The second of the titanic trilogy from the prolific Green Day is "Dos" and it's on Warner Brothers. These guys are so good at creating hooked-filled, instantly agreeable pop punk that it doesn't even seem like they're trying. But they are. This one is their tenth album and the imminent "Tre" will be #11. Green Day has been at this since 1987 and has won five Grammys and just keeps getting better. Nothing close to a bad cut, "Wild One" is one of the best ones - catchy lyrics, too: "...She gave up on Jesus/For living on Venus/All dressed up with nowhere to go/I'm drinking the Kool-Aid/I jumped on the grenade/Now that my mind's gonna blow/Hello..." And when they slow things down on "Amy," that one could be a long lost Buddy Holly tune. Green Day's got it - they're keeping it and they're getting better.
The latest from Ruby Suns is "Christopher" and it's on Sub Pop. This one didn't do much for me while I was driving to a movie shoot early Saturday morning talking to my friend and cutting away frequently to keep up with the traffic on KNX. Now that I listen to them closely - same thing. This one is a clunker and to think, I used to nurture a warm and fuzzy feeling for this band as their last two were mostly swell. Frontman Ryan McPhun used to live in Ventura but now he's in New Zealand and New Zealand seems to be living in an '80s MTV techno video by some British pretty boys that spend too much time looking in the mirror. Innocent and innocuous, wimpy and weak, even though, I sorta dig "Dramatikk" a bit.
