¡¡NOVEDADES!!

A primeros de diciembre llega la nueva versión de 21 guns.

Si si, Green Day se encuentra en estos momentos en Estados Unidos, preparando una nueva versión de su segundo sencillo 21 guns del actual disco  21 Century Breakdown.
Esta nueva producción del segundo single, está siendo producida por Billie Joe Armstrong, vocalista y líder de la banda. Para finales de noviembre y primeros de diciembre, se plantea lanzar este nuevo sencillo como single digital.  Al mismo tiempo, se encuentra elaborando el video de esta nueva versión contando con la presencia de los participantes del musical American Idiot producido por Michael Mayer.
Este musical está basado en el disco que la banda publicó en el año 2004 y con el que logró renacer tras cinco años de silencio y volver a retomar la carrera de premios y trofeos con los que siempre se les ha caracterizado. El musical American Idiot se estrenó en septiembre en Berkeley y ha tenido tal éxito que se prevé que para el año que viene se estrene en, nada más y nada menos, que en Broadway.
Y es que para la banda California, la canción 21 guns, le ha llevado a hacerse con varios premios como el del Disco de Platino por el sencillo, o 3 MTV Video  en los Music Awards 2009 del pasado septiembre, incluyendo también el del Mejor Video Rock y a la Mejor Cinematografía.
En cuanto salga este sencillo digital, os lo adelantaré, así que permanecer atentos. ¡Lo bueno se hace esperar!

I was going to call this post Deep Thoughts with the sub header ‘But probably not as deep as Jack Handey’s, and With More Strippers,’ but Candice beat me to that particular punch. Plus, I realized that there are no strippers in here at all so that wouldn’t really make sense. Anyway, I thought if I could get these on paper they’d stop taking up space in my small, cramped mind. If anyone has any answers to my many questions, please be a dear and enlighten me.

-Why do they call highways parkways?  I mean, I know that traffic can be bad and all of that but aren’t you just jinxing the thing from the start?

-Why does she insist on going by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio? When your last name is so long, why not drop Elizabeth at the very least? It’s a pain in the ass to even hear that name much less trying to fit it in the credits.

-I hate when I ask for directions and someone tells me to go to Oak Street and go north. How the fuck am I supposed to know which way is north? Do I look like Ponce de Leon to you?   

-After at least 25 thousand (or whatever) years of civilization, how the hell did no one invent an effective mosquito/fly killer yet?

-I seem to function a lot better when I’m slightly horny. If I go 3 or more days without sex my mind is sharper, my thoughts are more precise, and my energy level is way higher. When I have too much sex I’m a lazy, useless shell of a man. All that being said, I can’t go more than 6 days without, or the cat will start looking sexy.

-I honestly can’t comprehend patriotism in the context that it is used by the Fox pundits. I do love America, and I’m proud of America, and I deeply appreciate the people who have sacrificed for the great nation. But in reality, you don’t have any choice where you are born. And most of the people that spout off about all of this nonsense haven’t done a thing to sacrifice personally. For all of her virtues America has a piss poor track record of being ‘the greatest country on earth.’ God didn’t hand it to the amazing religious white man. They came in, butchered the indigenous peoples, and stole it. We were one of the last countries to condone slavery. There are still to this day not equal rights for all people. I can’t grasp how this is always tidily glossed over in Beck’s and Hannity’s monologs. I don’t understand how they can make all of these outrageous claims about the absolute greatness of a country, and not want their own sick, poor and helpless to be taken care of. Why do these perfect Christians always show the most unchristian like characteristics?

-Who reads Prince Valiant or Mary Worth and why?

-I expected so much out of Tarentino after Pulp Fiction. What ever happened to him and his brilliant dialogue?

-I don’t mean for this to be an indictment of the American public school system, as much as wanting to point out what is wrong with the current mainstream ideology in the US. It’s been my experience that the average European citizens, be they lager louts in the UK, Romanian ruffians, German teenagers or Spanish ecstasy addicts are overwhelmingly more cultured and knowledgeable about the world. I found that I can have an intelligent conversation discussing art, literature, and world history with damn near anyone I meet here. I’ve come across drunks sitting in a bar first talking about Rembrandt and going on to coups in Thailand. Even the window lickers over here have a grasp of current events in the world.

I think the US has become so self-centered as a society that there is little room for anything else. Everywhere I’ve ever been in the world, when you turn on the news they cover the whole world, but you’d have to watch hours of CNN or FOX to catch a minute of anything happening anywhere else. They’d rather cover a 10 person protest on the Boise Idaho city hall than cover riots on the streets in France or the bloodshed in Sudan. And this has caught up with our children. I honestly can’t tell you how many people have asked me how long it takes to drive to England from Florida. You just have to turn on Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader to see what I mean. But if you don’t believe me, the next time you’re in a Wal-Mart or a bar strike up a conversation with a total stranger about something outside the sphere of US influence, and you’ll be shocked. I know I always was. I love my country just as much as Beck, and gosh darn it…..I just don’t want to see it produce fucking idiots.

-Why wasn’t Sex and the City called Sex in the City? Seriously?

-Why is it called black Friday? I get the ‘in the black’ connotation but seriously when you have black Tuesday and the black death why put it on the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe they could call it ‘Begin Paying 21% Interest to Visa Day! –sponsored by Visa!   

-I seem to like the idea of some things more than I like the things themselves. I like the romantic idea of being homeless in Costa Rica more than I’d probably like the reality of it. I like the idea of going to the running of the bulls more than I’d like a horn ripping through my thigh. I like the idea of writing a book more than sitting down and writing it. I like the idea of having sex with blond twins more than I’d like the sex, especially since twins freak me out a little. I like the idea of being married to Tyras more than I’d…….actually; I think I’d be ok with that one.

