Global rock superstars Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool, or, as they’re collectively renowned and quite rightly revered, legendary punk trio Green Day, are ringing in the new year with the release of a fantastically fiery new track titled “One Eyed Bastard.” The electrifying latest single from the incomparably talented trio is the band’s final offering ahead of the release of their highly-anticipated fourteenth album Saviors, which is due to drop on January 19th.
Talking about the new tune, Billie said, “‘One Eyed Bastard’ started off as just a riff that I had – a shuffle, almost like a Black Sabbath kind of riff. Lyrically, I was just reflecting on bad times in life. That’s the thing about nostalgia, sometimes you think, ‘That was an awful time.’ Everybody’s got that ugly place in their life where they have to deal with ugly thoughts – it could be like revenge or whatever. Thankfully, I have an outlet in songwriting.”
“One Eyed Bastard”comes on the heels of Green Day’s show-stopping Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve performance, where they performed two fan favorites from Dookie and two from American Idiot, along with the trio’s excellent third single from their aforementioned forthcoming fourteenth album, “Dilemma”, which will also feature the recently released riveting singles “Look Ma, No Brains!”and “The American Dream Is Killing Me”, which hit #1 on Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay.
As an added surprise, Green Day have announced free listening parties for Saviors, happening in 200+ indie stores worldwide starting on January 13th. All events are free and will have exclusive giveaways while supplies last. For more information and to see participating stores.
Circling back to the subject of Billie, Mike and Tré’s brand-new single, “One Eyed Bastard” begins with a brilliantly vigorous riff that immediately gives rise to an irresistibly energising ambience and escorts the song stirringly towards a tremendously thrilling verse, which precedes an exceedingly electrifying chorus. Another tremendously thrilling verse follows from here ahead of a second exceedingly electrifying chorus that leads into an insanely exhilarating instrumental display, which proceeds to bring things in the direction of one last exceedingly electrifying chorus that puts a superbly spirited cap on the proceedings.
The end result is a typically spellbinding, melodic, catchy, impactful and altogether top-notch punk creation by Green Day that takes up permanent residence in the mind, and also serves as one more indicator, after the excellence of “The American Dream Is Killing Me”, “Look Ma, No Brains!” and “Dilemma”, that the band’s soon-to-arrive new record will be yet another music masterpiece from the massively skilled trio.
Recorded in London and Los Angeles, Saviors is the latest powerful collaboration between Green Day and Grammy-winning producer Rob Cavallo, whose notable previous work with Green Day includes two of the band’s most iconic albums, 1994’s Dookie and 2004’s American Idiot. The record comes just ahead of Dookie’s 30th anniversary, for which celebrations have already begun with the release of a massive deluxe edition of the album and a surprise show in Las Vegas, where the band performed Dookie from front to back to a sold-out crowd of superfans.
Later this year, Green Day will embark on a larger-than-life global stadium tour with support from illustrious rock luminaries The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and The Linda Lindas in North America, and Nothing But Thieves, The Hives, Donots, The Interrupters and Maid of Ace in the UK/EU. The Saviors Tour, fueled by Monster Energy, kicks off in Europe this May before making its way to North America in July for an intoxicating summer run through the states.
But before Saviors and its highly-anticipated tour arrive, you can listen to “One Eye Bastard” via its official music video below.