Before the release of Dookie put him on the rock star treadmill of tour bus bunks and five-star hotels, Billie Joe Armstrong lived in the basement of a dilapidated student house in the Californian college town of Berkeley. The basement wasn’t just where Armstrong ate, slept and smoked – although the bongs, empty pizza boxes and sagging couch bore witness to the fact that it was used for all three.

Rather, this was the Green Day headquarters; the base from which the band fielded calls from record labels, and where they rehearsed their set and recovered from their touring schedule. It was also where Armstrong wrote Basket Case on his blue Fernandes Stratocaster. He was 22 years old.

Like the other tracks on 1994’s Dookie, Basket Case was recorded in Fantasy Studios in Berkeley (which had previously played host to Aerosmith and Creedence Clearwater Revival), with Rob Cavallo on production and the whiff of narcotics hanging in the air.

There’s little to suggest that Green Day considered the song to be any stronger than the other potential hits on Dookie, and no evidence that they knew just what a phenomenon it would become. If they had, one suspects they might never had recorded it.

Basket Case was not an overnight success. It didn’t – as media sensationalists would have you believe – pogo its way into the punk history books without breaking sweat. Upon its original 1994 release, the single stalled at number 55 in the UK chart, before nosediving into oblivion, while its parent album Dookie initially limped to number 141 in the US Billboard charts.

Inevitably, it was the asylum-themed video’s heavy rotation on MTV and Green Day’s anarchic performance at Woodstock in 1994 that finally saw Basket Case reach its slacker demographic. With momentum gathering, the band reissued the single in the UK (where it hit number 13 in February 1995) and planted a firm foothold with an incendiary set at that summer’s Reading Festival. Both sides of the Atlantic were now dancing to Green Day’s tune.

But to dismiss the impact of Basket Case as the result of a marketing campaign is to miss the point entirely. It was the perfect pop punk anthem; a three-chord thrash that could be approximated by any covers band, and burnt out as fast as it had reared up (it lasts exactly three minutes).

“It got to the point where I wasn’t even singing the lyrics any more,” Armstrong told VH1 of audiences’ reaction to the song. “People were just doing it on their own.”

This sense of egalitarianism – the fact that it didn’t challenge, patronise or exclude – meant Basket Case could be enjoyed by anyone. Ironically, this would soon prove to be its undoing.

The song also saw a greater complexity creeping into Armstrong’s lyrics. “Sometimes I give myself the creeps, sometimes my mind plays tricks on me,” he yelps in the chorus. “It all keeps adding up, I think I’m cracking up…” The concept of alienation from the world was a staple theme in punk, but unlike, say, Good Charlotte’s Madden brothers, Armstrong actually meant it. Like bassist Mike Dirnt, the singer was prone to panic attacks and anxiety, the symptoms of which were often so extreme that he feared he was losing the plot.

“Basket Case is about anxiety attacks and feeling like you’re about to go crazy,” he later explained. “ At times, I probably was. I’ve suffered from panic disorders my entire life. I thought I was just losing my mind. The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it. It was only years later that I figured out I had a panic disorder.”

Things got even more tangled in the second verse, with Armstrong’s inversion of genders leading to chatroom speculation that this was a confession of his bisexuality. “I went to a shrink to analyse my dreams, she says it’s lack of sex that’s bringing me down,” he begins, before prompting countless scratched heads in the pit with the next line: “I went to a whore, he said my life’s a bore, and I quit my whining cause it’s bringing her down.”

The singer would later brush over the line, claiming that “I write a lot of my lyrics in the first-person perspective, even if they aren’t about me. I’d rather write shit about myself than write shit about someone else.”

Even though the haze of platinum sales and record label backslaps, Armstrong must have seen the backlash coming. Until Basket Case, Green Day were a modestly successful band, who followed punk’s dogma to the letter and still played the venue where they’d cut their teeth as teenagers (the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley). Now they were playing arena tours to punters who drank, fought, and left after Basket Case.

“When it came out, we had no control over who liked it,” recalls drummer Tré Cool. “We had a bunch of super-fivin’ marines going, ‘Yeah, cool, you’re my favourite fuckin’ band, bro!’ You have no control, so you just go, ‘Oh, great, whatever’. We were playing too many Coliseum-style shows. All these ice rinks around Europe, the US and Canada – it gets really impersonal after a while. It became like, ‘OK, let’s play Basket Case again’.

If the song was endearing Green Day to a wider audience, it was doing little to cement their punk fan base. Many of the band’s core following had voiced concerns when they left Lookout! Records in 1993 to sign for Reprise, and by forcing punk overground with an insanely catchy single, Armstrong had pushed many of his subjects too far. The fanzines sneered. The interviewers raised the question of selling out. Even Gilman Street turned its back on its prodigal son, via an anonymous message carved into the bathroom wall that simply read ‘Billie Joe Must Die’.

Set against this yin/yang of mainstream hysteria and underground contempt, it’s no wonder that Green Day reacted violently against the legacy of Dookie. “We’re not going to try and write Basket Case 12 times in a row for one record,” instead the frontman, and he wasn’t kidding.

Released the following year in 1995, Insomniac proved to be a darker and less accessible offering, written on cheap speed and shot through with the message that the party was over. It was the start of a (relative) career lull that ended with the release of American Idiot, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that this was Armstrong’s attempt to compensate.

These days, the band claim they enjoy playing Basket Case again. Perhaps this is because their string of singles following the release of American Idiot have taken the pressure off in the singalong stakes.

Maybe they’re getting too old to cling to the principles they held as teenagers (although it’s surely no coincidence that they often played Basket Case directly after a cover of Operation Ivy’s Knowledge – undoubtedly the most ‘punk’ moment of their set, not least because it sees fans invited onstage to play the instruments).

Or maybe Billie Joe Armstrong has finally accepted that it’s an amazing song that makes crowds go apeshit. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20.

Avril Lavigne was seemingly inescapable during the early noughties, after gatecrashing charts worldwide with her debut album Let Go, and its brilliant unholy trinity of opening singles, Complicated, Sk8er Boi and and I'm With You. 

It was the perfect start for the young Canadian star, who'd first auditioned for American record executive L.A. Reid at just 15 years old, securing a lucrative two-record, million-dollar-plus deal with Arista.

