The Distant Reach of Adam Green
Image Courtesy of Billboard // Billboard.com
If you visit Adam Green’s website, you’ll see that the navigation bar is far more cluttered than a typical musician’s “Merch”, “Tour Dates”, and “Music Videos” site layout. Green’s website is crammed with links to his albums, films, graphic novels, poetry, diaries, zines, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. His work in each medium is threaded by his wild and imaginative storytelling, which can be as silly as it is allegorical. Whether it’s a poem about a “frozen gay turtle” or a painting of Kurt Cobain writing computer code in a Starbucks, Green has a child-like, mythical perspective that is undeniably charming.
Adam Green is most well known for being one half of the anti-folk indie band The Moldy Peaches, alongside Kimya Dawson. The Moldy Peaches were a notable proponent of the anti-folk movement in the very early 2000s. The anti-folk genre loosely encapsulates their music scene which rejected polished music for raw, experimental, personality-driven songs. Though the band hasn’t released new music since 2003, they resurged in 2008 when their song “Anyone Else but You” was featured in the film Juno.
Following The Moldy Peaches, Green found continued success as a solo artist with his first album, “Garfield” in 2002. The album features primarily acoustic songs, all of which are littered with hilarious moments. Highlights on Green’s debut album include a talking computer, the song “(untitled silent track)” - which is as advertised - and “Mozzarella Swastikas” which is a song about a land made of strings where Adam is, as the chorus repeats 9 times, “getting head under a rainbow”.
Over the years, Green has released 9 more solo albums, each progressing in production clarity and instrumental layering. However, Green’s absurdist storytelling remains consistent and unwavering. Among his most popular songs is “Jessica” which asks why Jessica Simpson became so disingenuous and her smile so fraudulent. On “Emily”, Green sings about the amazing cookies his girlfriend's mom makes him.
Between working on his 10 solo albums is where Green fits in his other projects.
In 2005, Green began displaying his drawings, paintings, sculptures, collages, and other mixed-material artwork at exhibitions. Among the various locations worldwide, his art has been displayed at the prominent Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York and in a James Franco directed TV advertisement. This brings up another aspect of Green’s reach, his network of celebrity friends.
In 2011, Green released his first film, “The Wrong Ferrari.” He wrote, directed, and produced the “ketamine-inspired screwball tragedy” which featured Alia Shawkat, Peter Doherty, Sky Ferreira, and Macaulay Culkin, among others. Green has said that the talent performed largely for fun and as favors, not getting paid for their work. The movie is also said to be the first feature film entirely shot on an iPhone. While it’s not a visual masterpiece (or truthfully, any other type of masterpiece), it was followed up by his 2016 film, “Adam Green’s Aladdin,” which received high praise. It is inexplicably weird and, again, features a loaded cast with Macaulay Culkin, Natasha Lyonne, and Zoe Kravitz. The movie was filmed entirely on a set made of cardboard and is, as BuzzFeed describes, “the trippiest movie ever made.”
It’s seemingly impossible to create a cohesive summary of Adam Green’s career because in addition to the works already listed, he has written a graphic novel titled “War and Paradise,” a surrealist epic poem about the future world becoming medieval, 4 poetry-filled zines, and so much more. There’s still much to mention, such as his sense of fashion which often includes a hot pink Star of David rosary for live performances. Each individual piece of art he creates, thing that he wears, and line that he writes is on-brand and identifiable to his hyper-particular aesthetic. It wouldn’t be surprising for an Adam Green sneeze to somehow produce glitter and confetti like a party popper. There’s an irrationally weird and wonderful quality about all of his work. It’s a trait that certainly can’t be taught, not even during the semester he attended Emerson College in 1998.