Green
Day is an American rock trio formed in 1987. The band has consisted of
Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals),
and Tré Cool (drums, percussion) for the majority of its existence.
Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman
Street, Berkeley in East Bay, CA, United States . Its early releases
for independent record label Lookout! Records earned them a grassroots
fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major
label. Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a
breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the US.
and 15 million worldwide. As a result, Green Day was widely credited,
alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with
reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United
States. Green Day’s three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and
Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were
still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold
status respectively. Green Day’s 2004 rock opera American Idiot
reignited the band’s popularity with a younger generation, selling five
million copies in the U.S.The band’s eighth studio album, 21st Century
Breakdown, was released on May 15, 2009.
Green Day has sold over 22 million records in the United States.They
have won three Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best
Rock Album for American Idiot, and Record of the Year for Boulevard of
Broken Dreams.
In 1987, friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, 15 years old at
the time, formed a band called Sweet Children. The first Sweet Children
show took place on October 17, 1987, at Rod’s Hickory Pit in Vallejo,
California where Armstrong’s mother was working.In 1988, Armstrong and
Dirnt began working with former Isocracy drummer, John Kiffmeyer (also
known as Al Sobrante). Kiffmeyer served as both the band’s drummer and
business manager, handling the booking of shows and helping the band
establish a fan base.
Larry Livermore, owner of Lookout! Records, saw the band play an early
show and signed them to his label. In 1989 they recorded their first EP,
1,000 Hours. Before 1,000 Hours was released, the band dropped the name
Sweet Children, according to Livermore this was done in order to avoid
confusion with another local band Sweet Baby.
The band adopted the name
Green Day, allegedly due to their fondness of marijuana.
Lookout! would release Green Day’s first LP, 39/Smooth in early 1990.
Green Day would record two EPs later that year: Slappy and Sweet
Children, the latter of which included some older songs they had
recorded for Minneapolis indie label Skene! Records. In 1991, Lookout!
Records released 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the
39/Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours EPs. In late 1990, shortly after the
band’s first nationwide tour, Sobrante left the East Bay area to attend
college. The Lookouts drummer Tré Cool began filling in as a temporary
replacement, and when it became clear that Sobrante did not plan on
committing to the band full time, Tré Cool’s position as Green Day’s
drummer became permanent. The band went on tour for most of 1992 and
1993, and played a stretch of shows overseas in Europe. The band’s
second full length album Kerplunk sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S.,
which was considered quite a large amount for the independent punk scene
in 1992.
Kerplunk’s underground success led to a wave of interest coming from
major record labels, and eventually they left Lookout! on friendly terms
and signed with Reprise Records after attracting the attention of
producer Rob Cavallo. Signing to Reprise caused many punk rock fans to
regard Green Day as sellouts.Reflecting on the period, Armstrong told
SPIN magazine in 1999, “I couldn’t go back to the punk scene, whether we
were the biggest success in the world or the biggest failure … The only
thing I could do was get on my bike and go forward.” After signing with
Reprise, the band went to work on recording its major label debut,
Dookie.
“Longview”
Play sound
Sample of “Longview”, the first single from Dookie, which combined a
memorable bass line with a guitar riff and drums introduced in the
chorus.
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“Basket Case”
Play sound
Sample of “Basket Case”, the third single from Dookie, which was about
Armstrong’s panic attacks.
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Released in February 1994, and recorded in 3 weeks,Dookie became a
commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of
the songs “Longview”, “Basket Case”, and “When I Come Around”, all of
which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock Tracks charts.
That year, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour with queercore band
Pansy Division as its opening act. At a September 9, 1994 concert at
Boston Esplanade, mayhem broke-out during the band’s set (cut short to
seven songs) and by the end of the rampage, 100 people were injured and
45 arrested. The band also joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza
festival and Woodstock 1994, where they started an infamous mud fight.
During the concert, a security guard mistook bassist Mike Dirnt for a
stage-invading fan and punched out some of his teeth. Viewed by millions
via pay-per-view television, the Woodstock 1994 performance further
aided Green Day’s growing publicity and recognition, and helped push its
album to eventual diamond status. In 1995, Dookie won the Grammy Award
for Best Alternative Album and the band was nominated for 9 MTV Video
Music Awards including Video of the Year.
The full fold-out artwork to Insomniac, entitled God Told Me to Skin
You Alive.
