Fall Out Boy

There’s a lot of hype surrounding Fall Out Boy. There hasn’t always been, but that’s certainly the way things are now. All the fancy words and complicated explanations to clear a name that was swiped from the Simpsons to begin with. The Simpsons know they’re messed up, and they own it. I just wanted to take a break from all of the Pete-sanity and broken hearts and guyliner to remind you all of this wonderful band’s roots. It’s more for fun than anything, but I’m posting some older videos. Watch them, compare if you want, but remember how much we adore these boys regardless.

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One of the many bands that passed through the Live Earth stages around the world Saturday put it best.

“It’s not really important what goes on here tonight, but what happens in the future,” said Pete Wentz of the band Fall Out Boy, who appeared in the New York concert.

For many who participated - as performers or spectators at the massive global music event - it was an inspiring night, perhaps the biggest concert broadcast in history, all dedicated to confronting what organizer Al Gore has called “the greatest threat mankind has ever faced.”

Saturday’s musicians were committed to changing that dynamic, but entertainers as a group have a spotty track record in forcing the body politic into change. Just look at the results of recent US presidential elections, where the entertainment business came down firmly on the side of the centre-left Democrats in 2004, only for George Bush to win a majority.

But Live Earth could be different.

The campaign to raise awareness about the dangers and causes of global warming has already gathered significant momentum. Only the most committed ideologues still dispute scientific evidence pointing to human activity as the cause of the climate threat, and children the world over re as focused on the environment as their parents were on the space race.

The sights and sounds of well-known personalities lending their voices to the cause may embolden people to take the actions demanded by the seven-point pledge offered up from organizers for all participants to sign.

“I think it’s cool that so many people are coming together to support this,” said Ellen Sanchez, 14, who watched the concerts at a big screen erected for the occasion in San Francisco. “It definitely focuses attention on the problem. We can’t ignore it any longer.”

Others already see the mega-gig as just the latest round of unwanted celebrity preaching.

That was certainly the attitude of critics who called Live Earth ”concerts for guilty stars.” They pointed out that many performances had flown to the shows in private jets, and asked how the massive productions with their huge carbon footprints could really benefit the cause. ‘All are guilty’

Perhaps the answer was at Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach, where some 700,000 people attended a free concert where actress and kid’s show host Xuxa framed the issue: “We are all guilty. We waste paper, water, energy and many other things. … It is not just for Americans. This is a concert for the whole world.”

Or maybe it was in the Netherlands, where thousands gathered by bicycle in an Amsterdam square to watch the shows being broadcast from other countries and hear ideas about how to save energy.

Africa, the underdeveloped continent with the least global-warming emissions but some of the worst potential effects, hosted a concert in Johannesburg. And the Shanghai concert carried great symbolism, as China continues to boom its way toward becoming one of the world’s biggest polluters.

The concerts certainly raised environmental awareness to a new level. Seen by a projected 2 billion people, the concerts featured environmental messages flashing behind the stages. Commercial breaks were filled with infomercials about the cause.

But the greatest benefit could come from the seven-point pledge organizers asked people to sign to limit their own pollution. The pledge calls on governments to sign meaningful treaties to reduce carbon emissions by 90 per cent by the year 2050, and to enact strict limits on coal-burning power stations.

“I’m so proud to be a part of it today, because it’s not about the problem. It’s more about the solution,” said songstress Alicia Keys at the New York show. “So I want you to make that pledge. I’m making the pledge, and I want you to make that pledge right now.”

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I found an article on About.com listing and reviewing the top ten pop albums of 2007. It stated the following:

Halfway through the year is a good time to reflect on what we’ve seen in pop music so far. These are the 10 best pop albums of the first half of 2007.

In the number one spot? Fall Out Boy. Here’s the review for FOB and Infinity on High:

This is Fall Out Boy’s first truly great album, and it is a landmark in the evolution of punk-influenced pop music. Taking its title from a Van Gogh letter written at a moment of emotional ecstasy, one can’t help but wonder if this is something like the statement the Ramones or Nirvana could have delivered absent the devastating impact of drug and alcohol addictions and with the wind of true support at their backs. Only a band with a tremendous sense of confidence can deliver words like this:

“And I saw God cry in the reflection of my enemies
And all the lovers with no time for me”

Fall Out Boy Fans - You Know Who You Are

If you are part of Fall Out Boy’s intended core audience, you likely know who you are. In case you’ve been hiding out over the past year and don’t know, Pete Wentz spells it out for you in “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”:

“All the boys who the dance floor didn’t love
And all the girls whose lips couldn’t move fast enough”

You’ve been the target of great rock music in the past, but where Kurt Cobain and Robert Smith wanted you to crawl inside and share their pain and cynicism about the world, Fall Out Boy on Infinity on High want you to dance and sing and celebrate that the world belongs to you, too.

