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Green Day To Auction Instruments And Gear On Reverb

Green Day

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Green Day To Auction Instruments And Gear On Reverb

Punk-rock history will be up for bid on Feb. 7 when The Official Green Day Reverb Shop opens for business

GRAMMYs/Jan 24, 2019 - 01:42 am

The musicians of GRAMMY-winning punk band Green Day — guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, drummer Tré Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt — are parting with beloved gear and instruments on Reverb in a career-spanning auction beginning on Feb. 7. While Armstrong's Reverb auction in late 2017 no doubt added to the band's comfort level in parting with items from their collections, Cool confessed that as a hoarder, his reason behind the auction is that "my psychiatrist said I have to do this."

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"After 30 years of collecting odds and ends and really good stuff, what ended up happening was I got too many," said Armstrong. "I think every guitar to me has its own character." The 44 guitars up for auction include a 1958 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop as well as the first guitar Armstrong ever owned, an acoustic Harmony Stella Parlor. He used the latter to record "F.O.D." on Dookie, which won Best Alternative Music Performance at the 37th GRAMMY Awards, the band's first of four wins.

Dirnt is offering up more than 20 pieces of studio gear as well as amps, including a Mesa/Boogie Basis M-2000 and a vintage Ampeg SVT.

Cool is offering one of the drum kits he burned on stage as well as a new "old stock" Slingerland Spitfire Tré Cool Signature Drum Kit he says is "probably the only one left in existence." Cool basically burned all the other ones. A matching snare drum is available separately. Cool expressed insecurity that as a hoarder who never sells anything, he will be tempted to buy all of his stuff back again. 

The Official Green Day Reverb Shop is scheduled to open on Feb. 7 and offers an email sign-up so avid buyers can be among the first to make their bid on this incomparable selection of punk-rock history.

Maroon 5, Online Store Reverb Announce Sale Of Music Gear, Instruments

ReImagined: LØLØ Flips Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" Into An Acoustic Jam
LØLØ

Photo: Courtesy of LØLØ

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ReImagined: LØLØ Flips Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" Into An Acoustic Jam

Canadian pop-punk singer LØLØ offers a stripped-down rendition of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," the GRAMMY-winning smash from her childhood inspirations, Green Day.

GRAMMYs/Mar 19, 2024 - 05:00 pm

Almost exactly two decades ago, Green Day traced the story of a lonely teenager, Jesus of Suburbia, in their seventh album, American Idiot. Its most notable chapter, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," earned the band Record Of The Year at the 2006 GRAMMYs.

In this episode of ReImagined, Canadian pop-punk singer LØLØ delivers her take on the song, an ethereal acoustic version.

LØLØ is a longtime fan of Green Day. In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, she recalled their single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" as the first song she learned to play. She later told idobi Radio that her 2023 track "omg" was "a bunch of intrusive thoughts jumbled into a song, wondering if I will ever be enough, or ever be as cool as Green Day."

This year, LØLØ released two original singles, "poser" and "2 of us," via Hopeless Records.

Press play on the video above to hear LØLØ's fresh rendition of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," and check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of ReImagined.

Green Day's 'Saviors': How Their New Album Links 'Dookie' & 'American Idiot' Decades Later

Green Day's 'Saviors': How Their New Album Links 'Dookie' & 'American Idiot' Decades Later
Tré Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of Green Day

Photo: Cindy Ord / Getty Images for SiriusXM

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Green Day's 'Saviors': How Their New Album Links 'Dookie' & 'American Idiot' Decades Later

The punk stalwarts made a U-turn on 2020's 'Father of All'; with its follow-up, 'Saviors,' they're barrelling forward while honoring their past. Here's how Green Day ramped up to it.

GRAMMYs/Jan 19, 2024 - 02:09 pm

Green Day's new album represents a spiritual link between their past and present. Fittingly titled Saviors, the band's 14th release is wholly in the present while connecting to their lynchpin albums: 1994's Dookie and 2004's American Idiot.

