In honour of Green Day announcing they are playing Voodoo Music Festival in October, Fuse TV have compiled 30 photos from throughout Green Day's (mainstream) career. Some of these photos are ones that I haven't seen before, whilst others are well known snaps from around the web.

The only slip up they seem to have made however, is on one photo, claiming it's Billie Joe playing with Al Sobrante, I'm pretty sure it's Tre on the drums.

Head on over to Fuse.tv to view their gallery.

Thanks to Johnny. on the forum for sending this in.

The votes are in and congratulations to Far As Hell and their cover of "Murder City" for winning our 21st Century Breakdown cover contest. The band will receive a copy of the white Warning vinyl, a one-year membership to the Idiot Club, and a pack of Green Day postcards. Congrats, guys! You can listen to their entry below:



Coming in second place is Jeff Strong with his great cover of "Before the Lobotomy." Jeff will also receive a one-year membership to the Idiot Club! Here is Jeff's entry:



Also, congratulations and thank you to our other three entries as it was a close battle for second! Overall results of the contest are below.

Murder City: 931, 42.61%
Before the Lobotomy: 462, 21.14%
Peacemaker: 321, 14.69%
Know Your Enemy: 289, 13.23%
¡Viva La Gloria! [Little Girl]: 182, 8.33%

Three years ago today, Green Day's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown was released around the world. Billie Joe has described the album by saying,



The album spawned five singles: "Know Your Enemy," "21 Guns," "East Jesus Nowhere," "21st Century Breakdown," and "Last of the Ameircan Girls." "Know Your Enemy" and "21 Guns" were huge radio hits and were undoubtably a large reason why this album won a Grammy for Record of the Year.

Despite the record being released on a Friday, the album still sold 215,000 copies in the US the first week which landed it at number one on Billboard's 200. The album also hit number one in almost every country around the world, selling over four million to date; one million of those in the US alone.

Let's get #HappyBirthday21CB trending on Twitter!

Take an hour out of your day to listen to 21st Century Breakdown with us and be sure to leave your thoughts and comments about the album in our comments section below.

The Idiot Club announced moments ago that Green Day is set to headline the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, Louisiana in October. The festival runs for three days from October 26th to the 28th. We aren't sure what day Green Day will be playing just yet.

Green Day will take the stage on October 27th - ticket information available soon.

This is the first North American date that the band has announced. I think that it would be a safe bet to say that we'll see a full US tour in the fall after the band returns from playing late summer festivals in Europe.

This week's Song of the Week is the airy Rest; track 9 off Green Day's first album 39/Smooth, released in 1990, as well as the compilation album 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours (1991).

There's a certain dream-like quality to Rest's lyrics, they seem to describe the fleeting flashes of thoughts and images inside a tired brain that's not letting its owner go to sleep. It's unclear whether the "angel" that's keeping him up all night is being portrayed in a positive or negative light. The line "the gleam in your eyes, it troubles my brain" can be interpreted in many ways; the "trouble" could be a lusting or an infatuation, or it could be worry over some sort of malicious intent or hurt caused by the "angel".

Rest's sound is certainly a stand-out on 1039/SOSH, with its slow tempo, drawn-out vocals and hazy guitar; there's a sort of strange mellowing-yet-unsettling vibe to it. Looking back into Green Day's back-catalogue, the song is also an early indication of the band's potential range of sound and song writing that we all are now so familiar with.

Our video this week is a real oldie; footage of the band playing Rest at the Davis Community Centre in Davis, California in June 1989. The audio is surprisingly good quality despite the bad footage quality.
Lyrics for the song can be found here, and this is Rest's Song of the Week thread, where you'll find some member-discussion. Feel free to stop by and post your opinion or nominate next week's song

65: Thoughts on Glee, "American Idiot," Mike Dirnt, and various Idiot Club promotions

On this week's "Static Noise" we take a listen to Glee's cover of "Good Riddance" and reflect on other covers of the track. We also talk about Mike Dirnt's Idiot Club Q&A and other various Idiot Club promotions.

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Hosts
Matt | Dylan

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"I fucking hate power ballads" - words straight from the horses mouth. Billie Joe uttered this phrase only a few weeks ago at the induction of Guns and Roses into the Rock and Roll hall of fame. Slightly ironic given the number of Green Day fans, including myself, who would say that Green Day has penned several of them. I'm not sure what Billie Joe would classify songs such as '21 Guns' as but for the unwashed (and generally musically uneducated) masses I would put it in the bin labeled 'ballads'.

But where did Green Day's ballads come from? When Insomniac was released in 1995 it was full of pent up fury, angst and bile directed at various people or society as a whole. The idea of a ballad was the furthest thing from anyone's mind. Had they always been there, however, underlying in the melodies that Green Day has always been famous for?

... continue reading...

As we posted about a couple weeks ago, we wanted you all to send in the best Green Day cover you could possibly make of a song from 21st Century Breakdown. We accepted entries until late last night and we've barely managed to narrow it down to our top five. Now, you all get to vote on which one you think is the best!

Voting will be open until Monday, May 14th at 11:59pm EST and we will announce the winner the next day on the third birthday of 21st Century Breakdown. The track with the most votes will win a copy for the white Warning vinyl, a year membership for the Idiot Club, as well as a pack of some Idiot Club exclusive Green Day postcards. The runner-up will also win a one year membership to the Idiot Club.

You can take a listen to the entries below and then vote below that. Be sure to listen to all of each song so you don't make any pre-judgements or miss anything!

In this weeks issue of Kerrang Magazine there is a segment called the "Secrets Behind The Songs" where "American Idiot" is featured.

The article gives a good look into Billie Joe's thoughts as he was first writing "American Idiot" and what developed into the whole rock opera concept. Kerrang makes it a good read and it's refreshing after seeing so many places just saying the song is "anti-Bush" and nothing more. Head on over to our articles section to read the article.

Billie Joe is also featured on the cover of the issue alongside a few other artists.

Thanks to raven052 on the forum for scanning the article.

The Idiot Club has just announced that after the recent success with their fan Q&A with Billie Joe's wife, Adrienne, they have decided to conduct another question and answer session, this time with Mike Dirnt.

From now until May 23rd the Idiot Club will be taking questions and will send the best 10 questions to Mike to answer. The answers will be posted exclusively on the Idiot Club for members to view.

Also, last week the Idiot Club started a contest to giveaway a copy of The Boo's album. Many of you will remember that around Christmas Billie and his family recorded an album under the name of "The Boo" to give out as a Christmas card to their friends and family. The album was never officially released to the public which makes it an extremely rare item.

For complete details on both of these contests head on over to the Idiot Club.

Don't have a membership to the Idiot Club? You should check out this contest that we are currently holding on GDA to cover a song off of 21st Century Breakdown. The contest ends tomorrow, May 10th at 11:59pm EST so act fast.