Green Revolution
Punk rockers Green Day are back and faster than ever with new album Revolution Radio
US pop punk band Green Day are all ready to paint the town red - or should we say, green.
The trio - comprising frontman-vocalist-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, 44, bassist Mike Dirnt, 44, and drummer Tre Cool, 43 - are back after a four-year hiatus with new album Revolution Radio, which will be released on Friday.
Green Day took their longest break in 28 years in 2012, after Armstrong went into rehab for substance abuse.
At that point, his life seemed to resemble one of Green Day's best-known hits, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.
Armstrong told Rolling Stone magazine he felt the band had become too serious, and that he was "a little burnt out on being in Green Day".
"We lost a little bit of our goofiness, the part of Green Day that I always liked," he said.
Armstrong also admitted to Q magazine that their last trilogy of albums released in 2012, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre!, "have absolutely no direction to them".
"It was about being prolific for the sake of it," he said.
Things are looking up for Green Day though.
They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year, a step towards rock legend status, and started touring last month to support the highly-anticipated Revolution Radio.
Here's why we think Green Day are ready for their big comeback.
THEIR NEW SINGLE WENT TO #1
Bang Bang, the lead single from Revolution Radio, topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart last month.
And it's their fastest song to hit No. 1 on that chart, needing only three weeks since its debut to climb to the top.
The frenetic, fast-paced track is written from the perspective of a disturbed mass shooter.
"It was refreshing that it came so naturally to write a song like Bang Bang, which is one of the best punk songs I've ever scribbled,'" Armstrong told Rolling Stone.
"The scary thing was when I went into the character's head, I started getting dizzy."
Title track Revolution Radio and inspirational anthem Still Breathing, which have also been released, are also great listens.
The familiar punk guitar riffs are there, and the energy exhibited in these tracks is reminiscent of classic Green Day songs like American Idiot and When I Come Around.
THEIR MUSICAL STILL ROCKS
Green Day's American Idiot musical, based on their 2004 album of the same name, has been a hit since its Broadway debut in 2010.
It received a Tony Award nomination for best musical the same year, and has since toured cities like London, Vancouver, Tokyo and Seoul.
The stage adaptation follows the stories of three disaffected young men - Johnny, Will and Tunny - and their experiences with drugs, joining the military and lost love.
Green Day did not perform as a band in the American Idiot musical, but Armstrong took on a minor role as drug dealer St Jimmy occasionally during its run.
A recent adaptation in Pittsburgh, which reimagines the main characters as black teenagers in today's Black Lives Matter social movement era, got a ringing endorsement from Armstrong himself.
"Wow. I wish I could see this. I'm speechless," he posted on Twitter.
ARMSTRONG'S IN A NEW MOVIE
Armstrong takes on his first lead role in upcoming movie Ordinary World, which opens in US theatres on Oct 14.
His character Perry is a failed punk rocker dad, who reunites his high school rock band after his 40th birthday.
Directed by Lee Kirk and co-starring Selma Blair, Fred Armisen and Judy Greer, the dramedy is Armstrong's second film after the 2014 indie flick Like Sunday, Like Rain.
Greer, who plays Perry's old flame, said Armstrong's involvement was one of her reasons for taking on this gig.
She was quoted as saying: "I have been a Green Day fan since forever. I thought he was brilliant and it was so fun to watch him and work with him.
"He's a total peach. He is such a normal guy. He loves his sons and his wife and all his dogs and just loves to play music. I thought it was such a good role for him.''
Armstrong penned Ordinary World's theme song of the same name, and it is one of the tracks on Green Day's new album.
"Baby, I don't have much, but what we have is more than enough/Ordinary world," Armstrong sings in the touching ballad's final lines.
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