My Chemical Romance: Going the Gerard Way of all flesh

My Chemical Romance have split up, as part of an austerity drive. The music business decided it no longer needed to keep an emergency Green Day on hand.

Here's their official statement:

"Being in this band for the past 12 years has been a true blessing. We've gotten to go places we never knew we would. We've been able to see and experience things we never imagined possible. We've shared the stage with people we admire, people we look up to, and best of all, our friends. And now, like all great things, it has come time for it to end. Thanks for all of your support, and for being part of the adventure."

It's not clear what they have experienced that they couldn't have imagined. Maybe they've had their insides replaced by space squid.

The main difference in the post My Chemical Romance world is that a large number of early middle-aged men have just called their mother's homes to say alright, they can take down the poster now. "But leave the Korn one up, ma. Leave the Korn one up."

My Chemical Romance dump their drummer

Apparently, My Chemical Romance are keen for people to not speculate over this:

Some shit happened last night and before the blogosphere gets all crazy with false statements and ridiculous opinions we want the true story to come from us... But please listen close because this is the only time we are ever going to talk about this. The relationship between My Chemical Romance and Michael Pedicone is over.

He was caught red handed stealing from the band and confessed to police after our show last night in Auburn, Washington. We are heartbroken and sick to our stomachs over this entire situation.

The band has no intention of pressing charges or taking this matter any further than we have to. We just want him out of our lives. The people who play in this band are a family, and family should not take advantage of each other like he did. We are currently moving forward, and hope to have a new drummer in place for our show in Salt Lake City, Utah. The show must go on.

Yes, that's not a statement which leaves any questions hanging in the air - like what was it he could possibly have "stolen" that was bad enough to demand a sacking, but not talking to the police? And is it entirely fair to dismiss an employee, brand him a thief, but not allow him either right of reply or the dignity of a proper investigation of the claims by the police?

Gerard Way's hair rebellion

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now:

My Chemical Romance star Gerard Way dyed his hair pink so he wouldn't be grouped in the same category as other rockers in their thirties.

He said: "I'm happier, but I think in some odd ways more rebellious.

"In some ways the colour is more rebellious, even if it's self-rebellion, there's no big, secret, hidden enemy."

That's right, Gerard. Having pink hair is the act of a dangerous rebel, living by their own rules, on the edge of society. Dammit, outside society.

Just ask Percy Sugden.

The Daily Mail responds

Although they've not exactly been shaken to their core, the management team at the Daily Mail have responded to the shuffling fly-by of emo fans with a statement:

"The Daily Mail’s coverage of the 'Emo' movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest. Genuine concerns were raised at the inquest earlier this month on 13 year old emo follower Hannah Bond who had been self-harming and then tragically killed herself," they explained in the statement.

"In common with other newspapers we ran an accurate news story recording the Coroner's remarks and the parents' comments. We also published two other articles, one of which explained the background to the Hannah tragedy in calm and un-sensational language.

"The other was a first person opinion piece by a well-known writer, written from the perspective of a mother concerned for her children. We have also run two prominent page lead letters from an emo music fan and from a fan of My Chemical Romance defending their point of view.

"Our music critic admires the music of the band and publicised the band’s UK tour last year. Since this protest was announced a great deal of misinformation has appeared on the internet, much of which confuses what the Daily Mail has actually published with the comments of website readers and 'blogs' over which we have no control and which have stirred up emotions."

Goodness: the poor old Daily Mail being made to look bad by third parties quoting things it published and twisting the way it appears? Who'd ever have thought that could happen in the media, eh? Terrible, that.

The emobeast is angered

Today, the My Chemical Romance army is marching on the Daily Mail, to overthrow their stereotype by complaining how they're so misunderstood and it's not fair. ThrashHits is blogging the event as it happens.

Teenage Suicide: Don't do it

You might have mistaken My Chemical Romance's failure to respond to press coverage blaming them for the death of a teenage suicide as maintaining a dignified silence.

The belated spurting out of a bland press release, though, makes it clear that there's just been a stream of record company lawyers and management PR staff taking their time putting together a brand-defence position:

"We have recently learned of the suicide and tragic loss of Hannah Bond. We'd like to send our condolences to her family during this time of mourning. Our hearts and thoughts are with them."

"My Chemical Romance are and always have been vocally anti-violence and anti-suicide. As a band, we have always made it one of our missions through our actions to provide comfort, support, and solace to our fans."

"The message and theme of our album 'The Black Parade' is hope and courage. Our lyrics are about finding the strength to keep living through pain and hard times. If you or anyone that you know have feelings of depression or suicide, we urge you to find your way and your voice to deal with these feelings positively."

Suicidal? Find your way. Presumably they don't mean Gerard Way, though.

It would have been better if they'd either released this statement back on May 8th, when the earliest reports of the coroner's comments were hitting the web, and an empty 'hearts and thoughts/suicide is bad' message might have looked like a wisely cautious response. But to do nothing for three weeks and then do nothing, but with press, shows just how hollow the band are.

