The billboards for the Converse ad campaign featuring Billie Joe are up in several cities around the world.
The one to the right is in Berlin, Germany. This one is in Istanbul, Turkey. And these two, are in Vienna, Austria and in Berlin. The last two don't actually show Billie Joe in the picture, so use your imagination...
The top 10 entries for the St. Patricks Green Day Banner Contest have been selected. Visit the contest page to vote for your favorite.
Since i was a couple days late in posting this, I've extended the voting till March 18th. On the 17th (Saint Patricks) we will post the top 5 and use those banners on GDA for the day. But voting for the winner will continue till the 18th, with the winner being announced on the 19th.
A longtime visitor of GDA is selling his collection of Green Day items on ebay. He has listed 35 vinyls from 1039/smooth to Holiday. A ton of stuff spanning Green Day's career. He's been collecting items since 1990, but he's trying to sell everything now to help support his family. I don't usually promote ebay listings in the news, but I thought this guy was sincere and there's a lot of really nice stuff in there (plus he has a 100% positive rating on ebay).
Take a look and help him out by bidding on the stuff you like. There's 3 days left for bidding on most items.
The new issue of Guitar World has a picture of Billie Joe on the cover along with several other artists, for its 300th issue, but there is no article or any mention of Green Day inside the magazine.
The Foxboro Hot Tubs vinyl single of Mother Mary and She's a Saint Not a Celebrity will be released March 25 according to the Warner/Reprise store. URP music distributors says it's been bumped to April 15. We don't know which date is right.
Ultimate Guitar has an article called 10 Great Moments in Rock and Roll Heckling, which lists Green Day's famous mud fight at Woodstock in 1994. They misidentify Tre has having been hurt in that fight, when, as you all know, it was actually Mike. Thanks to Ryan.
Lookout Records posted a review of Pinhead Gunpowder's Feb. 10 show at Gilman St.
This weeks 'Song of the Week' is At The Library off of "1039/Smooth". We've uploaded a video of Green Day playing the song in May of 1990 at Pinole Valley High School. Click here to watch the video.
Another video of them performing the song in 1998 was posted on the forum.
The Dave Matthews Band is currently in the studio working with Green Day's long-time producer Rob Cavallo. I like some Dave Matthews music, so I'm at least curious to hear what they come up with.
Don't forget, tomorrow is the last day to enter our St. Patricks Day Banner contest. View the contest page for the details.
A new blog post up from the SF Bay Guardian mentions that Pinhead Gunpowder wanted to donate some money to 924 Gilman St. to help the venue out. Instead, they asked for some new equipment, which the band bought for them. They bought them some "beautiful" new JVC speakers and a mixing board, according to SFBG journalist Alex Felsinger who attended the shows. He said the new equipment really improved the sound quality, and that the system could rival the larger Bay area venues. Read his full post. It's an interesting read and there's a clip on there (via YouTube) from the Pinhead show where they were using the new sound equipment.
The Meeting Green Day section has finally been updated. I think the last update was almost 2 years ago. There's a handful of new photos up of people who've had the chance to meet Green Day. Please send in your photos (details on the bottom of that section) if you'd like to be on there as well.
An article in UCBerkeley's newspaper quotes John Lucasey, the owner of Studio 880, where Green Day wrote and recorded American Idiot, who tells a funny story about Tre:
One time, it was a hot summer, our air conditioners broke down and Tre, the drummer, left me a little present that I didn't notice until about three or four days later. He bought a bunch of cold cuts, cut some holes in the couch and stuck them underneath. A few days later, it started to stink.
"I got him back," Lucasey added. He also said, about Green Day, "They wrote about our studio, and it's because they called it home."
There's a good new video interview out with music producer Rob Cavallo, who has produced all of Green Day's albums since Dookie. (Except Warning, which was produced by Green Day. Oops. Thanks for the correction.) [Via GreenDay.net.]
The San Francisco Bay Guardian has a new review of Pinhead Gunpowder's show at 924 Gilman St. on Feb. 10:
Armstrong stood out from the rest of the punk vocalists. His famously raucous showmanship transferred flawlessly from the arena to this smaller space. Without spotlights and pyrotechnics, his flair and drive to entertain became even more apparent.
And a recent article talks about the popularity of karaoke websites. You can listen to people singing Green Day songs here, or record yourself singing Green Day, here. (Some of the people singing know they're awful, so give 'em a break.)
