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Dang my budget and being responsible...

Cute shirt but more importantly, I assume it means he’s not done with the Longshot, there will be more I hope.

I can see Metalhead Zone's clickbait headline now...

I think you have to put things in the right perspective and find the right enemies here. I am not sure if we are allowed to discuss this (if not mods please cancel/edit this post), but since it's publicly available information: Billie Joe is estimated to be worth $55 million. Let's say that the three of them together have $150 million, which I think it's actually way more than reality. This includes properties and whatsoever, it's not their liquidity, which will be way less than this. A world stadium tour like the one we are talking about can end up costing up to $59M a month (https://www.royaltyexchange.com/blog/costs-of-touring#sthash.3lxCqNEt.dpbs). Let's even say that we are on the medium-lower range here, $25M a month (even tho I think this is not really the case since we are talking about 3 huge bands + supporting acts touring only stadiums, worldwide). Make your calculations considering how long this tour was supposed to be, and even if you consider all the artists, from all of the three bands, contributing to cover the costs, you can easily realise that this is not something that can be expected from them. It's not about greediness or rich problems, we don't even know if and how much they actually contributed to cover the losses that this tour is clearly making in the current situation. It's just about economy, it's about the music industry that, as any other industry, in this situation need a state intervention to survive and be on its legs when things will be (hopefully) be able to be back to a new normality. And it's about the workers of the music industry getting paid their salary (a big cut of that monthly touring cost). It's a totally different topic of discussion when we talk about huge corporations, having hundreds of millions if not billions in liquidity, CEOs worth billions, maybe also paying starvation wages and evading taxes in some financial paradise, that somehow manage to get access to public money, while workers get fired and small businesses have to shut down. That is the problem, that sucks.

You’re just a ray of fucking sunshine.

I imagine that they are taking about money that goes to the touring/management companies, not the artists, among other things to pay for salaries of hundreds of people. So yeah, I guess they need that, and every country in the world is setting up similar funds. From what I am reading, the problem in the US is that while big and relatively big companies have easy access to these funds, medium and small size business have limited to no rights, not to talk about self employed workers. Which is typical of that country and sucks. That doesn’t mean that the solution is putting the entire music industry into bankruptcy/having it to rely on the “charity” of artists.

I don’t neccessarily want a shirt with Billie’s dog on it, but I do want more longshot

I lack your sense of responsibility. Ordered. Need it to go along with my Basie Coverups shirt.

Or he could just put another NFM song on vinyl instead

Don’t forget the Golden Bull. As a bulldog I think Cleo should be on that one.

I was thinking a bit about what I've said here a couple hours ago and I need to correct myself: when we say the party records feel immature and unnatural, it's not really about the records that we complain about, but the way they're marketed. I don't think the writing itself is insincere. I fully agree with @Thatsername that FOAM is a dark record that's far from carefree and party (and same goes for a big part of the Trilogy). These albums are about being self-destructive and that's a part of Billie's experience that he's writing about. It's not a reflexive kind of writing, I guess that might not even be possible under the circumstances (he's said before that he used to write about characters and didn't consciously think about himself, even though the songs were autobiographical and this might be a similar situation), but that doesn't mean it's fake (even though it does feel like a step back after revrad). I believe FOAM would get a better reception (at least from us), if it was presented as this dark record about depression/falling back into bad habits etc., than using this "party" narrative that the band themselves weren't convincing about. I get that it's easier to say (and it doesn't get as personal) plus I guess the marketing dept. thinks it's also catchier to present it as this party thing, but it will never work, because it's not true. Imagine they tried to pretend Insomniac was a happy record - the album would be no worse, but it'd seem fake.

Noooo

I guess I’m the OG GDC commie here and I have to agree. Green Day personally may be rich, but they’re just well-paid employees of Warner, it’s not like they run a sweatshop.

Oooh, great idea! Okay, you get your BG shirt without a dog, put Mini on the Otis one, and Cleo on a Golden Bull one.

I prefer dogs to humans, and now you gave me the idea that he could have Mini on a Broken Guitars shirt and Cleo on an Otis one, and I can just have a wardrobe half full of Billie's dogs.

I wish I could see an opportunity to see this band. I have a low income, I wish tickets could be cheaper. Now I'm actually old enough to go on my own I still can't. It really makes me sour seeing my parents go see their favorite artists live and my siblings. But not me. Never me. It sucks.

