For Green Day, the 21st century begins on Friday, May 15.

That's the day the veteran Bay Area pop-punks will release their eighth studio album 21st Century Breakdown, the much-anticipated followup to their acclaimed 2004 smash American Idiot.

Word is that the new CD, which took two years to create, is even more ambitious than AI. According to a press release, the Butch Vig-produced concept album consists of three acts -- Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, and Horseshoes and Handgrenades -- and follows a young couple named Christian and Gloria as they navigate "the mess and promise of the century so far." Whatever that means.

The first single, Know Your Enemy, will be available online next month. Other tracks from the album include 21 Guns, East Jesus Nowhere, Before the Lobotomy and Restless Heart Syndrome.

No word of a tour yet, but you can bet that singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool didn't spend all that time in the studio just so they could hang around the house this summer. So stay tuned.