My Chemical Romance (often shortened to MCR or My Chem[1]) is an American Music Award-nominated, Grammy Award-nominated, American rock quintet that formed in 2001. The current members of the band are Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Frank Iero, Ray Toro and Bob Bryar. Shortly after forming, the band signed to Eyeball Records and released their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major label debut Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in 2004. The album was a major commercial success, selling over one million copies due in part to the success of the singles "Helena", "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", and "The Ghost of You". The band followed this success with 2006's The Black Parade, featuring their hit singles, "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", "Teenagers" and upcoming single "Mama". While the band identifies their sound as simply "rock", the subgenre of the band's recordings has been a subject of debate among fans and the media.[citation needed] After a long hiatus, Mikey Way returned to the band in time to support Bon Jovi. The band also recently filmed a live DVD in Mexico City, which is due for release in early 2008.[2].

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Is:Ronnie Winter: Lead VocalsElias Reidy: Guitar, Backing VocalsDuke Kitchens: Guitar, Piano, VocalsJoey Westwood: Bass, VocalsJon Wilkes: Drums, VocalsWhat's in a name? Well, it depends who came up with it. In the case of Middleburg, Florida quintet The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, it might mean anything. Jumpsuits can be sleek and fashionable, tight and revealing. Or they can be loose and homogeneous, suggesting redundancy and confinement befitting a jailbird. Red is often flashy and easily noticeable, but it's also the color of blood. And an apparatus allows a jumpsuit to be used for a specific purpose, such as leaping from an airplane - or it could be something sexual. After all, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus are ballsy and emotional, pulsing with vibrancy and tenacity. They're strong, yet vulnerable, and they shift between musical styles with the confidence of superstars.

Much like Five for Fighting or Dashboard Confessional both musically and in theory, Secondhand Serenade is a project name for a solo artist, singer/songwriter John Vesely. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a musical family that included his professional jazz musician father, Vesely spent a number of dues-paying years in a variety of local bands before switching from bass to acoustic guitar and beginning to write his own songs. (In his official artist bio, Vesely claims that the inspiration for the band name Secondhand Serenade is the fact that all of his autobiographical songs are directed first and foremost to his wife, thereby making the audience mere bystanders to their pas de deux; he seems not to notice that some potential listeners might find this attitude a bit condescending.) Vesely recorded his debut album, Awake, in 2005, originally self-releasing the disc and selling it through his MySpace page and iTunes. Online buzz led to a deal with Glassnote Records, a pseudo-indie funded and distributed by the Warner Bros. offshoot The Independent Label Group. Glassnote released an expanded version of Awake in February 2007. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

The four members of Chicago's Fall Out Boy came together in suburban Wilmette around 2001. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joe Trohman had all been in and out of various units connected to Chicago's underground hardcore scene. Most notably, Hurley drummed for Racetraitor, the furiously political metalcore outfit whose brief output was both a rallying point and sticking point within the hardcore community. As Fall Out Boy, the quartet used the unbridled intensity of hardcore as a foundation for melody-drenched pop-punk with a heavy debt to the emo scene. They debuted with a self-released demo in 2001, following it up in May 2002 with a split LP on Uprising that also featured Project Rocket (for which Hurley also drummed). The band returned on the label in January with the mini-LP Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girl, but by this point a bidding war of sorts was already in full swing.

Background information

Origin

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Genre(s)

Pop rockPop punkPowerpop

Years active

1997–present

Label(s)

Atlantic (2000-2001)Fearless (2002-2005)Hollywood (2006-present)

Website

Official website / UK website

Members

Tom HiggensonDave TirioMike RetondoDe'Mar HamiltonTim Lopez

Former members

Steve MastKen Fletcher

Formation (1997-2001)

Plain White T's lead vocalist Tom Higgenson originally set out to be a drummer in high school and was a member of various bands. However, when Plain White T's first came together in the late 90's Higgenson took over songwriting and singing duties for the band. Bassist Ken Fletcher and drummer Dave Tirio came on board and the band began performing around the Chicago area.

The T's were just an average starting out rock band, playing covers in a garage. They spent a few years doing this, but in the summer of 1999 Tom Higgenson was in a car crash, which left him with a lacerated kidney and punctured lung. The band had only just started to get noticed by record labels at this point, but this made no difference as far as Atlantic was concerned, as the band got signed to this indie label in 2000. They recorded an album and released it, its name was Come on Over. They supported tours around their hometown, Chicago, aiming only to gain their fan base.

Background information