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Green Day - "I consider it a challenge before the whole human race"
Green Day includes Billie Joe Armstrong, lead vocals, guitar - Mike Dirnt, bass, backup vocals - Tré Cool, drums, backup vocals
Green
Day's
most popular CDs and DVDs: Dookie,
Nimrod, American Idiot, Kerplunk, Insomniac
See
their performance on stage
at Live 8 Germany
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the Live 8 Berlin DVD here
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the Complete
Live 8 DVD set here
(4 Box set)
Set list:
American
Idiot 4:45
Holiday 4:41
Minority 8:08
We Are The Champions 4:48
Discography:
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American Idiot |
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CD at: |
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Dookie |
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CD at: |
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International Superhits |
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Nimrod |
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Day 's full collection:
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Green Day at Live 8
Green Day is a pop punk band consisting of Billie
Joe Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, backing vocals,
born Michael Ryan Pritchard), and Tré Cool (drummer, born Frank
Edwin Wright III, born in Germany). Since Green Day's sixth album, the
band have included close friend and associate, back-up guitarist Jason
White.
Along with other bands on the Lookout! label, Green Day are credited as
being the pioneers of the pop punk genre popularizing the genre to the
mainstream with 1994's smash album Dookie. Dookie has been certified diamond
(10 million copies shipped) in the United States since its release. Green
Day's second best selling album American Idiot came a decade after Dookie
in 2004 and is enjoying huge critical and fan acclaim. A mere year after
its release, it has been certified triple platinum in the US, has sold
7 million copies world-wide and won the band a Grammy award for "Best
Rock Album."
Lookouts: the beginning
At the age of 12, Tré Cool became a member of the band The Lookouts.
Green Day's album attracted some attention, and Tré began performing
at an early age at the Berkeley, California punk club 924 Gilman Street.
In 1988, Billie Joe Armstrong (aged 16) and Mike Dirnt (also aged 16)
formed "Sweet Children", with Armstrong on lead vocals and guitar,
Dirnt on bass and backing vocals, and John Kiffmeyer (a.k.a. Al Sobrante),
on drums.
Green Day's first show was in 1988 at Rod's Hickory Pit in Rodeo, California.
A couple of months later, they played a high school party with the Lookouts
in a remote mountain location near Willits, California, where Tre and
Kain Kong of the Lookouts lived and attended school. Only five kids showed
up for the party, and there was no electricity in the house, so Sweet
Children had to play using a generator and candlelight, but Green Day
played, as Lookouts singer/guitarist Larry Livermore put it, "as
if they were The Beatles at Shea Stadium."
Livermore, who also ran the Berkeley independent label Lookout! Records,
immediately offered Sweet Children a deal, and in early 1989 they recorded
their first EP, 1,000 Hours, and then decided, weeks before the EP release,
to change their name to Green Day, a slang term for a day where you sit
around and do nothing but smoke cannabis. Green Day were smokers since
puberty and Billie Joe got his nickname, "Two Dollar Bill",
from selling joints at that price ($2) at his high school. The song "Green
Day", written by Billie Joe, is about his first experience using
marijuana. Many references to the drug appear in Green Day's music, though
it is by no means their defining characteristic.
One year later, in April 1990, Green Day released their first album 39/Smooth,
and that summer they set out in a van on their first national tour. Before
leaving, they recorded another four-song EP called Slappy and while in
Minneapolis-St. Paul they recorded a four-song EP of some of their old
songs for the local label Skene Records, and called it "Sweet Children".
In 1991, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours was released on CD; this re-issued
39/Smooth with all the tracks from Slappy and 1,000 Hours.
After the Green Day tour, at the end of the summer of 1990, Al Sobrante
left the band on what was supposed to be a temporary basis to attend college
in Arcata, California. By this time the Lookouts had become mostly inactive,
and Tré Cool, now 17 and living in Berkeley, began playing with
Green Day as a temporary replacement. The combination worked out so well
that he soon became Green Day's permanent drummer.
During 1991, Green Day toured and played locally, building up a large
fan following, and also wrote and recorded their second album, Kerplunk!,
which was released on Lookout Records in January 1992. The CD version
also included the four tracks from the Sweet Children EP. They continued
to tour through 1992 and 1993, ranging as far afield as the United Kingdom,
Germany, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, and Czechoslovakia (now
the Czech Republic) When the tour came through the UK, it was notable
for a famous appearance at a Wigan social club called The Den. The gig
would have been a standard stop on an independent punk band's minor UK
tour, were it not for one small fact: Green Day decided to use their set
to stage their own version of the Nativity, featuring Billie Joe as all
three schizophrenic Three Wise Punks, Mike as Santa Claus and a bad-taste
version of the Virgin Birth featuring Tre as Mary, a roadie as Jesus and
a bag of rice pudding and tomato ketchup as the Holy Placenta. This sort
of theatrical show would become common practice for the band ten years
later, only on a much larger scale.