In which the Omphaloskeptic Concludes the Ramblings Embarked Upon in the Previous Installment

[Note: Originally I thought I would post this over the course of three days.  Instead it's turned out that this second post will contain the remainder of the piece.  I know there are some real Kerouac and Thompson fans out there.  Any comments, objections or shrieks of incredulity would be gratefully accepted.  Also, I'm having fits trying to get my footnotes to work properly when I import sections of the original document.  Yesterday, despite my best efforts, it was impossible to click on a note to jump to the citation and vice versa.  The same holds true for today with the added difficulty that for some reason my footnoting has reset and the notes appear after my Works Cited and Works consulted lists.  It's Friday, there's a cold beer in my fridge and I'm not going screw around with footnotes and formatting any longer.  If that bothers you then you are even more pedantic than I am and that's no good thing, trust me.  You do, however, have my admiration.]

The possibility that Dean is somehow too American, that he has an all-consuming faith in core American values signified by the myths he is associated with emerges as key to any proper understanding of his holy idiocy on its own and as a critique of a wider American community. While it is true that, in the eyes of the law and many of his fellow citizens Dean is a criminal he cannot be dismissed as merely a malicious thief with a taste fast cars, tea and Benzedrine. Instead readers are told that “his ‘criminality’ was not something that sulked and sneered; it was a wild yea-saying overburst of American joy; it was Western, the west wind, an ode from the Plains, something new, long prophesied, long a-coming (he only stole cars for joy rides).”¹ Paradoxically Dean’s long awaited embodiment of American joy, his exercise of personal freedom, is precisely what renders him a criminal, it is the key to both his saintliness and his clownish imbecility. In other words Dean is simply too American for most other Americans to be comfortable with.

It is precisely this paradox that is key to the scene from which I have taken the title of this paper and the label I wish to apply to both Moriarty and Duke. Just as Dean and Sal are about to set off on a manic night of kicks in San Francisco before travelling east Sal describes a scene in which Galatea Dunkle criticises Dean for his selfish behaviour. The narrator never denies that Dean is guilty, at this point he is essentially abandoning his pregnant wife, but he reveals that “I suddenly realized that Dean, by virtue of his enormous series of sins, was becoming the Idiot, the Imbecile, the Saint of the lot” adding a short while later “That’s what Dean was, the HOLY GOOF.”² In his refusal to take life too seriously, through his selfish, illegal and often misogynist pursuit of his own freedoms and desires Dean has expanded on the same paradox whereby his exuberant faith in American values rendered him a criminal to the point where it has elevated him to the position of a saint. At this point Dean may have a severely infected thumb, no money or home, and quickly be alienating his former friends but is also at this point that he achieves his full status as the patron saint of the Beat generation appearing and acting in the words of Sal “as though tremendous revelations were pouring into him all the time now, and I am convinced they were, and the others suspected as much and were frightened. He was BEAT – the root, the soul of Beatific.”³ Not only does this passage make clear that Dean’s ragged imbecility and his saintly status combine to render him a Holy Goof possessed of some powerful vision, but it also emphasises the fact that those arrayed against Dean recognise and fear the revelations he may be able to provide them.

While Kerouac’s narrative takes great pains to establish Dean’s credentials as a holy American idiot, Raoul Duke’s similar role in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas may not be as quickly apparent. John Hellman notes of Thompson’s narrative persona in general that “Like a mad seer or a holy fool, this persona can reveal aspects of events not readily apparent to those with normal perception” suggesting the existence of some parallel between the two characters under discussion.⁴ As it turns out, Duke, like Dean emerges as a clownish American saint whose excesses and criminality are inseperable from his belief in and pursuit of certain core values and beliefs. Perhaps due to the first-person narration of Thompson’s book, however, Duke’s status as a Holy Goof does not emerge with the same dramatic force as Dean’s.

Central to any recognition of Duke as a Holy Goof is a scene that occurs in Wild Bill’s Café on the outskirts of Las Vegas as Duke contemplates fleeing town after the Mint 500 motorcycle race and before the Association of District Attorneys drug convention. In what Hellman describes as “a reversal of the traditional Christian revelation and conversion” Duke makes clear that he too occupies a position characterized by paradox.⁵ Contemplating his outrageous behaviour leads Duke to declare his own guilt “Jesus Creeping God! Is there a priest in this tavern? I want to confess! I’m a fucking sinner! Venal, mortal, carnal, major, minor—however you want to call it, Lord . . . I’m guilty.”⁶ Clearly Duke possesses a strong, if paranoid, awareness of his own failings making clear that he has committed a sin from each of five general categories, however he does not stop with this admission. He goes on to ask for God’s intervention to allow him the time he needs to make good his escape commenting: “Which is not really a hell of a lot to ask, Lord, because the final incredible truth is that I am not guilty. All I did was take your gibberish seriously . . . and you see where it got me? My primitive Christian instincts have made me a criminal.”⁷ By insisting on his innocence immediately after acknowledging his guilt Duke makes clear that like Moriarty he occupies a position characterised by paradox. He has done wrong, but only as a result of taking certain precepts and values too seriously in pursuit of what he calls his “primitive Christian instincts.”