The quartet will tour Saviors — which was released Jan. 19 and shares a title with the tour — in conjunction with the 20th and 30th anniversaries of Green Day's major albums. As with any major milestone, creating a new record as two of their biggest albums aged created a bit of wistful creative confusion. 

"Did I want it to be an old-school Green Day punk record, or did I want to do something that felt more lush and stadiumlike?" leader Billie Joe Armstrong told Vulture. "When we saw it come together, I remembered thinking, Oh, this is the connection. Saviors does feel like a trifecta with Dookie and American Idiot where it feels like a life's work.

"I went from not knowing what the hell I was doing," Armstrong continued, "to going, 'Oh gosh, we managed to bridge the gap between those two huge albums.'"

This summer, listeners can behold the triad: Green Day will perform the relentless, hilarious, melody-stuffed Dookie and stadium-sized, polemical American Idiot in full. Tickets to the international dates — with support from the Smashing Pumpkins, the Hives, the Linda Lindas, and many more — can be found at their website.

With Saviors out in the world, here's a breakdown of the ramp-up to the album.

Their Previous Album Took A Detour, But They're Back On Course

Green Day's last album, 2020's Father of All Motherf—ers — commonly shortened to Father of All… — was arguably their most divisive to date.

"Motown, glam and manic anthemic. Punks, freaks and punishers!" is how Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool described it. Which sums up its 10 frenzied tunes, which add up to a very lean 26 minutes.

But at times,
Father of All… didn't quite sound like Green Day, but an unpredictable  Frankenstein of retro and modern styles, a feel-bad Black Keys. And, sadly, the pandemic precluded them from proving these songs' mettle live.

Their next album would be tailored to the live experience — consciously or not. 

Saviors Was Almost Called 1972

And in many regards, Green Day decided to go back to their roots with Saviors. In fact, the original title was the year all three men were born.

When Green Day banded together in London with Rob Cavallo — who produced Dookie and American Idiot, among other career highlights — the album had the working title of 1972.

The album's title track resembles some of the sentiment on American Idiot, Armstrong told USA Today. "Saviors" centers on the feeling of being "desperate for answers and leadership and getting out of the mess we’re in."

Until the end of the recording process, Saviors didn't have its lead single, "The American Dream is Killing Me."

"The American Dream Is Killing Me" Came Late In The Game

Crafted as "a look at the way the traditional American Dream doesn't work for a lot of people" — as the band put it in a statement — "The American Dream is Killing Me" actually dates back to four years ago.

"It was one of the last things we recorded," Dirnt told Rolling Stone. "Rob's like, 'What else do you got?' As we get towards the end of recording, it was two songs. It was that one and 'Father to a Son.' And those two songs, Rob's like, 'Oh, you've got to record those.'"

They're Not Getting Sucked Into The Past

Two albums, from decades ago, performed front-to-back, in stadiums the world over: that could categorize Green Day as a nostalgia act. But Green Day are nostalgic for nothing; rather, they still harbor the ethos of their punk youth.

"I still try to maintain that kind of spirit about what we do," Armstrong told
People, "which is just being independent and free to express yourself the way that you want." That might mean a surprise set inside a New York City subway station, or announcing their Saviors tour plans on "The Howard Stern Show." 

"I think one of the strong points of this band is we just stay in the moment," Dirnt said to Rolling Stone. "Don't look backwards, and don't look too far forward. Stay in the moment, but appreciate the moment." And the Saviors tour will provide so many moments to remember.

10 Bay Area Punk Bands To Know: Dead Kennedys, Operation Ivy, Green Day & More

10 Bay Area Punk Bands To Know: Dead Kennedys, Operation Ivy, Green Day & More
Tim Armstrong and Lars Fredricksen of Rancid perform at Lollapalooza in 1996.

Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

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10 Bay Area Punk Bands To Know: Dead Kennedys, Operation Ivy, Green Day & More

From pioneers the Nuns and Crime, to Pinhead Gunpowder and the Donnas, Hickey and Ceremony, the San Francisco Bay Area holds its own against any other punk epicenter.