Six albums down the line, as she proved with her recent acclaimed Glastonbury festival performance, Lavigne continues to be an iconic presence in the music scene, hailed as an influence by a generation of younger artists, including Olivia Rodrigo, Rina Sawayama, and Billie Eilish, who posted a picture of the pair on Instagram in July 2019 with the caption 'THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME WHAT I AM.'

Here are the singer/songwriter's seven studio albums ranked from worst to best.

7. Head Above Water (2019)

A battle with Lyme disease forced Lavigne out of the public eye following the release of her self-titled fifth album in 2013, which helps explain the sombre, therapeutic mood of her comeback album.

The emotional title track Head Above Water is the album's highlight, gently revisiting her past trauma, while Tell Me It’s Over too is a captivating listen, especially if you’re looking for a vulnerable Taylor Swift-sounding melody. An unexpected collaboration with Nicki Minaj on Dumb Blonde, motivated by a past incident of misogyny, also works better than you might imagine.

A necessary and important album for the singer, Head Above Water is the medicine she needed to heal and find fun in music again, but, understandably, she’s far from fully firing here.

6. Avril Lavigne (2013)

Inconsistent, slight immature, and heavily shaped by the singer's high-profile relationship with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, who she married four months prior to its release, the highlight of Avril Lavigne is Let Me Go, a power ballad duet between the Canadian lovebirds, long since gig-retired for understandable reasons.

Martin Johnson, of Boys Like Girls, also worked on the album, contributing to songs such as 17 and the anthemic, rebellious Here’s to Never Growing Up. But, in contrast to what opening track Rock N Roll hints at, the album leans heavily into bubblegum pop, exemplified by the uninspiring Bitchin’ Summer, which lists almost every American high-school cliché you can think of. It's all easier to like than to love.

5. Goodbye Lullaby (2011)

Lavigne's fourth album saw a subtle transition into a new chapter for the singer as she hit her mid-20s, incorporating gentler, acoustic tones. While the energetic What the Hell showcases her signature troublesome swagger and a bratty cover of Joan Jett's Bad Reputation is an inspired choice, the likes of Wish You Were Here, Everybody Hurts and Push, possibly influenced by Lavigne nursing a broken heart, are some of the best non-punk tracks in her back catalogue.

With superstar hit maker Max Martin, Swedish producer Shellback, Butch Walker and Sum 41's Deryck Whibley all involved, presumably at considerable expense, Goodbye Lullaby is a solid consolidation of the Lavigne brand, but there are more exciting entries elsewhere in her catalogue.

4. Love Sux (2022)

Returning to pop-punk for the first time in a decade and a half, Love Sux, largely co-written by Goldfinger's John Feldmann, is very consciously redolent of Lavigne’s earlier days. The only problem being that it’s never quite the same second time round.

Bite Me was a major nostalgia blast, bolstered by her increasing TikTok following, while F.U. with Blink-182’s Travis Barker, boss of Lavigne's new label DTA Records, drumming, also stands out due to its chaotic approach. Blink's Mark Hoppus also gets a feature on upbeat throwback All I Wanted.

Sure, it’s a little cheesy at times, with Lavigne, now in her mid-30s, singing repetitive lyrics about boys lying and love sucking, but after such a wait, it's nice to have a reminder of what made the world fall in love with the pop punk princess.

3. The Best Damn Thing (2007)

Following on from the 10-million-selling Under My Skin, the bar couldn’t have been higher for The Best Damn Thing.

After significant band personnel changes, the record steers away from previous post-grunge themes, exemplified by the ultra-hooky Girlfriend, co-written with Pink/Kelly Clarkson/Katy Perry songwriter/producer Dr. Luke, both the best and worst decision Lavigne ever made. One on hand, it matched Complicated as her most successful hit, on the other, it brought her rock reputation into question, planting her in the same bracket as other generic pop stars. Hot, Contagious and I Can Do Better are all far more credible individually. Whatever, it sold five million copies in a year, and it was a while before we got another record of this quality.

2. Under My Skin (2004)

Featuring some of Lavigne’s finest material to date, Under My Skin had the almost-impossible job of following the 16-million-selling Let Go. Deciding where to go next would undoubtedly have been a real predicament for the young Canadian: management were whispering pop superstar dreams in her ear, while distancing from her previous record would have guaranteed carnage. Ultimately, Lavigne  managed to locate the middle ground, evolving into a darker and raw sound, whilst holding onto the magic ingredients that made her debut such a phenomenon.

Crowd-pleasers My Happy Ending and Nobody’s Home pushed Under My Skin to number one on the US Billboard 200, with under-appreciated gems Fall To Pieces and Freak Out helping to justified the album’s dominance. It does feel slightly uncomfortable not putting this one top spot, but...

1. Let Go (2002)

Let Go shook the music scene when it emerged in 2002, not only providing a welcome, alternative getaway from Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera but also rivalling pop-punk stars Good Charlotte and The Offspring.

Lavigne could do it all, from heartfelt pop ballads like I’m With You and Tomorrow to in-your-face pop-punk rebel songs, such as the iconic Sk8er Boi. Then there’s Complicated,  it's legendary millennial status secured through lyrics such as “Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated? / I see the way you’re actin’ like you’re somebody else / Gets me frustrated.” The addition of I Don’t Give, heard in American Pie: The Wedding, and Why, originally a Japan-only bonus track, make the 20th Anniversary Edition even better. Not that the original, a fusion of pop-punk and alternative rock, is anything less than a masterpiece.

Ed Sheeran fulfilled a childhood dream by joining The Offspring onstage in California at the weekend, and performing a song from the first record he ever bought. 

The English singer/songwriter superstar joined the veteran southern Californian pop-punk band onstage at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival on May 26, to play Million Miles Away from the band's 2000 album Conspiracy Of One. 

Introducing Sheeran to the festival crowd, The Offspring's Dexter Holland said, “Ed told us that one of our records was his first CD that he ever bought when he was a kid. That really meant a lot to us, so we thought, Wow, we’d love to have you come out to join us on stage. We’re gonna play one of the songs you wanted to play.”

Sheeran added further context on Instagram, posting a video of himself showing the band an Offspring tattoo on his arm, with a caption stating: “The first album I ever bought was the @offspring – Conspiracy of One. I used to pretend to be in their band in the mirror and sing along to the album when I was 9, mostly to their song Million Miles Away as it was the first song of theirs I heard.

