How does a rock band stand out in a sea of rock bands? ROB O’CONNOR lets us in on My Chemical Romance's high-concept secrets.
he
best way to succeed with guitar-based rock music these days is to keep
three steps ahead of it. Bands with guitars aren’t on the way out, as an
infamous record man
once told the Beatles in 1962, but to stay relevant hard rock groups
need to overstuff the conceptual envelope and give the people everything
they want and more.
New Jersey’s My Chemical Romance have gone Hollywood in the best sense of the term. Most members are relocated in the land of eternal sunshine but, most importantly, leader Gerard Way directs the band like he would a film crew, packing their albums with storylines that fans can return to over many sittings, each listen divulging further details. It may be an iPod shuffle a la carte world out there, but MCR know there are still listeners hungry for a carefully planned meal.
Way and Co. recorded a raw and ready album to follow up the rock opera The Black Parade, that took death by cancer and sold it to more than three million satisfied customers, but they scrapped that record when they decided it was too flat and untrue to their very soul.
Instead, out popped Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, an album the band says is not a ‘concept album.’ However, it relays the story of the world in 2019 after an environmental crisis has caused America to fall under the sway of the evil Better Living Industries, who employ vampires – Draculoids – that do battle with a motorcycle gang – The Fabulous Killjoys, actually MCR – who come, like Mighty Mouse, to save the day.
New Jersey’s My Chemical Romance have gone Hollywood in the best sense of the term. Most members are relocated in the land of eternal sunshine but, most importantly, leader Gerard Way directs the band like he would a film crew, packing their albums with storylines that fans can return to over many sittings, each listen divulging further details. It may be an iPod shuffle a la carte world out there, but MCR know there are still listeners hungry for a carefully planned meal.
Way and Co. recorded a raw and ready album to follow up the rock opera The Black Parade, that took death by cancer and sold it to more than three million satisfied customers, but they scrapped that record when they decided it was too flat and untrue to their very soul.
Instead, out popped Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, an album the band says is not a ‘concept album.’ However, it relays the story of the world in 2019 after an environmental crisis has caused America to fall under the sway of the evil Better Living Industries, who employ vampires – Draculoids – that do battle with a motorcycle gang – The Fabulous Killjoys, actually MCR – who come, like Mighty Mouse, to save the day.
Just
as many TV programs today build from episode to episode rather than
exist as individual entities, MCR’s songs build tension from one to the
next and are best experienced in context with their albums. That doesn’t
mean the 1970s punk groove of the album’s first single “Na Na Na (Na Na
Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” can’t be enjoyed for its ephemeral pogo-power.
It can. But it also plays in context with the album.
The “concept album” has been with us, in one form or another, for decades, from The Small Faces’ Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake to Sgt. Pepper’s to American Idiot
to the many efforts of Pink Floyd and Rush through to what seem like
hundreds of metal bands obsessed with nuclear annihilation. It holds
unusual power over musicians and listeners alike.
Overdelivering, Danger Days comes in a special “California 2019 Edition” available through their online store, with a bonus EP, a 48 page book, a “bad luck beads” bracelet and a prop raygun (it doesn’t shoot real rays) with matching mask.
MCR are keenly aware they are competing against thousands of bands and that commercial hard rock faces an uphill battle in a world of exciting new gadgets and gimmicks. Fortunate for them, Gerard Way has grandiose visions to keep them fully employed. They pervert pop music and re-engage punk, goth and metal. They provide an alternate reality, a secret society for their fans. They have even raised the ire of conservative pundits. They’re doing something right.
Overdelivering, Danger Days comes in a special “California 2019 Edition” available through their online store, with a bonus EP, a 48 page book, a “bad luck beads” bracelet and a prop raygun (it doesn’t shoot real rays) with matching mask.
MCR are keenly aware they are competing against thousands of bands and that commercial hard rock faces an uphill battle in a world of exciting new gadgets and gimmicks. Fortunate for them, Gerard Way has grandiose visions to keep them fully employed. They pervert pop music and re-engage punk, goth and metal. They provide an alternate reality, a secret society for their fans. They have even raised the ire of conservative pundits. They’re doing something right.
CREDIT: fuse.tv
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