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There’s really only one contender for SOTW this week. Interpol are back, with “The Heinrich Maneuver”. Anybody who thought this band might be running out of creative steam after two albums has been proved emphatically wrong by this dark, brooding monster of a single. Shadowy lyricism? Check. Urgent, paranoid, edgy backdrop? Check. It’s a vicious, caustic three minutes, an anticipation-cranking taster for forthcoming album “Our Love To Admire”, which is set to be one of the records of the year. I can’t wait.

The pick of the rest of this week’s releases…

As you’ll no doubt know, the once legendary Smashing Pumpkins recently reformed. On “Tarantula”, Billy Corgan’s vocals are as whiney as ever, but the music over which he sings them has somehow transformed into a vicious, fiery, guitar-driven squall with solo’s aplenty. It sounds like Brian May and Robert Page dueling desperately in a “who can be the most self-indulgent axe hero” contest.

One comeback we were all hoping wouldn’t happen is that of Canadian angst-merchant Avril Lavigne. “When You’re Gone” opens with a couple of fairly promising bars of tinkling piano; it’s not long, though, before the plodding four-four beat kicks in and the song turns into the kind of mid-paced, soft rock effort you might have expected from somebody like Jennifer Rush half-way thorugh the Eighties. She may be trying to give herself more gravitas by shaking off the “Sk8r Boi” image, but this is merely exchanging extreme irritation for intense boredom.

New Young Pony Club, “Ice Cream”. Vague elements of punk-funk permeate this slow, lazily cool slice of sultriness. The bassline pulses like a heartbeat, the guitars stab gracefully somewhere low down in the mix, and some shimmering synths add atmosphere to the whole like chrome shimmering in the twilight. It’s alluring, pulse-quickening stuff.

Summer’s here, though it doesn’t really feel like it, and that means it’s time for a beautifully rendered indie-pop single from Swedish harmony purveyors The Concretes. Could “Oh Boy” be that single? I think so. It’s as sugary as the Magic Numbers, but it doesn’t make you feel sick; it’s as catchy as Kylie, and it makes you wanna dance.

Meanwhile, Fall Out Boy drop “The Take Over The Breaks Over“. It’s not the very worst thing the band have ever released; fizzy and energetic and not quite as overtly teen-angst as their previous stuff. It still falls a long way short of making you want to listen to it more than once though. Source.

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Drummer Andy Hurley had been in many hardcore bands with bassist Pete Wentz before they formed Fall Out Boy. Basically, they both just wanted a change of scenery.
“We just got burned out with the heaviness and the negative energies of the hardcore scene,” Hurley said by phone from Atlanta. “We wanted to do something different.”
So they teamed up with lead guitarist Joe Trohman and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Patrick Stump and named the new band Fall Out Boy, after a sidekick character on “The Simpsons.”
“The music we play now is so different than what we did in the past,” said Hurley, who cited Metallica and Slayer as his major musical influences. “The focus has always been on the music. And it still is.”
In 2002, the band released its first CD, “Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out with Your Girlfriend,” on Uprising Records. Three years later, the label reissued the CD to coincide with the band’s major-label debut on Island Records, “From Under the Cork Tree.”
In between, Fall Out Boy recorded and released “Take This to Your Grave” for the Fueled By Ramen label.
“Take This to Your Grave” sold more than 500,000 copies, pushing the disc to Gold Record status. “From Under the Cork Tree” sold more than 3 million copies. And the band’s most recent album, “Infinity on High,” released earlier this year, has already sold 1 million copies and became the No. 1 album on Billboard’s 200. Today it sits strongly at No. 31.
“It always surprises us at the success of our albums,” said Hurley. “We don’t write the songs thinking they’re going to be successful. And when they get noticed, it’s always a good thing for us.”
Recording “Infinity on High” was not much different than the studio sessions for “From Under the Cork Tree,” said Hurley. “We had the whole album ready to record, but like we did on ‘Cork Tree,’ we scrapped half the songs and wrote new ones in the studio.
“So it’s safe to say that half the songs are newer than the other half. In fact, the song ‘Golden’ wasn’t among the original songs we had ready for recording.”
But preparing to record “Infinity on High” was far from a nerve-wracking process, said Hurley. “We don’t worry about following up success. ‘Cork Tree’ did well way beyond our expectations, but we didn’t worry whether or not ‘Infinity’ would do better. We just did what we felt was right.
“‘Infinity’ is our second major-label full-length album and, in reality, we have more than just two CDs. So we’re pretty comfortable with the process. We just look at a new CD as a welcome accomplishment.”
In the past couple of years, Fall Out Boy has earned an array of music awards — MuchMusic People’s Choice Video Award for Favorite International Group, a bunch of Kerrang! Awards, a load of Teen Choice Awards, a Grammy nomination and two MTV Music Video Awards.
“The awards are great because most of them are voted on by fans,” said Hurley. “It’s nice to be recognized by your fans. And I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I do think that bands can get caught up in the awards and forget everything else. I don’t go around thinking how cool I am because we got this or that award. Because the awards are nice recognitions and add to the career, but in reality, the music is why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
Hurley isn’t kidding. Fall Out Boy is always either on the road or recording music. There has been very little time off. “We are thinking to take a longer break after we finish touring this album. But after the American tour, we’re going to South Africa, the Philippines and a bunch of Southeast Asian countries. Then we’re coming back and doing more dates in the states, and then taking our break.
“But Pat has been writing songs here and there and he already has 10 or 12 songs ready to go. I can already see that once the break starts, we’re going to get antsy and want to record the new songs. And, we’ll probably scrap half of them.” Source.