“I mentioned it in an interview and Noodles / Dexter got in touch with me when we found out we were all playing the same festival, to see if I wanted to get on stage and sing it. It was an instant yes obvz. Really felt like living out a childhood dream thank you for having me up there guys. Music is a wild ride, every day I’m so grateful to be living my dream in reality. Hope you enjoy the vid x”

Watch Sheeran's video, and fan-filmed footage of the performance, below:

Sheeran has made no secret of his love of rock and metal in recent years, collaborating with Bring Me The Horizon and Cradle of Filth, and joining The Darkness onstage in London to sing Love Is Only A Feeling. Back in 2018, Korn guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch posted a photo of himself and the Suffolk singer/songwriter backstage at a show in Nashville, and revealed that Sheeran had told him that he'd been listening to Freak On A Leash earlier that same day. 

One person’s crisis is another’s opportunity. Or so it proved for the Bournemouth musician known to his friends as Andy Smooth, when he found his regular gigs in local cover bands drying up as the pandemic shut down the live entertainment scene in the spring of 2020. 

While many bands and others in the music industry were forced to press the pause button on their career, Smooth (aka Andy Leslie-Smith) realised the time was right for him to fulfil a long-held ambition to make a self-written record. 

“I was bored,” he says. “So I wrote an album, and kind of made it on my own.” 

The result was the debut album by Skinny Knowledge, Don’t Turn Out The Lights, a refreshingly raw blast of high-octane, melodically charged punk-pop featuring stompers such as I Wonder. 

“Then as I was putting it together, I thought I’d love to go out and play these songs,” Smooth adds. “So I put a band together.” 

Skinny Knowledge have been gigging for two years now, and have evolved into the current quartet, who have now made an even better follow-up, this time as more of a collective endeavour. Twentytwo (so titled because Smooth sees it as something of a diary of his 2022) is boosted by the more polished performances of guitarist Max Harris, bassist Rab McGowan and drummer Mike Rigler, plus the co-writing contributions of Smooth’s friend Matt Bigland, of Leeds trio Dinosaur Pile-up. 

It’s a heavier affair than Don’t Turn Out The Lights, and opening track I Wanna Rock’n’roll and the equally ebullient, Queens-style rush of Disobey set out the band’s stall, both seeming to express the glorious release of being freed, from lockdown from restrictions, to rock with fresh abandon.

“That first song kind of sums up a theme running through the whole record,” says Smooth. “It’s about going through a heartbreak, and rather than sitting and dwelling on it, you just think: ‘I’m just gonna go out and party.’ And at the same time, lockdown was just lifting, so it was also taking that feeling of breaking free from a situation where we all felt a little bit constricted. Disobey is a similar feeling – about feeling a little bit caged in and then of finally having that release.” 

What Goes Around Comes Around recalls Nirvana in its splenetic attack, while in amusing contrast A Song About Lunch makes rifftastic light of trivial frustrations. Then Too Scared To Live betrays Smooth’s love of Green Day and their talent for turning personal frustrations into positive blasts of raucously tuneful energy. For Smooth, it’s also about putting himself in the position of fans. 

“I want to make big, singalong choruses that stick in your head,” he says. “A lot of the time when I’m writing, I imagine myself at a gig and I think, would I sing along and jump around to this?” 

On the evidence so far, he’d be straight down the front – and so would we.

TwentyTwo is out now. 

Blink-182 have postponed the start of their UK/Ireland tour due to drummer Travis Barker being forced to return to the US to deal with “an urgent family matter”.

The Californian trio were set to kick off their long-awaited UK tour tonight (September 1) in Glasgow at the Ovo Hydro, but have pulled that show, a second Glasgow show scheduled for tomorrow (September 2), their September 4 show in Belfast, and their September 5 show in Dublin.

The band released a statement on social media reading: “Due to an urgent family matter, Travis has had to return home to the States. The Glasgow, Belfast, and Dublin shows are being postponed. More information in regards to his return to Europe and rescheduled dates will be provided as soon as available.”

On Instagram, Barker shared that he was seeking solace in an airport Prayer Room while en route back home. The drummer's wife, Kourtney Kardashian, is due to have the couple's first child this autumn.

The next scheduled date on Blink-182's itinerary is a gig at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium on September 8.

Some Blink-182 fans are less than impressed with the band pulling the shows at the 11th hour.

"That’s my birthday fucked," musician Brent Hood posted. "24 years a fan and never seen you guys live. Lost £130 on a hotel. Did you not have a capable drum tech or step-in drummer for emergencies like this? Devastated is an understatement."

Stinson Hunter, the star of Netflix show The Paedophile Hunter writes, "I hope things aren’t bad but if this is purely Travis having a kid then it’s a shit time for the fans who have lost a lot of money on travel and hotels. Like I say, I hope all is well, but he knew he was having a baby and probably knew the due date."

Another fan, Simon Wood, posted, "Yeah, you really need a European-based drummer. Understand the urgency of a family situation but given the millions you're going to earn, you really should have contingency plans/understudies. Fans are losing out and massively out of pocket yet again" followed by a poo emoji.

A fan from Newcastle added, "Lost my job on Friday. Considered cancelling my hotel, cancelling my train tickets to save my money and miss the gig but thought “no ive had a shit year and need this” and now me and my fiancé have lost £400 and probably won’t be able to afford to come back when rescheduled"

Jodie Richards, a fan from Cornwall, writes, "I have travelled 521 miles to Glasgow from Cornwall to be told by someone in the street this has been cancelled. £600 on flights and accommodation thoughts are with Travis but are Ticketmaster actually going to reach out at some point? #devastated"

One fan, posting as CardioGigGoer, offered a measured reaction to the news, writing, "Completely understand. Just loaded up Ticketmaster and saw it was postponed. Hope the family’s okay, Travis. I’ve been here before. It’ll be twice as good when it gets rescheduled Keep the faith everyone x"

Bring Me The Horizon have shared a new single, the pop-punk styled Lost, accompanied with a bloody, brutal, extremely silly and definitely NSFW video.

The track is part of the Yorkshire quintet's Post Human series and follows on from previous singles DiE4u and Strangers.

The song's opening verse runs:

'Watching Evangelion
With a big fat slug of ketamine
I lost the plot
A little while ago, oh
My dog just died
My friends hate me
I saw myself on MTV
& my ego is not my amigo, no'

The video, which sees BMTH frontman Oli Sykes embarking upon a murderous rampage following some decidedly dodgy cranial surgery was shot in Los Angeles and features a cameo from American Pie star Thomas Ian Nicholas.