Additionally, the absurdist humour of the scene helps to illustrate that Duke’s tricksterish antics are also part and parcel of his status as a holy goof. Just in case the incongruity of looking for a priest in a Vegas bar is too subtle Duke’s final address to the Lord demonstrates the inseparability of his status as both clown and prophet ending as it does in a half-jest: “You better take care of me, Lord . . . because if you don’t you’re going to have me on your hands.”⁸ Given that he threatens God, albeit in partial jest, Duke’s particular saintliness does finally emerge as more menacing than Moriarty’s W.C. Fields virtue, a difference that I suggest is more of degree than of kind. In the eyes of the law and many other Americans neither of these men can be viewed as innocents. Both take their behaviours to such extremes that at one level they render themselves not only foolish but agents who actively invite ridicule and persecution if not prosecution. Meanwhile both narratives, insist that their criminality, clownishness and idiocy renders them special and that they attain the status of Holy Goofs because all their sins stem, paradoxically, from the purist of motives.

As a means of drawing my comments to a close I’d like to offer some suggestion of how, perhaps even why, Dean Moriarty and Raoul Duke were created, even remain, as more than loveable rogues. It is significant that both characters embrace the role of Holy Goof; rushing around they actively court trouble and rarely demonstrate any desire or ability to remain inconspicuous let alone what the majority of Americans would call respectable. This is due partly to an impulse that can be traced back to the fools for Christ’s sake that were motivated by thought stemming from Paul’s comments in 1 Corinthians arguing that the only way to reveal the folly of the mundane world is to revel in a version of the divine folly that is its superior. As I said at the outset, however, neither Moriarty nor Duke are trying to institute a more thoroughly Christian order in the United States. This does not disqualify them as American versions of the divine seer or Holy Goof however. In fact, given that both are closely associated with certain defining American myths and that both of them court the trouble they do because of a devout faith in what should be the possibilities of life in the United States they emerges as even stronger candidates for the position of Holy American Idiot. By acting as they do both Dean and Duke provide some insight into the greed, superficial uniformity and complacency of the American societies they are both part of and apart from. In this respect it is no accident that both fetishise, and destroy, automobiles. American readers may not be meant to follow either character into the realms of excess through which they move, but in an increasingly materialistic and modernised American world both of these Holy Goofs impulsively pursue their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a manner that questions who the idiots actually are.

Works Cited

Heller, Dana. “Holy Fools, Secular Saints, and Illiterate Saviours in American Literature and Popular Culture.” CLCWeb: Comparitive Literature and Culture. Ed. Benton Jay Komin 5.3 (2003).<http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol5/iss3> Accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Hellman, John. Fables of Fact: The New Journalism and New Fiction. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.

Jack Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. [1957] Penguin Modern Classics. Intro. Ann Charters London: Penguin Books, 2000.

- – -. On the Road:The Original Scroll. Penguin Modern Classics. Ed. Howard Cunnell. London: Penguin Books, 2008.

Llano, Stephen. “The Clown as Social Critic: Kerouac’s Vision.” Clowns, Fools and Picaros: Popular Forms in Theatre, Fiction and Film. Ed David Robb. Amsterdam-New York, 2007.

Saward, John. Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ’s Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality.

Oxford: OUP, 1980.

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. [1971] Flamingo Modern Classics. London: Flamingo.

Works Consulted

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Trans. Helene Iswolsky [1965] Bloomington: Indiania UP, 1984.

Billington, Sandra. A Social History of the Fool. Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1984

Cresswell, Tim. “Mobility as Resistance: A Geographical Reading of Kerouac’s ‘On the Road.’” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 18.2 (1993) 249-262. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/622366> Accessed 23 Apr. 2009.

McDowell, Linda. “Off the Road: Alternative Views of Rebellion, Resistance and ‘The Beats’.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 21.2 (1996)412-419. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/622491> Accessed 23 Apr 2009.

Paton, Fiona. “Beyond Bakhtin: Towards a Cultural Stylistics.” College English.63.2 (2000) 166 -193. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/379039> Accessed:23 Apr.2009.

Rycroft, Simon. “Changing Lanes: Textuality off and on the Road” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 21.2 (1996) 425-428. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/622493> Accessed: 23 Apr. 2009.

Seelye, John D. “The American Tramp: A Version of the Picaresque” AmericanQuarterly. 15.4 (1963) 535-553. >http://www.jstor.org/stable/2710972>Accessed 23 Apr. 2009.

Stanford, Raney. “The Return of Trickster: When a Not-A-Hero Is a Hero.” Journal of Popular Culture. 1:3 (1967) 228-242.

Welsford, Enid. The Fool: His Social and Literary History. [1934]. Faber Paper Covered Editions. London: Faber and Faber, 1968.

Williams, Paul V.A. ed. The Fool and the Trickster: Studies in Honour of Enid Welsford. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer Ltd., 1979.

1 Kerouac, 2000, 9.

2 Kerouac, 2000, 176.

3 Kerouac, 2000, 177.

4 John, Hellman, Fables of Fact: The New Journalism and New Fiction, (Urban: University of Illinois Press, 1981) 69.

5 Hellman, 80.

6 Thompson, 86.

7 Thomspon, 86-7.

8 Thompson, 87.

Whatsername

Thought I ran into you down on the street
Then it turned out to only be a dream
I made a point to burn all of the photographs
She went away and then I took a different path
I remember the face
But I cant recall the name
Now I wonder how Whatsername has been

Seems that she disappeared without a trace
Did she ever marry ‘ol Whatshisface
I made a point to burn all of the photographs
She went away and then I took a different path
I remember the face
But I cant recall the name
Now I wonder how Whatsername has been

Remember, whatever
It seems like forever ago
Remember, whatever
It seems like forever ago

The regrets are useless
In my mind
She’s in my head
I must confess
The regrets are useless
In my mind
She’s in my head
From so long ago
Go–go–go–

