New Song: "Here Comes the Shock"

[Guest]

3 hours ago, solongfromthestars said:

Obviously no drug use is healthy, no matter what your stance on drugs is (mine is that they should be decriminalised and use shouldn't be taboo) but not all drug use is addiction. An alcoholic can take cocaine and not be addicted to it - I know two who can and I'd be much more concerned if they picked up a drink because that is what they're addicted to. Similarly, a cocaine addict might be able to drink without it becoming an issue. A meth addict might be able to handle cocaine. Another person might not be able to handle any addictive substance.

The reason it's relevant that Billie went to rehab for booze and prescription drugs is because that is what he's told us he's addicted to. Maybe he is addicted to cocaine. We don't know. If he is, that's obviously serious and I don't think anyone who uses this forum is stupid enough to deny that. You can be concerned that he's singing about drugs at all, sure, but the fact we know nothing about Billie's supposed cocaine use is why it's none of our business and doesn't necessarily need pages of discussion, because it may not even be an issue.

Is anyone ever going to point out what all these supposed cocaine references on Father of All are, anyway? The only one I've noticed is "yeyo." The cocaine billboard obviously had nothing to do with the band and a pile of it in a photoshoot, again, doesn't equal use, let alone addiction.

I totally agree with all of this. I also can't find specific cocaine references in FOAM either, just a lot of dark takes on Billie's struggles. And I think it was very brave of him to write that stuff, and I applaud that.

No, we probably didn't need to have pages of discussion about cocaine, but I think it is good that a discussion like this is happening. Do you think maybe that is why Billie dropped a random reference like that with little context? Maybe he wanted people to talk about it? And if the goal was to start a conversation about an important issue, then it looks like he certainly succeeded.

12 hours ago, HAPPY FINKING UNICORN said:

What does it mean approaching it with carefulness when it comes to music? Maybe I am misunderstanding your specific point here, but I’ll use what I get from it to explain my view over this thing, cause I completely disagree with most of the things that are being said. 

I’ll try to explain myself, taking for granted that the song is quite explicitly hinting at the sniffing of some sort of drugs, which I think it’s a pretty fair assumption. 
First of all, writing and singing about drug use or abuse is never a bad thing to me. It’s not stigmatizing, hiding and censoring the drug topic as an art subject, however it is approached, that drug problems get solved. Both for the author of the art piece, and for its audience. I don’t know if this song is “inspired by real events”, if these are a current topic for someone in the band or close to it, and I don’t think anyone in here has the tools to determine this. But even if it is, the fact that this comes out in the form of a song is a positive thing to me, not a negative one. One can dislike the song, nothing to say about it, but I don’t see the drama around it. If there is a drama it exists prior to the song composition, and the song can only contribute to solve the drama, not amplify it. If the problem exists, keep existing, or increase it’s not fault of the music, but of things happening in society and/or in the personal life of an individual. Both in the case of the artist and of its audience. A song can only improve the situation creating a tool to be heard, or at least something to feel connected to and/or represented by. And lacking the possibility to express and connect yourself to something in these cases can be the worst scenario.

Which leads me to the second point a want to make: a song about drugs is never a light hearted song, and it’s almost impossible for it to share a light hearted message even when it’s light hearted in its structure or apparent message. Even a four lines silly song as now I wanna sniff some glue from The Ramones has behind it a deeper meaning about peer and social pressure, and it isn’t actually an hymn to the sniffing of glue. There are artists and bands that built their fame writing ballads about heroin, and those songs are not actually an hymn to heroin, they are a painting of social and personal realities. There are bourgeois newspapers that blamed the velvet underground for the heroin epidemic, but the velvet underground were just describing a reality with their songs, not creating it.
This song is nothing different from a Ramones song about sniffing glue, you can dislike it, you can stop reading its meaning when it gets to the line sound, but there’s obviously more behind it, even in its light, simple, and messy lyrics. And I think for an artist is always a good thing to take that more out, and share it with the world. Even if in it’s appearance is just the description a state of joy, energy or relief due to the use of drugs (which I don’t think is necessarily the case for this song). Also because that’s part of the experience of taking drugs, and denying or hiding it does not make any good or solve any problem. 

 

11 hours ago, BillieMyLove said:

Love this. I completely agree that these things are not talked about light-heartedly. As I have said many times, I do not feel this is a light-hearted song. It's got a lot of heavy stuff hidden in it, and the implied coke reference is one of those things. Also agree with your take on music. Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" and the Rolling Stone's "Mother's Little Helper" are two of the songs that always come to mind for me when I think of music addressing the harsh realities of drug use, obviously there are many more examples, and I fully agree that these things need to be addressed in public. Honestly talking about the struggles many people face will do a lot more to help then some ridiculous nonsense like telling people to "just say no" to drugs. 

