{"id":5229,"date":"2025-09-16T13:29:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/three-kids-one-van-and-green-days-biggest-joke\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:29:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:29:01","slug":"three-kids-one-van-and-green-days-biggest-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/three-kids-one-van-and-green-days-biggest-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Kids, One Ice Cream Truck, and Green Day\u2019s Biggest Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-502517829.jpg\" width=\"\" height=\"\" alt=\"Green Day. (Credit: Dick Loek\/Toronto Star via Getty Images)\"><\/figure>\n<p>Director Lee Kirk is hoping you\u2019ll have the time of your life watching his new film, <em>New Years Rev<\/em>\u2014we\u2019ve seen it with an apostrophe, too, though we\u2019re told it doesn\u2019t have one\u2014the Green Day collaboration which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) September 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The title doesn\u2019t convey that it\u2019s a road trip film or even that it is associated with Green Day\u2019s Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tr\u00e9 Cool. <em>Boulevard of Broken Dreams<\/em> or <em>American Idiots Pranked<\/em> would\u2019ve been better. Those aren\u2019t spoilers.\u00a0 When Green Day posted a little over two weeks ago \u201cbig news, we made a movie!\u201d they called it \u201ca wild road trip coming of age comedy\u2026about a garage band\u2026who think they\u2019ve scored the gig of their lives\u2026opening for us. Except plot twist, it\u2019s a prank.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/dogs-dildos-and-double-neck-guitars-10-items-margaret-cho-cant-live-without\/\">Dogs, Dildos, and Double Neck Guitars: 10 Items Margaret Cho Can\u2019t Live Without<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/coachella-2025-lineup\/\">Coachella Calls On Sabrina, Bieber, Karol G<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/michael-shannon-jason-narducy-lifes-rich-pageant\/\">Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy Tackling R.E.M.\u2019s \u2018Pageant\u2019 On Tour<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Analog Dogs\u2014played by Mason Thames, Kylr Coffman, and Ryan Foust\u2014are a fictional high school band that set out from Kansas City to California 11 days before New Year\u2019s Eve to play L.A.\u2019s iconic Palladium to support Green Day.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"740\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Still_01.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from 'New Years Rev.' (Credit: Courtesy of TIFF)\" class=\"wp-image-472755\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Still_01.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Still_01-340x210.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Still_01-768x474.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Still_01-498x307.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A scene from New Years Rev. (Credit: Courtesy of TIFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kirk tells <em>SPIN<\/em> they mostly shot the movie in Oklahoma City \u201cbecause Route 66 goes through it and I wanted the movie to have this Americana feel to the road trip.\u201d The plot is really just the hijinks and stupidity of how three teenage boys get to L.A. and what happens when they discover the promise of an opening slot was just a practical joke played on them by the singer\u2019s older brother.<\/p>\n<p><em>New Years Rev<\/em> includes tons of Green Day songs, plus two Analog Dogs songs written by Armstrong\u2019s son, Jakob, and an on-film cameo by rising band The Paradox.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The cast also includes Mckenna Grace, Fred Armisen, Bobby Lee, Sean Gunn, Angela Kinsey, Keen Ruffalo, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio, and Kirk\u2019s wife, Jenna Fischer (<em>The Office<\/em>, <em>Mean Girls<\/em>). Armisen was also in Kirk\u2019s 2016 comedy <em>Ordinary World<\/em>, which starred Armstrong in his first leading role, as an aging punk rocker no less.<\/p>\n<p><em>New Years Rev<\/em> is for anyone who had a band with their mates in high school, ever road-tripped to a concert, tried to scam or sneak their way into a show, or had a shithead older sibling\u2014and, of course, it\u2019s for Green Day fans.<\/p>\n<p>In this interview with Spin, Kirk talks about the genesis of the project, the placement of songs, and some Green Day easter eggs. Proceed with caution; some spoilers ahead.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"IgxC84cZR4A\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Why was this such a late addition to TIFF?<\/strong> <strong>It was only announced a couple of weeks ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because we finished the movie late. I started shooting in February and finished the movie two weeks ago. We just put the finishing sound mix in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did Live Nation and Michael Rapino (president and CEO) get involved?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The script was sent to them. They were looking to start doing some narrative music films and so they responded to it. I met with them and we started talking about the film and it felt like a good fit for everybody. They\u2019ve been amazing to work with. They were fantastic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Was Green Day always going to appear in the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, always. From the first conversation Billie Joe and I had, we talked about staging a concert and putting the word out to Green Day fans, \u201cHey, we\u2019re shooting this movie, shooting a concert, come on out to the Palladium.\u201d We had a few thousand Green Day fans show up and they\u2019re singing the songs, they\u2019re wearing their own T-shirts, they\u2019re into it. That kind of authenticity, it\u2019s hard to get with that many people but that\u2019s real people singing. And then I knew we should have them act in it as well. We should have one other scene with them in the movie. So that\u2019s why we put them in early in the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you ever go see Green Day back in the day?