Trilogy Discussion

[Shtrudel]

Havn't heard the trilogy for a very long time. I think the last time I heard them was only a short time after their release. They're not as disappointing as I remembered. They're still a mixed bag however, but generally good. For now it's Dos>Tre>Uno, but it changes very often.

I'll write my opinions in notes, because that's the way I want to:
- There are only a few songs that shine to me, and even then, they don't shine as songs from previous materials.
- A>C#m>D>Dm or A>C#m>D>F (sometimes with slight changes or on different keys) is too common in all 3 of them. Let's call it "The 'Creep' Chord Progression" for the sake of convinience (I'm sure it's not the first song to have that chord progression, but it's the most iconic song to have that in my opinion).
- When writing solos, Billie Joe had this thought process: "The first chord is A, so I'll play on A Pentatonic!". No Billie, A Pentatonic does not work on A Major. I mean, it can work (y'know, in blues and stuff), but not in this case.
- "Nightlife" is disgusting. The arrangement is bad, the innuendos are bad, everything about this song is just a big mistake.
- "Fuck Time" was supposed to be on the category above, but then I remembered it's a somewhat comic song. If not for Foxboro, I would've thought they were dead-serious about it. I still suspect that though.
- Brutal Love is fantastic. I don't like it when they do ballads - which usually turn out cheesy as hell - but boy was it done right.
- I dig the guitar sound. There, I said it. It fits perfectly to the trilogy. And c'mon guys, Pinhead Gunpowder's "Compulsive Disclosure" has a similar sound. Jason's guitar is distorded, which happens to be overshadowed by Billie's clean guitar. That's even how they performed once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPaehUhzMPY

I bet that a few more replays and I remember the songs perfectly.

[Eric]

7 minutes ago, T@l said:

Havn't heard the trilogy for a very long time. I think the last time I heard them was only a short time after their release. They're not as disappointing as I remembered. They're still a mixed bag however, but generally good. For now it's Dos>Tre>Uno, but it changes very often.

I'll write my opinions in notes, because that's the way I want to:
- There are only a few songs that shine to me, and even then, they don't shine as songs from previous materials.
- A>C#m>D>Dm or A>C#m>D>F (sometimes with slight changes or on different keys) is too common in all 3 of them. Let's call it "The 'Creep' Chord Progression" for the sake of convinience (I'm sure it's not the first song to have that chord progression, but it's the most iconic song to have that in my opinion).
- When writing solos, Billie Joe had this thought process: "The first chord is A, so I'll play on A Pentatonic!". No Billie, A Pentatonic does not work on A Major. I mean, it can work (y'know, in blues and stuff), but not in this case.
- "Nightlife" is disgusting. The arrangement is bad, the innuendos are bad, everything about this song is just a big mistake.
- "Fuck Time" was supposed to be on the category above, but then I remembered it's a somewhat comic song. If not for Foxboro, I would've thought they were dead-serious about it. I still suspect that though.
- Brutal Love is fantastic. I don't like it when they do ballads - which usually turn out cheesy as hell - but boy was it done right.
- I dig the guitar sound. There, I said it. It fits perfectly to the trilogy. And c'mon guys, Pinhead Gunpowder's "Compulsive Disclosure" has a similar sound. Jason's guitar is distorded, which happens to be overshadowed by Billie's clean guitar. That's even how they performed once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPaehUhzMPY

I bet that a few more replays and I remember the songs perfectly.

Such a shame you do not like Nightlife! :/

[House Of Wolves]

1 hour ago, T@l said:

Havn't heard the trilogy for a very long time. I think the last time I heard them was only a short time after their release. They're not as disappointing as I remembered. They're still a mixed bag however, but generally good. For now it's Dos>Tre>Uno, but it changes very often.

I'll write my opinions in notes, because that's the way I want to:
- There are only a few songs that shine to me, and even then, they don't shine as songs from previous materials.
- A>C#m>D>Dm or A>C#m>D>F (sometimes with slight changes or on different keys) is too common in all 3 of them. Let's call it "The 'Creep' Chord Progression" for the sake of convinience (I'm sure it's not the first song to have that chord progression, but it's the most iconic song to have that in my opinion).
- When writing solos, Billie Joe had this thought process: "The first chord is A, so I'll play on A Pentatonic!". No Billie, A Pentatonic does not work on A Major. I mean, it can work (y'know, in blues and stuff), but not in this case.
- "Nightlife" is disgusting. The arrangement is bad, the innuendos are bad, everything about this song is just a big mistake.
- "Fuck Time" was supposed to be on the category above, but then I remembered it's a somewhat comic song. If not for Foxboro, I would've thought they were dead-serious about it. I still suspect that though.
- Brutal Love is fantastic. I don't like it when they do ballads - which usually turn out cheesy as hell - but boy was it done right.
- I dig the guitar sound. There, I said it. It fits perfectly to the trilogy. And c'mon guys, Pinhead Gunpowder's "Compulsive Disclosure" has a similar sound. Jason's guitar is distorded, which happens to be overshadowed by Billie's clean guitar. That's even how they performed once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPaehUhzMPY

I bet that a few more replays and I remember the songs perfectly.