GRAMMYs/Jan 17, 2024 - 02:02 pm

Punk was punk before punk had a name and, as such, has many great epicenters. From the Ramones, who rocketed out of New York City to London's sneering and spitting Sex Pistols, and Detroit rockers such as the MC5 and the Stooges who set the attitudinal tone for the genre, punk is often considered an east-of-the-Mississippi (and across the pond) phenomenon. 

But that thinking negates the very prolific West Coast, and generations of California uber alles. The San Francisco Bay Area, specifically, is home to a multitude of punk bands — as well as crucial venues like 924 Gilman and the Mabuhay Gardens, and revered pubs including Search and Destroy, Cometbus and Maximum Rocknroll, as well as festivals like Mosswood Meltdown — whose music helped define the genre from the late '70s onward. Detractors best take warning: From pioneers the Nuns, Crime and Flipper, to MDC, Pinhead Gunpowder and Capitalist Casualties, the Donnas, Ceremony and Scary Scare, the Bay's multifarious scene holds its own against any other punk epicenter. 

In honor of a new album from hometown heroes Green Day and major anniversaries of the group's seminal LPs Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004), press play and get in the pit with these 10 essential Bay Area punk bands. Welcome to paradise.

The Avengers

Crucial Album:The Avengers a.k.a. The Pink Album

Formed in 1977, San Francisco's the Avengers were among the first wave of Bay Area punk bands and remain legendary for their raw, anthemic tracks (see "Summer of Hate" and "We Are The One") and distinct vocals of Penelope Houston. They hold the distinguished honor of having opened for the Sex Pistols at their final performance at SF's Winterland Ballroom.

The quartet of Houston, Greg Ingraham (guitar), Jimmy Wisley (bass) and Danny Furious (drums) were "by far the coolest and youngest sounding" of Bay punks wrote music critic Byron Coley. "They roared without irony." 

The Avengers first and only release in their original lineup was a three-song EP from 1977, We Are the One. Released in 1983, four years after the Avengers broke up, The Pink Album compiles demos, tracks cut with new members, and takes from sessions recorded with the Pistols' Steve Jones. 

Dead Kennedys

Crucial album: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables

Perhaps the early punk band most synonymous with San Francisco, the Dead Kennedys formed in 1978 as a quartet with Jello Biafra on vocals. The group was a staple at Mabuhay Gardens and other local venues, performing in a more "traditional" style before veering into hardcore and thrash in later years. 

As their name might infer, Dead Kennedys' music was often political and provocative — filled with satire about authority, national politics and the scene itself. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen panned the group in a 1978 column, writing "Just when you think tastelessness has reached its nadir, along comes a punk rock group called The Dead Kennedys which will play at Mabuhay Gardens on Nov. 22, the 15th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination." Some stores refused to sell the Kennedys' albums and, in the mid '80s, the band's Frankenchrist album became the center of an obscenity trial (which resulted in a hung jury).

Dead Kennedys released four albums and an EP before breaking up in 1986, and each release sounds a bit different. While your preference may vary based on your affinity for hardcore, their 1980 debut album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables is a classic. Featuring their best-known tunes "Holiday In Cambodia," "California Über Alles" and "Too Drunk To F—," Fresh Fruit embodies a spirit of tongue-in-cheek brutal hookiness that flows through the Kennedys' entire discography. 

After multiple credit and royalty-based legal battles, Dead Kennedys reformed and performed without Biafria in the early 2000s. Biafria remains a musician, spoken word artist, and political activist.  Drummer D.H. Peligro — who joined the Kennedys in 1981 and was featured on three albums, later reuniting with the group in 2001 — passed away in 2023.

Crimpshrine

Crucial box set: Free box

Pioneers of the East Bay punk scene centered in Berkeley around the venue 924 Gilman, Crimpshrine was the brainchild of (pre)teens Aaron Cometbus — who also founded a popular, eponymous zine and would play with Pinhead Gunpowder — and future Op Ivy vocalist Jesse Michaels. The friends named their band after a girl with blonde, crimped hair. 

