Taking Back Sunday and Mayday Parade

Prior to forming Taking Back Sunday, rhythm guitarist Eddie Reyes played in a number of seminal post-hardcore bands including Mind Over Matter and the Movielife. With the band recording their debut self-titled EP, original bass player Jesse Lacey left the group to form Brand New. Guitarist John Nolan invited his North Carolinian friend Adam Lazzara to play bass, but he ended up on lead vocals and Shaun Cooper came in on bass. After the release of their EP Taking Back Sunday began to tour relentlessly alongside the likes of Brand New and The Reunion Show, which would set the scene for their future touring endeavours.

The band’s full-length debut arrived in 2002 with the tongue-in-cheek and highly transparent name “Tell All Your Friends” released through Victory Records. It was the band’s first taste of commercial and critical success aided by the singles “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)”, “Great Romances of the 20th Century” and “You’re So Last Summer”.

Following the departure of John Nolan and Shaun Cooper in 2003, replaced by Fred Mascherino and Matt Rubano, Taking Back Sunday opened for Blink-182 and appeared on the 2004 Vans Warped Tour. Soon after came the band’s sophomore release “Where You Want To Be” on July 27, 2004. The album debuted at No.3 on the Billboard 200 and following high-profile appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the Spider-Man 2 soundtracks, cemented the band as a forerunner among melodic hardcore and commercial emo bands. The release was followed again by an extensive and exhaustive tour schedule including stops on the Warped Tour and several North American festivals.

Taking Back Sunday made their major label debut in 2006 with their third full-length “Louder Now” which attempted to capture some of the energy of their distinctive live show. Released through Warner Bros. the album was led by the single “What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?” and resulted in appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

In 2007 Fred Mascherino left the group to focus on his solo album with The Color Fred, citing many the band’s problems regarding writing songs. Taking Back Sunday has subsequently release the albums “New Again” in 2009, “Taking Back Sunday” in 2011 and “Happiness Is” in 2014, along with an EP entitled “Faith (When I Let You Down)” in 2011. Since 2011 the original Taking Back Sunday line-up has returned, playing both on subsequent releases and at live shows.

The band formed in 2005 and just a year later they put out their self released EP “Tales Told By Dead Friends”. The band was quite tenacious to get the word out about their music and followed the Vans Warped Tour in order to sell the EP to concert goers. They were also eager to start touring and performing their music live, which lead to them touring with notable acts like Plain White T’s and Melee.

After going on tours to support their debut EP Mayday Parade recorded and released their debut album “A Lesson in Romantics” in 2007. The album was released on Fearless records and would be the last album to feature the main songwriter and lead singer, Jason Lancaster. The album contained several notable singles such as “When I Get Home, You’re So Dead” and “Jamie All Over” and it received success in the charts by reaching the No. 8 spot on the US Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The band also played several festivals to support the album like Vans Warped Tour and Give it a Name Festival.

Although losing Jason Lancaster from the band’s lineup would seem like it would strongly impact the band, the pianist Derek Sanders was able to pick up lead vocals duty and do a compelling job. Rhythm guitarist Brooks Betts and Lead guitarist Alex Garcia were able to create intricate dynamics for the band’s sound and the bass player Jeremy Lenzo and drummer Jake Bundrick were able to powerfully hold down the rhythm. The band’s second album “Anywhere But Here” conveyed that the band was able to hold up without Jason Lancaster and showed the band approaching a more pop-punk approach to making music as opposed to a direct rock and roll approach.

Mayday Parade seems to be gaining more critical and commercial success with each album they release. Their third studio album, which is self-titled reached the No. 12 spot on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and their fourth studio album “Monsters in the Closet” reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Independent Albums chart. The album experimented more with symphonic rock sounds, which gave the album an epic quality and featured hit singles such as “Ghosts” and “Girls”. The band has also garnered attention for some of their interesting songs they have covered such as “We Are The Champions” by Queen and “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye.

Mayday Parade is one of the most persistent touring bands out there on the scene. They were recognized as the hardest-working touring band in 2010 having played 194 shows in that year, which included large festival dates such as the Soundwave Festival and the Slam Dunk Festival.

Their name is derived from a trip to a New Found Glory concert, at which they hoped to pass a demo tape to the band; they were still struggling to think of a name when they passed by Bayside train station in their native Queens. After self-releasing a five-track demo, they were signed to Dying Wish, where they put out their debut EP, ‘Long Stories Short EP’, in 2001. Afterwards, they’d go on to sign to Victory Records in 2003 after prodigious touring, where they released their full-length debut, ‘Sirens and Condolences’.

After that record was well-received, they went on to follow it up with a self-titled album in September of 2005 - just a few weeks later, though, tragedy would strike in the early hours of Halloween. Every band’s worst nightmare came true for Bayside when their tour van overturned, and drummer John Holohan was killed. Other members of the band sustained serious injuries, and part of the healing process involved the release of their ‘Acoustic’ album, which paid tribute to Holohan. In the years since, they’ve continued to carve out a burgeoning fanbase, despite several lineup changes. Frontman Anthony Ranieri is now the only original member. Their latest album, ‘Cult’, dropped in February 2014.