Green Day related projects

Since 1991, some members of punk band Green Day have branched out past their "main band" and have started other projects with other musicians and have released full-length albums and several EPs. Notable related projects of Green Day include Billie Joe Armstrong's Pinhead Gunpowder (which also featured Green Day's other guitarist Jason White), The Frustrators in which Mike Dirnt plays bass, and The Network which many speculate has all three members of Green Day, although under stagenames.

Pinhead Gunpowder

Since 1991, Billie Joe Armstrong has been a member of Pinhead Gunpowder, providing guitars and vocals along with Jason White. Musician and Zine writer Aaron Cometbus (drums, lyrics), Green Day road manager Bill Schneider (bass), round out the lineup. Primarily a "studio only" type of side-project, the band has done a scant few rare shows, the last one occurring on February 12, 2010, at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. . The band's latest release was 2008's West Side Highway EP on Recess Records.

The Frustrators

Mike Dirnt also plays bass for the band The Frustrators, who are signed to Billie Joe's Adeline Records. They have two releases on the label, the Bored in the USA EP and their first full-length album Achtung Jackass. Dirnt has a Frustrators sticker on his bass that is very visible in Green Day's more recent videos, as does Billie Joe on his Fernandes Stratocaster Copy. Other members of the band are Jason Chandler (lead vocalist), Terry Linehan (guitar, vocals), and Art Tedeschi (drums). All of the members are from other bands, Linehan from Waterdog, Chandler and Tedeschi from Violent Anal Death, and Dirnt from Green Day.

The Network

In 2003, during time Green Day was in the studio, a new wave band known as The Network was formed. Four of the five members of the band are allegedly the four members of Green Day. The frontman, known only as "Fink", is believed to be Billie Joe Armstrong. Armstrong has referred to himself as Wilhelm Fink in the past, and a Pinhead Gunpowder fansite bio of Billie Joe Armstrong confirms Fink's identity.^[1] Armstrong's voice is also "unmistakable" on The Network's albums. The Network's bass player, known as "Van Gough", is supposedly Mike Dirnt; the guitarist of the band, "Balducci", is also believed to be Jason White as they are both seen with a similar guitar playing stance; and The Network's drummer, "The Snoo", is thought to be Tré Cool. The other members of the six-piece band are reported to be members of the band Devo. John Roecker, director of Live Freaky Die Freaky, starring Green Day and other East Bay punk alumni, and Green Day's DVD documentary Heart Like a Hand Grenade, has spoken of various projects recorded at Studio 880, including a new wave album and a Christmas album, during the sessions of Green Day's American Idiot. Studio 880 is the credited studio in The Network's Money Money 2020 album and American Idiot. No official connection has been made between the two bands, and both bands have defended, sometimes aggressively (in a probably staged press conference where some members from both bands engaged in a heated argument that broke into a minor conflict), the lack of connection between the two. Green Day's management has always declined to comment on the ongoing situation between Green Day and The Network. On October 6, 2005, The Network agreed to support Green Day with Jimmy Eat World on the American Idiot tour.

Foxboro Hot Tubs

During the first week of December 2007, a MySpace profile^[2] appeared featuring a band whose lead singer's voice "unmistakably" belonged to Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. Later that week, an official website, with six downloadable mp3s, also came into fruition.^[3]

In early 2008 Green Day revealed that they are in fact, The Foxboro Hot Tubs. The band said in a e-mail to MTV-News:

"We think that the only similarity [between the Hot Tubs and Green Day] is that we are the same band.

That is basically the only similarity, We are Jason White, Jason Freese, Michael Pritchard, Frank Edwin Wright the Third and the Reverend Strychnine Twitch... We are five guys who love to play music and be spontaneous,[and] after a few late night jams and a few too many bottles of wine, we were inspired to record some rockin' eight-track recordings."

Green Day drummer Tre Cool's real name is Frank Edwin Wright III, bassist Mike Dirnt is Michael Pritchard, and the Reverend Strychnine Twitch is another one of Armstrong's numerous alter egos. Jason White and Jason Freese play in Green Day as well.