Watch the video below:

In February, drummer Matt Nicholls said that the band would have new music for fans to hear "pretty soon".

“New songs coming? Yeah,” he told Impericon. “We’re actually working on them at the minute. We’ve got a studio on our bus. We did it in America – we wrote a bunch of stuff, actually, and recorded some stuff in America as well. So hopefully one pretty soon.”

Watch Nicholls' interview below:

The band are set to headline night two of the four nights at Download 2023 in June, for what will be the UK metal fest's 20th anniversary staging.

Metallica will headline the event on June 8 and 10 as part of their M72 world tour, Bring Me The Horizon will play on June 9, and Slipknot will close the festival on June 11.

Before the release of Dookie put him on the rock star treadmill of tour bus bunks and five-star hotels, Billie Joe Armstrong lived in the basement of a dilapidated student house in the Californian college town of Berkeley. The basement wasn’t just where Armstrong ate, slept and smoked – although the bongs, empty pizza boxes and sagging couch bore witness to the fact that it was used for all three. 

Rather, this was the Green Day headquarters; the base from which the band fielded calls from record labels, and where they rehearsed their set and recovered from their touring schedule. It was also where Armstrong wrote Basket Case on his blue Fernandes Stratocaster. He was 22 years old.

Like the other tracks on 1994’s Dookie, Basket Case was recorded in Fantasy Studios in Berkeley (which had previously played host to Aerosmith and Creedence Clearwater Revival), with Rob Cavallo on production and the whiff of narcotics hanging in the air. 

There’s little to suggest that Green Day considered the song to be any stronger than the other potential hits on Dookie, and no evidence that they knew just what a phenomenon it would become. If they had, one suspects they might never had recorded it.

Basket Case was not an overnight success. It didn’t – as media sensationalists would have you believe – pogo its way into the punk history books without breaking sweat. Upon its original 1994 release, the single stalled at number 55 in the UK chart, before nosediving into oblivion, while its parent album Dookie initially limped to number 141 in the US Billboard charts. 

Inevitably, it was the asylum-themed video’s heavy rotation on MTV and Green Day’s anarchic performance at Woodstock in 1994 that finally saw Basket Case reach its slacker demographic. With momentum gathering, the band reissued the single in the UK (where it hit number 13 in February 1995) and planted a firm foothold with an incendiary set at that summer’s Reading Festival. Both sides of the Atlantic were now dancing to Green Day’s tune.

But to dismiss the impact of Basket Case as the result of a marketing campaign is to miss the point entirely. It was the perfect pop punk anthem; a three-chord thrash that could be approximated by any covers band, and burnt out as fast as it had reared up (it lasts exactly three minutes). 

“It got to the point where I wasn’t even singing the lyrics any more,” Armstrong told VH1 of audiences’ reaction to the song. “People were just doing it on their own.” 

This sense of egalitarianism – the fact that it didn’t challenge, patronise or exclude – meant Basket Case could be enjoyed by anyone. Ironically, this would soon prove to be its undoing.

• Green Day – The Early Years
• Watch Yoda and 108 film stars sing Green Day's Basket Case
• How Green Day's Woodstock performance turned into a muddy riot
• The Top 10 Best Green Day Videos

The song also saw a greater complexity creeping into Armstrong’s lyrics. “Sometimes I give myself the creeps, sometimes my mind plays tricks on me,” he yelps in the chorus. “It all keeps adding up, I think I’m cracking up…” The concept of alienation from the world was a staple theme in punk, but unlike, say, Good Charlotte’s Madden brothers, Armstrong actually meant it. Like bassist Mike Dirnt, the singer was prone to panic attacks and anxiety, the symptoms of which were often so extreme that he feared he was losing the plot. 

“Basket Case is about anxiety attacks and feeling like you’re about to go crazy,” he later explained. “ At times, I probably was. I’ve suffered from panic disorders my entire life. I thought I was just losing my mind. The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it. It was only years later that I figured out I had a panic disorder.”

Things got even more tangled in the second verse, with Armstrong’s inversion of genders leading to chatroom speculation that this was a confession of his bisexuality. “I went to a shrink to analyse my dreams, she says it’s lack of sex that’s bringing me down,” he begins, before prompting countless scratched heads in the pit with the next line: “I went to a whore, he said my life’s a bore, and I quit my whining cause it’s bringing her down.” 

The singer would later brush over the line, claiming that “I write a lot of my lyrics in the first-person perspective, even if they aren’t about me. I’d rather write shit about myself than write shit about someone else.”

Even though the haze of platinum sales and record label backslaps, Armstrong must have seen the backlash coming. Until Basket Case, Green Day were a modestly successful band, who followed punk’s dogma to the letter and still played the venue where they’d cut their teeth as teenagers (the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley). Now they were playing arena tours to punters who drank, fought, and left after Basket Case. 

“When it came out, we had no control over who liked it,” recalls drummer Tré Cool. “We had a bunch of super-fivin’ marines going, ‘Yeah, cool, you’re my favourite fuckin’ band, bro!’ You have no control, so you just go, ‘Oh, great, whatever’. We were playing too many Coliseum-style shows. All these ice rinks around Europe, the US and Canada – it gets really impersonal after a while. It became like, ‘OK, let’s play Basket Case again’.

If the song was endearing Green Day to a wider audience, it was doing little to cement their punk fan base. Many of the band’s core following had voiced concerns when they left Lookout! Records in 1993 to sign for Reprise, and by forcing punk overground with an insanely catchy single, Armstrong had pushed many of his subjects too far. The fanzines sneered. The interviewers raised the question of selling out. Even Gilman Street turned its back on its prodigal son, via an anonymous message carved into the bathroom wall that simply read ‘Billie Joe Must Die’.

Set against this yin/yang of mainstream hysteria and underground contempt, it’s no wonder that Green Day reacted violently against the legacy of Dookie. “We’re not going to try and write Basket Case 12 times in a row for one record,” instead the frontman, and he wasn’t kidding. 

Released the following year in 1995, Insomniac proved to be a darker and less accessible offering, written on cheap speed and shot through with the message that the party was over. It was the start of a (relative) career lull that ended with the release of American Idiot, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that this was Armstrong’s attempt to compensate.

