Straight out of the streets of Wilmette, just north of Chicago, Fall Out Boy emerged from the underground hardcore punk scene with vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joe Trohman in 2001, with their melody-soaked pop-punk. Two years later, FOB released their debut album, Take This to Your Grave, earning them a dedicated fan base, heavy touring through gigs at South by Southwest and the Warped Tour, and commercial success with Alternative Press and Hot Topic. The album was packed with bold and memorable sarcasm, wrong romance, and hardcore exuberance, wrapped with dual guitar riffing and a strapping voice of teenage angst boasting of love, youth, and clever cynicism. Next was a new side of FOB with their break-out album, From Under the Cork Tree, in 2005, that topped the Billboards, went double platinum, and earned a Grammy nomination. It highlighted the band’s pop- punk style of intense youthful lyrics and a blast, topped with pop culture mixed with the same hyperactity the band became known for, telling stories of band life and superficial love showcased in the hits Sugar We’re Going Down and Dance, Dance. After their new found success and the new face of pop-punk, the band’s 2007 follow-up album, taken from a line in a Van Gogh letter, Infinity on High, was no disappointment, earning similar status, including a number one spot on the Billboards, with more assessable pop tunes such as This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race and Thnks fr the Mmrs, taking a new approach to their sound. The album showcases hardcore choruses, dizzying precision, and dramatic gospel flair, bringing each song alive. Folie à Deux, released the following year, recreated the spirit of 1967, piling superstars and cameos into the album, creating lots of orchestration, and not surprisingly charted the Billboards once again and this time around was certified Gold by the Recording Industry of Association of America. The album included the lead single, I Don’t Care, merging past and present with thundering arena rock, metal riffs, and soulful R & B. Sadly, after the record’s release, the band took a hiatus, but reunited for their most recent comback album last year, Save Rock & Roll, to show us another side of FOB to fall in love with all over again. The album featured the tracks My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) and Young Volcanoes, again hitting the Billboards, and acknowledging every angle of FOB’s last five years, incorporating not just modern rock but a glimpse of the R & B trait once again, and this time around, even a touch of folk.
With the influences of The Get Up Kids, Green Day, and the Ramones to name a few, FOB has been primarily been categorized as pop-rock and emo, but this is only scratches a small surface of the band’s true dimensions. Before Fall Out Boy was FOB, every member had his beginnings in hardcore punk bands, thus the band now incorporates its early roots of hardcore punk into writing its pop music, giving FOB a whole new style and dimension. Their early albums added pop punk to the equation for their fans to swoon, while their later work evolved further to incorporate a wider range of styles and instrumentation, including choral and orchestral arrangements such as in You’re Crashing, But You’re No Wave. To expand further, FOB added the use of piano such as in Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet and include synthesizers and guest artists to make their music dynamic, giving every music lover butterflies. While the sounds of FOB are truly tantalizing, the central lyrics, at the fault of Wentz, contain raw emotion and irony, among other literary devices to tell the story of his life, themes of love and heartbreak, the ups and down of fame, and moral dilemmas we all can identify and be entranced with. FOB is every adapting and emerging indefinitely as they continue to question unfamiliar territory, mixing pop, rock, mainstream, and underground, never letting fans down. This ever changing band continues to be ambitious, commendable, and exhilarating, all part of our modern world of music. Check all of their many sides and fall in love with FOB all over again at Bunbury!
Fall Out Boy hits the Main Stage Saturday July 12th at 10pm at Bunbury Music Festival!
Enter to win a pair of 3 day Passes to Bunbury Music Festival HERE!