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, yeah. I saw Green Day way back in the \u201990s, and then I took my nephew to see the <em>American Idiot<\/em> musical. I\u2019d lost touch a little bit with Green Day and I was like, \u201cWhoa, this music is amazing. This is so different than \u2018Basket Case\u2019 and all that.\u201d So it was interesting because I got back into them right around the time that Billie Joe and I hooked up and started to work on my other film, <em>Ordinary World<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1705\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Dir_Lee-Kirk.jpg\" alt=\"Director Lee Kirk. (Courtesy of TIFF)\" class=\"wp-image-472756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Dir_Lee-Kirk.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Dir_Lee-Kirk-340x483.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Dir_Lee-Kirk-768x1091.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Dir_Lee-Kirk-1081x1536.jpg 1081w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/New-Years-Rev_Dir_Lee-Kirk-498x708.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Director Lee Kirk. (Courtesy of TIFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>How did you originally meet Billie Joe?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was chasing an actor for <em>Ordinary World<\/em> in 2016. We sent it to that actor\u2019s agent and she said, \u201cHe can\u2019t, but I also rep Billie Joe Armstrong and he\u2019s looking for something to do.\u201d We said, \u201cLet\u2019s send it to Billie Joe\u201d and he read it the night he got it and the next day he said, \u201cI\u2019d love to talk to you about this movie.\u201d That never really happens with actors. Usually, you have to wait like a month for them to read the script [laughs]. Instantly, I was like, \u201cI like this guy.\u201d It was a really fun time working together. He hadn\u2019t done a lot of acting. So when I cast him, we spent a lot of time working on the role together and rewriting the role to really fit in his voice. We just got to know each other really well. And he ended up writing the music for the movie because there\u2019s some songs that his character would sing in the film. We just became buddies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did the idea for <\/strong><strong><em>New Years Rev<\/em><\/strong><strong> come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As he [Billie Joe] tells it, when he thought of this New Year\u2019s Eve Green Day idea a few years ago, he thought of me. He just called me up and said, \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do a Green Day movie. I don\u2019t have a whole idea, but I know it should be a movie about some kids who are going to see Green Day play on New Year\u2019s Eve.\u201d So that instigated a conversation between us about what could this story be and eventually it led to the film.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I can\u2019t count the number of times I\u2019ve road tripped to see a band, starting when I was 16, leaving a note for my parents, up to this day. Did you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My friends and I drove to see the Old 97\u2019s in San Francisco in 1999 [Old 97\u2019s \u201cMost Messed Up\u201d is in the film], but, actually, my first concert, I drove with a friend to Fort Worth in the late \u201980s for U2\u2019s the <em>Joshua Tree<\/em> tour.\u00a0His sister and her friend were going, so we said, \u201cCan we go with you guys?\u201d We were like 16. It was about an hour to Fort Worth. They had tickets. We didn\u2019t have tickets and we thought we\u2019ll just buy tickets from a scalper. So, got there, walked around outside the Tarrant County Convention Center. There was a guy, \u201cYou need tickets, guys?\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, we\u2019ll take tickets.\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cFifty bucks a piece.\u201d We gave him 50 bucks. We take the tickets up to the window and the guy goes, \u201cThese are for last night.\u201d [laughs]. And so, some cop nearby said, \u201cLet me get you guys in.\u201d So, we ended up getting in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"789\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1216416246-1.jpg\" alt='Green Day performing on stage during a \"ive concert appearance in1997. (Credit: John Atashian\/Getty Images)' class=\"wp-image-472874\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1216416246-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1216416246-1-340x224.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1216416246-1-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-1216416246-1-498x327.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Green Day performing on stage during a \u201cive concert appearance in1997. (Credit: John Atashian\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Did some of the incidents in the film come from real Green Day stories?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So much of the little story pieces in the film have their seeds in real Green Day moments and their lives. The ice cream truck was inspired by the bookmobile [their 1993 tour bus] they drove around in, as young kids, that Tr\u00e9\u2019s dad had bought and fixed up for them. There\u2019s a moment in the story when a young girl knocks on the ice cream truck and says, \u201cCan I get some ice cream?\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cThis is not an ice cream truck.\u201d That had its seeds in one time when the bookmobile was parked in front of a venue, a mom and her daughter were thinking they\u2019re going to get a book [laughs] and they\u2019re in there smoking weed or something. And she said, \u201cThis isn\u2019t a bookmobile; this is a drug deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sleepy, the head in the jar, has the seeds in a true story. In Germany, they played a show and after they needed a place to stay, and they\u2019re like, \u201cCan anyone let us stay?\u201d and this guy let him use his place and when he said, \u201cYou\u2019re in this room,\u201d there was a head in a jar on the shelf. They were all quite stunned. And he said, \u201cOh, don\u2019t worry about that. That\u2019s just Sleepy,\u201d and he left [laughs].