In 1995, a new single for the Angus soundtrack was released, titled
“J.A.R.”. The single went straight to number one on the Billboard Modern
Rock Tracks chart. The song was followed by the band’s new album,
Insomniac, which was released in the fall of 1995. Insomniac was a much
darker and heavier response by the band, compared to the poppier, more
melodic Dookie. Insomniac opened to a warm critical reception, earning 4
out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone, which said “In punk, the good stuff
actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any
of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this
stuff gets.”Insomniac used a piece of art by Winston Smith entitled God
Told Me to Skin You Alive for its album cover. The singles released from
Insomniac were “Geek Stink Breath”, “Brain Stew/Jaded”, “Walking
Contradiction”, and “Stuck With Me”. Though the album did not approach
the success of Dookie, it still sold two million copies in the United
States.Insomniac won the band award nominations for Favorite Artist,
Favorite Hard Rock Artist, and Favorite Alternative Artist at the 1996
American Music Awards, and the video for “Walking Contradiction” got the
band a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form, in addition to a
Best Special Effects nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards.[20] After
that, the band abruptly cancelled a European tour, citing exhaustion.
Middle era: 1997–2002
After taking a break in 1996, Green Day began to work on a new album in
1997. From the outset, both the band and Cavallo agreed that the album
had to be different from its previous records.The result was Nimrod, an
experimental deviation from the band’s standard pop-punk brand of music.
The new album was released in October 1997. It provided a variety of
music, from pop-punk, surf rock, and ska, to an acoustic ballad. Nimrod
entered the charts at number 10. The success of “Good Riddance (Time of
Your Life)” won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video
for the song’s video, which depicted people undergoing major changes in
their lives while Billie Joe Armstrong strummed his acoustic guitar. The
song was also used in the second “clip show” episode of Seinfeld and on
two episodes of ER. The other singles released from Nimrod were “Nice
Guys Finish Last”, “Hitchin’ a Ride” and “Redundant”. The band made a
guest appearance in an episode of King of the Hill entitled “The Man Who
Shot Cane Skretteberg”, which aired in 1997.
In 2000, Green Day released Warning, a step further in the style that
they had hinted at with Nimrod. Critics’ reviews of the album were
varied.Allmusic gave it 4.5/5 saying “Warning may not be an innovative
record per se, but it’s tremendously satisfying.” Rolling Stone was more
critical, giving it 3/5, and saying “Warning… invites the question: Who
wants to listen to songs of faith, hope and social commentary from what
used to be snot-core’s biggest-selling band?” Though it produced the
hit “Minority” and a smaller hit with “Warning”, some observers were
coming to the conclusion that the band was losing relevance,and a
decline in popularity followed. While all of Green Day’s past albums had
reached a status of at least double platinum, Warning was only
certified gold.
At the 2001 California Music Awards, Green Day won all eight awards
that they were nominated for. They won the awards for Outstanding Album
(Warning), Outstanding Punk Rock/Ska Album (Warning), Outstanding Group,
Outstanding Male Vocalist, Outstanding Bassist, Outstanding Drummer,
Outstanding Songwriter and Outstanding Artist
The release of a Greatest Hits compilation, International Superhits!,
and an assemblage of B-sides, Shenanigans, followed Warning.
International Superhits and its companion collection of music videos,
International Supervideos!, sold reasonably well, going platinum in the
U.S. Shenanigans contained some of the band’s b-sides, including
“Espionage” which was featured in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
In the spring of 2002, Green Day co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour
with Blink-182. Despite the co-headlining title, Green Day would play
each show before Blink-182, who at the time were experiencing more
success. The tour was documented on the DVD Riding In Vans With Boys.
American Idiot and renewed popularity: 2003–2006
Spectators watch Green Day from the grass slopes at the National Bowl.
In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record
new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and
Valentines. After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen
from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen
album, but instead started over. By the end of 2003, Green Day
collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring. On
February 1, 2004 a new song, a cover of “I Fought the Law” made its
debut on a commercial for iTunes during NFL Super Bowl XXXVIII. The band
underwent serious “band therapy,” engaging in several long talks to
work out the members’ differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool
that Armstrong was “the band’s Nazi” and a show-off bent on taking the
limelight from the other band members.
The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the
Billboard charts, the band’s first ever album to top the chart, backed
by the success of the album’s first single, “American Idiot.” The album
was billed as a “punk rock opera” which follows the journey of the
fictitious “Jesus of Suburbia”. American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for
“Best Rock Album” and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a
total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including
the coveted Viewer’s Choice Award.
Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150
dates — the longest tour in its career — visiting Japan, Australia,
South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000
people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they
filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl
in England, which was voted ‘The Best Show On Earth’ in a Kerrang!
Magazine Poll.
These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called Bullet in a
Bible on November 15, 2005. This CD/DVD featured hits from American
Idiot as well as a few songs from all its previous albums, except
“Kerplunk” and “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours”. The DVD featured
behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared
to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in
Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17
respectively. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People’s
Choice Award for favorite group.
Green Day live in Germany during the American Idiot tour.
On August 1, 2005, Green Day announced that that it had rescinded the
master rights to its pre-Dookie material from Lookout! Records, citing a
continuing breach of contract regarding unpaid royalties, a complaint
shared with other Lookout! bands. The pre-Dookie material, which
remained out of print for about a year, was reissued by the band’s
current label, Reprise, on January 9, 2007.
In 2006, Green Day won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” which spent 16 weeks at the number one
position of Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks, a record it shared along
with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue” and Staind’s “It’s Been
Awhile,” (the record has been since been beaten by Foo Fighters’ 2007
hit “The Pretender” which reigned at the top spot for 18 weeks).
Foxboro Hot Tubs and 21st Century Breakdown: 2007 onward
Green Day engaged in several other smaller projects in the time
following the hype of American Idiot. In the spring of 2007, Green Day
recorded a cover of the John Lennon song “Working Class Hero”, which
appeared on a compilation album “Instant Karma”, that benefitted victims
in Darfur. In the summer of 2007, Green Day recorded a version of The
Simpsons theme song for The Simpsons Movie, as well as having an
appearance in the movie.
Green Day recently released a new album under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs
entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!!. In an interview with Kerrang!, Billie
Joe revealed that 2008 would “be a fair estimate of the release date of
their new untitled eighth studio album.”In a recent interview with
Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed that Butch Vig
would be producing Green Day’s forthcoming album. In October 2008 Green
Day returned to the studios with Butch Vig, to start recording the new
studio album. Two videos showing the band in the studio were posted on
YouTube. In the tour section of the band’s official website, the message
“World Tour coming soon!” is shown.In the December 9 issue of
Alternative Press, in-depth details about the new album were released.
According to the interview, Green Day are recording in the same studio
as they did for American Idiot, Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood,
California. “This album is more… religious”, and is influenced by Bob
Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles, to name a few.Billie Joe
Armstrong said when he was being interviewed for Kerrang!’s readers
poll, that it will be more power pop than punk rock.The new album is
titled 21st Century Breakdown and was released worldwide on May 15,
2009. Green Day will be going on a world tour starting with North
America in July, 2009 until sometime in 2010. Singles from 21st Century
Breakdown include Know Your Enemy and 21 Guns.
Musical style and influences
Green Day’s sound is often compared to first wave punk bands such as
the Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks. The
majority of their song catalog is composed of distorted guitar, fast,
manic drums, and relatively high-treble bass. Most of their songs are
fast-paced and under four minutes. Billie Joe Armstrong has mentioned
that some of his biggest influences are seminal alternative rock bands
Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, and that their influence is particularly
noted in the band’s chord changes in songs. In fact, Green Day has
covered Hüsker Dü’s “Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely” as a b-side
for the “Warning” single, and the character “Mr. Whirly” in their song
“Misery” is a reference to the Replacements song of the same name. Among
other influences, Green Day have also cited Queen,proto-punks The Who,
and power pop pioneers Cheap Trick [46]. Armstrong’s lyrics commonly
describe alienation, (“Jesus of Suburbia”, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”,
“Road to Acceptance”, “Disappearing Boy”, “Castaway”) hysteria (“Basket
Case”, “Panic Song”), girls (“She”, “80” “Only of You”,”Maria” “She’s a
Rebel”), growing up (“Longview” and “Welcome to Paradise”), and the
effects of doing drugs (“Geek Stink Breath”, “Green Day”). The Ramones
had similar lyrical themes such as hysteria (“Anxiety”, “Psycho
Therapy”), alienation (“Outsider”, “Something To Believe In”), girls (“I
Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”, “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”), and drugs (“Now I
Wanna Sniff Some Glue”, “Chinese Rocks”). Green Day has covered Ramones
songs several times, including recording “Outsider” for the tribute
album We’re a Happy Family, and performing “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Teenage
Lobotomy” when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 2002.
