Revolution Radio

[Platypus2000]

20 hours ago, Clayish said:

Fantano gave it a 3

Yeah but Fantano is a fat egg that likes shitty rap and palms it off as genius writing.

If ever there was a reviewer not to listen to, it would be him.

[That Dude]

I was let down by the deluxe lyric book version.  It was basically the same as the standard with not MORE pictures but a few different ones.  The Idiot and Breakdown books were much more of an experience......

The thing that annoys me most about RevRad other than the missing S in a certain song title is the lack of songwriting credits.  The lack of bow guitar and piano credits.  

Was it intentional? Like: we know there isn't any trumpet on this record, let's fwoo with our fans a little bit.

Did they not want to draw attention to the fact they said this was a back to basics record when in fact its not??????

This record is amazing. 

It is NOT a back to basics, nothing but guitar and drums kind of record.  

It's like they were talking about a different album.   "not political"  "not like American Idiot" .    

Ha.  Ha.  I'm dead. 

Multi-part songs, AI guitar tones.

Also....

I think Revrad IS a concept album. 

 

 

[Christian's Inferno!]

1 hour ago, thatdude03 said:

I was let down by the deluxe lyric book version.  It was basically the same as the standard with not MORE pictures but a few different ones.  The Idiot and Breakdown books were much more of an experience......

The thing that annoys me most about RevRad other than the missing S in a certain song title is the lack of songwriting credits.  The lack of bow guitar and piano credits.  

Was it intentional? Like: we know there isn't any trumpet on this record, let's fwoo with our fans a little bit.

Did they not want to draw attention to the fact they said this was a back to basics record when in fact its not??????

This record is amazing. 

It is NOT a back to basics, nothing but guitar and drums kind of record.  

It's like they were talking about a different album.   "not political"  "not like American Idiot" .    

Ha.  Ha.  I'm dead. 

Multi-part songs, AI guitar tones.

Also....

I think Revrad IS a concept album. 

 

 

Well even though it's probably GD's most political album, it's still not that political. Maybe 4 of the songs are political. I mean, American Idiot isn't really political besides 2 songs (AI, Holiday)

And Forever Now is the only multi-part song. If that makes it a concept album, I guess Tré is too since that has Dirty Rotten Bastards

[Clayish]

6 hours ago, Platypus2000 said:

Yeah but Fantano is a fat egg that likes shitty rap and palms it off as genius writing.

If ever there was a reviewer not to listen to, it would be him.

 

If he gave it a positive review you wouldn't be saying this hahah. Fantano knows his stuff.

[DookieLukie]

5 minutes ago, Clayish said:

If he gave it a positive review you wouldn't be saying this hahah. Fantano knows his stuff.

Knows what stuff? Like...musical composition? Because otherwise it's just an opinion.

[That Dude]

32 minutes ago, MysticManiac said:

Well even though it's probably GD's most political album, it's still not that political. Maybe 4 of the songs are political. I mean, American Idiot isn't really political besides 2 songs (AI, Holiday)

And Forever Now is the only multi-part song. If that makes it a concept album, I guess Tré is too since that has Dirty Rotten Bastards

I agree about American Idiot not being political aside from a few lines in Holiday.   

The Trilogy is a concept album.

RevRad is a concept album.  I just haven't figured out the narrative just yet.   

[Christian's Inferno!]

Just now, thatdude03 said:

The Trilogy is a concept album.

How? It's just a collection of songs

[That Dude]

1 minute ago, MysticManiac said:

How? It's just a collection of songs

I won't go into great detail with each song here, but:

Uno tells the story of a guy living on the wild side who falls in love with a girl.  

Dos tells the story of how said relationship implodes under the weight of infidelity, drugs, booze and death.

Tre tells the story of waking up after the destruction and realizing it was all his fault.  He sifts through the rubble of his life and finds hope and inspiration somewhere deep within his self.  From RevRad, we know now that he found it underneath his sofa pillows.    

BANG BANG (my new lol)   

 

[Christian's Inferno!]

Just now, thatdude03 said:

I won't go into great detail with each song here, but:

Uno tells the story of a guy living on the wild side who falls in love with a girl.  

Dos tells the story of how said relationship implodes under the weight of infidelity, drugs, booze and death.

Tre tells the story of waking up after the destruction and realizing it was all his fault.  He sifts through the rubble of his life and finds hope and inspiration somewhere deep within his self.  From RevRad, we know now that he found it underneath his sofa pillows.    

BANG BANG (my new lol)   

 

That's just your interpretation of the albums. BJ has described the albums as the pre-party (Uno), the party (Dos), and the after-party/hangover (Tré). And these are just the themes of the albums, doesn't really count as a concept

[That Dude]

3 minutes ago, MysticManiac said:

That's just your interpretation of the albums. BJ has described the albums as the pre-party (Uno), the party (Dos), and the after-party/hangover (Tré). And these are just the themes of the albums, doesn't really count as a concept

I knoooow.  Something is wrong with me: American Idiot was so freaking perfect that I want every album to be a concept album.   

