The Foxboro Hot Tubs – Stop Drop and Roll – music review

Artist: The Foxboro Hot Tubs

Title: Stop Drop and Roll

Label: Warner Bros.

Rating: 6/10

Corporate line:
Imagine a big-time punk-pop trio from the Oakland area deciding, for fun, to record a cool song that reminded them of ’60s garage rock—adventurous, reckless, and edgy but with a “doo-doo-doo” party sound. Imagine the lovechild of an unholy marriage between The Stooges and Tommy James And The Shondells. Imagine the track, “Mother Mary,” leaking out and amazingly going Top 20 Modern Rock. Imagine the mysterious “new” band then deciding to release an EP for free on the Internet. Now imagine a full-length album—an actual album you can hold in your hands, just like way back before the dawn of the new millennium! Imagine Foxboro Hottubs and the album Stop Drop And Roll.

The hits:
“Stop Drop and Roll” – This sounds like Elvis on steroids.
“Mother Mary” – Imagine its 1958 and you are at the high school dance and you just discovered the new thing. And then everyone starts to dance and have a grand ol’ time. Right on!
“Ruby Room” – The Stray Cats tried to revive this sound and it might just take Green Day for anyone to care. And if you don’t care you just might dance until you drop dead.
“Red Tide” – This is formulaic rock songs ala The Monkees and that is actually a compliment. The song is a tidy sing-a-long.

The rest:
“Broadway” – This is the most Green Day style song and it might be the worst song on the album. Why is it here? It doesn’t fit the common thread of the rest of the album.
“Sally” – The boys have been listening too much to The Turtles or The Zombies or some other ’60s band with “The” at the beginning of their name.
“Allligator” – A B-side if there ever was one–not to mention a rip-off of The Kinks.
“27th Ave. Shuffle” – This sounds too much like The Rolling Stone’s “The Last Time.”

Finally:
Yes The Foxboro Hot Tubs are Green Day. It’s not much of a secret–and if it was meant to be a secret it wasn’t kept very well. I understand that the fellows from Green Day had songs like this floating around but why not put it out as Green Day? Do they really need to care what fans might think at this point? I think it would be a cool statement to say “hey, we’re Green Day and if we want to do something different either enjoy or f**k off!” Most of the album is full of songs that consist of three chords but that isn’t new for Green Day–they’ve made a career of it. “Stop Drop and Roll” isn’t the best Green Day album and it doesn’t have to be. It sounds partly like a gimmick and partly like something serious. Irregardless, there are definitely songs that must make their way into your musical rotation. The biggest problem is that most of the songs sound like Green Day retooled old original songs and called them their own.