Taking Back Sunday

This article is about the band. For their 2011 album, see Taking Back Sunday (album).
Taking Back Sunday

Taking Back Sunday in 2007
Background information
Origin Long Island, New York, United States
Genres
Years active 1999–present
Labels Victory, Warner Bros., Sorry, Hopeless
Associated acts Straylight Run
Website takingbacksunday.com
Members Adam Lazzara
John Nolan
Eddie Reyes
Shaun Cooper
Mark O'Connell
Past members Matthew Rubano
Fred Mascherino
Antonio Longo
Jesse Lacey
Steven DeJoseph
Matthew Fazzi

Taking Back Sunday is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. The band was formed by guitarist Eddie Reyes in 1999. The band's members are Adam Lazzara (lead vocals), John Nolan (guitar, vocals), Eddie Reyes (guitar), Shaun Cooper (bass guitar) and Mark O'Connell (drums).

The band has released three studio albums with various past members Fred Mascherino (former lead guitarist and back-up vocalist), Matthew Rubano (former bassist), and Matthew Fazzi (former lead guitarist and back-up vocalist). The original Tell All Your Friends line-up reunited in 2010 and has released two studio albums: Taking Back Sunday and their most recent album Happiness Is.

Louder Now (2006) was the band's breakout mainstream album, notably because of the popularity of its lead single "MakeDamnSure." The album has sold over 900,000 copies and peaked at No. 2 on the United States Billboard 200, surpassing the band's previous Billboard 200 peak in 2004 at No. 3 with Where You Want to Be.

Before the release of their first studio album Tell All Your Friends (2002), they released Taking Back Sunday's EP in 2001, when the band featured former lead vocalist Antonio Longo. At that time, the EP received very little attention, eventually resulting in the band seeking a new lead singer, Adam Lazzara. Lazzara had at first joined the band as its guitarist, left a few months after it formed, then replaced original bassist Jesse Lacey (now of Brand New) during the EP's recording sessions.

John Nolan and Shaun Cooper left the band in 2003 only to rejoin in 2010, in time for the band's release of their eponymous album Taking Back Sunday on June 28, 2011. The album was produced by Eric Valentine and released through Warner Bros. Records.

In 2014, the band released their sixth studio album Happiness Is to positive reviews. The album reached number 10 on the Billboard US charts.

History

Early years (1999–2002)

The band Taking Back Sunday was founded in 1999 by Eddie Reyes. Reyes was already a veteran of the music scene on Long Island, and took part in numerous seminal projects. Mind Over Matter, a hardcore outfit, influenced Screamo and Post Hardcore bands like Thursday and Glassjaw; bands that would shape the face of Post Hardcore music for years to come. Their sound was similar to that of Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate. Reyes also founded The Movielife, a Melodic Hardcore band that gained much fame. Taking Back Sunday also had some success with currently unreleased songs such as falling for you and like hevomitaven. These songs were supposedly written before the band was officially together. Although they were never formally recorded, they have been played at shows by the band.

When choosing members for the band, Reyes approached Jesse Lacey, whose band The Rookie Lot had just broken up, to play guitar and sing. Jesse brought in John Nolan on guitar and vocals. Sometime later, Lacey switched to bass. Antonio Longo, who had been in the band One True Thing was recruited to sing. A few months later Adam left the band. The band played a few local venues while going through different band names, before settling on "Taking Back Sunday", a name of a song from the bands' friends, The Waiting Process. Derrick Sherman from The Reunion Show was in the band. In interviews, while the band was first getting recognition for their material, they frequently told interviewers that the name of the band was a reference to a Smiths single that was a b-side to "How Soon is Now?".

While recording their first six track EP, Jesse Lacey left the band to form Brand New with Brian Lane, the drummer of The Rookie Lot. Then, John Nolan half jokingly asked Adam Lazzara if he would move to Long Island and play bass for the band. Within the next week, Adam had moved in with John in Bellmore and was the full-time bassist. Adam worked at Eddie Reyes' father's deli for pay.

A so-called band feud between Taking Back Sunday and Brand New later briefly ensued. In one instance, a Warped Tour stop in Sacramento, Calif. included a pause in a Taking Back Sunday performance when a fan in a Brand New band T-shirt and sporting the fauxhawk of the era was in the crowd and held a "Brand New Was Right" sign. Lazzara stopped the show and called the sign carrier on stage. A Taking Back Sunday roadie jumped off stage and ripped the sign in half, as Lazzara asked for the guy to come onstage to explain himself. It came a week after a similar sign was held at a San Francisco Warped Tour show.