The record of the Foxboro Hot tubs is titled Stop Drop and Roll!!! and was released on May 13, 2008.

In May 2008 the band made a small spring tour with eight dates. They supported Green Day in Manchester, England, at the MEN Arena on Halloween 2009, and played at The Garage in Islington on November 2, 2009.

Stage version of American Idiot

Berkeley Repertory Theatre announced that a musical adaptation of Green Day's record American Idiot would premiere as the first production of the theater’s 2009–10 season, and run from September 4 through October 11. The musical will be a collaboration between Green Day and Michael Mayer (Tony Award winning director of Spring Awakening).^[4] Green Day will not appear in the production, but the show will have an on-stage band.^[5]

The Longshot

In Early 2018, Billie Joe Armstrong formed The Longshot with Green Day touring guitarist, Jeff Matika, as well as Prima Donna members, Kevin Preston and David S. Field. The band quietly released a self-titled EP on April 12, 2018 before releasing their debut album, Love Is For Losers, on April 20, 2018.^[6] Along with the release, Armstrong also announced a North American tour that summer.^[7]

With the formation of The Longshot, many Green Day fans began to question if Green Day had broken up. In response to fan reactions, Armstrong made a post on The Longshot's Instagram story, saying:

"Some of you are asking about Green Day and if there’s anything wrong, or if we’re breaking up. The answer is: no.

I am having some fun with some of my friends. I am what you call ‘a musician’. Some people have a hard time calling it that sometimes. With that said, shut the fuck up. You’re a fucking whiner, and I’m playing music because that’s what I’m supposed to do. That’s what people that play guitar, and drums, and bass, and they sing – this is what we do.

So if you don’t like it, then fuck off. And if you do like it, come along, because it’s a lot of fun. Alright? Have a pleasant day."^[8]

In Addition to their debut album, The Longshot also released three EPs exclusively on Soundcloud before and after the album's release. All three EPs were later given releases on other music platforms.

Charity events and songs

• Green Day performed at the 1999 Bridge School Benefit.
• Armstrong was part of an ensemble of musicians that sang The Beatles' "Across the Universe" at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards as part of a tsunami relief production. The band also pledged to give the profits from the downloading of their song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to the tsunami relief fund.
• Green Day performed at the Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005, in Berlin, Germany, where they played "Holiday", "American Idiot", "Minority", and a rendition of Queen's "We Are the Champions".
• The band also contributed a prerecorded performance to the Hurricane Katrina Benefit relief event on September 10, 2005 from their performance the prior week at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The televised portion (shown on MTV and VH1) showed the trio performing their single "Wake Me Up When September Ends".
• The band used to write songs in the People's Park, Berkeley and has generously supported Food Not Bombs (supposedly $25,000 to each of several organizations).
• On September 7, 2006, Greenday.com^[9] announced that Green Day would work with rock band U2 to record "The Saints Are Coming", originally by The Skids. The proceeds would benefit Music Rising, an organization that replaces instruments musicians lost in Hurricane Katrina's wake. The song reached number one in Ireland and number two in the UK charts.^[10]
• Green Day joined forces with the Natural Resources Defense Council to fight for the environment.
• Green Day had an auction for an autographed bike; the money is going to charity.
• Green Day covered John Lennon's song Working Class Hero on the CD Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, which helped Amnesty International to focus attention on the urgent catastrophe in Darfur, Sudan. The CD was released June 12, 2007.
• Billie Joe, Jason White and their families helped to build homes in New Orleans (April 2007) and sent in daily updates to Green Day's Myspace.^[11][12]
• Tré Cool hosts the annual Music in Schools Today (MuST)^[13] golf tournament to benefit (San Francisco) Bay Area schools' music programs. Mike Dirnt also participates.
• Billie Joe participated in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon which aired on several networks on September 10, 2010. Near the middle of the telethon, Billie Joe performed "Wake Me Up When September Ends", the Green Day song he wrote about his father's death from esophageal cancer.
• On September 5, 2017, Green Day performed a pre-show backstage Facebook Live stream to raise money for Hurricane Harvey relief. The show was played as a three piece. They also donated $100,000 to Americares to help Hurricane Harvey relief.

References