These days, the band claim they enjoy playing Basket Case again. Perhaps this is because their string of singles following the release of American Idiot have taken the pressure off in the singalong stakes. 

Maybe they’re getting too old to cling to the principles they held as teenagers (although it’s surely no coincidence that they often played Basket Case directly after a cover of Operation Ivy’s Knowledge – undoubtedly the most ‘punk’ moment of their set, not least because it sees fans invited onstage to play the instruments). 

Or maybe Billie Joe Armstrong has finally accepted that it’s an amazing song that makes crowds go apeshit. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20.

Seeing as it’s Tré Cool’s birthday today, we present to you 10 lesser known facts about the Green Day sticksman. Buckle up.

• Tré Cool was born in Frankfurt, Germany.
• His real name is Frank Edwin Wright III. His nickname Tré is derived from his surname, while Cool was given to him by his neighbour Larry Livermore – founder of Lookout! Records, one-time home of Green Day.
• He made his first recording with Livermore’s band The Lookouts, aged 12. He appears on their 1987 debut, One Planet One People.
• On The Lookout’s second album, Tré performs lead vocals on That Girl’s From Outer Space and Sonny Boy.

• He joined Green Day in 1990 as a temporary replacement for John Kiffmeyer, who left the band to study at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. Tré joined the band permanently and made his debut on their 1992 album, Kerplunk.
• Cool’s father, Frank Co–, sorry Frank Wright, refurbished an old mobile library for Green Day. He acted as their driver for three tours. “On their first tour or two, it was more of a party than anything else. I still scratch my head and say, ‘How in the hell did they make it?’” remembers Frank.

• Green Day - Revolution Radio album review
• How Green Day's Basket Case changed pop-punk forever
• What would Green Day's American Idiot video be like without any music?
• How Green Day's Woodstock performance turned into a muddy riot

• He has a daughter Ramona and a son, Frankito, which sort of means Little Frank.
• Tré is the godfather of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s children, Joseph and Jakob Danger.
• After selling millions of records for Green Day, Tré is yet to realise one of his other ambitions. “I wanna survive an avalanche,” said Cool. “I wanna be one of those people a dog finds buried under a ton of snow.” Cool story, bro.
• For reasons known only to himself, in 2007 Tré uploaded a cover version of YouTube personality Tay Zonday’s viral hit, Chocolate Rain. Enjoy.

Green Day’s new album, Revolution Radio is out now.

Cartoon Cameos Quiz

In the months leading up to the release of the title track from their 2004 album American Idiot, Green Day were in the doldrums.

The song and band’s profile was given something of a boost by music video director Sam Bayer, the man responsible for videos by Nirvana, Metallica and Marilyn Manson.

Performing in front of a corrupted US flag that bleeds green liquid all over the band themselves, the political anthem enjoyed near-constant rotation on music television channels.

• Green Day - Revolution Radio album review
• How Green Day's Basket Case changed pop-punk forever
• The A-Z of Green Day
• The Top 10 Best Green Day Videos

Even if you’re not a fan of the band but have heard the song itself, you know how it goes and are probably humming the opening line as you read this. But the power of the trio’s anti-George Bush rhetoric loses its power when you strip the actual song from the images and add in the idle strumming of an unamplified guitar and a jokey overdub of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong miming to his own song.

The clip above is the handiwork of House Of Halo’s Erik and Eline. Here, the Dutch duo have created a shortened version of the three-minute original, minus the riffs, the drums, bass and vocals. What we’re left with is three punks splashing around in luminous green water and making odd grunting sounds.

Is it genius or simply unsettling? We’re undecided.

Cartoon Cameos Quiz

Since their beginnings as a fuzzy pop-punk band making tunes New Found Glory would be proud of, A Day To Remember have evolved their sound into a hybrid of metalcore, hardcore and the more upbeat stuff.

“We loved pop punk, we loved hardcore bands, and we couldn’t decide what to be. So we said fuck it. Let’s do them both,” vocalist Jeremy McKinnon told AbsolutePunk in 2011. And they did, to varying degrees of success across their six full-lengths. We got stuck into their discography to rank their records from worst to best.

6. For Those Who Have Heart (2007)

After recording their debut on indie label Indianola, ADTR made it clear they wanted more for the second album. In an interview before For Those Who Have Heart was released, guitarist Neil Westfall said Indianola “didn’t have money to support a band growing”, and they inked a deal with Victory instead. We all know how that turned out, but that’s another story. It’s immediately obvious that they’ve got bigger production budgets at their disposal here; it doesn’t sound like it was recorded in a garage, for a start. But the unpolished fuzziness was part of their debut’s charm, and if you’re going to go big on your sound, you need big songs to make it a worthy endeavour. Instead, For Those Who Have Heart – while it’s home to one of their most-played songs, The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle – doesn’t offer much in the way of hooks that get under your skin.

5. Homesick (2009)

There are decent tunes on here like The Downfall of Us All, I’m Made Of Wax, Larry…, and NJ Legion Iced Tea, but overall, Homesick feels like the same few ideas stretched over 12 songs. It’s not that it’s a bad album, but we know ADTR are capable of better. With earlier songs like Your Way With Words Is Through Silence and Monument, they prove that they know how to weave a decent melody together, but much of Homesick feels meandering rather than hooky. It’s the first album that features Chad Gilbert on production, and is noticeably more polished-sounding than its predecessors, suggesting that ADTR were subtly trying to move into their next phase here. The overall feeling, though, is that they haven’t quite eased into it yet.

4. And Their Name Was Treason (2005)

After the intro comes Heartless, and the urgent, frenzied hardcore of the verses is somewhat misleading as an indicator of what’s to come. It is, though, a suggestion that, had ADTR decided to sack off the pop-punk and follow in the footsteps of the likes of Every Time I Die, they’d have been pretty good at it. But they didn’t, and it’s the pop-punk that carries the album here: Your Way With Words Is Through Silence and A Second Glance have Blink 182’s influence all over them. When And Their Name… was released, there weren’t many other bands boldly plonking hardcore sections in the middle of a skate-punk song, and while the overall sound isn’t as refined or deftly moulded as their later material (they dealt with that on the reissue, and have been open about the fact that resources at their first label, Indianola, were limited), this is the beginnings of their identity, and for its time, it’s innovative.

