Jared DuBach
Daily Egyptian
It's a shame that the new release from Green Day hasn't gotten the media attention it deserves. Unlike last year's "International Superhits!," Green Day's singles collection, "Shenanigans" arrived in music stores on July 2 with little or no advertising to back it up.
The lack of advertising would have been explained if the band's record label had seen "Shenanigans" as a waste of paper and plastic. However, "Shenanigans" is far from being a waste. From start to finish, "Shenanigans" encompasses the best pop sound that Green Day is capable of playing, the speed and ferocity of punk in days gone by and an instrumental surf tune to round out the album.
The two recognizable cover songs on this CD are "Outsider," a song penned by the late Dee Dee Ramone, and "Tired of Waiting for You" by the Kinks. "Espionage" was featured on the "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" soundtrack.
The idea of collecting and releasing these rare recordings is a rather smart move. For the label, this greatly reduces the number of people trying to download them online from Web sites and chat rooms, and it also works as another promotion to the public of the band's talent. But most importantly, the consumer is assured that the songs are legitimate, and the recording quality on the CD is good. It sure took them long enough to do this though.
One of the problems that dedicated fans, not just of Green Day, but any rock band face, is desperately trying to find those rare b-sides to singles and songs that didn't quite make the full-length album. These songs are often referred to as outtakes.
Perhaps the lack of advertising and media coverage was a bold move to regain some lost diehard punk purists. With the past two albums, Green Day has faced a lot of criticism and has been given the label of being a sellout band due to corporate sponsorship on past tours. What many people fail to understand is that without corporate sponsorship, most bands wouldn't be able to go on tour. Traveling across the country and moving gear from one show to the next does cost money.
"We're just as much punk as we used to be," lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said in an interview with "New York Rock." "We got a lot of shit, and we're still getting it for being signed to a major label."
The inside of the CD jacket features an interesting collage of various pictures and album covers from Green Day's extensive catalog. The images chart the rise to stardom of a band that has been together for the better part of a decade, and has gone through various periods of success and near obscurity. But Billie Joe Armstrong still feels that after all these years, doing what makes one happy is the best policy.
"You can't do anything about what people's perceptions are of you," Armstrong said in a 2001 interview with "Rolling Stone." "You just have to be comfortable with your own perception of yourself and not give a shit what other people say. I love what I do. I love playing music."
For more information on Green Day go to http://www.greenday.com
Reporter Jared DuBach can be reached at jdubach@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
