Seems like there has been a really long build up to this album, no? I’ve given 21st Century Breakdown one full listen and my first impressions are lukewarm. A number of songs immediately caught my ear, and bunch kind of floated by without much interest. I’m not ready to write it off as a failure just yet, I think it needs at least 2 more full listens until I can make my decision and I have a feeling I’ll be more positive after a more thorough absorption.
21st Century Breakdown, Green Day’s highly-anticipated eighth studio album, is being released worldwide today, Friday May 15th, by Reprise Records. The album is the follow-up to 2004’s two-time Grammy Award-winning punk-rock opera American Idiot, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, spawned five hit singles, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.
Produced by Butch Vig, 21st Century Breakdown has already earned rapturous reviews from top media outlets, such as Rolling Stone, which called it “even more ambitious than American Idiot” and “a record of die-hard punk ideals…tightly scripted, continually ascending classic-rock excitement,” and the New York Times, which noted in an Arts & Leisure cover story that in its drive to top themselves “Green Day has dared to offer something far denser and more demanding: a whirlwind of thoughts about activism, redemption, and destruction. The rage and sorrows of American Idiot are pushed even further in 21st Century Breakdown, in songs where idealism and the urge to annihilate are constantly grappling, never far apart.”
The album’s first single, “Know Your Enemy” is already capturing the imagination of listeners across the country. It has been No. 1 at Alternative radio for three weeks and is the band’s ninth No. 1 single at the format, making them the artist with the second most No. 1’s of all-time at Alternative.
Additionally, Green Day will set televisions ablaze with scheduled performances on: the season finale of Saturday Night Live on May 16th, The Colbert Report on May 21st, the first concert of Good Morning America’s 2009 Summer Concert Series from Rumsey Playfield in Central Park on May 22nd and The Late Show with David Letterman on May 22nd. On Sunday, May 24th, CBS Sunday Morning will air its first in depth interview with Green Day shot in Oakland last month.
Green Day, which is singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool, are preparing to launch their first proper tour of the United States and Canada in more than three years. The tour begins July 3rd at Seattle’s Key Arena and will cross North America through the summer, including a July 27th stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, before finishing up with a show at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 25th. Please visit www.greenday.com for all cities, venues, and ticket on-sale dates.
April 20, 2009 — Burbank, CA — Reprise Records’ Grammy®Award winning rock band Green Day have announced that they will hit the road for their first proper tour of the United States and Canada in more than three years beginning July 3rd in Seattle, WA. The first leg of the tour will cross North America through the summer and finish up with two shows in Los Angeles on August 26th.
Green Day are touring in support of their long-awaited eighth studio album 21st Century Breakdown, which will be released globally by Reprise Records on Friday, May 15th, 2009. Singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool have been at work writing, arranging, and recording 21st Century Breakdown since early 2006 with producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins). The first single, “Know Your Enemy” was released to radio and digital retailers on April 16th.
Green Day recently performed 21st Century Breakdown in its entirety during a series of warm-up club shows for hometown fans in the Bay Area. In its review of a show at Oakland’s Fox Theater, Rolling Stone commented that the band, augmented by guitarists Jason White and Jeff Matika, and keyboardist Jason Freese, had the “Quadrophenia-like hang of 21st Century Breakdown’s classic rock melodies and lifetime-punk drive down solid” and that the album is “rock opera in which the rock always comes first.” “21st Century Breakdown is Green Day’s best album,” the reviewer concluded, “and at the Fox, they proved that the rock opera can be as punk as a Clash 45.”
21st Century Breakdown is Green Day’s first studio album since 2004’s two-time Grammy Award-winning punk-rock opera American Idiot, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, spawned five hit singles, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.
