Zac let us know they would be leaving the band after our show in Orlando last Sunday.”  Adding to that, the band said that “none of us were really shocked” upon hearing this and that “for the last year it hasn’t seemed as if they wanted to be around anymore”.

However, Josh tells a different story for his and his brother’s departure from the band.  According to Josh’s Blogger account, the ousted lead guitarist claims that Paramore was “a manufactured product of a major-label” and that Haley is being controlled by her management; treating Paramore as her own solo project while also claiming that she was the only member who’s signed to Atlantic Records.

Though most would just dismiss his claims as an expression of his anger towards leaving, Josh is right.  In an interview with MTV.com called “Paramore: The Last Word”, Haley, Jeremy, and Taylor confirmed many of Josh’s statements including that Haley was the only member of Paramore signed to Atlantic Records.

Despite losing two of their founding members, Paramore reportedly still plans to release new music in 2011, though it’s unknown if they will release a full length album for this year or if they will only release a few songs.  The remaining members have stated that the band will not break up and that they will instead recruit new members.  According to Haley, changing the band’s lineup will change Paramore’s signature style, but she insists that their sound will not.  As for me, I’m not buying what they’re selling because “For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic” that it actually will!  (Just listen to Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” album which features mostly new members.) 

But Josh and Zac won’t have to be “Feeling Sorry” for leaving Paramore.  On February 2, the brothers revealed that they will be starting up their own separate bands.  Josh will be in his new band Novel American while Zac will be in his own called Half Noise.       

Green Day’s American Idiot Musical on Broadway

Green Day’s American Idiot is an entire one act stage musical based on the Grammy Award winning concept album of the same name.  The musical first ran at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009 before it was later moved to Broadway after doing remarkably well.  Beginning previews for American Idiot were shown at the St. James Theatre (hmm…Saint James, St. Jimmy, coincidence?) on March 24, 2010.  The show officially opened on April 20, 2010; talk about a “Green Day” indeed!

American Idiot follows a slacker named Johnny who has just realized that he hasn’t done anything with his life.  Johnny decides to look for a purpose as he leaves boring ol’ suburbia behind to experience all of the freedom and excitement life in the big city can offer.    

Most of the production’s scores are tracks taken from “American Idiot” while a select few are from the more recent “21^st Century Breakdown” album.  There are even a handful of b-sides as well as the unreleased “When It’s Time”, a song that Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote for his wife!  All of the songs work nicely to help move the story along and seeing the songs go with the actions being shown on stage offer a glimpse into what Billie Joe must have been thinking of when he was writing these songs.  All of the young performers have amazing vocals and really do all have bright futures ahead of them.

But this isn’t just a musical with people singing covers of Green Day songs.  For a limited time only, Green Day’s Billie Joe played the role of St. Jimmy, the drug pushing alter ego of Johnny who threatens to completely derail his life.  I was lucky enough to see him and he was excellent as St. Jimmy.  Everyone in the cast including BJ appeared to be having fun as they performed.  At the end, Billie Joe called up Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt to stage to play “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” as the encore.   Over all, I really loved Green Day’s American Idiot and that’s really saying a lot since I don’t follow musicals and as a die-hard Green Day, I was, to be honest, pretty nervous about having one of my favorite albums being turned into a Broadway play (it could have been a "Fiddler on the Roof", but with way more guyliner).  Thankfully, Green Day’s fans can rest assured that the musical does justice to the iconic album that it’s named after. 
The show is scheduled to continue playing on Broadway until it becomes too expensive to produce, so you all have plenty of time to go see it; I highly recommend that you do.  Tickets for the show can be bought on TicketMaster, Broadway.com, and Americanidiotonbroadway.com.  Billie Joe will be starring as St. Jimmy between January 1st and February 27th while Melissa Etheridge will take over this role from February 1st to February 6th.  Get your tickets today!  The best seats to this punk rock opera are available on Wednesday and Sunday evenings!