With the new members, the five piece finished the Taking Back Sunday EP. However, after an argument between Antonio Longo and Eddie Reyes, the band decided that another lineup change was needed. Adam Lazzara was moved to lead vocals, at Eddie's behest, and Shaun Cooper was brought in on bass. The band began writing new material and recorded a demo, which was put out through Levittown's own Miscellaneous Records. The first song the band wrote under the new lineup was, "Great Romances of the 20th Century". The band has stated since that the way their writing process works, is that someone comes up with a "riff" and everyone else adds onto it and perfects the song around it. And once the instrumentals were complete, John and Lazzara would take lines from their notebooks and put them together for the song's lyrics. The demo was called both the Taking Back Sunday Demo and the Tell All Your Friends Demo, both included different album art. The band began to tour relentlessly with bands like Brand New, The Reunion Show, Rival Schools, The Rainboy Case, and others before speaking to labels.

In 2001, their good friend Christian Winters from Hi-Lo Films filmed a video for the demo version of "Great Romances of the 20th Century". When the band was finally signed to Victory Records, the band showed them the video. They loved it, and Christian went back to re-edit it to the album version of the song.

Independent success (2002–2005)

Following Adam Lazzara's replacement of Longo as lead vocalist, the band released their first full album Tell All Your Friends, on Victory Records in 2002. Tell All Your Friends gave the band a small taste of success in the alternative rock spotlight, thanks to the singles "Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team)", "Great Romances of the 20th Century", and "You're So Last Summer". The latter song gained popularity with a music video featuring rapper Flavor Flav.

The album cover is a picture of an interstate off-ramp, with an overlay of the album title and the numbers "152", signifying the exit where the band members met their friends. The number has appeared on every LP cover to date.

In 2003, guitarist/vocalist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper left the band to form Straylight Run. The loss of Nolan and Cooper put the already unstable band into a state of heightened tension. However, Taking Back Sunday added Fred Mascherino on guitar and vocals as well as Matt Rubano on bass.

The year of 2004 proved to be successful for Taking Back Sunday, with the band opening for Blink-182 and appearing on the Vans Warped Tour. In addition, their second album, Where You Want To Be, was released on July 27, 2004, on Victory Records. Although sounding slightly different from Tell All Your Friends, the new album managed to do well commercially. Propelled by the single A Decade Under the Influence, Where You Want To Be went on to debut at the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with around 220,000 copies sold.[9] Rolling Stone Magazine listed Where You Want To Be as one of the top fifty records of 2004.[10] Instead of spending marketing money towards trying to get radio play, Victory Records used the internet and fans to spread the word about the upcoming album. They targeted consumers familiar with Victory Records as well as fans of emo music. They distributed a label sampler that included songs from, Where You Want To Be, to get fans excited about the release. They used the Taking Back Sunday street team, consisting of about 25,000, to promote the album. In return fans could get pre-sale tickets, win shoes and other various prizes.[9]

Taking Back Sunday received even more mainstream exposure by appearing on late night talk shows Jimmy Kimmel Live!; as well as contributing the song "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)" to the soundtrack for Spider-Man 2. They also contributed the song Your Own Disaster to the Elektra soundtrack, and Error Operator to both the Fantastic 4 soundtrack and its video game tie-in, where it served as Mr. Fantastic's theme. An instrumental version is also used as background music in the game. In 2007, the band contributed the song "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" to the soundtrack for Transformers, although the song did not appear in the movie. Also, the band was featured in the Tony Hawk's American Wasteland soundtrack when they covered the Descendents songs "Suburban Home" and "I Like Food" together as a medley.

Major label debut (2006–2007)

Taking Back Sunday performing on the Projekt Revolution tour in Mansfield, Massachusetts on August 24, 2007

On April 25, 2006, Taking Back Sunday released their third album, entitled Louder Now, on Warner Bros. Records. The members' comments on the album reflected the dramatic change the band had undergone in the two years since their last release. Matt Rubano noted that the move to a major label was not something the band took lightly, but it was a move that made sense given the band's tumultuous past.[11] Adam stated that fans seemed to feel their live shows had more energy than their recordings, and that Louder Now brought more of that across.

Taking Back Sunday received mainstream exposure by appearing on the late night talk shows The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, as well as the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation in an episode entitled "What's It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?".

In December 2006, the band released its first CD/ documentary, Louder Now: PartOne, featuring behind-the-scenes tour footage and four live concerts. Following months of touring to support Louder Now, Taking Back Sunday appeared in the American leg of Live Earth on July 7, 2007. During the summer of 2007, Taking Back Sunday was also a part of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour, along with My Chemical Romance, HIM, and several other bands.