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As a society we have to ask ourselves: what are we feeding our children? This is not intended to be a discussion about mechanically separated chicken or high-fructose corn syrup. No, another kind of food: music. It is, after all, the singular most powerful expression of the human soul.

Yet, in today’s consumer-based capitalistic society, music has been sterilized, homogenized, desensitized and, worst of all, commoditized into an entity designed not to enrich the listeners but to make rich the purveyors.

If this sounds highfalutin, then you weren’t at the Tacoma Dome on Wednesday night because this concert was the epitome of what is wrong in music today.

Exhibit 1: Cobra Starship, a band whose claim to fame is the song “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane.)” Yes, from the cheesy action-packed flop of a film starring Sam Jackson. Dear reader, the only thing worse than a stupid song is a song that makes you stupid. For this, Cobra Starship is guilty and should be ejected from Starship Earth.

Exhibit 2: The Academy Is …, a band that thankfully had its name emblazoned on a giant banner, otherwise their power pop, bubblegum rock would not have been identifiable from the 237 other bands that have this exact same sound. Generic? Guilty! Driven by gimmicks and cheesy clichés? Guilty! Send the Academy to the gallows!

Exhibit 3: +44, the band former Blink-182 members Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker formed when Blink went on indefinite hiatus. These are not punk preservationists or even revisionists. No, +44 is simply thieves with guitars who would rather count their money than write an original, that is to say fresh, song. This L.A. band romps through power chord after power chord while Hoppus sings sensitive, surefire lines like, “Baby come on.” The best part of this band is the banter, “(guitarist) Shane Gallagher likes to cut his hair like Britney Spears.” (He’s bald. Har-har.)

Now, the exception to the rule and perhaps our hope for the future: Fall Out Boy, the emissaries of emo who wittingly nabbed their moniker from the Simpsons. (Fall Out Boy was Radioactive Man’s sidekick.) This Chicago four-piece added all kinds of lights, flames, streamers and explosions to a show that could have been just as successful without the hoopla. The reason: The songs are well-crafted, interesting and exciting compositions, topped with ample wit, humor and irony. In other words, the music could stand alone.

“This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” is a perfect example. This infectious concoction is also a stirring anthem; played live or on the radio, it changes the room; it demands fist pumping and shouting; it gets blood flowing.

The same could be said of “One & Only,” a song from “Timbaland Presents Shock Value” that supposedly features Fall Out Boy, but the way FOB plays it, the song its own. To make it even better, bassist Pete Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman snuck out to the sound stage to play the song while standing on top of a Honda. Of course, the young girls went crazy, sending high-pitched shrieks into the ears of whatever journalist happened to be standing nearby.

It was more than these two hits. FOB played a full set of rip-roaring rock ‘n’ roll (”Sugar We’re Goin’ Down,” “The Carpal Tunnel of Love,” “Thnks fr th Mmrs,” to name some high points) that breathed new life into the genre. They even reconstituted Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” That’s food for the soul.

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Pete Wentz is the type of character that feeds the fuel of gossip sites.

He’s the heartthrob bassist of pop-punk band Fall Out Boy. Nude photos of him surfaced on the Internet last year. He’s dating wannabe-punk princess Ashlee Simpson. And he wears loads of black eyeliner.

But as much as it would inevitably get tiresome to be the focus of packs of paparazzi and have your life dissected by celebrity bloggers, Wentz is able to be philosophical about it all.

Speaking over the phone from Milwaukee, where he was gearing up for another show on the band’s summer tour - which brings them to Vancouver tonight - Wentz initially criticized celebrity bloggers such as Perez Hilton, but then changed his tune to admit that he’s not all that different from them.

“I guess there’s something to be said for how much of a life can you really have from just making money off of other people’s misery,” he says in a slightly strained and tired-sounding voice. “But then again, when I read the words that I write, I think that’s probably what I do a lot of the time, too, is make money off of other people’s misery.”

Wentz, 28, writes the bulk of the lyrics to Fall Out Boy’s songs and says sometimes the easiest way to generate powerful lyrics is to feed off human despair, much like the bloggers.