Here’s the Green Day related part: IE: You made Green Day sound Gary-Glitter huge on Father of All Motherfuckers. BW: Ha! Love Gary Glitter or hate him — and he’s very hateable at this point — there was some good music there. And cool production. And a lot of that ‘70s glam era is in my wheelhouse, from just growing up and loving it and making a lot of tributes, production-wise, just on my own records. That was also a lot of Billie Joe Armstrong’s influences. And like I’ve told people before, half of making a record is just talking with the artist before you even start the record. So Billie and I would spend a lot of time just shooting the shit — over texting and over phone calls — and we had all the same records, we had the same exact influences. He’s very much a musicologist and knows every guitar player on every record, and I love that. So not only was it like, “Did we just become best friends?” It was also “Okay, let me get a vibe on this demo you just sent me, and I’ll send you back a work in progress, a template of how I think it would sound cool.” That’s how we started the record, and he loved it. And there were a lot of those great influences there, like E.L.O., the early Bowie stuff, the T. rex stuff. It was a lot of fun.

FOAM in the trailer.

I couldn't agree with this more. The announcement of FOAM as a party and fuck you-record made me cringe and I thought: Oh no, not again. Bad trilogy flashback. FOAM turned out better than I expected though, mainly because I don't think it's a party record at all, it's actually very deep and depressing in most parts. I like it (except for the first two singles which I still hate with every fibre of my being), but I don't really need another GD record like this. Been there, done that. Twice actually. I still don't get why they keep coming back to the party-fuck-it-all-attitude, it's just SO not them, it always feels wrong. They are deeper and more poetic than that, even if they don't want to admit it. I've always loved a Who'esque Green Day most, and I would love another sophisticated project like a rock opera. The world is so fucked up, we would need their strong voice more than ever. Party is over.

When they rely on touring dollars to pay their staff, I'm not surprised they got it. They will have to pay it back eventually. Even that lovely little "stimulus check" that a large portion of the US got will be paying that back, whether it's on our 2021 taxes or later.

Omg I want that!