In a brief period, Crimpshrine would lay the groundwork for the East Bay punk sound typified by Green Day, Operation Ivy and others; as record label Numero Group eloquently put it, Crimpshrine sounded "melodic but full of feedback, and a singer who sounded like he gargled glass." 

Although the band first formed in 1982, Crimpshrine cut their first demo in '87 and released their debut EP, Sleep, What's That?, on the local Lookout Records. That and other releases — several split EPs, a second solo EP titled Quit Talkin' Claude…, and a single full-length, 1989's Lame Gig Contest — weren't as political as the Bay's punk forefathers tended to be. Rather, Crimpshrine penned fast, personal tracks that touched on friendship, romance, loneliness, homelessness, and drugs.  

Operation Ivy

Crucial album: Energy

Operation Ivy's ska-infused punk sound and raucous performances (mostly at 924 Gilman) led them to become one of the East Bay's most influential punk bands. Named for a nuclear weapons testing program code name and featuring Crimpshrine's Michaels on vocals alongside Tim Armstrong (also on guitar), Op Ivy quickly developed a cult following.

"The kind of ska Operation Ivy played was totally new territory. It went way beyond having punk elements," Aaron Carnes wrote in In Defense Of Ska. "Some Op Ivy songs were power-chord punk blasters; others were upbeat-driven ska songs. But it wasn’t a dance party. It was unleashed, unapologetic punk-rock fury." 

Op Ivy were only together for two years, but played 185 shows, recorded 32 songs and even more demos. More than 30 years later, the band's sole studio album, 1989's Energy, is still a vibrant and resonant record of how punks constantly turn it around. Op Ivy's final show — fittingly at 924 Gilman, months after being offered a major label deal that they ultimately turned down — was also Green Day's first performance. 

Green Day

Crucial album: Dookie

Perhaps the biggest punk band to come out of the Bay, Green Day requires very little in the way of introduction. The four-time GRAMMY winners (and 17-time nominees) have been rockin' since 1987 when they were students at Pinole Valley High School. Originally performing as Blood Rage and then Sweet Children, Green Day first debuted under their new name during a show with Operation Ivy at 924 Gilman. 

Although OGs and Gilman devotees would certainly know the band's 1990 debut album 39/Smooth and the following year's Kerplunk, Green Day's third album was their first true crest into the mainstream. Released in February 1994, Dookie nearly topped the Billboard 200 and netted now-canonical hits "Longview," "Welcome To Paradise," and "Basket Case." The album also netted the trio of  Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool a GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. Today, it's sold over 15 million copies.

For the next 30 years, Green Day wormed their way into punk and not-so-punk earholes. The band's slew of hit singles and resonant albums further mainstreamed the genre, but consistently kept their unique sound. The band made their GRAMMY stage debut in 2005, performing "American Idiot" (which celebrates its 20th birthday in 2024) and the following year took home the golden gramophone for Record Of The Year for the thoughtful "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." That wasn't Green Day's final win at Music's Biggest Night: 2009's 21st Century Breakdown won Best Rock Album at that year's GRAMMYs. 

Although a lesser group could easily rest on their laurels, Green Day continues to put out new music. Their most recent release — and fourteenth studio album — Saviors offers 15 tracks of pop-punk goodness that prove the band are nowhere past their prime. They're also still true to their roots: Armstrong and Dirnt still live in the Bay and invested in local businesses (Dirnt was co-owner of Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe and Armstrong was one of the co-owners of local shop Broken Guitars (now Oakland Guitars).

Rancid

Crucial album: …And Out Come The Wolves

Op Ivy's Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman formed Rancid in 1991. They brought on Lars Frederiksen a few years later and, with a few lineup changes in the interim, are still going strong 30-plus years later. The group released their 10th album, Tomorrow Never Comes, in June 2023 and performed during that year's Punk Rock Bowling.

