Stop Drop and Roll!!!, Part ¡Dos!
By Jack /Nov. 13, 2012 / Comments
When Green Day sat down with VMusic in August to discuss their forthcoming trilogy of albums, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!, Billie described the three albums with a mere couple of sentences, "To me, it's just a bunch of really good songs that are straight to the point. Kind of go back to our roots a little bit, kind of get into the epic, and kind of get into a Foxboro Hot Tubs-garage kind of feel." Asked in an interview with TeleHit if there would be another Foxboro album, Billie replied, "Y'know, ¡Dos! is kind of the second Foxboro Hot Tubs record...the only difference is that we called it 'Green Day.'"
As Billie Joe continued using similar language to describe the second album of the trilogy in many other interviews, fans began to wonder whether the brief juncture of drunken genius that was captured on the Tubbies' Stop Drop and Roll!!! could ever be bottled again. Was ¡Dos! really going to be that raw? Would it fit in with the styles present other two albums?
When listening to the Foxboro Hot Tubs' one and only album release, it isn't hard to sense the spontaneity in those recordings. One can tell that Billie Joe didn't record any of his vocal parts and harmonies more than a few times. But, the beauty lies in the fact that he simply didn't need to. When Green Day fires on all cylinders, it's pretty easy to pick up on. That night at Jingletown, there were no record execs, there were no deadlines, and there were no Grammy-winning albums to follow up. There were no "rock stars." There was, however, Jason White, Jason Freese, Michael Pritchard, Frank Edwin Wright the Third, and the Reverend Strychnine Twitch. They undoubtedly loved incredible 50's-style garage rock songs, and wine. Lots of wine. Here's how Billie Joe remembers that night:
[quoteFull]We were back in Oakland, California at a studio, and we got drunk...I think we started on the song 'Stop Drop and Roll,' and we had a little half-inch 8-track player, and we just set up some mics and just started bangin' out songs![/quoteFull]
The guys came back as Green Day (that other little band...) for their next release. In 2009, roughly a year after Stop Drop and Roll!!!, Green Day put out 21st Century Breakdown. Though the album received fairly good press reviews, it was stuck with the monumental responsibility of following up the band's 2nd career breakthrough album: American Idiot. Billie Joe later talked of the toll that the 21st Century Breakdown years took on him and the rest of the band. They wanted to feel musically "free" again, and have straight-up fun with the next project. After a short hiatus from touring, the band began recording again, and ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré! were born.
Over the course of the last few months, we as a fan base have shifted gears from reading about and listening to people talk about the new trilogy, to actually hearing it for ourselves. ¡Uno! didn't disappoint, by any means, and marked a pivotal turning point in the band's creative path. Green Day seemed to want to get inside our heads again, and scream, "Weeee're baaaaack!" But, of course, right after the first album, everyone immediately wanted the next.
Today, November 13th, marks the release of ¡Dos!, proclaimed by Billie Joe and co. as "the party album." Due to the album [url=http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/green-day-rock-hard-and-fast-on-dos-album-premiere-20121106]becoming available online[/url] last week, most fans have already had a chance to pick favorites. I, for one, was amazed with songs like "Stop When The Red Lights Flash," "Wild One," "Makeout Party," and "Lady Cobra," which all bear striking resemblance to the tracks on Stop Drop and Roll!!!. I knew these albums would mix well, but I proved myself correct when I literally intermingled the two. I listened to one ¡Dos! track, followed by one Stop Drop and Roll!!! track, followed by another ¡Dos! track, so on and so forth. Without a doubt, I recommend this listening experiment to anyone who was captivated by Green Day's dabbling in old-time garage rock. At times, ¡Dos! blends perfectly with the Tubbies album. The raspy, mucky guitar tones sound very much alike, and Billie's fitting grunts and groans clearly echo those of "The Rev." Not one shred of the raging, energetic mood is lost in the song transitions.
Even with all of that said, ¡Dos! is still (and will always be) a Green Day album. They'll most likely never release anything that sounds as "natural" as Stop Drop and Roll!!!, in my opinion. If ¡Dos! was literally the second Foxboro Hot Tubs album, you'd have been anxiously staring at a different album cover for the last month and a half...maybe one containing a title ribbon like this?