I think American Idiot broke music for me.   Nothing compares.

(random sidenote: went to a local rock show last night, saw a guy wearing an Idiot shirt.)

 

[Dakke]

Uno!is just random, whatever Billie intended to do with the pre-party theme. If Uno has a theme, so has 1,039/SOSH. To this day I don't know what the hell Nuclear Family is about.

Dos! is lyrically awful, but also the ultimate attestation of how Billie was crashing and giving in to his addictions. Nightlife is a very sinister example in that regard.

Tré! is kind of epic, but suffers from the general lack of focus and forced writing that permeates the Trilogy as a whole. DRB is the most prominent victim in this regard.

[straighttohell]

3 hours ago, thatdude03 said:

I was let down by the deluxe lyric book version.  It was basically the same as the standard with not MORE pictures but a few different ones.  The Idiot and Breakdown books were much more of an experience......

The thing that annoys me most about RevRad other than the missing S in a certain song title is the lack of songwriting credits.  The lack of bow guitar and piano credits.  

Was it intentional? Like: we know there isn't any trumpet on this record, let's fwoo with our fans a little bit.

Did they not want to draw attention to the fact they said this was a back to basics record when in fact its not??????

This record is amazing. 

It is NOT a back to basics, nothing but guitar and drums kind of record.  

It's like they were talking about a different album.   "not political"  "not like American Idiot" .    

Ha.  Ha.  I'm dead. 

Multi-part songs, AI guitar tones.

Also....

I think Revrad IS a concept album. 

 

 

I was let down by the book too. I was let down by basically all of the artwork/packaging on Rev Rad. I dig the record musically and mostly lyrically but wish they could have come up with something more creative for the artwork/packaging.

In regards to the "back to basics" thing, I feel like that is something that gets pinned on them by journalists/media people and not something that they ever say themselves, but I could be totally wrong. Did they themselves ever call this album "back to basics"? If so maybe they were referring to the fact that they wrote/recorded/produced the entire thing just the three of them in a tiny studio with no one else around. That whole DIY element of the record to me is very "back to basics", but sonically/songwriting wise, its definitely far from basic.

[That Dude]

4 minutes ago, straighttohell said:

I was let down by the book too. I was let down by basically all of the artwork/packaging on Rev Rad. I dig the record musically and mostly lyrically but wish they could have come up with something more creative for the artwork/packaging.

In regards to the "back to basics" thing, I feel like that is something that gets pinned on them by journalists/media people and not something that they ever say themselves, but I could be totally wrong. Did they themselves ever call this album "back to basics"? If so maybe they were referring to the fact that they wrote/recorded/produced the entire thing just the three of them in a tiny studio with no one else around. That whole DIY element of the record to me is very "back to basics", but sonically/songwriting wise, its definitely far from basic.

I think you're right.   But even the 'just the three of them' was kind of an exaggeration.   Ronnie Blake was in there blowing a horn nobody can hear for some reason.  lol

[Christian's Inferno!]

6 minutes ago, straighttohell said:

I was let down by the book too. I was let down by basically all of the artwork/packaging on Rev Rad. I dig the record musically and mostly lyrically but wish they could have come up with something more creative for the artwork/packaging.

In regards to the "back to basics" thing, I feel like that is something that gets pinned on them by journalists/media people and not something that they ever say themselves, but I could be totally wrong. Did they themselves ever call this album "back to basics"? If so maybe they were referring to the fact that they wrote/recorded/produced the entire thing just the three of them in a tiny studio with no one else around. That whole DIY element of the record to me is very "back to basics", but sonically/songwriting wise, its definitely far from basic.

I think the "back to basics" thing is basically that they're doing a smaller project without an overambitious/rock-opera/conceptual thing like AI, 21CB and the Trilogy were. This is the first album since Warning where it's just the band doing 12 songs on an album with nothing else which is basically what I think they mean by back to basics. Also the fact that it's just the 3 of them producing it like it was in Kerplunk could be part of the "back to basics" thing (although Rob Cavallo was only credited as executive producer on Warning, so GD did most of the producing for that album too)

[stories and songs]

14 minutes ago, straighttohell said:

I was let down by the book too. I was let down by basically all of the artwork/packaging on Rev Rad. I dig the record musically and mostly lyrically but wish they could have come up with something more creative for the artwork/packaging.

In regards to the "back to basics" thing, I feel like that is something that gets pinned on them by journalists/media people and not something that they ever say themselves, but I could be totally wrong. Did they themselves ever call this album "back to basics"? If so maybe they were referring to the fact that they wrote/recorded/produced the entire thing just the three of them in a tiny studio with no one else around. That whole DIY element of the record to me is very "back to basics", but sonically/songwriting wise, its definitely far from basic.

