B-Sides: Colleen Green

Tip: Find a friend with a convertible, or a friend with one of those bikes with a fat sound system on it, and get Colleen Green's recently re-released Milo Goes to Compton. Wait for a sunny day, combine said friend's form of open-air transportation with the album, and cruise around town, maybe with some iced tea. Even if Colleen Green sings about down days (and being really stoned), her music comes purpose-built for forecasts above 75 degrees.

Green's Bandcamp has a selection of covers that read like a grocery list for her wheezy, drum machine-fueled pop-punk: Blink-182, Nobunny, and the Rentals, among others. Particularly heartrending is her version of the Descendents' "Good Good Things," one of the Southern California punk bands non-creepily-misogynistic songs. The hazy production works to her advantage here, melding the guitars and her voice together into one staggering drone that all culminates in the title repeated over and over again.

I can't take issue with a deep love for pop-punk, and Green's DIY releasing and touring provide an excellent example for bands looking to get out and have fun on the road. Up until her recent signing to Hardly Art and another label with a name that offends me, Green released CDRs and tapes on the road. Lucky for us, she left a surfeit of music for free on her Bandcamp. But artists can't eat off of free downloads, so buy her album if you dig what you hear!

If you're looking for easy, breezy and, uh, 420-friendly pop-punk jams, Colleen Green's got what you need. Check out the re-release of her Milo Goes to Compton album, or see her live in Seattle on April 21st at Neumo's.