Many shades of Green

This MADman has a hangover and Green Day are on the television, hence the "many shades of Green". See what I've done there? I would hope so, or you are truly stupid.

First and foremost, welcome to anyone who is here from Twitter, the campest-named networking facility in the world. Please feel free to contribute to Metal Harmony in any way you see fit, or unfit, or whatever.

Secondly, do Green Day still matter? When I was listening to "Dookie" oh-so-many years ago, songs about wanking in your flat when you're bored and being a retard made sense to my teenage punk self. I had no real angst to deal with but Green Day were still a release. Then they went shit, which I choose to gloss over as it was a sad time. But then "American Idiot" came out and propelled the short-arse frontmanned punksters into the mainstream in a frankly ridiculous way. I seem to remember Kerrang voting their Milton Keynes show "the best gig of all time". If you'd have told me that would happen when I was trying to play along with "Welcome To Paradise" on the drums over a decade ago, I would have said "no chance, you silly c*nt", and pissed in your ear.

Tre Cool was the man who really made me want to hit the skins and at that time, I was convinced that he was the best drummer in the world. And to be fair, he does still have an awesome talent. His timing is impeccable, his energy is awesome and his hair is regularly, if not constantly, stupid.

But I find myself asking, do they still matter? No longer an angsty trio of gobby shits, Green Day are now a threesome of political commentators. Surely this means they matter more? I don't know. I mean, how many people have gone down this route? Protest songs against war and organised religion have been around since music began and have ranged from the abolitionists in the USA to warbly-voice leathery rocker Neil Young to SoCal punk bands like Lagwagon, and so on and so forth. Don't get me wrong; Green Day still create fucking tuneage but I can't help thinking their aspirations to end the war in Iraq and topple TV evangelism is a bit contrived.

But what do I know?

More than you, probably.