Guitar World posted this interview with Mike a week ago. I looked around and seems like no one posted about it, so here it is! https://www.guitarworld.com/features/green-days-mike-dirnt-my-wife-bought-me-a-58-olympic-white-fender-p-bass-it-eats-my-friends-alive-that-i-play-it-live Green Day's Mike Dirnt: “My wife bought me a ’58 Olympic White Fender P-Bass - it eats my friends alive that I play it live” Mike Dirnt is an often-cited bass influence in these pages and beyond, responsible for drawing many a young player into the joys of bassdom. Furthermore, he blew away the definition of a ‘punk bassist’ years ago. The man has far more artillery in his cannon than that, as we discovered when we caught up with Dirnt for a much-needed update and some enlightening conversation. With their new album Father Of All Motherf***ers recently unleashed on the world, Green Day are in a good place. The new record covers a lot of ground, as Dirnt confirms: “There’s definitely some 1950s rock ’n’ roll in there, and we’ve got some 70s glam in there, too; a little bit of Phil Spector and I’m playing with some newer tones that are pushing forward. What was nice was that I was able to play a lot lower, a lot of deeper notes, and drop more actual sub-low bass than I ever have before.” Up until the !Uno! !Dos! !Tre! albums, we would practice together four to six days a week Sounds intriguing... “Well, I’ve always gone back and forth between the punk side of where we come from and old-school rock ’n’ roll. Much of this album was split between one of my signature series basses and an old flatwound-equipped Fender Mustang, which gave me a kind of old-style Hofner tone. To record that, I was running through one of my Fender Super Bassman amps.” Having been together for well over 30 years now, Green Day have a familiar way of working that seems just fine for singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, drummer Tre Cool and Dirnt. Even when they’re not recording or touring, the guys are still working together. “Up until the !Uno! !Dos! !Tre! albums that we did in 2012, we would practice together four to six days a week between tours and records. It shocked me when you’d speak to other bands. I’d be genuinely surprised, like ‘You mean you don’t practice every day?’” He continues: “After the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2015, I realized that we’ve been practicing four to six days a week for our whole f***ing career! But we don’t have to do that now. We know how to write together, and how to work on songs from different angles. “Billie will send playlists of what he’s listening to, because it comes from Billie’s core as to what he’s feeling. He’ll work on songs and send us the early demos so we’re all in the loop. When we’re ready to lay down the proper demos, we get together and then he can manipulate it from that point. “Part of it is not overthinking it, because demos can sound really good these days. I’ve actually used stuff from my phone before. I’ve got a great collection of ideas, melodies, bassline ideas, guitar riffs all on my phone – but you have to keep your ears open for new stuff too.” When we get to the studio, I might write it out 18 different ways until I get it how I want it, but even then I might not know exactly which road we’re going down. With so many miles on the clock together, do tensions ever run high? “Well, I’ve been playing with Billie since I was 10 and a half and I’m 47 now. The thing is, we’re friends and we grew up a long time ago -–so if s*** gets difficult or awkward, we can have a general conversation. “We’re all different people, but there’s a commonality with music. Billie has grown into a phenomenal songwriter but when we get together, he knows he can depend on Tre and I to get our parts down and lay it out for him. He’s a good drummer too and sometimes he might suggest something – but he knows we’ll play it differently and get all of the juice out of it. As for studio craft, Dirnt points out that even when you think a song is finished, it isn’t necessarily the case. “I don’t like to over-listen to something – I like to keep the original inspiration, because you don’t get a first listen again and again,” he explains. “I’ll listen and take notes based on what I’m thinking, play it once or twice and then walk away to let the song evolve. “When we get to the studio, I might write it out 18 different ways until I get it how I want it, but even then I might not know exactly which road we’re going down with it until I actually lay it down. “On Junkies On A High for example, there’s a section where the bassline enhances the verses - but not so much that it takes away from the song. Then, on Meet Me On The Roof, that rhythm can be played so many different ways. “I wrote it a few ways and recorded the whole thing, but when I got in there, I said ‘You know what? The pocket is actually here,’ because I was feeling it differently. At the end, I just opened it up and walked it – turned around into a sort of jazz-walk! –and the guys said ‘What the f*** was that?’ But that was how I felt it.” (Image credit: Greg Schneider) Green Day have hit considerable highs throughout their career, to say the very least – most notably with the Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004) albums, where their progress was tangible – but it hasn’t all been plain sailing, as Dirnt is quick to point out. “It’s kinda weird,” he muses, “because you don’t know when you’re going to write a seminal record that’s going to change your career. Both of those albums were exciting, and we knew we were onto something new for us, taking us to a new level – but it’s not the easy stuff that tests your mettle. “After Dookie, we wanted to get right back into the studio, because we’d signed to a major label [Reprise/Warners], so everyone was freaking out, and we wanted to show that we weren’t a one-trick pony. The follow-up to American Idiot was probably the hardest writing and recording cycle of our careers – because we’re just not built for mailing it in “By the time we recorded American Idiot, we said ‘We don’t care what the world thinks. We’re either going to swing from the heavens or we’re going to strike out –and that’s it. There’s nothing in between.’ “That tour was immense. Those were truly epic shows for us. The Bullet In A Bible documentary was spot on, the sun came out and the planets aligned. That film documented our step up into the next league, playing major stadiums and festivals around the world. It was a pivotal moment for Green Day.” He continues: “The follow-up to American Idiot was probably the hardest writing and recording cycle of our careers – because we’re just not built for mailing it in, and we could have done that. There was a lot of pressure, because there was nothing on the table ready to go. “Our next album, 21st Century Breakdown (2009), was the perfect continuation – and we put our heads down and went to work. After the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction, I wanted to channel our energy into putting something new and great out, to let people know – again – that we’re not done.” One of the reasons I went for the Tele headstock was to stop people buying up the original Telecaster and Precision basses and ruining them Moving on to bass gear, Dirnt’s signature Fender Precisions have proved incredibly successful since their launch in 2004 – but they started life out of necessity rather than as a commercial enterprise. Dirnt’s intention was to prevent vintage instruments from being bastardized, as he explains. “One of the reasons I went for the Tele headstock was to stop people buying up the original Telecaster and Precision basses and ruining them, routing them out for a pickup they were never designed for. “I remember the day I paid Fender to make one of these basses: they sent me several variations before they came to me around 2003 to do a signature model. Nothing happened for around a year, so I made one with my tech and one of our engineers.” We love the pickup he uses, we tell him. “That’s a ’59 Custom Shop wrap – and it’s a great pickup,” he enthuses. “I love to give them to bassists who are much better than me and watch them go, ‘Oh s***!’ What else is in the signal chain, Mike?'” He laughs as he tries to recall what’s behind him onstage. “I usually play four or five basses per show,” he says. “We have a lot of older songs tuned down to Eb, but with the newer stuff, for simplicity, I’ll play in regular E tuning. I have a little Fender Mustang for things like Macy’s Day Parade and other songs that have a different tonal requirement. It’s a simple setup.” Asked about the Fender Super Bassman amps which he uses, he tells us: “I love that amp, and I know Fender redesigned it around six years ago, as they were heading in the wrong direction. I wrote them a letter saying ‘I’d be happy to champion that amp, but here’s what it needs’ – so I sent them a bunch of my old amps for specification purposes. I give away more basses than I buy; I give a lot away to charities and schools “I wanted the DI from an old amp, and I wanted the bass and treble knobs to have the push/pull functions that they used to have and to restore the blend option, so I didn’t have to go through a pedal to distort. That way I could have my clean tone and a distorted tone running side by side, so when I hit the button, I wasn’t losing any of the signal from my cable. “I’m still using Fender 45-105 strings, Ultimate Ears for my IEMs and standard yellow [0.73mm] Dunlop Tortex picks. I move my arm a lot, but my sound really comes from my wrist. I don’t actually hit the strings as hard as people think I do, because I’ve figured out how to get the same attack without going so far through the strings. I like to let the pick move between my thumb, finger and wrist.” Needless to say, Dirnt has acquired some veritable bass gems on his travels. Prepare to drool, folks... “I’ve got some really great ’60s Precision basses. My wife wanted to buy me a great bass, so she found a ’58 Olympic White model – it eats my friends alive that I take it out and play it live! A few years back, Darryl Jones sold me his ’64 Jazz – it’s sick; very nasty. “I also have a ’62 Jazz in Olympic White with a magical neck on it. You play a note on that thing and it sounds like a sine wave, I’ve never heard that much attack. The lows are really low and the highs are almost bell-like. I give away more basses than I buy; I give a lot away to charities and schools.” With Green Day’s rescheduled ‘Hella Mega’ world tour starting in November and running through mid-2021, Dirnt is going to be exceptionally busy – but that’s what he wants, right? With a chuckle, he says: “Anything is possible at this point, which is exciting for Green Day and for me. We can do whatever we want.”

