Green Day primarily started as Sweet Children, which was founded in 1987 by a 14-year-old Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt. They both lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in Rodeo, California and released their first EP, "Sweet Children", under the pop-punk label, "Skene" and later got their first popular gig at Billie's mother's restaurant, Rod's Hickory Pit. To avoid conflict at home, Mike Dirnt moved in with Billie Joe that year. After gaining much success from their debut, they released three more EPs with John Kiffmeyer as their drummer.
After noticing Tr�'s incredible talent of the album "One Planet One People", a compilation on the Lookout! Label, he was permanently hired as the drummer for Larry Livermore's band The Lookouts. Tr� grew up in Mendocino Mountains, where there was nothing else to do but play drums. But little did he know what his future was bringing forth.
As Sweet Children's popularity spread around, they decided to get serious and rechristen their name Green Day. After finding their first successful drummer, Al Sobrante (AKA John Kiffmeyer), they tried their chances to get on the Livermore's Label, Lookout!. They were to meet all the way in Mendocino Mountains, nearly 200 miles from Oakland, where Mike and Billie later moved. As soon as they got there it was freezing and raining and they even had to play a gig in a room with no roof! But to them it was an achievement because Livermore wasn't impressed when they first played. However, this time was different. Larry Livermore found them energetic and determined and invested $600 in their first album "39/Smooth", which now is entitled "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours" and has songs from their prior EPs.
Now being 17 and ready for life, they were faced with a dilemma: Should they quit the band and try to get job or go to college? Or should they continue their dream? Billie and Mike decided to keep Green Day, but John left to go to college. Billie never cared too much for school. He even dropped out of high school one day before his 18th birthday. "Making people read books is evil. People shouldn't have to read books if they don't want to," he says, and "I still have nightmares about being in class. I'll have these dreams where I am getting an 'incomplete' in class." As John continued on with his education, Mike and Billie began to plan for a 1990 summer tour. But they still had the problem of recruiting a permanent drummer. Luckily they found Tr� Cool, who's dad built Larry Livermore's house.
To make a follow-up album, Green Day with new member Tr� Cool, quickly got together and made "Kerplunk!", which impressed many people in the Bay Area punk scene. "Kerplunk!" is quite a varied album from their love-sick song "2,000 Light Years Away" to the funny antics of "Dominated Love Slave", featuring Tr� as the vocalist. "Kerplunk!" gathered them much popularity and were even offered the chance to be signed on Reprise Records. After much thought, they decided Reprise was really "down-to-earth" and began to work on thier major-label debut, "Dookie", which went triple platinum.
Ten months of touring was planned to promote their new album. "Dookie" was new for the band. Most of the songs were wrote around "The Signing War" and mostly revolve around boredom ("Longview") and being mental ("Basket Case"). "Longview", their first single became a great hit on MTV and the radio, which annoyed many real punk fans. In the June '94 issue of "Maximumrocknroll", Green Day was branded the title of "selling out". During the Lollapalooza tour, Billie married his long-time girlfriend Adrienne. Their touring was a success and even Tr� and his wife Lisea had their first baby, Ramona.
Quickly that next year they released their fourth LP "Insomniac", which includes such hits as "Brain Stew", "Walking Contradiction", "Geek Stink Breath", "Jaded", and "Stuck With Me", which wasn't released officially in the U.S. Other great songs, such as "No Pride" and "Armatage Shanks" can be classified as 'self-insulting idiocy anthems'. Also, some of Billie's song writing was about his new-born, Joey, who was born in March of '95. "Brain Stew" is the perfect example: "I'm having trouble trying to sleep", which shows how Joey cried all night as a new born and kept Billie awake. After two years of chilling out and song writing they released their album "Nimrod".
Their first "Nimrod" music video, "Hitchin' A Ride", was quickly aired on MTV and local radio stations in September of '97. One month later on October 14th, the album was officially released in the U.S. Some more touring was being planned. Then the next year in 1998, Green Day released their thier next video "Good Riddance (TIme Of Your Life)", which of course had become their most famous song ever. It was being aired on the last episode of "Seinfield", a couple of episodes on "ER", the PGA Golf Tour, and a lot more places. The song is about a relationship Billie had with a girl and how she moved away and then the relationship became even worse. This song may be showing Green Day is maturing more and more in their music. Other singles include "Redundant", which is about shooting a music video over and over again, and "Nice Guys Finish Last", which is about how being nice doesn't always get you somewhere. It also has some great songs that were never made into a video. The past couple of years have been very bumpy for Green Day. Mike Dirnt suffered a fractured skull from a beer bottle that was heaved at him by the bass player of Third Eye Blind and Billie and his wife gave birth to another baby. After the world-wide tour then finally set down to record yet another album.
thanx to greendaysite for giving me the biography(what!!! anthony...you didn't knew oops.....)
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