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The success of American Idiot was a double edge sword. It brought them renewed success and allowed them to continue, but at the same time the nonstop touring and the realization from the world and the band that it was a once-in-a-lifetime recording, that no matter what they did in the future, there would always be a comparison. It's not Idiot, but it's okay. Or this sucks, I want more Idiot. They tried going bigger and louder and crazier on Breakdown. People wanted more. How can you top bigger, louder, and crazier? Three albums at once? Imagine if this horrible cycle kept going, without imploding in 2012. Rev Rad would have been a six disc set of screeching guitars desperately trying to reach those once-in-a-lifetime heights. The Network would have sold out and then FOAM would have been, geeze, I don't even know. FOAM would have literally been American Idiot Part II and there would have been mumble rap features. I don't know. It would have been bad. But fortunately, we live in THIS universe where everything is perfect and everyone is happy. Except for Haushinka. She's awful. What are you guys hearing that I'm hearing? Are you guys clowning me, like when you pretend to like Popper Punk when clearly that's not correct?

I hope they release another banger like this!!!! I remember reading some of the pre-release reviews and they compared it to something from Kerplunk or Dookie. Plus I hope Tré does more epic drum solos like this one!!!

Happy birthday to this guy.

We all carry the wounds of Magnum Opus

Literally no information to go off here but I'm thinking 1972 is going to be a lot closer to Revolution Radio than FOAMF. Listened to RevRad for the first time in a while today and I have to admit to critiscising the sound of this record a bit too much in that past? But as time goes on I've kind of grown to appreciate the less polished sound, it's a bit grittier and more raw than something like 21st Century Breakdown but the whole thing kind of works as a self-produced punk album they recorded in their own little studio. Keep thinking back to those Facebook lives from back then, seeing otis and the way they recorded that album -- I saw Billie's U47 in the live room and thought 'they're tracking vocals in there??' But actually that kind of adds to the vibe of things and is so much more DIY than you'd expect from a band as big as Green Day. So much more punk rock (I realise I'm calling a 10 grand mic DIY but that's beside the point) Pop production was a step back from them and now that they're not exactly a chart-topping band they need to just embrace the extra freedom and stop trying to cater to that market. Hopefully recording it here in good old great britain will give it a bit more of that raw vibe since I don't feel like we're much of a fan of that pop rock bullshit, the heavier the better! Also: just before FOAMF I was hoping that Green Day would make a dancey rock n roll Dos-ish record so just saying I'm basically that octopus who predicts the World Cup winners

Relevant portion from a 1234Go! Records email I just got regarding various releases: “We also have MASSIVE news about multiple new exclusive color vinyl releases only available at our store from a series of major artists on labels you're very familiar with. You are going to want to stay subscribed.” 👀 👀 👀

It makes me wonder what would have happened had they just released Ivankka under Green Day. Sometimes the best way to respond to pressure is just to do the thing you’re afraid of and see what happens or you’ll never get out from under it. It also makes it seem as though their success with American Idiot was more of a curse than a blessing that saved their career. The fact that the FOAM cover was a vandalized American Idiot cover tells me they think that too. But even when they act like they’re trying to subvert expectations and come out from under their own shadow it still sounds creatively constrained somehow

It seems to me that Green Day has a problem with what it’s become. It’s not about a band anymore, it’s about delivering a marketable product consistent with with target audience expectations. And when you think of it this way, it’s hard to be creative. If the objective is giving people the same thing over and over, it’s hard to come up with anything truly new. There’s a brand to maintain. At the same time there’s the need to appeal to as many people as possible which also means anything controversial is a no no (compare Green Day’s vague political songs and Ivankkka Is A Nazi). They’ve turned themselves into a corporation and the product fits the typical criteria of a corporate product - standardization (there’s a brand and you pretty much know what you’re gonna get from it), mass production (how many Here Comes The Shocks do you think can BJA write in 8 hours?), hybridization of consumption (the coffee shit)… so yeah, gonna close my third eye for now This too. Green Day is in a quite specific situation there, because unlike most 90’s bands they managed both to not break up and to stay relevant with the 00s generation so the pressure to go even bigger was still there way into the 00s when most of their peers were either dead or retired or relying on their faithful 90s audience.