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3. Bad Vibrations (2016)

Naivety might be the most catchy thing ADTR have ever written, but it’s something of an anomaly on Bad Vibrations, which spends most of its time exploring heavier territory. The perfect fusion of sounds that the band found on its precursor Common Courtesy seems to have fallen away a bit, and the flow of the record is interrupted halfway through as it goes from solid metalcore to softer, more emotional stuff. We’ve heard ADTR lose their shit over a hardcore breakdown before, and we’ve heard them throw bottled-up nostalgia and poignancy over a speedy punk riff, but we haven’t heard them go full emo. It’s a valiant effort – Justified is a bona fide weeper – but it feels a little overblown compared to their usual raw edge.

2. Common Courtesy (2013)

You couldn’t get a more solid pair of opening tracks than City Of Ocala into Right Back At It Again if you tried. The upbeat, sunshine-drenched pop-punk that ADTR played with on their first album is back, and the darker, heavier moments no longer stick out like buck teeth among the more melodic moments. Here, they’re woven seamlessly in, and the band sounds like it’s settled fully into its identity as a metalcore-punk chameleon.

1. What Separates Me From You (2010)

This feels like the point in ADTR’s career that they truly harnessed the dark side. Not the Star Wars kind, but the ability to channel their anger into dark, booming riffs and snarls. 2nd Sucks sounds like a tentative foray into deathcore, and it’s executed well. Melody hasn’t been done away with completely, of course; it’s there in the stomping anthem It’s Complicated, and on the palpably frustrated All Roads Lead To Lauderdale. Even for those of us who didn’t grow up in Florida, the feeling of needing to escape a small town for the bright lights and promise of the city is something we can all relate to.

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Ocala quintet A Day To Remember made the headlines last week when they were awarded a $4 million payout when they won a legal battle against their old label, Victory Records over a breach of contract.

Legal disputes aside, the band have swung between punk, metalcore and angry bursts of hardcore throughout their 13-year career, and their latest album has seen them make a triumphant return to the melodic pop-punk that’s always been part of their sound.

As the band prepare to tour the UK in January, we pick the 10 best cuts from their six-album catalogue.

Naivety

The third single from their latest album sounds great when cruising along an open road on a warm day, windows down. Trust us, we’ve tried. This sounds like ADTR have finally nailed how to write a solid anthem.

It’s Complicated

It might not get many live outings, but It’s Complicated deserves to see the light of a gig more often. Its insistent rhythm is made for a rowdy crowd to jump to. The upbeat sound is actually quite at odds with the lyrics, but we’ve all had times where we want to “avoid the sun and cancel plans with everyone”. A stomping beat goes some way towards pulling us out of that fog.

City Of Ocala

The passion and sincerity shines through in this ode to the city Jeremy McKinnon and his bandmates grew up in. He reminisces about being told “this life is a dream”, but it’s one he’s now living. That fuzzy feeling when everything falls into place – a rare emotion, but a treat when it happens – is captured in the simple but upbeat chord progressions, and a chorus you’ll want to hum when everything’s peachy.

Your Way With Words Is Through Silence

In their early years, ADTR took more of their cues from the pop-punk greats than the breakdowns and heavy rhythmic pounding of metalcore. The verses recall Blink 182, and blends that bouncy, slightly off-kilter rawness of skate punk with a heavy chorus, and shows off the best of both sides of their sonic personality.

Monument

The blast beats and heavy, brisk chugs make Monument sound darker than it is, and it’s another example of how adept ADTR are with mixing the bright and the more sinister facets of their sound. The band obviously think so, too; it’s a frequent addition to their setlist.

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I’m Made Of Wax Larry, What Are You Made Of?

This dark and vengeful stormer from Homesick gets its name from the altogether less dark and vengeful Ben Stiller movie A Night At The Museum. The sunny pop-punk of the previous two albums gives way here to something angrier, fuelled by a minor key and Chad Gilbert’s polished production.

Speak Of The Devil

Pogoing back and forth from a metalcore growl to clean vocals within one verse could make this sound schizophrenic, but it works. When the chorus kicks in, the backing vocals and drum fills recall The Offspring in a subtle burst of nostalgia, without the feeling that their pop-punk forerunners are being ripped off.

The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle

One of the heavier offerings from For Those Who Have Heart, Panhandle often provides a loud and frenzied finish to ADTR’s live shows. Its mix of aggressive hardcore breakdowns and frenetic punk show that they don’t have to rely on singalong melodies to create something strong.

Bad Vibrations

They don’t go full heavy often, but when they do, they leave no ceiling unrattled. Bad Vibrations has no almost clean vocals whatsoever, and its relentless roar is ADTR harnessing their dark side to great effect.

The Downfall Of Us All

It might start off a bit weird, with a chant akin to something a swaying group of drunken estate agents might bellow after the office party, but once that’s out of the way, a persistent rhythm and a guitar that battles impressively with syncopated drums make this an instant crowd pleaser.

A Day To Remember tour the UK from January 22.

Cartoon Cameos Quiz

Aussie quintet Tonight Alive took fans by surprise with the sharp change in musical direction on their latest record, Limitless. In place of the spiky pop punk that found them fame was contemplative, introspective pop rock, with big choruses and slick production.

Since releasing their latest album, the Sydney band have toured relentlessly, first on Warped Tour over the summer, then in Japan then into the UK and Europe. Next, they’ll be heading to South America later this month before finishing the year with a lengthy stint across North America.

For vocalist Jenna McDougall and guitarist Whakaio Taahi, Limitless isn’t just a change in their sound – it’s the musical manifestation of their desire to live their best lives. Here’s what they had to say about following your dreams and finding happiness.

You’re really passionate about being true to yourself and always make this clear on stage – have your speeches helped you grow your own confidence?

Jenna: “Touring takes a lot of energy, focus and preparation, and a lot of fucks to give. You’re here and it’s a privilege. Part of the reason I [make speeches] on stage is so I can hear it every day. To have a mantra every day that you repeat, especially on stage where I feel like I’m on my highest high and I get to be who I truly want to be… you can’t always feel safe to do that, so I feel like the stage is the best place for me to say it and for it to be received.”

As well as the message on Limitless, it’s also a big change in your sound. Were you worried about how it might be received?