On October 30, 2006, the band's former record label, Victory Records, released Notes From The Past, which featured four songs from Tell All Your Friends, six songs from Where You Want To Be, and two B-sides: The Ballad of Sal Villanueva and Your Own Disaster ('04 mix). The band then released Louder Now: Part Two on November 20, 2007, a DVD of unreleased live concert footage from their show at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, California, which included special features such as the video for "Twenty-Twenty Surgery", made to be released in Europe. The DVD was packaged with a companion CD featuring eight live tracks, two B-sides that were previously unreleased in America, and a special "Twelve Days of Christmas" track.

Departure of Fred Mascherino and New Again (2007–2010)

In October 2007 the band announced that Taking Back Sunday and guitarist Fred Mascherino would be parting ways, which came after he decided to focus on his then upcoming solo album with The Color Fred. He was later replaced by Matthew Fazzi,[12] who would provide guitar and backing vocals.[13] Mascherino went on to reveal in later interviews: "There were just problems between the five of us about writing, who was going to do it and how we were going to do it, we weren't being very productive because we were fighting too much about that stuff. The band was more about cooking food than making music."[14] This statement inspired the band to write the track "Capital M-E", which features lyrical references to Mascherino's departure and the comments he made afterward. In 2010, Fred Mascherino posted a picture of himself and Adam Lazzara with the caption, "Today was a good day" indicating that he and Lazzara have since made up and are on good terms again.[15]

On November 6, 2008, Taking Back Sunday revealed in Rolling Stone that their fourth studio album was to be titled New Again and would feature the tracks "Winter Passing", "Lonely Lonely", "Catholic Knees", and "Carpathia". They stated that "Winter Passing" was "...a slow dance like the last song at your 8th grade dance [that] moves more like an R&B tune than a rock and roll song", and that "Carpathia" will include the first bass solos in any Taking Back Sunday song. They also commented that "Catholic Knees" is "one of the heavier songs we've ever written", and that "Lonely Lonely" is "relentless – two and a half minutes of punching you in the face".[16] In the build-up to the release of New Again, the band released a number of tracks—the first of which was "Carpathia"—on December 21, 2008 as free digital downloads to those who purchased the band's Christmas holiday set,[17] with a physical limited vinyl release of the track as well as a live version of "Catholic Knees" released on April 18, 2009,[18] secondly title track "New Again" as a free single download from the band's website on April 16, 2009, followed by the first full single "Sink into Me", released on April 20, 2009, premiering on BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe show, and being made available digitally short after. On May 16, 2009, "Everything Must Go" was released to stream on the band's MySpace. Every Monday, the band released a new song on their MySpace from New Again labeling it "New Music Monday".[19]

During their tour supporting New Again, the band played in Dublin, Ireland where guitarist Matt Fazzi fractured his foot.[20] Despite this, the show in Belfast, Northern Ireland went on and the rest of the tour was completed, which included stops in the UK at Sonisphere Festival and the Kerrang! awards show. On August 18, 2009, the band released a digital live album entitled Live from Bamboozle '09. The album consists of 13 live tracks recorded at The Bamboozle, where they played in May of the same year. In September 2009, the band announced they will be co-headlining with The All-American Rejects and Anberlin for a full U.S tour. They are also set to release a live acoustic DVD around spring 2010 following the tour.

On February 12, 2010, the band released a previously unreleased b-side from New Again, entitled "Winter Passing", on their official website.[21]

Throughout February and March the band played the Australian Soundwave tour, playing songs from various albums to crowds of almost 30,000.

Taking Back Sunday (2010–2012)

Vocalist Adam Lazzara performing with Taking Back Sunday on Warped Tour 2012

On March 29, 2010, Matt Rubano and Matthew Fazzi announced that they were no longer members of Taking Back Sunday.[22][23] The band's official website also posted a picture of the original line-up with the members' eyes crossed out, indicating a possible reunion of the Tell All Your Friends era lineup.[21][24] On March 31, 2010, tbsnewagain tweeted a link to a video announcing the new lineup of the band. The video ended with a quick stream of words which ended with, "Sometimes it takes some time to remember where you were headed in the first place and the people you intended to go there with. There's no hard feelings, just the future."[25]

