I’ve been seeing this tired criticism a lot recently… let me assure you, we progressives do not think of ourselves as tolerant of bad people. Not sure where that rumor got started, it’s a hack right-wing line that has NEVER worked to win an argument or even hurt a feeling. Give it up.

interesting brain work for chappelle to still see himself as a suppressed underdog truth teller and also align himself with one of the world’s richest men. hope both get a piano or anvil dropped on them in a cartoonish fashion.

Our youngest daughter’s birthday is today. She loves music, and she and I discuss it frequently. It so happens that she was just beginning to come of age during the era Tom’s now covering, whereas I was already an old fogey.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to her that I kinda felt out of the loop, when it came to much of the music that she’d grown up with. There were so many hits (#1s, even) from the 2000s that I wasn’t too familiar with, even though I should’ve been. She asked me for an example. I said, OK, here’s one that was a huge hit, and I think I recognized it, but barely: “Crazy In Love”. She gasped a little, and looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead. “Dad, that was huge, it was everywhere!” Yes, thanks to my daughter and The Number Ones, I now know that, and so much more!

Meanwhile, in the moshpit…

Green Day release American Idiot.

It had been a quiet few years for Billie Joe, Mike and Tre: a whole heap of pop-punkers (Blink, Sum 41, Good Charlotte etc) who’d grown up on Dookie had emerged over the early 00s, but Green Day themselves hadn’t released an album since 2000’s modestly-received Warning. And when they did announce that their return would be a politically charged concept album, including two multi-part nine-minute epics, the worry was that a band who’d made their name with songs about slackerdom, drug addiction and masturbation may be overreaching themselves a tad.

Fear not. The thunderous title track (a 10) was a proper declaration of intent and the rest of the album lives up to it. You can perhaps criticise the incoherence of the concept or the simplistic political sloganeering, but the tunes are great and the album shows a breadth of styles not normally associated with Green Day. Holiday (another 10) harks back to the Warning era in musical style, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Wake Me Up When September Ends and the overlooked Whatsername aim for a slower, more emotional sound and the energetic punk side is kept up by St Jimmy and Letterbomb. And Jesus of Suburbia (the first of the two nine-minuters) is sublime.

American Idiot resurrected Green Day’s career and made them one of the biggest bands in the world for a while, selling 16 million copies and winning the Grammy for best rock album. They could never match it with subsequent albums (artistically or sales-wise), but if more rock bands showed this kind of ambition then maybe the genre wouldn’t be in the doldrums commercially right now.

https://youtu.be/Ee_uujKuJMI

“that’s a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life”.

Take the time to savour that. First, this must’ve been truly distressing to one of the foulest narcissists on the planet (nevermind a man whose family wealth is based on blood diamonds, apartheid, slavery). Even more delicious is the self-own – he’s never been booed in real life? Meaning he’s never faced (well, noticed or cared about) the derision of others for his amoral profit seeking?

What truly grotesque privilege he represents. Imagine the extent of the efforts and resources he must’ve spent to isolate himself from actual criticism over the years. But now his narcissism demands he find whatever brightest spotlight he can, regardless of the consequences. He’s self-destructing in a spectacular way, it’s like late capitalism has been embodied in one truly disgusting POS fascist and his downfall (god willing) will be glorious to witness.

Also Dave Chapelle WTF???

Scott, we need more Julia Gray articles plz, this was amazing

Damn, imagine getting booed by fans of fucking Dave Chappelle.

Hello Gummers!

What an incredible year for music of all shapes and sizes it has been. After spending no small amount of time in the depths of the comment section this week, Dansolo and I are proud to bring you the results of this year’s Comment Section Album of the Year results. As usual, there was no shortage of differences, with both up and comers (Sudan Archives, BCNR, Jockstrap, Gang of Youths) and established vets (Spoon, Beach House, AnCo, The Smile (The Smile is a veteran act. We’ve been listening to Thom and Jonny for decades. Don’t @ me.) showing up much higher in our results than in the official Gum list. That said, there was plenty of consensus as well with Alvvays, Beyonce, Big Thief, and Rosalia placing in the Top 10 in both. Hopefully between their list and ours, we can all find some new things to geek out about and keep this comment section thriving and one of the best places on the internet. Now without further ado, here we go!

50. Oso Oso – Sore Thumb (9, 4)

49. Dry Cleaning – Stumpwork (9, 4)

48. Saba – Few Good Things (9, 4)

47. Conway the Machine – God Don’t Make Mistakes (9, 4)

46. MUNA – MUNA (9, 6)

45. Everything Everything – Raw Data Feel (10, 4)

44. Yard Act – The Overload (10, 4)

43. Kevin Morby -This is a Photograph (10, 5)

42. Rachika Nayar – Heaven Come Crashing (10, 5)

41. Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter (10, 7)

40. Titus Andronicus – The Will to Live (11, 4)

39. Angel Olsen – Big Time (11, 8)

38. Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul – Topical Dancer (12, 5)

37. JID – The Forever Story (12, 7)

36. Destroyer – LABYRINTHITIS (12, 9)

35. Sharon Van Etten – We’ve Been Going About this All Wrong (13, 4)

34. Florence + the Machine – Dance Fever (13, 5)

33. Earl Sweatshirt – SICK! (13, 7) ‘

32. The Weeknd – Dawn FM (13, 7)

31. Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry (13, 8)

30. Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez See Your Future (14, 7)

29. Taylor Swift – Midnights (15, 5)

28. Panda Bear & Sonic Boom – Reset (16, 9)

27. The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field (16, 10)

26. Black Thought & Danger Mouse – Cheat Codes (16, 6)

25. Björk – Fossora (16, 8)

24. Weyes Blood – And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (17, 11)

23. The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language (19, 10)

22. Animal Collective – Time Skiffs (20, 11)

21. Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (23, 11)

20. MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs (24, 9)

19. Cate le Bon – Pompeii (24, 9)

18. Fontaines DC – Skinty Fia (25, 10)

17. Gang of Youths – Angel in Realtime (27, 9)

16. Wet Leg – Wet Leg (29, 17)

15. Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen (31, 14)

14. Alex G – God Save the Animals (31, 13)

13. Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems (34, 13)

12. Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B (36, 17)

11. Billy Woods – Aethiopes – 36 (11.5)

10. Chat Pile – God’s Country (37, 16)

09. Spoon – Lucifer on the Sofa (48, 18)

08. Rosalía – MOTOMAMI (49, 20)

07. Nilüfer Yanya – PAINLESS (50, 19)

06. The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention (52, 26)

05. Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There (56.5, 15.5)

04. Beyoncé – Renaissance (71, 25)

03. Beach House – Once Twice Melody (78, 27)

02. Alvvays – Blue Rev (81, 34)

01. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (115.5, 38.5)

And I’m 100 Percent Gonna Pull Up At Whatever Studio It Is and I’m 100 Percent Gon’ Beat Your Ass, On My Mama is also title of new Yo La Tengo album.

They should start selling tickets to their fiascos.