Green Day’s upcoming North American tour dates are as follows:
July
3rd Seattle, WA
4th Vancouver, BC
6th Edmonton, AB
7th Saskatoon, SAS
9th Winnipeg, MAN
10th Fargo, ND
11th Minneapolis, MN
13th Chicago, IL
14th Detroit, MI
16th Hamilton, ONT
17th Ottawa, ONT
18th Montreal, QUE
20th Boston, MA
21st Philadelphia, PA
22nd Pittsburgh, PA
24th Hartford, CT
25th Albany, NT
27th New York, NY
29th Washington, DC
31st Nashville, TN
August
1st Atlanta, GA
3rd Tampa, FL
4th Miami, FL
5th Orlando, FL
7th New Orleans, LA
8th Houston, TX
9th San Antonio, TX
11th St. Louis, MO
13th Omaha, NE
15th Denver, CO
16th Salt Lake City, UT
18th San Jose, CA
20th San Diego, CA
21st Las Vegas, NV
22nd Phoenix, AX
24th Sacramento, CA
25th Los Angeles, CA
“Know Your Enemy,” the first single from Green Day’s upcoming eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, is available now. After teasing fans with a snippet of the track, the full version has finally hit iTunes for the world to hear.
21st Century Breakdown, which will be released by Reprise Records worldwide on May 15th, is the best-selling trio’s first studio album since 2004’s two-time Grammy Award-winning punk-rock opera American Idiot, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, spawned five hit singles, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide. In a recent feature, Rolling Stone called 21st Century Breakdown “even more ambitious than American Idiot” and “a record of die-hard punk ideals…tightly scripted, continually ascending classic-rock excitement.”
Green Day have just released a behind-the-scenes look at their new video for “Know Your Enemy.” The clip, while short, gives a glimpse into what’s in store for fans in the forthcoming video. The Matthew Cullen (Weezer) directed video was shot in Los Angeles and will make its premiere on April 24th via 250+ MTV on-air and online outlets worldwide.
For fans that can’t wait for the video, Green Day have released the lyrics to the entire album on their official site GreenDay.com. 21st Century Breakdown hits stores May 15th.
21st Century Breakdown Tracklisting and Lyrics:
ACT I HEROES AND CONS
ACT II CHARLATANS AND SAINTS
?Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)
ACT III HORSESHOES AND AND HANDGRENADES
American Eulogy
b) Modern World
From NME.com:
Billie Joe Armstrong has hinted that their forthcoming new Butch Vig-produced album could take a “power pop” direction.
The frontman did not reveal song titles or details of the songs they are currently working on in the studio, but name-checked The Creation, The Who, The Beatles, Cheap Trick and The Jam as possible influences.
“I really like fucking with arrangements,” Armstrong told Altpress.com. “I always try to look at the possibilities of how you write power-pop music.
“How do you take something - and it could be anything from The Creation and The Who to The Beatles to Cheap Trick to The Jam - and try to expand on the idea of what is supposed to be three-chord mayhem?
“How do you do it in a way where the arrangements are just unpredictable? So I’m pushing myself to be progressive in songwriting and being a songwriter.”
The frontman went on to discuss working with Vig, who produced Nirvana’s seminal grunge album ‘Nevermind’ in 1991. “He doesn’t take for granted what we have here [in the studio],” he said, “but he uses everything to the best of his knowledge and the best of his ability.
“I mean, he gets psyched on a fucking microphone! That’s inspiring. That’s amazing. He’s not a cheerleader type of producer; he’s just a very hard-working, straightforward guy.
“He’s very Midwestern, too. For example, he’ll turn around when you’re working on something and just go, ‘That’s badass.’ And you’re like, ‘What do you mean, ‘badass?’ Is that more bad, or is it, like, ass?’”
Over the weekend a website popped up for an unknown band calling themselves the Foxboro Hot Tubs and have 6 songs for download that sound suspiciously like they’re being sung by Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day. The songs have a a60’s Rock and Roll feel and are ridiculously catchy. Have a listen and decide for yourself, but in any case they are cool tunes and its not like Green Day haven’t done this in the past…
PLAY