Regardless of this "schizophrenia," as Tré Cool described it, ¡Dos! is an epic standalone album. Green Day showed once again that they could effectively "go back to the basics" of not just punk rock, but even hint at the bluesy styles that laid the foundation for modern rock 'n roll. They even flipped some critical "old Green Day" fans the bird. Maybe they just plain got tired of hearing that they'd never again record anything as good as Dookie. Green Day turned right around, said "Fuck it," and put makeout parties, "fuck time," skimpy clothing, and the names of multiple different women on their dirty "party album." Now, who was it that said they wouldn't be able to sing about masturbation when they were 40?...
As Billie Joe continued using similar language to describe the second album of the trilogy in many other interviews, fans began to wonder whether the brief juncture of drunken genius that was captured on the Tubbies' Stop Drop and Roll!!! could ever be bottled again. Was ¡Dos! really going to be that raw? Would it fit in with the styles present other two albums?
When listening to the Foxboro Hot Tubs' one and only album release, it isn't hard to sense the spontaneity in those recordings. One can tell that Billie Joe didn't record any of his vocal parts and harmonies more than a few times. But, the beauty lies in the fact that he simply didn't need to. When Green Day fires on all cylinders, it's pretty easy to pick up on. That night at Jingletown, there were no record execs, there were no deadlines, and there were no Grammy-winning albums to follow up. There were no "rock stars." There was, however, Jason White, Jason Freese, Michael Pritchard, Frank Edwin Wright the Third, and the Reverend Strychnine Twitch. They undoubtedly loved incredible 50's-style garage rock songs, and wine. Lots of wine. Here's how Billie Joe remembers that night:
[quoteFull]We were back in Oakland, California at a studio, and we got drunk...I think we started on the song 'Stop Drop and Roll,' and we had a little half-inch 8-track player, and we just set up some mics and just started bangin' out songs![/quoteFull]
The guys came back as Green Day (that other little band...) for their next release. In 2009, roughly a year after Stop Drop and Roll!!!, Green Day put out 21st Century Breakdown. Though the album received fairly good press reviews, it was stuck with the monumental responsibility of following up the band's 2nd career breakthrough album: American Idiot. Billie Joe later talked of the toll that the 21st Century Breakdown years took on him and the rest of the band. They wanted to feel musically "free" again, and have straight-up fun with the next project. After a short hiatus from touring, the band began recording again, and ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré! were born.
Over the course of the last few months, we as a fan base have shifted gears from reading about and listening to people talk about the new trilogy, to actually hearing it for ourselves. ¡Uno! didn't disappoint, by any means, and marked a pivotal turning point in the band's creative path. Green Day seemed to want to get inside our heads again, and scream, "Weeee're baaaaack!" But, of course, right after the first album, everyone immediately wanted the next.
Today, November 13th, marks the release of ¡Dos!, proclaimed by Billie Joe and co. as "the party album." Due to the album [url=http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/green-day-rock-hard-and-fast-on-dos-album-premiere-20121106]becoming available online[/url] last week, most fans have already had a chance to pick favorites. I, for one, was amazed with songs like "Stop When The Red Lights Flash," "Wild One," "Makeout Party," and "Lady Cobra," which all bear striking resemblance to the tracks on Stop Drop and Roll!!!. I knew these albums would mix well, but I proved myself correct when I literally intermingled the two. I listened to one ¡Dos! track, followed by one Stop Drop and Roll!!! track, followed by another ¡Dos! track, so on and so forth. Without a doubt, I recommend this listening experiment to anyone who was captivated by Green Day's dabbling in old-time garage rock. At times, ¡Dos! blends perfectly with the Tubbies album. The raspy, mucky guitar tones sound very much alike, and Billie's fitting grunts and groans clearly echo those of "The Rev." Not one shred of the raging, energetic mood is lost in the song transitions.
Even with all of that said, ¡Dos! is still (and will always be) a Green Day album. They'll most likely never release anything that sounds as "natural" as Stop Drop and Roll!!!, in my opinion. If ¡Dos! was literally the second Foxboro Hot Tubs album, you'd have been anxiously staring at a different album cover for the last month and a half...maybe one containing a title ribbon like this?
Regardless of this "schizophrenia," as Tré Cool described it, ¡Dos! is an epic standalone album. Green Day showed once again that they could effectively "go back to the basics" of not just punk rock, but even hint at the bluesy styles that laid the foundation for modern rock 'n roll. They even flipped some critical "old Green Day" fans the bird. Maybe they just plain got tired of hearing that they'd never again record anything as good as Dookie. Green Day turned right around, said "Fuck it," and put makeout parties, "fuck time," skimpy clothing, and the names of multiple different women on their dirty "party album." Now, who was it that said they wouldn't be able to sing about masturbation when they were 40?...