I think it's something that's exaggerated in write-ups. In a videoed interview the other day he referred to this recording process as "not necessarily back to basics" lol. They definitely went for a less grandiose and more independent approach, but that doesn't make it basic.

[straighttohell]

Just now, thatdude03 said:

I think you're right.   But even the 'just the three of them' was kind of an exaggeration.   Ronnie Blake was in there blowing a horn nobody can hear for some reason.  lol

But I mean, he probably just came in for one day to do whatever he did (I can't hear the horns either lol). But in regards to 99.99% of the album, it sounds to me like they did it all alone with Dugan, which is pretty fucking remarkable for a band of their size. I can't think of a single rock band of today who would ever do anything like that. Every stadium sized rock band of now are recording in big million dollar studios with probably multiple producers, tons of techs, tons of engineers... and heres Green Day, THEE biggest punk band of the last 25 years, sold millions and millions of albums, multiple grammys, r&r hall of fame, etc etc, and they are in this tiny little hole in the wall studio that BJ put together himself, basically making a record totally DIY style with one of their oldest friends, Chris Dugan... thats pretty fucking rad to me. That aspect of the album is definitely back to basics. Musically the album is not at all, but the way they made it totally is.

[That Dude]

Just now, straighttohell said:

But I mean, he probably just came in for one day to do whatever he did (I can't hear the horns either lol). But in regards to 99.99% of the album, it sounds to me like they did it all alone with Dugan, which is pretty fucking remarkable for a band of their size. I can't think of a single rock band of today who would ever do anything like that. Every stadium sized rock band of now are recording in big million dollar studios with probably multiple producers, tons of techs, tons of engineers... and heres Green Day, THEE biggest punk band of the last 25 years, sold millions and millions of albums, multiple grammys, r&r hall of fame, etc etc, and they are in this tiny little hole in the wall studio that BJ put together himself, basically making a record totally DIY style with one of their oldest friends, Chris Dugan... thats pretty fucking rad to me. That aspect of the album is definitely back to basics. Musically the album is not at all, but the way they made it totally is.

Hell yes.  

[straighttohell]

9 minutes ago, MysticManiac said:

I think the "back to basics" thing is basically that they're doing a smaller project without an overambitious/rock-opera/conceptual thing like AI, 21CB and the Trilogy were. This is the first album since Warning where it's just the band doing 12 songs on an album with nothing else which is basically what I think they mean by back to basics. Also the fact that it's just the 3 of them producing it like it was in Kerplunk could be part of the "back to basics" thing (although Rob Cavallo was only credited as executive producer on Warning, so GD did most of the producing for that album too)

Exactly!

6 minutes ago, stories and songs said:

I think it's something that's exaggerated in write-ups. In a videoed interview the other day he referred to this recording process as "not necessarily back to basics" lol. They definitely went for a less grandiose and more independent approach, but that doesn't make it basic.

Right. I don't think the album, musically, is basic at all. It's not a stripped down punk/rock n roll record, by any means. But the way they made it, like you said, had a DIY/independent/back to basics approach.

[stories and songs]

37 minutes ago, straighttohell said:

But I mean, he probably just came in for one day to do whatever he did (I can't hear the horns either lol). But in regards to 99.99% of the album, it sounds to me like they did it all alone with Dugan, which is pretty fucking remarkable for a band of their size. I can't think of a single rock band of today who would ever do anything like that. Every stadium sized rock band of now are recording in big million dollar studios with probably multiple producers, tons of techs, tons of engineers... and heres Green Day, THEE biggest punk band of the last 25 years, sold millions and millions of albums, multiple grammys, r&r hall of fame, etc etc, and they are in this tiny little hole in the wall studio that BJ put together himself, basically making a record totally DIY style with one of their oldest friends, Chris Dugan... thats pretty fucking rad to me. That aspect of the album is definitely back to basics. Musically the album is not at all, but the way they made it totally is.

Green Day is really fucking cool.

[Second favourite son]

It seems that a lot of people don't like the 'lack' of bass on the album, and the absence of a 'bass led' song.  But I don't think there's anything wrong with it.  Sure, I would have loved Longview 2.0, but to say the bass on this album is weak or absent is just plain wrong.  The bass lines are simple, but that suits the music and actually adds a massive amount to the album.  Bass doesn't have to be complicated to be good, but we've been so spoiled in the past that it seems that we've forgotten this when it comes to Green Day.  There are, in fact, bass-led songs on the album (outlaws, for example), and it also pops up occasionally at other points (e.g. Parts of Still breathing).  IMO there are 2 kinds of excellent bass: bass that stands right out cos it's complex, well played, song-leading and tonally beautiful, and bass that's so tight with the rest of the music that you don't even notice it's there unless you're listening out for it especially, but then pops its head up occasionally to say hi.  Neither is better than the other, they're just different, and I think the latter has really worked here.

