BURBANK, Calif. (Top40 Charts/ Warner Bros. Records) - Band's Eighth Studio Album Also Debuts at No. 1 in Thirteen Countries, Including the UK, Canada, Japan, and France!
After nearly five years, Green Day has reclaimed their position as one of the world's favorite rock bands with their critically acclaimed new release 21st Century Breakdown, which is the best-selling album in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world this week. Released by Reprise Records on Friday, May 15th, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, as well as on the Active Rock and Alternative charts, and sold 214,828 copies despite being in stores for only three days, rather than the traditional seven.
21st Century Breakdown is also a hit around the world, with No. 1 chart debuts in the UK, Canada, Japan, France, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Argentina, Mexico, Korea, Sweden, South Africa, and New Zealand, with more expected by the end of the week.
Produced by Butch Vig, 21st Century Breakdown has earned rapturous reviews from top media outlets, such as Rolling Stone, which called it "even more ambitious than American Idiot" and "a record of die-hard punk ideals...tightly scripted, continually ascending classic-rock excitement," and the New York Times, which noted in an Arts & Leisure cover story that in its drive to top themselves "Green Day has dared to offer something far denser and more demanding: a whirlwind of thoughts about activism, redemption, and destruction. The rage and sorrows of American Idiot are pushed even further in 21st Century Breakdown, in songs where idealism and the urge to annihilate are constantly grappling, never far apart."
The album's first single, "Know Your Enemy," has been No. 1 at Alternative radio for four weeks and is the band's ninth No. 1 single at the format, making them the artist with the second most No. 1's of all-time at Alternative.
Additionally, Green Day set televisions ablaze with a performance on the season finale of Saturday Night Live last weekend. The band is also scheduled to appear on The Colbert Report on May 21st, the first concert of Good Morning America's 2009 Summer Concert Series on the morning of May 22nd, and The Late Show with David Letterman that same evening. In addition, CBS Sunday Morning will air its first in-depth interview with the band, which was shot in Oakland last month, on May 24th.
Green Day, which is singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool, is preparing to launch their first proper tour of the United States and Canada in more than three years.
The tour begins July 3rd at Seattle's Key Arena and will cross North America through the summer, including a July 27th stop at New York City's Madison Square Garden, before finishing up with a show at the Forum in Los Angeles on August 25th. Please visit www.greenday.com for all cities, venues, and ticket on-sale dates.