In case you haven't noticed the obnoxious Green Day clover on the right side of the site, we've started up a St. Patrick's Day Banner Contest. Make a banner for the site celebrating St. Patrick's, and if you're voted in the top 5 you have a chance of winning a Green Day shirt of your choice from the official Green Day store.
Read the contest page for full details. We look forward to seeing all the entries. You have till March 10th to submit. Voting will begin on March 12th - 16th.
If you'd like to share your banner with other people before submitting it (or see some other entries), check out this thread on the forum.
This is an image from the ad campaign by Converse to celebrate its 100th year.
Pictured from left to right are: Hunter S. Thompson, Dwyane Wade, Sid Vicious, M.I.A., James Dean, Karen O, Common, Joan Jett and Billie Joe Armstrong. Click here to see it full size.
Diablo magazine has an article about world-famous bands that hail from the East Bay, starting with Green Day. KFOG DJ Big Rick Stuart says:
Green Day never seemed to have chased being famous, and it never seems like they are faking some emotion in their music to get attention. It just happens. They just do the Green Day thing.
Tonight, local bands in West Ashley, SC, perform Dookie in its entirety to celebrate Green Day's influence on pop music. The show begins with an acoustic set of songs from some of Green Day's other albums.
The new issue of NME has an article about the Foxboro Hot Tubs. There's a song-by-song review of the six tracks currently available. They refer to the versions of the songs with the movie sound clips in the beginning, which were only available for a short time.
If NME had been visiting GDA they would know where the Ruby Room is... A big thanks to Laura 33 for the scan.
Artist James Jean did an illustration for Spin Magazine featuring Gerard Way, Gwen Stefani, Trent Reznor, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Ashlee Simpson as fantasy characters. Here is a sketch of the piece. Thanks to MJLS for the news.
A little fold out booklet in the last Rolling Stone, put out by the Hard Rock Cafe, included Green Day in a piece called "Artists of the Year For Life."Thanks to mayday101 for the scan.
The newest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (March 6th issue) has an article called "Billie Joe's Punk Reunion" which talks about the recent Pinhead Gunpwoder shows. Thanks to KimVicious for the scan.
Billie Joe is expected to be a part of a new ad campaign by Converse celebrating it's 100th anniversary. The ads will feature old and new "icons" such as James Dean, Sid Vicious, Billie Joe, and some other famous people (sports and entertainment folks). The ads are expected to be released throughout this spring in 75 countries, with some tv commercials coming later in the year.
Interpunk.com has the Foxboro Hot Tubs 7" Vinyl for "Mother Mary" listed with a release date of March 18th, and has the LP under "Green Day". Lets give it a week or so to see if this is corrected.
Just browing around the internet tubes i came across these two promo's for SNL that Green Day did back in 2005. Here's one and here's is the other. Good stuff.
Jingletown is located in the East Side of Oakland, California. It got its name from Portuguese cannery workers who would walk home from canning fruits when they got paid and they'd "jingle" their pockets to express their pride in their earnings.
To the right is a photo of the residential area called Foxboro, in Billie Joe's and Mike's home town of Rodeo, which many have speculated is the source of the name Foxboro Hot Tubs.
The Ruby Room, a bar in Oakland that has been described as"a great establishment, full of punk rockers, bikers and other assorted riff-raff," has a MySpace page. Guess what song plays on their page?
They also posted Green Day + NRDC wallpapers made by the winners of a contest sponsored by the Idiot Club, and they're asking fans who made any Green Day + NRDC art to send it in.
The Foxboro Hot Tubs will be releasing a 13-song LP soon on Jingle Town Records (new label for side projects?). A 7" vinyl with 'Mother Mary' and "She's A Saint Not A Celebrity" will also be released.
Both the Foxboro MySpace and Website are showing banners for the vinyl. If you sign up at Jingle Town Records, you can get a free download of 'Mother Mary' which will be the first single off the LP.
Mother Mary is probably the best song we've heard from them, so that's a great song for the first single. More radio time. I've never been a big collector of vinyl's and don't have a record player, so it's pretty pointless for me to buy it. I will be buying the 13 song LP (hope it's going to iTunes).
Just got an email from a user (ilona) who passed along this article from Reuters. Mother Mary got onto Billboard's Modern Rock charts earlier this month at No. 30, and this passed week jumped up to No. 16.
