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October is Green Day History Month

October has hosted some major moments in Green Day history more than once. Twelve years ago, on October 10th, ‘Insomniac’ came out. Ten years ago, on October 14th, ‘Nimrod’ was released, and as of October 3rd, ‘Warning’ was officially seven years old. Shit. Are all those numbers starting to make anyone else feel old? Remember the first time you saw the video for “Geek Stink Breath”? That was a long-ass time ago. And yet, somehow, the gross-out factor remains relevant to this day.

Getting old and staying relevant has been the theme this month for Green Day. Or at least, for Billie Joe, who spent an awful lot of time in the spotlight compared to Mike and Tre.

Benefit-Hopping with Bono

Last weekend, Billie Joe went to a benefit concert for AIDS-affected children in Africa. A bunch of pics were snapped of him at the show, called “Keep a Child Alive.”

Although I generally like to keep it about the music around here, even I must admit that he was looking serious hot at that concert. Better, in my opinion, than we’ve seen him in a while. Keep your eyes peeled in particular for pics of him and Bono whispering sweet nothings to each other.

The Rolling Stone Interview

Billie continued to keep the hotness alive with a big interview a la Rolling Stone that’s going to be in their 40th Anniversary issue. Luckily, you don’t have to wait and buy the mag, because it’s online here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17162460/billie_joe_armstrong.

You can also check out a video of him on the photo shoot for the interview, here: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/11/01/billie-joe-armstrong-on-bush-britney-and-the-future-of-punk-video-and-qa/#

The interview is great, with Billie spilling his guts with far more depth of insight than we’ve seen in a while. He tells a great story about being 21, and coming out of a Green Day concert to find some punks hanging out by his tour bus. He can’t go party with them because his family is on the bus, so one chick screams at him, “fuck you!” Then he gets on the bus, and Adrienne is so pissed at the chick she says she’s gonna go kick her ass, and Billie has to hold her back!

There’s a side of Adrienne you don’t hear about too often! But it goes to show why Billie married her – she is one hardcore lady!

The Truth About the New Album

In the interview, Billie also talks about how Green Day is taking their time putting together their next album, which means don’t expect anything new to come out any time soon. He says he feels like the band rushed ‘Insomniac’ out to capitalize on the success of ‘Dookie,’ and that it was a mistake. The last thing they want to do is follow up ‘American Idiot’ in the same way.

Billie also gets kind of heavy and depressing later in the interview, admitting that he’s feeling middle-aged, and that he wants to make sure he’s being honest with himself, and tapping in to what’s really going on in the world, before he’s ready to release any new material.

It’s disappointing the hear that the new Green Day album is hella ways off, but it’s good to hear the guys aren’t just becoming capitalist assholes, scrambling to make as much money as they can as fast as they can. Hey, if they need time to reflect and grow creatively, I say go for it.

Green in More Ways than One

While waiting for the next big thing from Green Day, the best place to go to hear what the guys have to say is the NRDC + Green Day MySpace page: http://myspace.com/greendaynrdc. Billie Joe blogs on there a couple times a month about fighting the good fight against encroaching environmental apocalypse.

This month, he talked about the way coolness of Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and about Toyota being a totally two-faced car company that pretends to be all ‘green,’ but is really trying to stop an energy bill from being passed that would seriously cut down on fuel consumption. What is that up with, oh makers of the noble hybrid car?

Anyway, you can read all the details about those sinister car company bastards here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=148269631&blogID=320525123. It’s great to see the Green Day + NRDC project focusing on issues other than global warming. Because even though global warming is a serious problem, the environment is really being attacked on all sides right now, and we’ve got to stay focused on the bigger picture before Mother Nature turns around and gives us the ass-fucking of the century for our misdeeds.

Thanks for keeping things in perspective, Green Day!

Instant Karma is Good Karma

By looking hot, being in Rolling Stone, and saving the environment, Billie Joe and Green Day are staying relevant. But the question remains: how the hell is the average, hardcore Green Day fan supposed to keep it real without a new album on the horizon?

One thing you can do is go here: http://www.instantkarma.org/poll.html?tr=y&auid=2676456, and vote for your favorite song on the Instant Karma album. They posted about this over at GDA about a week ago, and they were all like, “Hello people, Avril Lavigne is kicking Green Day’s ass! Get it together!” Now, just a week later, Green Day is #1 with 37000 votes, and poor Avril is down at #2 with only 17000. Props to the community over at GDA, you guys rock my socks!

Green Day in the Top 25 Grammy Performances of All Time

Green Day super friends can also start to get excited about ‘My Night at the Grammys,’ because Green Day got voted on to the show! The 50th anniversary special, which airs November 30th, will surely be a cheesy hodgepodge of already heavily recycled material, but hey, just sit back, make some popcorn, and prepare for an evening of making fun of people. After all, you voted Green Day in, the least you can do is watch the fucking show, right?

Hmm, I’m beginning to see a pattern developing with all this voting shit. What does it mean? Never challenge Green Day fans to an online voting competition! You will get your ass smoked.

Hopefully, this enthusiasm will transfer over to the next Presidential election. It is, after all, going to be the very first election for a lot of the kids that got into Green Day when ‘American Idiot’ came out, and are only now old enough to vote.

If you can vote Green Day in online as the greatest band in the universe, then you can decide who the next President will be. (Hint: vote for a fucking Democrat!)

See y’all next month.