My Amazon Reviews: Green Day "Dookie"

Still Flinging
5 Out Of 5 Stars

Essentially, this is the album that finally made punk safe for the masses. Led by a powerhouse trio, a wickedly juvenile sense of humor and, frankly, a killer set of songs, "Dookie" became a multi-platinum success and made overnight stars out of Green Day. They worked the basic best of the punk playbook with quick bursts of melody, propulsive drumming (Tre Cool may be one of the most underrated drummers of modern times) and vocals that were both young man snotty ("Longview") and mature beyond the format ("When I Come Around"), they managed to cover all the bases while holding a punk cachet.

Now that "Dookie" is 20 years old, there's a certain nostalgia for the Green Day of yore, before the politics and rock opera days. Billie Jo is still a wild eyed kid in the midst of all the rock dreams, so he can get away with lines like "when master.....'s lost it's thrill" and the oddball bad joke hidden at the tail end of "F.O.D.". And while they were kind of advanced for they're ages, it would still be another three albums before they'd try something as mature as "Good Riddance/Time Of Your Life."

So revel in the golden age of 1990's power punk, before the dam burst and every dyed hair band with a melody had a hit. Green Day got there first, with one of the best opening lines of a punk song ever in "Do you have the time, to listen to me whine" just before a buzzsaw guitar starts tearing the joint apart ("Longview"). They knew they were climbing over the backs of their forebears - the liner art screams Ramones circa "Rocket To Russia" - but little did they know how much farther they'd raise the bar.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Green Day "Uno!"

Uno a GoGo
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Green Day certainly aren't lacking for ambition. After two groundbreaking rock operas and a Broadway play, they decide it's time to revisit their roots of punk blasters. But not like they'll just rack up 12 songs and see what happens. "Uno!" is the first step in a rapid fire release date trilogy, with "Dos" and "Tre" to follow. The album is a machine gun zapper of the kind of songs that made "Dookie" a classic," with the band now sounding older loud and snotty instead of young. This is not a bad thing.

In fact, there are remnants of the Ramones that haunt a lot of these tracks, be it the immediacy of "Nuclear family" or the snap-to-it of "Let Yourself Go," that buzzsaw guitar riffing is care punk with the kind of pop-sugar coat that Green Day has excelled at for decades. Yet the band stretches on the dance ready "Kill The DJ," which is begging for a remix, or the simple and sweet "Oh Love."

What is missing are good lyrics. Too many F-Bombs sound like the band wasn't 100% ready with the words, so they just filled in the blanks with obscenities. Not that there are a lack of great couplets, like "Want to crack your cranium delirium" on the rocker "Troublemaker" or "I ain't got much time, so I'll get to the point/Do you wanna share a ride and get the f--k out of this joint" on "Stay the Night." (Which is backed up by "Carpe Diem.") "Uno!" is not a great album, but it kicks off the trilogy with a bang.

    

My Amazon Reviews: ZZ Top "La Futura"

Forward into The Past
4 Out Of 4 Stars

ZZ Top are still best remembered for their flashy videos, that crazy car and the buzzed out synths riding atop songs about legs and sharp dressed men. What most forget is that they started as a Texas blues and boogie outfit, making the most of their three piece line-up. That led to such great albums and songs like "Tush," "Tejas" and "Fandango." "La Futura" is a look back to that era, with producer Rick Rubin nudging Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard towards s stripped down electric blues, letting the trio wail away like it was 1974.

That doesn't make "La Futura" a great album or a return to form, as they've been doing this music under the radar on discs like "Rhythmeen" and "Mescalaro," just without the hype. The sound is still instantly recognizable with Gibbons and Hill trading lead vocals and Gibbons' snarly guitar licks sounding exclusive to him. The songs are also appropriately snappy, with the growl of "Gotsta Get Paid" and "Have A Little Mercy" again sounding like no band except ZZ Top. And finally taking the shackles off of Frank Beard may be the best thing about "La Futura," as he can now freely whack his snare drums without worrying about a drum machine.

I guess what bums me out here are two things; that the songs all sound recycled from other ZZ Top tunes, and that the album barely clocks in at a 40 mins for 10 songs. With almost a decade between discs and the hype of Rubin behind the boards (one of the few times Gibbons has shared the bench with any other than Bill Ham), I was expecting something more. fans will enjoy this, non-fans will scracth their heads, while classic rock radio will Que up "Sharp Dressed Man" for another spin.