And in the darkest nights
If my memory serves me right
I’ll never turn back time
Forgetting you, but not the time..

download here : Whatsername

HomeComing

Part I: The Death of St. Jimmy

My heart is beating from me
I am standing all alone
Please call me only if you are coming come
Waste another year flies by
Waste a night or two
You taught me how to live
In the streets of shame
Where you’ve lost your dreams in the rain
There’s no sign of hope
The stems and seeds of the last of the dope
There’s a glow of light
The St. Jimmy is the spark in the night
Bearing gifts and trust
A fixture in the city of lust
What the hell’s your name?
What’s your pleasure what is your pain?
Do you dream to much?
Do you think what you need is a crutch
In the crowd of pain.
St. Jimmy comes without any shame
He says ?we’re fucked up?
But we’re not the same
And mom and dad are the ones you can blame

Jimmy died today
He blew out his brains into the bay
In the state of mind
Is my own private suicide

Part II: East 12th ST.

Well nobody cares
Well nobody cares
Does anyone care if nobody cares?
Well nobody cares
Well nobody cares
Does anyone care if nobody cares?
Jesus filling out paperwork now
At the facility on East 12th st.
He’s not listened to a word now
He’s in his own world
And he’s daydreaming
He’d rather be doing something else now
Like cigarettes and coffee with the under belly
His life’s on the line with anxiety now
And she had enough
And he had plenty

Somebody get me out of here
Anybody get me out of here
Somebody get me out of here
Get me the fuck right out of here

So far away
I don’t want to stay
Get me out of here right now
Just wanna be free
Is there a responsibility
Get me out of here right now
This lifelike dream ain’t for me

Part III: Nobody likes you!

I fell asleep while watching Spike TV
After 10 cups of coffee
And your still not here
Dreaming of a song
But something went wrong
And you can’t tell anyone
‘Cause noone’s here
Left me here alone
And I should’ve stayed home
After 10 cups of coffee
I’m thinking were’d you go
Nobody likes you
Everyone left you
They’re all out without you
Havin’ fun
Where’d you go?
Everyone left you
Nobody likes you
They’re all out without you
Havin’ fun
Where’d you go?

Part IV Rock and roll girlfriend
*written and sung by Tre’

Geez…ha…
I got a rock and roll band
I got a rock and roll life
I got a rock and roll girlfriend
And another ex-wife
I got a rock and roll house
I got a rock and roll car
I plat the shit out the drums
And I can play the guitar
I got a kid in New York
I got a kid in the bay
I haven’t drank or smoked nothin’
In over 22 days
So get off my case
Off of my case
Off of my case

Part V: We’re coming home again

Here they come marching down the street
Like a desperation murmur of a heartbeat
Coming back from the edge of town
Underneath their feet
The time has come and it’s going nowhere
Nobody ever said that life was fair now
Go-carts and guns are treasures they will bear
In the summer heat
The world is spinning
Round and round
Out of control again
From the 7-11 to the fear of breaking down
So send my love a letterbomb
And visit me in hell
We’re the ones going

Home
We’re coming home again

I started fuckin’ running
As soon as my feet touched ground
We’re back in barrio
And to you and me, that’s jingle town

That’s home
We’re coming home again
Home
We’re coming home again
Home
We’re coming home again
Home
We’re coming home again
(NO FUCKING CONTROL I NEED IT I KNOW…)
Home
We’re coming home again

Nobody likes you
Everyone left you
They’re all out with out you
Havin’ fun…

download here : HomeComing

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Like my father’s come to pass
Seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Ring out the bells again
Like we did when spring began

Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Like my father’s come to pass
Twenty years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends

Wake me up when September ends
Wake me up when September ends

download here : Wake Me Up When September Ends

Letterbomb

Nobody likes you…
Everyone left you…
They’re all out without you…
Having fun…

Where have all the bastards gone?
The underbelly’s accidental high
The dummy failed the crash test
Collecting unemployment checks
You’re fucking only along for the ride

Where have all the riots gone?
As your city’s model gets pulverized
What’s in love is now in debt
On your birth certificate
So strike the fucking match to light this fuse

The television’s an obstructionist
And you don’t even know that you exist
Stand still wish to die
You better run for your fucking life

It’s not over ’till your underground
It’s not hope before it’s too late
It’s cities burnin’
It’s not my burden
It’s not hope before it’s too late

There’s nothing left to analyze

Where will all the martyrs go when the virus cures itself?
And where will we all go when it’s too late?

And don’t look back

You’re not the Jesus of Suburbia
The St. Jimmy’s opinion of
Your father’s rage and your mother’s love
That’s made the idiot America

It’s not over ’till your underground
It’s not hope before it’s too late
It’s cities burnin’
It’s not my burden
It’s not hope before it’s too late

She said I can’t take this place
I’m leaving it behind

Well she said I can’t take this town
I’m leaving you tonight

download here : Letterbomb

Extraordinary Girl

She’s
An Extraordinary girl
In an ordinary world
And she can’t seem to get away

He
Lacks the courage in his mind
Like a child left behind
Like a pet left in the rain

She’s all alone again
Wiping the tears from her eyes
Some days she feels like dying
She gets so sick of crying

She sees the mirror of herself
And image she wants to sell
To anyone willing to buy

He steals the image in her kiss
From her heart’s apocalypse
From the one called whatsername

She’s all alone again
Wiping the tears from her eyes
Some days she feels like dying
She gets so sick of crying

She’s all alone again
Wiping the tears from her eyes
Some days she feels like dying
Some days it’s not worth trying
Now that they’ve pulled the fun in
She gets so sick of crying