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some of the song lyrics match up to the scene, like \u201cBrain Stew\u201d for the head in the jar, and \u201cBobby Sox,\u201d with the opening line, \u201cDo you wanna be my girlfriend?\u201d Not all of them do, but some synced perfectly.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the real joys of writing the script was I had access to the entire catalog of Green Day music I could use however I wanted, wherever I wanted. That was really fun. I would come up with a scene idea and I would think, \u201cWhat song can I tie to this?\u201d It wasn\u2019t always about what the song was about; sometimes it was just the feeling of the song. When they head out on the road trip and \u201cGeek Stink Breath\u201d plays, I think that\u2019s a song about taking drugs but the driving nature of that song, \u201cLet\u2019s use that one right there.\u201d And then other ones, like \u201cBobby Sox,\u201d which is the song after he first meets Olivia, that had the perfect lyrics, the perfect feel to it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"822\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234071722.jpg\" alt=\"Mason Thames of New Years Rev poses in the Getty Images Portrait Studio Presented by IMDb and IMDbPro during the Toronto International Film Festival on September 06, 2025. (Credit: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images for IMDb)\" class=\"wp-image-472772\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234071722.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234071722-340x233.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234071722-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234071722-498x341.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mason Thames of <em>New Years Rev<\/em> during the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025. (Credit: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images for IMDb)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>And her name, Olivia, isn\u2019t that an unreleased Green Day song?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, is it? I didn\u2019t know that. Gosh, you know, it\u2019s funny, I asked Billie Joe, \u201cWhat should we name her?\u201d and he said, \u201cOlivia.\u201d So maybe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are there some other funny things the guys asked to slip in?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One thing that Billie Joe had said about Mike, he does a lot of puns, especially when he was younger. That\u2019s why the puppet does all these little puns. Actually, the characters are not really based on all three of them; there\u2019s little tiny details of them that are threaded through all the characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Those two jokes are pretty good in the diner.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Those are good, right? One of them I read Tr\u00e9 had told that joke years ago and I thought that\u2019s a good joke. I read that in a book somewhere. I\u2019m not sure where the other came from, but that\u2019s very much in the vernacular of those guys. They\u2019re just funny guys. They\u2019ve also got a lot of heart. They\u2019re family guys. They\u2019re intelligent. The idea was trying to make a movie that really feels like Green Day, so it has all those different facets of who that band is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Will you be releasing the version of \u201cKnow Your Enemy\u201d when Analog Dogs guitarist joins Green Day onstage?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know if we will. There\u2019s a number of other songs that we shot at the concert that we haven\u2019t talked about what exactly we will do with. So quite possibly, maybe we will. That\u2019s really more of Green Day\u2019s territory, rather than mine.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235174730-1.jpg\" alt=\"Sunrise Coigney, Mark Ruffalo, and Keen Ruffalo attends the TIFF New Years Rev After Party at Vinny Toronto - Restaurant &amp; Vinyl Bar on September 12, 2025, in Toronto, Ontario. (Credit: Harold Feng\/Getty Images for LiveNationStudios)\" class=\"wp-image-472873\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235174730-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235174730-1-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235174730-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235174730-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235174730-1-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sunrise Coigney, Mark Ruffalo, and Keen Ruffalo attends the TIFF <em>New Years Rev <\/em>After Party at Vinny Toronto Restaurant &amp; Vinyl Bar on September 12, 2025, in Toronto, Ontario. (Credit: Harold Feng\/Getty Images for LiveNationStudios)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Do you want this film to be a singalong?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If people start singing, that would be so exciting, just because it means the movie\u2019s working and they\u2019re into it. Primarily, it was made by Green Day for Green Day fans, but, also, a wider audience too could appreciate this film because it does draw on the universal feeling of being a teenager and trying to find your own path and forge your own identity and find your community of people. And so, my hope is that the audience is even bigger than just Green Day fans, young people and even older people. When you go to a Green Day concert there\u2019s all ages at their shows. So if I\u2019ve done my job right, people are very excited every time a new Green Day song comes on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Will there be a sequel with Analog Dogs going on tour with Green Day?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Who knows? Maybe. There could be. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Lee Kirk is hoping you\u2019ll have the time of your life watching his new film, New Years Rev\u2014we\u2019ve seen it with an apostrophe, too, though we\u2019re told it doesn\u2019t&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770,24,2240],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-years-rev","category-pushly","category-watch-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}