I just realized we both somehow missed the most obvious song, Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" LOL. That's another really brutally honest take on drug use.

[solongfromthestars]

25 minutes ago, Beerjeezus said:

I don’t think the point of this entire conversation was to discuss whether or not he’s addicted to cocaine.

Doesn't matter whether he is or not. We don't know, so if people want to freak out that he's singing about drugs at all that's up to them, but there's no need to automatically assume we need to worry about cocaine use. However people are constantly bringing it up so it's relevant to state not all drug use is addiction and that Billie has never stated he's addicted to cocaine.

[Beerjeezus]

Just now, solongfromthestars said:

Doesn't matter whether he is or not. We don't know, so if people want to freak out that he's singing about drugs at all that's up to them, but there's no need to automatically assume we need to worry about cocaine use.

But no one has even brought that up literally until you made your post. We were discussing the song lyrics.

Anyway, I gave the song a second listen and I still don’t think it’s that awful. It’s ok for a b-side, just not something I neccessarily need to go back to often.

 

[solongfromthestars]

Just now, Beerjeezus said:

But no one has even brought that up literally until you made your post. We were discussing the song lyrics.

These comments weren't just about the song, they were about Billie's addiction issues.

Quote

There is no appropriate use of cocaine. Any use is abuse. Just because you didn’t go to rehab for it doesn’t make it any less of a concern (it’s maybe even more of a concern)

Quote

he’s got a problem with substances, so there’s a fair chance that it’s not just a case of a party-hungry middle aged guy being embarrassing. 

Quote

That’s what he finally went to rehab for, but he’s used every recreational drug under the sun to varying degrees over many years. (Unless you’re saying that he didn’t go to rehab for coke and that somehow that makes it okay?)

Can't be bothered to go further back but that's the kind of stuff I was referring to. I wasn't debating whether or not Billie is addicted to cocaine. I was saying that unless we know it's an issue, there's no need for the kind of worries quoted above.

[Beerjeezus]

41 minutes ago, solongfromthestars said:

These comments weren't just about the song, they were about Billie's addiction issues.

Can't be bothered to go further back but that's the kind of stuff I was referring to. I wasn't debating whether or not Billie is addicted to cocaine. I was saying that unless we know it's an issue, there's no need for the kind of worries quoted above.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but what I was trying to say wasn’t that I’m worried about his addiction, I honestly don’t care about that, it’s his business. I’m just saying that don’t feel comfortable writing this song off as cringy and embarrassing, when in fact he might be talking about his experiences, which wouldn’t make HCTS a better song, but I wouldn’t laugh at that.

[pacejunkie punk]

1 hour ago, Beerjeezus said:

I don’t think the point of this entire conversation was to discuss whether or not he’s addicted to cocaine.

Often the problem with these thread discussions is they start out just fine and reasonable (like when I began this one with my comment on authenticity versus concern and one’s ability to enjoy the current music). Several people agreed with me on this point and it was fine. We all shared a similar discomfort over the specific references in the music and marketing and this may have explained why. 

Then through some process of whisper down the lane the comment morphs into something no one was discussing and you get forced to defend arguments you weren’t making. I tried to leave this debate long ago after my point was made but was being challenged to defend more extreme points that had nothing to do with my initial comment.  It happens a lot here. Time for this subject to die.

[Little Boy Named Booze]

Just now, pacejunkie punk said:

Often the problem with these thread discussions is they start out just fine and reasonable (like when I began this one with my comment on authenticity versus concern and one’s ability to enjoy the current music). Several people agreed with me on this point and it was fine. We all shared a similar discomfort over the specific references in the music and marketing and this may have explained why. 

Then through some process of whisper down the lane the comment morphs into something no one was discussing and you get forced to defend arguments you weren’t making. I tried to leave this debate long ago after my point was made but was being challenged to defend more extreme points that had nothing to do with my initial comment.  It happens a lot here. Time for this subject to die.

This!! Even tho I probably didn't help making it better lol

[pacejunkie punk]

2 minutes ago, Little Boy Named Booze said:

This!! Even tho I probably didn't help making it better lol

It is far preferable to let a topic die a natural death around here rather than death by a thousand cuts through nitpicking and misconstruing an argument

[That Dude]

Hmm.  

You guys don't like "Here Come the Shock" OR the new Offspring song.  

