By RockDude
History
Early career (2001-2002)
The band was formed by frontman Gerard Way and ex-drummer Matt
Pelissier approximately one week after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Witnessing the planes crash into the World Trade Center influenced
Way’s life to the extent that he decided to start a band. Way wrote
the song “Skylines and Turnstiles” to express his feelings about
September 11th. Shortly thereafter, Ray Toro was called up and asked
to join the band because at the time Way couldn’t sing and play the
guitar at the same time.[3] The first recording sessions were done in
Pelissier’s attic, where the songs “Our Lady of Sorrows” (formerly
called “Bring More Knives”) and “Cubicles” were recorded. Frank Iero
revealed that the band finished the lyrics to “Best Day Ever” moments
before they arrived at the studio to begin recording. The band refers
to those sessions as The Attic Demos. Mikey Way, the younger brother
of Gerard, loved the demo so much that he decided to join the band
after dropping out of college. Rumor had it that Mikey learned how to
play the bass guitar just to join the band, but Gerard Way set the
record straight in the CD/DVD Life on the Murder Scene when he
reported that Mikey had been in several bands before joining My
Chemical Romance.[3]
My Chemical Romance signed with Eyeball Records, where Pencey Prep and
Thursday recorded. While with Eyeball Records the band met Frank Iero,
the lead vocalist and guitarist for Pencey Prep. After Pencey Prep
broke up in 2001-02, Frank joined My Chemical Romance, just days
before the band’s debut album was recorded. [3] Three months after the
formation of the band they recorded their debut album, I Brought You
My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, subsequently released in 2002 on
Eyeball Records. Despite only joining the band a few days before the
album recording sessions began, Iero played guitar on two of the
tracks, “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville,” and the other being
“Demolition Lovers.” (He came up with the guitar harmony for “Early
Sunsets Over Monroeville” sitting outside the studio, in the back of a
van.) During this time, the band was booked at the infamous venue, Big
Daddy’s, where they began to receive mainstream attention. [4][5]
Mainstream breakthrough (2003-2006)
In 2003, the band signed a deal with Reprise Records. Following a tour
with Avenged Sevenfold, the band began work on their second album,
entitled Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Released in 2004, the album
went platinum within a year. The band released three singles from the
album: “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”, “Helena” and “The Ghost of You”. It
was during this time that the band replaced Matt Pelissier with Bob
Bryar, after they came back from Japan in July 2004. It was a very
controversial time for My Chem fans the world over. Matt left in
agreement with everyone in the band; there were issues about his
ability to keep time with the rest of the band. It is believed that
Ray Toro asked him to try playing with a metronome for a little while,
which offended the experienced drummer. Fans who were disappointed
with Matt’s departure wondered why the drummer, who took some artistic
liberties in live performances, was relieved instead of the “pill-
popping” lead vocalist. It is well-known that Gerard was at one time
incredibly depressed; however, he has been clean and sober since
August ’06. This, perhaps, is the reason the band does not wish to
talk about it often. This information was disclosed in the 2006 CD/DVD
Life on the Murder Scene.
At the start of 2005, the band toured on the first ever Taste of Chaos
tour, and was also the opening act for Green Day on the American Idiot
tour. During the summer, they co-headlined the Warped Tour 2005 with
Fall Out Boy. Later that year, My Chemical Romance co-headlined and
headlined their tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect
around the US. That same year, My Chemical Romance collaborated with
The Used for a cover of the Queen and David Bowie classic, “Under
Pressure” that was released as a benefit single on iTunes and other
Internet outlets.
