The year is 1998: Green Day and Godzilla are in the news.
The year is 2024: Green Day and Godzilla are in the news.
Last week, the Bay Area punks (not Godzilla) released a new album, Saviors, that’s getting generally positive reviews. It’s not as good as Dookie (or either of their two best albums, Insomniac and Warning), but it’s much better than Father of All Motherfuckers, the most memory-holed album of the 2020s.
As for the King of the Monsters, Godzilla Minus One is an unexpected hit — it was only supposed to be in U.S. theaters for a week, maybe two, but that was nearly two months ago. The Takashi Yamazaki film has made over $100 million at the worldwide box office, including a $51 million domestic gross.
Godzilla Minus One rules (as does 2016’s even better Shin Godzilla) but you know what it could use? A tie-in soundtrack, like 1998’s Godzilla had. Roland Emmerich’s monster movie is a stinker (to quote Roger Ebert, “If you never get a clear look at the monster, you can’t see how shoddy it is” — Emmerich had it out for him), but it’s not at all bad. I believe it’s the only time The Simpsons legends Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer appeared in the same live-action film. So, uh, that’s something. Also, Godzilla: The Album features the Wallflowers covering David Bowie’s “Heroes,” for some reason; a new Rage Against the Machine track; Puff Daddy rapping for six minutes over Led Zeppelin’s towering “Kashmir”; and the crown jewel of the mishmash collection of alt rock, post-grunge, and Jamiroquai songs, “Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix).”
What a beautiful collection of words: “Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix)” (which is unfortunately not on Spotify). You’ve got “Brain Stew” by pop-punk titans Green Day, one of the first songs every wannabe rocker learns to play on guitar, plus actual titan Godzilla. Put them together, and you have Godzilla screeching over one of Green Day’s crunchiest riffs. It’s dumb, but it rules.
How did the collaboration come together? I wish I had an answer, but after doing some research, I’m stumped. Godzilla: The Album (Epic Records) and Green Day (Reprise Records) didn’t share a label, and I can’t find any interviews where singer Billie Joe Armstrong talks about his love of the big lizard. Maybe Tré Cool was the real fan? The most obvious answer is probably the correct one: Green Day were asked (or forced) to put one of their songs on a tie-album for a hit movie, which was the style at the time, and they said yes. The Godzilla bellows — and rap-rock production flourishes — are a bonus.
Went .$95 closeout CD hunting at Rasputin Records in the Bay Area and found some total gems.
Like Godzilla: The Album, inarguably THE best of many compilation albums to feature an era-defining Puff Daddy/Led Zeppelin crossover mashup as its lead single. pic.twitter.com/0InTGSbMgA
— Adrian Garro (@adriangarro) June 27, 2023
Whatever the case, it worked: the week Godzilla: The Album peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, it was one of four soundtracks in the top 10, along with City of Angels (thanks largely to the Goo Goo Dolls towering ballad “Iris”), Songs from Ally McBeal, and Titanic. “Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix)” wasn’t the big hit on the album (Puff Daddy’s “Come with Me” went to #4), but it’s arguably the track that’s most fondly remembered today. To quote a rare good YouTube comment: “This was the first Green Day song that got me hooked. Green Day will always have a special place in my heart. They helped me out when my depression/anxiety got worse, and their sings held on to me.”
Another person wrote, “I’m so glad I looked this up, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why my brain kept inserting dinosaur roars into the song. It kept slipping my mind but today the original played on the radio and I asked my mother if they ever did a release for Jurassic park. She was like no you dummy its Godzilla. Makes sense because I was just young enough to remember the song but not the movie apparently.”
Honestly, the mother was right to call her daughter a dummy.
They don’t make soundtracks like Godzilla: The Album anymore. To be clear, I’m not waxing nostalgic for clunky-worded tie-in albums like Batman & Robin: Music from and Inspired by the “Batman & Robin” Motion Picture (OK, I am a little). They literally don’t make supremely stupid (complimentary) albums like Godzilla: The Album, or songs like “Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix),” in 2024. It’s a time capsule from a long-ago era (the 1990s, which were — checks notes — 80 years ago). But maybe it’s time to bring them back.
Where’s “Holiday (The We Are Venom Remix)” by Turnstile? Or Scowl ft. the throat-singing guy from Dune in a Taco Bell commercial? There’s a chance to right this wrong: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire comes out later this year. Get Godzilla and Kong on a Militarie Gun song ASAP.