“Sometimes it’s easy to gut yourself or gut other people when you’re writing songs and I think that it’s a lot harder to be truly introspective or tell a good story that’s real.”

Wentz is humble and relaxed over the phone. There is little ego or defensive insecurity leaking through. He sounds like a guy who’s had some battles with fame and emerged a little beaten up, but is now able to brush off unwanted attention and mean-spirited criticism.

In early 2005, Wentz took a near-lethal dose of the anti-anxiety drug Ativan while sitting in his sister’s car in a mall parking lot on the outskirts of Chicago, where he grew up. The overdose came a few months before the band released its breakthrough album, From Under the Cork Tree, which landed Fall Out Boy on Billboard’s Top 10.

The band was formed in 2001 when Wentz and his good friend Joe Trohman - lead guitarist - met Patrick Stump, who was still in high school. Stump, 23, initially filled the role of drummer, but soon became lead singer.

Infinity on High was released earlier this year and hit the top spot on Billboard within its first week. The album is a fast-paced, guitar-heavy, angst-filled romp that has elements of punk, metal and pop - a combination that Wentz acknowledges has the ability to both attract and repel listeners.

“We’re one of those bands that’s like a lightning rod for people to love or hate. There’s people who hate to love us and there’s people who love to hate us and I think the new record, if anything, only solidifies that,” he says. “We really have no qualms about wanting to be the biggest rock band on the planet and we have a long way to go.

“There are a lot of bands that are a lot bigger than us right now and have the ability to reach a lot more people and have a greater legacy, or whatever, but at the same time, we wrote this record to be heard in arenas and possibly even one day in stadiums.”

The band is playing at the Pacific Coliseum Thursday night and Wentz says the show will be full of surprises.

“We were trying to put on the biggest rock show that we possibly could and we reached for some things that I think are right at the edge of our grasp but so far they’ve been going pretty well - knock on wood.”

Asked for specifics on those “things,” Wentz suddenly got protective of his show. “I can’t go into too much detail because for the most part we’re trying to keep them as surprises,” he says.

As hints, he says the big idea for the show came after the band watched The Prestige - a film about competitive magicians - and after they saw an old interview with Michael Jackson in which he clarified that the Moonwalk is an illusion rather than a dance move.

While the show might be filled with illusions, Fall Out Boy’s fame and success has little to do with smoke and mirrors. Wentz realizes his public image is something of a caricature of himself, but he wisely says that as long as he can keep a sense of humour it won’t get to him.

“Anyone can become a parody of themselves … I think that it’s better when you can start laughing about that before other people do.”

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This is quite a different interview from the norm. While it is still Pete-based news, I found this satisfying to read. But is he sincere?

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Every dissection of the band Fall Out Boy should probably begin with whether or not you think bassist Pete Wentz is a loser or a genius.

On one side is a deafening chorus of critics who see Wentz as a business-first, pop-punk poseur who takes nude self-portraits, vogues in fashion ads, pals around with online gossipmonger Perez Hilton and has dated Ashlee Simpson and Lindsay Lohan.

On the other is an even more vocal nation of teens and tweens who see Wentz as the handsome, brilliant and charismatic leader of the most influential rock band of the MySpace generation. Fall Out Boy headlines the Honda Civic Tour at the Tacoma Dome on Wednesday.

“You go on Web sites that have what people think of Pete, and it’s not always good,” said Andy Hurley, Fall Out Boy’s drummer and a longtime friend of Wentz’s, in a phone interview from Scotland, where the band was tuning up for its tour. “Obviously he’s got really magnetic looks and a magnetic personality. He’s definitely the most outspoken out of all of us. But I just think he’s an idea man who has so many ideas, constantly, that you just can’t deny someone like that.”

Buoyed by thunderous guitars, Wentz’s witty lyrics and singer Patrick Stump’s frantic but soulful warble, the Chicago foursome has ascended to punk royalty since 2003, when the guys released their first album, “Take This To Your Grave,” on Tampa’s Fueled by Ramen Records.

The band’s breakthrough album, “From Under The Cork Tree,” sold 2.5 million copies, spawned the insatiably catchy hits “Dance, Dance” and “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” earned the band a Best New Artist Grammy nod and helped it snag 1.8 million MySpace friends.

In March, as the band’s new album, “Infinity On High,” debuted at No. 1, the guys landed simultaneous covers of Spin and Rolling Stone.

In his spare time, Wentz has created a clothing line, a glitzy nightclub in New York’s East Village and a film company. And his record label, Decaydence – an imprint of Fueled by Ramen – has spawned a slew of megaselling bands like Panic! At the Disco and Gym Class Heroes.

Because of Wentz’s visibility, Madison Avenue now sees Fall Out Boy as a mainline to the teenage marketplace. The band has high-profile sponsorship deals with Nokia, Verizon, Tag Body Spray and Honda, and Wentz has modeled for the Gap and DKNY.