Criticism and controversy
Beginning with the release of Dookie, and the subsequent explosion of
MTV airplay it received, Green Day has received considerable criticism
from those who see the punk genre as a social movement independent of
corporate sponsorship. With the release of American Idiot and the
subsequent draw of many new fans, much of this criticism has been
revived.
One of the more contentious issues is genre labeling. In reaction to
both the style of music and the background of the band, many fans and
musicians have taken heavy objection to the usage of the term “punk”
when applied to Green Day. This is evidenced by the following comments
issued by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), former front man of both the 1970s
punk band the Sex Pistols and the 1980s post-punk, Public Image Ltd.:
“ So there we are fending off all that and it pisses me off that years
later a wank outfit like Green Day hop in and nick all that and attach
it to themselves. They didn’t earn their wings to do that and if they
were true punk they wouldn’t look anything like they do. ”
Brandon Flowers of The Killers went on record in 2007 claiming that
Green Day’s politically driven concept album American Idiot displays
“calculated Anti-Americanism.” He explained that he has problems with
the album content itself and also the fact that the band’s recent live
DVD, Bullet in a Bible, was filmed in England. The taping of the
concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of Europeans
singing along to “American Idiot.” Stating that he felt Green Day’s DVD
is a bit of a stunt, he said, “I just thought it was really cheap. To go
to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids
aren’t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he (Billie Joe
Armstrong) knew it.”
More recently, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher has accused the band of
ripping off his song “Wonderwall” for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.
Related projects
Main article: Green Day related projects
Ever since 1991, some members of the band have branched out past Green
Day and have started other projects with other musicians. Notable
related projects of Green Day include Billie Joe Armstrong’s Pinhead
Gunpowder (which also features Green Day’s live backup guitarist Jason
White), The Frustrators in which Mike Dirnt plays bass, and The Network,
in which all three members of Green Day play under fake stage names.
Billie Joe Armstrong has also confirmed that the main members of Green
Day are in the band Foxboro Hot Tubs. A Foxboro Hot Tubs album titled
Stop Drop and Roll!!! was released on 2008-05-20.
Charity projects that the band have been involved with include the
collaboration with U2 (“The Saints Are Coming”) to help raise money for
musical instruments lost in Hurricane Katrina, and teaming with the
Natural Resources Defense Council for the “Move America Beyond Oil”
campaign and other environmental concerns.
In September 2006, Green Day teamed up with U2 and producer Rick Rubin
to record a cover of the song “The Saints Are Coming”, originally
recorded by The Skids, with an accompanying video. The song is to
benefit Music Rising, an organization to help raise money for musicians’
instruments lost during Hurricane Katrina, and to bring awareness on
the eve of the one year anniversary of the disaster.
“Working Class Hero”
Play sound
“Working Class Hero”, a cover of a John Lennon song, was released on
the Instant Karma CD.
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In December 2006, Green Day and NRDC opened a web site in partnership
to raise awareness on America’s dependency on oil. (See related
projects.)
Green Day released a cover of the John Lennon song “Working Class
Hero”, that was featured on the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty
International Campaign to Save Darfur. The band performed the song on
the season finale of American Idol. The song was nominated for a Grammy
in 2008, but lost to The White Stripes’ “Icky Thump”.
That summer, the band appeared in a cameo role in The Simpsons Movie,
where they perform the show’s theme song. Their version was released as a
single on July 24, 2007.
Band members
Current
* Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitars
(1987–present)
* Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals (1987–present)
* Tré Cool – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1990–present)
with
* Jason White – lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
(1999–present)
* Jason Freese – keyboards, piano, acoustic guitar, trombone,
saxophone, accordion, backing vocals (2003–present)
* Ronnie Blake – trumpet, timpani, percussion, backing vocals
(2004–present)
* Mike Pelino – rhythm guitars, backing vocals (2004–present)
Former
* John Kiffmeyer – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1987–1990)
Former touring musicians
* Gabrial McNair – trombone, tenor saxophone (1999–2001)
* Timmy Chunks – guitar (1997–1999)
* Garth Schultz – trombone, trumpet (1997–1999)
* Kurt Lohmiller – trumpet, timpani, percussion, vocals (1999–2004)
Session
* Gabrial McNair – trombone on Nimrod (1997)
* Petra Haden – violin on Nimrod (1997)
* Rob Cavallo – piano on American Idiot (2004)
* Stephen Bradley – trumpet on Nimrod (1997) and Warning (2000)
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