Some more random Billie pics

What you mean about Haushinka? Top 3 song in the best Green Day album

Maybe it's the pressure. One of the big reasons to do a side-project or a solo album is to get the world off your back. Billie Joe, or something called The Longshot doesn't have every media outlet and most of the world waiting to judge it into oblivion. So there's freedom in doing those, where Green Day is a business. A business with many customers, a lot of whom are overly critical bastards, haha. With that situation, it's hard or near impossible to go too far away from the "Green Day Sound", no matter how the band feels about it. Maybe Billie's fired up about a wild new idea.....but no. Those buttholes over on GDA don't like that sort of thing. He's written the greatest jazz improv of all time.....but 99% of fans will bail. Can't do that either. I'ma stop right there, because Green Day have never put out a bad album. Not even bad song, in my opinion. Haushinka was pushing it, but even that turd is okay to my ears. Lol

"Nothing is leaked by mistake in this business." - Emilio Estevez

I like this theory. I hope it’s correct! Something is coming. On this we can count on but I am so jonsing for a hint. What is this? The ninth wave of the pandemic? Isolation and kind of feeling a dread and Green Day has been such a bright spot over this whole thing. The Network. No Fun Mondays. They’re amazing. The singles. Oakland Coffee House (Not so BTS) BTS videos. This band is so perfect and generous with all the work for the fans and sharing so much. I’m a fan of a lot of artists but Green Day are so special. I can’t think of another band this unique and with such a loyal interactive fan base for so many years as well as new fans coming on board as the years go by. We are spoiled. I am spoiled. I’m ready for something big from the main event. So excited to see this big exciting project from Green Day. Pretty sure it’s going to be great. I want a hint please very soon I hope! Or even just a public announcement that Lenny is a gold medal winner to distract us in the meantime. Or Tré in the shower giving us an update on anything at all even sports. That would work too. Doesn’t necessarily have to specifically be a 1972 reference although that would be nice.

The vibe I got from that wasn't that the publicist was telling the interviewer not to talk to him about Trump because Billie might say something scandalous, but that Billie was depressed over the election results and the publicist was watching out for him because of that (ie mental health).

I think that tells you more about how they felt about FOAM than any indication of what 1972 will be. They never seemed enthused about it to me, relative to the tour. Two teasers so far is not exactly a hype machine, and if only two teasers gives you high expectations that this will be some kind of masterwork, then that perfectly illustrates why Green Day is such a stress monster.

100% Billie (and the rest) were under tremendous pressure in the years following American Idiot and at the time of recording 21CB. Personally, I think it slowly destroyed him. He was able to hold it together reasonably well during the 21CB tour and wowed us fans and the world with some of the craziest stage performances they've ever put on, but it was a ticking time bomb. Even when watching Cuatro, it's subtle, but you get a sense of the immense pressure that the band was still under, from all sides really. The end-result then sounded like a desperate attempt to appease both the inner "rebel" in Billie, as well as casual Green Day fans and corporate backers, not least by going through another full blown album/tour promotion cycle, which of course, though not altogether unsurprisingly, went terribly wrong in the end.

This one’s my personal favorite from the Trilogy (minus the scruff). I don’t know, I’ve just always thought black jackets like these looked kick ass, slick, and rebellious.

This is a really awesome picture. I've always liked that shirt on him. It looks kind of like ribs. The Trilogy really did have some great style choices!

I think @pacejunkie punk is talking more about the soft/loud dynamic of songs like Bang Bang or Outlaws where there's a quiet intro or verse followed by much louder instruments or a loud chorus. I think that was one of the main critiques of RevRad I heard, although to be fair I don't recall much of that on FOAM apart from Teenage Teenager (which is just the absolute worst Green Day song imo)

They have used vocal filters since long before the trilogy. Tired of that 1 specific talking point.

It was Kevin's birthday yesterday and he's posted a lot on his Instagram story. Here's some of it

I wish you were right, Green Day octopus.

I’m convinced the February 2nd theory makes the most sense!!! 19- December 19th 7- January 7th 2- February 2nd

If the band were under such pressure to not do or make anything controversial, then we wouldn't have gotten the Troubled Times lyric video or Back in the USA video which featured very negative portrayals of Trump. And Billie probably would've been told to tone down all his anti-Trump talk during the RevRad era and if he did that he wouldn't have compared Trump to Hitler. If the aim was to "appeal to as many people as possible" by being uncontroversial, then I don't think that aim was met The only reason Trump isn't mentioned specifically on RevRad is because the album was mostly (if not entirely) written before Trump was really considered a likely possibility as president

RevRad is a very unique post-AI album exactly because of this. I believed it was a step in a right direction, but at this point I think it was a one time endeavor. The phrase never appears in any lyrics on the album and doesn’t really describe it either (there are 10 short songs - that’s as stripped down as it gets) so I do think the whole point of it was to name the album like that. I don’t believe that FOAM was a conceptual piece of art meant to stick it to anyone but the cover and title mock the opulence of previous green day albums.

They would’ve got the most attention they’ve had in years, that one thing is for sure. Plus it’s a genuinely fun song. Not everyone would like it (for obvious reasons and stupid twitter reasons) but you could say the same about American Idiot. It’s saved their career… temporarily. They just never figured out where to go from there. Maybe they could have went on to release whatever music they came up with (Foxboro Hot Tubs? ironically garage rock was going to become popular atm while emo/pop punk was just tipping over its peak and then on it’s way down) instead of trying to top AI with something bigger. I don’t know how much of that was a pressure to make as much money as possible since AI did so well with the whole style and visual concept it had and how much was an attempt to not appear like a one album a decade wonder, but this grandiose approach was… probably unnecessary in fact, especially when they never really left AI’s shadow during this time (with the musical etc). Plus the grind eventually let to a burnout. Seeing Billie scribble “FATHER OF ALL MOTHERFUCKERS” on its cover is… actually pretty sad, but understandable.

