~If you’ve noticed that there are fewer Green Day videos on YouTube, it’s because they were pulled due to an ongoing contract dispute between Warner Music and YouTube.

As you know by now, Green Day lost the “Best Act Ever” award at the MTV EMAs to 80s pop singer Rick Astley.

There are some music industry awards that Green Day seems to consider a genuine honor. When they were nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year for American Idiot (which they lost, though they won Best Rock Album the same year), they seemed to appreciate their peers’ recognition of their work, especially after years of having been dismissed as snot-nosed pop-punkers with the success of Dookie, which has always been, in my opinion, a first-rate album that was greatly underrated by many music critics.

But I wouldn’t guess that they care very much about a somewhat silly award like Best Act Ever from the MTV EMAs. Given people’s varying tastes for different types of music, there’s no such thing as a “best act ever,” and if one were to try to come up with one by applying somewhat objective standards, Tokio Hotel and Britney Spears would arguably not even be in that category. So I for one am not at all displeased that the whole somewhat nonsensical affair was highjacked by the pranksters behind the Rickrolling craze.

The turn of events is best described in an article in The Times. Last year, 79 million votes were cast for the MTV EMA awards in all categories. This year, Astley received more than 100 million votes, more than the total votes cast for every other winner combined.

Rick Astley himself, who declined to participate in the awards show despite reports that MTV “begged” him to come, said: “I just felt it was a bit of a daft award. How can you present the best act in the world ever? It was just a bit ridiculous.”

The reasons behind Rickrolling the awards are not just to have a bit of fun, but also to stage a kind of tongue-in-cheek protest of the tactics of the music industry — and major players within it like MTV — to try to shape what the public should like and what music people should buy. The Rickrolling pranksters were saying, in effect: you want to manipulate us, well, we can manipulate you, and have a giggle doing it too. Rick Astley, who should be commended for getting the joke instead of getting a swelled head, said, “It shows you can’t decide what people want at the end of the day. You can try and ram it down their throats but you can’t.”

On a more serious note, the awards show was a showcase for the excitement that many are feeling over the election of Barack Obama to the US presidency.

[ Source ]
This photo of Billie Joe was taken at the B.A.D. girls roller derby, Richmond Wrecking Belles vs. Oakland Outlaws, on October 11, 2008. (I think that’s right…) Here’s another really blurry one.

There’s another video of Green Day in the studio up on YouTube, this one with Mike and Tre, and even Jason Freese. Stay tuned to GreenDayStuff’s videos to find out as soon as any new ones are posted. It’s pretty great that the guys are willing to keep us clued in. Sometimes the internet is not half bad…

The appearance of the first video, along with the confirmation it gave of Butch Vig’s role as the album’s producer, made an enormous splash all over the net. There are hundreds of blogs and news sites talking about it, too many to count. Try searching on Google News or Google Blogs if you’re curious. These are just a few of the major news sties: MTV, Spin, NME, BBC, Yahoo.

For those of us who have been paying attention to Green Day even during the long hiatus since the release of American Idiot, it’s a reminder of how many millions of fans are out there and how many people are interested in Green Day’s music and can’t wait for more. (Even little old me had the most recent article I wrote for this website copied in its entirety by another site without my permission.) It’s also a reminder that being a diehard fan of a hugely popular band is an exercise in patience and humility. It can be hard to be a fan of something that you love in a special way and that has meaning for you and realize you have to share. Each of us is one tiny star in a galaxy of fans. But that’s not a bad thing. Being a fan is one area in your life where you can give up your ego and pretensions and just be all wide-eyed, and simply admire from afar… and grin like an idiot.

We got confirmation in an email from Warner Music UK that Butch Vig is indeed producing Green Day’s album. That’s the message: “Yes it’s Butch Vig!” So, yep, it’s true!

Rumors had surfaced as early as August that Butch Vig, the producer of Nirvana’s Nevermind album and a member of the band Garbage, might be producing Green Day’s new album. The rumors seem to have been confirmed when Butch Vig’s Garbage bandmate Shirley Manson appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly on Oct. 2 and said, in answer to a question about Garbage’s future plans: “Butch is producing Green Day, so he’s busy.” That’s rather vague, and leaves somewhat open the question of exactly what role Vig will play, and whether other producers will also be in the mix (the original rumor had also named Joe McGrath as “assisting in the process as well.”). But the latest source (Shirley Manson) certainly seems to be a reliable one.

The clip of Shirley Manson on Last Call was posted on YouTube by Green Day Forum (another video of the same Carson Daly episode was deleted by Youtube “due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal”), and, as backed up by the video clip, the news was posted on the Green Day Authority. GDA was careful to say that details are not known, and to say that we don’t know if Rob Cavallo might play a role as well, but once the news was picked up by a major news outlet (Punk News), the info spread on from there, like wildfire, all over the net.

Punk News is a class act, that has been around forever. They were completely fair and transparent in their reporting, and they stated that the source of the news was Green Day Authority, so that anyone reading the news could see the original news item for themselves. Many other music news outlets ran the story, which as of now, as far as I can tell, is only based on that one short remark made by Shirley Manson.

