| My Chemical Romance Slam Fame-Hungry Musicians on New Album |
[30 Nov 2009|01:25pm] |
source
After going the concept route -- or at least making a linear work on 'The Black Parade' -- My Chemical Romance are going in another direction on their forthcoming album, due early next year. Spinner visited the group in their L.A. studio to get an early preview and we were left suitably blown away by the nine very disparate songs we got to hear. The tracks ranged from the atmospheric 'Light Before Your Eyes,' a song frontman Gerard Way describes as Pink Floyd-ish, to the '80s-flavored 'Trans Am' and the punk/dance party tune, 'Death Before Disco,' which starts off with a Judas Priest 'Living After Midnight' vibe and turns into a lyrical salute to the Stooges, Velvet Underground and MC5.
Way tells Spinner the as-yet-untitled album is a definite answer to 'The Black Parade.' "Every single record we make is a response to the last," he says. "But sometimes it's not only a response to the last record -- it's a response to the opinion of that record or a response to the world at the time of that record."
What he sees and documents on the new album is a lot of rockers who are in music for the wrong reason. "There's a definite undercurrent of fame versus working class, people having stuff handed to them with zero talent versus working class kids that start a band," he says. "Rock 'n' roll is not red carpets and MySpace friends -- rock 'n' roll is dangerous and rock 'n' roll should piss people off. Right now, there's not a lot of that happening. What it is is a lot of people trying to be famous. That seems to be the goal."
In Way's opinion, that desire to be famous is messing up the sanctity of rock ''n roll. "It's bled into rock. It came from other places, but it's bled into rock 'n' roll and kind of tainted it a bit," Way says. "This record is really a response to that as well."
MCR certainly have the resources and notoriety to bask in that fame as well, so how do they resist that temptation? "Instead of us panicking and trying to see where we can grab the money or grab the opportunity, we just wrote music instead," Way says. "We tried to write a great record; that was our response to things. I think that writing a great record will sell records these days, as opposed to doing every other f---ing thing that people seem to be doing to sell a record."
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| Frank Iero vs. The Secret Service |
[24 Nov 2009|05:29pm] |
Link was posted on the Current: Music blog: article appears @ Altpress.com:
From The Editor's Floor: My Chemical Romance Alternative Press - Tim Karan on 11/24/09 @ 7:00 AM - altpress.com
HOMELAND INSECURITY: THE DAY MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE'S FRANK IERO MET THE MEN IN BLACK
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE are putting the final touches to their follow-up of 2007's majestic The Black Parade. During a break in the studio, guitarist FRANK IERO recalls some of the great highs and lows he experienced during their break. Some of those experiences--good and bad--revolved around writing, recording and touring with his side-project, LEATHERMOUTH, whose debut album XO, appeared on Epitaph earlier this year. The good was that he honed his home-recording skills, did a lot of writing (which has helped inform MCR's next disc) and became a maniac frontman while Leathermouth were on tour with REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT during the summer of 2008.
The bad? Well, as the guitarist has made clear in interviews, Leathermouth are his vehicle for unfiltered ranting (i.e. "Sunsets Are For Muggings," "Your Friends Are Full Of Shit"). But it was track No. 4 on XO, "I Am Going To Kill The President Of The United States Of America" (about George W. Bush), which earned Iero a visit from the Secret Service. Wondering what happens next?
"The government comes to your house, searches everything and talks to your wife for hours," says Iero, adjusting the sleeves on his hoodie. "Then you have to get a real expensive attorney to keep you out of prison for five years. I had a long talk with the gentlemen of the Secret Service. [It was the] straight-up dark suits, sunglasses, Men In Black-vibe--I thought they were going to do the mind-erase thing [like in the movie].