Excellent technical insight. I agree with almost everything. I personally love the sound of minor pentatonic over a major tonic. Very New York Dolls. 

My main gripe with UDT are the overlong, staid arrangements. Most songs serve their purpose in half their duration. Main offenders: "Rusty James" (is that really the title?) and "99 Revolutions".

The arrangements we've heard off RevRad carry much more momentum, fortunately.  

Edited September 20, 2016 by House Of Wolves

[Shtrudel]

10 minutes ago, House Of Wolves said:

Excellent technical insight. I agree with almost everything. I personally love the sound of minor pentatonic over a major tonic. Very New York Dolls. 

My main gripe with UDT are the overlong, staid arrangements. Most songs serve their purpose in half their duration. Main offenders: "Rusty James" (is that really the title?) and "99 Revolutions".

Thank you! I've never thought about the length of the songs this way. It does make sense that shortening them might make them better. But leave Rusty James alone. I agree it's dragged on too much, but I'm totally OK with that.

[WhiteTim]

Nightlife is awesome 

[Hero_Of_The_Hour]

2 minutes ago, WhiteTim said:

Nightlife is awesome 

Yeah not a day goes past that I'm not grateful for lyrics like 

"I hope there's more in your pants than a bus route" 

Lady Cobra is indeed a true hero among mere mortals.

[DeJennsitized]

8 hours ago, Hero_Of_The_Hour said:

Yeah not a day goes past that I'm not grateful for lyrics like 

"I hope there's more in your pants than a bus route" 

Lady Cobra is indeed a true hero among mere mortals.

I'm not particularly fond of Nightlife but a song doesn't have to have profound - or even particularly great - lyrics for people to find it awesome. People like different things.

[Eric]

8 hours ago, Hero_Of_The_Hour said:

Yeah not a day goes past that I'm not grateful for lyrics like 

"I hope there's more in your pants than a bus route" 

Lady Cobra is indeed a true hero among mere mortals.

Man you nightlife haters are no fun!  

[Thatsername]

8 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

Nightlife is awesome 

I wouldn't call it awesome, but there's something mystique about that song I've always liked. I'm surprised that I like it much more now than back in 2012 when it came out. I think we can't take the lyrics literally, I'm pretty sure they are almost 100% metaphorical. To me, it always felt like the song is about the path that GD or celebrities in general take while they become famous: There's temptation everywhere, and yes, it can be sexual temptation, but also alcohol, drugs, money, fame... There's always something on that path that whispers "Hey boy, come over...". I have the strong feeling that Billie is dealing with his addiction there, too. "Taking a ride to my old haunt, she's in my blood" makes that pretty obvious, at least to me. I might be wrong, but that's the way I feel about the song.

[WhiteTim]

8 hours ago, Hero_Of_The_Hour said:

Yeah not a day goes past that I'm not grateful for lyrics like 

"I hope there's more in your pants than a bus route" 

Lady Cobra is indeed a true hero among mere mortals.

Not any worse than "I like your BM-excellent tits" 

[Second favourite son]

10 minutes ago, MMwhatsername said:

I wouldn't call it awesome, but there's something mystique about that song I've always liked. I'm surprised that I like it much more now than back in 2012 when it came out. I think we can't take the lyrics literally, I'm pretty sure they are almost 100% metaphorical. To me, it always felt like the song is about the path that GD or celebrities in general take while they become famous: There's temptation everywhere, and yes, it can be sexual temptation, but also alcohol, drugs, money, fame... There's always something on that path that whispers "Hey boy, come over...". I have the strong feeling that Billie is dealing with his addiction there, too. "Taking a ride to my old haunt, she's in my blood" makes that pretty obvious, at least to me. I might be wrong, but that's the way I feel about the song.

This is exactly what I was thinking.  Lady Cobra could be seen as the embodiment of all Billie's vices.  As sexual as the lyrics sound, they never outright mention sex, and could so easily refer to any of the many temptations of a rockstar (or even normal) lifestyle.

But even if you aren't looking for a deeper meaning, nightlife is still a fun song.  My only complaint was the electric drum beat, until I realised that I actually fits the song better than tre banging away on a kit.  It's great fun to listen to and the duet I do with my sister is amusing.