My Chemical Romance fans to lay siege to the Mail

Following the pudgy reporting of one fan's suicide, My Chemical Romance's audience have taken great offence against the Daily Mail. Indeed, they're going to have a protest outside the Mail offices.

Hmmm. Hundreds of angry young people wearing black shirts marching up and down the streets of London. That was the sort of thing that Mail loved back in the 1930s, wasn't it?

So far, organisers have persuaded 300 people to take part - although, obviously, if it's sunny on the 31st May it's unlikely many of them will be venturing outdoors.

It's not entirely clear what the aim of the march will be - we're kind of hoping they'll seize the presses and start printing Emo-tinged editions of the Daily Mail ("House prices fall - it's soooo unfair").

A Way ahead

We've not seen it ourselves, but according to the the Daily Cross-Hatch (whose comic viewpoint is pretty damn sharp), Gerard Way makes a far better comic artist than musician. Let's hope he throws in My Chemical Romance and follows his "first love" all the way.

Suicidal mendacities: The Mail gets to grips with emo

It is a story with a horrible and tragic waste of a life at the centre of it: a 13 year-old girl hanging herself. Who can understand the complexities of a mind in so much distress and pain that a person sees death as preferable to living?

The Daily Mail, that's who. It's all My Chemical Romance's fault.

To be fair to the Mail, it's terrible journalism at least has the excuse of a comment from the coroner Roger Sykes to provide some sort of justification for its article:

Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Sykes said: "The Emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."

For the Mail, the clincher is the dead girl had been listening to My Chemical Romance. For all of two weeks.

It explains emo to its readers:

The Emo phenomenon began in the U.S. in the 1980s. It is a largely teenage trend and is characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide.

Followers wear tight jeans with studded belts and wristbands. Their hair is dyed black and worn in long fringes to obscure their faces.

Emo - from the word emotional - is a reference to the angst-filled lyrics and melancholy themes of the rock music central to the culture.

One of the foremost of these "suicide cult" bands is My Chemical Romance, from New Jersey.

Watch out for people in tight jeans, then. They're almost certainly going to kill themselves.

There was, by the way, a very similar piece on this morning's Today programme, where the suggestion that Emo is, in some way, sinister of itself (rather than a teenage affectation). Nobody seemed to think it worth even worth raising the Nick Hornby question ("Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"); nor asking how many of the millions of fans who listen to emo don't, actually, kill themselves or do anything more sinister than misuse eyeshadow.

How many years is it since the Judas Priest case? And we're still getting poorly-conceived kneejerk articles like this. A heartbreaking story, yes, but does anyone really believe that owning a copy of The Black Parade really is the cause, rather than a symptom, of the misery at the heart of it?

[Thanks to Mariam for the tip]

Gerard Way appeals for calm

There have been a few incidents reported across South America recently of people being attacked by groups supposedly because they had an "emo" look. Which is a serious business - the kicking to death of a Goth by a bunch of murderous bastards here in the UK shows how this sort of thing can get out of control.

However, we're not quite sure the best response is for Gerard Way to appeal to people's better natures, as he did at a Mexico gig:

I want to say something today before we continue. Recently we’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about some violence here in your country having to do with kids who want to wear black t-shirts…or some kind of bullshit - stuff like that,” Way told the crowd.

“We don’t want to see any fucking violence. We came here for one reason, and that’s to be at the fucking rock show.”

Wonderful sentiments, although an emo singer telling an emo audience at an emo gig that he doesn't want to see any anti-emo violence might just fall into the 'preaching to the converted' category.

I'm not entirely sure, either, that telling off an audience of Mexicans for the actions of a small group of their compatriots is fair. For example, in America in February a fifteen year-old boy was shot and killed by a classmate because of his sexuality, and as far as we can tell no Mexicans felt they should lecture Way on "some homophobic stuff in his country", did they?

Gerard Way: cartoon villain?

Comic book hero Hart Fisher set Gerard Way on his way to fame and fortune, offering him a start out in the 1990s. Now that Gerard is spreading his wings from badly-drawn music into the comics field, Fisher is getting grumbly. Indeed, he's suggesting that Way ripped him off to create My Chemical Romance. It seems the heart of the beef is that Fisher published a comic by Way on his Boneyard imprint, and feels now Way is writing for Dark Knight, he's not being given his due.

Fisher, it's fair to say, has more than one axe he's taking the opportunity to grind on this one:

I'm not sure if your average comics fan has noticed, but my company's work, and the work of it's creators, has consistently been black listed from the comics price guides. Why don't you go find out how much Garry's first comic is worth. You know, On Raven's Wings #1 (april 1994) and #2 (september 1994) and good luck on finding that shit listed anywhere. Now go looking to see how many Bill the Bull comics are listed, you know, with Duncan Rouleau's first published work (see if that's listed in the guides kids). Go see if John Cassaday's first published work, a Bill the Bull story called "Justin", is listed anywhere in the guides. He worked for several years at Boneyard before he broke, he's been one helluva friend to me over the years, and he lists my work on his site, but you won't find it listed in the guides. How about those Dahmer comics. Any of them listed on there? How about John Lucas's early work for me, you find that listed anywhere? Flickering Flesh anyone?