The new issue of Kerrang has an article about Pinhead Gunpowder's mini tour. A scan was posted on the Green Day Live Journal Community. A big thanks to them and to ebonylox for sharing it with us.
Here is a nice review of Pinhead Gunpowder's Feb. 1 show in San Pedro. It also gives some history about the band. Here's a quote:
As Armstrong took the stage I couldn't help but notice a look of anxiety. Sure, he plays to sold-out arenas, but this was personal. This was intimate. These were his roots.
And this is a short comment about the Feb. 1 show that I thought was funny and sweet:
The heckling for Billie Joe was great. It was all these fat, old punk rock Latino dudes yelling out, "lemme borrow five bucks". They fucking loved him though... the boys, the girls...
With Billie Joe returning to 924 Gilman St. with Pinhead Gunpowder last week, many of you remembered the story of Green Day being barred from the venue in the 90's (because of Gilman's rule against allowing signed bands). Well, a visitor of GDA reminded us that Green Day actually played a surprise show at the venue in 2001, getting on stage to play 7 songs right after The Influents played a show. You can check out some photos from the show posted here on Flickr. Our thanks to Frank for sharing the photos.
And, Happy Valentines Day. Leave us some love in the comments. Oh yeah, take a look at the fourth band featured on MySpace music.
If you'd like to help us out and create a banner for Billie Joe's birthday (coming up on Sunday), read this thread on the forum.
Pinhead Gunpowder played a not-so-secret "secret" show last night at 924 Gilman St. in Berkeley, CA. The show had been talked about unofficially, and the venue had distributed flyers locally and posted them on their MySpace page, but it was not listed on the website's calendar.
Rolling Stone wrote, "Billie Joe Armstrong can still DIY when he wants to," in an article about Pinhead Gunpowder's mini tour:
With a beanie pulled over his bleached hair, Armstrong strolled onto the stage like one of the roadies, a Red Stripe in one hand and a guitar in the other. Armstrong told fans to put away the digital cameras. ‘YouTube can’t own everything,’ he said. ‘There’s also something called memories.’
Is it kind of funny that you can see the video of Billie Joe saying that... on YouTube? But the person respected his wish and turned off the camera right after.
Billie Joe went on to say [thanks to Amy]:
Speaking of memories. Uhm. How many people out there got digital cameras? And cell phones? Let’s put em away. You know what, YouTube can’t own everything, and its nice to have our own f**kin memories, *pointing to his head* something that goes into our brains, *pointing to his chest* and our hearts and our spirits. So we have this one opportunity, and let people misinterpret anything they f**kin want. I mean, f**k, ya know…
There are lots more videos on YouTube. And here are some more pictures.
More pictures and videos are coming out of Pinhead Gunpowder's ongoing mini tour. The photo on the right is from Babe's Warehouse, Feb. 2, 2008. We've also added photos by Ben Goetting.
People have mentioned that Tre and Jason Freese were hanging out backstage at last nights show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. Mike was out in New York supporting Obedient Sons at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. You can check out the couple photos we have here and here.
Pinhead Gunpowder played another show last night, this one at Babe's Warehouse in Long Beach, California. We got a pic in from DJRossstar with him and Billie Joe, and below are some videos from the show.
Pinhead Gunpowder played their first show in seven years last night at La Conga Bar and Grill in San Pedro, CA. Longtime fan and visitor of GDA, DJ Rossstar, went to the show and posted a recap on the forum:
I got the chance to talk to Jason and Bill and even Billie Joe for a few minutes. He was just hanging in the crowd during the opening act. The show much have had only 250 people there and it was in a tiny room. ... All I can say is that it was the greatest show I have ever seen in my life. It was worth waiting 14 years!
We will be posting photos up in the Picture Vault. Keep checking back for more.
For anyone else who attended the show, or will be attending the other shows coming up, please contact us with pictures and some details about the experience or stop by the forum and share it.
That amazing photo on the right was taken by "Shanty" Cheryl on Flickr. She says more pics will be coming, so keep an eye out for them.
Billie Joe and Adrienne wrote a message on Adeline Street and Adeline Street's MySpace with their good wishes to all of us for an amazing 2008 and reminding us to register to vote:
Rock The Vote! Hey everyone! We want to wish you a very happy new year! Or a pre- Happy Valentines day.... We are a little slow with the writings these days.. But....This is OUR year...our year to make a change...from our president, our communities and our future. Here's to an amazing year!!! Adrienne & Billie Joe Oh..and If your not registered to vote already- please go to rockthevote.com and register!!
