Photo: Pinhead Gunpowder, courtesy of 1-2-3-4 Go Records
Green Day released their 14th studio album Saviors at the beginning of the year and have been on tour suppoting it all summer, but apparently that's not all Billie Joe Armstrong's been up to recently. On Thursday (September 5), his side project Pinhead Gunpowder announced a new album and shared their first song in 16 years.
The punk outfit consists of the Armstrong and Green Day touring guitarist Jason White, along with drummer Aaron Cometbus and bassist Bill Schneider. The album's title track "Unt" sounds a lot like the frontman's main band and will be a welcome surprise for old school fans of Green Day. Pinhead Gunpowder shared a statement explaining their long hiatus and why now was the right time to return.
“Pinhead Gunpowder started writing songs in 1990 and made our first 7” the following spring," it begins. "But since 2010, we’ve been playing just for ourselves, something bands forget to do. Rather than ‘writing for the new album’ or rehearsing to get ready for tour, we went back to the basement every year. We lived in the house we’d built, remembering how we’d made the music for each other in the first place. We played all over the world — well, at least Oakland, Singapore and New York — but only for each other. We worked on the reissues of our back catalog, too, and found ourselves fonder of each other and more family-like than ever."
"A new record was only a matter of time, but between the members’ other bands, projects, and families that was hard to find," it continues. "When we finally did, we were all surprised. We think it’s our best yet — our catchiest, most collaborative, and most poignant.”
Unt is slated for an October 8 release. Listen to its title track and lead single below.