MTV has the premiere of Green Day's new video for "Know Your Enemy." It's the first single from their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, which comes out on May 15.
It's been five years since Green Day transformed themselves from washed-up pop-punks to Grammy-winning rock 'n' roll saviors. And frankly, I'm a little worried that all this highfalutin talk might be going to their heads. American Idiot was a solid stab at a concept record about the state of our nation in the new millennium. But Dookie's better. Songs about sitting around the house masturbating beat self-righteous political songs any day.
"Know Your Enemy" is a typical four-chord rocker from the band. It throws around lines like "Do you know the enemy?" that impressionable teens might perceive as deep. But dig beneath the surface, and it's really just a string of slightly paranoid catchphrases that political-minded punks have been tossing around for years.
Word is, 21st Century Breakdown picks up American Idiot's conceptual and thematic idealism. So yeah, it's another "rock opera" that may end up as a musical someday. How rock 'n' roll is that? —Michael Gallucci