Green Day+NRDC's MySpace has an update on the polar bear issue they asked us to write to the president about in December. Read the whole post here.
If you live in the US, please tell your representative to support the Markey Bill. It reverses the sale of oil and gas leases until the Bush Administration makes its final decision about protecting polar bears.
There's some new Green Day merch in the official online store. I'm not exactly sure which items are new, check the forum to discuss all the merch. And there's some new stuff on Adeline Street. It's not Green Day related, but there are some cool vintage women's pajamas, and two new shirts.
As promised, GDA's 2007 recap of the year in news is finally here. It has all the news highlights from the past year from Green Day and the Green Day Authority. If you want more information on any item, clicking on the date will take you to the original post.
Thanks to Sylv, here's a scan of the NME article that started the speculation on whether or not Green Day might headline the Reading and Leeds festivals. These are the reasons NME gives, both for and against, wondering if Green Day might play there:
For: Comeback album due in 2008. Against: The band are taking it slowly though -- August might be too soon.
A recently published book, The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists, has cartoon caricatures on the cover of various punk rockers, and it includes a drawing of Billie Joe. For a larger picture and more info click here.
The 2008 Grammy Nominees CD is being released on January 29th and will include Green Day's cover of Working Class Hero. The CD will include 20 other songs from other artists including U2, Foo Fighters, Plain White T's and others. Check out the entire list here.
Also, a live version of American Idiot is being included on a compilation CD being released by "Later...with Jools Holland" (a British music television show). Green Day performed on the show in October 2004. The album will be released January 28th.
Mtv.com mentioned the upcoming Pinhead Gunpowder shows in their news roundup. Here's the quote:
Pinhead Gunpowder, a side project for Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, will be playing two very rare shows next month. The band is booked to perform February 3 at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California, and on February 4 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. The last time the band performed live was back in 2001. ...
The 2007 recap is finally complete (thanks to the help of Delfina). We'll be posting it up in tomorrows news.
While it's just speculation right now, several sources are wondering if Green Day might be headlining the Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK this summer.
The festival's organizer, Melvin Benn, said that three top American acts are booked to headline the festivals, but he couldn't say who they were yet. He's quoted as saying: "It's not a debut headline position for one of the bands, and one of them has recently headlined."
While Benn has refused to name the three acts, Rage Against The Machine, Green Day and Foo Fighters are the most likely combination. Green Day have a new album planned for 2008 and are a firm favourite with the Reading and Leeds crowds. They last played the weekender in 2004 and Benn later [said] it was one of the best comeback sets he has ever seen.
We'll just have to wait and see. Green Day were headliners at the two festivals, which run at the same time on various stages, in 2004 and 2001, and they played in 1995. Tickets go on sale in March.
In other news, the movie War, Inc, which is set to be released in the US on July 10, 2008, has a clip of the song Holiday in the trailer. Check it out.
As those of you who have been visiting the forum already know, there has been talk for some time now of a possible Pinhead Gunpowder mini tour happening in February.
Two dates have now been confirmed, according to GreenDay.net: February 3 at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA and February 4 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.
Update: these two dates are confirmed by GreenDay.com.
Pinhead Gunpowder is a side band that Billie Joe has been in since the early 1990s. To read more about Pinhead Gunpowder and download or listen to some songs, visit Lookout Records' Pinhead Gunpowder page.
NME, in its new issue, has a small article on Green Day. It says producer Linda Perry has worked on some tracks for Green Day and "has been making the band listen to the 'Nuggets' box sets -- an influential series of compilations of 60s US garage rock and psych bands. Stranger still, she made Armstrong grow his hair, which could explain the Foxboro Hot Tubs mystery."
I'm assuming that what this means to say is that listening to the 60s garage rock explains the 60s sound of the Foxboro Hot Tubs, and not that the long hair explains the Foxboro Hot Tubs... Now if only we had some pictures!
Click here and here for the scans. A big thank you to Sylv for the news and the scans.
