GREEN DAY'S 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN

If you told me in 1999 that that one of the albums I would be looking forward to most in 2009 would be a new album by Green Day, I would not have believed you. I liked Dookie and some of their other songs, but I didn't consider myself a big fan, I even found them a bit annoying. And it seemed like they were on a slow decline artistically and commerically.

Then came a somewhat underrated album called Warning in 2000. I loved the title track - although it was a blatant rip-off of The Kinks' "Picture Book" - but the song that converted me and made me a fan was "Minority." And then came American Idiot in 2004, a classic, their best album ever. And if that wasn't enough, last year, under the alias Foxboro Hot Tubs, they released Stop, Drop and Roll!!!, my favorite album of 2008.

I was glad to see the guys from Green Day at the Grammys (they presented the Album of the Year award to Robert Plant & Alison Krauss). I can't wait to hear their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, produced by Butch Vig. It comes out in May!