Whakaio: “These songs on Limitless are starting to sink in for us. It’s really becoming a lifestyle now and we’re starting to live it every day. Jen’s really living that on stage and being her true self. We took a really big risk with Limitless because we’ve taken a step in a direction that we wanted to do, and it was the first time we didn’t censor ourselves. We’re willing to take the brunt of that and have people talk shit on us, but we want our fans to see they can do the same. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, because all that is, is a reflection of them. If they say a negative thing to you, it’s because they feel that way. It’s their fear.”

What first attracted you to a more mindful, spiritual way of living?

Jenna: “I think the place [our spirituality] began was our friendships being built on this foundation of ‘what are you going to do about it?’ That was the first action-based lifestyle we embraced. When I was about 15, I’d call Whak and cry and be suffering emotionally, and he’d say, ‘OK, so how are you going to change the situation?’ It was such a foreign concept to me, and it’s still something I have to create tools to work with every day. I guess I was always attracted to a more spiritual lifestyle, but I think it was something that developed naturally from the age of about 21 or 22. [I was] kind of raising my awareness a little more – working on my health, becoming vegetarian and then vegan. It cleared the passages in my body to be more conscious and aware of my environments and relationships. It was in increments, and I want to keep growing every single day and every person I meet, I want to learn from them.”

Whakaio: “I think looking at yourself is one of the hardest things you ever have to do in your life, because you may not like what you see. But that’s OK, we’ve all got to work on it. Everyone you meet has something to teach you, we’ve just got to be open and aware. Happiness is a by-product of the thing that you’re living. If you’re living your true excitement you’re going to be happy, rather than pushing down those thoughts of what you want to be doing, because that’s how you become sick.”

What does the future hold for Tonight Alive?

Jenna: “We’re really enjoying the touring cycle right now and I feel like we’re living the philosophy we wrote about that we weren’t yet embodying. Every day I feel like I’m closer to living my purpose, if not already doing that. And that’s a feeling that started at the beginning of 2015 when we were doing Soundwave, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m actually practicing what I’m preaching for the first time’. Half the messages and speeches and lyrics are so I can drill them into myself. I think I’ve said enough positive things that I believe them now, so I guess this is opening up the doors for us to keep accepting what comes naturally to us and developing our intuition in that way. I’m excited to see what kind of music we can create because we’re no longer chained to pop-punk. I feel like that’s where we were three years ago, but with Limitless I feel like we have a clean slate and an open door that we don’t know where it leads to, but I’m happy with that. I like the unknown. I challenge myself in ways that I wouldn’t do when I was younger, like cutting my hair a certain way or creating the costumes I wear on stage. I challenge myself and therefore I improve myself. If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”

Tonight Alive are on tour until December 18. Limitless is out now.

Ordinary World, a film starring Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, will be released on October 17. The movie, which premiered as Geezer at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, sees Armstrong play an ageing former punk rocker settling into suburban life. TeamRock went along to an advance screening to see how he coped in his first leading role…

He’s a decent actor

The Green Day frontman can hold his own in a film alongside some big acting names. He plays his part naturally alongside Selma Blair, who takes the role of Karen, his wife, and thankfully doesn’t have the awkward self-awareness that some musicians-turned-actors approach their roles with. His goofy, forgetful Perry is written as a cliché in places, predictably forgetting to take the trash out and putting no effort into his dead-end job, but Billie takes it in his stride, and is particularly believable when he finds himself in an awkward situation with an old flame.

The music’s alright, too

Billie wrote four original songs for Ordinary World, which crop up throughout the film. They’ve all got the feeling of Green Day b-sides, particularly the opening track, but they also stand alone in this rock-flick-lite. Just don’t expect any big stage performances; this film is very much about dealing with the aftermath of having been on the cusp of fame, and as such, focuses more on Perry’s current guise as a frustrated, middle-aged father than his previous career as a frontman. If you’ve ever dreamed of being serenaded in a posh hotel room by Billie, though, now’s the chance to live out your fantasies.

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The clichés are strong

As with any film that can be filed under ‘feel-good’, the characters rely on tried-and-tested tropes rather than being developed in any meaningful way. Selma Blair’s Karen is the stressed mom trying to sort out everyone’s life, her parents are disapproving, but well-meaning, suburban retirees, and Perry’s brother is the down-to-earth one, running a hardware store and despairing of his brother’s antics. Of course, his old friends from the ‘band days’ haven’t grown up, and are slightly tragic embodiments of men in a permanent midlife crisis trying to live like they’re still in their twenties. When Perry gets uppity about drinks being put down without coasters at his own party, it feels like his transition into boring dad mode is being over-egged, but you’ll still find yourself cringing for him as his party – and his life – unravels around him as the result of one silly spur-of-the-moment decision.

The twist isn’t what you might expect

Ordinary World is released on DVD and digital download on October 17. You can pre-order the film here.

Green Day’s new album Revolution Radio is out on October 7 through Warner Brothers. The band will headline British Summer Time festival at London’s Hyde Park in July 2017.

Cartoon Cameos Quiz

I’d just started high school when I bought my first album, so I was into the whole mindset of independent life. I felt like I was becoming an adult, but obviously I was still just a little kid. My older sister had already been at high school for a couple of years and she was friends with a group of punk rocker kids that were into skate culture and alternative music, and by the time I got there I was looking for something to identify with. This was right around the peak of Californian pop-punk.

It was all kicking off at the same time: the American Pie movies, the Tony Hawk videogames, Jackass and all that stuff. I just happened to be at the right age at the right time, and the first record I wound up buying with my own money was Enema of the State by Blink-182. I saved up for the album with my pocket money and I remember it being really expensive; I think it was over 20 pounds for the regular jewel case CD!

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I’d never seen artwork like that before, or musicians with so many tattoos and such brightly coloured guitars. Growing up in Glasgow, which obviously wasn’t the most sunny or colourful place at that time, it was the exact opposite to my day-to-day experience and it became a form of major escapism for me. Like I said, I was looking to belong to something, and that album was there for me at that moment in my life. So I fully embraced it and it led me to the point I’m at today where I’m in a band myself.

I think I took a lot of top-line melody from Blink-182, and because they were a three-piece band the guitar played such a huge role in any sort of instrumental gaps that it became something I instinctively looked for in a lot of other music as well. Tom DeLonge’s particularly distinctive singing voice was inspiring to me too, because he sang in his own accent and embraced who he was, and I guess that bled into me doing the same thing when I started singing my own songs. I get a lot of stick for singing in my Scottish accent, but Tom DeLonge taught me to just go with it and so I did.

