There are so many videos of Green Day performing live, and so many of them are shaky, blurry, and noisy, that I don’t bother to look through them most of the time. These may not be the best recent ones — since I only sampled a few — but I thought they were worth sharing, as a reminder of how both heartbreakingly touching and stupidly and hilariously goofy our boys can be within the blink of an eye.

“Last Night on Earth”, “WMUWSE”, and “Good Riddance” in Melbourne:

Male strippers and more for “King For a Day” in Melbourne:

And if you haven’t seen it, here’s Tre getting a cake in his face for his birthday, in Brisbane.

~There’s a new Green Day fan site dedicated to fan art, icons, screencaps, etc. I enjoyed the collection of Billie Joe’s funny faces. There’s lots more, so check it out.

This article from the East Bay Express is not new. It’s from 2001, but I only just came across it recently, and it put a smile on my face. It’s about Metal Mike Saunders, singer of the punk band the Angry Samoans, who is apparently a huge fan of Green Day and is proud to announce it to the world.

First off, you have to know about the Angry Samoans. They’ve been playing since 1978 (Metal Mike is 56), and they have a reputation for being silly and eccentric, and charmingly stupid in the best punk rock tradition. But they’re also very smart, and I think their music is pretty great, though it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

I have to admit being a Green Day fan is sometimes embarrassing to own up to, especially being a fan who actually has uh, a website about them and is 44 years old… But hey, Metal Mike is even older than me, and he’s in an actual hardcore band, in a scene that tends to look on Green Day as mushy or too-popular for its underground tastes. But he’s happy to embrace them. As the article says, “One of the greatest things about Mike is that he is completely and totally free of music snobbery.”

‘They are the greatest band of the last thirty years,’ he says. He owns every 7, import, B-side, and alternative take the Berkeley boys have ever put out. ‘They are the greatest band since 1967; the best band since the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys.’ To say that Mike has an almost autistic knowledge of the band is to put it lightly; he knows who owns the ’second best collection of early Green Day photos,’ what records they listened to when they were twelve, and what videos they show their kids now (Beatles cartoons, a gift from Mike himself).

Plus he actually got to play with them in the early days… Sigh! I don’t know if Metal Mike is Green Day’s number one fan. Some of you reading this may well qualify for that title. I don’t believe in ranking fans — I think we’re all one big gooey fandom — but the article is saying it jokingly anyway. Read it all here. I think it’s cute and funny, and you may see some of yourself in Mike.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Angry Samoans, here’s a couple of sample songs. These are both from 1982.
Angry Samoans - Time Has Come Today

Angry Samoans - Homo-Sexual

~I don’t really agree with this author’s point of view, but it was an amusing read anyway: Looking For A Green Day Album? Check Your Mom’s Minivan.

~This is too funny. Granted that the blog posts from the Reverend may not be easy to grasp for the uninitiated, but the editors of NME seem to be particularly clueless. They wrote, here, that the Rev said he had been partying with Sting! “After writing about their recent experiences touring the US, including recounting partying with Sting, the band wrote…”

Shanty Cheryl, who took some great pictures of Pinhead Gunpowder, posted a photo that Tre took with her camera. Does he have a future as a photographer?

I think he may have accidentally included the door to the alien mother ship in the shot… what’s that glow on that door? I always knew Tre had to have come down from another planet!

And she also comments on Billie Joe being a photographer: he was helping someone take photos of one of the opening bands on Feb. 1 because he was closer to the stage. Sigh, always so sweet!

I couldn’t just leave that last post at the top… too sad! So here’s a couple tidbits I thought were good for a chuckle:

A Green Day preschool? Who better to care for your kids?

[ Source ]

And I’ve seen this picture before but not with the caption still intact: “Basket Case or a Chump with a Short-view?” Maybe I’m juvenile, but that made me laugh. “Short view…” *snorts* Don’t click on this if you’re underage, k? [ Naughty ]

 
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He wants to be Billie Joe… is it working?

This record has absolutely nothing to do with Billie Joe, other than the name and the “beautiful cover art with Billie Joe in underpants.” Nevertheless, it’s quite stupid and hilarious, and if you were ever curious about what it sounds like, maybe even own a copy but can’t play it because you don’t have a turntable, now you can download the songs. If you want to read the lyrics and the idiotic and funny inserts, here they are.

You can still buy this new, from Lookout Records, and personally I think the cover art alone is well worth the purchase price of $3.50. I have it on my wall… (I think you can tell the picture I posted is a bit faded.)

Ok, I know this is old news, but I found this short video on YouTube, which I had never seen before, where Billie Joe makes an infant cry (or that’s what the title implies!), and it brought a smile to my face. I thought I’d share it.

Just for the record, I think the woman holding the kid must be pinching him or something. Billie Joe? Make someone cry? Well, he’s made me cry, but for totally different reasons. Awww, even when he’s getting cries, he still brings smiles to some of us!

Billie makes an infant cry???

This little clip comes from the 2004 Summersonic interview in Japan. It’s a pretty funny little interview - the guys are being their usual witty selves, clowning around. Tre even goes past the barriers into the audience a few times. If you’re interested in the full video, it’s on YouTube in three parts…

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Did Billie Joe actually say, ‘People are more than welcome to just come up on stage any time they want to.’ ??? I don’t understand Japanese, but I think the audience liked that idea as much as I do.

Watch the video on YouTube.

This isn’t new, I just think it’s cute and cool. The kid is totally into it, and his classmates sit in (mostly) rapt attention, while the teacher, who also seems to be completely delighted, politely claps along. Maybe she doesn’t know that he’s swearing, or maybe she does; I find it so refreshing to see the song allowed to stand on its own, with its original meaning and without censorship. The kid is singing the live version, complete with Billie Joe’s growls, “everybody!”s and “get those fists in the air!”s.

