Search Results for: mike dirnt

Green Day is continuing their march to an inevitable Number One album, setting up rock-opera shop at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on May 18th for the East Coast live debut of 21st Century Breakdown. The band’s Bay Area guerilla gigs in April all featured the record in its entirety. But at the Bowery, Green Day played a pocket-jukebox edition of the album, starting with the opening title track and the first single, “Know Your Enemy.” Then the new six-piece band – with singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool assisted on guitars, keyboards and extra… Read more »

Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won’t be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart. The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD “21st Century Breakdown” because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused. “Wal-Mart has become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won’t carry our record because they wanted us to censor it,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview. While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, they offer customers the “clean” version of… Read more »

NEW YORK – You can forgive some of the Green Day fans packed inside a Manhattan Best Buy if they got a little bit pushy. After all, some of them had been waiting in line for nearly 30 hours for this moment. On May 15th, 500 lucky GD fanatics who had spent the night camping out on the sidewalk finally got a chance to see their idols at a raucous meet-and-greet filled with tears, screams and lots of hugs. There were autographs signed, pictures snapped and terrified-looking Best Buy employees trying their very, uh, best to keep order. Amid all… Read more »

A month and a half after their eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, is released, Green Day will hit the road for their first tour in three years, according to the band’s reps. The North American trek kicks off July 3rd in Seattle and heads to Canada. The 38-date journey wraps August 25th in Los Angeles. The band hasn’t announced any venues yet, but when Rolling Stone first listened to Breakdown, we reported the band was looking to book indoor arenas rather than amphitheatres. Rolling Stone’s David Fricke reported from one of the band’s warm-up gigs in California last week,… Read more »

Green Day played the biggest show of its week-long tour of the San Francisco Bay Area April 14th, performing its upcoming album, 21st Century Breakdown, in its entirety. After only eight full rehearsals of the opera and those two club dates, the six-piece Green Day – Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool with guitarist Jason White, keyboardist Jason Freese and guitarist Jeff Matika – had the Quadrophenia-like hang of 21st Century Breakdown’s classic rock melodies and lifetime-punk drive down solid. “I”m not fuckin’ around,” Armstrong crowed in “Horseshoes and Handgrenades,” and there was no insecurity in the way… Read more »

It appears hot tubs can now be powered by green energy. On Dec. 8, newbie garage rockers Foxboro Hot Tubs launched its website with the six-song EP Stop Drop and Roll available as a free download. It didn’t take long for music junkies to realize this new band might not be so new after all. “The internet is ablaze!!!!” proclaimed celeb blogger Perez Hilton last month. “A band called Foxboro Hot Tubs has released an EP of six songs that has people speculating that it’s the Green Day boys experimenting with a new sound.” The songs were pulled a short… Read more »

The American Idiot version of Green Day has been garnering headlines (and Grammy noms) thanks to a newfound political bite and some musical risk-taking, but no one has really taken notice of the band’s sudden sartorial flair: skinny ties, mod suits and eyeliner – lots of it. All that eyeliner could be one reason why they’ve taken such a shine to New Jersey goth-punk quintet My Chemical Romance, with their dark suits and ringed eyes. The admiration is so intense that the guys from Green Day asked MCR to open for them on a leg of their next round of… Read more »

Las Vegas – With a No. 1 debut for its current album “American Idiot,” and now Tuesday’s news of six Grammy nominations, Green Day has found itself back in the spotlight. But if the punk-rock trio has its way, its Reprise album may yet fuel a crossover into an entirely new medium. “We’re definitely working on a film based on the album,” bassist Mike Dirnt told Billboard.com ahead of the group’s performance on Wednesday’s Billboard Music Awards. “I mean, the story is already there. But to some degree, it will depend on who ends up doing the writing as to… Read more »

Toronto – Perhaps it was best that Green Day were in Canada on the evening of the U.S. presidential election; after all, it’s here that they can share the almost unanimous anti-Bush sentiments in an almost-packed Air Canada Centre. “Well, hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a brand new President,” Billie Joe Armstrong said to a roar of cheers. “I fuckin’ hate him and I think he’s more of a threat to the world than Saddam Hussein.” And though the dads of pop-punk were away from home, the enthusiastic crowd – which included one fan with a “Fuck Bush” sign – made… Read more »

On one hand, New Found Glory aren’t really learning anything while on tour with Green Day. “We know all the songs in their set,” guitarist Steve Klein said. “There aren’t many bands where I know every single song from every single CD.” But on the other hand, touring with three guys who are both your mentors and your favorite musicians does have its upside. “Green Day are a band that all of us look up to for what they’ve done and what they stand for,” drummer Cyrus Bolooki said. “They are like the pioneers of our kind of music.” New… Read more »