At the beginning of the summer, Blink-182 and Green Day joined forces for what
had to be the biggest co-headlining tour in the annals of modern punk. But
those two bands spent the rest of the year taking it easy, and that left a void
in the commercial-punk scene for the legions of groups that followed in their
wake to fill. New Found Glory were the first to fit the bill, selling a
half-million copies of their second major-label album, Sticks and Stones
(MCA). Now two more bands are joining the race. Sum 41 have just released
Does This Look Infected?, the follow-up to their platinum breakthrough,
All Killer No Filler (both Island). And Good Charlotte have already gone
gold with their second disc, The Young and the Hopeless (Epic), which
came out on October 1.
All three bands are in their early 20s, which means they were in high school
when Green Day showed that a group of punk kids could sell millions of albums
without changing much about the way they write songs or play live. These days,
it's easier than ever for a punk band to sign a major-label deal, and the main
thing that sets rock stars like Sum 41 and Good Charlotte apart from their
underground peers is the sound of their albums. Today's corporate-punk
producers value airplay over street cred: Good Charlotte's Eric Valentine
learned that by working with Third Eye Blind, and New Found Glory's Neal Avron
cut his teeth with Everclear. Sum 41's Greig Nori would love to have joined the
two of them in the late-'90s alterna-rock hit brigade, but he was relegated to
the fringes as the frontman of Toronto's Treble Charger.
Nori doubles as Sum 41's manager -- which means he deserves much of the credit
for turning a bunch of unruly kids from the outskirts of Toronto into the
biggest punk success story since Blink-182. On All Killer No Filler, he
ceded production duties to pop-punk mastermind Jerry Finn (Blink-182, Rancid),
who put the band's hooks up front and let their sense of humor run wild. Green
Day were the obvious inspiration behind "Fat Lip" and "Motivation," the album's
breakthrough anthems of defiance and boredom. The third single, "In Too Deep,"
was one of the disc's few disappointments, a generic break-up song aimed
directly at commercial rock radio.
Skatepunk is Sum 41's true love, but the metal spoof "Pain for Pleasure" was
one of the most endearing moments on All Killer No Filler. On "Still
Waiting," the first single from Does This Look Infected?, the band's
'80s thrash riffs are so authentic, you know they can't possibly be joking
anymore. Frontman Deryck gets all worked up about a world that won't stop
hating, and guitarist Dave pounds the song's Offspring melodies into submission
with some devastating moves out of the Metallica playbook. The boys belt out
their sweetest harmonies on the chorus, but it's their headbanging rhythms that
make the biggest impression.
One place Sum 41 aren't making much of an impression these days is at retail:
Does This Look Infected? landed at #32 on the Billboard Top 200
album chart after a disappointing opening week. Like most high-profile rock
releases, it should sell respectably in the long run. But despite producer
Nori's pop pedigree, one thing is clear: the disc isn't as commercial as its
predecessor. Deryck's vocals are lower in the mix, the choruses aren't as
obvious as they used to be, and the tempos are juiced to near-hardcore levels.
In other words, it sounds less like a pop album and more like a punk album.
But it's a good punk album, and it's hard to blame the band for refusing to
write another hip-hop novelty like "Fat Lip." The opening track, "The Hell
Song," picks up where "Still Waiting" left off: Deryck deals with the
heartbreak of learning that a friend has contracted HIV, and he and Dave pay
tribute with a heroic outpouring of Iron Maiden guitar harmonies. "Over My Head
(Better Off Dead)" is a venomous rewrite of "In Too Deep," with sharper hooks
and a heavier backbeat. The band borrow expertly from Rancid and Green Day on
the anti-suicide anthem "My Direction," which forces Deryck to look on the
bright side for once: "Perfection is my direction/Even if that's all I had/It's
not like I need no correction/I just know that life's not so bad."
Public drunkenness is another thing Sum 41 have learned well from Green Day,
and the band spend much of Does This Look Infected? hungover and
paranoid. "Welcome to my own down and out," Deryck grimaces on
"Hyper-Insomnia-Para-Condrioid," which sounds prettier than its title suggests.
He can't hold down his meals on "All Messed Up," but he somehow musters up the
energy to sing one of the album's sunniest choruses. Booze is to Sum 41 what
girls are to New Found Glory: the love of their lives, and the source of their
deepest frustrations.