We actually went on tour with the band twice, around 2011 when our album Free came out, and we met and hung out with them pretty much every day. Tom’s other band Angels & Airwaves took us on tour around Europe as well, where we played much smaller kind of club venues, and I talked with him for up to an hour at a time some nights on that tour about his take on music and being in a band. It was surreal, like a teenage dream come true. He even invited us out to his studio in San Diego and we got to see all his iconic platinum records up on the wall. It was like a ‘died and gone to heaven’ sort of situation, only we weren’t there because we’d won a competition – we were there because he liked our band. It was bizarre.

Twin Atlantic’s new album GLA is out on September 9 through Red Bull Records. The band kick off a UK tour next month.

Everyone’s favourite pop-punk/metalcore crossover merchants A Day To Remember are just about to release their sixth studio album Bad Vibrations. If there’s one thing you need to know about the Ocala heavyweights, it’s that they know how to write a chorus. And a breakdown. And a hook. Okay, they’ve got their songwriting down pat. But is a sixth record pushing the formula too far, or are they just getting started? Let’s look at each track on the album to find out…

Bad Vibrations

While A Day To Remember are often criticised for not being heavy enough, the album’s title track is a straight-up contemporary metal song that you could imagine the likes of While She Sleeps blasting out. Fuelled by vitriol, it still packs bags of bounce and the obligatory breakdown that sends fists straight through the floor.

Paranoia

Here’s the big single, powered by frantic punk impulses with a drum pattern that sounds as if it could all fall apart at any moment. But don’t go thinking it’s all pop-punk – this has a harder edge surrounding the poptastic, anthemic chorus that’ll leave you humming it for days. In fact, frontman Jeremy McKinnon compared it to Ace Of Spades – so make of that what you will.

Naivety

A band usually known for their positive outlook, Naivety might sound like a happy-go-lucky pop-rock tune but lyrically, it’s so much darker. Jeremy reflects on his loss of naivety, his dislike toward growing older, and having no apologies for being himself. But yes, it’ll still make you pogo and wish you were in a Blink-182 video.

Exposed

You could accuse Bad Vibrations of being schizophrenic record that switches between pop-punk and metalcore at a moment’s notice, but that’s what A Day To Remember are all about. Jeremy’s harsh vocals sound more snarling and disgusting than on previous albums and the monstrous chugging guitars leave your neck in tatters, while the ‘No war! No peace!’ breakdown threatens to level your house. Nice. Especially if you need your house levelling for some reason.

Bullfight

The second longest song at four minutes and 36 seconds, and it’s the only one that lacks identity. The instantaneous impact of the previous four tracks were like baseball bats to the earholes, but now the mid-album lull is in danger of treading water. Sure, all the punked-up elements are there but none are reacting in a meaningful way.

Reassemble

The threats of dullness are quashed by this gang-vocal led and satisfyingly menacing chugfest. Back in ADTR’s more metallic territory, in which they thrive on this album, the uplifting, epic chorus is precisely what you want to hear after a long day at work. Stick your fists in the air and tell your boss what you really think of them while blasting this.

*If you get the sack, we accept no responsibility whatsoever.

Justified

A satisfyingly typical A Day To Remember track that bridges that gap between saccharine choruses and brutal vocal hooks. There’ve been many imitators but none are as succinct and polished as this Floridian metalcore mob – and no-one can write such a swelling chorus that you just want to bathe in. Can you get riff-scented bath bombs? You can now.

We Got This

It was inevitable really – it’s the slightly emo, all-inclusive, sombre one about being proud to be different. While some songs of this ilk come across as insincere, there’s something genuine about ADTR’s delivery and persona that gives you hope this song might actually help someone in need.

Same About You

Keeping the emotion needle deeply in the red, it’s time for the break-up song. While the song conjures images of someone different for all of us, we can all unite and admit this ripping guitar solo that comes out of nowhere is more than welcome before a brief respite into heavier territory. Sure, it could come across as wimpy, but the size of the chorus more than makes up for it.

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Turn Off The Radio

From the instant the vocals kick in, you know ADTR aren’t letting up any time soon. The production on the record is nothing short of extraordinary, making these five men sound as large and ferocious as King Kong’s bodybuilding uncle. You know, the one who can’t get a t-shirt to fit. This will no doubt be a bona fide live favourite soon – but don’t expect to hear it on the radio.

Forgive And Forget

Oh dear. The big ending is a bit cheesy, huh? Brooding instrumentals with echoing vocals repeating the song title does not a meaningful song make. While it’s an interesting diversion for the band, ending the record on Turn Off The Radio would’ve been a better idea.

Bad Vibrations will be released on September 2.

It’s been four years since Green Day last released a single; four years since their trio of vaguely-conceptual Uno! Dos! Tres! albums failed to make much of an impact with, well, anyone at all. It’s fair to say, then, that new single Bang Bang has something to prove.

On first listen, Bang Bang has many of the hallmarks that made the best Green Day songs great: a four-chord chorus full of hooks, riffs that could have belonged to Bad Religion – or any one of their mid-90s cohorts – and a thunderous, bouncing rhythm track. It’s rebellious, fun and snotty, but also glistens with catchy, irresistible pop. The lyrics are lined with that trademark wry humour, which sees the band poking fun at that oft-referenced – if slightly ironic – target of pop-punk ridicule: the plastic cult of celebrity.

But, it also fails to rid itself entirely of the aspects that saw them lose momentum post-American Idiot. The squeaky-clean production won’t be for everyone, the backing vocals are hokey, and a little more grit left on the lead vocals would only have helped Billie Joe Armstrong’s overtly socio-political lyrics pack the punch they need.

Musically, it’s ambitious in a way that Green Day haven’t been for years. That their American Idiot album spawned an entire musical stage show in its wake should be some indication of their talent when it comes to epic musicality – disguised though it is in three minute pop songs – and Bang Bang’s mid-track breakdown is the best example of this ability since that album’s release in 2004.

Granted, Dookie it ain’t, but if the saccharine teen angst of Wake Me Up When September Ends, or the tired pop-punk-by-numbers of Uno! Dos! Tres! left you cold, then this should feel like an encouraging shot in the arm. A return to form? Well, that remains to be seen, but Bang Bang could be a promising step in the right direction.

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