How a sucker punch and fueled the rise of My Chemical Romance.
This excerpt, however, focuses on the band’s earliest days and their first album,exploring how New Jersey’s unique musical landscape helped shape MCR’s sound, and how the unbridled potential of the internet was changing the nature of music discovery and the relationship between bands and fans.will be published Tuesday, October 26th via Mariner Books at HarperCollins.
The two shared a teenage romance that lasted a few months. Way would take the PATH train into Manhattan and Lewitinn would ride the bus from her parents’ house in Tenafly, New Jersey. “We made out on every street corner in New York,” she says. The long make-out sessions were Lewitinn’s way of distracting herself from the fact that the boy she really wanted to be talking to was the outgoing MikeyRaygun. “Also,” she adds, “he was a great kisser.
My Chemical Romance got themselves booked on their first show in October 2001, at an Elks lodge in Ewing, New Jersey, opening for Pencey Prep, a brash hardcore band fronted by their friend Frank Iero, and Iero’s cousin’s band, Mild 75. The members of My Chem were so nervous about their first public performance that they downed a case of beers beforehand to calm their nerves.
“Gerard, especially, exuded a confidence of being whoever the fuck he wanted to be and didn’t give a shit,” says Iero, “which is weird, because offstage he was very introverted and self-conscious. But when he got up there, that unlocked something.” Iero made a point of seeing My Chem whenever they played from then on and considered himself their number one fan.
At first, Iero felt uncomfortable with the idea of joining a new project that didn’t include his Pencey Prep pals, with whom he’d played music since high school. But the allure of My Chemical Romance was too undeniable to pass up. “Somehow, in some way, we all knew that My Chem was gonna do something important,” he says. “But I felt weird about leaving my friends behind; I felt bad about it. At the same time, My Chem was my favorite band in the entire world.
“It was a home studio, but it might as well have been Electric Lady to them. Ray, especially, was like a little kid. He was so excited,” remembers Saavedra. “There were a few times when his legs were shaking and it was picking up on the recording. We were like, ‘Dude, you gotta stand still!’ And he was like, ‘All right, I’m sorry! I’m just so excited!’ ”
“So I go out to the car and ask my mom what to do,” Lewitinn remembers. “She was like, ‘Get Gerard in the car right now. We’re going to the hospital!’ We get to the hospital and she’s telling [the staff], ‘You’re taking him right now! He’s recording a record, he needs to have this done, you have to see him right this second!’ He ended up needing a root canal or some dental work, but she insisted on waiting with him. She stayed with him the whole time.
“All these label people were calling me all of a sudden,” she says. “I suddenly had people flying in to New York to see the band play at the Loop Lounge. Rob Stevenson, at Island Def Jam, was interested in signing them because his rival at Island had signed Thursday, so he wanted to have My Chem. It was moving superfast. It went from zero to 120 overnight.”
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