Sunday 11 March 2012

Hoping for the best just hoping nothing happens. A thousand clever lines unread on clever napkins...



This weeks band is one that a lot of people already know about because of their popularity. Their connection to other bands I have blogged about made it next to impossible to not talk about Taking Back Sunday. Taking Back Sunday band has spawned other bands like Straylight Run, their ongoing feud with Brand New brought both bands into the spotlight, they are cited as one of Cute Is What We Aim For’s influences and have at least toured with the other bands covered in this blog.

Taking Back Sunday was formed in 1999 by Eddie Rayes with a lineup that included Brand New’s Jesse Lacey on bass. Since then they have gone through four major line up changes, the most drastic came in 2002 when John Nolan and Shaun Cooper left the band after the release of their debut album “Tell All Your Friends”. The band would release three more albums between 2003 and 2009. 2004’s “Where You Want to Be” and 2006’s ‘Louder Now” feature new guitarist Fred Maraschino and new bassist Matt Rubano. Maraschino left the band and was replaced by Matt Fazzi who played on New Again which was released in 2009. During this time fans stayed loyal but always hoped for a reunion of the "Tell All Your Friends" line up. In 2010 fans got their wish when the band fired their current guitarist, Matt Fazzi and bassist, Matt Rubano and to everyone's shock John Nolan and Shaun Cooper returned to their home, Taking Back Sunday. The band seemed to have mended the fences that were torn down during the initial split and would release last years self titled album. The album is quite possibly their best, at least lyrically, since Tell All Your Friends.

(Take a listen to " A Decade Under the Influence"  one of the many songs about John Nolan and Shaun Cooper's departure from the band) 

Taking Back Sunday did for their genre of music what little other bands were able to do. They brought emo-punk to a place where it was respected by critics and praised by fans across the world. The band is filled with talented musicians who are able to play their respective intstruments better than many other musicians out there. Adam Lazarra, the lead vocalist of the band, has grown over the years into an insightful lyricist writing songs dealing with his own battles with drug addiction and the fallout with best friend John Nolan. When Nolan returned to the band he brought his mature approach to song writing with him and Taking Back Sunday was able to produce some of their best and most insightful songs of their careers.
(Listen to their first single from their self title album, "This Is All Now") 

I had the pleasure of seeing the band live this summer during their reunion tour. While the band has grown and released a number of albums after many years of being in the business, it was amazing to see how the reaction of the crowd as soon as the words “Your lipstick, his color, don’t bother angel I know exactly what goes on” from their first single "Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From the Team) was heard.  Listen to the song which is also the inspiration for this week's blog title, below. 


6 comments:

  1. Great band choice! I'm jealous you got to see them live. I always now and again put on some of their classics and it it is true they have some great lyrics. Thanks for the history on them as well.

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  2. I agree! Great band choice. I used to be into them a little bit. My roommate in third year loves them so she had them on in our dorm often!

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  3. I have never really listened to their music other than on the radio, but I really like the song you posted (A Decade Under the Influence). Perhaps I will have to update my music collection.

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  4. I've actually never even heard of Taking About Sunday. There's so cool that you saw them live.

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  5. These guys aren't bad, but I still can't get past emo vocals. Why are they shouting? And why do they sound like they're teenagers? I miss 90s rock when vocals still counted for something. What happened to all of the Eddie Vedders?

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  6. Two of these songs are from when Adam Lazarra was a teenager. They have two vocalists to show the contrast between the two voices. John Nolan is actually a talented singer as is Adam Lazarra

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