She’s
An Extraordinary girl
An Extraordinary girl
An Extraordinary girl
An Extraordinary girl

download here : Extraordinary Girl

She’s a Rebel

She’s a rebel
She’s a saint
She’s assault of the earth
And she’s dangerous
She’s a rebel
Vigilante
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction
From Chicago to Toronto
She’s the one that they
Call ‘ol whatsername
She’s the symbol
Of resistance
And she’s holding on my
Heart like a hand grenade
Is she dreaming
What I’m thinking
Is she the mother of all bombs
Gonna detonate
Is she trouble
Like I’m trouble
Make it a double
Twist of fate
Or a melody that

She sings of revolution
The dawning of our lives
She brings this liberation
That I just can’t define
Well nothing comes to mind

She sings of revolution
The dawning of our lives
She brings this liberation
That I just can’t define
Well nothing comes to mind

She’s a rebel
She’s a saint
She’s assault of the earth
And she’s dangerous
She’s a rebel
Vigilante
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction

She’s a rebel
She’s a saint
She’s assault of the earth
And she’s dangerous
She’s a rebel
Vigilante
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction

She’s a rebel
She’s a rebel
She’s a rebel
And she’s dangerous

She’s a rebel
She’s a rebel
She’s a rebel
And she’s dangerous

download here : She’s a Rebel

Give Me Novacaine

Take away the sensation inside
Bittersweet migraine in my head
It’s like a throbbing toothache of the mind
I can’t take this feeling anymore

Drain the pressure from the swelling,
The sensation’s overwhelming,
Give me a kiss goodnight and everything will be alright
Tell me that I won’t feel a thing
So give me novacaine

Out of body and out of mind
Kiss the demons out of my dreams
I get the funny feeling, that’s alright
Jimmy says it’s better than air,
I’ll tell you why

Drain the pressure from the swelling,
The sensations overwhelming,
Give me a kiss goodnight and everything will be alright,
Tell me that I won’t feel a thing,
So give me novacaine

Oh Novacaine

Drain the pressure from the swelling,
The sensations overwhelming
Give me a kiss goodnight and everything will be alright,
Tell me, Jimmy, I won’t feel a thing,
So give me Novacaine

download here : Give Me Novacaine

St. Jimmy

St. Jimmy’s comin’ down across the alleyway
Up on the boulevard like a zip code on parade
Light on the sillohette
He’s insubordinate
Coming at you on account of wonder
1 2 3 4

My name is Jimmy and you better not wear it out
Suicide comando that your momma talked about
King of the forty theives
And I’m here to represent
That needle in the vein of the establishment

I’m the patron saint of the denial
With an angel face and a taste for suicidal

Cigarettes and ramen and a little bag to sell
I am the son of a bitch and Edgar Allen Poe
Raised in the city in the hail of lights
But ain’t it worth it that we’ve been victimized

I’m the patron saint of the denial
With an angel face and a taste for suicidal

You talkin’ to me?

I’ll give you something to cry about.

ST. JIMMY

My name is St. Jimmy I’m a son of a gun
I am the one that’s runaway out of town now
A teenage assasin exucuting some fun
In the cult of the life of crime

I really hate to say it but I told you so
So shut your mouth before I shoot you down old boy
Welcome to the club and give me some blood
And the resident leader at the lost and found

It’s comedy and tragedy
It’s St. Jimmy
And that’s my nameeeeeee.
… and don’t wear it out!

download here : St. Jimmy

Are We the Waiting

Starry nights city lights coming down over me
Skyscrapers and stargazers in my head
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting unknown
This dirty town was burning down in my dreams
Lost and found city bound in my dreams

And screaming
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting
And screaming
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting

Forget me nots and second thoughts live in isolation
Heads or tails and fairytales in my mind
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting unknown
The rage and love, the story of my life
The Jesus of suburbia is a lie

And screaming
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting
And screaming
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting unknown
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting
And screaming
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting unknown
Are we we are, are we we are the waiting unknown

download here : Are We the Waiting

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I’m the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a…

My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
‘Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I’m walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What’s fucked up and everything’s alright
Check my vital signs
To know I’m still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a…

My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
‘Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I walk alone
I walk a…

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I’m the only one and I walk a…

My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
‘Til then I walk alone…

download here : Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Holiday

Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an armageddon flame (HEY!)
The shame, the ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howling out of hey
To a hymn called “faith and misery” (Hey!)
and bleed the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

There’s a drum pounding out of time
Another protestor has crossed the line (HEY!)
To find the money’s on the other side
Can I get another amen? (AMEN!)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (HEY!)
A gag, A plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

“The representative from California has the floor”
zieg heil to the president gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel tower
who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
trials by fire setting fire
is not a way that’s meant for me
just cause- just cause because we’re outlaws yeah!
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on holiday

download here : Holiday

Jesus of Suburbia

I’m the son of rage and love
The Jesus of suburbia
From bible of none of the above
On a steady diet of

Soda pop and Ritalin
Noone ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
Least the ones I got away with

And there’s nothing wrong with me
This is how I’m supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don’t believe in me

Get my television fixed
Sitting on my crucifix
A living room on my private womb
While the moms and brads are away
To fall in love and fall in debt
To alcohol and cigarettes
And Mary Jane
To keep me insane
Doing someone else’s cocaine

And there’s nothing wrong with me
This is how I’m supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don’t believe in me

City of The Damned

At the center of the Earth
In the parking lot
Of the 7-11 were I was taught
The motto was just a lie
It says home is where your heart is
But what a shame
Cause everyone’s heart
Doesn’t beat the same
It’s beating out of time

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
Noone really seems to care

I read the graffiti
In the bathroom stall
Like the holy scriptures of a shopping mall
And so it seemed to confess
It didn’t say much
But it only confirmed that
The center of the earth
Is the end of the world
And I couldn’t really careless

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
Noone really seems to caaaaaaaare
HEY!