The person who posted the video wrote this:

“I used to teach this kid English the regular way, but he hated it. Then I introduced him to Green Day, and he wanted to ditch the English lessons and he asked me to teach him how to play guitar instead. So, I teach him guitar, but I hide the English lesson behind the guitar lesson, so he’s getting both.
I really quite proud of this guy. His English pronunciation is better than most average Japanese high school students, and Jesus of Suburbia is only the second song he’s learned. Of all the songs he decided to learn, he chose the 10-minute powerbomb.

“Yes, it is the live Bullet in a Bible version. He wanted to do that version, that was his call, and what a rockin’ call indeed.
Additionally, he also knows what the song is about, and it’s inspired him to research other Green Day albums.
On the swearing: yes, he knows he’s swearing, and like most children who swear, he enjoys it more than he should.
Does this sound any different from a normal die-hard Green Day fan? I think not.”

Ok, before you roll your collective eyeballs at me, give this a read. I’m not the only one obsessed who has a healthy interest in running my fingers thru Billie Joe’s rock star hair! I found this little article thru a Google alert - YES, it’s news, dammit!

(Please guys…Bill, Mike, Tre; I’m begging you. There is no real news-worthy shit to talk about, so we are resorting - well, I am resorting - to hair issues!!! Yes, again. As Bonnie Raitt sings, ‘Give us something to talk about’, willya??)

Anywho, the article…

Billie Joe’s hair style (The one from the 2006 Kid’s Choice Awards, and I have to specify, because really, does the man have the same style for more than a month? Hey, it gives me something to talk about - I’m not complaining!! Bring back the blonde!! *ahem*) is described as, ‘you’d better have the ego and the kahunas to pull it off’…clicky here. Scroll down past Chester and Scott; although, I’m sure their hair, egos, and kahunas are just fine in their own right.

So, it’s confirmed; our guy has an ego. And kahunas. Well, duh! He’s a man.

But hmmm, this is where I have a slight problem with this evaluation.

1. Ego - This is not just any ordinary man (or any ol’ ordinary rock star for that matter) and his BFE (Big Fat Ego) we’re talking about here. This is Billie Joe Armstrong. Our Billie Joe, the unpretentious super rock star. The Billie Joe who doesn’t even have a hint of a tiny ego. He’s the boy with the shy smile; he’s a man with confidence and courage; he’s an artist filled with brilliance and talent, amazing stuff that should’ve given him the biggest head in creation, but hasn’t. He’s the Billie Joe we all know and adore. Well, that’s how I see him anyway. Maybe I’m thinking of the curly Billie? (yes, just an excuse to post that picture.)

2. Kahunas - Don’t worry, I’m not gonna go there…

With Fall Out Boy playing Basket Case just a few days ago in concert, I decided to take a look at who else had covered it. There are loads of versions on YouTube. Here’s a sampling of a few interesting, good, bad or odd covers of Basket Case. All the links are to YouTube videos.

There’s the Avril Lavigne version we all know and hate. And this is a live-in-concert cover by the Japanese band Puffy Ami Yumi, with electronic keyboards. The band is also a children’s cartoon, which you might have seen on the Cartoon Network. Not my cup of tea, exactly, but the crowd is totally into it, and so is the band, and I have to admit it’s kind of cool in its own way.

The Offspring are a band who might actually do a credible version of the song, but in these two clips, from 1994 and 1995 in concert, they’re just screwing around, playing snippets, stopping and starting. There’s a bit of rivalry there I guess: at the time The Offspring and Green Day were getting compared to each other all the time. Basically, they’re kind of being assholes, but I really like The Offspring so I don’t want to be bashing them.

I really like covers that try to do something different with the song. This is a nice solo acoustic guitar version, slow and emotive. This is another acoustic version. I don’t like it quite as much, but it’s an original take on the song. This is a good piano rendition. No singing, just piano: the left hand plays the rhythm and the right hand plays the melody.

I thought this was pretty cool, so I was sad that there’s only twenty seconds of it: it’s a German a cappella group, apparently standing around on a street, singing Basket Case. The Chimpunks did an a cappella version too, which frankly I couldn’t listen to all the way through. Then there’s Weird Al’s polka version…. Uhm, yep.

A few marching bands have covered Basket Case. This one is nice, it’s just the sax section. I’m not sure what to make of this next one: two bellies with faces drawn on them sing Basket Case. They’re more weird, and maybe even slightly gross, than funny, but odd enough to rate a mention. The song itself is sung a cappella. Both of these videos start out with a piece of classical music, Pachelbel’s Canon in D (not that I know classical music, it was written in the comments), and then segue into Basket Case. This is a hilarious rant by a comedian about how Pachelbel’s piece finds its way into a lot of popular music. He mentions Basket Case and sings a few lines with his own funny lyrics. (The video has only been viewed 3.2 million times so I figured the guy needed a plug from me…)

I think this one is from a Malaysian version of American Idol. I couldn’t help but notice he said “lack of love” instead of “lack of sex” and “I went to the shore” instead of “I went to a whore.” Yeah, we all go to the shore whenever we’re lacking uh, love, don’t we?

This is one of the dorkiest things ever, which makes it kind of cool. These guys are playing Basket Case in front of their house, in Belgium, and they’re very paranoid about a police van parked nearby, so they keep talking and laughing over their own playing, saying stuff like, “It’s the police!” Cracked me up. Well, sort of.

And just to cleanse the palate, Basket Case how it’s supposed to be played: Green Day live in Chicago, 1994, and Green Day live at Rock AM Ring, 2005.

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