It is telling that Jay-Z, president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, has become a mentor to Wentz. And Wentz has made no secret of the fact that he wants to become a Def Jam-like corporate entity.

“I want to create a culture people are interested in,” he told Spin in March. “Our singles matter. Our videos matter. The clothes we wear matter. I want it to be this culture, the way Def Jam used to be.”

Does it matter to fans that Wentz is so candid about his corporate aspirations?

“It is a weird line to have to balance,” Hurley says. “But I think when you get to a certain point in a band, especially our band, you have to make sacrifices like that in order to reach more kids. I think we’ve been able to do it in a way where we’ve had the right people working with us and letting us do what we want to do, and letting us bring our vision to fruition.”

In other words, as long as the band keeps churning out hits, and as long as the Pete Wentz brand remains white-hot, Fall Out Boy will have free reign over the pop-punk landscape and possibly beyond.

“I want to be the biggest band on the planet,” Wentz told Rolling Stone in March.

Notice he didn’t say “we.”

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Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz, Hilton, Ashlee Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, MySpace, Honda Civic Tour, Andy Hurley, Patrick Stump, Chicago, Take This To Your Grave, Fueled by Ramen, From Under The Cork Tree, Dance, Dance, Sugar, We’re Going Down, Grammy, Infinity On High, Spin, Rolling Stone, Decaydence, Panic! At the Disco, Gym Class Heroes, Nokia, Verizon, Tag Body Spray, Def Jam Recordings, culture

Well, I spotted this in Seventeen magazine. These are dating tips from Pete himself. Enjoy.

Read His Body Language

You can definitely tell who’s interested in you and who’s platonic by paying attention to how a guy moves around you. When I was in high school, my thing was to get as close as humanly possible to a girl and just make her have to kiss me! You do the hug that’s too close, where your mouth is close to hers and you kinda feel it out a little bit.

Get Out There

You’re gonna meet tons of different people throughout your life, and it’s totally worth it to stick your neck out a little bit if you like someone. Even when you get shot down, it seems really devastating, but it’s not in the long run. That’s one of the things I really wish I had been able to tell myself in high school: “Man, it’s not really the end of the world that you’re single. It’s your time to figure out what’s right for you.”

Take a Chance

Sometimes the person that is best for you is the person right under your nose. I wanted to have a girlfriend in high school, and I know I would have treated a girl well, but instead I was just friends with a lot of girls. They ended up telling me later on, “We’re so perfect together,” but at the time I wasn’t the cool-enough guy. It’s important to look past superficial stuff, like whether the guy hangs out with popular kids. It’s worth it to go after the black sheep!

Make Out if You Want

To me, it’s not really that big of a deal. I think that it’s cool when people can feel free with that kind of thing. I’m pretty much a prude other than that, so I don’t feel bad about myself. I remember my first kisses with a lot of people, and they’re rad experiences. And you don’t have to really take it to that next level because that’s what keeps it exciting.

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The first time our paths crossed, Pete Wentz was — as near as I could tell — wearing the same smart white suit he wore while accepting the fan-elected MTV2 Award at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. He was also standing alone despite being in the middle of a crowded Christmas party. Just over a year later, I ran into him again, this time at the Sunset Strip’s legendary Roxy, where a mutual friend was performing. This time, he was surrounded by an entourage of beautiful people.

“There are the obvious changes everyone would expect, but there are little changes, too,” the bassist and de-facto face man for Fall Out Boy says, laughing at being called out on his transformation from mild-mannered emo punk and Chicago resident to instantly recognizable Hollywood celebrity with all the accompanying accoutrements. “A year ago, I would never let myself to be happy without feeling guilty about it. Now, I know to allow myself that breathing room.”

That still doesn’t account for the change I witnessed. The Pete Wentz I saw over Christmas in 2005 was glum, even unsure of himself. The Pete Wentz I saw at the Roxy had a smile on his face when he arrived and when he left. He seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself and, well, breathing room ain’t enough to give a person that.

“It’s weird and kind of interesting, but, after reading a couple of pieces about myself, it was like looking in the mirror for the first time,” he explains, crediting journalists with part of his enlightenment. “I was like, ‘You know what, maybe you should actually make yourself feel better rather than continue in misery.’ Who you are versus who everyone else thinks you are is a kind of very interesting clash of perspectives.”

One could easily imagine Wentz’s parents attributing their son’s new outlook to growing up, which can be recognized on Fall Out Boy’s follow-up to From Under the Cork Tree. Wentz, after all, is the band’s lyricist and largely responsible for shaping its tone, which is why Infinity On High is such a musically mature — and adventurous — release. It’s even got the critics baffled, since it’s hard to call a band you now like “emo,” since the label has become pretty damn demeaning.