I Don’t Care

I don’t care if you don’t
I don’t care if you don’t
I don’t care if you don’t care X4
I don’t caaaaaaaaaare

Everyone’s so full of shit
Born and raised by hypocrits
Hearts recycled but never saved
From the cradle to the grave
We are the kids of war and peace
From Anaheim to the Middle East
We are the stories and disciples of
The Jesus of suburbia

Land of make believe
And it don’t believe in me
Land of make believe
And I don’t believe
And I don’t care
I don’t care
I don’t care
I don’t care
I don’t care

Dearly Beloved

Dearly beloved, are you listening?
I can’t remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented? Or am I disturbed?

The space that’s in between insane and insecure
Oh therapy, can you please fill the void?
Am I retarded? Or am I just overjoyed?
Nobody’s perfect and I stand accused
For lack of a better word and that’s my best excuse

Tales of Another Broken Home

To live and not to breathe
is to die in tragedy
To run, To run away to find what to believe
and I leave behind this hurricane of fu
I lost my faith to this, this town that don’t eXist
so I run, I run away

To the light of masochists
and I leave behind this hurricane of fu
and I walked this line a million and one fu
But not this time
i dont feel any shame, i wont apologize
When there ain’t nowhere you can go
Running away from pain when you’ve been victimized
tales from another broken home

download here : Jesus of Suburbia

American Idiot

Don’t wanna be an American idiot.
Don’t want a nation that under the new media.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
Convincing them to walk you.

Well maybe I’m the fuckhead America.
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
Convincing them to walk you.

Don’t wanna be an American idiot.
Don’t want a nation controlled by the media.
Information nation of hysteria.
It’s going out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
Convincing them to walk you.

download here : American Idiot

Az idén tavasszal megjelent ’21st Century Breakdown’ album eddigi legsikeresebb kislemeze a ‘21 Guns’ című dalhoz kapcsolható. Billie Joe Armstrongék most úgy döntöttek, hogy újra rögzítik ezt a nótát az American Idiot musical szereplőinek segítségével. Maga Armstrong végzi a produceri munkálatokat, a végeredmény pedig már e hó végén elérhető lesz digitális formában.

Green Day is in the studio recording a new version of “21 Guns” with the cast of American Idiot, the musical version of the band’s 2004 album that will soon hit Broadway.


The band’s official website reports that Billy Joe Armstrong will produce the new track that should hit radio and iTunes by the end of November.  The band will also film a video for the new version of “21 Guns” with the cast of American Idiot who experienced great success on the Berkely Rep stage with “record-breaking sales and unprecedented demand for seats.”  Let’s see if their stage presence can make the same impact in the music video.

Check out Green Day performing “21 Guns” at the American Music Awards:

Green Day is really a band you can’t help but like! They’re cute, they have attitude and amazing vocals with intriguing lyrics. While they are one of my favorite bands ever, they are also the source of one of my biggest pet peeves. GREEN DAY IS NOT PUNK! They are pop-punk, and there is a large difference. What it means is they are a pop band with punk themes and undertones on some of their music. When they started out they were more involved with the punk side, while now they are drifting towards “the dark side” (pop music). For example – here is their song Holiday, which has a great punk sound and attitude to it!

But on the other hand, listen to Wake Me When September Ends. It is a clear case of “Pop that wants to be emo”

Please keep in mind that I am not dissing Green Day in any way, shape or form, because I adore them and their music.

Another interesting thing that many people don’t know about them is just how long they have been around.  They started making music in 1987 when Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt were 15 under the band name Sweet Children, and switched to the name Green Day in 1989. The name refers to their fondness for marijuana. Over the years they have been continually becoming more well known.

In 2004 they released the controversial (and totally amazing) album American Idiot. There was no middle ground – you either loved it with all your heart, or hated the music and band for it.

And recently they released their newest album Know Your Enemy, song posted above.

Tracklist:

01 – American Idiot

02 – Jesus of Suburbia

03 – Holiday

04 – Boulevard of Broken Dreams

05 – Are We The Waiting

06 – St. Jimmy

07 – Give Me Novacaine

08 – She’s A Rebel

09 – Extraordinary Girl

10 – Letterbomb

11 – Wake Me Up When September Ends

12 – Homecoming

13 – Whatsername

http://lix.in/-5d5a70

Greenday Pantoum

Born and raised by hypocrites,

Our hearts recycled but never saved.

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me,

check my vital signs to know I’m still alive.

Our hearts recycled but never saved,

Like a needle in the vein of the establishment.

Check my vital signs to know I’m still alive,

a product of war and fear that we’ve been victimized.

Like a needle in the vein of establishment,

a vigilante, missing link on the brink of destruction,

a product of war and fear that we’ve been victimized,

she’s holding on my heart like a hand grenade.

A vigilante, missing link on the brink of destruction

to fall in love and fall in debt,

she’s holding to my heart like a hand grenade,

coming down like an Armageddon flame.

Fall in love and fall in debt

to keep me insane and doing someone else’s cocaine,

coming down like an Armageddon flame.

Bombs away is your punishment.

Keep me insane and doing someone else’s cocaine

to a hymn called faith and misery.

Bombs away is your punishment.

I read the graffiti in the bathroom stall

to a hymn called faith and misery

on a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin.

I read graffiti in the bathroom stall.