On March 21, 2006, a 2 DVD/1 CD set entitled Life on the Murder Scene
was released. It included one DVD chronicling the band’s history, and
a second DVD with music videos, the making of their videos, and a
couple of live performances. An unauthorized biography DVD Things That
Make You Go MMM! was also released on June 27, 2006. The DVD does not
actually feature any My Chemical Romance music clips or performances,
but contains interviews with those who knew the band before much of
their fame.[6]
The band started recording their third studio album on April 10, 2006
with Rob Cavallo, producer of many of Green Day’s albums.[7][8] It was
originally thought to be titled The Rise and Fall of My Chemical
Romance, but in an interview with Kerrang! magazine, Gerard Way
suggested this was just the album’s working title, stating “It was
never the title of the album, more a spoof, or joke.”[9] On August 3,
2006, the band finished shooting the videos for their first two
singles from the album, “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “Famous Last
Words”, which was released on January 22, 2007.[10] The video was
directed by Sam Bayer, director of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
and Green Day’s American Idiot videos.[11] During the shoot for
“Famous Last Words”, band members Gerard Way and Bob Bryar were
injured. Way suffered torn ligaments in his ankle, and Bryar a burn to
the leg which caused a severe staph infection that needed constant
monitoring in hospital. Consequently, the band was forced to cancel a
few tour dates. While these injuries were reported by several news
agencies to have been the result of a car accident, a statement
released by the band on their website and MySpace page confirmed that
these injuries occurred on the set of the video.[12]
The Black Parade (2006-2007)
Announcement of The Black Parade at London Hammersmith Palais
Announcement of The Black Parade at London Hammersmith Palais
A biography titled Something Incredible This Way Comes was released,
written by Paul Stenning (Published in 2006). It features their
beginnings, right through to The Black Parade. On August 22, 2006, the
band played a special one-off show at the 1800-capacity London
Hammersmith Palais. The show sold out in 15 minutes prompting tickets
being sold on eBay well over the tickets’ face value. The name of the
album they promoted was announced and 20 people dressed in black capes
with their faces obscured paraded around Hammersmith, followed by a
large group of fans and street team members with signs saying “The
Black Parade”. Later during the show the album title and the UK
release date were confirmed. Prior to the band taking the stage it was
announced that My Chemical Romance were unable to play, but they would
be replaced by “The Black Parade”. After initial crowd hostility it
became clear the band were simply performing under a pseudonym in
keeping with the theme of the album.
On September 2, 2006, My Chemical Romance posted “Welcome to the Black
Parade” on their MySpace page and their PureVolume page.[12] “Welcome
to the Black Parade” had its first radio airing on September 11, 2006.
On September 26, 2006, the music video for “Welcome to the Black
Parade” was released in the UK, and on September 27 in the US.[9]
On October 12, 2006, My Chemical Romance made a rare in-store
performance to 500 fans at Virgin Megastores on London’s Oxford
Street. In order to get wristbands for the event, many fans slept
outside the shop the previous night. British band Towers of London
caused trouble at the event when the Towers guitarist, Dirk Tourette,
allegedly flicked a cigarette butt at Bob Bryar while he was
performing.[13] “Welcome to the Black Parade” reached number one on
October 15, 2006, on the UK Singles Chart, giving them their first
number one. The Black Parade was released on October 23, 2006 in the
United Kingdom and on October 24, 2006 in the United States.
The Black Parade World Tour started on February 22, 2007, with Rise
Against, Thursday and Muse as support acts.[14] At the first concert
of the tour in Manchester, New Hampshire, My Chemical Romance
announced the addition of Reggie and the Full Effect frontman James
Dewees, who will play keyboards/synth on the tour. On March 12, 2007,
the band appeared on the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as the host.
They played their single, “Famous Last Words” at the ending of the
show as flames were bursting behind them.
