My Chemical Romance
When your first two albums are titled "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" ('02) and "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge," ('04) you know My Chemical Romance has a skewed world view. No wonder, they're from New Jersey.
Remember watching Breakfast Monkey on the Cartoon Network? No? Well, it's not because of damaged brain cells or general forgetfulness. Nor is it because the Cartoon Network is little more than a blur of second rate animation populated with gags no self-loathing class clown would touch. You see, Breakfast Monkey came close to hitting cable but never quite got there. Here's why. Gerard Way had flirted with music in his teens but gave it up to draw, eventually attending the School of Visual Arts in New York. From there he made a connection with the Cartoon Network and pitched them on the idea of a flying simian capable of producing a breakfast out of thin air. But the events of 9/11/01 and seeing the group Thursday perform at a small, lightly attend club gig, caused Way to rethink his career choices. He abandoned Breakfast Monkey and returned to music and something more substantial.
Rock music can be cathartic. Jumping around slamming out chords or beating a drum kit to death blows away life's troubles. Songwriting is another good way to deal with unwanted traumas - or at least make some sense of them. Singer Way, who suffered through severe depression and a serious family illness, partnered with drummer Matt Pelissier to write some songs. Their first effort, which also made it on to My Chemical Romance's debut was "Skylines And Turnstiles." That was a positive experience so the next step was to build a group to perform their songs. Guitarist Ray Toro signed on. He was followed by Mikey Way (that would be Gerard's brother) and guitarist Frank Iero.
The name My Chemical Romance was procured from cult writer Irvine Walsh's novel Ecstasy - Three Tales Of Chemical Romance. Walsh also wrote Trainspotting.
The group played high energy shows in Goth-Rock attire throughout the northeast. It paid off. They were signed to Eyeball Records. "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" with "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us," "Headfirst for Halos," and "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" was produced by Thursday's vocalist Geoff Rickly. That led critics to mercilessly compare the two groups.
For the better part of the next two years My Chemical Romance played throughout North America and Europe, either as a headliner or co-billed with The Used and other groups.
My Chemical Romance's time with Eyeball was relatively short. Moving to Reprise/Warner in '03 they released "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" the following year. Probably to get away from the Thursday comparisons the album was produced by Howard Benson, who had worked with Motorhead, P.O.D. and Hoobstank. Containing 'I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," "You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison" and "I Never Told You What I Do For A Living," My Chemical Romance was again drawing a quirky personal experiences as their main inspiration. Once the album was released the group did the Vans Warped Tour before hitting Japan and the U.K. Amid all this, Pelisser left and was replaced by Chicago native Bob Bryar.
The live CD/DVD "Life On The Murder Scene" was issued in '06. Later that year, the group unfurled "The Black Parade." The album almost didn't get completed because singer Way was in a bad way, suffering from crippling depression. "I went through a crisis. I was examining every awful thing about myself," says the singer. "I was living inside the record. It was a dark time."
Apparently, all the anguish was worth it. "The Black Parade" sold 240,000 copies in its first week to land at #2 (behind Disney's "Hannah Montana" soundtrack) on the Billboard 200 chart. My Chemical Romance unveiled their second live album "The Black Parade Is Dead!" in July, '08.
Way calls My Chemical Romance's music 'violent, unsafe pop music." He's got a point. They offer a melodic, Punk driven, gloom and doom, take on life. On "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love," the group delivers a lean, reckless sound and Way's frantic vocals. With "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us" and "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" this set has a loose, downward allure.
The production values are stepped up and Way is toned down on "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge." The end result is no less energetic and a lot more appealing. They score with "Helena," while mastering some intricate tempo and texture changes, and "I'm Not OK (I Promise)." Another track worth checking out is "It's Not A Fashion Statement It's A Deathwish." Here again the group throttles the song to good effect. My Chemical Romance is all about hostile chords in 4/4 time with pain laying on top of misery.
Driving the road to oblivion, My Chemical Romance live provides a fitting soundtrack. "Life On The Murder Scene" runs right up to the point of wanton noise, remaining ever insistent and unrelenting, as they spit, shout and sneer through lyrics. There's no power-pop/Punk, only Punk. The album opens with the dense "Thank You For The Venom." "Cemetery Drive" mocks and "Give 'Em Hell, Kid" blisters. "You Know What They Do With Guys Like Us In Prison" is a sick/funny jaunt that goes for the jugular on the chorus.
Queen, or what's left of it (the group absent the late Freddie Mercury), spent a chunk of '06 touring with vocalist Paul Rodgers, of Free, Bad Company and The Firm fame. OK but probably not the most imaginative pairing. What if Queen backed the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan? A lot more interesting. At various points, that's exactly what "The Black Parade" sounds like. Though My Chemical Romance, and Way in particular, never elegantly trip over-the-top the way the original Queen did, they do display an inherent drama.
Often groups use outside musicians for recording. But bringing in veteran actress/singer/showbiz personality, Liza Minnelli, who appears on the track "Mama," is way beyond the norm. Way claimed Minnelli was an obvious choice to voice the Mother War character. "(We needed) someone very strong, someone that had loved and lost, someone that had been through so much in her life and survived," explained Way. "There was no one that could beat her."
With song titles "The End," "Dead!" and "I Don't Love You," it would be easy to expect a dour, dreary exercise. "The Black Parade" is certainly not that. In an interview, Way stated he could envision the album being made into a movie or musical. "It's such a visual thing," he said. "I think it would make a great animated film, something experimental would really work for this." That makes sense. "The Black Parade" is a very theatrical effort. From the snotty "Teenagers," about the boys and girls in a click and making them pay, to the Queen-influenced, piano/cello based, "Ballad," they run the gamut of stark emotions.
Most of the time, My Chemical Romance utilizes their tight, lean sound on remarkable uptempo songs ("This Is How I Disappear," "Welcome To The Black Parade," "House Of Wolves" and the set closer, "Famous Last Words") that are presented with a distilled flair.
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