A cornerstone of the East Bay scene, Rancid picked up where Op Ivy left off, further fusing ska and punk with Armstrong's gravy talk-sing vocals at center. The band's lyrical themes followed suit as well, dealing in introspection, anti-authoritarianism and politics, with plenty of spotlight given to the Bay Area's scene. 

While there's plenty to choose from over a three-decade, double-digit album career, the output from Rancid's early years remains the most resonant. Sophomore album Let's Go and 1995's …And Out Come The Wolves are ska-punk masterpieces, with the latter's "Time Bomb," "Ruby Soho" and the musical chronicle "Journey To The End Of The East Bay" are a resonant salad years soundtrack. Released further into their career, Indestructible and Let The Dominoes Fall bring a bit more pop-punk into the game. 

Multiple members of Rancid have ventured into solo projects and new groups, including Frederiksen's eponymous Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, Armstong's A Poet's Life project with L.A. reggae outfit the Aggrolites, brief project with Billie Joe Armstrong the Armstrongs, and punk/rap-rock supergroup the Transplants, which featured Travis Barker, Rob Aston, Armstrong and current Interrupters guitarist Kevin Bivona.

Frightwig

Crucial album: Faster, Frightwig, Kill! Kill!

Precursors to the riot grrrl movement, all-female group Frightwig left a lasting mark on both San Francisco and early '90s alt-rock/punk. (In fact, Kurt Cobain is wearing a Frightwig t-shirt during Nirvana's "MTV's Unplugged" sessions.) Founded in the early '80s by teen San Franciscians, Frightwig spent over a decade "screaming and shredding their way through glass ceilings and unapologetically leaving behind a pile of shards," according to their website.

Expectedly, the trio and sometimes quartet received a fair amount of attention for simply being young women in punk. They were known to turn the tables by inviting male fans onstage to dance and be ridiculed while playing "A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do."

"We really wanted to play with what the status quo of womanhood was supposed to be visually and also sonically. That’s part of our mission, to really challenge what people think about what a woman is supposed to look like and to do," guitarist/vocalist Mia d’Bruzzi later told SFGate.

The group — which experienced a number of lineup changes in its initial 12-year run — played many of San Francisco's major punk venues and toured with locals Flipper and Dead Kennedys, as well as Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth, and Bikini Kill. Raw, noisy, feminist and tongue-in-cheek, the trio recorded two full albums — 1984's Cat Farm Faboo and Faster, Frightwig, Kill! Kill! two years later — and several EPs before disbanding in 1994.

In 2023, a reconstituted Frightwig (with the expectation of long-time drummer Cecilia Kuhn, who died in 2019), released We Need To Talk. The 11-track album is a more polished, rollicking zip through the life of a 60-something empowered punk, with defiant tracks like "Aging Sux"  and "Ride My Bike," political takes such as "War On Women," and a re-recording of their popular "A Man's Gotta Do."

Jawbreaker

Crucial album: 24 Hour Revenge Therapy

Although formed in 1986 at NYU and briefly relocating to L.A., San Francisco’s Mission District is Jawbreaker’s spiritual home. (The band were even on two Bay Area labels: San Rafael-based Shredder and San Francisco’s Tupelo/Communion.) Despite often being labeled “emo punk," Jawbreaker has been always been so much more; the band's clever, personal and relatable lyrics courtesy of guitarist/vocalist Blake Schwarzenbach and their superb rhythm section with drummer Adam Pfahler and bassist Chris Bauermeister resonated with audiences throughout the West Coast. 

After moving to the Bay in 1991, Jawbreaker released Bivouac (1992) followed by fan-favorite 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1994). The group were invited by Nirvana to open six shows on their 1993 In Utero tour, after which rabid fans and the underground music press were wary of Jawbreaker "selling out" and signing to a major like Green Day. Jawbreaker vehemently denied the possibility of signing to a major label in print interviews and even from the stage.