I love them both and right now I'm digging The Offspring single just a little bit more.   

I will admit that if Green Day XIV has a reworked version of "Good Riddance" on piano or something, I'll be a little worried.    The Offspring might be in their 70s before they release a follow up to their 2021 album.    This may be the last one.   

Green Day have done 13 studio albums from 1988 to present.     The Offspring have been around since 1984 and are just now putting out Album 10.     

Don't keep em seperated , Offspring.   Keep it together! 

Anyway.  

Both songs are Magnum Opuses of Some Kind.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Often the problem with these thread discussions is they start out just fine and reasonable (like when I began this one with my comment on authenticity versus concern and one’s ability to enjoy the current music). Several people agreed with me on this point and it was fine. We all shared a similar discomfort over the specific references in the music and marketing and this may have explained why. 

Then through some process of whisper down the lane the comment morphs into something no one was discussing and you get forced to defend arguments you weren’t making. I tried to leave this debate long ago after my point was made but was being challenged to defend more extreme points that had nothing to do with my initial comment.  It happens a lot here. Time for this subject to die.

I will agree that things tend to get twisted on this site and often conversations run off the rails. It's awfully hard to maintain discussion here without them devolving into complete ridiculousness.

2 hours ago, Beerjeezus said:

But no one has even brought that up literally until you made your post. We were discussing the song lyrics.

Anyway, I gave the song a second listen and I still don’t think it’s that awful. It’s ok for a b-side, just not something I neccessarily need to go back to often.

 

Wow, I thought there was gonna be a discussion of the coke sniff in this vid and I was disappointed LOL. I agree with what he said about the music though I think he may have missed some points on the lyrics. Overall his argument makes sense, but I don't know who this guy is; he seems like just another fan like any one of us. It's not like he's a professional musician or music critic. I could make the same kind of review video and state all my opinions and put it on YouTube too, and that doesn't make me any more or less accurate. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it is still just one person's opinion. I really feel put off when people act like something is objective truth because someone put a video about it online LOL. (And no, I know you are not doing that and neither is anyone else here; I am just stating a point. Some people put way too much stock in the YouTubers. It's like Wayne's World for the 21st Century LOL.)

[Clockwise]

Arguments misconstrued on THIS website? Never!

[Beerjeezus]

3 hours ago, BillieMyLove said:

I will agree that things tend to get twisted on this site and often conversations run off the rails. It's awfully hard to maintain discussion here without them devolving into complete ridiculousness.

Wow, I thought there was gonna be a discussion of the coke sniff in this vid and I was disappointed LOL. I agree with what he said about the music though I think he may have missed some points on the lyrics. Overall his argument makes sense, but I don't know who this guy is; he seems like just another fan like any one of us. It's not like he's a professional musician or music critic. I could make the same kind of review video and state all my opinions and put it on YouTube too, and that doesn't make me any more or less accurate. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it is still just one person's opinion. I really feel put off when people act like something is objective truth because someone put a video about it online LOL. (And no, I know you are not doing that and neither is anyone else here; I am just stating a point. Some people put way too much stock in the YouTubers. It's like Wayne's World for the 21st Century LOL.)

I just... linked a video I watched because I thought it was good

[That Dude]

So uh.....

Has this song hit number one on every chart yet or is it more of a slow creep towards the top?
 

 

[House Of Wolves]

Have we confirmed who produced the track? It sounds a lot like Butch Walker but was wondering if there’s any more info. 
 

Loving it btw. 

[greendepent]

1 hour ago, House Of Wolves said:

Have we confirmed who produced the track? It sounds a lot like Butch Walker but was wondering if there’s any more info. 
 

Loving it btw. 

Butch said he produced, and Chris Dugan did the mixing

[House Of Wolves]

Just now, greendepent said:

Butch said he produced, and Chris Dugan did the mixing

Very cool. Ty

[Rumpelstiltskin2000]

Honestly, people have been discussing all kinds of stuff in trying to work out the meaning of this song: the Trilogy, Billie's rehab/meltdown, cocaine, the Madonna Inn shoot, cocaine references in FOAM lyrics, sad almost 50 year old rockstars, etc, etc. 

All I was doing was pointing out what Billie actually said were his addictions (because you know not everyone on this site knows so much info or has read all the interviews about GD as others on here). All this extra discussion happened because of two rude and out of context comments which I then felt it necessary to reply to.

[rev]

It’s been a minute since I’ve been around here. Cocaine discussion aside I actually hated this song at first.