Billie left a comment (“No Vals allowed”) The tease lol

This is around Billie's birthday - I wonder if any 1972 stuff will have made an appearance by then. A high profile show is a good time to make an announcement.

I wouldn’t even call FOAM a style. Part of my issue with it as an album is that the style is all over the place. Songs like Fire Ready Aim sound dry as a bone and recorded very straightforward, other songs like Oh Yeah and Junkies on a High slather on production elements carelessly imo. With 21st Century Breakdown you had lots of different kinds of songs but they sounded cohesive, there was a unified front on the production.

Am I a #fakefan for having payed absolutely no attention whatsoever to this thread? I know speculation is GDC's signature move when there's any hint of new music, but I'm just too lazy to keep up this round. I have no idea what's going on other than what Green Day posts.

Could be nothing but I got this in an email from 1234 Go Records. “We also have MASSIVE news about multiple new exclusive color vinyl releases only available at our store from a series of major artists on labels you're very familiar with.” 🤔

Yeah, I may have worded it too narrowly, it’s “appeal to as many people as possible while also remaining slightly rebelious because that’s a part of our brand” Which is the reason why all the things you mentioned are relatively low-profile: We got the Troubled Times video from a sockpuppet account on this very forum. BIUTSA wasn’t a major release. You also mention that Billie would be told to tone down the anti-Trump talk - there was an interview that started with the writer mentioning he was told not to ask about it by the band’s publicist (how many Trump supporters read media that interview him?). Billie talked about it anyway. Rebelious!

When you look at it through that lens it almost does seem like (rather than at Warner, the fans, etc) he was telling American Idiot to fuck off

This is, I believe, why the introspection seen on Rev Rad is so important, yeah you can write about partying and getting drunk and stuff, but that's so surface level, and Billie knows as well as we do that he can write inward-looking material and still rock tf out, so let's hope they boys can find that form again, the teasers looked quite promising anyway.

Plus usually the quiet part is more interesting than the rest

It hasn’t really been done that much. These are a few that come to mind. ¡Viva La Gloria! Too Dumb to Die Holy Toledo

Me too. Power ballads are fine too. Maybe that little guitar bit we got in the last tease was part of a ballad. I don’t mind filters, what I mind is the thing they overdo of starting a song with a quiet intro and then going really loud. It’s done to death.

YES!!!! I love the piano ballads!!!

Here's another couple of lovely photos of Billie performing and every time I see one these photos I think of @Lady Mix-A-Lot

That's great! I hope it does happen. I hope the boys will take all the precautions they can regardless, though. It's still definitely a risk.

My boyfriend teaches drums and he told me that one of his students is learning "Troublemaker." I was like BY GREEN DAY?! And he said Yup! I'm so happy!! It's not a highly requested song and I'm always happy to hear someone else enjoys the song

Eh, the production on FOAM is pretty unified to me. It’s all very sleek and glossy. Some of the songs have more bells and whistles than others but they all have the same sheen. As for the actual content of the songs go, I’d classify the album as a whole in the “modern radio garage rock” category. Which apparently was a hard pill to swallow for a lot of fans. Personally, I thought they did a decent job of it but I wouldn’t like this sound to be the norm. As far as I’m aware, they only used Billie’s demo for the title track, and that one does sound a bit more organic to my ears.

Your spectacularly wrong opinion of Haushinka aside, I completely agree with every word 😀 😘

FOAM is way less midlife crisis than the trilogy IMO. Just not a style ya’ll like and that’s okay.

Green Day "needs" a comeback When Longshot, The Network, a bunch of teenagers like Panicland and Viva Death sounds better than GD last album, something is wrong.

We don’t have TOO much to go on, and I feel like this is better than people going crazy about a fake album. that being said I keep checking back here disappointed we haven’t gotten more news yet

I don't think so. I briefly scan the thread most days and love the hints from the band but just think it will happen when it happens and will be what it will be and that's exciting enough knowing something is in the pipeline

Dookie seems mediocre compared to Kerplunk, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning, AI and 21stCB in my opinion. It just had huge singles and an even bigger impact on the music scene. So I wouldn't want anything trying to capture the sound of dookie which at the end of the day isn't that special or interesting anyway. If there is something I've been waiting for Green Day (and I'm never going to get it as it seems) is the proper follow up to 21stCB.

It is indeed from that performance, and bloody gorgeous is the only description for Billie 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