Fisher is apparently now trawling his own work to find evidence that My Chemical Romance lyrics were a straight rip from him, rather than every other goth band ever.

Your suspicions about My Chemical Romance? They were spot-on

My Chemical Romance are going to open for Bon Jovi.

My Chemical Romance: Style over substance

My Chemical Romance have virtually completed work on their fourth album:

In a fresh interview, band frontman Gerard Way says that the band have picked the as-yet-untitled record’s artwork in preparation to hitting the studio.

He told the Daily Star: “We’re a plan ahead band. Concepts and stories, even fonts, are picked sometimes years in advance of records.”

Yes, all done except the actual music, but - as the first three albums showed - that's only of very secondary importance. It's making sure the tie-in t-shirt is eyecatching in Hot Topic that's where the money is.

Placebo samples

Although it's a lovely idea, we're not entirely convinced that this late in their career a "new listeners start here" ep for American Placebo latecomers is entirely worth the effort. The idea seems to be trying to capitalise on the Placebo slot on the package tour with Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday (and we're not sure we'd have bothered with that, either.)

The tracklisting:

Nancy Boy
Every You Every Me
Taste in Men
Bitter End
Meds
Pure Morning (live from Arras)
Infra-red (live from Nimes)
Running Up That Hill (live from Santiago)

The live tracks, of course, are previously unavailable on record, so if they don't tempt converted Taking Back Sundayites, there'll at least be some interest from the completists.

You can hear Infra Red for yourself, by the way.

Way off marriage?

According to an interview carried in the Norwegian press [In Norwegian], Gerard Way has called off his engagement.

We think that's what it says, anyway.

Chemical spits in Manson's eyes

The dignified response to Marilyn Manson's tired taunts at My Chemical Romance's expense would have been silence. The honest response, a shrug and an admission that it's a bit like Wal Mart and Safeway arguing over who's the chainiest store.

Instead, Gerard Way has attempted to rise in a battle of blunted wits:

“If Elvis Costello said we sucked we would think about it a bit but usually it is comments from someone with a new record to promote so the remarks ring hollow.

"We still haven't found someone that has knocked us down that we need to take seriously."

Well, no, because anyone who attacks MCR is like a drunk fighting a scarecrow - however seriously the assault might be intended, it's not only pointless but by treating the scarecrow as a valid rival will leave the drunk diminished when he sobers up. It's interesting that Gerard most fears a tongue lashing from Elvis Costello, though. Since he hasn't made a decent album since Gerard was in diapers, it's curious as to where his name came from as a gold standard. We wonder if Gerard plucked it out the good clean air.

Two bald men arguing over a backcomb: Manson v Way

Marilyn Manson is apparently now so desperate for attention, he's been giving interviews to The London Paper, the only newspaper in the country which approaches news with the concept that it's today's newswrappings. And he's decided to pick on My Chemical Romance:

"I'm embarrassed to be me because these people are doing a really sad, pitiful, shallow version of what I've done.

"If they want to identify with me then here's a razor blade. Call me when you're done and we'll talk."

But have My Chemical Romance really stolen Manson' schtick? They are a very weak, mainstream-friendly third-generation copy of Eurogoth, which does sound like what Manson is doing.

How tiresome, though, that, Manson feels that, in order to make emotional music, you have to be a a faux-fuck-up. Is he really suggesting that Gerard Way needs to cut his arms to ribbons to make himself a little more "genuine" in some way? Does he reall confuse suffering with talent?

Mrs Way on the way? Or no Way?

Gerard Way has told MTV2 that he's engaged, and that's why he's wearing an engagement ring. On the other hand, the band had been trying to deny he was engaged when first asked about it; and, frankly, if our fiance treated our engagement as something slightly embarrassing to try and cover up, we'd be disaffiancing pretty sharpish.

Hey! This kind of fact-free post could almost count as an Inconvenient Truth for the IFPI, couldn't it? Maybe I should send a CV across.

"We'll make you eat your own food"

The manager of the cafe where, it's claimed, My Chemical Romance and Muse ate before they fell into gig-cancelling sickness, has apparently been getting death threats:

[T]he bands stopped for a bite at Glenn Gormley's Green Leafe Cafe. Shortly afterwards, the musicians (and other patrons) got sick, which forced MCR and Muse to cancel several dates on their tour. Since then, Gormley says angry My Chemical Romance fans have been leaving him death threats.

On the other hand, for taking My Chemical Romance out the game, music lovers have had a whip-round and bought Mr. Gormley a lovely vase of flowers as a thank-you.

My Chemical Toilet

Unpleasant times on the My Chemical Romance/Muse tour of the US: Muse's crew and Chemical Romancers and crew have gone down with violent food poisoning, leading to a number of canceled gigs and, we'd imagine, more than a little unpleasantness in the tourbus up the toilet end.