My Chemical Romance
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My Chemical Romance (MCR, My Chem for short, or My Chemical Relations ) is an American alternative rock band that formed in New Jersey in 2001. The current members of My Chemical Romance are Gerard Way (lead vocals), Mikey Way (bass), Bob Bryar (drums), Frank Iero (rhythm guitar), and Ray Toro (lead guitar).
The band cites their main musical influences as The Misfits, Iron Maiden, and The Smiths/Morrissey. Despite their musical genre being disputed, the band has called themselves "violent pop." Growing up, the band members were also heavily influenced by horror films and comic books, and consequently their music, lyrics, and image all have overt elements of fantasy, storytelling, horror, and theatricality. The band members hail from Belleville, Newark, and Kearny, New Jersey, except drummer Bob Bryar, who is from Chicago, Illinois. Bassist Mikey Way coined the band's name from a book entitled , by Irvine Welsh while working in a local Barnes and Noble .
Biography
Early career (2001–2002)
The band was formed by frontman Gerard Way and ex-drummer Matt Pelissier. The first song they wrote was Skylines and Turnstiles, which was written by Gerard about his feelings on September 11th after he watched it happen before him. Shortly after, Ray Toro and Mikey Way (Gerard's brother) joined the band. At this time Frank Iero was in another band, Pencey Prep. Eventually this band broke up, and he tried making other bands and failed, eventually joining My Chemical Romance only days before the band hit the recording studio for their debut album.The band then recorded their first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, and released it in 2002 on Eyeball Records. When I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love was made, they had only been a band for about three months. After the release, they toured with bands such as Taking Back Sunday, Underoath, Sparta, As Tall As Lions, and The Used.
Major career (2003–2005)
In 2003, the band signed a deal with Reprise Records and began working on their second studio album. Entitled Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, was released in 2004 and went Platinum a year later. The album contained three singles: "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", "Helena" and "The Ghost of You". Just before the making of the video for I'm Not Okay (I Promise) , Bob Bryar joined the band. At the start of 2005, the band were direct support on the first ever Taste of Chaos tour, and were also the opening act for Green Day on their American Idiot tour. Later that year they co-headlined and finally headlined their own tour, for the first time ever with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect around the country.My Chemical Romance and The Used collaborated on a cover of the David Bowie and Queen classic "Under Presure" that was released as a benefit single (to help victims of the tsunami disaster in December, 2004) on iTunes and other internet outlets and was also found on The Used's CD In Love and Death.
Recent and future plans (2006—)
On March 21, 2006, a 2 DVD/1 CD set entitled Life on the Murder Scene was released. It includes one DVD chronicling the band's history, and a second DVD with music videos, the making of their videos and a few live performances. The release of the album/DVD was delayed twice; it was first rumored to be released on November 8, 2005 and was postponed until February 7, 2006, then was delayed again until it was finally released on March 21, 2006. My Chemical Romance has recently been working on their third album, which will be released in late 2006. The band started recording the album on April 10, 2006 with Rob Cavallo, who has produced every Green Day album since Dookie except . [#endnote_newalbum]Discography
Albums
| Album Cover | Date of US Release | Title | Label | US Billboard Peak | US sales |
 | July 23, 2002 | I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love | Eyeball | Did not chart | |
 | June 8, 2004 | Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge | Reprise | 28 | 1,000,000+ |
 | late 2006 – early 2007 | The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance (tentative title) | Reprise | Has not yet been released | |
DVD
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 | US Mainstream Rock chart | US Modern Rock Charts | UK Singles Chart | |||
| 2002 | "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us" | - | - | - | - | I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love |
| 2002 | "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" | - | - | - | - | I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love |
| 2004 | "Headfirst For Halos" | - | - | - | - | I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love |
| 2004 | "Thank You for the Venom" | - | - | - | #71 | Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge |
| 2005 | "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" | #86 | - | #4 | #19 | Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge |
| 2005 | "Helena" | #33 | - | #11 | #20 | Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge |
| 2005 | "The Ghost of You" | #84 | #38 | #9 | #27 | Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge |
Members
Current lineup
Former members
References
- ↑ ["Teen Titans"] — Rolling Stone (2005-07-14)
- [Rolling Stone Counter Reference]
- ↑ [ArtistDirect.com]
- ↑ [Pause & Play], [Punknews.org]
- ↑ [Billboard Chart Positions]
See also
External links
Official
- [Official website]
- [My Chemical Romance Forum]
- [My Chemical Romance on MySpace]
- [My Chemical Romance on Tagworld]
- [Mi Romance Quimico] (Latin-American Website)
Others
- [My Chemical Romance Biography Discography and Songs]
- [My Chemical Romance Lyrics Archive - RockLyricsDB.com]
- [My Chemical Romance fans home page]
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