She said “I can’t take this place, I’m leaving it behind,”

on a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin.

Summer has come and past. The innocent can never last.

She said “I can’t take this place, I’m leaving it behind.”

She said “I can’t take this town, I’m leaving you tonight.”

This poem is composed entirely of lyrics from “Letterbomb,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “St. Jimmy,” “She’s a Rebel,” “Jesus of Suburbia,” and “Holiday,” which are all songs from the album “American Idiot” by Green Day.

As I write this, I’m blasting Green Day’s 2004 “American Idiot” CD only because the cast album of their theatrical adaptation hasn’t yet been recorded.

In both incarnations, the music is at once hummable and subversive, driving and spellbinding.

I’m thrilled from the very start of Michael Mayer’s collaboration with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, Friday night at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The opening notes of the show’s eponymous song – accompanied by aggressive headbanging from leading man John Gallagher Jr. as Johnny, aka “Jesus of Suburbia” – rip through the 600-seat Roda Theatre, and everyone sits up a little straighter.

Much, but not all, of this audience – nine weeks into the run, as the show enters the final days of its final extension in Berkeley – have come because they’re either fans of the band or have heard the buzz about how great this show is (the San Jose Mercury News calls it “the hottest show of a searing fall theater season”). There are teenagers in fingerless gloves sitting next to early-60’s couples who are there as part of their subscriber packages, but the latter are the minority; this is a young crowd. So when those first notes blast out across the theatre, we know what we’re in for.

The music is loud. Berkeley Rep offers earplugs in the lobby – a concession, I suppose, to subscribers who might be used to a more traditional brand of theatre – but I eschew them. There is no question that this music – on stage or through headphones – is meant to be heard at maximum decibels.

Because I know the “American Idiot” album so well (in addition to Green Day’s newer “21st Century Breakdown,” from which an additional four songs are culled for the show), I expect it to take some getting used to to hear voices other than Billie Joe’s on these particular melodies and lyrics. But Gallagher has a similar grittiness to his voice, and his delivery is so perfectly rebellious, that it proves easy to put Billie Joe’s image on the back burner, and buy into these as our protagonist’s original and mutinous thoughts.

American Idiot is a sung-through musical – very little dialogue is used outside the songs. At first, I don’t love the effect; it makes the few spoken lines seem somewhat awkward, as if they have been added only to fill in gaps in the exposition of the music. In addition, I worry that patrons who are not already familiar with Green Day might miss a lot of the context; the lyrics come fast and furious, and without previous knowledge of the words, I can imagine that a lot could go over an audience member’s head.

But then I have a little revelation about this show.

American Idiot is not like other musicals. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it doesn’t really strike me as “musical theatre” at all.

I’m going to venture to say that American Idiot is a brand new form of theatre: the long-form, live-staged Rock Music Video.

Not a jukebox musical; not even an adaptation (any more than Lady Gaga’s new video is an adaptation of her hit single “Bad Romance”). This is the artists’ own fleshing out of their vision – but instead of being done on-screen, it’s brought to us live in-person: loud and unapologetic, completely impossible to tune out or otherwise ignore (even if you don’t catch every word.)

I’m watching Gallagher and his castmates, but I am also taking in a remarkable set, soaring up stories into the theatre’s fly system. A huge, flat back wall is papered with newspaper headlines, advertisements and propaganda all in black and white; nearly 30 televisions are scattered at random on all levels, showing animation, commercials, old TV-show clips, Bush-era news items, and violent explosions. The band (not Green Day themselves, kids) is onstage amongst the actors, with musicians on several levels of a fire-escape-ish scaffolding reminiscent of Collins’ Christmas tree in Rent. Half a car, one actor, and later a shopping cart, hang from the rafters. There is so much to look at that I’m at once overwhelmed and mesmerized, which I suspect is exactly the intention of the designers.

From the breathtaking set and lighting design, to an exhaustingly full-body commitment from Gallagher, to a strong supporting cast (it’s a pleasure to see Spring Awakening alums Gerard Canonico and a hardly recognizable Brian Charles Johnson in the ensemble, plus the bewitching Rebecca Naomi Jones from Passing Strange as the leading lady “Whatshername”), there is little I’d have changed. I was rapt from start to finish, wishing from the first number that I’d be in Berkeley long enough to see the show again.

In addition to Gallagher and Jones, I must single out Tony Vincent as St. Jimmy, a striking and unusual actor who brings Jimmy to life as one part Vampire, three parts Hypnotist, and altogether scary/beautiful. Jimmy is Johnny’s bad influence, the devil on his shoulder, who introduces him to heroin; it’s not entirely clear if he actually exists or if he’s a kind of “Brad-Pitt-in-Fight-Club” manifestation of Johnny’s battle with his own dark side. In any case, I find it impossible to tear my eyes away from Vincent, with his half-shaved head and alienesque ultra-long arms; not to mention a voice that peels through the Roda Theatre with a clarity that would enthrall even the most skeptical gray-haired matinee lady.

There is some tweaking to be done before the show comes to Broadway. I’m thinking specifically of a high-wire hospital dance in which Johnny’s buddy Tunny (Matt Caplan), injured at war, hallucinates an “Extraordinary Girl” in Middle Eastern dress (the flying struck me as just a little too “Princess Jasmine on a Magic Carpet”).

But overall, American Idiot is a force – exhilerating, thought-provoking, and powerful. As Passing Strange (also a Berkeley Rep original) brought us Broadway’s first Live Concert/ Storytelling hybrid, American Idiot breaks ground as the first live-action, album-length Music Video to hit the Great White Way.