After several listens I actually like it. It’s fun, catchy, and has a 21CBD vibe to it (I’m aware this has been a talking point). I’m guessing this is just a 1 off song to fulfill their NHL contract. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by rev

[emenius]

Yeah it’s grown on me too- simple, fun and catchy, and better with a pair of good headphones. Wish the backing vocals were louder in the final chorus though.

[Miko]

20 hours ago, That Dude said:

Green Day have done 13 studio albums from 1988 to present.     The Offspring have been around since 1984 and are just now putting out Album 10.     

I'm just gonna comment that it's not a fair comparison since Green Day decided to release 3 albums in 2012 while Offspring has released new album every few years, just like Green Day excluding Trilogy.

Anyways, Here Comes The Shock is still so fucking awful, almost more awful than Forever Now but thankfully this is a lot shorter so Forever Now can stay as their worst song.

[Christian's Inferno!]

14 minutes ago, Miko said:

I'm just gonna comment that it's not a fair comparison since Green Day decided to release 3 albums in 2012 while Offspring has released new album every few years, just like Green Day excluding Trilogy.

Anyways, Here Comes The Shock is still so fucking awful, almost more awful than Forever Now but thankfully this is a lot shorter so Forever Now can stay as their worst song.

Wait what's the problem with Forever Now??

[Miko]

6 minutes ago, Christian's Inferno! said:

Wait what's the problem with Forever Now??

This is gonna go massively off-topic if we start discussing about that thing, so I'll just give you just one detailed answer.

Let me first quote myself from 1 and half years ago from listing GD albums from best to worst:
 

Quote

12. Revolution Radio

- And even when I completely shat on Warning, it wasn't even their worst fucking album! No, their latest full album release was Revolution Radio from 2016 and that release was the most disappointing thing ever. I've said many times how I dislike Forever Now (which is by far their worst song ever), how I dislike how generic and painful some of the tracks are (especially Still Breathing and Somewhere Now) and how I dislike the production (mostly in Say Goodbye, Bang Bang and Outlaws this is a big fucking problem). Sure, lyrics and everything may have been the most honest Billie Joe has ever written, but it's not a excuse at all how bad the songs are. When the lyrics are something like this:
wE lIvE iN tRoUbLeD tImEs
OUUUUUUTLAAAAAAAAAAAAAWS

My name is Billie and I'm freaking out
YOUNG, BLOOD
'Cause I'm still breathing on my own
I'm running late to somewhere now I don't want to be..

The list continues on and on. Ordinary World is utter trash, Troubled Times is hilariously bad, I don't even understand what the fuck were they doing with Say Goodbye and god how Bang Bang was wasted on this album. My hopes were high when Bang Bang was released and many people thought it was gonna be some good fucking album, but then it turned out to be disaster. They were not gonna rock and roll like in previous 3 albums, they instead released album that is full of nostalgia, pop and ''epicness''. It's been 3 years since I first heard this album and I still hate it to this day, so it's not like I recently heard it on first time or anything. After all, I just hope they do trilogy treatment to this album and don't play any songs of it live anymore (and if there has to be some song, Bang Bang would be great choice to this new era where Father of All is way too long apparently) and just forget it.

General assumption is that Revolution Radio was good and especially safe album. Coming off from Trilogy (which I loved), I expected them to do something more safe with their sound since a lot of criticism was targeted to their ''clean'' guitars. When Bang Bang was released, I was more than excited about this new Green Day that we're getting in 2016, but sadly it turned out to be the most generic and boring album they've ever released. I didn't go so deep about it in quote, but Forever Now was the worst. This is the song where you can definitely feel that ''safe'' thing people are talking about. Reusing albums first song during the end, making Jesus of Suburbia for the third time (without story making any sense, of course) and overall having bad production, lyrics, ''epicness'' and bland sound equals to their worst song to the date.  To make matters worse, they played it live with Jesus of Suburbia following it almost immediately. It's simply just garbage song in my opinion and I don't see a world where that opinion would really change, since I've been saying it for 5 years. I dislike Dirty Rotten Bastards (what the fuck is that song really about?) but I prefer it over thousand times more than Forever Now.

I understand that I'm really lonely with this opinion since all I see on YT, Twitter, GDC and Reddit is nothing but love to Revolution Radio and to the whole era. Maybe people really loved that they were everywhere promoting their shit, maybe people thought the tour was good (and compared to previous 3 tours, I don't agree with it) and maybe, just maybe, people liked the songs. I've tried to like this album, I've tried to like even few songs on it but I just can't. There is nothing to really like about Revolution Radio except Bang Bang and that one live perfomance before election in 2016.

