MTV News

Green Day On <i>21st Century Breakdown</i>: 'We're Capable Of Doing Anything'

Posted: 11 May 2009 03:52 AM PDT

'We just wanted to evolve naturally,' frontman Billie Joe Armstrong says of new LP.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Kim Stolz

Green Day
Photo: MTV News

For 15 years now — ever since frontman Billie Joe Armstrong clutched that monkey in the "Longview" video — they've been credited (and sometimes cursed) for bringing power-punk to the mainstream. Thanks to three simple chords and plenty of snotty sneers, they've sold millions of albums, toured the globe more times that they can probably remember, taken on governments and tried to rebuild cities.

And they've done it all with one foot firmly entrenched in the East Bay punk scene that birthed them, stating their allegiance to gutter punks and Gilman Street at every possible chance. It's been both a blessing and a curse, eternally indebted to their past, but inching ever closer to the future. So you can't really blame them for wanting to put the punk out to pasture.

And despite their insistence that their guiding force is still DIY punk, Breakdown seems to be a conscious move away from the genre — and the limitations inherent within it. On the album, Green Day get in touch with their inner arena-rockers, packing 70-something minutes with huge, windmilled guitars, thunderous drums, keening synthesizers, trilling strings and even a few lighter-worthy ballads. It's their Live at Budokan.

Only, to hear Green Day tell it, Breakdown wasn't the product of some knee-jerk reaction or some stadium-filling aspirations ... rather, it was the next logical step in their now three-decade journey as a band.

"We just wanted to evolve naturally. There was no decision like, 'This is how we're gonna sound.' But for this it was like, 'Let's keep moving forward and see where the music takes us,' " Armstrong explained. "I love a lot of, like, British invasion. I love, like, the Who and Cheap Trick and the Ramones. And it's like trying to take that power-pop or that pop-punk or whatever you want to call it, and stretching it into places that are further than we've ever gone."

And though it's a record of high ambition and huge scope, Breakdown actually got its start in a much humbler form: a couple of pie charts tacked to the wall of Green Day's East Bay rehearsal space. Anything to get the creative process started.

"After we came back from tour, we started fooling around with ideas, coming into the studio with a blank page sometimes. You don't know what to do," drummer Tre Cool smiled. "So we got some drum heads and we put a nail in the wall, and we wrote sort of a pie graph thing, of different eras and genres on there, and we'd spin it, and it would say like, 'Death Metal, '60s Garage Psychedelic' or whatever, and then we'd be forced to go in and write something with that ... that's how it all started."

And from those beginnings came an album that's already being called a monumental achievement, and a worthy successor to their globe-uniting American Idiot. And for Green Day themselves, it's been a liberating experience. Finally free of the shackles of punk, they're already thinking about their next musical movement ... and dare we say, it might be a happy one?

"I think you can write about joy," Armstrong laughed. "I mean, technically, we were a slacker band back in the day ... we didn't care about anything, but you keep evolving, you know? And I think we're capable of doing anything."

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Green Day Push The Limits Of Punk

Lloyd Banks Says It 'Feels So Good' To Be Independent

Posted: 11 May 2009 03:52 AM PDT

Plus: Ace Hood tells Mixtape Daily he's back with a 'new mentality and new personality' on The Preview.
By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes

Lloyd Banks
Photo: MTV News

The 1515 Boys (that's us, in case you didn't know — shout-out to El and B. Dot, though) want to thank everyone for the success of Mixtape Daily's first week. We had Lady Gaga, Drake, the sexy Nicki Minaj and a bunch other cats you need to be up on. You have been telling us for a while you wanted more, and last week, y'all showed up and we put up numbers. With that said, let's keep doing it. We'll be the suppliers, you log on, and we'll stay one big happy family. To kick off this week, we got the young gun from Miami Ace Hood and Southside's own Lloyd Banks. On Tuesday, come back for Killa Cam!

