Why I Love Green Day

10 years ago on December 26, 2004 I sat in my Mom’s van with my family driving back to Kansas City from St. Louis where we had just spent Christmas with our extended family. One of the gifts I received that year was a little blue portable radio. For a good portion of the drive my brother and I flipped through stations listening to different songs. I remember us listening to the song “Don’t Phunk With My Heart” by The Black Eyed Peas with our parents giving a curious and disapproving look.

After a while the song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day started playing. Up until this point I’d never heard the title or knew who it was that sang this song; it was just an unnamed song that I was kind of obsessed with. Now Green Day’s name was attached to this song I loved and, while this was a very small moment, it was a small step towards a much bigger musical journey.

My awesome Green Day wall that lived above my bed from 2005 – 2008.

10 years ago, as of a yesterday, my eyes were opened to my favorite band of all time: Green Day. After hearing that song in the car that day I desperately wanted to hear more Green Day, even though I’d kind of been dissing them three years prior to that after my Dad had played me Dookie in an attempt to get me interested. All of that no longer mattered.

If you read my blog about American Idiot, then this story probably sounds a little familiar. Shortly after this is when I decided to purchase American Idiot and lose myself to it. I became rapidly obsessed with them and it wasn’t long before I was telling the world that they were my favorite band, and in all honesty they really were. Despite have numerous “favorite bands” before them, none managed to grab my attention and hold it the way Green Day did; none sunk so deep into my core that it changed who I was, opened my eyes to the person hiding underneath all the costumes I put on every day. I was never more myself than I was after Green Day took over my life.

In the last ten years I’ve stopped wearing costumes and stopped doing things just because society told me I was supposed to. I’ve discovered more bands, been to more concerts, met more people and done more things that at one point just seemed impossible. Green Day pushed me to pen my own songs and to pick up a guitar. They gave me the drive to want to be in a band and they still push me to write about all of the music I love. They gave me music that was real and since then I’ve loved music more deeply. The person I am now owes so much to them. For all of that, they are my forever favorite band.

Let’s be real here. I met Fall Out Boy this year. That seemed like only a dream to me 9 years ago.

I still remember when my dad told me that Green Day would probably be “it” for me, that they would probably always be my favorite band. At the time that idea made my heart swell; I loved them so much and I never wanted to stop. On the “Bullet in a Bible” DVD there is a fan on there that gave a sentiment about how they had been a Green Day fan for 10 years and I just remember thinking, “that’s incredible, I want that.” Here I am 10 years later, and I’m so proud to say that Green Day has been my favorite band for 10 years and they will be my favorite band for many more to come.

If you liked this post please give me a follow here and on my social media. Hell, If you really like this post, share it. I would flip if this made it to Green Day. It would mean to world to me if they could see how important their music has been for me in my life.

Me at the Green Day concert in 2013.

 

Have a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I’ll see you in 2015!

Song Breakdown: “Bright” by Echosmith

So if you aren’t one of my friends or family reading this and you don’t follow my every move on social media, then this may be news to you. I just got engaged to my boyfriend of almost two years and we will be getting married on New Year’s Eve of this year. In light of this recent announcement I figured I would do a song breakdown on the song we agreed to be “our song.”

The Song:

Video by Salvatore Conte

The Meaning:

I think it’s really quite easy to pick up on the song’s meaning here. Basically girl falls in love with boy and now her life seems more vibrant and whole. There is a lot of great imagery in this song to help illustrate the meaning here. I feel like the most key line in this song is right at the beginning “I think the universe is on my side. Heaven and Earth have finally aligned.” To me this is about a relationship that just somehow clicks in a way only something greater than us can understand.

My Thoughts:

I fell in love with this song after a few listens of this album in my car. I thought about what a great song it would be for a wedding; somehow my now-fiancé agreed. While I feel like the lyrics do only illustrate the positive side of a good relationship, it doesn’t really bother me. I mean, A) who wants to listen to a song about how rough love can be at a wedding and B) when you’re in a relationship that just feels right, no argument, no matter the magnitude, can take that away.

Top: Wearing my engagement ring. Bottom: My Grandmother’s engagement and wedding band after being resized.

“You and the Moon and Neptune got it right…”

I’ll be the first to admit that my relationship with Aaron has been a long and crazy one. Two years ago I would have never thought I’d be planning to marry him. Two years ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d ever be in love with him like I am now. He had to work pretty hard to get me to see that what we had was something that just clicked and that it couldn’t be ignored. I don’t think I could imagine my life without him and I don’t think I’d want another crazy partner in crime to share my life with.

Song Breakdown: “About a Girl” – The Academy Is…

Photo by Annette Schaefer. William Beckett performing at Warped Tour 2013.

I completed my CD collection for the Academy Is this week. We finally got a copy of Fast Times at Barrington High in at my work, so I made sure to pick it up. For a long time I wasn’t sure about this album. In fact, when I first heard the song “About a Girl” back in 2008 my thought was “ugh they’re turning themselves into just another power pop band…” and I therefore never purchased the album. But at this last Warped Tour I saw William Beckett perform his solo acoustic set and he ended up playing “About a Girl.” After that I knew I had to have the band’s last full length album. So my song breakdown for this week is “About a Girl” by The Academy Is.

The Song:

The Meaning:

This week when I looked up the lyrics to this song I found about two different theories as to what the song is about. Many fans’ initial thought was that the song was about a guy who wants to be loved so he makes himself believe he loves this girl, but maybe realizes that it’s not wants after all (“I’m not in love, this is not my heart, I’m not gonna waste these words about a girl.“). But several others thought it was probably the opposite, that the song was about a guy who loves a girl that doesn’t love him back so he tries to convince himself it’s not really love.

My Thoughts:

At first I really though the song was more sarcastic and would’ve gone with the first theory. I felt like it was about realizing that you shouldn’t settle for just anything and call it love, but I see the other side as well. The song could definitely be about the measures we take to avoid the pain of unrequited love. To be honest, I don’t know which one is the right one, but I don’t think it really matters; either way the song is relatable and paints an accurate picture of the ups and downs of young love.

“I’m not gonna waste these words…”

This song reminds me so much of when I was in high school. I was always crushing on someone and I wanted nothing more than to be loved. My feelings were often not returned so I often tried to mentally erase the way I felt, just like the guy in the song. On the other hand, I genuinely feel like I usually let infatuation get the best of me and I would convince myself that what I was feeling was love. I wound up being the biggest cause of my own pain. I let my heart get the best of me and at the same time I never did anything about it. For a long time I regretted the fact that I wasn’t dating and falling in love like the rest of my friends, but looking back it was really one of the best things I did. I’m not saying that dating in high school is bad, I’m just saying that for me I’m glad I waited to let myself fall in love until I found someone that wasn’t just another crush or just another boy, but someone that was my best friend.

My two favorite boys.

 

In the end this is what I would take away from this song and this breakdown: Don’t be the cause of your own pain and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, but also remember that it’s okay if you aren’t in love and don’t force it. Wait for it to be right.

Check out the last Song Breakdown here.