The newest Rolling Stone magazine (cover on the right) mentions The Foxboro Hot Tubs on their Hot List (page 10). The editor writes:
Psst: This awesomely retro garage-rock band is Green Day in disguise. (Or so it seems: They pulled the same stunt with fake New Wave band the Network in 2003.) Anyway , tunes like Stop Drop and Roll rock hard enough that we'd dig this even if these guys turned out to be the Jonas Brothers
Billie Joe's label, Adeline Records, has recently signed a band from Oregon called "Broadway Calls" to their label. I've been listening to their music all day today, and they are really damned good. You guys should check out their MySpace and listen to some of their stuff. You can read a bit more about the band on this page from Warped Tour.com. We'll be having some giveaways later this month with some of their material. So check em out and see what you think and I'll update you guys as soon as we know more about the giveaway.
NME mentions that both Weezer and Green Day are expected to release albums this year.
Weezer and Green Day are going head-to-head on NME TV today (January 12) at 10pm (GMT).
Just what happens when you pit two California bands with albums due out this year against each other?
To find out which band rules all, watch NME TV now by simply heading to Sky Channel 377."
Seeing that Weezer is my 2nd favorite band, if I could get both a new Green Day and Weezer album I might be in heaven. For those of you with that channel, let us know what happens.
Weezer's sixth album is already completed and expected to be released this Spring (according to weezer.com). Unfortunately we don't have any idea when Green Day's album is expected.
Graphic designer Ian Leino posted pictures of some really nice brand new Green Day t-shirt design proposals that he created for Cinderblock. Check them out at his blog, along with more designs he created last fall. The new shirts are not available for sale yet. (Update: the new designs are not up on the site anymore.)
At rock.com, Billie Joe was voted the number one choice by fans for musicians who should be president. He was followed by Bono, Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Ted Nugent, Pete Wentz, Gerard Way, Axl Rose, Bruce Springsteen, and Gene Simmons. More info.
Billie Joe Armstrong, the Green Day frontman and self professed American Idiot topped our list of unlikely presidential candidates, because of his Pro-Choice stance on smoking and masturbation, and his inexplicable ability to toe the fine line between activism and complacency.
A recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine in Italy has Billie Joe on the cover and features an interview with him. We haven't seen the article, but as far we can tell it's the same interview that was published in English in Rolling Stone last fall.
Zildjian's ZBT 4-Piece Rock Cymbal Pack features a picture of Tre on the box. [Thanks to Ryan]
Much Music in Canada aired a show in December called 50 Virgin Videos, featuring the first video that an artist made. Green Day's video of Longview was number 10.
Stay tuned for a recap of all the best in Green Day news from 2007.
Many of you have been writing in asking about the forum. It has gone offline because I have been unable to pay the server bill. We need to pay $165 before it'll be turned back online.
If you're interested in helping, please click the Donate button above or click here. The status bar above will be updated as we count donations. Thanks in advance to all of you willing to help us out once again.
Update: We've raised enough money to turn the forum back online. Thank you all so much for the help. We're still asking to raise up to $250 to help pay for the other server as well. But thanks so much to all of you who have helped us so far.
As for Green Day news, there's nothing going on. I'm just about done with the 2007 Recap (just sorting through all our posts in 2007 to find the interesting stuff). I'm trying to get other things ready to have later this month to keep things interesting around here, just need time to do it all.
I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! You have all been great to us at GDA throughout the past year, and we look forward to seeing you all around in 2008!
All the news has been placed in the archives. We will be posting a 2007 Green Day/GDA Recap before Friday.
News Feed
The top 10 entries for the St. Patricks Green Day Banner Contest have been selected. 
It's an interesting read and there's a clip on there (via YouTube) from the Pinhead show where they were using the new sound equipment. 
Billie Joe Armstrong celebrates his 36th birthday today.
Talk about it on the forum
Green Day lost the 'Best Rock Duo' Grammy they were nominated for to The White Stripes. The band was nominated for 'Working Class Hero'. 
40+ pictures have been added to the 
People have mentioned that Tre and Jason Freese were hanging out backstage at last nights show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. Mike was out in New York supporting Obedient Sons at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. You can check out the couple photos we have 
Billie Joe taking a picture with a fan
Pinhead Gunpowder Live
14 years ago today Green Day released Dookie, and pretty much changed the state of music forever. 
The 2008 Grammy Nominees CD is being released on January 29th and will include Green Day's cover of Working Class Hero. The CD will include 20 other songs from other artists including U2, Foo Fighters, Plain White T's and others. Check out the 
The newest Rolling Stone magazine (cover on the right) mentions The Foxboro Hot Tubs on their Hot List (page 10). The editor writes: 
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