Labels: Adeline
Review by: Mark Skold
You independent punk rock purists must excuse me, and I mean that in a nice way, but I love Green Day. Billie Joe is half of the guitar/vocal combination of the four piece that is Pinhead Gunpowder, so I was naturally drawn to this one.
Background – Billie recently formed Adeline Records to put out stuff that’s cool on, and this one is the 3rd release. Older PG stuff was put out on Lookout!, Green Day’s birth label. Shoot the Moon is a 7 song, 12 minute long blast of very raw pop driven rock songs, recorded in a basement in California somewhere.
After Green Day’s ultra-produced major label releases, this is a true departure. My first impression was “woah, this is RAW”. Why waste money on production? This stuff sounds great! It reminds me of Husker Du recordings for some reason, even though the tunes are way different.
Now before you tune out because I keep saying “Green Day”, just wait a second. Even though they may well have sold out by going to Reprise, the fact is that Billie can write great pop songs. There aren’t really any super-duper no. 1 singles that will beat Brittney Spears and Ricky Martin to the top of the charts, but the majority of them are pretty solid. Billie and other guy Jason trade off vocal duties each song, and there’s one with a harmonica in it – pop-punk with harmonicas!!! Original as fuck.
Plus, this album has one of the greatest song titles of all time – “My Boot In Your Face Is What Keeps Me Alive”. Subject matter like flying around the sky and then crashing into manhole covers, thinking you’re over the hill when you’re 27, and the kind of girls you’d beat up if they were guys.
Abstract is hip.
This is not a bad choice at all, particularly if you like tunes that are happy and make you randy (Hi Emma!). Not the greatest thing I’ve ever heard, but dammit, I’m proud to have this one in the collection.