Hello, and thanks for reading! As the title goes, I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately - both for my normal job that I do during normal hours, and freelance projects that I have been doing at night.
It’s sort of a running joke in my house that my job is homework. It’s not entirely inaccurate, either. For most of you, writing essays and papers that cite sources is, well, homework. And for me, who majored in journalism in college, my homework was literally writing articles.
So, yeah, my job is homework, and I’ve been doing some extra homework lately. And now I’ll share it with you.
I Wrote About My Favorite Album Ever
The cool thing about getting older in this particular line of work is that eventually the albums that were formative to you become eligible for anniversary posts. It’s hard for me to write about albums from, say, 1994, because I was a toddler and had no understanding of the cultural context of it all. But, an album from 2004? Hell yeah I remember that, and that’s to say nothing of the albums from 2014 where I was actually aware of things going on around me as an “adult.”
All of this is to say that I pitched (nay, pleaded) Stereogum to let me write their 20-year anniversary story on Green Day’s American Idiot, which was an album that changed my musical trajectory forever.
I had always been aware of Green Day (thanks, Mom and Dad for having Dookie on CD and thanks, The River 97.3 WRVV for playing their music in the car sometimes), but I still vividly remember seeing the “American Idiot” music video and having something resembling that feeling people claimed to have felt when they saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. It just woke something up that never went back to sleep for me. I never chased that path to actual rock music stardom, instead I realized I could make a few bucks doing what I already did - talking to anyone who would listen about bands I liked.
So, it was a real treat to be able to write this. It was also very challenging because I almost had too much I wanted to say on the subject, thereby dulling down any sharp points I could’ve made. I think it got somewhere though, thanks to Chris DeVille over there for the editorial guidance.
And, just when I thought I knew everything about this album and this era of Green Day, researching this article still taught me some new things, like the fact that Tre Cool brough more than 70 snare drums to the recording sessions to get the tone just right. As someone who appreciates good snare tone, I like this fact a lot.
I Wrote About Other Bands, Too
Some editors over at SPIN have been (politely) throwing work at me lately, which has been cool. I like taking on projects that I might not ordinarily pitch.
They asked me if I wanted to interview the band All-American Rejects about putting outa single of Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta,” and I agreed. Schedules lined up that the only time they and I could find common free time would be while I was in Las Vegas for a work event, so I had to spend a 20-minute walk from the convention center in 100-degree Vegas heat and Zoom called Tyson and Nick from the band. I was wondering if they’d call me out for wearing a suit for our Zoom call, but maybe they just thought I had tremendous respect for the job and their cover of a song from all of the movies from the ‘90s and early ‘00s.
You can read that interview here.
For what it’s worth, I always thought the superior Harvey Danger song was the opener off that album, “Carlotta Valdez.”
Also over at SPIN, I interviewed Greg from the band Cigarettes After Sex about their new album, an insane worldwide tour, and the fact that they already recorded another new album immediately after the last one. This was an interesting interview because Greg didn’t turn his video on at all, so it was sort of like a regular phone call, but a phone call where I’m staring into a mirror watching myself talk. It was a good talk, though.
If you can believe it, I have been doing even more homework during the evenings and nights, so there will be more coming soon. But things are mellowing out a little, so I’ll have more time to write things for this site with more substance, if that’s something you care about.
Today’s Snakes and Sparklers musical guest is The Armed.