Good
Charlotte is not a punk band. They’ll be the first to tell you, too.

“I
don’t listen to punk music,” says guitarist Billy Martin. “I’ve never been into
punk music.”

But
when Good Charlotte exploded out of Waldorf, Maryland in 1996 they were almost
immediately labeled “punk” by a media that’s still shocked by tattoos and
eyeliner. With boyish good looks and pop sugar in their punk tanks, the band
was perfect for kids who wanted punk without the threat or full-on lifestyle
commitment.

Their
previous two records, Good Charlotte (2000)
and The Young and the Hopeless (2002)
— which went triple platinum — were a lot more bare-boned than the band’s
third and newest album, The Chronicles of
Life and Death.

The
album’s opening track, “Once Upon a Time: The Battle of Life and Death,” isn’t
punk either. It’s a grandiose orchestral affair that swirls and builds
ominously. Fairly dark and epic, it serves to introduce the work of a band that
is maturing… or at least one that has a great big studio budget.

“This
was the sort of record we always wanted to make,” Martin says. “I guess we
didn’t have the experience before to make a record like this.”

“I
think when you first present your band you kinda want to strip yourself down,”
Martin says. “You want your first record to be kind of raw just to let people
know what you’re about. I think we just kept things basic mainly ’cause we just
wanted people to hear our sound. Second of all, we didn’t know how to do more.”

Chronicles beautifully extends beyond the textbook loud-fast of earlier Good Charlotte.
Besides incorporating a whole orchestra, band members donned new instruments
like cello and keyboards. The song structures are a lot more adventurous and
exploratory.

But
the lyrics are still a little simple and under-entendre’d, if you will. Despite
the undeniable song hooks (I’ve been singing “I Just Wanna Live” for days), the
storylines are frankly a little high school. Then again white, middle-class,
high-school kids seem to be the Good Charlotte demographic, a group that
relates better to direct, unadulterated, unmasked anger.

Despite
having the balls to play rock songs with instruments outside the stock rock
arsenal, the album is still big and powerful with excellent song construction
and execution.

“I
think we’re all, like, into catchy songs,” Martin says. “You know, I don’t
wanna make some artsy record you can’t sing along to. I like bands that push
the boundaries of pop music but still use the same pop-song format.” This is
something the band has maintained on all three albums.

“It’s
just a matter of different instrumentation this time,” he says. “I think we all
were more comfortable with our instruments and everyone was really open to
trying new things.”

Maybe
some of those new things will help shed mislabels like, say, “pop-punk.”

“That’s
fine if people want to call us that,” Martin says. “But I think with this
record we wanted to show them that we’re not a pop-punk band, that we’re just a
rock band.”

The band still gets
dismissed by punks and self-proclaimed punks. On last year’s Vans Warped Tour
it became hip for smaller punk bands to slag Good Charlotte, who headlined the
main stage. Rancid’s Lars Frederickson made a point of questioning the band’s
cred. And bands like New York City gutter punks The Casualties, who toiled away
on the obscure side stages, did the same.

Maybe
it’s because the band is successful. Maybe it’s because they’re cute. Maybe
it’s because parents don’t cringe as much at the sight or sound of them. For
whatever reason, Martin’s over it.

“I
used to get upset about that stuff,” he says. “And I kinda just realized that I
really don’t care about punk music so why should I care what anybody else who
likes punk music thinks about our band? Because I really think it’s two
different worlds. I don’t think we’re there preaching we’re something that
we’re not. People are gonna talk and we’re totally cool with it. But none of
them have a clue.”

Good
Charlotte has more important things to concern itself with, like a fan base
that’s growing and growing up with the band. These are fans who started off
with Good Charlotte when it — like it or not — was a pop-punk band.

“We
talk to our fans all the time,” Martin says. “The week the record came out we
were doing signings all over the place. And we were asking ‘what do you guys
think of it? What do you like?’ And everybody seems to love it. And that’s cool
with us.”

In
spite of its detractors Good Charlotte continues to thrive. The band’s all over
MTV and has been featured in publications like Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, and The New York Times. And this probably just burns up the mohawks who
associate success with sell-out.

“Jealousy
causes a lot of things, dude,” Martin says. “When I was younger, of course, I
was probably saying the same thing about other bands.”

Would
he have talked shit about Good Charlotte?

“Maybe.”

Good
Charlotte plays with guests Reliant K on Tuesday, May 24, at the Harro East Ballroom, 155 North Chestnut Street, at 8
p.m. Tix: $29.50. 454-0230. All ages.

This article appears in May 18-24, 2005.