FEAT. MCNAIR/BRADLEY/HADEN CAMPBELL
Green Day: Billie Joe (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Mike Dirnt (vocals, bass); Tre Cool (drums, bongos, tambourine).

Additional personnel: Petra Haden (violin); Gabriel McNair, Stephen Bradley (horns).

Green Day's infectious brand of thrashy power-pop is full of references to the generation of punk which preceded them, with adenoidal vocals spinning tales of youthful angst against a backdrop of hard, fast riffs. The difference, of course, is that Green Day is having more fun than the Buzzcocks would ever have admitted to. NIMROD catches the band updating their sound while holding onto the speed and recklessness that made their previous albums so exciting. 

Touches like the atmospheric, flanged guitars of "Redundant" and the violin on "Hitchin' A Ride" and "Last Ride In," (courtesy of That Dog's Petra Haden) help to take the band in a new, more serious direction. Lest anyone fear that this expansion signals self-indulgence, the tight harmonies of "Scattered" and breakneck pace of "Platypus (I Hate You)" prove that, unlike most angry young men (especially those that happen to be millionaire celebrities), they've managed to hold on to every bit of the energy and rage that propelled them in the first place.
.

Green Day: Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar); Mike Dirnt (vocals, bass); Tre Cool (drums).

All music written by Green Day. All lyrics written or co-written by Billie Joe Armstrong.

If Nirvana burst the dam that kept punk rock at bay in the '80s, Green Day--with their third album, DOOKIE--were the first all-consuming flood to hit the charts. Brandishing old school Ramones and Clash riffs, the Berkeley, CA trio made out like bandits, selling nearly ten million albums, scaling mainstream magazine covers and hijacking rock-festival spotlights from established acts. But judging from the lyrical contents of INSOMNIAC, bringing punk to the malls hasn't been a very satisfying experience for singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong.

Throughout, he rails at the moribund state of youth culture and his place in it, as bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool speed up this anger to a frenetic pace. The disses fly every which way--at well-to-doers copping poses ("Brat"), at girlfriends who just don't understand ("Stuart And The Ave."), towards the world at-large ("Panic Song"), and, most of all, at himself. As though aware that his band helped make a sacred lifestyle fashionable, Billie Joe demeans his existence in song after song--unable to even sleep in peace with himself. For the disenfranchised listener, these are the ABCs of self-hate rebellion.

Judging from the catchiness of his songs, this predicament isn't likely to end soon. "Geek Stink Breath," a heavy, mid-tempo rumble in the manner of the Sex Pistols' "Sub-Mission"; "Panic Song," with its frenzied "Pinball Wizard"-like build-up, and the fired-up, pop fury of "All Wound Up," all embody the very principals that make the punk lessons of 1977 so attractive today: simplicity, hooks, a lack of pretension, and a disdain for authority. On INSOMNIAC, Green Day puts those lessons to use yet again--their platinum nightmares are sure to follow.
.

LMTD ED. VINYL (PINK) 
Green Day: Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar); Michael Pritchard (bass, background vocals); Tre Cool (drums).

DOOKIE won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. Green Day was also nominated for Best New Artist, "Basket Case" was nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and "Longview" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance.

In the days before there was grunge or thrash, a movement called punk arose as a populist response to the conformity of corporate rock, and a return to the garage roots of the music. Punk, new wave...whatever you want to call it, the movement was quickly co-opted by the major labels and radio as the best bands quickly evaporated into the pop mainstream while the rest faded into obscurity or day jobs.

"I'm not growing up, I'm just burning out, and I stepped in line to walk amongst the dead," singer-guitarist Billy Joe screams on the opening "Burnout," enunciating a timely slacker sentiment over a decidedly punk trio track, roaring through your speakers like a freight train powered by old Ramones and Clash records. One can hear the complaints of DOOKIE articulated in a thousand smoke-filled bedrooms throughout America. On "Longview," tongue not so firmly implanted in cheek, they extend their view of slacker apathy to apply to the fading joys of masturbation, but quickly answer their own ennui with the real world complaints of "Welcome To Paradise," begging the question, is there anything out there?

On a song like "She," Green Day seemingly answers all the questions of apathy with a furious groove and lyrics that urge listeners "locked up in a world that's been planned for you" to "smash the silence with the brick of self-control." And with "Sassafrass Roots" Green Day ups the slacker ante dealt up by Beck on "Loser" by asking, "So why are you alone wasting your time, when you could be with me wasting your time...may I waste your time, too?" The humor and furious musicianship Green Day display on DOOKIE (listen to them echo "Sweet Home Alabama" on "When I Come Around") undercuts all the talk of apathy, confusion and lack of direction by providing a whaling home-grown alternative to business as usual rock. And wasn't that what punk was all about?
.

Green Day: Billy Joe (guitar, vocals); Mike (bass); Tre Cool (drums).
Additional personnel: Al Sobrante (drums).
Recorded at Art Of Ears Studio, San Francisco, California in May and September 1991. 
All lyrics written by Billie Joe except "Dominated Love Slave" (Tre) and "My Generation" (The Who).
.

Recorded at Art Of Ears Studio, San Francisco, California.

All lyrics written by Billie Joe except "I Was There" (John) and "Knowledge" (Jesse Michaels). All music written by Green Day except "Knowledge" (Op. IV.).

1039/SMOOTHED OUT SLAPPY HOURS combines the album 39/SMOOTH (tracks 1-10) with the EPs SLAPPY (tracks 11-14) and 1,000 HOURS (tracks 15-18). "I Want To Be Alone" is from the Flipside label compilation THE BIG ONE..
.