The news came with little fanfare: As GD took the stage to present the night's final award, Album of the Year, the in-house announcer simply proclaimed that their long-awaited follow-up to 2004's American Idiot would be called 21st Century Breakdown. The band didn't mention it at all, instead reading off the list of nominees, then handing the AOTY award to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.

Later — perhaps because people missed it — Green Day re-announced the info on their fan club and their official site, and added that 21st Century Breakdown would be coming this May. The album is already available for pre-order through GreenDay.com.

Very little is known about Breakdown, aside from the fact that it's being produced by Butch Vig and that, in a November interview with Alternative Press, it was revealed that it's broken down into three acts — "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints" and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" — and will feature 16 songs, with titles like "Viva la Gloria," "Before the Lobotomy" and "Christian's Inferno."

It's also been reported that Green Day have been working on the album since at least 2006 — calling it, at various times "a cool project" and "an event." They've also kept busy with myriad side projects, including frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's gigs with Pinhead Gunpowder and the band's stint masquerading as the Foxboro Hot Tubs.