There’s no date announced yet for the Broadway incarnation of the show, and its New York home has not yet been revealed (although I’m hearing buzz that Jujamcyn Theaters is interested, which means it will likely end up at the St. James, the Walter Kerr, or the Eugene O’Neill). But the show is coming to Broadway, which means you’ll have no excuse to miss it.

Trust me, you’ll want to see American Idiot. And just think – someday, you can tell your kids you were there when Green Day broke theatrical ground.

BroadwayGirlNYC: A fan’s perspective on all things theatre in NYC & beyond. Show reviews, actor sightings, gossip & more. Follow her updates at @BroadwayGirlNYC.

It’s around this time each year that journalists, bloggers and any one else similarly obsessed with letting everyone know their bloody opinions get rather excited.

This has nothing to do with the imminent gifts or feasts of meat and alcohol that xmas inevitably brings.

No, this time of year means one thing for these people. Lists.

Yes, they have already started flooding in. Furthermore, this year, while not quite as salivatingly-big an opportunity as the Millennium, we have the prospect of a ‘greatest album of the decade’-a-thon!

The NME has this week been the most prolific perpetrator of this culture with their 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade.

On first inspection, and considering the usual standards of the aforementioned publication, their list seems surprisingly good. The Strokes don’t seem a bad shout for number one seeing as whatever is chosen will make people who believe too much in their own opinions cry. The album also sounds fairly relevant nine years on.

The inclusion of the obligatory Radiohead, Interpol and The Holdsteady also tick the seemingly ‘given’ boxes needed to appease their blinkered readership. And although I wouldn’t argue with any of these, how they figure In Rainbows is better than Kid A is bewildering. Even for the NME.

Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Relationship of Command by At the Drive In are nice surprises, as are The Rapture, Bright Eyes and The Walkmen. All excellent albums.

But, and this is rather large interjection, when you look at the detritus filling out the other spaces on the list, and think about it for marginally more time than it takes to flick through the New Musical Express’ fickle pages, the list loses rather a lot of credibility.

I know this debate is essentially down to taste so I wont deride choices such as Green Day’s American Idiot or Klaxons’ Myths of the Near Future; no one is forcing us to read this. However, I feel the list is characterised by its frankly puzzling omissions: worthy albums; albums which I would expect the NME to include.

Where was Phoenix’s amazing Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix? Where was Burial’s Untrue? Where the bloody hell was Madvillainy?!

These are not the esoteric choices of a bitter music snob. These are merely the most surprising and obvious absentees from an NME list. Is Kasabian’s Empire a not better — if not, more obvious — choice than the detestable and shallow ‘band’ Hard Fi?

Are the NME being purposefully pugnacious by not including anything by Daft Punk? How can one recognise Bright Eyes and Sujan Steves yet ignore Iron and Wine?

My point is to ask if NME are taking the piss or if they really are as inept as we have long suspected?

Lists are controversial; that’s why they are published. But to show that when making a list there’s no need to be so firmly camped inside a bubble of shit, here are some far more considered alternatives.

Paste Magazine’s top 50 albums of the decade.

and

Pitchfork’s 20 greatest albums of the ’00s.

Opinions etc?

Bellissima, quest’ultima canzone dei Green Day. Credo proprio che nel loro ultimo album sono stati veramente dei grandi! Non che non lo fossero stati anche negli album precedenti, ma American Idiot purtroppo aveva ricevuto parecchie critiche. Comunque, lasciati i Green Day alle spalle, passiamo adesso alla prossima canzone. Ci ascoltiamo adesso Wicked Game, di Chris Isaak!

Each week, The Broadway Critic will be featuring the news that you don’t want to miss! A lot has happened since we posted about A Million Dollar Quartet and the resurrection of Carrie.

• Yes, that’s right! The Addams Family Musical starts previews on Friday, November 13th, 2009 in Chicago. With a cast that features Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, Terrence Mann, Carolee Carmello and Kevin Chamberlin, you can be sure that it’s going to be fantastic. (Well, that’s what I thought about Memphis and that didn’t work out.) You can check out this awesome video of The Addams Family getting into costume and make-up for a Vanity Fair photoshoot. It’s all a bit too kooky, mysterious and spooky for the cast to look so much like the cartoon. We are hoping for some great reviews.
• Big news hit twitter like wild fire on Tuesday when it was announced that Denzel Washington was coming back to Broadway. He will be starring in Fences, according to The New York Times. It’s kind of fun to see big Hollywood stars performing on Broadway but only if they are really good. Can Denzel deliver better than Jackman/Daniel do? (Not that the A Steady Rain’s box office has suffered by any means by Jackman/Craig’s performance.) Playbill.com says, “Fences will begin rehearsals this February with an April 2010 opening, Variety is reporting. Denzel has signed on for a 14-week run through mid-July.” Hopefully, he won’t get “mercury poisoning”.
• The producers of American Idiot are searching for a new Johnny, St. Jimmy, Will, Tunny and Whatsername. We are hoping that they are just looking for replacements/understudies, because all five of those characters should not be replaced. We have an idea who will be replaced when it finally gets to Broadway, but we don’t think it will be any of those five (maybe, but not willing to bet on it). The producers have confirmed that American Idiot will go to Broadway, just no one knows when or where. I hope it’s soon. (Be sure to get tickets for closing weekend!)
• It was announced yesterday that Harvey Fierstein will be replacing Chaim Topol as Tevye in the touring production of Fiddler on the Roof. Am I the ONLY one that doesn’t want to see Fierstein play Tevye? Come on… anyone? I think I’ll skip this tour in San Francisco.
• Be sure to check out these pictures from the new production of Ragtime.

Until next week…