Just to give an idea of what a big splash this has made, these are some of the many music news sites that have reported the info: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

I like the take that Consequence of Sound has on the latest bits of news. Their only conclusion is that, based on the “recent scuttle” about Butch Vig’s involvement in producing the album, and on the info provided by the website for Warner Music’s mailing list for the UK, “it certainly appears as if Green Day has found its way into the studio. As of now, we’ll play the wait and see game.”

I don’t pretend to have the musical sophistication that would allow me to exactly distinguish how a Green Day album might sound different as worked on by Butch Vig or Rob Cavallo, or any other producer. But, out of curiosity, I thought it was interesting to watch some of the videos on YouTube in which Butch Vig describes the process of producing Nirvana’s Nevermind. In this one he talks about “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Follow the links on YouTube for the rest.

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Oct. 9, 2008
Update: We received an email from Warner Music UK confirming that Butch Vig is producing Green Day’s album.

Hollywood for Habitat For Humanity is holding an auction of celebrity items to benefit their work building homes for families in need. Among the items up for auction is a Gibson Epiphone guitar autographed by Green Day.

Read all about it on their ebay auction page. The first stage of the auction, which includes the Green Day autographed guitar, runs from Oct. 6 to Oct. 16.

The slideshow in the auction page sidebar includes photos of Billie Joe and Tre working with Habitat:

More » » »

I received an email from Warner Music in the UK. As we all had surmised, but didn’t as yet have actual confirmation, Green Day is set to release an album in 2009!

Warner Music UK will be building a new official UK Green Day website, and they want to create something new, useful and interesting for fans, something that we all can enjoy. Leading up to the album’s release, they’re currently asking UK fans to sign up for their mailing list. You can sign up here. Stay tuned for more updates and for the new website to be unveiled in the coming months.

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A couple weeks ago, Shanty Cheryl from Recess Records was kind enough to send me an email with the details about the progress of the Pinhead Gunpowder 7 inch. I posted the info on GDA, here, including the news that there will be a limited edition of 500 on colored vinyl.

Since then, there has been an update from Recess Records from their MySpace, letting us know things were chugging along. And now Vinyl Collective has posted the cover art, the name of the record, which is apparently simply self-titled, and the ability to preorder the record, plus the news that if all goes well, the record could be out as early as next week. They write:

Our friends at Recess should be picking up this week from his pressing plant a brand new Pinhead Gunpowder 7″. So if the plant actually delivers all of these records, next week, we should be seeing a lot of great records.

So get on this while you can. The Pinhead 7″ is out of an edition of 500, todd was hoping for blue vinyl, but since the plant has been so backed up, he said if there is a color that gets this record pressed sooner, put it on that color so we will find out what it ends up being.

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Update: The preorder page has now been removed. (Aaand… now it’s back.)

As many of you may recall, when Pinhead Gunpowder played a mini-tour in February, they debuted three new songs and said they would be putting out a 7 inch record. You can see Billie Joe making the announcement here, at 3:45. And you can hear the live versions of the songs on YouTube as well: On the Avenue, Anniversary Song, West Side Highway.

News about the record had been quiet for a while. We had only learned it would be released on Recess Records. About a week ago, I had heard from Shanty Cheryl — you’ll remember her from the great photos she took of the Pinhead Gunpowder shows — and she wrote: PS: Just listened to the master of the new pinhead record. The songs sound great! I’ll let you know when we release it.

The news has now been confirmed by a MySpace bulletin from Recess Records, which was reported on Green Day dot net, and later on other sites, including Punk News (though they don’t seem to be aware of the songs having been played live), that the release date is expected to be July 22.

I’ve always loved Pinhead Gunpowder. They’re like a grittier version of Green Day to me. I love Aaron Cometbus’s lyrics… love the whole package! So this is good news.

I remember ordering a copy of Jump Salty back in the Dookie days, when I was interested in learning about anything Green Day, or any of its members, had done, and falling in love with it. I also remember getting Carry the Banner, which at first had only been released on a 10 inch vinyl, which sadly I no longer have. I wonder what happened to it?

Well, today’s the day - if you didn’t get a chance to grab the downloads when they were available, you can head out to pretty much anywhere and everywhere today and pick up a copy of the actual CD. I grabbed mine over the lunch hour - it’s pretty cool with it’s retro look and tiny little album cover.

For those that haven’t got one yet - here’s a look:

Sadly, they seem to have removed Highway 1 from the CD release and replaced it with Broadway instead. I wonder why?

Good luck as well tonight to Delfina at the New Orleans show! I’m sure it will be amazing, and I’m sure she’ll be back soon with a full “inside scoop”!

John Roecker, the filmmaker who has been working on Heart Like a Hand Grenade, the documentary about the making of American Idiot, just posted a MySpace bulletin with an update and new photos. No word on exactly when the film, which has apparently been delayed for some time now, may be released, however. Thanks for the news to Tripe on GDC and my own beat now. He writes:

Color Correction for Green Day Film Done
Text: Yep the masterpiece is complete. All prepped and pretty. Now let’s pray to the Gods ( and Satan to) that it can now be unleashed on this world.

It was so worth the wait!!!
xoxox
John

A sneak peek - sure looks purty.

Color correcting Green Day.

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