Thus, it’s ironic to think that Wentz had to leave the Midwest for Los Angeles to get his head straight, since LA is about the least mentally healthy environment in the world. “My friends and I just think it’s all kind of funny,” he says. “We don’t bother trying to become other people. We laugh at whatever and usually get kicked out of wherever, and usually just find it kind of funny to ourselves.

“I think that’s something that can keep you in check, because it’s a kind of dangerous position to be in, that I was in last year,” he continues. “You know, everyone whispering different things into your ear: ‘You’re the best thing since sliced bread.’ You can get caught up and believe the hype, and kind of diverge from the path you intended to be on.”

Maybe that’s what happened while promoting From Under the Cork Tree, since the way the press portrayed Wentz before Infinity On High dropped played a large part in the album Infinity became.

“Over the last year, there were a lot of things I was quoted as saying,” he says. “Either it didn’t come out of my mouth right or I was paraphrased or I said things this way when I should’ve said them that way. This record, on a lot of songs, allowed me to respond to that.”

So yeah, go ahead and call it chest beating. But at least Wentz and Fall Out Boy can back it up, which most self-indulgent egomaniacs in this biz can’t do on their best day.

“I think a part of it is you always need to be doing that in a tongue-in-cheek way, because we have a lot of disappointment in how things happened,” he says. “You can’t take a giant shot and say, ‘F*ck you,’ like that and not know, ‘Well, everyone knows what your own involvement in doing that was.’ I try to have the words carry that weight.”

Wentz, you see, is more than willing to take responsibility for his own mistakes. He brings that self-awareness to the lyrics Patrick Stump sings on Infinity — like on “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race,” a song that draws foot-stomping attention to the ridiculously competitive nature of popular music. “In the last year, we got caught up in it,” he admits. “Like me and Brandon Flowers [of the Killers]. At some point, I just think it’s stupid. We’re just talking to talk. And we both have a much more similar perspective than we’re admitting to each other.”

Ultimately, though, Infinity On High was an effort by Fall Out Boy to reinvigorate the pop-punk genre, Wentz says, like what My Chemical Romance accomplished with The Black Parade or Panic! At the Disco with A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.

“I wanted it to be more than about eyeliner or our haircuts,” he adds, which, of course, makes me think about the fact that, as happy as he looked at the Roxy, he was still wearing eyeliner and still had the stereotypical emo haircut. I don’t mention that, though, because Wentz is right. Infinity On High is about more than that.

Source.

And just for the record guys, sorry about more Pete-based news. I know it gets old, but then again, you know it’s all over the place right now. If you want to know what’s new with FOB, Mr. Wentz will surely be in the answer. Peace.

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Pete Wentz, MTV2, emo, punk, Chicago, Fall Out Boy, From Under the Cork Tree, Infinity On High, Patrick Stump, This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race, My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade, Panic! At the Disco, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz is the pinup, the eyeliner-sporting, pouty-lipped wounded one who writes the confessional lyrics. But singer-guitarist Patrick Stump, who writes most of the music, might be the more intriguing half of the Chicago pop-punk band’s creative machinery. Often bespectacled and/or hiding behind the brim of a hat, he’s the shy guy who sound checks with Nat “King” Cole and name checks guys like Tom Waits and Randy Newman.

Stump took some time prior to launch of the chart-topping band’s tour to talk about its latest album, Infinity on High; the future of the album and the pros and cons of that pop-punk tag.

Q: With a bit of hindsight, do you think the album’s leak on the Internet was a good or bad thing?

A: I just don’t know. It’s a blessing and curse. It means people wanted to hear it, which is cool. It’s always good news that anybody cares. What wasn’t so great is when it leaked, we weren’t really done with it. It’s one of those things we just had to accept. It forced us to find an end point for making the record.

Q: The tarot card packaging with the new album was fairly lavish. Will you miss actual albums if they go away?

A: I remember as a kid, my dad had Sgt. Pepper’s and it had those cutouts. I thought it was the coolest and strangest idea, something you didn’t see very much. My generation will be the last that had cassette tapes and records and CDs. There’s something really cool about opening shrink wrap and looking at the record before you hear it. But then there’s something very new and exciting about the fact that people are listening to whatever they want, not what’s being forced on them by radio. It’s a cool time to be making music.

I watched this fairly obscure rock musical Phantom of the Paradise. It’s built on this Faustian idea of a guy selling his soul to be a recording artist. It’s funny because none of that applies anymore. It’s a bizarre and awesome time to be doing this. We always like to try new things in general. Maybe a record where you download it in installments.

Q: That sounds sort of like the ’80s and ‘90 underground. Were you tuned into the 7-inch record subscriptions?

A: I missed most of that. But I definitely was inspired by 7-inch club stuff. It’s definitely frustrating and limiting the way the record industry came to be run. We just couldn’t really make one record every five years and then milk every single that it’s worth. That’s frustrating for me as writer. I write more than one album every five years. We got criticized a little for putting this record out as fast as we did.

Q: Much is made about how Pete does the lyrics, you do the music. Is it all that big a deal?