In other news, I'm garage rock fan and I want this band to continue trying new things. This is why I also love Father of All Motherfuckers despite short running time and not-the-best-leading-single-jesus-christ-when-greenday-or-warner-learns-to-pick-right-singles-goddammit. It felt new, refreshing and glorious return to trying something else than safe sounds. Here Comes The Shock doesn't feel refreshing nor new in any way, but I guess they made NHL song and didn't wanna spend any additional time on it, so here's the result. It's a shame really.
 

[Christian's Inferno!]

27 minutes ago, Miko said:

This is gonna go massively off-topic if we start discussing about that thing, so I'll just give you just one detailed answer.

Let me first quote myself from 1 and half years ago from listing GD albums from best to worst:
 

General assumption is that Revolution Radio was good and especially safe album. Coming off from Trilogy (which I loved), I expected them to do something more safe with their sound since a lot of criticism was targeted to their ''clean'' guitars. When Bang Bang was released, I was more than excited about this new Green Day that we're getting in 2016, but sadly it turned out to be the most generic and boring album they've ever released. I didn't go so deep about it in quote, but Forever Now was the worst. This is the song where you can definitely feel that ''safe'' thing people are talking about. Reusing albums first song during the end, making Jesus of Suburbia for the third time (without story making any sense, of course) and overall having bad production, lyrics, ''epicness'' and bland sound equals to their worst song to the date.  To make matters worse, they played it live with Jesus of Suburbia following it almost immediately. It's simply just garbage song in my opinion and I don't see a world where that opinion would really change, since I've been saying it for 5 years. I dislike Dirty Rotten Bastards (what the fuck is that song really about?) but I prefer it over thousand times more than Forever Now.

I understand that I'm really lonely with this opinion since all I see on YT, Twitter, GDC and Reddit is nothing but love to Revolution Radio and to the whole era. Maybe people really loved that they were everywhere promoting their shit, maybe people thought the tour was good (and compared to previous 3 tours, I don't agree with it) and maybe, just maybe, people liked the songs. I've tried to like this album, I've tried to like even few songs on it but I just can't. There is nothing to really like about Revolution Radio except Bang Bang and that one live perfomance before election in 2016.

In other news, I'm garage rock fan and I want this band to continue trying new things. This is why I also love Father of All Motherfuckers despite short running time and not-the-best-leading-single-jesus-christ-when-greenday-or-warner-learns-to-pick-right-singles-goddammit. It felt new, refreshing and glorious return to trying something else than safe sounds. Here Comes The Shock doesn't feel refreshing nor new in any way, but I guess they made NHL song and didn't wanna spend any additional time on it, so here's the result. It's a shame really.
 

Well I don't think we're gonna agree on any of this. The quote also implies that Warning is your 2nd least favourite GD album and again, I completely disagree with that. Both Warning and RevRad have some of Green Day's best songs imo. And I'd definitely disagree that FOAMF is a return to form cause that's my least favourite of their albums

I acknowledge that RevRad was a bit too safe to me but it still had great songs imo and not really any bad songs. Forever Now is definitely a sort of remaking of JoS so it's not their most creative track but I still really enjoy that track. The reprise of Somewhere Now is not just reusing a song out of laziness. I mean for the 21CB album they re-used Song of the Century at the start of American Eulogy (with different lyrics), and reused the intro to 21CB in See the Light and I liked those callbacks to the start of the album.

I like the trilogy too but idk if you can really complain about RevRad's lyrics but not the trilogy lyrics. Or FOAM lyrics. I mean "I Was A Teenage Teenager"?

[michael1989]

41 minutes ago, Miko said:

When Bang Bang was released, I was more than excited about this new Green Day that we're getting in 2016

Can't say I agree with all of your post, but I agree it was a letdown after Bang Bang. That's easily their best lead single to date. Following that up with Still Breathing/Rev Rad was a disappointment. Tour was also pretty uneventful and safe.

[LaughingClock]

On 2/24/2021 at 5:17 AM, BillieMyLove said:

You are a very deep thinker. You hit on something that in mathematics we would call the inability to prove a nullity (i.e. you can't prove something does NOT exist). Also, proof of anything is based on some other "fact"; in fact I think we are heading toward the theory of general relativity here LOL. Every observed fact is based on it being relative to something else; eventually you do work back to something that is absolute, but such things are few and far between. A Green Day song is probably not one of them.

Bet nobody though a thread about a Green Day song would end up discussing theories of the universe. 🤣

Probably.

Awesome!