On October 10, 1995 Green Day released their fourth studio album, Insomniac. The album was the follow-up to their major label debut, Dookie, released only a year before.The album was much darker than Dookie, as the band wrote and recorded songs that captured their experiences jumping from the underground punk scene at Gilman to signing to a major label, and everything that went along with it. Big changes to their personal lives (marriage, children) also played a role in the creative process.
The album's release was highly anticipated as Dookie shot Green Day to world-wide fame, and singles from Insomniac did well on the charts. "Geek Stink Breath" reached #27 in the US, while "Brain Stew" reached #35 (the video of course, was released as with Brain Stew and Jaded combined). The album itself made it to #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and went on to sell over 2 million copies in the US alone.
Insomniac also featured it's infamous cover titled "God Told Me To Skin You Alive" by artist Winston Smith. Fromthe artist's website:
"The collage on the album cover was created by Winston Smith and is called God Told Me to Skin You Alive, a reference to Dead Kennedys first album, "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables". Interestingly enough, the cover art contains an image (the dentist) that was originally used in a collage featured in the insert booklet art of Dead Kennedys' album Plastic Surgery Disasters. There are also three skulls on the entire album cover- one for each member of Green Day. One of the skulls requires you to view the piece at an angle. The hidden skull is taken from Hans Holbein's 1533 painting The Ambassadors."
To celebrate the album's 16th anniversary, put aside 40 minutes of your day to listen to the entire thing from start to finish
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