Green Day is an American punk rock band consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt (born Michael Pritchard), and Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III).

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 club 924 Gilman Street. In 1987, Armstrong (15 years old) and Dirnt (16 years old) formed The Sweet Children, with Armstrong on lead vocals and guitar and Dirnt on bass and backing vocals. They began playing in 1988 at Rod's Hickory Pit in Rodeo, California. In 1989, the Children renamed themselves Green Day, after their first semi-successful song. They soon added Al Sobrante (born John Kiftmeyer), and went looking for a record deal.

While in 1988 and 1989 Armstrong formed Green Day and The Sweet Children and started touring for the first time with all the albums on tour like in Atlanta, part of L.A., New York and Canada.

The Lookouts were performing on punk label Lookout! Records, headed by Lookouts lead Lawrence Livermore. Green Day signed with Lookout in 1989, and released their first EP, 1,000 Hours and Slappy in 1990. The next year, they produced the album 39/Smooth and released it in 1991. (The EPs would eventually be rereleased on one CD as 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours) Al Sobrante left the band at this point, and was replaced by Tré.

Green Day kicked off a national tour the day after Dirnt graduated from high school in 1990 before Slappy, then returned to the studio to produce their second album, Kerplunk, in 1992. The group signed with Reprise Records in April 1993, leaving Lookout on friendly terms. They released their first Reprise album, Dookie, in February 1994. Within a couple of months, extensive MTV airplay for the videos "Basket Case" and "Longview" had established the album, and the band, as successes.

The band 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 which led to Dirnt's losing his front teeth.

They recorded a single called "J.A.R. " in 1995, and followed it up with the album Insomniac. Though the album didn't approach the success of Dookie, it still sold several million copies in the U.S. Their third major label album, Nimrod, was released in 1997, and Warning in 2000.

In 2003 (during time spent in the Studio) a New Wave band has appeared on the Scene, known as The Network. This 5 piece band, at first look/listen appears to be Green Day. The front man "Fink" bears a striking resemblance to one Wilhelm Fink (Billie Joe Armstrong's Pseudonym).

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 more ambitious.

The resulting 2004 album American Idiot is being billed as a "punk rock opera", or more accurately a concept album telling the story of characters such as St Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia, and Whatsername. Two of the tracks, "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming", are multi-movement suites that are both more than nine minutes long. The song American Idiot has been hailed by the band as their public statement in reaction to the confusing and warped scene that is American pop culture. The album as a whole is more political than their previous ones, if for no other reason than their aging. Billie Joe has said that they chose to write this way because the band has obtained respect and swag in the music world, and that this social commentary is part of the natural evolution of a band.

Contents

1 Samples 2 Discography 2.1 Studio Albums 3 EPs 3.1 Compilations, DVDs and Videos 4 See also 5 External links

Samples

• Download sample of "Basket Case" from Dookie

Discography

Studio Albums

1990	1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours	Lookout	Contains material from 39/Smooth, Slappy and 1,000 Hours
1992	Kerplunk!	Lookout	It's been re-released with the songs from the "Sweet Children E.P."
1994	Dookie	Reprise	Their most critical acclaimed album
1995	Insomniac	Reprise
1997	Nimrod	Reprise
2000	Warning:	Reprise
2004	American Idiot	Reprise	conceptual punk rock-opera

EPs

Year	Title	Label	Other information
1988	The Sweet Children	Skene	EP (originally released by The Sweet Children)
1989	1,000 Hours	Lookout	EP
1990	Slappy	Lookout	EP

Compilations, DVDs and Videos

1996	Bowling Bowling Bowling Parking Parking	Reprise	Live EP
2001	International Superhits!	404 Music	Greatest Hits LP of 1993-2001
2001	International Supervideos!		Greatest Hits DVD of 1993-2001
2002	Shenanigans	404 Music	B-side singles collection

See also

• 1990s music groups
• List of alternative music artists
• List of popular music performers

External links

• The biggest Green Day fan community http://www.geekstinkbreath.net/
• Official Green Day Website http://www.officialgreenday.com/
• Green Day Bandnews http://www.bandnews.org/Green%20Day
• All Music Guide entry for Green Day http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040404011944440721&sql=Bphw67
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• Tarten Desire Website - Green Day http://www.tartareandesire.com/bands/greenday.html
• Green Day Lyrics http://lyrics.rare-lyrics.com/G/Green-Day.html
• concert information http://greendayconcerts.com/
• Remix American Idiot http://greendayconcerts.com/remix

Green Day
Billie Joe Armstrong | Mike Dirnt | Tré Cool | Al Sobrante
Studio Albums
1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours | Kerplunk! | Dookie | Insomniac | Nimrod | Warning: | American Idiot
EPs
The Sweet Children | 1,000 Hours | Slappy
Live albums, Compilations, etc.
International Superhits! | International Supervideos! | Shenanigans
Side Projects
The Sweet Children | Pinhead Gunpowder