Hey everyone. It's been awhile. I'm not dead, I'm very much alive, and still loving Green Day. I just have so many amazing people on the GDA team, that I'm really not needed that much. It's all good!
Anyway, I just stumbled on some news while on MSN. Green Day is on the 2009 Most Anticipated Albums. Click here to view it.
American Idiot landed at a respectable #7 on the Phoenix New Times top 10 concept albums. Nothing interesting in their review, just a short explanation of the story in American Idiot. The #1 spot went to Pink Floyd, #2 to The Beatles.
Ashley, the newest person to join our team, has updated the Lyrics Quiz. Go there to test your knowledge of 10 different Green Day songs. You're given one line from a song, and supposed to fill in the title. Ashley will be working with us to try and keep these sections updated, so your comments are welcome.
Here's a few new photos of Mike and one of Billie Joe and Adrienne. The first two were posted by photographer Ryan Russell on his MySpace. He writes that he took some photos from MacBeth footwear (we mentioned a few months ago Mike was working with them). He said more photos were taken that would be out in a few weeks.
I'm not 100% sure when this photo of Adrienne and Billie Joe was taken, but seems pretty recent as Billie looks about the same as in the AP photos. Not sure where this came from, but it was posted on the forum.
Billboard magazine has mentioned Green Day as one of the big bands coming back in 2009. Here's a scan. The little burb makes a nice note about the fact that Green Day hauled in over $30 million dollars from their tour alone.
[News and scan via GreenDay.com]
Christopher Walsh from ProSound News posted up an interview he had with Butch Vig last fall. He talks a bit about working with Green Day, mostly compliments, saying he was impressed with Billie's lyrics. The most telling part of the interview comes when Butch Vig (Butch? Mr. Vig? Can't decide if i feel right calling him either one of those) mentions that they're aiming for the album to be out in May or June.
That timeline is pretty much where I've felt it would be. The band had hinted at a summer 09 release before, and I knew if it wasn't late spring it'd be summer. If they really did wrap up recording, then a few months of editing/mastering/promoting seems about right. Lets keep our fingers crossed from some word from the band about a concrete day so we can stop all this damn guessing. [Thanks to greenbear for posting it on the forum]
Billie Joe was recently at the Uptown Club in Oakland, CA watching a friends band, and this fan had the chance to be introduced to him and took a photo. I think this is the latest photo we've seen of any band members since the AP article.
For those of you fans interested in getting a few rare vinyls, there's a user on the forum who's parting ways with a few of his old Green Day vinyls to help pay for his tuition. He's selling the Slappy vinyl, 1000 Hours vinyl, and a Longview UK vinyl. He didn't post prices, just asked for people to message him with their offer. He wants a real fan to end up with these vinyls, not some random person on eBay who'll probably just re-sell them to make a profit. If you're interested, read this thread on the forum and you can send him a Personal Message there.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.
President Barack Obama was sworn into office this morning at 12:05pm EST. For those of you who may have missed the speech, you will be able to get some recaps on the news, or you can read it.
We've heard a couple rumors about Green Day playing some festivals this summer, around the time of the new album release. Many of you will remember that the band made their re-appearance in 2004 with a show at Reading Festival a couple months before American Idiot came out. A blog post over at Mercury News says they've heard rumor of Green Day showing up at the Coachella festival April 17-19th. This info coming from the most recent information of Billboard mag, which thinks "Green Day will use the fest to return to live performance after more than three years away".
At this point, it's just rumor. I usually don't like posting rumors because I know people will start planning a trip to California to attend Coachella, with no guarantee of the band even being there. Let's continue to wait for confirmation, and as soon as we hear of any date being official - rest assured that we'll post it up right away.
Thanks to Beth and Sharon for sharing the info with us
Back in November we learned that the band was recording at the same studio where they recorded American Idiot, Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, CA - same place where they recorded previous albums as well. Someone decided to go check it out, and found the guys parking spaces reserved, pretty much confirming the band was definitely there recording. A few days ago another visit to the studio showed the parking spaces were no longer reserved, leaving us to assume that recording is done; though, with no official word from the band, we can't really make any promises. Click photo for larger version
I decided not to post this information (about where the band was recording) back in November because I'd feel guilty being responsible for dozens of people showing up at the recording studio bothering the guys when they're not looking for much attention. So now while the band stays quiet about their plans, we're trying to read the tea leaves as best we can to know whats coming up.
[Credit to hershakey for the photos. Originally posted here]
Update: Since this post seems to be making the rounds on the internet, I thought I might re-clarify that we can't confirm this news. Since we posted this, we've asked for an update from the band - but did not get a reply from their management. What we posted is based off assumptions, since the spots were reserved for a couple months. But for all we know, they could be taking a break or just temporarily gone. We'll follow up with any sort of confirmation as soon as we can.
I know you guys miss me - sorry I haven't posted. Been doing some random crap, which I know most of you don't care about, but if you do, check out my about me page where I have added updates from my blogs/twitter/last.fm so you guys can pretty much stalk me.