[Christian's Inferno!]

Just now, Second favourite son said:

It seems that a lot of people don't like the 'lack' of bass on the album, and the absence of a 'bass led' song.  But I don't think there's anything wrong with it.  Sure, I would have loved Longview 2.0, but to say the bass on this album is weak or absent is just plain wrong.  The bass lines are simple, but that suits the music and actually adds a massive amount to the album.  Bass doesn't have to be complicated to be good, but we've been so spoiled in the past that it seems that we've forgotten this when it comes to Green Day.  There are, in fact, bass-led songs on the album (outlaws, for example), and it also pops up occasionally at other points (e.g. Parts of Still breathing).  IMO there are 2 kinds of excellent bass: bass that stands right out cos it's complex, well played, song-leading and tonally beautiful, and bass that's so tight with the rest of the music that you don't even notice it's there unless you're listening out for it especially, but then pops its head up occasionally to say hi.  Neither is better than the other, they're just different, and I think the latter has really worked here.

To be honest I rarely actually hear bass on GD songs except really obvious ones like Longview, Nightlife etc

[That Dude]

On 10/13/2016 at 10:15 PM, AmyxLongview said:

Speaking of lyrics, has anyone come up with a meaning for the 2nd verse of Somewhere Now? it makes no sense to me

 

I got a scene in the middle of the road, i'm gonna take my time

I shop online so I can vote at the speed of life

I'm like a drone way up in the sky, i'm a shooting star

There's a soldier that's freaking out, PS this is war

That middle of the road is an important arc in the album's concept. 

In "Too Dumb to Die" he realizes that the middle of the road is better than where he is.  

At the climax of "Forever Now" he realizes he's doesn't want to stand in line anymore.  

It's very clear.  

There's also some roaming involved.   

Very clear.  

[Spike]

10 hours ago, thatdude03 said:

The thing that annoys me most about RevRad other than the missing S in a certain song title is the lack of songwriting credits.  The lack of bow guitar and piano credits.  

Was it intentional? Like: we know there isn't any trumpet on this record, let's fwoo with our fans a little bit

Billie played the bow guitar and piano. And there is a trumpet on the record  

5 hours ago, Second favourite son said:

It seems that a lot of people don't like the 'lack' of bass on the album, and the absence of a 'bass led' song.  But I don't think there's anything wrong with it.  Sure, I would have loved Longview 2.0, but to say the bass on this album is weak or absent is just plain wrong.  The bass lines are simple, but that suits the music and actually adds a massive amount to the album.  Bass doesn't have to be complicated to be good, but we've been so spoiled in the past that it seems that we've forgotten this when it comes to Green Day.  There are, in fact, bass-led songs on the album (outlaws, for example), and it also pops up occasionally at other points (e.g. Parts of Still breathing).  IMO there are 2 kinds of excellent bass: bass that stands right out cos it's complex, well played, song-leading and tonally beautiful, and bass that's so tight with the rest of the music that you don't even notice it's there unless you're listening out for it especially, but then pops its head up occasionally to say hi.  Neither is better than the other, they're just different, and I think the latter has really worked here.

Totally agree. 21st Century Breakdown was a bit of a letdown bass-wise but every other Green Day record has wonderful bass playing. I guess the criticism here is that it's so buried in the mix a lot of the time, but there's still some really great work on there, like the fills in Somewhere Now and, as you say, Still Breathing. Mike often gets overlooked but he's an absolutely solid player, his timing is arguably amongst the best in the world, and his dynamic control is incredible. The fact he knows when to be restrained is also worth noting, and I think he's shown huge development as a player since the early days when he took on a more Bruce Foxton-esque roll, but now the arrangements are bigger it'd just sound stupid if he did that now.

[tresexy101]

3 hours ago, thatdude03 said:

That middle of the road is an important arc in the album's concept. 

In "Too Dumb to Die" he realizes that the middle of the road is better than where he is.  

At the climax of "Forever Now" he realizes he's doesn't want to stand in line anymore.  

It's very clear.  

There's also some roaming involved.   

Very clear.  

Don't forget the Illuminati aspect.   Peace and Love.

[Thatsername]

Yesterday night when I couldn't sleep I listened to the full record twice in complete darkness, without any visual distraction. I focused all my attention on the music and I didn't know that this was even possible because I loved it so much already, but I love it even more now. There is so much passion and pain, but also joy and vitality, it makes me sad and nostalgic, but happy and grateful at the same time. It feels special and important and SO far away from "average". I just wish that people who don't like it could feel how I feel about it just for a minute. It has so much to offer.