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Green Day

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Green Day
File:Normal gd014cb.jpg
Green Day, from left to right - Tré Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Mike Dirnt
Background information
OriginCalifornia
Years active1989–Present
MembersBillie Joe Armstrong
Mike Dirnt
Tré Cool
Past membersAl Sobrante
Websitehttp://www.greenday.com

Green Day is a musical trio from California, consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong (acoustic & electric guitar, lead vocals), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Tré Cool (drums, backing vocals). Green Day is widely credited, along with fellow California bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States during the mid 1990s.[1][2] Their success has influenced prominent pop punk bands like Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and blink-182.[2]

The band has sold over 24.2 million albums in the United States, and over 53.1 million records worldwide. Green Day's breakthrough album Dookie has been certified diamond in the United States since its 1994 release, and won the Grammy Award for Alternative Album. Their second best-selling album American Idiot (2004), has been certified quadruple platinum in the U.S., and won the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album". Green Day has won three Grammy Awards, and several MTV Video Music Awards and other industry and fan-based awards. They are also second to the Red Hot Chili Peppers for most number-ones on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart with eight (the Red Hot Chili Peppers currently have nine).


Criticism

Beginning with the release of Dookie, and the subsequent explosion of MTV Airplay it received, Green Day has received considerable criticism from those who prefer to 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.

Discography

Main article: Green Day discography

The official studio album releases by Green Day are as follows:

Line-up

Former members

Backing members

  • Jason White: Guitar, Backup Vocals (1999-present)
  • Jason Freese: Piano, Keyboard, Trombone, Saxophone, Accordion, Acoustic Guitar, Backup Vocals (2004-present)
  • Ronnie Blake: Trumpet, Timpani/Percussions, Backup Vocals (2004-present)
  • Mike Pelino: Third Guitar, Backup Vocals (2005-present)
  • Rob Cavallo: Piano (for the 2004 Recording of American Idiot)

Jason White

File:Wakemeuppromoshot.jpg
The Wake Me Up When September End music video, which featured Jason White as a back up performer of the band.

Since the 1999 recording of Warning:, Jason White has been a backing "4th" member of Green Day, providing back-up guitar on the albums Warning: and American Idiot, as well as touring with Green Day on their respective Warning: and American Idiot tours. In the music video for When I Come Around, White can be seen making-out with his girlfriend on the hood of a car, at this point in time only a friend of the band. In the music video for Wake Me Up When September Ends, White can cleary be seen on-stage playing back up guitar, making him the first musician outside of the band performing music along with the band in a Green Day music video. For a brief moment, White can be spotted in the epic Jesus of Suburbia music video. Often in tours, most notably for American Idiot, White frequently plays lead-guitar with Mike Pelino on back-up guitar when Billie Joe Armstrong is interacting with the crowd while singing lead vocals, only playing back up guitar when Armstrong takes control of the lead guitar, as seen in the live performance for "Wake Me Up When September Ends" on Bullet in a Bible. When asked about his "membership" to the band, he stated, although he was offered a position in the band, "It's all about them three, and I'm just a helping hand." White, being a close friend of Bille Joe Armstrong, helps run his independent label Adeline Records as a co-founder. Since 1997 White has also been a member of Pinhead Gunpowder, along with Billie Joe, Green Day Roadie Bill Schneider, and underground legend and zine publisher Aaron Cometbus, although it is primarily a "studio only" project. White plays in The Network as well, in a role very similar to his part in Green Day, playing back up guitar under the name Balducci, as seen in The Network's DVD, Disease is Punishment. Notable previous bands include: Chino Hoarde, The Kicks/Ashtray Babyhead, The Influents and The Big Cats.

Other projects

The Network

Main article: The Network

In 2003, during time Green Day spent time in the studio, a New Wave band known as The Network appeared on the scene. Three of the five members of the band are allegedly the three members of Green Day. The frontman, known only as "Fink", is believed to be Billie Joe Armstrong. Armstrong has referred to himself as Wilhelm Fink in the past, and a Pinhead Gunpowder fansite bio of Billie Joe Armstrong confirms Fink's identity. Armstrong's voice is also unmistakable on The Network's albums. The Network's bass player, known as "Van Gough," is supposedly Mike Dirnt; and The Network's drummer, "The Snoo," is thought to be 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 sessions of their latest album. Studio 880 is the credited studio in The Network's Money Money 2020 album and Green Day's American Idiot. No official connection has been made between the two bands, and both bands have defended, sometimes aggressively (in a probably staged press conference where some members from both bands engaged in a heated argument that broke into a minor conflict), the lack of connection between the two. Green Day's management has always declined to comment on the ongoing situation between Green Day and The Network. On October 6, The Network agreed to support Green Day with Jimmy Eat World on the American Idiot tour. Sources close to Green Day have been quoted as commenting, "That's a really bad idea," and, "Can we just make them go away?"

The end of the American Idiot tour saw The Network support Green Day three times, along with Jimmy Eat World, Simple Plan, and Taking Back Sunday, playing the opening slot.

American Idiot: The Motion Picture

File:Aimovie.jpg
An article in Metal Hammer magazine about the band's upcoming American Idiot motion picture.

In 2005, a 12-minute video for Jesus of Suburbia was completed, as well as a live video for St. Jimmy. The video of Jesus of Suburbia is stated to be a prequel to their upcoming film, American Idiot: The Motion Picture. In an interview with Billboard magazine, Billie Joe Armstrong revealed that the group are still considering turning their punk rock opera into a film, in much the same spirit as the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, Marillion's Brave, Pink Floyd's The Wall and the Who's Tommy and Quadrophenia. Shooting of the movie is planned to start in 2006.[3] The band has stated they have no intentions of acting in the movie, although they may make an appearance. Lou Taylor Pucci and Kelli Garner from the "Jesus of Suburbia" music video could make an appearance if the motion picture does go into production. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has said "It's definitely unfolding. Every single week there's more ideas about doing a film for American Idiot, and it's definitely going to happen."[3]

Charity events

  • Green Day performed at the 1999 Bridge School Benefit.
  • Armstrong was part of an ensemble of musicians that sang The Beatles' "Across the Universe" at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards as part of a tsunami relief production. The band also pledged to give the profits from the downloading of their song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to the tsunami relief fund.
  • Green Day performed at the Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005, in Berlin, Germany, where they played "Holiday," "American Idiot," "Minority," and a rendition of Queen's "We Are the Champions."
  • The band also contributed a prerecorded performance to the Hurricane Katrina Benefit relief event on September 10, 2005 from their performance the prior week at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The televised portion (shown on MTV and VH1) showed the trio performing their single "Wake Me Up When September Ends."

See also

References

  • Cohen, Johnathan (2004). "Green Day's 'Idiot' Fueling Banner Year" (http). Billboard.com. Retrieved July 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • Cohen, Johnathan (2005). "Green Day not ready to rest 'Idiot'" (http). Billboard.com. Retrieved July 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • The Green Day Story (Broadcast on Radio 1 Mon 20 June 2005) (Alternate Link)
  • Green Day Biography


Wikiquote has quotations related to Green Day.


  1. ^ DeRogatis, Jim. Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90's. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. Pg. 357, ISBN 0-306-81271-1
  2. ^ a b D'Angelo, Joe (2004). "How Green Day's Dookie Fertilized A Punk-Rock Revival". MTV.com. Retrieved July 26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b "Green Day album update: The US trio speak out". NME.com. 2006. Retrieved June 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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