A: It comes down to the fact that ego would be the only reason not to do it. Pete’s writing better lyrics than I am. There are better songs all around if there are two of us working together rather than working against each other. It took some getting used to, but it was a long time ago. Now I wouldn’t want to work any other way.

Q: Can you write on the road?

A: I can write anytime, anywhere, on any instrument. One of my problems is I can’t be around art without trying to participate in it. I can’t read because it makes me want to write. By chapter five of something, I’ve written more than I’ve read. Music is the same way. Walking down the street, if something’s blasting out of somebody’s car, I have to write something immediately. There’s something natural about attempting something and missing the mark tremendously and coming up with something different. It’s a huge part of music and art. Sometimes I’ll grab at Earth, Wind and Fire, and it ends up sounding like the Talking Heads or Tom Waits.

Q: So the whole pop-punk thing is a more organic process than critics would have you believe?

A: True. … there’s you. What is naturally you. And then there’s what you’re trying for. What’s ‘you’ is always going to overpower what you’re trying for. Really early on, when we were first starting, I figured I was above the whole pop-punk thing. Pete told me nine of the 10 people in pop-punk bands think they’re above it. There’s nothing special about thinking that. He said be content with the music you’re making. There’s no sense in trying to sound like your heroes, no sense trying to be what you aren’t. The influence of Tom Waits or Randy Newman isn’t necessarily heavy in my music, you’ll hear elements if you peek in closely.

Q: Is this the best job you’ve ever had?

A: Um, yes. (Laughs.) For sure.

Q: Is there a worst job?

A: Yeah, I used to work in the frozen-foods department of a grocery store in Chicago.

Q: Frozen foods in Chicago sounds unthinkably cold.

A: Yes, it was pretty miserable. I can’t really say anything good about it.

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So there you have it, in case you didn’t already know. Pete may be the frontman, but he is also the beloved camera whore. There really wasn’t any doubt, Pat is certainly the mastermind here.

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FOB has just released its video for the actually-pretty-snappy “The Take Over, The Break’s Over“, and it reveals one thing: We’ve reached the point in the band’s career where it’s getting its music-video ideas from old Phil Collins clips. (Well, maybe not the “don’t make fun of us for being sellouts” part–Collins seemed pretty comfortable with that.) Can a “Billy Don’t Lose My Number” making-of-the-making-of-the-making-of navelgaze be far behind? Source.

It’s an interesting video, though it is completely random and nonsensical. Also, they are once again pushing the “controversial” bit about selling out and whatnot; frankly, I think they’ve done that so many times now that it isn’t even a statement. A statement would be to shut up and drive, but then it would just be music; we want the band. It’s a catchy song set to entertaining footage, so who can complain. Delicious; enjoy, fans.

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FOB, The Take Over, The Break’s Over, Phil Collins

The crowd might have been bigger and the energy level just a little higher if Fall Out Boy had opened their tour in Charlotte almost two months ago as originally planned. But the Chicago-based rockers didn’t disappoint the fans who held out for the postponed concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Wednesday night.

The whole thing was more of a mini-music festival than just a concert. At least four bands opened, including Cobra Starship, Paul Wall, The Academy Is…, and +44. The crowd, though, was there for Fall Out Boy.

‘We apologize for our lateness but we’re glad we’re here,’ bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz said, peeking out from his hoodie.

That out of the way, the band dove into an hour and 20 minutes of music. Most of the songs came from their two latest albums, but they sprinkled in a few older hits, plus a cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It‘ and a brief sample of Akon’s ‘Don’t Matter.’

Call them sell outs or entrepreneurs, there’s a simple reason this foursome has quickly risen from underground to mainstream: they know how to put together a catchy pop-punk melody. They’re not so bad at performing either.

Nearly everything about the show was strategically choreographed, starting with the band members blasting out of trapdoors up onto stage for a grand entrance. Images and lyrics projected on huge video screens were synchronized with the songs, and pyrotechnics punctuated dramatic crescendos.

Guitarist Joe Trohman and bassist Wentz were the personality of the group, with Wentz emceeing and both throwing themselves into spinning turns across the stage.

Drummer Andrew Hurley and lead singer/guitarist Patrick Stump stuck to the music. Hurley was steady and solid.

And while bassist Wentz might have earned the most heartthrob screams, Patrick was clearly the musical star. It’s incredible to hear how much his vocal tone and range has expanded since the group’s first of four albums, and watch him get into the music. If only he’d give the audience a hint of who he is between singing, instead of leaving that all to Wentz.

The audience went wild for hits ‘Sugar We’re Goin Down’ (2005’s ‘From Under the Cork Tree’), and ‘Hum Hallelujah,’ ‘This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race,’ and ‘Thnks fr th mmrs,’ (Thanks for the memories) from this year’s ‘Infinity on High.’

