There are a few "punk" bands out there who have resorted to rapping to recruit fans. *coughs* Good Charlotte *coughs*. There are some "punk" band out there who just suck. *coughs* Simple Plan *coughs* And there are only a handful of decent punk bands in existence now, and with the resent absence of blink-182, who does the punk music scene shift their eyes to? None other than Green Day, who are currently at the peak of their 15 year career. Of course, it all started in 1988, when the band Sweet Children was discovered in Rodeo, California. The owner of Lookout! Records, and member of the band Lookout! heard from his drummer Frank Edwin Wright III (aka Tre Cool) that there would a cool band playing at a party in the near future. When they arrived at the party, there were five kids. And the band was playing to them like The Beatles to a sell-out crowd of 500,000. Lookout! Records owner signed them on the spot. Billie Joe Armstrong, the guitarist, vocalist, and main songwriter, was just 16, but soon to drop out of high school to devote all his time to the band. Mike Dirnt, the bassist, was the only member to graduate. Al Sobrante was the drummer at this time. Sweet Children soon changed their name to Green Day, when the band Sweet Baby Jesus was signed to a major record label, and shortened their name to Sweet Babies. Green Day recorded the EPs 1000 Hours, 39 Smooth, and Slappy. Shortly after that, in 1990, they consolidated those EPs to make their first record- 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. After touring for a while, they recorded their second and final album with Lookout!, Kerplunk. After the recording of Kerplunk, many major record labels were looking to recruit them, such as Warner Bros. They decided to go with Reprise, and recorded Dookie (Welcome To Paradise, She, Basket Case, When I Come Around), which sold over 14 million copies to date. Before they decided to go to Reprise, however, Al Sobrante ditched the other members, and left on bad terms. Tre Cool, who already knew all the songs, and his band Lookout! had recently split. So Cool was added to the final line-up of Green Day. After Dookie came Insomniac (Geek Stink Breath, Brain Stew, Walking Contradiction), then Nimrod (Hitchin' A Ride, Redundant, Nice Guys Finish Last), then Warning (Warning, Waiting, Minority, Macy's Day Parade), then International Superhits! (a greatest hits compilation), then Shenanigans, and most recently, American Idiot (to date: American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Holiday. Legend has it Wake Me Up When September Ends and Jesus of Suburbia are to be released next). Armstrong married his long-time girlfriend, Adrienne, in 1994, and then found out the day later she was pregnant. Armstrong currently has two children. Mike Dirnt was married, had a daughter, and then became divorced. Cool has two children as well, with two different women. Cool and Dirnt are both unmarried, and Armstrong remains the only one without a divorce record. |
