No one can discredit Green Day for making a tidy sum over the years while selling the same product in a different package. The group sold a ton of records and inspired a legion of followers like Blink 182 and Sum 41 who have become the darlings of “TRL” and middle school punks everywhere.
Green Day has been unable to match the massive, breakout success of its major-label debut Dookie, but it doesn’t matter since the group has been afforded the opportunity to put out a slew of dull records and collect on a string of fat paydays.
While the last release of all-new material, Warning, was supposed to be more “mature and progressive,” the only thing that appeared progressive was the inclusion of a few minor chords in the mix. Warning was not a flop, though — the album spawned the mega-hit “Waiting,” and thanks to that, Mike Dirnt, Tre Cool and Billy Joe will have plenty of lunch money in the near future.
On Green Day’s latest, Shenanigans, a mixture of b-sides, rarities and previously unreleased music, the So-Cal punkers offer a mild take on a variety of tracks and punk-related genres. On the heels of the International Superhits collection that featured all of the group’s noteworthy singles, the results on Shenanigans are mixed.
While lead tracks “Suffocate” and “Desensitized” are new takes on the Dookie era with their snapping drums, fast guitars and typical Billy Joe vocals, the rest of the album is a mixed bag of results.
A cover of the Kinks’ “Tired of Waiting For You” is enjoyable, and a cover of “Outsider” by The Ramones is a fresh kick for the classic punk track. However, Shenanigans falls flat on its face in tracks like “On The Wagon,” which is a throwback to a different era in its retro-high-school-dance feel. “Do Da Da” is the reason that a b-side is classified as such.
Green Day is and always will be at its best when doing the straight-ahead pop-punk thing. Since the band’s versions of these tracks tend to blend together a little too much, it seems to only be a matter of time before an already-fickle listener base will grow bored with the same old antics.
The fans aren’t bored yet, though, as evidenced by Green Day’s recent Pop Disaster Tour with Blink 182. However, it’s hard to tell if the young crowds were there to see Blink or if they were recent Green Day converts recruited to fill the void of the long-since-departed Gen X fans of the Dookie era.
It will be interesting to see how long Green Day can milk a musical cow that should have dried up a long time ago. With its best work in the past, Green Day has grown up and found a comfortable meal ticket putting out the same old stuff whenever it wants.