My Chemical Romance received many positive and negative accolades. In
Kerrang! magazine, issue 1138, My Chemical Romance won the following
categories in the 2006 poll: Best Band, Worst Band, Best Album (The
Black Parade), Worst Album (The Black Parade), Best Track (“Welcome to
the Black Parade”), Best Video (“Welcome to the Black Parade”), Best
Live Show, Best Thing about 2006, Worst Thing about 2006, Hero of 2006
(Gerard Way), Villain of 2006 (Gerard Way), and Sexiest Male (Gerard
Way). Also, in issue 1139, Kerrang! rated The Black Parade as the 4th
Greatest Album of 2006. In Rolling Stone magazine’s ranking of the top
50 albums of 2006, The Black Parade was voted the 20th best album of
the year. My Chemical Romance won the award for “Best International
Band” at the 2007 NME Awards. Gerard also won the “Hero of the Year”
award.[15]
The band during the Big Day Out in 2007 February
The band during the Big Day Out in 2007 February
My Chemical Romance on tour, wearing the clothes of The Black Parade
My Chemical Romance on tour, wearing the clothes of The Black Parade
On April 19, 2007, it was announced that Mikey Way would temporarily
leave My Chemical Romance’s 2007 tour to spend time with his new wife,
Alicia Simmons-Way. Mikey’s temporary replacement was Matt Cortez, a
friend of the band. On August 29, 2007 during a concert in Holmdel,
New Jersey, Mikey returned for the performance of the group’s song
“I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”.[16]
During the third leg of The Black Parade World Tour as a support act
for Muse, members of My Chemical Romance band and crew and members of
Muse’s crew suffered food poisoning, and consequently had to cancel
six shows.[17] My Chemical Romance was a part of Linkin Park’s Projekt
Revolution tour in 2007,[18] along with, Placebo, Mindless Self
Indulgence, Saosin, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, and Linkin Park.
Four original recordings from The Black Parade were featured on the
Xbox 360 release of Guitar Hero II. “Dead!” was added to the song list
in-game, and as of August 14, 2007 three more tracks were made
available via bulk download from the Xbox Live Marketplace: “This is
How I Disappear”, “Teenagers”, and “Famous Last Words”. The My
Chemical Romance Track Pack is available for 500 Microsoft Points. [19]
It was announced that My Chemical Romance will be on a headlining tour
in Europe with Mindless Self Indulgence opening, starting in October
2007. [20]
In September 2007, My Chemical Romance confirmed they have no plans to
record a new album until at least mid-2008,[21] though there are
conflicting reports that the group will record late in 2007 for an
early-2008 release.
On September 24, 2007, the group’s lead vocalist Gerard Way has stated
the group plans to release two more singles from The Black Parade,
both of which will feature music videos directed by Way himself. Way
also stated that bassist, and brother, Mikey Way will rejoin the group
on tour, following his break from touring after his March 2007 marriage.
Mikey has now returned to the band and is touring with them as normal.
Despite the group saying they would not write songs until 2008, they
played a new song recently, although technically untitled it has
garnered the unofficial, fan given name “Stay” as it was the only
discernible word at the song’s first performance.[22] On November 15th
it was reported that Frank Iero and Bob Bryar would be sitting out the
UK tour dates, with Bob having wrist problems and Frank having to
return home to be with his family, guitar tec Matt Cortez will replace
Frank, and Pete will replace Bob.[23]
My Chemical Romance was nominated for “Best Alternative Group” at the
2007 American Music Awards, along with Linkin Park and The White
Stripes, but Linkin Park won the award. This award was not aired on
television.
On December 19, 2007 EP Live and Rare was released in Japan. The EP
features tracks from singles from The Black Parade.
In the recent Australian shows, the song “Desert Song” was played as
an encore, something that Gerard stated as something “they’ve really
never got to play live”. In addition to “Desert song”, in South
America they played the songs “My Way Home Is Through You” and “Kill
All Your Friends”.
At the end of 2007, James Dewees announced that he would be joining My
Chemical Romance as an official member on keyboards beginning with the
band’s next album. The date of the release is not yet announced.
The future (2008)
In a recent NME interview with Gerard, the magazine said the band’s
next record would be “a return to punk rock.”[24]
The band recently announced in a blog on their website that they would
be going on a final tour in USA before going to write their new album.
At the same time, they announced they will be releasing a live DVD/CD
collection titled The Black Parade Is Dead! which was filmed in
October 2007 and releases March 30th in the UK and April 22nd in the US.
