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thinking of hella mega vs. realizing we get to see billie and he’s going to be adorable

High school Billie.

Old pic.

I gave Foreverly to my Dad one Xmas. It was one of the last "new" albums he listened to (Alzheimer's; lost interest in music the last couple of years of his life). He loved it and kept asking me why Billie and Norah hadn't recorded anything else together. It'll always have a special place in my heart.

When your dad buys Foreverly. He's a huge Everly Brothers fan and was impressed with the covers by Billie and Norah. I'm a happy son lol

I read through this whole thing and I have THOUGHTS... basically the writer makes an argument that Green Day promotes middle class values (individualism, nuclear family, professionalism, striving to get better etc.), while never belonging to middle class economically. I have to say that this is an interesting way to look at the band, but I’m not convinced by many of the author’s arguments and I think the core of the problem is the way she’s looking at class. She makes the distinction between the working class and the “professional middle class” as a distinction between having a boring job to make ends meet and having an enjoyable, possibly even fulfiling career, typically with more autonomy as to what you do at your job. That might be true for many people (interestingly, the authors lists examples of jobs that don’t seem typically middle class, like working in academia or being an attorney), but in my opinion, this way of looking at class completely discounts the most important thing, which is the work itself. Yes, you are more likely to enjoy a career that you actively chose to pursue, but being economically middle class doesn’t mean you’re certainly going to be less alienated - you’re probably going to make more money, live more comfortably and the career might become a part of you identity etc., but that says nothing about whether or not you feel any actual enthusiasm while creating the best solutions for your customers, teaching annyoing middle school kids math etc... you might. And then there are the so called “bullshit jobs” that typically are done by middle class people and yet, these people feel alienated. So, how does being in a band fit into this? The writer is right that the way Green Day talks about their work ethic and professionalism is the same as the petit bourgeoisie idea of grind, because essentially, singning a contract with a label isn’t all that different from getting another job, think of being a freelance writer for a company. But that’s it... they talk about music like it’s a job because it IS a job and that’s not acknowledged in the entire thesis, even though it explains everything (it doesn’t really matter how much money they earn, because the position they’re in is the same). The writer doesn’t consider the relationship between class and whether or not you’re an employee or an employer - being working class means you’re most definitely going to be working for somebody else (unless you start a company and if you’re successful, you become a boss), same goes for middle class, but when we get to the upper classes and the 1% that Green Day are a part of, there’s going to be very few people who are employed by a single company (that they don’t own/have power over), yet bands typically have contracts that bind them to labels. An owner of a company can have the same amount of money as a rockstar, but they’re in a very different position. However, the question I find interesting is whether or not can making art as a job be compared to other jobs. There’s no way to explore this question other than by asking people who are employed to create art how they feel - is there creative freedom, do they feel alienated, do they feel fulfilled? Possibly, these content creators might be the most “free” employees, simply because they would be making art even if they didn’t sign a contract to do so. I don’t believe you can compare BJA saying he “is Green Day/music/thinking about music all the time” with someone who “is a marketing executive,” because art is also a tool of self-expression and that probably goes beyond doing work you don’t mind doing/enjoy to get paid for it (but you wouldn’t make ads in your feee time, you know what I mean?). So yeah, what I’m saying is that class isn’t one-dimensional and there are different levels of alienation and different ways people relate to their work that don’t neccessarily correlate with how much money people earn and creative work, most prominently art like music, can be made in a similar framework of employment that other jobs are done in and I think you can’t write about art and class withought acknowleding this. I could scream about this for hours, but I’m sure you got bored half an hour ago so this is it!

With this news, I feel like a mid-July American tour isn’t really that out of the realm of possibility. At least for those with vaccines. (Ohio is lifting all restrictions June 2!)

Virgin arms.

Rivers just did a chat where he said they’d be going into the studio to start recording the Seasons albums in September after Hella Mega (which he called “hello megan” 😄) Sounds like he still expects the tour to happen. At least they are still scheduling around it.

When you're looking for yarn, come across one called Tickled Pink, and The Stranger starts playing in your head.

ngl I'm getting more excited by the minute. Can't wait to see Billie 🥰 and everyone of course but I especially miss our smol boi

I didn't knew ahah but yeah that's the same!

This may be old news, but it's new news to me. Banging in Your Stereo by....some band....sounds exactly like Know Your Enemy. Banging in your stereo x 3 Ra hey! Massive Wagons is the band.

Things are looking good for the Minneapolis date August 23. The Minnesota Twins sent out an email saying: “beginning on July 5, Target Field will have full, 100 percent capacity for the Twins’ final 40 regular season home games of 2021.” I just rebought my tickets a couple days ago 👍🏻

Well who needs to ask .... 😂😂

I guess they're legit instrumentals, since there are no backing vocals, they're in very high quality and I'm hearing all kinds of instruments in different way since Billie's vocals masks some instruments too well; just listen Kill the DJ and Makeout Party for example and skip straight to post-solo where bass sounds insane! Now if only we had multitracks.. damn I'd listen that guitar only tracks for dayssssssss. Oh, Let Yourself Go is certified banger and it's sad that The Boys don't play it anymore :(((

The slightest of bellies 🥰