Glad I got a refund for the July show next year in San Francisco. Just read the here in California we will not be moving into or phase 4 til probably after vaccine in about 12-14 months. That means no concerts, festivals they said. "In fact, all that's left to reopen are the businesses in Phase 4: concerts, festivals, conventions and sports with a live audience. What needs to happen before California moves into the next stage of reopening?" "All three medical experts we asked put it plain and simple: You shouldn't expect to attend a concert or a big festival until we have a coronavirus vaccine."

Im hearing two guitars on Kids In America I'm sure it's Billie and Jason doing the other parts

Ultimate shirt would have been this pic. Covers both the Longshot and Lenny.

Twenty One Pilots also got one. I was going through the Small Business Administration data and cracked up when I saw "Twenty One Pilots LLC" on the list. (They're from Ohio.)

^ I had a similar thought today when I randomly heard Somewhere Now. Reflexive and mature Green Day >>>>> pArTy rEcOrD

The link just reroutes back to this page. Do you have another version of that mega link? Maybe it's not working for me because it's a NZ based page? I'd love even higher quality video of that show!

Fuck the government

Everyone’s gonna want that. It’s genius

Even a vaccine might not be enough. This may turn into a yearly thing like influenza, with new strains every year. Hopefully a vaccine will help reduce the death rate but this could dramatically change our lifestyles given how much worse than the flu this is. Thanks China.

When the only reason you're on a certain phone network was to get into the GD Brixton show in 2013

I could do that for him 😈

We need more Longshot records, their covers are so good.

Thanks, I hope so too. It just seems to be getting crazier atm, but we're keeping our heads above water still even with understaffing. Here's Billie. I need his impish smile right now.

I'm sure they've just been sending each other files and doing it all remotely. Billie at least seems pretty serious about staying safe in all this. From what GD have shown us, the recording area of Otis is quite small and wouldn't be conducive to appropriate social distancing

They were tight on the RevRad tour. I think the band is approaching things much more casually now. Not taking anything seriously or trying that hard.

Albums are over. But I don't want individual songs either. A localized drive of music that can contain a nearly unlimited...wait...that is basically streaming services. Okay, I want the next album to be ridiculously long. 50 songs. Super heavy and personal. Maybe some Warning style commentary in the form of MISERY II. Nimrod variety. Insomniac anger. And that super fun FOAM style.

I noticed it's only the more recent songs that others have been on. Wonder if rather than sending their stuff in, if they've been hanging out with Billie at Otis and doing their parts together.

It was clear that the some songs weren't just him. And just another proof that Green Day sound lies on Chris Dugan ears. Big respect to that guy

It's true! All cakes must have a deep fear of Billie. Since I missed out on this yesterday, my favorite picture of Billie with a stuffed toy is this one because he is holding it in his mouth like an animal for no apparent reason. Honorable mention because he's Lion Kinging it. Not a stuffed toy, but this one is just fucking hilarious.

That would be Adrienne’s hand.

Really unfortunate that FOB was able to reschedule

When a co-worker starts describing a vomiting unicorn and you have to stop yourself from telling them about how that relates to GD but go there in your mind.

I think I like this better than the pitch black

Agressive like Insomniac and epic like 21CB. When Bang Bang came out I thought RevRad could be that album I wanted for, but not.

Something harder like Insomniac or something more intricate and detailed like 21CB.