"They said, 'Why did you write the song?' And I told them the truth. I was on tour [overseas] with My Chem at the time, and every time I turned around, there were Anti-American rallies. I wrote a song from the standpoint of the rest of the world. It wasn't from my personal point of view--it was just from someone who sees warmongering going on. I wrote the song, and the title is as blatant as humanly possible, because I wanted it to be that way. The Secret Service asked, 'Do you think someone is going to hear this song and kill the president?' And I said if they're going to kill the president, they're going to do it without listening to this song. That's like saying everyone who reads Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal is going to eat a baby. They didn't think that was too intelligent, so they said, 'Well, if you re-release the record with the song on it or perform the song live ever again, you'll be arrested."
What's really perplexing about the whole incident is how the agency even learned about the song in the first place. Iero says he's not sure who it was, but opines that it was a British writer who contacted the Office of Homeland Security looking for a comment. Clearly, Iero could've turned the whole thing into a massively public freedom-of-speech argument; now, he's just happy the whole thing is behind him. "I'm married and I want to have kids," he resigns. "I don't want to go to jail for five years." --Jason Pettigrew
Source: http://altpress.com/features/editorsfloormychem.htm
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| Stripped Down, Cranked Up: My Chemical Romance Return |
[12 Nov 2009|12:02pm] |
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Early in the recording of My Chemical Romance's fourth album, the band gave mixer Rich Costey a preview. "Everything he heard was just noise and spitting," remembers singer Gerard Way.
Taken aback, Costey asked, "What are these songs?"
"They're protest songs," Way told him. "It's the sound of 'no.'" Only later did Way realized exactly what he was protesting: "I was protesting us."
After a grueling tour behind 2006's The Black Parade, MCR were worn out and fed up. "I thought the band was going to break up," says guitarist Frank Iero. "I was expecting a call from Gerard saying, 'We can't do it anymore.'" Instead, they took a year off and changed managers. This past February, they went into the old A&M studios in L.A. with Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien.
"The plan was to knock it out and not to overthink it," says drummer Bob Bryar. They expected to be done by April, but the record ended up taking all year. The goal, Way says, was to drpo the theatricality of The Black Parade -- which had lots of Floyd-ian pomp an da Liza Minnelli cameo -- and "to harness everything that's great about this band into shorter songs. Almost protopunk, like the Stooges or the MC5."
The song that pushed them in the right direction was "Trans Am." It begins with the lyric "I got a bulletproof heart" and then stomps through four minutes of fist-pumping rock.
With that new direction -- impassioned but melodic -- MCR put aside the noisier material they had been working on and wrote a new batch of songs; the fast-and-dirty "Still Alice," the anthemic "The Only Hope for Me Is You" and the super-catchy "Death Before Disco" (featuring the chorus "Everybody pay attention to me"). "We simply embraced rock n' roll and where we're from," Way says. "We learned how to be an American rock band instead of a British rock band."
On an October afternoon in L.A., MCR are polishing the album. There's only a month or two of work left to do: some mixing, some overdubs, and sequencing. Today, Way is working on that pivotal cut, "Trans Am" -- which he thinks would be enhanced by "1.2 seconds of Queen."
So he warms up his vocal cords, slips on some headphones, and asks, "Can I get a little bit of reverb? Yeah, it's a crutch." then he sings, "These pigs are after me, after you" a dozen times, creating a "Bohemian Rhapsody" harmony. His performance is stylized, almost like a yodel. With a grin, he announced, "When I start sounding teenage-girlish, that's the sweet stuff."
Way's in a good mood, and not just because he's almost done with the record. In 2007, he married Lyn-Z (bassist for the band Mindless Self Indulgence); this May, they had a baby girl, Bandit. Way took two weeks off and then came back to work "like a zombie, long hair and unshaven." But fatherhood gave him a new perspective on his lyrics, which focused on despair and death. "I wasn't writing a record about becoming a dad, I wasn't writing a record for my baby girl, but I was writing a record for the person that she would turn into when she was 15, if anything ever happened to me."
[Source: Rolling Stone Magazine (RS 1092)]
[Scan: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) tothetune]
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| New Blog reveals song titles =) |
[10 Nov 2009|04:42pm] |
Ray posted a new blog.
