Nobody Likes You
by Marc Spitz
Hyperion Books, 2006
182 pages

If you think Green Day is a band that belongs in the 1990s modern rock rubbish bin with Everclear, Garbage and the Stone Temple Pilots, ex-Spin magazine senior writer Marc Spitz and his new book, “Nobody Likes You,” is here to prove you wrong.

A journalist who has written numerous articles on Green Day, Spitz provides an insider’s view of the band, from their teenage beginnings in Rodeo, Calif., to being the first punk band to sell out Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The book synthesizes the cultural importance of Green Day not only as music-makers, but as definers of a musical generation. It sounds like a stretch for simple three-chord pop punk, but with the words and professionalism of a seasoned journalist translating the excitement of a die-hard fan, Spitz coherently spells out the equation of timing, talent and self-reinvention that has made Green Day one of the most important bands of the last decade.

Most people, young and old alike, have at least heard of Green Day. Their success didn’t come only from selling 10 million copies of their third album, “Dookie,” or the combined 60,000 copies of their first two full-length releases, “1,039 Smoothed-Out Slappy Hours” and “Kerplunk,” which the then-17-year-olds sold out of the back of their tour van. Spitz claims that Green Day’s real fame comes from their responsibility for birthing both of punk rock’s second and third comings, first in 1994 with the release of “Dookie” and again in 2004 with the release of their rock opera “American Idiot.”

“Dookie” was the first album that Green Day recorded for a major label, Reprise Records. With nationwide distribution and a budget for promotion and making videos, the band was in the public eye more than their peers of the era. Most importantly, Green Day’s music could be played on both rock and pop radio and MTV, which is where other popular punk bands like Rancid and NOFX fell short. They also have a clean, mostly parent-friendly image with an edge that kids like and can identify with. “Dookie” was a product of great songwriting and slick production.

Its success is also partly due to another band’s misfortune. When Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994, Green Day had just finished shooting their first music video for the song “Longview,” which was to become a smash hit. The gaping Cobain-shaped musical hole was perfectly filled with Green Day’s seemingly simple songs about boredom, suburbia and teenage love and a hard-edged optimism that grunge music lacked. And where Cobain had been afraid to embrace Nirvana’s pop sensibility and monster success, Green Day looked their success in the face and moved forward.

With the release of “American Idiot” in 2004, Green Day revived popular punk rock by bringing it back to its political roots. A concept album telling the story of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s upbringing with two 10-minute songs, “American Idiot” also remade Green Day and turned them into viable artists once more, after three mostly unsuccessful albums. On the verge of breaking up before its recording, Green Day decided to pull out all the stops and take a chance on themselves. The result earned them an entire generation of new, politically aware fans, people who love “American Idiot” as dearly as their older brothers and sisters love “Dookie.” The only way to keep punk truly alive is to get kids interested in it, and Green Day has continued making new music for exactly that purpose.  

Spitz’s story travels from Armstrong’s first recording, at the age of 5, to the purchase of his famous Fernandez Stratocaster guitar named “Blue” that has earmarked the band’s fuzzy, distorted sound, to Armstrong’s long-distance romance with future wife Adrienne Nesser. The most interesting parts of the book involve the band’s beginnings with the close friendship of Armstrong and bassist Michael Pritchard, who would later come to be known as Mike Dirnt because of the sound his un-amplified bass guitar made as he practiced in the lunch room at Pinole High school (“dirnt, dirnt, dirnt”). Spitz interviews everyone from Armstrong’s first girlfriend to the owner of their first record label and seamlessly intertwines this otherwise unpublished information with commonly known facts.

Originally deemed not punk enough to fit in with their local music scene, Green Day has become the hugest punk band on the planet. Spitz carries the reader on the road with the band, inside their dressing rooms, relationships, accomplishments and faux paus. 

“Nobody Likes You” is a book that Green Day super fans will eat up in one sitting. Though people who casually like the band will probably be bored with some of Spitz’s more philosophical wanderings, as a historical rock ’n’ roll document, “Nobody Likes You” is invaluable. Also included are a complete discography, index and introduction.