A Lesson In Unusual Music - 'Money Money 2020' (Green Day Side-Project)

For the newest segment here on Stage Aura, I'm going to be revealing to you some of the absolute weirdest and strangest music that I've ever come across, and write about it each week. This can range from just weird songs, to albums or even overall artists, and this week it's pretty much a combination of all those three. 'The Network' was a band formed in California in 2003, and released their only ever album in that same year on September 30th. The album, entitled 'Money Money 2020', is the single handedly most bizarre collection of music that I've ever heard. It's new wave, electro-rock with just down right strange song titles and lyrics, but the riffs are catchy as hell. But here's the thing, the album and band was a Side-Project for punk legends, Green Day, a year before they released their masterpiece, 'American Idiot'.

The Network's 'Money Money 2020' (2003).

Background information on the album is scarce, but I'll try to explain the background story using what information is out there. Green Day released their 6th Studio Album, 'Warning' in 2000, and it was their least successful commercial release to date. They seemed to be struggling to recapture the magic of 1994's 'Dookie', and had leaned more toward catchy rock and odd themes for their songs, away from punk simplicity. In my opinion, 'Warning' is an extremely overlooked album, with hits like 'Waiting', 'Minority' and 'Macy's Day Parade' making the album a fine piece of work. Underrated tracks, and my favourites, are also 'Misery' and 'Blood, Sex and Booze'. But Green Day's management and label were extremely disappointed, so the band took a hiatus, well, that's what they said they did.

Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong performing live in 2000 on the Warning Tour.

During this 'hiatus', Green Day were frustrated themselves, and felt like they needed a change. They knew that their label would want more punk music from them ASAP, but that was the last thing on their minds. Green Day had been experimental in their careers up until this point, not necessarily for overall albums, but songs like 'Walking Alone', 'King For A Day' and the beautiful piece that is, well, 'Dominated Love Slave', all incorporated harmonica, trumpet and accordion, not so punk, yet still so brilliant. But this was about to take on a whole new level, and identity, as Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool of Green Day, joined with a few touring members including Jason White, to form 'The Network'. A techno rock band that would hide their faces using Lucha Wrestling Masks and Bandana's. They took on fake identities, so the band consisted of Fink (Billie), Van Gough (Mike), The Smoo (Tré), Z, Captain Underpants, and Balducci (Jason). What, the f*ck. It's fantastic.

'The Network' Photo Shoot in 2003.

They look like degenerates, straight out of a lunatic asylum. It's hilarious, the music is even better. Green Day fans will easily be able to recognise Tré (bottom left), Billie (bottom right), and Mike (top right), but that didn't stop Billie Joe from insisting that the band wasn't them, even saying 'F*ck The Network' when questioned on a radio show. It's clearly them, but to this day they still haven't admitted to it. 'Money Money 2020' has 14 tracks with titles including 'Teenagers From Mars', 'Supermodel Robots', 'X-Ray Hamburger' and 'Right Hand-A-Rama', the latest addition to Green Day's masturbation centred song collection.

'Fink' (Billie Joe Armstrong) performing live with The Network in 2003. 

I'll leave two videos below of two songs from 'Money Money 2020', as you simply cannot read this and not hear the music. The Green Day vibe is there, if it were in space, 5000 years in the future, with a sh*t load of cocaine inside it. I still don't understand how they went from this to American Idiot in less than a year.

How they came up with all this sh*t, I'll never know. In 2009, Green Day released a Limited Edition Vinyl Box Set, containing every 7" Single the band had released up until that point. It's an awesome collection that I hope to own one day, but here's an interesting detail. On top of every Green Day Single ever released, the Box Set contained 3 Bonus Singles, from The Network. The only 7" pressings of any material from The Network, and seemed to finally put the nail in the coffin that the two bands were linked. It was obvious, but this is the closest we've had to confirmation, yet still it's never been publicly said. JUST REVEAL IT BILLIE F*CK SAKE!

Green Day performing live in 2017.

The Network had a very brief run of live shows, and stopped touring before the end of 2003, so the band was very short lived, but is now forever etched in Green Day history, if it was actually them, mysteries. Almost bang on a year after 'Money Money 2020' was released, 'American Idiot' hit stores, and revived Green Day's career, brought a whole new meaning to 'punk' and made the 'Rock Opera' style of album where the songs tell a story, a new phenomenon. What a wild story. Thank you for reading.