Mixing with our good buddy Rich Costey is going great. So far, he's mixed 9 songs, and they all sound fucking stellar. He had an interesting process where he started out mixing some of the looser songs first, and then ramped up to the denser stuff. Our goal in mixing is to make it loud, and then make it louder then that. "Still Alive" was an early one, and he brought a real heaviness and aggressiveness to that song. Song is very drum and bass oriented, very different for us, but still rocks at the same time. A bit of Queen influenced guitar harmonies helps on that song.
"Save Yourself" was another early one, a mix of Judas Priest metal and 80's arena rock. That song went through a lot of different permutations, and finally we settled on this vibe that took us to new territory. We then got into a song called "The Only Hope For Me Is You," and that's where things really starting clicking with Rich. What was great was each song would just sound better and bigger than the last. As some of you had guessed from a twitter thing of mine (I refuse to call it a tweet), David Campbell did a bit of work on the record, and that's one of the songs he arranged for. Costey did this crazy effect with the strings going into the last chorus that blew me away. One of my favorite tracks.
"Trans Am" and "Death Before Disco" came next. "Disco" you may have heard at the Roxy shows or from Youtube videos of Summersonic. So happy with the way that mix turned out. I have to drive REALLY FAST when I listen to it. I think that's a hallmark of a great rock song. "Trans Am" is an epic take on "Born To Run" in 4 minutes. When we wrote this song, it was HUGE for us. Really opened our hearts and ears during the writing process. Frank, thanks for noodling and G, good ear to make a song out of it. You guys will love this song. Another favorite. Looking forward to more mixes, we got coming up "Kiss The Ring," which we also played at Roxy. I really can't wait for "Black Dragon Fighting Society," our ode to Misfits punk. Song kinda shreds!
Mixing is a great thing. The ideas continue to flow, and like they say, writing is never done. FYI any of the song titles mentioned are still tentative, you know how we like to change things up!!!
Ray
Source
I am so excited!
What do you guys think of the song titles?
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| In case you haven't heard.... |
[13 Oct 2009|03:24pm] |
MCR.com is hosting a Costume contest : www.mychemicalromance.com
IMCRD.net is holding one too
Go to the sites for further information.
Anyone else excited to dress up?
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[27 Sep 2009|06:22pm] |
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| Summer Sonic 09 video |
[27 Sep 2009|09:41am] |
You might have seen this at other places but just in case...
MCR starts at 6:01
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| Black Parade Live @ Summer Sonic '09 |
[14 Sep 2009|01:15pm] |
HQ video of "Welcome to the Black Parade" at Summer Sonic 2009. Anyone know if there are more professional videos out there?
EDIT: Here is another video that includes "I'm Not Okay" and a little bit of "Famous Last Words" as well as "Black Parade".
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| New Photoooooos :D |
[16 Aug 2009|11:27pm] |
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Kill All Your Friends - My Chemical Romance |
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Firstly GERARD IS BACK ON TWITTER! And today I noticed he spent a good hour responding to individual fan tweets. What a good guy *wipes tears* XD
anyway, less exciting one first ja? Gerard's illeged automobile:
he tweeted that this is the way his car likes to travel or something. Huh.
And now, onto the main event :D
Now this photo really does need to come with a disclaimer! Mmmhmm! Just a warning, Gerard and Lindsey are acting out the Kennedy assassination. It is disturbing when you first see it, I had a minor freak out when I first saw it, but I think it is such a beautiful photo that we should all see it (if we want to... eek!)
( Clicky for the amazing photo )
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| MCR to play Soundwave in 2010 |
[13 Aug 2009|01:24pm] |
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Paramore - Ignorance |
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On their site, they announced the line up for February 2010.
For 2010 we are particularly proud to have enticed one of rock’s all time legendary artists, FAITH NO MORE ; and one of today’s most talented and intriguing bands, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE to top the bill.
Source: http://www.soundwavefestival.com/
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