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My Chemical Romance is an American band from New Jersey. Formed in 2001, the band consists of Gerard Way (lead vocals), Mikey Way (bass), Bob Bryar (drums), Frank Iero (rhythm guitar), and Ray Toro (lead guitar).

The band has been described variously by the media as "emo", "indie", "pop punk" and "post-hardcore". The band themselves have described their music as simply "rock" or "violent, dangerous pop", as well as rejecting the term "emo" to describe their style, to the hilarity of everyone else and the despair of their emo fans who take it to mean that NO-ONE understands them.

My Chemical Romance cites their main influences as Black Flag, Thursday, Iron Maiden, The Misfits, and Morrissey/The Smiths. 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. The band members hail from Belleville 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 Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, by Irvine Welsh.

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. Shortly after, Ray Toro, and Mikey Way (Gerard's brother) joined the band. The band immediately started playing numerous local shows in basements in Montclair and New Brunswick, VFWs like Boonton Elks, and clubs such as the Loop Lounge in Passaic and the Bloomfield Ave. Cafe & Stage, in Montclair, New Jersey.

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 the album was made, they had only been a band for about three months. Frank Iero joined the band a few days before they started recording. Even though he joined before the recording sessions, he played on two songs on the album.

Major career (2003–2005)

In 2003, the band signed a deal with Reprise Records and began working on their second album after finishing a tour with Avenged Sevenfold. The 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".

It was during this time that the band replaced their drummer, Matt Pelissier with Bob Bryar. They replaced Pelissier after My Chemical Romance went to Japan in August 2004. The true nature of Pelissier being replaced has never been stated by the band but it has been speculated it was due to an argument with band member Ray Toro or due to possible mess ups during live performances.

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 Pressure" that was released as a benefit single on iTunes and other Internet outlets.

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 couple of 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. An unauthorized biography DVD was released on June 27, 2006 and is named Things That Make You Go MMM!. 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.

My Chemical Romance's third album, The Black Parade, is scheduled for release on October 24th, 2006 in the USA and October 23rd, 2006 in the UK. The band started recording the album on April 10, 2006 with Rob Cavallo, who has produced every Green Day album since Dookie except Warning:. The Black Parade was originally thought to be titled The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance, but in an interview with Kerrang! magazine Gerard Way denied this was the title of the next album, stating "It was never the title of the album, more a spoof, or joke." It name ended up being more of a working title for the album.

On August 3, 2006, the band finished shooting the video for their first single off of The Black Parade, entitled "Welcome to the Black Parade". The song began playing on radio on September 11th, 2006, and TV on September 26th, 2006 in the UK and the 27th in the US. The video is directed by Sam Bayer, the same director who did Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" and all of Green Day's American Idiot videos.

During the shoot for "Welcome to the Black Parade," which also included the shooting of the second, as-yet unnamed video from the album, band members Gerard Way and Bob Bryar were injured with Way suffering a burn to the leg and torn ligaments in his ankle and Bryar a staph infection, that needed constant monitoring in the hospital, causing the band to cancel a couple of shows. 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 has confirmed that these injuries occurred on the set of the video.

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 for large amounts. The band always do something special at these shows, such as arrive in coffins, and this was no different. The name of the upcoming album was announced before the gig when 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 was confirmed to be called "The Black Parade" with an October 23, 2006 UK release. Posters and stickers and a very small amount of Black Parade T-Shirts were also given to people in the queue by the street team members. Many fans were also signed onto the email mailing list by the street team members. When the set began, the backdrop art displayed the words "The Black Parade". New songs played included "House of Wolves", "The End", "Dead!", "I Don't Love You", & "Cancer". The two latter songs were played live for the first time at this show.

On September 2nd 2006, My Chemical Romance posted their new single, "Welcome to the Black Parade" on their Myspace page and their purevolume page. It can also be heard on the official website. On September 26, 2006 the "Welcome to the Black Parade" music video was released in the UK. On September 27, 2006 the video was released in the US.

My Chemical Romance have just signed on to play the world renowned Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand in 2007, playing 6 dates from January 19 to Februrary 4. They are billed alongside mega rockbands Tool and Muse, indie rock favourites The Killers, and Australian rock superstars Jet.

Criticism

Fanbase

My Chemical Romance initially was lauded as a band with a strong "grassroots" following. It was among the first bands to achieve national status by offering free downloads through PureVolume and the "social networking" site MySpace, where MCR gathered its first 100,000 fans. The band has clearly grown well beyond those initial numbers, but some critics indicate that the many new fans they've gained through heavy MTV play have a lower ability to connect to the band's music, while others suggest that the large fanbase they've gained since their 2004 album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is due to a more mainstream approach. MCR are mainly criticized for having a large "Teeny bopper" fanbase, who joined their fanbase after the release of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Many critics say that My Chemical Romance and similar bands play generic, MTV-friendly music meant for mass consumption rather than artistic innovation. Due to the increased amount of new fans, some of the old fanbase considers the band a "sellout" and the new MCR fans "posers". However MCR fans are sometimes considered loyal to the point of possible obsession. This can be compared with "Rabid InuYasha Fans" and "Trekkies", especially on online forums.