Mainstream success with Dookie
By 1993, Green Day had sold about 55,000 copies of Kerplunk!, a huge amount
for the independent punk scene in those days, and attracted a great deal
of attention from the major labels. Eventually Green Day decided to sign
a deal with Reprise Records, leaving Lookout on friendly terms, and spent
the greater part of the year recording their major label debut, Dookie,
which proved to be an almost instant sensation, helped by extensive MTV
airplay for the videos "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise"
and "Basket Case".
In 1994, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour and chose queercore band
Pansy Division as their opening act. At the time this was regarded as
quite controversial; nonetheless, the tour was a success. Green Day had
made their audience aware that they were not just another 'pop' band with
a couple of hit singles. The band joined the lineups of both the Lollapalooza
Festival and Woodstock 1994. Green Day's Woodstock gig included a gigantic
mud fight between the band and the audience, leading to a melee in which
Dirnt lost his front teeth.
They recorded a single called "J.A.R." in 1995, and followed
it up with the album Insomniac in the fall of 1995. It was a response
to the poppy simplicity of Dookie with the album darker than their previous
one. Though the album didn't approach the success of Dookie, it still
sold two million copies in the United States. After that, the band abruptly
cancelled a European tour, claiming exhaustion.
Fall in popularity
Following the cancellation of the European tour, Green Day spent the next
year-and-half resting in reclusion and writing new material, issuing Nimrod
in October 1997 with a more artistic and conceptual approach. It reached
#10 at home and went double platinum on the strength of the surprise crossover
hit "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)". After that Green Day
took some time out of the spotlight, issuing the poppy Kinks-like Warning:,
another Top 5 hit, three years later in fall 2000. In 2002 the band issued
their first b-side Album Shenanigans, which was received warmly by fans
and included the song "Ha Ha You're Dead", written by Mike Dirnt
and recorded exclusively for this album.
The Network
Main article: The Network
In 2003, during time Green Day spent in the studio, a New Wave band appeared
on the scene, known as The Network. Three of five members of the band
are the three main members of Green Day. The frontman, known as "Fink",
is Billie Joe Armstrong. Billie has referred to himself as Wilhelm Fink
in the past. This is confirmed on the Pinhead Gunpowder Web site bio of
Billie. The bass player, known as "Van Gough", is Mike Dirnt
(both are vegetarians). The Network's drummer, "The Snoo", is
Tré Cool. John Roecker, director of 'Live Freaky Die Freaky', starring
Green Day and other East Bay punk alumni, and Green Day's DVD Documentary
"Heart Like A Hand Grenade", has spoken of various projects
recorded at Studio 880, including a New Wave album and a Christmas album,
during the American Idiot sessions. Studio 880 is the credited studio
in The Network's Money Money 2020 album and Green Day's American Idiot.
Jason White
Jason White from the Lookout! band Pinhead Gunpowder) has been touring
with Green Day for a decade. He is friend of the band for years and is
co-founder of Adeline Records with Billie Joe. While making Warning: Green
Day used him to help them in the studio. According to some sources, he
is considered the fourth member, but some say that he will never become
a permanent member of Green Day, however, because he is so devoted to
his other band, The Influents (although The Influents broke up around
2003). When asked about that he firmly says "I'm just a helping hand
to the band; it's all about them three".
In 2005 White played with Green Day in their video, "Wake Me Up When
September Ends"-the first time that any musician outside the trio
appeared in a Green Day video. He can also be seen in the background of
the "When I Come Around" video. It is rumoured that he is Captain
Underpants of The Network.Also he is seen with Green Day on Saturday Night
Live when they we on.
Jason White is/has been part of the following bands: Pinhead Gunpowder:
(1997-) The Big Cats: (1997-) The Influents:(1999-2003) Green Day (second
guitarist): (1995-)
American Idiot: the commercial boom
Fighting burnout after Warning: (Argueably one of their best albums),
Green Day went into the studio to write and record new material for an
album. After completing 20 tracks-an impressive album according to those
few who heard it-the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band
chose not to try and re-create the stolen album but instead started over
with a vow to be even more ambitious. The resulting 2004 album, American
Idiot, was billed as a "punk rock opera", or more accurately
a concept album, which follows the journey of the ficticious 'Jesus of
Suburbia' and the characters he meets along the road, principally 'St.
