Apropos of Nothing

In an effort to stir up this stagnant blog, I'm throwing out this little nugget of noise:

I can't get the new Green Day effort, American Idiot, out of my CD player. It's one of the best new albums I've heard in several years. It echoes the best of early Green Day without being derivative, makes some serious socio-political points without being didactic, and, well, it flat out rocks. It's a head-bobbing, toe-topping blast from beginning to end. My question is this: Is there a better hard-edged band making popularly-acclaimed music today? For my money, the answer's no.