Fan fiction about MCR has become common online on fansites, LiveJournal groups, fan fiction sites, and Quizilla. These stories are about the band members having some connection with the underworld or Hell, or dealing with various parts of life. However some if not most of these stories promote the band as "sex icons". These stories usually have the band having sexual relations, or relations in general, with either original characters, bandmates, or other bands (a common band mentioned in fan fiction would be The Used). However, some feel different, which led to a large feud among users of Iconator. The feud on Iconator was based on the fact that "the members of My Chemical Romance do not deserve to be treated like "sex icons", and do deserve to be treated like normal people, because that's what they are."

Image

Much of My Chemical Romance's music is 'horror film' based, and their photos and art rather bloody. Due to this, MCR are often criticized for their music and their appearance being emo.

The band Guttermouth was supposedly kicked off the 2004 Warped Tour for insulting My Chemical Romance, stating that My Chemical Romance cares more about money and their clothing than the music they make. However, Guttermouth has stated they have left on their own and not due to a complaint by My Chemical Romance.

Bottled

My Chemical Romance played the main stage at the 2006 Reading and Leeds Festivals - this was the largest show they have ever played in the UK. They were not received warmly by the crowd at Reading, as the band was subjected to heavy concert bottling. Large sections of the audience threw bacon, tangerines, golfballs, and drink bottles filled with urine at the group as they played. This reportedly upset frontman Way, who then introduced a track saying, "This song is called Thanks For All The Bottles, Thanks For All The Piss, Thanks For All The Golf Balls, Thanks For All The Apples And Thanks For All The Sticky Shit." My Chemical Romance did, however, complete their set.

Discography

Albums

Album Cover	Date of Release	Title	Label	US Billboard Peak	US sales
File:MCRBroughtYouMyBullets.jpg	June 23, 2002	I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love	Eyeball Records
File:MCRThreeCheers.jpg	June 8, 2004	Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge	Reprise Records	#28	Platinum
File:Life on the murder scene.jpg	March 21, 2006	Life on the Murder Scene	Reprise Records	#30	Gold
	October 23, 2006 (UK) October 24, 2006 (US)	The Black Parade	Reprise Records

Singles

Relationship with The Used

The Used is known to have both a personal and a professional relationship with My Chemical Romance. The lead singer Gerard Way and Bert McCracken were rumored to have been particularly close. My Chemical Romance and The Used have covered "Under Pressure" (originally by David Bowie and Queen) in concert on multiple occasions. Critics, however, have often critized this relationship saying that My Chemical Romance used their relationship with The Used to gain a more international and wider audience.

In recent months, however, the two lead singers of both bands seem to have had a fallout due to disagreements over the addition of "Under Pressure" to In Love and Death. Most of this evidence comes from an interview with Bert and a recent song, so far unreleased, by My Chemical Romance entitled "Disenchanted". The dispute was settled, however, when Bert said in an article that he was "just messing around". The two bands' members are, to this day, good friends.

References

1. http://ubl.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,1721940,00.html?src=search&artist=My+Chemical+Romance ArtistDirect.com
2. http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7100253
3. Pause & Play
4. Punknews.org
5. ^ http://www.theblackparade.com
6. http://www.videostatic.com/vs/2006/week30/index.html#entry-11878537
7. ^ http://www.mychemicalromance.com/flashsite.php Cite error: The named reference "mychemicalromance" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
8. http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2102684&blogID=154073986&MyToken=316e9236-63c8-45a0-b001-045098c599d9
9. Music fans reach for the stars - USA Today
10. Bands Embrace Social Networking - Wired Magazine
11. A Mixed Set to a Mixed Crowd- Punknews.org
12. My Chemical Slash, an MCR LiveJournal community.
13. Fandomination.net's My Chemical Romance Fiction Section
14. Quizilla - fan fiction
15. http://www.nme.com/news/readingleeds-festival/24116 NME.com - My Chemical Romance shelled by crowd, Way upset

1. "Teen Titans" — Rolling Stone (2005-07-14)
2. Rolling Stone Counter Reference
3. Billboard Chart Positions

External links

• My Chemical Romance Fansite

• Official website
• My Chemical Romance Fansite
• My Chemical Romance Biography, discography and songs
• Official MCRmy website
• Ask My Chemical Romance A Question at Rocklouder

• American musical groups
• Emo musical groups
• My Chemical Romance
• New Jersey musical groups
• Post-hardcore groups