This Week's Main Pick

Street King: Ace Hood

Co-Conspirator: DJ Dirt Dawg

Holding It Down For: Miami

Mixtape: The Preview

Real Spit: Ace Hood insists his debut LP, Gutta, was a slept-on classic. But regardless of the sales, when DJ Khaled is running your team, you'll get opportunities. True to his word, Ace won't fold. His new mixtape is here. "I wanted to give the streets a taste of my new mentality and new personality," he said of The Preview.

Official Recognizance: "Get it by all means," Ace said of the title of his new album, Ruthless. "I'mma continue to stay humble, but it's been lot of situations in which we gonna get it by all means. Khaled put it in my head we gotta go hard, go hard, go hard. Whether or not they willing to give it to us, we gonna take it anyway. Get it by all means. Whatever it takes to get it to the top, whether they tell us we can't, we gonna do it anyway." Look for Jazmine Sullivan on a song called "Champion." Ludacris is on the album, as well as the Birdman and Rick Ross. The first single is "Overtime," of course, with Akon and T-Pain.

Joints To Check For

» "Straight Outta Broward." "Broward is ... my home," Ace said of the Florida county. "We holding it down, man. This song, I took it back to the N.W.A days, when they was holding it down and it was 'Straight Outta Compton.' I wanted to flip it and give it my swag: 'Straight Outta Broward.' "

» "Hello." "Based on just stuntin'," he said about the record. "When you ... with your lady and y'all shining. You Gucci, Louis Vuitton down. She's Gucci, Louis bag down. You swaggin' with them 28s on that Cutlass, you straight stuntin'. You wave at them haters: 'Hello!' "

The Streets Is Talking: News & Notes From The Underground

Last week, Lloyd Banks showed love and broke down his new mixtape. Now, the G-Unit soldier is focusing on making a real LP. He's excited to be free from Interscope for his solo projects.

"I was ready to make a move," Banks said about leaving the 'Scope. "I'm a brand-new engine. If anything, it's their loss. It's been a dark shadow cast upon that. That's why you hear [Funk Master] Flex on the radio [boycotting Interscope], because it's an aura created around that machine, and the artists automatically get smacked in the head."

Banks is referring to a recent on-air tirade from Flex, who promised to not play any Interscope music because of the way he was treated by one of the label's executives.

"[An artist signed to Interscope] doesn't even know what's going on," Banks added. "You just turn on the radio, and they're saying, 'F--- Interscope Records,' and you fall into that batch. So it's almost a foul taste in the mouth when they deliver the record. I felt it's time for me to go somewhere where it's not biased and I get a fair shot. There's a lot of stuff on the table right now. You don't wanna speak about it until it gets ironed out all the way."

By the way, the rumors can stop right now: Banks isn't leaving G-Unit. Even though 50 is the boss, Banks and Yayo are co-founders. Can you imagine the Unit without either one of them? Banks said he's still moving under the team's umbrella, whether he goes with another major or even independent.

"Everything happened for a reason," Banks said. "I feel like I'm so blessed because of my work ethic and how easy the music is coming to me. It feels so good to be an independent artist with a brand. I have direct deals with iTunes and things of that nature, where it's direct money coming to me. It's 50 percent of me that's not pressed to be on a major.

"I have the Lloyd Banks branding and also the G-Unit branding," he added. "It hasn't really been an artist out there independent that is still capable of getting out there and regenerating energy. Most of the [well-established] artists that's independent, it's after they dropped seven or eight albums on a major. I have two albums off a major, and everybody is anticipating what I'm doing now off of the mixtapes."

Banks said Polow Da Don, Swizz Beatz and Just Blaze will be contributing beats to his new LP, and he wants some of the A-list MCs to get down as well. "I'm gonna get with the heavy-hitters and make something happen, make a classic album," he promised.

Banko is also eyeing a reality-TV show, similar to "For the Love of Ray J," on which he'd go out to Cali and women would compete to date him. "It's really not a rush," he said about shooting the possible series. "I'm good financially."

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

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