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My Chemical Romance Visits The GRAMMY Museum

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New Jersey-based quartet discusses their formation, musical influences and latest album
GRAMMYs
May 4, 2011 - 10:04 am
GRAMMY.com

My Chemical Romance participated in an installment of the GRAMMY Museum's An Evening With series on Jan. 26. Before an audience of 200 at the Clive Davis Theater, the four-piece band discussed their latest album, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, early musical influences and how Sept. 11 inspired their formation, among other topics.

"It was like watching a horror movie," said Gerard Way of Sept. 11. "I was doing something really irrelevant at the time that I didn't feel was important and I remember just thinking to myself, 'This is not a waste. I can't waste this.' And it was literally like two weeks later that we had our first rehearsal."

Formed in New Jersey, My Chemical Romance consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way, and guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro. In 2002 the band released their debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, ripe with alternative rock and pop elements and dark, introspective lyrics. Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge followed in 2004 and netted the band their first Top 40 hit, "Helena." My Chemical Romance's third album, The Black Parade, was released in 2006 and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Conceptual in nature, the album centers around the story of a cancer patient in a hospital bed who reminisces on his life at the moment of his death. Certified platinum, The Black Parade spawned My Chemical Romance's highest-charting single to date, "Welcome To The Black Parade," which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Gerard Way received a GRAMMY nomination in 2007 for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for his art direction for The Black Parade — Special Edition. Released on Nov. 22, 2010, the band's most recent album, Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, is a sci-fi-themed depiction of anti-corporate outlaws living in the year 2019.

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include An Evening With Booker T. Jones (May 12), From Vision To Vinyl: A Step-By-Step Look At Vinyl Production (May 18), and American Express Presents The Drop: Diane Schuur (June 9).

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.

Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.

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The Doctor Is In

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New Orleans native Dr. John appears at the GRAMMY Museum
GRAMMYs
Jul 12, 2010 - 1:16 pm
GRAMMY.com

Dr. John, the New Orleans-bred pianist who makes what has been described as "voodoo" music, joined the GRAMMY Museum on June 14 to talk about his colorful career, muse on the musical legacy of his hometown, and play for a limited audience of 200.

During the course of the session, Dr. John fielded questions from the audience and played several songs with his band, the Lower 911, while advocating for the cultural importance of New Orleans. His most recent album, City That Care Forgot, is a sweeping song cycle dedicated to the Crescent City.

Dr. John, born Malcolm John Rebennack, has spent a long career combining rock, R&B and the blues with the Mardi Gras-style flavors of New Orleans. Starting as a session player, Dr. John relocated to Los Angeles in the mid-'60s where he got the opportunity to record his first solo album, Gris-Gris, using, according to legend, leftover Sonny & Cher studio time. He scored his biggest hit with 1973's "Right Place Wrong Time," no doubt the catchiest swamp-funk on the radio at the time. Though operating more under the radar since, he has continued to record and perform, and in 1994 published an autobiography, Under A Hoodoo Moon. Dr. John has won five GRAMMY Awards, his most recent coming in 2008 for Best Contemporary Blues Album for City That Care Forgot.

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include Musical Explorations: Rhythm Child (July 17), An Evening With Train (July 19) and Girl Rock Nation (July 22).
 

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.

 

Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.

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Mavis Staples At The GRAMMY Museum

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Want to be uplifted? She’ll take you there
GRAMMYs
Sep 17, 2010 - 12:04 pm
GRAMMY.com

GRAMMY-nominated R&B/gospel singer Mavis Staples turned the Clive Davis Theater at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles into an effervescent church revival when she visited on Aug. 30 to talk about her life, music and sing a few songs for an intimate audience of 200.

Staples has had a career resurgence of sorts in the last decade. Three of her four GRAMMY nominations have come since 2003, and she has worked with an impressive variety of artists and labels over that time as she continues to explore the connection between her religious faith and social justice. She has recorded for the blues label Alligator Records and for the post-punk imprints Anti- and Epitaph Records, and she has both produced her own work and had the likes of GRAMMY-winning guitarist Ry Cooder helm a project. Her new album, You Are Not Alone, released Sept. 14, was produced by Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy, a fellow Chicagoan, and features songs by John Fogerty, Randy Newman, Allen Toussaint, Tweedy, and Mavis' late father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples.

Born in Chicago in 1939, Mavis has been recording music since the late '50s but it wasn't until her family group, the Staple Singers, signed with Stax Records in the early '70s that they hit on a soulful expression of both righteousness and righteous indignation, with Mavis singing lead on songs such as "I'll Take You There," "Respect Yourself" and "Touch A Hand (Make A Friend)" — all of which preached reconciliation and tolerance in glorious sounding R&B/soul. With You Are Not Alone, Staples continues as one of the definitive soul voices of the last 40 years.