Good Charlotte
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As "Still Waiting" shows, Sum 41's rebellious streak hasn't been tamed yet.
Dave's finest hour as a metalhead comes on another one of Deryck's
anti-establishment songs, "Mr. Amsterdam," which begins and ends with a couple
of direct guitar quotes from Metallica. In between, Dave's inner hardcore kid
takes over on the microphone, and Deryck tunefully laments the evils of society
on the song's stellar skatepunk chorus. The band save their biggest surprise
for the closing "Hooch," which breaks into tears of heavy-metal guitar joy
after a couple of standard high-testosterone choruses. "I'll fall into you, but
don't believe that this is real," coos Deryck over the quiet guitar melody that
ends the album. Sum 41 trade their pop ambitions for punk sincerity this time
around, and the results are exhilarating.
Over the last few months, Good Charlotte have given New Found Glory a run for
their money as every DIY punk's favorite whipping boys -- and not just because
of the sticky-sweet hooks that flavor The Young and the Hopeless.
Frontman Joel and guitarist Benji are identical twins whose burgeoning
popularity with American teenage girls went through the stratosphere when MTV
picked them to host the late-night music-video hour All Things Rock.
Like Blink-182, the band have two different clothing lines of their own: Joel
and Benji's Made and guitarist Billy's Level 27. And Benji's gutterpunk-chic
look is no joke, from his Statue of Liberty hair and mascara to his omnipresent
array of underground-band paraphernalia.
Then there's Good Charlotte's breakthrough hit, "Lifestyles of the Rich &
Famous." It's a silly takedown of celebrity culture set to the beat of Iggy
Pop's "Lust for Life," with a huge chorus and a couple of cheap laughs at the
expense of O.J. Simpson and Marion Barry. Producer Valentine works overtime on
the giddy chamber-pop vocal interlude that leads into the chorus, and Hollywood
session drummer Josh Freese (who played with the Vandals for years before he
started working for people like Axl Rose and Maynard James Keenan) helps thump
the song onto Top 40 radio. As for Joel and Benji, they've got a pragmatic
solution for taking care of whiny celebrities: "If money is such a problem/Well
they got mansions/Think we should rob them."
As rock novelty hits go, "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" is a blast, but
there's more to Good Charlotte than meets the eye. Joel and Benji grew up poor
on the outskirts of DC, and their father walked out on them when they were
teenagers. They started the band in high school and made a pilgrimage to the
legendary East Bay punk club 924 Gilman Street when they graduated. Newly
inspired, they moved to Annapolis, made some friends at corporate-rock radio,
and got signed after opening a string of East Coast shows for SoCal pop dudes
Lit. Their first album, Good Charlotte (Epic), was made with Lit
producer Don Gilmore and yielded the modest hit "Little Things."
All of which explains a lot about the bizarre confluence of underground and
mainstream culture on a Good Charlotte song like "The Anthem," which
double-references Blink-182 and Jay-Z in the title and goes on to name-check
two Minor Threat songs in a single verse. The album's most blatant pop move,
"Girls & Boys," pays tribute to the Blur song of the same name, and it
augments its cheery new-wave pulse with an unforgettable teen-punk chorus:
"Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money." Joel and Benji don't have
anything to say about Bikini Kill on "Riot Girl," but at least they have the
good sense to bash Britney and Christina.
More compelling than Good Charlotte's teen-punk novelty songs are the pair of
tracks on The Young and the Hopeless about the twins' estranged father.
"I don't know too much about, too much of my old man/I know he walked right out
the door, we never saw him again," are the opening lines of the explosive "The
Story of My Old Man," which goes on to address, poignantly, the history of
alcoholism in the family. And there's more than a little Social Distortion in
the heartbreaking ballad "Emotionless," on which the boys try to come to terms
with their father's absence once and for all.
Good Charlotte put the hard times behind them to the tune of the Who's "Baba
O'Riley" on "Movin' On," which ends the album on an inspirational note: "Make
the best with what you're given/This ain't dying, this is living!" Big-money
record deals and MTV gigs aside, that's a sentiment any punk would agree
with.
Issue Date: December 20 - 26, 2002
