Green Day

Green Day is a California based pop punk band consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, backing vocals, born Michael Ryan Pritchard), and Tré Cool (drummer, backing vocals, born Frank Edwin Wright III, in Germany). Since their sixth album, the band have included close friend and associate, back-up guitarist Jason White. Their success has been a major influence on other prominent pop-punk bands, such as Sum 41 and Blink 182.

History

Lookouts: the beginning

At the age of 12, Tré Cool became a member of the band The Lookouts. Their album attracted some attention, and Tré began performing at an early age at the Berkeley, California punk rock all-ages venue 924 Gilman Street.

Related Topics:
The Lookouts - Berkeley, California - Punk rock - 924 Gilman Street

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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. Their first show was in 1988 at Rod's Hickory Pit in Vallejo, California.

Related Topics:
1988 - Sweet Children - Guitar - Bass - Al Sobrante - Drums - Vallejo, California

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About two 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 but they left after the first song, and there was no electricity in the house and the toilet didn't work, so Sweet Children had to play using a generator and candlelight. But they played, as Lookouts singer/guitarist Larry Livermore put it, "as if they were The Beatles at Shea Stadium."

Related Topics:
High school - Willits, California - Larry Livermore - The Beatles - Shea Stadium

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Livermore, who also ran the Berkeley independent label Lookout! Records, immediately offered them a deal, and in early 1989 they recorded their first EP, 1,000 Hours. They then decided, weeks before the EP release, to change their name to Green Day, a slang term for a day spent smoking cannabis. The band 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.

Related Topics:
Lookout! Records - 1989 - EP - 1,000 Hours - Cannabis

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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. This release was followed by another four-song EP, "Sweet Children", recorded in Minneapolis-St. Paul including some of their old songs for the local label Skene Records. 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.

Related Topics:
1990 - 39/Smooth - Slappy - Minneapolis-St. Paul - 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours - CD

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After this tour, at the end of the summer of 1990, Al Sobrante left the band temporarily 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.

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During 1991, the band toured and played locally, building up a large fan following, and also wrote and recorded their second album, Kerplunk!, 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, reaching nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, and Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).

Related Topics:
1991 - Kerplunk! - 1992 - Sweet Children EP - 1993 - United Kingdom - Germany - Spain - Italy - Netherlands - Poland - Czechoslovakia - Czech Republic

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The UK leg of the tour featured a notable appearance at The rainbow, a Wigan social club. That gig would have been a standard stop on an independent punk band's minor UK tour, were it not for one small fact: the band 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 theatrical trait would become common practice for the band ten years later, only on a much larger scale.

Related Topics:
Wigan - Santa Claus

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Mainstream success with Dookie

By 1993, Green Day had sold about 55,000 copies of Kerplunk!, which was considered a large amount for the independent punk scene in those days, and attracted a great deal of attention from the major labels. Eventually they left Lookout on friendly terms and signed a deal with Reprise Records. They spent the greater part of the year recording their major label debut, Dookie, which virtually was an instant sensation, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos "Longview", "When I Come Around" and "Basket Case".

Related Topics:
Reprise Records - Dookie - MTV - Longview - When I Come Around - Basket Case

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In 1994, Green Day embarked on a nationwide tour and chose queercore band Pansy Division as their opening act and backstage fun. At the time this was regarded as quite controversial; nonetheless, the tour was a huge success. The band also 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.

Related Topics:
1994 - Queercore - Pansy Division - Lollapalooza - Woodstock 1994

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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 darker response to the poppy simplicity of Dookie. One track, "86", was a reference to the Gilman street club refusing them entry after the release of Dookie, claiming that they had 'gone TOO commercial'. 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 canceled a European tour, claiming exhaustion.

Related Topics:
J.A.R. - 1995 - Insomniac

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Dip in popularity

Following the cancellation of the European tour, the band 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 the band took some time out of the spotlight, issuing the poppy Kinks-like ', another Top 5 hit, three years later in fall 2000. In 2002 the band issued their first b-side Album Shenanigans, which included the song "Ha Ha You're Dead ", written by Mike Dirnt and recorded for this album.

Related Topics:
Nimrod - 1997 - Kinks - 2000 - 2002 - Shenanigans

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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 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.

Related Topics:
2003 - The Network - Pinhead Gunpowder

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Jason White

Jason White from the Lookout! band Pinhead Gunpowder has been touring with Green Day since their "Warning" tour in 2000. He plays second guitar on songs from that album and 'American Idiot'. He is a very close 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 because he is so devoted to his other band, The Influents (although The Influents broke up around 2003).

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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 as a performer in a Green Day video. He can also be seen in the "When I Come Around" video (making out with a girl next to a car in front of a pig). White was also seen with Green Day on Saturday Night Live during their guest performance in 2005.

Related Topics:
Wake Me Up When September Ends - When I Come Around

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It is rumored that he is Balducci or Captain Underpants of The Network.

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Jason White is/has been part of the following bands:

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Chino Horde: (1990-1993)

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Pinhead Gunpowder: (1997–)

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The Big Cats: (1997–)

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The Influents:(1999–2003)

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Green Day (on-stage second guitarist): (2000–)

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American Idiot: the commercial boom

Fighting burnout after Warning:, the band 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 better than before. 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 fictitious '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," which was actually written about the death of Billie Joe's father.

Related Topics:
2004 - American Idiot - Rock opera - Concept album - George W. Bush - Invasion of Iraq - Wake Me Up When September Ends

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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 Madden NFL 2005. The band at the moment are touring, promoting the album with a largely failing 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 make popcorn with the crowd, a staple of Green Day's blue live performances. They also perform covers of the songs "We Are the Champions" by Queen, & "Shout" by The Isley Brothers (by way of Otis Day & the Knights' version from Animal House).

Related Topics:
Grammy - 2005 - Madden NFL 2005 - Hitchin' a Ride - Minority - We Are the Champions - Queen - Shout - The Isley Brothers - Otis Day & the Knights - Animal House

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Many long-time Green Day fans felt uncomfortable and even threatened when American Idiot was released. The music was much more accessible, and was occasionally mistaken by younger music fans and so called posers 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 mimic them in a contrived and insincere way, in what amounts to no more than a marketing ploy.

Related Topics:
Busted - McFly - Blink-182

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Another noticeable difference was the members of the band 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 Gibson Les Paul Junior. Armstrong does however continue to use his Strat copy at some point in every live show. Tre Cool also severed his longtime association with Slingerland and started using Ludwig-Musser drums.

Related Topics:
Fernandes - Stratocaster - Gibson Les Paul Junior - Slingerland - Ludwig-Musser

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American Idiot also marked a major change of image. While in the past they had dyed their hair in different colors (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 and also dyed their hairs in more plain colours like white and black. Cool and Armstrong started wearing eye liner and painted their nails with black nail polish, drawing arguably unfavourable comparisons with Good Charlotte. This change most probably symbolized the musical and overall maturing of the band and its members as they reach their middle 30's.

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