An almost live parade and the greatness of Green Day

I woke up on Thanksgiving and watched a bit of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I noticed that all the performers that stopped to sing in front of Macy's were lip syncing terribly. Actual live vocals couldn't have possibly come across worse than these God awful performances. Live performances might have some blemishes, but why does everything need to be so bland, safe, and talentless. There was this band called the Click Five whose members all pretended to play their instruments. What a bunch of jokers. As they hammed it up and mugged for whoever the hell buys this crap, the actual drumming, which wasn't muted very well, could be heard over the tape.

After watching the parade, I had Green Day's Macy's Day Parade stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Damn, that's a great song. MTV never played it too much, which is a real shame because it's a great song and a great clip.

As a matter of fact, that whole album, Warning, is great. If you are one of the many people that forgot about Green Day between Dookie and American Idiot, I suggest picking it up. I read several articles written when Green Day was doing press for American Idiot where lazy journalists hyped American Idiot by saying Green Day had been in a rut with Warning. BULLSHIT. I'll be the first to admit that I never put a lot of hours in listening to Insomniac or Nimrod, but Warning is as good as anything Green Day has done. Macy's Day Parade, Church on Sunday, Castaway, Warning, Minority, and Waiting were all personal favorites. Every Green Day fan I know loves that album.

Downplaying that album might have made for an easy story angle, but it just isn't fair or accurate. The truth is that the album came out at the height of the whole rap rock thing, and it didn't get nearly the airplay it deserved at radio or MTV ( I never saw the videos for Waiting or Macy's Day Parade -both great songs - until I discovered them on the Internet). The truth is that considering the hostile music environment of the time it was released, if Warning had been half as weak as feature writers from Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, etc. are now saying it was, Green Day may have collapsed like many bands from the ninteties, or become irrelevant like the Offspring.

American Idiot is a great album, but let's not forget that it wasn't an album by a band on the rebound. It was an album by a great band that did great work through tough times, and luckily stuck around until mainstream audiences rediscovered them. Good for Green Day. Go out and get a copy of Warning and see for yourself.

The execution of all things

I can't exactly figure out why Rilo Kiley isn't huge. Like with any other band, part of me wants them to blow up (Hell, they deserve it), and part of me wants them to stay relatively small (I don't have to worry about them changing their formula to get on the radio, and they still play relatively small venues). Maybe there's some middle ground. I don't know, but here's a damn good song, The Execution of all Things.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Maybe I just need to give it more time, but I haven't gotten that into Death Cab For Cutie's new album, Plans. I loved their last album, Transatlanticism. I find myself skipping through the new one a lot of the time. I absolutely love the song I Will Follow You into the Dark, though. I've been playing it over and over when I skip the other songs. Damn, I need to give this album another chance.