“Boxes in Baskets”
Green Day is a punk band from East Bay, California. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool have been playing music together since 1987. They won four Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Album. They released their first album in 1990 and their second album in 1991, Let’s get rolling!. They then moved to a major label and released their third album in 1994, Dukey, which is huge. It helped punk enter the mainstream. This month marks its 30th anniversary. So in this episode, I talk to Billie Joe Armstrong about the making of one of Green Day’s biggest hits of all time: Basket Case .
Next, you’ll also hear from Rob Cavallo, the album’s producer. Additionally, you’ll hear two different “Basket Case” demos, the first of which is basically a completely different song.
Billie Joe Amstrong traces the history of “Basket Case” from its earliest days on cassette tapes recorded in punk basements to becoming a song that helped define an era in music.
You can purchase or stream “Basket Case” here .
For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Illustration by Carlos Lerma.
Andy Ernst Studio, Art of the Ear
fantasy studio
Album of the same name by The Moffs
