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Home > News About Green Day
Posted: 9/7/07
August Green Day Report
Y’know They Got a Horse Named After You?
Weirdly enough, there’s been more in the news this month about a racehorse named Green Day than about our three favorite rawkers. Yes, that’s right, there’s a racehorse named Green Day. This is a very important thing to know before you spend an hour writing a blog about how Billie Joe, Tre, and Mike apparently went down to a racetrack and beat the shit out of a bunch of horses and won something called ‘the Yonkers Trot.’
Aaaaaaanyway.
While some of us spent altogether too much time at the track this month, Green Day got up to their usual brand of wacky shenanigans.
Fuck Hillary-Obama, I Want an Armstrong-DiCaprio Ticket!
Billie Joe, or THE ECO-CRUSADER, if you’re calling him by his super hero name, sent a letter out to members of the NRDC + Green Day super squad to tell us all to go see Leonardo DiCaprio’s new documentary, “The 11th Hour.”
Apparently, Billie Joe and Adrienne went to the premiere of the film and were super impressed. The movie is about how the planet is on the verge of environmental devastation. Our generation can either go down in history as the heroes that save the planet, or go down in history as the villains that destroyed the planet. Check out the trailer here: http://www.11thhouraction.com/trailer
This whole concept is pretty depressing, since you could argue that it’s actually our parents’ generation that fucked up the planet, and left us to clean up the mess or die trying. Or die in an apathetic stupor, of course.
It’s nice that Billie Joe and Adrienne have chosen to try, but are their efforts the luxury of the ultra-privileged? I mean, it’s easy for rich celebrity types to care, but what about people who are just trying to pay the bills and survive? Worrying about the environment all the time takes a lot of energy, something a lot of us don’t have for things that aren’t immediate threats.
If you’ve got the energy, you can check out Billie Joe’s letter on Myspace here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=148269631&blogID=300116354. Hmm, who wants to bet that the next Green Day album is going to be all about the impending environmental apocalypse? It will be interesting to see how the guys do this without coming off like a bunch of dirty hippies.
Tre Cool Weather We’re Having
Okay, so Billie Joe sending us a group email doesn’t exactly qualify as ‘wacky shenanigans.’ Luckily, we can always count on the incomparable Tre Cool, or as we will call him, THE POLLUTION CRUSHER, to make up for BJ’s stoicism.
Tre did his part for the environment by releasing a hilarious video on YouTube this month of himself singing the song ‘Chocolate Rain’ by Tay Zonday.
If you haven’t heard this song yet, then you must be living in a hole. Check out ‘Chocolate Rain’ by Tay Zonday here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA
Check out Tre’s version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyDuGwlrFRs
In-Depth Chocolate Song Analysis
The song is pretty funny, and what makes Tre’s cover so great is that it’s actually funnier than the original. For one thing, Tay Zonday has a weird style of singing that Tre imitates to hilarious effect. For another, Tre puts a lot of his own lyrics into his version, which are often even sillier than the originals.
If you’ve never heard the song, listen to the original first, and then to Tre’s to get the whole effect. Notice how at the end of Tre’s video, he yells in a loud, British Isles-accented voice, “You’re doing it fucking wrong!” An observer can’t help but wonder if he’s making fun of a certain Irish frontman that he and the rest of Green Day collaborated with in the recent past…
A last interesting ‘Chocolate Rain’ tidbit is that it was released by a YouTube profile called Chocolatecool: http://www.youtube.com/user/chocolatetcool. Could this account have actually been registered by Mr. Cool himself? If so, it breaks with Green Day’s longstanding tradition of not being personally involved with online communities. Congratulations Tre! Welcome to the future!
The Word of the Day is ‘Earth-Shattering’
Also this month, Green Day and U2 were nominated for a VMA for “Most Earth-Shattering Collaboration.” On the MTV page, here: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2007/category.jhtml?categoryId=collaboration, they have this to say about “The Saints are Coming”:
“What happens when monsters of rock bridge the mainstream punk generation gap to bring a major issue to light? "The Saints Are Coming" as performed by U2 and Green Day. The pop and punk bands speak to everyone's grief and the Animals lend a hand with the lyrics.”
This had to be quoted in full to point out MTV’s stupidity. “The Saints Are Coming” was, of course, written by The Skids, not The Animals. Way to get your facts straight, geniuses!
Anyway, if you want to see Green Day kick the asses of such collaborators as Akon and Eminem, Beyonce and Shakira, and Timberlake and Timbaland, watch the VMA’s on September 9th. No word yet on whether or not Green Day will be attending.
Punk’s Not Dead, Seriously, for Real this Time…
If you’re jonesing for your monthly dose of Green Day on the big screen, check out ‘Punk’s Not Dead,” a documentary by Susan Dynner about the evolution of punk rock. Apparently, the doc is not quite as low budget as those that have come before.
Great punk bands, from Social Distortion to NOFX, but most importantly, Green Day themselves, appear in the movie to talk about making punk music. Unfortunately, the bit of interview with Billie Joe you can see in the preview, here: http://www.punksnotdeadthemovie.com/trailer/ does not seem very cool.
The preview seems to show a clip of Billie Joe talking about how cool Hot Topic is. This clip is immediately followed by another of a younger punk band saying how lame and commercial Hot Topic is. For many punkers, Green Day are kind of the ultimate symbol of punk’s demise, so it will be interesting to see how they are portrayed in the film.
Obligatory Reflective Wrap-Up
Yup, this month was all about holding our breath to see what’s coming next. We’re gonna need a lot of Green Day to get us through the fast-approaching nuclear winter, so here’s to hoping they provide before all the lights go out.
That is all.
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