Since 1991, some members of punk band Green Day have branched out past their "main band" and have started other projects with other musicians and have released full-length albums and several EPs. Notable related projects of Green Day include Billie Joe Armstrong's Pinhead Gunpowder (which also featured Green Day's other guitarist Jason White), The Frustrators in which Mike Dirnt plays bass, and The Network which many speculate has all three members of Green Day, although under stagenames.
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Pinhead Gunpowder
Since 1991, Billie Joe Armstrong has been a member of Pinhead Gunpowder, providing guitars and vocals along with Jason White. Musician and Zine writer Aaron Cometbus (drums, lyrics), Green Day road manager Bill Schneider (bass), round out the line-up. Primarily a "studio only" type of side-project, the band has done a scant few rare shows, the last one occurring on February 12, 2010, at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. [1]. The band's latest release was 2008's West Side Highway EP on Recess Records.
The Frustrators
Mike Dirnt also plays bass for the band The Frustrators, who are signed to Billie Joe's Adeline Records. They have two releases on the label, the Bored in the USA EP and their first full-length album Achtung Jackass. Dirnt has a Frustrators sticker on his bass that is very visible in Green Day's more recent videos, as does Billie Joe on his Fernandes Stratocaster Copy. Other members of the band are Jason Chandler (lead vocalist), Terry Linehan (guitar, vocals), and Art Tedeschi (drums). All of the members are from other bands, Linehan from Waterdog, Chandler and Tedeschi from Violent Anal Death, and Dirnt from Green Day.
The Network
In 2003, during time Green Day was in the studio, a new wave band known as The Network was formed. Four of the five members of the band are allegedly the four members of Green Day. The frontman, known only as "Fink", is believed to be Billie Joe Armstrong. Armstrong has referred to himself as Wilhelm Fink in the past, and a Pinhead Gunpowder fansite bio of Billie Joe Armstrong confirms Fink's identity. Armstrong's voice is also unmistakable on The Network's albums. The Network's bass player, known as "Van Gough", is supposedly Mike Dirnt; the guitarist of the band, "Balducci", is also believed to be Jason White as they are both seen with a similar guitar playing stance; and The Network's drummer, "The Snoo", is thought to be Tré Cool. The other members of the six-piece band are reported to be members of the band Devo. John Roecker, director of Live Freaky Die Freaky, starring Green Day and other East Bay punk alumni, and Green Day's DVD documentary Heart Like a Hand Grenade, has spoken of various projects recorded at Studio 880, including a new wave album and a Christmas album, during the sessions of Green Day's American Idiot. Studio 880 is the credited studio in The Network's Money Money 2020 album and American Idiot. No official connection has been made between the two bands, and both bands have defended, sometimes aggressively (in a probably staged press conference where some members from both bands engaged in a heated argument that broke into a minor conflict), the lack of connection between the two. Green Day's management has always declined to comment on the ongoing situation between Green Day and The Network. On October 6, 2005, The Network agreed to support Green Day with Jimmy Eat World on the American Idiot tour.
Foxboro Hot Tubs
During the first week of December 2007, a MySpace profile appeared featuring a band whose lead singer's voice "unmistakably" belonged to Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. Later that week, an official website, with six downloadable mp3s, also came into fruition.
In early 2008 Green Day revealed that they are in fact, The Foxboro Hot Tubs. The band said in a e-mail to MTV-News:
"We think that the only similarity [between the Hot Tubs and Green Day] is that we are the same band.
That is basically the only similarity, We are Jason White, Jason Freese, Michael Pritchard, Frank Edwin Wright the Third and the Reverend Strychnine Twitch... We are five guys who love to play music and be spontaneous,[and] after a few late night jams and a few too many bottles of wine, we were inspired to record some rockin' eight-track recordings."
Green Day drummer Tre Cool's real name is Frank Edwin Wright III, bassist Mike Dirnt is Michael Pritchard, and the Reverend Strychnine Twitch is another one of Armstrong's numerous alter egos. Jason White and Jason Freese play in Green Day as well.
The record of the Foxboro Hot tubs is titled Stop Drop and Roll!!! and was released on May 13, 2008.
In May 2008 the band made a small spring tour with eight dates. They supported Green Day in Manchester, England, at the MEN Arena on Halloween 2009, and played at The Garage in Islington on November 2, 2009.
Stage version of American Idiot
Berkeley Repertory Theatre announced that a musical adaptation of Green Day's record American Idiot would premiere as the first production of the theater’s 2009–10 season, and run from September 4 through October 11. The musical will be a collaboration between Green Day and Michael Mayer (Tony Award winning director of Spring Awakening).
Green Day will not appear in the production, but the show will have an on-stage band.