To celebrate Nimrod's 14th birthday last Friday, this week's Song of the Week is its opening track, Nice Guys Finish Last, which was also Nimrod's 4th single, reaching number 31 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in 1998. The song also gained popularity when it was featured on the soundtrack for the 1999 movie Varsity Blues. Making my job rather easy, the basic meaning of Nice Guys Finish Last is explained in its title - the song's lyrics are all about how being the 'nice guy' will end up with you feeling "washed up" and "get you left behind". Musically, Nice Guys Finish Last can be described simply as 'kick-ass' - its pounding drum intro, which introduces the whole album is Green Day at their simple and ballsy best. The whole song is a 2-minute, 49-second wall of Green Day snottyness, snarkyness and power. It's those qualities that also make Nice Guys Finish Last great fun live - for all the complexities and subtleties of Green Day's newer material (which I love and would never go without), this song brings everything back down to the bare bones of what makes Green Day, Green Day. Finally, Nice Guys Finish Last has to have one of the best music videos Green Day have ever made. If you've never seen it before, go watch it here. And remember; there is no 'I' in band.

This week's video is an awesome live performance of the song filmed in 1997 from 'Live in the Alley' in Toronto. Look at all the layers the crowd and Billie and Mike are wearing - must have been cold! Tre is obviously immune, though, in just his t-shirt. (Skip to 0:55 if you want to miss the intro)


(video credit: nirv007)

Lyrics to the song can be found here, and this is Nice Guys Finish Last's Song of the Week thread. Feel free to stop by and post your opinion, or nominate next week's song.