GREEN DAY Announces Summer Tour :

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Green Day has announced a slate of 38 summer tour dates that begins July 3 in Seattle and marks the chart-topping rock band's first full North American tour in more than three years.
The summer Green Day tour, which will support the trio's May 15 album "21st Century Breakdown" (Reprise Records), heads clockwise through Canada and the U.S. Green Day tour includes stops in the Midwest, East Coast and Southern dates before finishing up in Los Angeles on August 25. All Green Day tour venues will be announced at a later date.
The new album, which follows 2004's Billboard 200-topping "American Idiot," was produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins). Green Day will celebrate the release with a previously announced show at New York's Bowery Ballroom on May 18.  ... Source ...

GREEN DAY BIO (Brief) :

Out of all the post-Nirvana alternative bands to break into the pop mainstream, Green Day were second only to Pearl Jam in terms of influence. At their core, Green Day were simply punk revivalists who recharged the energy of speedy, catchy three-chord punk-pop songs. Though their music wasn't particularly innovative, they brought the sound of late-'70s punk to a new, younger generation with Dookie, their 1994 major-label debut. Dookie sold over ten million copies, paving the way for a string of multi-platinum releases that opened the doors for a flood of American neo-punk, punk metal, and third wave ska revivalists. More than a decade later, as many of their former contemporaries settled into retirement, Green Day remained at the forefront of popular music with albums like the Grammy-winning American Idiot.

Green Day arose from the Northern California underground punk scene. Childhood friends Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Mike Dirnt (bass; born Mike Pritchard) formed their first band, Sweet Children, in Rodeo, CA, when they were 14 years old. By 1989, the group had added drummer Al Sobrante and changed its name to Green Day. That same year, the band independently released its first EP, 1000 Hours, which was well received in the California hardcore punk scene. Soon, the group had signed a contract with the local independent label Lookout. Green Day's first full album, 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hour, was released later that year. Shortly after its release, the band replaced Sobrante with Tre Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III), who became the band's permanent drummer.

Throughout the early '90s, Green Day continued to cultivate a cult following, which only gained strength with the release of their second album, 1992's Kerplunk. The underground success of Kerplunk led to a wave of interest from major record labels, and the band eventually decided to sign with Reprise. Dookie, Green Day's major-label debut, was released in the spring of 1994. Thanks to MTV support for the initial single, "Longview," Dookie became a major hit. The album continued to gain momentum throughout the summer, with the second single, "Basket Case," spending five weeks on the top of the American modern rock charts. At the end of the summer, the band stole the show at Woodstock '94, which helped the sales of Dookie increase. By the time the fourth single, "When I Come Around," began its seven-week stay at number one on the modern rock charts in early 1995, Dookie had sold over five million copies in the U.S. alone; it would eventually top ten million in America, selling over 15 million copies internationally. Dookie also won the 1994 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

Green Day quickly followed Dookie with Insomniac in the fall of 1995; during the summer, they hit number one again on the modern rock charts with "J.A.R.," their contribution to the Angus soundtrack. Insomniac performed well initially, entering the U.S. charts at number two and selling over two million copies by the spring of 1996, yet none of its singles -- including the radio favorite "Brain Stew/Jaded" -- were as popular as those from Dookie. In the spring of 1996, Green Day abruptly canceled a European tour, claiming exhaustion. Following the cancellation, the band spent the rest of the year resting and writing new material before issuing Nimrod in late 1997. Three years later, their long-awaited follow-up, a refreshingly poppy record titled Warning, was released. Another long wait preceded 2004's American Idiot, an aggressive rock opera that became a surprise success -- a chart-topper around the world, a multi-platinum Grammy winner, and easily the best reviewed album of their career. Green Day reveled in the album's success, hitting numerous award shows and performing as part of Live 8 in July 2005. That fall brought the release of Bullet in a Bible, a concert album that documented the trio's expansive Idiot live show.

With their popularity and commercial viability restored, Green Day took on several small projects before returning to the studio. They contributed a cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" to the charity album Instant Karma, appeared in The Simpsons Movie, and recorded an entire album of '60s-styled rock & roll under the alias of Foxboro Hot Tubs. While presenting an award at the Grammys in early 2009, the band announced the impending release of Green Day's eighth album, 21st Century Breakdown, which had been recorded with veteran producer Butch Vig. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide ... Source ...

MORE GREEN DAY INFORMATION :

Punk revivalists in style, this raucous trio achieved triple-platinum status with their major-label debut, Dookie. Although Green Day's taut, three-minute, guitar-driven songs ably revive the fierceness of the group's stylistic progenitors (the Who, the Clash and the Sex Pistols), punk's original aim — to annoy, outrage, shock — is not Green Day's thing.

Friends since age 10, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt grew up in Rodeo, California. They formed their first real band, Sweet Children, at 14. When they were 17, the pair first recorded as Green Day, signing with the punk label Lookout and releasing the 1989 EP 1,000 Hours with drummer John Kiffmeyer. The next year, the group recorded its first full-length album, 39/Smooth, in a day. Two more EPs followed, with Kiffmeyer leaving to focus on his studies and Tre Cool, with whom Armstrong had played in a band

called the Lookouts, taking over on drums for 1992's Kerplunk. With a solid fanbase built on the nurturing, all-ages hardcore scene in Berkeley, the group signed with Reprise in April 1993. Its 1994 release, Dookie, proclaimed the next generation of punk, hitting Number Four on the album chart, buoyed by the band's effervescent presence on MTV and at Lollapalooza and Woodstock '94. The album won a 1994 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance and sold 10 million copies worldwide.

The 1995 follow-up Insomniac sold nearly 3 million copies and charted at Number Two, but failed to repeat the success of the band's major-label debut. Nimrod (Number 10, 1997) sold a million copies but won fresh exposure for the group, largely on the strength of the ballad "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." In 2000, Green Day released Warning (Number Four), a more introspective, even folk-influenced record that showed the group stretching artistically. Despite producing the radio hit "Minority," the album was a commercial letdown, selling fewer than a million copies. Two compilations followed: A best-of, International Superhits! (Number 40, 2001), and the B-sides round-up Shenanigans (Number 27, 2002).

By the early '00s, there was a growing consensus that Green Day's cachet was in decline, as evidenced by the band's slowing album sales. That belief that was put to rest with the release of American Idiot (Number One, 2004), a multiplatinum, Grammy-winning rock opera with political overtones that restated Green Day as one of the biggest musical acts in the world. Produced by Rob Cavallo, Idiot is grandiose — two of the songs are multi-part suites that clock in at nearly 10 minutes — but never show-offy. Five singles were released, all of them hits: The title track (Number 61, 2004), "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (Number Six, 2005), "Holiday" (Number 19, 2005), "Jesus of Suburbia" (Number 27 Modern Rock, 2005) and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (2004), the latter a ballad that came one slot away from being Green Day's first Number One single.

Following extensive touring, Green Day recorded a cover of the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming" (Number 51, 2006) with U2, which was released to raise awareness for musicians whose lives had been disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, the band appeared on both American Idol — where they performed a version of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" (Number 53) — and in The Simpsons Movie. That year the band also began a side project — that they at first kept secret — called Foxboro Hot Tubs, a group that also features Jason White, Josh Freese and Kevin Preston. In May 2008, the band issued its first LP, a garage album called Stop Drop and Roll!!!, and went on a brief tour. Armstrong also revived his other side project, Pinhead Gun Powder, who played their first show since 2001 in February 2008.
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