On April 12, the band made an official announcement confirming that John Nolan and Shaun Cooper had re-joined the band. It was announced that they would soon begin the recording process of their fifth studio album with Louder Now producer Eric Valentine.[26] On the same day, Adam Lazzara did an interview with Alternative Press, in which he discussed how the original line-up got back together and how both Matt Rubano and Matt Fazzi were not fired, but rather "let go." The band finished writing in El Paso with around 15 songs completed, according to Mark O'Connell. Pre-production on the new album began on August 17, 2010, the same day their live acoustic album Live from Orensanz was released. On December 20, 2010, the band put out a new Christmas song entitled "Merry Christmas I Missed You So Much".[27] On April 6, 2011, the band played at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey, to record footage for an upcoming video for the song "El Paso". Adam Lazzara requested that the audience put away their phones and cameras during the recording. They played the song three times during the set.[28] During this performance, the band also debuted a new song entitled "Faith (When I Let You Down)", live for the first time.[29] "Faith (When I Let You Down)" was released as the official first single from the album on May 3, 2011, with an acoustic version of "Great Romances of the 20th Century" as the b-side. On June 7, 2011, the second official single "This Is All Now" was released on iTunes, with the b-side being an acoustic version of "Ghost Man on Third".[30] On June 26, 2011 in an interview with Robert Herrera of Punkvideosrock.com, Mark and Shaun stated that the reason they returned to their original lineup was because they no longer felt it was Taking Back Sunday without the original members. Mark stated they were miserable as a band, weren't having fun, and didn't like the direction the band was going so they decided to reach out to the original members and after meeting with the band in Texas found that "the chemistry was still there."[31]

On July 8, 2011, Taking Back Sunday released an official music video for "Faith (When I Let You Down)".[32] On November 3, 2011, Taking Back Sunday released an official music video for "You Got Me". This is the second single from their self-titled album. The video was created with the help of Steve Pedulla and Ward McDonald and it features guitarist Eddie Reyes dancing solo on a theater stage. Taking Back Sunday played Warped Tour 2012 at all locations. In honor of Record Store Day 2012, the band released a limited press vinyl LP entitled "We Play Songs", featuring four live acoustic tracks.[33]

TAYF10 Anniversary Tour (2012–13)

Taking Back Sunday embarked on a "Tell All Your Friends" 10th Anniversary tour for 2012, during which the band performed their debut album in its entirety.[34] The full US tour featured Bayside as main support, with Transit, Man Overboard and Gabriel the Marine as special guests. An audio and video recording of the acoustic version of the tour was released for digital download through the band's website on June 18, 2013.

On June 7, 2013 2:33PM, Taking Back Sunday took to Twitter to confirm that the recording of their 6th studio album had begun; they tweeted: "Phase one of recording the new record starts now... Happy Friday!"[35] The band, who are working alongside producers Marc Jacob Hudson and Ray Jeffrey, have confirmed that pre-production of the 6th studio record has been completed, and that drum and bass tracking has begun.[36] On July 1, 2013, the band announced that guitar and vocal tracking had begun as well.[37] They announced on Facebook that the album will be released in early 2014.

On August 29, 2013, Adam Lazzara and John Nolan performed an acoustic set at the Leaky Lifeboat Inn, in Seaford, New York, where they debuted a new song with a working title, "The Bird You Cannot Change."[38] On September 11 and 12 the band played a new song at Starland Ballroom called "Flicker Fade." Song title was later confirmed during a televised concert on September 12 on AXSTV. On October 13, the band performed a new song, with the working title, "Anywhere That You Want to Go / Beat Up Car."

From October 25 through November 2, former Underoath vocalist Spencer Chamberlain began filling in on lead vocals following the premature birth of Adam Lazzara's son. On November 8, Lazzara and Nolan performed at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University as an acoustic act. This featured the appearance of a Stony Brook violinist named Dylan Ebrahimian who also will appear on Taking Back Sunday's next album due in 2014.

Happiness Is (2014–present)

On January 11, 2014, Taking Back Sunday revealed that a new album, Happiness Is, was available for pre-order on iTunes, as was a new track: "Flicker, Fade". Happiness Is was released on March 18, 2014 through Hopeless Records.[39]

The band embarked on a North American headline tour in 2015 with The Menzingers and letlive..

Discography

Studio albums

Band members

Current members
  • John Nolan – lead guitar, keyboards, vocals (1999–2003; 2010–present)
  • Eddie Reyes – rhythm guitar (1999–present)
  • Adam Lazzara – lead vocals (2001–present); bass guitar, vocals (2001)
  • Mark O'Connell – drums, percussion (2001–present)
  • Shaun Cooper – bass guitar (2001–2003; 2010–present)
Current touring musicians
  • Nathan Cogan – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2010–present)
Former members
  • Jesse Lacey – bass guitar, vocals (1999–2001)
  • Steven DeJoseph – drums, percussion (1999–2001)
  • Antonio Longo – lead vocals (1999–2001)
  • Fred Mascherino – lead guitar, vocals (2003–2007)
  • Matt Rubano – bass guitar, backing vocals (2003–2010)
  • Matthew Fazzi – lead guitar, keyboards, vocals (2008–2010)
Former touring musicians
  • Evan Morris – drums, percussion (2007–2008)
  • Ian Brieck – keyboards, backing vocals (2008–2009)
  • Isaac Bolivar – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2009–2010)
  • Spencer Chamberlain – lead vocals (2013)

