Pat Green Discography
Anais Wachowski
It's September, so guess that means we'll be walking a lonely road all the way until the end of the month when you're supposed to wake us right? Before we go into our month-long hibernation, it's only right that we rock out to Green Day because they are literally the reason why September exists. A glance at the group's discography shows there to be 13 studio albums, four live albums, four compilation albums, and one soundtrack album, and today we'll be walking you all of the band's studio albums from 1990 to present. As we've previously done with Metallica, The Beatles, and more, consider this to be your complete guide to all of the Green Day Albums in order from their first, 39/Smooth released in 1990, to their latest, Father of All Motherfuckers, which was released in 2020.
Released independently via Lookout! Records, 39/Smooth is the debut album from Green Day, and the only to feature drummer John Kiffmeyer. This was sort of a "non-official" official album because no singles were released from the record, it was moreso just a way for you to get introduced to the band. In fact, as Green Day began gaining more popularity with future releases, sales of 39/Smooth simultaneously increased as well with people wanting to go back and see where it all started. Some of the standouts on the record are "Green Day," "16," "At the Library," and "Disappearing Boy," all of which give a glimpse into the sound the band would become known for later on.
Banned from certain stores due to the cover art (which featured a girl holding a gun), Kerplunk was Green Day's sophomore release which was described as being a mixture of punk, rock, pop, and indie rock. Once again the release of the album came independently through the band's label Lookout!, selling roughly 50,000 records worldwide as the band worked to build a presence in the U.S. (specifically on the East Coast). The success of Kerplunk led to the band making the decision to sign with Reprise Records, thus marking a new era for the group.
So now it's 1994. Green Day is officially signed to a major record label, and their first release in that regard is Dookie, which was anything but. Having already established a name and fanbase for themselves while being a part of the indie market, Dookie was what propelled Green Day to national recognition. Four singles were released in for the promotional efforts of the album: "Longview," "Basket Case," "Welcome to Paradise," and "When I Come Around," and the record was a massive commercial success, reaching No. 2 in the U.S., and winning the group a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. Considered to be one of the best punk rock albums of all time, this bad boy has a diamond certification.
So how do you follow up a massive commercial Grammy Award-winning album that eventually gets certified diamond? With Insomniac that is. Recorded from December 1994 to May 1995, the album dealt with heavier topics such as anxiety and boredom, while also serving as an "screw you" to those the fans who thought Green Day had sold out by achieving mainstream success. To date, Insomniac has sold over 2.1 million copies in the U.S., and was also a hit at the time of it's release, nabbing the second spot on the Billboard 200.
The word nimrod has two definitions. The literally definition of the term is a hunter, while the informal definition is basically a somewhat nicer way of calling somebody stupid. We'd say Green Day's fifth studio album, Nimrod, is referring to both. They were the hunters as one of the rising/defining rock groups of the 1990s, hungry to secure their place as one of the all-time greats (which they since have), and the album was also used as a way to indirectly call some of their critics stupid. "Nice Guys Finish Last," "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," and "The Grouch" are just a few of the standouts on the record, which was certified double platinum in the U.S. and Canada, and triple platinum in Australia.
Warning is an album who's appreciation has grown with the time, which is the case with a lot of albums released during that era. For starters, the record was leaked on Napster (if you don't know what that is you are probably too young to be reading this article), and the artistry of the album (which took a turn from some of the darker themes present in their previous albums) wasn't fully understood at the time of its release. Nonetheless, Warning is an album full of gems starting with the first single "Minority," all the way to non-singles such as "Fashion Victim," "Misery," and "Church on Sunday." Warning was a "warning" for what would come next which was...
Later on that same year, the second album of the trilogy, Dos!, was released, leading with the single "Stray Heart." Other standouts on the record include "Wild One," "Fuck Time," "Makeout Party," "Lady Cobra," and more. Make no mistake, Dos! is very much a party album from top and bottom that will let the inner wild punk rebel in you out for sure.
