They’re intense, they’re
hardcore, and they’re finally finding a mainstream
audience.
Chicago band Fall Out Boy has been around since about
2000, when vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stumph, drummer
Andrew Hurley, guitarist Joseph Trohman, and bassist
Peter Wentz came together in a suburb of the city. All
had been a part of the city’s underground hardcore
scene as members of other bands, including Hurley, who
drummed with political hardcore metal band Racetraitor.
When the four musicians formed Fall Out Boy, they kept
that hardcore foundation and intensity and built upon
it their own brand of melodic punk-pop that borrowed
liberally from the emo genre. The band released a demo
in 2001 and a split LP in 2002 on the Uprising label.
A mini-LP followed before the band signed with Fueled
by Ramen, a label co-owned by Vinnie Balzano, drummer
for the band Less Than Jake, and Fall Out Boy had also
received an advance from Island Records to record a
debut album. “Take This to Your Grave” came
out in 2003 and went gold, and the band raked in critical
praise for its numerous concert performances.
FUSE and mtvU began giving Fall Out Boy some airplay,
and in 2005, the band’s steady rise began to escalate
with the release of “From Under the Cork Tree,”
which debuted at number nine on the Billboard charts.
The album’s breakout single, “Sugar, We’re
Goin’ Down,” found a home on radio stations
across the U.S. and hit the top spot on MTV’s
TRL. The single peaked at number eight on the Billboard
Hot 100, and the video won an MTV2 Award at 2005’s
MTV Video Music Awards. The Grammy Awards also recognized
Fall Out Boy, nominating them for Best New Artist at
the 2006 awards.
Fall Out Boy followed “Sugar, We’re Goin’
Down” with “Dance, Dance,” which is
also rocketing up the charts as more and more fans discover
the band each day. Fall Out Boy concert tickets for
its Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour with Hawthorne Heights
and the All-American Rejects are quickly selling out
venues around the nation.
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