Green Day engaged in a number of other smaller projects in the time following the success of American Idiot. The group released an album under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!! In 2008, the Foxboro Hot Tubs went on a mini-tour to promote the record, hitting tiny Bay Area venues including the Stork Club in Oakland and Toot's Tavern inCrockett, California.
In an interview with Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed thatButch Vig would be producing Green Day's forthcoming album.[50] The span of nearly five years between American Idiot and21st Century Breakdown was the longest gap between studio albums in Green Day's career. The band had been working on new material since January 2006. By October 2007, Armstrong had 45 songs written, but the band showed no further signs of progress until October 2008, when two videos showing the band recording in the studio with producer Butch Vig were posted on YouTube.[51] The writing and recording process, spanning three years and four recording studios, was finally finished in April 2009.[52]
21st Century Breakdown, was released on May 15, 2009.[53] The album received a mainly positive reception from critics, getting an average rating between 3 and 4 stars.[54][55] After the release, the album reached number one in fourteen countries, being certified gold or platinum in each. 21st Century Breakdown achieved Green Day's best chart performance to date. The band started playing shows in California in April and early May. These were the group's first live shows in about three years. Green Day went on a world tour that started in North America in July 2009 and continuing around the world throughout the rest of 2009 and early 2010.[56]
Wal-Mart refused to carry the album as it contains a Parental Advisory sticker and requested that Green Day release a censored edition. The band members did not wish to change any lyrics on the album and responded by stating, "There's nothing dirty about our record... They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."[57][58]
In 2009, the band met with award-winning director Michael Mayer and many cast and crew members of the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening to create a stage version of the album American Idiot.[59][60] American Idiot opened in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre during the end of 2009.[59] The show features an expanded story of the original album, with new characters such as Will, Extraordinary Girl, and Favorite Son.[60] On April 20, 2010, American Idiot opened on Broadway, and Green Day released the soundtrack to the musical, featuring a new song by Green Day entitled "When It's Time". In June 2010 the iTunes released "When It's Time" as a single.During the Spike TV Video Game Awards 2009, it was announced that Green Day was set to have its own Rock Band video game titled Green Day: Rock Band, as a follow-up to the last band specific Rock Band game, The Beatles: Rock Band. The game features the full albums of Dookie, American Idiot, and 21st Century Breakdown as well as select songs from the rest of Green Day's discography.[62][63]
During the second leg of the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour the band members stated that they were writing new material.[64] In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, Armstrong spoke about the possible new album: "We did some demos in Berlin, some in Stockholm, some just outside of Glasgow and some in Amsterdam. We wanted get [the songs] down in some early form."[65] The band members also stated that the group was recording a live album of the tour, featuring the previously unreleased song "Cigarettes and Valentines". In October 2010, Dirnt was interviewed by Radio W, mentioning that the group had completed the writing process of the ninth studio album. In the interview, Dirnt also mentioned that a new live album would "most likely" be released.[66] The live CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray entitled Awesome as Fuck was released on March 22, 2011.
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