Ask Green Day what’s led them to releasing their own video game two decades after the band formed, and they might tell you that it’s the “thrill seeking” aspect of the band.
The fact is, no one does rock-n-roll stamina like Green Day. They were the producers of angst anthems in the 1990s with Dookie, Insomniac and Nimrod, and when those 15-year-olds grew up, the band managed to transfix a new group of angry teens in the mid-2000s with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Arguably the most successful punk band to date, they’ve won Grammys, inspired a Tony-nominated Broadway musical, and now, they’re the second musical act to have a dedicated Rock Band game to their credit, behind only The Beatles.
(More on Techland: Green Day’s Thoughts On The iPad Will Make You LOL)
Green Day: Rock Band, released yesterday for XBox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii ($60, Amazon), features 47 tracks (including the entirety of Dookie and American Idiot) and a treasure chest of archived footage, much of which the band admitted they had never seen themselves. Peter and I sat down with them in late April and chatted video games, musical discovery and even the Pope. (Don’t ask, just watch.)