In addition to “Stay”, My Chemical Romance have also begun to play
another new song live which debuted in Hong Kong and also remains
untitled.
Musical style and influences
My Chemical Romance’s music has been described by the media as “pop
punk”,[25] “alternative rock”, “post-hardcore”[25], emo,[26][27] [28]
[29][30] and “punk revival”.[25] The band themselves described their
music as simply “rock” or “violent, dangerous pop” on their official
website,[31] as well as rejecting the term “emo”[32] to describe their
style. Although a source quotes frontman Gerard Way stating that they
are “What-else-ya-got-emo”,[3] Way has recently stated in an interview
that they were never emo, as he says emo is “a pile of shit.”[33]
My Chemical Romance cite their main influences as Queen, Thursday,
Iron Maiden, The Misfits, Morrissey/The Smiths[34] and the Beastie
Boys.[35] Gerard Way has said, “We love bands like Queen, where it’s
huge and majestic, but also bands like Black Flag and the Misfits, who
would go absolutely crazy.”[36] Way has also said that his band
patterns their career after that of The Smashing Pumpkins, another
band they admire.[37] Geoff Rickly, the lead singer of Thursday, has
compared My Chemical Romance to Ink & Dagger.[3] Growing up, they were
also very influenced by horror films and comic books, and therefore
their music, lyrics, and image all have overt elements of fantasy,
storytelling, horror, and theatricality. Gerard Way recently stated
that some of the material they are writing for their new album is more
of a throwback to their punk rock roots.citation needed
Criticism
My Chemical Romance was among the first bands to achieve prominence by
offering free downloads through PureVolume[38] and the social
networking site MySpace, where MCR gathered its first few thousand
fans.[39] The band has clearly grown well beyond those initial
numbers, expanding their fan base beyond the typical fans of their
musical style and direction,[40] partially helped by the more
mainstream sound of their 2004 album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.
MCR are sometimes maligned by the “grassroots” fans, for the expanded
fan base, after the release of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Due to
the increased amount of new fans, some of the old fanbase considers
the band a “sellout” and the new MCR fans “posers”. The fans are
particularly vocal on online forums.[41][42]
Numerous artists in other bands have criticized the band openly in the
media, Marilyn Manson among them; rumors circulated for some time that
he wrote the song “Mutilation is the Most Sincere Form of Flattery” as
an attack on the band for his Eat Me, Drink Me release (which he later
denied, saying that it was aimed at bands in general seeking to
imitate him). In another interview Manson stated that “I’m embarrassed
to be me because these people are doing a really sad, pitiful, shallow
version of what I’ve done”. In response to this, Gerard Way claimed
nothing Manson could say would bring the band down.[43]
Gerard Way struck out against fans and bands that classify My Chemical
Romance as “Emo”, saying that; “I think emo is fucking garbage, it’s
bullshit. I think there’s bands that unfortunately we get lumped in
with that are considered emo and by default that starts to make us
emo.” and, “I think emo’s a pile of shit.” This caused much outcry
from fans and critics alike.[33]
Tours
My Chemical Romance has been on many tours, touring non-stop for
years, and has a reputation for sold-out shows. Including the Vans
Warped tour in their earlier career, amongst others. Touring with many
well-known bands, earlier, with Fall Out Boy, The Used, Thursday,
Green Day and others.
Warped Tour ’05
The 11th Annual Vans Warped tour featured My Chemical Romance on the
Main Stage, along with The Offspring, Fall Out Boy, and 85 other bands
including the likes of Atreyu, The All American Rejects, Good
Charlotte, Saosin and many more. “For a lot of kids, it’s the one
thing they look forward to all year,” said Gerard Way. “They save up
for it. They get to see all the bands they like in one
shot.” [44]Which is apparent due to the large number of mainstream,
cult-favorite, or old school bands who play annually at the Warped
Tours. My Chemical Romance’s setlist included mostly songs from Three
Cheers For Sweet Revenge.