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include The Drop: Rare Genius — The Undiscovered Masters Of Ray Charles (Sept. 21), The Drop: Seal And David Foster (Sept. 26), An Evening with Alan Parsons (Sept. 29), and An Evening With Rosanne Cash (Oct. 5).

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.

Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.

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The Airborne Toxic Event's Los Angeles Wishing Well

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Indie rock quintet drops by the GRAMMY Museum
GRAMMYs
Aug 10, 2011 - 5:48 pm
GRAMMY.com

On June 22 indie rock quintet the Airborne Toxic Event were the featured guests for an installment of Homegrown, the GRAMMY Museum's new spotlight series on Los Angeles-based artists. Before an intimate audience of 200 in the Museum's Clive Davis Theater, the band discussed their songwriting process and the sense of community that exists among Los Angeles-based artists. Following the discussion, the theater was turned into a live rock and roll show as the band took the stage to perform a few songs, including "Changing," "Strange Girl" and "Wishing Well."

"We all follow one another's careers with great interest," said frontman Mikel Jollett on the community of Los Angeles artists. "We are kind of rooting for one another."

"When you're surrounded by people who are all really working [to make music] and really trying, it makes you reconsider what you're doing and [try to] raise the bar," added violinist Anna Bulbrook.

 

Formed in 2006 in the Los Angeles community of Silver Lake by Jollett and drummer Daren Taylor, the Airborne Toxic Event also includes classically trained violinist Bulbrook, guitarist Steven Chen and jazz bassist Noah Harmon. That same year the quintet played their first gig as the Airborne Toxic Event, a name that's derived from a section in Don DeLillo's White Noise novel, at the intimate East Los Angeles venue the Echo. After attracting the attention of indie labels and music magazines such as Rolling Stone, the band inked a record deal with Los Angeles-based indie label Majordomo Records and subsequently released their self-titled debut, which reached a modest position on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 108. The album featured the Billboard Alternative Songs hit "Sometime Around Midnight."

In 2009 the group scored a major label record deal with Island Def Jam, parent company of Island Records, which is home to the band's self-proclaimed inspiration U2. The group subsequently re-released their self-titled debut later that year. In 2010 the band released All I Ever Wanted — The Airborne Toxic Event Live From Walt Disney Concert Hall Featuring The Calder Quartet, a live DVD/CD digipack featuring the group's performance at the Los Angeles concert hall in December 2009. Their sophomore effort, 2011's All At Once, was released April 26 and shot to No. 17 on the Billboard 200. The album features the single "Changing," which peaked at No. 12 on Billboard's Rock Songs chart. The group is currently on tour throughout the United States and UK.

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include Icons Of The Music Industry: Chris Blackwell (Aug. 14), Reel To Reel: An Evening With Tyler Bates (Aug. 15), An Evening With Nick Lowe (Aug. 16), and An Evening With Christopher Cross (Aug. 17).

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.

Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.

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A Perfect 10 For Tyler Bates

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Seasoned film composer visits the GRAMMY Museum
GRAMMYs
Oct 12, 2011 - 3:46 pm
GRAMMY.com

Film composer Tyler Bates was the featured guest for a recent installment of the GRAMMY Museum's Reel To Reel: An Evening With series. In an intimate interview setting, Bates discussed becoming a film composer, his early influences and composing the score for Conan The Barbarian. Following the interview, Bates took questions from the audience, held a live composing demonstration and performed a brief set, including "White Tide" with singer/songwriter Lisa Papineau.

"I was fortunate enough to meet people who liked me enough to teach me," said Bates. "There's a purpose to the music that isn't expressed on-screen. You need to understand what that is and it took me years to get to that point."



Raised in Chicago, Bates relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue a career in film composing. While in Los Angeles, he formed alternative rock band Pet along with Papineau. The group released a self-titled debut album in 1996 and were featured on the hit soundtrack to 1996's The Crow: City Of Angels and 1997's The Last Time I Committed Suicide, the latter of which was scored by Bates. He subsequently composed the scores for films including Get Carter (2000), City Of Ghosts (2002) and Dawn Of The Dead (2004), among others. Bates also collaborated with GRAMMY-nominated artist/film director Rob Zombie to score The Devil's Rejects (2005), Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009).

More recently, Bates has scored films such as 2011's Sucker Punch, Conan The Barbarian and The Darkest Hour, as well as the television show "Californication." Aside from film, Bates has also composed video game scores for "Watchmen: The End Is Nigh," "Army Of Two: The 40th Day," "Transformers: War For Cybertron," and "Sucker Punch: Annihilation," among others.

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include An Evening With Thomas Dolby (Oct. 17), Reel To Reel: The Original 7ven (Oct. 18), Great Guitars: Steve Lukather (Oct. 24), Great Guitars: Steve Cropper (Oct. 25), and An Evening With Judy Collins (Nov. 1).

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.

Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.