The Network

Last post, I namechecked Green Day, a band that inspires apathy and ennui, severe love or severe hate. Green day is a band for everyone. It’s cool to hate them, cool to like them and cool to not even care. Since ‘Dookie’ was one of the first punk-rock records I bought and it ultimately got me to stop listening to shitty alternative-rock and bad metal, I’m okay with Green Day. I’m also okay with The Network, the not-so-secret side project of Green Day.

The Network came during a period where Green Day, as a band, was trying to figure out what to do with themselves. Big major success had given way to a reflective period. Brat-pop bands like Blink-182 the like were overshadowing them. Green Day put out a couple albums that experimented with their sound. It's what the rock-and-roll writers deem 'a growth period.' Instead of releasing a series of new-wave songs under the Green Day brand and risk alienating their audience, they did what we all do on Halloween: they put on masks.

Enter THE NETWORK, a band that Green Day swears they are not, despite it’s clear that they are. I got the album used from Last Vestige in Albany on the rumor they were working with DEVO. It was a pleasant surprise. It didn’t outright suck and it had its own charms. It’s a new wave bit of music with technology, drug and hamburger themes throughout.

Plus, they do a cover of ‘Teenagers from Mars’ by the Misfits.

So, there you go. Even the rich and popular success still go trick or treating.