My Chemical Romance Tour
Following the 2005′s summer Warped Tour, the band opened their first
headlining tour. The tour launched September 15th in Ohio, stopping at
30 locations in the U.S., to promote their album, Three Cheers for
Sweet Revenge. Supporting were Alkaline Trio, and Reggie & The Full
Effect. The band really took advantage of headlining a tour, as they
incorporated major theatrics, like gothic dancers, to songs like
Helena. The tour was the beginnings of the heavy theatrics My Chemical
Romance have played around with in their concerts, Gerard Way
expressed his plans for the tour in an interview with MTV, “We’d
talked about bringing out dancers for our headlining tour in the fall,
but it’s a big undertaking; you have to have a bus full of dancers.
We’ve always wanted to do a big theatrical tour. But you have to do it
in steps,”[45]. The use of theatrics was extremely evident in their
future headlining tour, The Black Parade World Tour.
The Black Parade World Tour
The Black Parade World Tour was a world-concert tour the band embarked
on in 2006, stretching into 2007, to promote their newly released
album, The Black Parade. During this tour, they adopted the alter-ego
of ‘The Black Parade, where they performed with their well-known
marching band outfits and theatrical style. They have now dropped this
alter-ego and perform only as My Chemical Romance.
The idea for this tour may have been inspired by the Beatles’ 1967
album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band”, a concept album for
which the Beatles developed alter-egos and recorded as if it were an
actual performance of Sgt. Pepper’s band. The Beatles also wore
marching band outfits remarkably similar to the ones worn by MCR
(albeit in bright colors as opposed to black) on the cover.
Projekt Revolution ’07
The band joined headliners Linkin Park on Projekt Revolution 2007,
starting on July 25th and ending on September 3rd in Colorado. [46]
The band played a one-hour set on center stage, opening with This Is
How I Disappear, as flames burst behind the band. The set ended with
Cancer, occasionally with falling confetti, and fireworks.
Frontman Gerard Way has stated that it had been the best tour the band
has ever been on. This tour is worth mentioning, as a stream of
controversial events occurred, including the infamous kiss Gerard Way
and Frank Iero shared during a performance of You Know What They Do To
Guys Like Us In Prison in San Bernardino on the 28th of July. Another
such event was Gerard’s performance of Rihanna’s single “Umbrella” in
Hartford, Connecticut on the 26th of August. My Chemical Romance has
announced that following the Projekt Revolution tour they will be
opening for Bon Jovi in October, and depart for a European Tour, with
Mindless Self Indulgence supporting.
US Tour
Before their break, My Chemical Romance are going on a tour with Drive
By and Billy Talent. After this, they are presumed to have a break
before they start their next record, which release some time in 2009.
There has been some talk amongst fans whether or not there will be a
break; My Chemical Romance seem to keep adding tour dates to an
already lengthy list of cities.[47]
Band members
Current members
* Gerard Way – vocals
* Ray Toro – lead guitar, vocals
* Frank Iero – rhythm guitar, vocals (2002 – present)
* Mikey Way – bass guitar
* Bob Bryar – drums, percussion (2004 – present)
Former members
* Matt Pelissier – drums (2001 – 2004)
Live members
* James Dewees – keyboards (2007)
* Matt Cortez – bass (stand in for Mikey Way, 2007), guitars
(stand in for Frank Iero, 2007)
* “Pete” – drums (stand in for Bob Bryar, November 2007 – 2008,
full name was asked to be kept confidential)[48].
* Tucker Rule – drums (stand in for Bob Bryar, November 2007 -
2008)[49]
* Todd Price – Guitar (stand in for Frank Iero)[50]
Discography
Main article: My Chemical Romance discography
Studio albums
* 2002: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
* 2004: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
* 2006: The Black Parade
DVDs
* 2006: Life on the Murder Scene
* 2008: The Black Parade Is Dead!