We have a couple articles about Billie Joe's guitar playing. It's pretty fair to say that Billie Joe is a very underrated guitarist, which isn't terrible because I think it makes up for the fact that most people can recognize his tremendous talent in songwriting. This post from Modern Electric Guitars talks a bit about Billie Joe's use of guitars and has a video of him for a special from Gibson.
Billie Joe also landed on Gibsons "15 Iconic Les Paul Players". Up there with the likes of Eric Clapton, Zakk Wylde, and Bob Marley, he's in pretty good company.
In a bit of disappointing news, Obedient Sons & Daughters - the clothing company which Mike Dirnt invested in - is closing down. I read a few articles about this, all of them said the same thing - the company wanted more funding from Mike because they couldn't afford to maintain daily business on the budget they had.
Now both Adeline Street and Obedient Sons & Daughters are out of business. Sounds to me that maybe the guys have decided just to leave the clothing business -- for now.
I've decided to re-order the comments once again from oldest to newest. Just seems easier for most people to understand and hold a conversation. I just liked seeing something new at the top each time, but didn't make much sense to read backwards.
The Wall Street Journal included Green Day in the "Guide to Music in 2009". Along with their philanthropist buddies, U2 (who is expected to release their next album in March), the WSJ writes about Green Day
The Bay Area pop punks have big shoes to fill -- their own. 2004's "American Idiot" sold 5.8 million copies in the U.S. alone -- an improbably large number for a sprawling, Who-style "punk-rock opera" with recurring characters. The band's eighth studio album promises to be equally sprawling, with "acts" entitled "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints" and "Horseshoes and Hand Grenades."
. They also suggest a spring release date, though still we don't really have any concrete word whether it'll be late spring or summer. We shall wait. Read the Article
The official site has a couple updates, one asking for your cell numbers (US Only) to receive txt messages with news. If anything major comes through there, we'll be sure to post it up here for international folks (and those not wanting to share their mobile numbers). They've also got up a story about Mike being quoted in a book about the Ramones: "My respect has and will always be there for the Ramones, the band that showed me that simple songs and a simple life could make you happy".
Our forum, Green Day Community, will be offline for a couple hours tomorrow (Thursday) for some maintenance while we do some re-organizing. Just a note for those wondering if they visit and notice it's offline.
Green Day was mentioned in VH1's countdown of the top 100 hard rock songs, Basket Case landed at #33 in the list.
There's an art show in Toronto on February 5th called 'Cut to the Drummer' where 50 artists from around the world make portraits of 50 drummers. Tre Cool will be done by artist Dan Page from Canada. You can find more information on this site. And here's the complete list of drummers and artists. If the finished portrait is made available online, we'll be sure to share it. [Thanks to Devon for the information]
And as mentioned above the news, I'd like to once again give my thanks to all the people who helped us out here for this month. Your help is very much appreciated by me, and the thousands of people who visit GDA.
The new editorial titled "Are We? We Are?" is available to read. This article, written by Cheryl, talks about the anticipation we have while waiting for the new material, and also talks about Billie Joe's ability as a songwriter to connect to just a diverse group of people through his style. You can click the link above to read it, and visit the editorial section for other articles.
And with that, I'd like to welcome Alex to our team. He's joining as an editor for the site, starting off by working with the authors to build up the editorial section. Very excited to have him on board, and hopefully give him more work.
Kerrang Magazine writes a blurb about the biggest albums coming in 2009, of course Green Day is mentioned. They mention that the expected release is in April, which sounds fine with the general timeline that the band has said, "Around spring." We still don't have an official release date yet, but I think it' safe to assume it'll be in the first half of this year. [Thanks to die_in_tradgedy on the forum for posting the info and scan]
Happy New Year to all of you great people. 2008 was pretty exciting for us Green Day fans, and no doubt there's ton's more coming in 2009. We have a new editorial going up tomorrow, written by Cheryl (*withoutadoubt* on the forum) who writes about the anticipation we have for the good things coming from Green Day this year. So come back for that.
Here's the recap of 2008 that I promised. All the note-worthy events that happened in the Green Day world last year can be found there, with links for all the details you could want. It's definitely a wonderful way to get caught up.
I'd like to give my sincerest thanks to all of you who have visited GDA for so long. Not just a half-assed thanks, but the sincerest. I'm extremely lucky to be able to interact with so many of you and be a part of this niche website. You have to admit, of all the things on the net, we're certainly in our own corner. Thanks for sticking by us and visiting so frequently. We'll be doing our best to make things even better throughout 2009 as we wait in anticipation for Green Day's next album. We can finally say it's coming this year!
To start off on a clean slate, we've archived all the news, which you can find in the aptly named News Archives.
News Feed
American Idiot landed at a respectable #7 on the Phoenix New Times 
Christopher Walsh from ProSound News 
There's an art show in Toronto on February 5th called 'Cut to the Drummer' where 50 artists from around the world make portraits of 50 drummers. Tre Cool will be done by artist Dan Page from Canada. You can find more information on 
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