The Network

Back in 2003 a band of masked New Wave revivalists emerged out of nowhere. Almost immediately speculation began that the band consisted of the members of both Green Day and Devo, if only because the band, who we found to be named "The Network," sounded like a perfect mixture of both. Members of The Network call themselves Fink, Van Gogh, The Snoo, Z, Balducci, and Captain Underpants. With a keyboardist and keytarist adding a new-wave synthish sound, and other musicians providing both the Green Day-ish punk element and unmistakable vocals of Billie Joe Armstrong, you couldn't argue with the idea that maybe it was all true. Green Day has maintained to this day, albeit tongue-in-cheek, that they were not members of The Network, and have even gone so far as to cultivate a running feud between the two bands. Fans of Green Day have willfully played along. The Network's debut LP, Money Money 2020, was put out by Armstrong's label Adeline, and The Network was also able to mysteriously put aside its feud with Green Day to open for them during a tour in 2005.

Anyone familiar with Green Day can tell quite clearly that the above picture shows at least Billie Joe as Fink(in the black/white mask) and Green Day drummer Tre' Cool (luchadore mask)as The Snoo. It has also been confirmed that Green Day's bassist Mike Dirnt (Van Gogh) and Green Day's "fourth member," Jason White (Balducci), are also members of the band. What has never been confirmed, however, even 6 years later, is the identity of the keyboard players, which, aside from the overall sound, is another reason why members of Devo have had their names kicked around. Wikipedia suggests that those roles might be filled by unknown musicians Reto Peter and Chris Dugan, but speculating about non-famous people isn't really any fun. Adding to the question of whether or not Devo are actual members or just an influence is that The Network claim to be members of the Church of Lushotology, which believes in "total intoxication." This is thought to be a parody of The Church of the SubGenius (which is the religion of Devo).



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