Jimmy' and 'Whatsername'. The album could also be described as an anti-war
allegory, as it features songs denouncing George W. Bush and the invasion
of Iraq. The story of Jesus of Suburbia is deliberately ambiguous, and
it is possible to interpret it as the story of a young man going to serve
his country overseas. Indeed, this is plausible, as this is the very narrative
that features in the music video for the fourth single to be taken from
American Idiot, Wake Me Up When September Ends.
The February 2005 cover of Rolling Stone magazine featuring Green Day.
© Rolling Stone/Time Warner.American Idiot won a Grammy in 2005 for
Best Rock Album along with 5 other Grammy nominations. The song "American
Idiot" was featured in the video game NFL Madden 2005. The band at
the moment are touring, promoting the album with a largely successful
dates, continuing the theatrics of the shows from the Warning: and Shenanigans
tours by featuring a horn section dressed as a pink rabbit and a bumblebee,
Billie Joe donning a crown and silk cape for the song "King For A
Day" and drawn-out performances of certain songs like "Hitchin'
a Ride" and "Minority", where Billie Joe uses the instrumental
sections to interact with the crowd, a staple of Green Day's popular live
performances.
Many long-time Green Day fans felt uncomfotable and even threatened when
American Idiot was released. The music was much more accessable, and was
occasionally mistaken by younger music fans (some would say teenyboppers)
who had previously been oblivious to Green Day's work, for the 'boybands
with guitars' style of Busted and McFly. This was particularly insulting,
as some would argue that such boybands exploit the very things that made
the likes of Green Day, and later Blink-182, strike a chord with young
audiences and mimick them in a contrived and insincere way, in what amounts
to no more than a marketing ploy.
Another noticable difference was the members of Green Day having discarded
their trademark instruments. Billie Joe Armstrong changed his guitar from
the Fernandes Stratocaster copy he had been playing since the age of 10
to a quite typical Gibson Les Paul Junior. Tre Cool also severed his longtime
association with Slingerland and started using Ludwig-Musser drums.
American Idiot also marked a major change of image for Green Day. Green
Day appeared both smarter and more sombre than before. While in the past
they had dyed their hair in different colours (ranging from red to green
to pink and back again) and appeared in mostly variegated clothes, here
they started wearing fitted black shirts with neckties. Cool and Armstrong
dyed their hair black, started wearing eye liner and polished their nails
black, drawing arguably unfavourable comparisons with Good Charlotte.
This change most probably symbolized the musical and overall maturing
of Green Day and its members as they reach their late 30's and settle
down with their families.
The Future?
Shooting of an American Idiot: The Motion Picture movie is planned to
start in 2006. Speaking to Billboard.com, Armstrong revealed that Green
Day are still considering turning the punk rock opera into a film, saying:
"There's a lot of strange people out there in Hollywood, so we have
to stick to our guns. We want to have control over everything that's on
the album. If we're going to look at a film, we have to think of it the
same way as how important the record is to us."
Green Day are debating whether, after the end of their Stateside jaunt,
they will play stadium shows in Australia and South America. Armstrong
explained: "I'd love to play Russia and Cuba - places rock shows
don't normally go. After that, we'll end up sitting around and chatting
about what is going to be the next album." Speaking of this, Billie
Joe revealed that he has started work on the follow-up to American Idiot
and has written "about 15 new songs". He said: "Right now,
it's that no-pressure/fun stage of just getting on a four-track and coming
up with some goofy stuff. Eventually, something sort of unfolds. It's
exciting. The juices are always flowing."
On August 1, 2005, it was announced that Green Day had rescinded the master
rights to their pre-Dookie material from Lookout! Records, citing breach
of contract regarding unpaid royalties that had been ongoing for sometime.
Lookout! posted a statement [1] on their website which claimed, in part,
"Despite any rumors or conjecture to the contrary, Lookout and Green
Day's long relationship has always been based on trust, friendship and
partnership and those bonds remain shared between the label and the band
now and into the future." As of August 2, 2005, it is unknown whether
a label affiliated with the band (Reprise, Armstrong's own Adeline), a
reissue specialist like Rhino, or another label entirely will reissue
the Lookout!-era material. An unfortunate side effect of Green Day's reclaiming
the masters from Lookout! resulted in the independent label having to
lay off 2/3rds of their staff (which, at 9 employees, wasn't that big
to begin with) and delay new release plans for the rest of 2005.
This article about Green Day is posted under the GNU Free Documentation
License. It uses material from this Wikipedia
article.
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