the comparisons to greenday likely come from them both coming from the same scene and billie joe co writting the song radio with is on rancids lets go. greenday signed to a major while rancid stayed with epitaph but epitaph also signed a distribution deal with a major so its not that clean cut. they both had popular songs on the radio and both made videos which was considered by the east bay crowd, which also included afi for that matter, and the gilman crowd to be a big big no no. the they , tim and billie joe, have been friends since the op ivy days when green day was young. jesse micheals, the singer of op ivy who liked billie joe also had to say that as much as he liked the band, or at least the guys, in those days it was pretty clear to everyone that musically billie was always a rock and roll musician and would some day leave the scene. op ivy was about politics first and music a close second while greenday was always about the music first and politics second which admittedly not really in conflict in those days. that said for a corporate punk band billie joe has been pretty great. he was on the rock against bush comp when bands like good charlotte wouldnt appear for fear of hurting sales, they released american idot when some indie punk bands still sang about girls and beer, they toured and sold there first couple of albums out of a van themselves selling like 80000 copies, he didnt date a bajillion stupid girls and instead married his long time girlfriend etc. guess what im saying is that for a corporate punk band, at least in the american sense since like most english punk bands like the pistols and the clash (who like i said earlier tim worships) were all on majors with the clash playing msg. to sum up yes greenday are a corporate punk band but they came from a real punk rock scene and maintained a good bit of that while rancid who stayed more pure arent exactly as pure as some might think they are by traditional quote unquote punk rock standards. both excellent bands and tim aside all excellent people. i love lars to death and his first solo album with the bastards is fantastic