Piedmont's Punk Rockers Pack Downtown Club

How does a teen pop punk band from Piedmont open their headlining set at an Oakland nightclub? With bagpipes. Then with tight, no-holds-barred drumming and guitars wailing against the roar of their screaming classmates and fans.

The mosh pit never seemed to let up during Emily's Army's show at The Uptown Friday night, which marked the release of the band's new album, Don't Be a Dick.

The boys of Emily's Army are familiar faces in Piedmont. Brothers Max and Cole Becker and Joey Armstrong are students at and have been playing together since 2004. Travis Neumann, from Oakland, joined the band in 2009.

Naming their taste-makers and influences, the boys rattle off “the basics”: Smashmouth, Blink 182, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, The Strokes, Social Distortion, Elvis Costello, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sticky Little Fingers, The Who, The Clash, and of course, Joey Armstrong's dad's band–Green Day.

Emily's Army's link to the chart-topping punk veterans is apparent in their sound and is made official in the credits of their new album–Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong is listed as the producer.

Billie Joe wanted the album left raw, according to the sound engineer on the project, Chris Dugan.

“He said to me, 'Don't do too much to the record. Let them sound like s*** if they're going to.' So I just did my normal thing and they really didn't need much.”

And though his name is on the album, Billie Joe stayed away from the spotlight Friday. When asked for an interview he politely declined saying, “I'm just here to hear my son's band.”

The first time Emily's Army played 924 Gilman, the storied all-ages punk rock venue in Berkeley where Green Day got its start, Cole Becker's nerves nearly got the best of him right before the show. It was Billie Joe who talked him up to playing, even though it meant taking the call in the middle of his own record signing in New York.

“Obviously he's in a great band, but he's an awesome mentor and that's what we like about him most," said Max Becker of Billie Joe.

Addressing his relationship with his dad, Joey Armstrong, who, in addition to Emily's, plays percussion in the Piedmont High School band and will start in jazz band next year, simply says, “Some people go fishing with their dad, some have other hobbies with their dad. My dad and I play music.”

Emily's Army's lyrics are full of teenage angst. The song "Statutory Brainrape" cries out in frustration against the information overload force fed to today's youth by everything from textbooks to video games.

Cole and Max Becker are the band's prolific song-writers. The boys' mom, Tami Becker, likens the differences between her sons to Lennon and McCartney. Cole's lyrics are often political and somewhat snarky. Max writes straight from the heart.

Emily's Army may be a ways away from The Beatles, but Alt Press recently called their new album "solid." And while it's true that the band didn't have to live out of a van or knock on countless doors to make a professional recording and hold the launch party at a major local club, the music proves the talent is all their own.