And the final album of the trilogy, Tr!, which featured a more "heavy metal stadium rock" sound as opposed its two predecessors, and a mixture of old school Green Day with new school Green Day. "The Forgotten" and "X-Kid" were the two released singles from the album, which garnered critical and commercial praise. Releasing three albums that sound different from one in another in one calendar year isn't an easy feat, but Green Day did it and did it well.
It would be four years before we would get another studio release from Green Day, as their twelfth studio album, Revolution Radio, dropped October 2016. Debuting at N0. 1 on the Billboard 200, Revolution Radio spawned three singles, "Bang Bang," "Still Breathing," and "Revolution Radio," and was once again critically and commercially successful, proving that Green Day was still very much a force over 25 years after their debut.
Father of All Motherfuckers is currently the last studio album in Green Day's discography (though we're sure that will change at some point), and it's classic Green Day with songs like "Father of All..." (which was the first single off the album), "I Was a Teenage Teenager," "Sugar Youth," "Junkies on a High," and "Take the Money and Crawl." Their shortest album to date, Father of All Motherfuckers got straight to the point, once again receiving positive reviews like they always do. One thing's for sure, Green Day will always be Green Day.
The band has won four GRAMMY awards and has been nominated 17 times, showing their influence on the punk-rock genre for more than 30 years. Following the Oct. 24 release of their zombified music video for "The American Dream Is Killing Me," and debuting two new tracks at When We Were Young festival, Green Day looks to be entering an era full of fresh anthems.
On this record, the trio reunited with longtime producer Rob Cavallo for the first time in a decade. Continuing this nostalgic venture, Saviors comes just ahead of the anniversary of their 1994 breakout album, Dookie, also produced by Cavallo and was performed from front-to-back at their surprise show in Las Vegas.
The second song announced, "Look Ma, No Brains!" debuted last weekend at their sold-out show in Las Vegas. This track features a contagious, killer rock sound that marks an epic comeback for the group.
Saviors seems to celebrate the years spent together. As they shared on X it invites fans "into Green Day's brain, their collective spirit as a band, and an understanding of friendship, culture and legacy of the last 30 plus years."
Several Exclusive Vinyls of Saviors will be released, including options of neon pink with neon green splatter or black ice with hot pink splatter. Vinyl records will be limited supply and pressed once.
The black & white music video, directed by Bredan Walter and Ryan Baxley, was shot in Los Angeles. With lyrics that describe the pain of America's way of living, with references to social media, unemployment and the housing crisis, this rock track sets the overall tone for the album.
As a founding member of the National Recording Preservation Board, the Recording Academy was instrumental in lobbying and getting the board created by Congress. Now, the Library of Congress has added new treasures to the National Recording Registry, preserving masterpieces that have shaped American culture.
The latest selections named to the registry span from 1919 to 1998 and range from the recordings of the all-Black 369th U.S. Infantry Band led by James Reese Europe after World War I, to defining sounds of jazz and bluegrass, and iconic recordings from pop, dance, country, rock, rap, Latin and classical music.
Almost exactly two decades ago, Green Day traced the story of a lonely teenager, Jesus of Suburbia, in their seventh album, American Idiot. Its most notable chapter, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," earned the band Record Of The Year at the 2006 GRAMMYs.
LL is a longtime fan of Green Day. In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, she recalled their single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" as the first song she learned to play. She later told idobi Radio that her 2023 track "omg" was "a bunch of intrusive thoughts jumbled into a song, wondering if I will ever be enough, or ever be as cool as Green Day."
Green Day's new album represents a spiritual link between their past and present. Fittingly titled Saviors, the band's 14th release is wholly in the present while connecting to their lynchpin albums: 1994's Dookie and 2004's American Idiot.
"Did I want it to be an old-school Green Day punk record, or did I want to do something that felt more lush and stadiumlike?" leader Billie Joe Armstrong told Vulture. "When we saw it come together, I remembered thinking, Oh, this is the connection. Saviors does feel like a trifecta with Dookie and American Idiot where it feels like a life's work.
"It was one of the last things we recorded," Dirnt told Rolling Stone. "Rob's like, 'What else do you got?' As we get towards the end of recording, it was two songs. It was that one and 'Father to a Son.' And those two songs, Rob's like, 'Oh, you've got to record those.'"
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