Sophia Michaels
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong continued his “No Fun Mondays” quarantine series with a cover of the Bangles’ “Manic Monday,” recruiting that band’s Susanna Hoffs for a video cameo on electric guitar.
The duo put a power-pop spin on the Prince-penned 1986 hit, replacing the original’s twinkling synths and clean strums with palm-muted crunch. They appear in a split-screen format throughout the clip: Armstrong mostly plays while seated on his couch, and Hoffs bounces around in what looks like a music room.
In addition to his own weekly series, Armstrong appeared in Elton John’s “living room concert” for coronavirus relief to play Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” The event also featured Dave Grohl, Billie Eilish, Mariah Carey and Sam Smith.
Armstrong will take part in the Lady Gaga-curated TV special One World: Together at Home, which supports the COVID-19 Response Fund. Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, John Legend, Lizzo and Billie Eilish will also join for the event, which airs April 18th in the U.S.
During quarantine, the singer has also found time to pen several tracks for a future Green Day project. “I had all these melodies in my head, so I wrote, like, six songs since all of this has been going on,” he told Kerrang. “I don’t know when I can get together with Mike and Tré, but I told them to make sure that they’re quarantined for now, and then I hope down the road we can get back in the studio with [Father Of All… producer] Butch Walker.”
The band released Father Of All…, their 13th studio album, in February. The band were forced to postpone a run of Asian concerts due to the pandemic, though they’ve yet to alter plans for the joint “Hella Mega” summer tour with Weezer and Fall Out Boy.
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