Green Day is the new My Chemical Romance.

OH how the mighty have fallen. Seriously, look at the new Green Day album cover. It looks exactly like artwork from My Chemical Romance. I really can't believe that Green Day has completely changed. I mean, they fucking released a CD that sounds like their old stuff but they released under a different name?!?!?! I haven't heard the Foxboro Hot Tubs album, but it's on my list. I'm just really disapointed in how blatantly commercial they have become. This isn't a rant about bands becoming 'mainstream', this is a rant about a legitimately good band manufacturing an image to sell more albums. 'Green Day' has now become as much of a brand that My Chemical Romance is. At least we now know exactly how to sell out. Billie Joe Armstrong: Fuck you. You sir, are officially a tool. I saw a picture of Foxboro Hot Tubs performing, and they looked exactly like the old Green Day we all grew up with. For a good laugh, check out this interview on the Colbert Report and try to argue that these guys aren't tools HERE. I genuinely liked this band for a long time. I mean, FUCK! Dookie and Nimrod are great albums! They played excellent punk/pop and never did anything but be themselves. Well, some might argue that this is the band maturing. It isn't. If they were maturing, this wouldn't be such a rip-off of another successful band. Ugh, I'm tired of complaining.

Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops

So here starts my ambitious project, starting with an album that I feel really strongly about. This album got mixed reviews, and I'll be honest: at first, I didn't really like it. But as with a lot of great albums, this one is a grower. And the more I listen to it, the more it grows on me. The first time I really saw the album for what it's worth was when I was driving back from my friend Max's. We had jammed and hung out that night and I headed out in the early morning. It was about ten-ish, so the sun was out but it was cloudy and sort of raining. I was driving along, and 'Alone, Jealous, and Stoned' came on. Everything was perfect: the music was soothing, the trees and grass were all wet with rain, and I will never forget that moment. After listening intently a couple more times, I realized that this album describes every single relationship I've had, from the recent breakup story behind 'Alone, Jealous, and Stoned' to the struggle of unreturned love in 'I Want To Know'. I looked at the band's description of the album, and their lead singer, Brandon Curtis, wrote something to the effect of that he tried to capture the moment after you say something horrible to the people you love and you realize that you can never take it back. Wow. Here's a live video of 'Lightning Blue Eyes': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfy5iAydBWI I can honestly say, though, that this is in my top five albums of all time. This album is an album of change for the band. It has changed my life, for sure.