Timeline

References

  1. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday talks: Singer Adam Lazzara says band has found what 'Happiness Is'". Lehigh Valley Music. April 11, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday Debuts Emotional Music Video for "Better Homes and Gardens"". Music Times. May 19, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Mark O’Connell Toughens Taking Back Sunday - DRUM! Magazine - Play Better Faster". Drummagazine.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  4. ↑ Heather Phares (2004-07-27). "Where You Want to Be - Taking Back Sunday | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  5. ↑ Hickie, James (17 January 2015). "Taking Back Sunday with: Marzomets, Blitz Kids". Kerrang!. No. 1551. p. 51. Legendary New York emo stalwarts (and admirers) take back London.
  6. ↑ Hamersly, Michael (2012-07-26). "Taking Back Sunday chats about Vans Warped Tour 2012 as it hits South Florida". Miami.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  7. ↑ Adams, Gregory (2013-08-15). "Taking Back Sunday Sign to Hopeless for New LP". Exclaim.ca. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  8. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday Reform Classic Lineup | SPIN | Music News". Spin.com. 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  9. 1 2 "CAS – Central Authentication Service". ezproxy.library.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  10. ↑ "The Top Fifty Records of 2004". Rolling Stone. 12/30/2004-1/13/2005 – via ProQuest. Check date values in: |access-date=, |date= (help);
  11. ↑ Johnson, Kevin (1 March 2007). "With major-label status, it's no longer a daily struggle for Taking Back Sunday: [Third Edition]". St. Louis Post - Dispatch – via ProQuest. Check date values in: |access-date= (help);
  12. ↑ "New news, old news, better than no news". Tbsunion.com. October 29, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  13. ↑ mtv. "Taking Back Sunday Join The Online Haters Instead Of ‘Sitting Back’". MTV.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  14. ↑ Gamboa, Glenn (October 10, 2007). "Direction Made, Taking Back Sunday Guitarist Leave". Newsday.
  15. ↑ "PropertyOfZack, Adam Lazzara And Fred Mascherino Have Cleared The Air". Propertyofzack.com. May 22, 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  16. ↑ Archived November 13, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ "News - Alternative Press". Altpress.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  19. ↑ "News - Alternative Press". Altpress.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  20. ↑
  21. 1 2 "New-Self Titled Album Available Now". Taking Back Sunday. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  22. ↑ "A Note From Matt Rubano". Takingbacksunday.com. August 15, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  23. ↑ "News". Taking Back Sunday. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  24. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday + 2010 = Original Lineup « I Am Gary Hampton". Iamgaryhampton.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  25. ↑ "takingbacksunday.mov" Check |url= value (help). Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  26. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday Recording – News Article". AbsolutePunk.net. April 12, 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  27. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday | Gratis muziek, tourneedata, foto's, video's". Myspace.com. June 28, 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  28. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday Concert Setlist at Maxwell's, Hoboken on April 6, 2011". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  29. ↑ Tyler Common. "Watch Taking Back Sunday perform a new song "Don't Lose Your Faith In Me"". Alt Press.
  30. ↑ "THIS IS ALL NOW – 4th Poster Reveal". Taking Back Sunday. June 1, 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  31. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday interview w/ Robert Herrera". Punkvideosrock.com.
  32. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday – Faith (When I Let You Down) OMGWTFTBS Cat [Official Music Video]". YouTube. July 8, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  33. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday - We Play Songs :: Vintage Vinyl Records". Vvinyl.com. April 21, 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-26.
  34. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday interview w/ Robert Herrera". Punkvideosrock.com.
  35. ↑ "Taking Back Sunday (@TBSOfficial)". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  36. ↑ "Timeline Photos - Taking Back Sunday". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  37. ↑ "Adam Lazzara, John Nolan (Taking Back Sunday) enter the studio for LP6 - Alternative Press". Altpress.com. 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  38. ↑ "The Bird You Cannot Change - Taking Back Sunday". YouTube.com. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  39. ↑ Heaney, Gregory (March 18, 2014). "Happiness Is - Taking Back Sunday : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved September 17, 2014.

"Photo Gallery from Philadelphia 03/22/15". Matt Christine Photography. Retrieved 2015-03-15. 

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