But by 1994, the group had signed to DGC and the backlash was immediate. Former fans would buy tickets to their shows just to turn their backs to the band while flipping them off. Their major label debut, Dear You, was a much slicker production and sold poorly. Despite a messy breakup in 1996, Jawbreaker remained underground legends and their 24 Hour a touchstone for generations of punks (emo and otherwise). In 2017, Jawbreaker reunited with a seven-song unannounced set at East Bay venue the Ivy Room and have been performing regularly ever since.

AFI

Crucial album: The Art Of Drowning

Today considered a pop-punk or emo group, East Bay outfit AFI have masterfully shifted between punk subgenres for three decades. Founded in the Northern California city of Ukiah before relocating to Berkeley in 1993, the (current) quintet of Davey Havok, Jade Puget, Hunter Burgan and Adam Carson were fixtures at Gilman and elsewhere in the East Bay, initially leaning into a hardcore sound. 

There's a little something for everyone over the course of AFI's 11 albums. Mid-'90s releases Answer That and Stay Fashionable, Very Proud of Ya and Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes are snotty, speedy and cheeky punk, exemplified by songs like "I Wanna Get a Mohawk (But Mom Won't Let Me Get One)" and "He Who Laughs Last." Black Sails In The Sunset marked a move to darker sounds and melodic vocals, while 2000's The Art Of Drowning is dripping in horrorpunk themes and could be considered the group's take on the Misfits. Their commercial high point at the time, Drowning provided a dark counterweight for listeners coming of age in the early aughts world of pop-punk.

Future releases leaned into post-hardcore and emo: Sing the Sorrow, Decemberunderground and Crash Love, ushering the band further into the mainstream. AFI's last release came in the form of Bodies, an album of typically poetic lyrics, gothic imagery and attempts at a new wave sound. 

Shannon and the Clams

Crucial album: Sleep Talk

Less straight-ahead punks than the majority of this list, Shannon and the Clams are proof that punk isn't a specific sound so much as an attitude. Fronted by powerful vocalist Shannon Shaw, the quartet released their first album in 2009 and soon gained attention in the Bay and beyond for their meld of punk, garage, R&B and doo-wop.

Their sophomore record, Sleep Talk, is filled with Ronettes-eque yips, surf guitar and memorable chanting choruses. Throughout, the record oscillates between whining early '60s style ballads ("Done With You"), snotty vocalized bops ("The Cult Song") and fuzzed-out ragers ("Toxic Revenge") reminiscent of early Ramones — an excellent showcase of the band's range of interest and ability. 

The expansion of punk and garage continued through Shannon and the Clams' well-titled further releases: Dreams in the Rat House (2013), Gone by the Dawn (2015), Onion (2018), and Year of the Spider (2021). True to prolific form, Shaw is involved in several other projects, most notably Hunx and His Punx and a magnificent solo project steeped in country and blues produced by Dan Auerbach.

5 Women Essential To Punk: Exene Cervenka, Poly Styrene, Alice Bag, Kathleen Hanna & The Linda Lindas

24 Songs Turning 20: Listen To 2004's Bangers, From "Yeah!" To "Since U Been Gone"
(L-R) Lil Jon, Usher, and Ludacris perform at Madison Square Garden in 2004.

Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

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24 Songs Turning 20: Listen To 2004's Bangers, From "Yeah!" To "Since U Been Gone"

Ready to feel old? Put on this playlist of hits that made 2004 a year of belt-along jams and unforgettable hooks, including Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" and Ashlee Simpson's "Pieces Of Me."

GRAMMYs/Jan 8, 2024 - 04:20 pm

A quick Google search of "top 2004 songs" can be summarized simply: What a time to be alive.

While it was arguably the year of Usher — who scored four Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers in 2004, including the year's biggest song, the Lil Jon- and Ludacris-assisted "Yeah!" — there were countless hits that have aged impeccably. Even 20 years later, there isn't a dance floor or karaoke bar that wouldn't go wild for J-Kwon's "Tipsy" or Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone."

Whether you were jamming to them on your iPod Mini or ripping them off of Limewire, revisit 24 tracks that made an impact — and still serve up the vibes 20 years later.

Listen on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Music below.