[WhiteTim]

I never said Nightlife was a masterpiece or the greatest song ever but I love the music and I love Billie's parts it's dark depressing to me escp the "I'm rollin', strollin' into town
Is it me or am I going crazy?
This dirty city is my sugar town
My little angel of death is my nightlife" part escp during 2012 when the song came out spending the entire day in the hospital for the entire month of Dec watching my grandmother die and spending the night driving around Houston alone swallowing Vicodins like skittles and drinking codeine all night listening to this song and other songs so I do like Nightlife cause of memories attached to the song for me 

[Steven Seagull]

Fuck Time is one of the best song they ever made.

[DookieLukie]

14 hours ago, WhiteTim said:

spending the night driving around Houston alone swallowing Vicodins like skittles and drinking codeine all night listening to this song and other songs so I do like Nightlife cause of memories attached to the song for me 

Fuuuuckkk you go hard

[WhiteTim]

12 minutes ago, DookieLukie said:

Fuuuuckkk you go hard

I have a very very high tolerance to medicine and alcohol

[DookieLukie]

24 minutes ago, WhiteTim said:

I have a very very high tolerance to medicine and alcohol

Wanna party? Your treat

[WhiteTim]

13 minutes ago, DookieLukie said:

Wanna party? Your treat

Lmao I'm in a much better space nowadays 

[Dakke]

One thing that continues to baffle me is the fact they never bothered to play DRB live. That song and Walk Away did not receive enough love during the 99 Revolutions tour. Another thing is that they never released Brutal Love or 99 Revolutions as singles.

[Hermione]

7 hours ago, Dakke said:

One thing that continues to baffle me is the fact they never bothered to play DRB live. That song and Walk Away did not receive enough love during the 99 Revolutions tour. Another thing is that they never released Brutal Love or 99 Revolutions as singles.

Might've simply been because it's difficult to play? Like with Misery. And I guess with the singles pretty much everything got messed up there because of rehab/the band not being around so not much is surprising. All would've been cool though.

[Dakke]

3 hours ago, Hermione said:

Might've simply been because it's difficult to play? Like with Misery. And I guess with the singles pretty much everything got messed up there because of rehab/the band not being around so not much is surprising. All would've been cool though.

Still, Warner could have released more Tré singles when they started touring again in 2013. 21 Guns and Boulevard of Broken Dreams were both released after 21CB and AI.

[Hermione]

2 minutes ago, Dakke said:

Still, Warner could have released more Tré singles when they started touring again in 2013. 21 Guns and Boulevard of Broken Dreams were both released after 21CB and AI.

Yeah that would've been good. But I think maybe because the albums didn't do so well (in part because of the band not being around to promote etc) it meant they cut their losses and didn't carry on with it like they might have.

[House Of Wolves]

On 9/21/2016 at 3:07 AM, Jenn. said:

I'm not particularly fond of Nightlife but a song doesn't have to have profound - or even particularly great - lyrics for people to find it awesome. People like different things.

I disagree. In pop music, "white people dance to the lyrics", as they say. A pop song won't explode unless people find the lyrics relatable and cool  

BJs eloquent lyricism is what seperated GD from their competition on Dookie and American Idiot. He didn't bring his A-game on the trilogy, and the albums didn't blow up.

Edited September 23, 2016 by House Of Wolves

[DeJennsitized]

2 minutes ago, House Of Wolves said:

I disagree. In pop music, "white people dance to the lyrics", as they say. A pop song won't explode unless people find the lyrics relatable and cool  

BJs eloquent lyricism is what seperated GD from their competition on Dookie and American Idiot. 

Honestly, I've never heard that. I don't find any of the songs in the chart relatable or cool

I didn't mean in terms of popularity anyway, I meant that some people just like a catchy tune sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[House Of Wolves]

15 minutes ago, Jenn. said:

Honestly, I've never heard that. I don't find any of the songs in the chart relatable or cool

I didn't mean in terms of popularity anyway, I meant that some people just like a catchy tune sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with that.

If you can take a catchy song with racist lyrics, you have a terrible song. If you take a janky performance of a poetic folk song (Bob Dylan, Conor Oberst), you have a beautiful song. 

Its just an aesthetic opinion about songwriting. Melody doesn't always trump lyrics. 

Edited September 23, 2016 by House Of Wolves

[DeJennsitized]

31 minutes ago, House Of Wolves said:

 If you can imagine a catchy song with racist lyrics, you have a terrible song. If you have a janky performance of a poetic folk song (Bob Dylan, Conor Oberst), you have a beautiful song. 

Its just an aesthetic opinion about songwriting. 

I think that's a different kettle of fish - racist/offensive lyrics isn't what I meant - more superficial or repetitive lyrics, or even no lyrics at all. I'm saying that's not a factor for some people, or even just sometimes not a factor.