Fans were too busy ogling Wentz and Trohman, who had sneakily slipped onto a platform in the middle of the audience during ‘Dance, Dance’ to follow that command. But they did try to sing along to most of the radio hits, despite the difficulty of following the cryptic lyrics and Stump’s sometimes unusual pronunciation. They also obliged earlier when Wentz encouraged them to start moshing.

‘We designed this song specifically for mosh pits,’ he said, grinning. ‘So if you’re in row 47, seat D, start your mosh pit right now.’

A few gags were a little over the top or juvenile — like the time Wentz made a show of changing into — surprise, a different colored hoodie — in a silhouetted chamber to the side of the tiered stage. (In the end, drummer Hurley was shirtless the longest, without the fuss.) Or having a crew member do push-ups throughout the duration of song. Or having an emcee take fastballs to the chest.

Aside from these things, the band showed off just how much they’ve matured and diversified musically in their last album. They left the crowd wanting more, in a blaze of sparks and confetti.

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The role of the modern-day bassist is now redefined, thanks in no small part to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz.

Wentz has long been the face of Fall Out Boy, but judging by Saturday’s show at the Dodge Music Center, he’s its onstage frontman as well.

During downtime speeches to the crowd, it was Wentz, not lead singer and guitarist Patrick Stump, who took control of the microphone. Most of his comments were good-natured (the crowd was largely tweens, parents and teenagers) but ill-served because of Wentz’s poor elocution.

“To all moms and dads, be glad your kid is here and not in and out of rehab [mumble, mumble] Britney Spears,” offered Wentz, right before the band broke into its first major hit, “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” off 2005’s “From Under The Cork Tree.”

Somewhat surprisingly, this was the third in an 18-song (but only 80-minute) set. Less surprising was the accompanying pyrotechnics and confetti. With each belting of “Down, Down,” there was another fireworks pop or flaming geyser. And the kids loved it.

From the moment Fall Out Boy (literally) jumped on stage from under the drum platform, the audience screeched to nearly inaudible levels.

Likely, the median age of the crowd was about 15 - funny, considering the tour, with pop-punk opening acts +44 and The Academy Is… and rapper Paul Wall is sponsored by Honda Civic. Fall Out Boy’s cover of “Beat It” by Michael Jackson might have been a bit over the crowd’s heads.

As the show sped on, crowd participation pushed past the usual sing-a-longs. In between stomping versions of the infectious “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” and “Thanks For the Memories,” the band was replaced onstage by one of its traveling, big-radio-voiced cronies.

In an utterly nonsensical waste of time, he brought a girl up from the standing-room-only lower level to operate a pitching machine. As the crowd cheered, she shot baseballs at a sufficiently protected crewmember. One would have to travel to a Jersey Shore boardwalk to find entertainment that invigorating.

The show ended with “Dance, Dance,” followed by the lesser-known “Saturday,” a song off 2003’s “Take This To Your Grave.” Anticlimactic as it finished, at least it subdued the crowd as it departed.

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Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz, Wentz, Patrick Stump, Britney Spears, Sugar, We’re Goin Down, From Under The Cork Tree, The Academy Is…, Paul Wall, Honda Civic, Beat It, Michael Jackson, This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race, Thanks For the Memories, Dance, Dance, Saturday, Take This To Your Grave

In our ongoing efforts to tell you how emo guys really live, we caught up with Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is and “Snakes on a Plane” dudes Cobra Starship at the New York stop of the catchily-named Honda Civic Tour. Not all emo bands are created equal — some get two buses, and some get a couch with holes in it; some get master bedrooms and others get closets. But that didn’t stop any of the bands from cramming as much as they could fit onto their buses for the two-month trek with Paul Wall.

Fall Out Boy drummer and resident vegan Andy Hurley shares his recipe for the perfect protein shake: “About this much vanilla soy milk, up to here with chocolate soy milk, then a scoop of peanut butter, some liquid amino acids to complete the protein.”

Fall Out Boy have two tour buses: one for guitarist Joe Trohman (who smokes) and bassist Pete Wentz (who owns an English bulldog named Hemingway,) and one for vegan drummer Andy Hurley and mild-mannered singer Patrick Stump. “I’m on the bus that doesn’t mind if I smoke. And I don’t mind the dog,” Trohman explains.

“I’ve got my Perrier in here,” Stump says, exposing the woefully tame contents of his fridge. The ample selection of non-alcoholic beverages contrasts with what we’d find later on other bands’ buses…

Stump gives us a tour of his surprisingly roomy bedroom. How did he score the biggest room on the bus? “It was part of the bargain,” Stump explains. “Andy got to bring out his two best friends on tour with the band and I got the big recording space.”

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emo, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is, “Snakes on a Plane”, Cobra Starship, New York, Honda Civic Tour, Andy Hurley, Joe Trohman, Pete Wentz, Hemingway, Patrick Stump, recording