Official Press Release: In advance of the release of their new Green Day ¡Uno!, Green Day ¡Dos!, and Green Day ¡Tré! album trilogy, Green Day will look back on their career with the release of the eight-CD boxed set The Studio Albums 1990-2009 on September 4th, 2012. The collection treads the band’s meteoric journey from their 1990 debut, 1,039/ Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, through Kerplunk (1992), Dookie (1994), Insomniac (1995) Nimrod (1997), Warning (2000), and American Idiot (2004), to 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown.
Available exclusively from Best Buy, the set features each album in an individual CD paper-sleeve with original artwork, housed in a clamshell box. All eight albums are neatly packaged together in one place, giving the listener a sharp, sizzling slice of punk rock history and an in-depth look at the band’s evolution.
Green Day’s 19-track debut, 1,039/ Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, traces their beginnings in the East Bay underground punk scene. The album is a compilation of three separate long plays: 39/ Smooth, Slappy, and 1,000 Hours. Time spent in the studio was particularly true to punk’s short and fast form, with the sleeve notes stating that the album was “recorded in twenty-two hours”!
Kerplunk followed in 1992, and included an early version of “Welcome To Paradise,” which was later re-recorded for Dookie and released as a single. Kerplunk would also be was the band’s last release for the independent label Lookout!. Propelled by incessant touring and word of mouth, the band’s popularity increased rapidly, and they eventually signed with Reprise and began preparing for their major-label debut.
Dookie was released in February 1994 and catapulted the band into music’s mainstream with the massive hits “Longview,” “Basket Case,” and “When I Come Around.” The album, which began Green Day’s longstanding relationship with producer Rob Cavallo, went on to sell over 15 million copies worldwide and earned the band its first Grammy® Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. Green Day had officially arrived.
Only 18 months later, the highly anticipated Insomniac followed. Singles “Geek Stink Breath,” “Brainstew/Jaded,” and “Walking Contradiction” sat wedged in heavy rotation on MTV, and the album remains the band’s third best-selling record after Dookie and American Idiot.
Testament to the group’s ferocious artistic output, they continued with their two-year album cycle and delivered Nimrod in fall of 1997. Nimrod featured the acoustic single “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life),” which has gone on to be one of the band’s most beloved songs. Live favorites “Hitchin A Ride” and “Nice Guys Finish Last” are also included.
Warning saw Green Day experiment with their sound, bringing a more acoustic layering to many of the album’s tracks, including the stomping, sing-along “Minority,” the swinging “Waiting,” and the reflective “Macy’s Day Parade.”
Four years later the band released their seminal rock opera American Idiot to massive commercial success and critical acclaim. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, produced five hit singles, earned seven Grammy® nominations (winning two, including Best Rock Album), and even spawned a hit Broadway musical. Ten years after the release of their breakthrough Dookie, Green Day had changed popular music’s landscape all over again.
Following the success of American Idiot, expectations were high for the 2009 release of 21st Century Breakdown and Green Day did not disappoint. The album reached the No. 1 spot in over 15 countries worldwide and picked up a 2010 Grammy® Award for Best Rock Album on the success of hit songs “Know Your Enemy” and “21 Guns.”
Green Day is currently preparing for the release of their trilogy of new albums – Green Day ¡Uno!, Green Day ¡Dos!, and Green Day ¡Tré! – on September 25th, 2012; November 13th, 2012, and January 15th, 2013, respectively.
