OMG Green Day OMG Green Day OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

Has it really been 20 years? Has it been two decades since the first kids heaved themselves from small stages in Berkeley, Calif., to the sounds of Billie Joe Armstrong -- roughly 16 at the time -- screaming his spiky-haired head off? Has it been 15 years since breakout album Dookie, 10-plus since "the time of [our] lives," five since American Idiot, one of this decade's loudest and proudest arena rock opera protest albums (soon to be a Broadway musical!)!?!? And considering it's been that long, is it remotely feasible that Green Day -- arguably this country's best band (yeah, we said it) -- is just now hitting their stride? And considering all of that, could it possibly be true that Rhapsody -- yes, this Rhapsody -- will be streaming the band's new album, 21st Century Breakdown, a week before its wide release!?

Because this, we dare say, is an exciting development.

So yeah, you read that right: 21st Century Breakdown, right here on Rhapsody, beginning Friday, May 8th. We're pretty jazzed. How jazzed are we? We find the extent to which we are jazzed difficult to express. How about we just give some stuff away instead?

Announcing The Rhapsody Green Day Super Awesome Twitter Contest!

Each day, from Friday, May 1st, until Friday, May 15th, we will give away a piece of Rhapsody gear made by one of our Partners In Consumer Electronics Manufacturing: Philips, Tivo, etc. To enter the contest, you will have to Tweet us (@rhapsody -- 21st Century Breakdown indeed!). Details will be unveiled tomorrow at 10 a.m. Do promptly check back at that time. It's a recession, and you could use all the free stuff you can get your hands on.

Additionally, for the next week, we'll be giving away a free Green Day song each day. That's pretty cool, no?

On top of this, upon the album's actual worldwide release on May 15, you can purchase or stream it at Rhapsody with exclusive bonus material, which we'll be releasing bit by bit over the subsequent weeks.

As if all of this weren't enough, you can stay tuned to this here URL -- blog.rhapsody.com/green-day -- for all kinds of mind boggling Green Day curios, including quizzes, photo galleries, and more. It's a dangblasted smorgasbord of Green Day up in here. Please oh please won't you join us.