Suprise! I’m sick again! I may look like a boatswain and smell like a corpse, but the shows are still a go for the weekend. Please try and check us out at Maxwells this Friday with The Lawndarts and The High School Sweethearts. We’re very excited to be playing Maxwells and it’s been a personal dream of mine ever since I was a kid going to shows there. There are some people flying out and travelling many miles to see us so keep them company and meet some new friends. Click SHOWS and get the skinny on where it’s going down.
We’re also trying a first this weekend for My Chem- 2 shows in one day. This Saturday we have the pleasure of playing Alissa’s Basement at 6:00 and then we hop in the van to make soundcheck at The Loop as soon as we finish. Eyeball label-mates, Little Joe Gould are coming out all the way from Indiana for this show so we’ve decided to risk health and safety to play both shows. If you’ve seen the shape of us after just one set you’re probably curious what we will be like at the second show – so are we. I can assure you a night of “hot male action” and “stinky boys”.
Also check out our good friends in The Ghost and The Exit in our links section. We had the good fortune of seeing both bands play 2 nights last weekend and they were great. Drinking in The Ghost van outside of CBs with Jordan and T-Top was definitely a plus.
I need a shave, a new dye-job, and some decongestant so I’ll leave you with the image of me sitting in my house watching Mad Monster Party, moaning, sweating, boxer-clad, and trying to hit the high notes in Headfirst For Halos. – g
pov it’s christmas 2002 and mcr wants to party with you
“12.25.02
Merry Christmas everybody! Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. We’d like to thank you all for giving us the greatest Christmas gift…your friendship and your appreciation of our music. Besides the show in Boston on the 29th, we’re taking a short break over the holidays, but will be back rocking for you starting January 5th. Come party with us! Again, thanks for everything you have done for us.
“We get a lot of questions about certain things…so here are some answers.
What’s the significance of the name of the band?
Mikey came up with the name My Chemical Romance. It works on a lot of different levels for the band. At the root of it, the name refers to the works of Scottish author Irvine Welsh. A “chemical romance” is the genre he has created in works such as The Acid House, Filth, and of course Trainspotting. Mikey added the word “my” to it to add a personal dimension to the name. In essence, it means a romance with chemical substances.So are you saying you guys do drugs?No. My Chemical Romance does not do drugs or condone the use of drugs. However, the band is not straightedge and likes to party like everyone else.
How long have you guys been a band? It seems like you guys came out of nowhere…
As a fully functioning band, My Chemical Romance has been together since Jan of 2002, when Mikey was officially added to the roster as bass player. Matt and Gerard started the band in November 2001, with Matt playing drums and Gerard singing and playing guitar, but Gerard isn’t that good on guitar and he wanted a guitarist so he could just sing, jump around, dance and do other things like “unleash the bats,””hump the sky,” and “exorcise the demons.” Ray then joined the band and they had a hard time finding a bass player until realizing they should just train Mikey, who ended up making them all look like bitches when he learned the set in a month. Other than that all of the members of the band have been making music together for years in various bands and have been a part of the scene in various ways. Until now, the music and the combination of musicians never fit perfectly and could best be chalked up as a learning experience. We’ve recently Frank Iero as another guitarist, and the band now finally feels complete.
You guys have a record coming out on Eyeball Records? How and When?
Eyeball Records is a label we respect and love, and we’re thrilled to get the offer to do our first record with them. They have a long history, have put out and worked with a lot of bands we love, and have given us 100% creative freedom to make this album however we wanted. They are as excited about the record as we are. We record the first week of May ’02 and expect the record to have a summer release. The album entitled “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” will feature all of the songs from our set, including a final mix of “Vampires Will Never Hurt You”. From then on we will tour and support the album for a long time while working on new songs.
What are your influences?
Everything. We listen to lots of different music but if we had to list some bands and artists that have been a big influence on our sound we would have to say: Iron maiden (it doesn’t get any better than these guys), At The Gates (except these guys), The Pixies, The Misfits (Danzig years) and Samhain, The Smiths, Morrissey, The Haunted, Pulp, Blur, Johann Sebastian Bach, Fernando Sor, Queen, Guns and Roses, Helloween, and the list goes on and on…
Are Mikey and Gerard brothers?
Yes. Mikey and Gerard are loving brothers that enjoy rocking out together. But they consider Ray and Matt their brothers too, only Puerto Rican and French ones.
What kind of equipment do you use?
Ray plays a Session guitar. A Session is a knock off of a Gibson Les Paul from around the early 80s. I asked a vintage guitar store owner some information about Session seeing as how Ray won’t play anything else and he said, “It’s a piece of shit. It was made in the Philippines in the ’80s and Sam Ash used them to sucker people into buying a cheap guitar. Worst guitar ever. And the factory blew up”. Ray also uses a 100 watt Marshall JCM 2000 head, a Laney Cabinet, and assorted stomp boxes. Mikey plays a Fender American Jazz bass with obnoxious silver sparkle finish. Matt uses Pearl drums, Zildjian cymbals (a lot), and an enormous Gibraltar drum cage. If you’ve ever seen us live then you understand how big this thing is. Gerard uses an SM58 Shure mic. The mic of choice for Bruce Dickinson.
I want a T-shirt! Any merch soon?
We have some buttons and we’re running out. We just invested in a button maker so we can have all sorts of self-indulgent crazy buttons you can wear for cheap. The band has finally decided on 2 designs that are being drawn up as we speak and they love them, so expect them soon.
What’s all this nonsense about bats???
The band likes bats. Who doesn’t? If you’ve seen the band live you might have heard Gerard mention something about turning into one or unleashing some sort of swarm of them. “Unleash the fucking bats” is something they say to each other seconds before starting the set to get themselves pumped up. This all started back in Jan ’02 when the band finally came together and started playing together with an intensity none of them had ever known. That fateful night they rocked together so hard that a “rock portal” opened up and out flew a swarm of giant bats. No shit.
I heard you guys cover Morrissey…why?
We cover a B-side called Jack The Ripper. Basically we wanted to cover it because we knew we could do a really rocking version of this song. It rocks as it is but we felt if we added a little “kick” to it and did like we do all of our others it would be something special. If you’ve ever seen us play this live we absolutely can’t control ourselves while we’re doing it, and its a good warm-up for “Vampires Will Never Hurt You.”“
