"My Chemical Romance is this generation's Nirvana"

Well, why are you offering your own musical youth as a beacon unto the sheep?

They're big on myspace, but they've shifted a lot of units too, so they're popular. I'm a poptimist, and I believe that they are popular with reason.

the whole illicit (t-shirt i tried to post upthread), emily strange . . . everyone has a black hoodie these days, don't they? remember that video for that p-m0ney & scr1be goth-hop track where they had the drummer from 8 ft s4tiva (popular metal band) & the guitarist from elem3nop (chart-topping punkpop band) playing!

OTM.

FWIW the little of it I've heard repulses me not cos its boring or played out or whatever but because it is so authentically, unfilteredly, painfully, selfishly adolescent.

"Teenage Dirtbag" is funny! I guess some of this stuff is funny too. But musically it's structured more round a punchline so the funny-ness is to the fore.

I would like to see more writing about MCR and FOB and PATD and whoeverthefuck, and less writing about whateverthefuck.

I looked at the original post and comments - the Nirvana thing is a red herring and actually weakens what she's saying at the same time as the reactions to the N-reference kind of demonstrate it.

From a British perspective, Nirvana were only seen as important (onj a wider scale as opposed to a 10-out-of-10 from ET in Melody Maker scale) after they'd been on The Word.

. . . maybe I shld go & have a listen before saying anything else.

MCR are huge, just like many of their fans. Who doesn't know this?

The whole emo thing seems like millions of micro acts, and a few commercial pastiches picking up the signifiers on top (MCR).

But that's the thing. Were Tad really any more dominating to the landscape than Something Corporate are now?

OTM, but that was pre-Nevermind. Compare: Reading '92.

Another question is what does "this generation's Nirvana" mean? As someone who felt pretty in touch with the zeitgeist in 1991, left the US a few months before Nirvana broke, and returned a couple of years later and felt completely lost, I find the claim pretty hard to swallow. Beyond whatever quality judgment you may make about Nirvana, they were the poster boys for a huge change in radio and popular tastes.

Following that (Sean is actually younger than ultragrrl, if I read everything correctly) the fact that he (and I for that matter) has never heard a note of MCR suggests that their "historical" role isn't really comparable to Nirvana.

I think it's just using the sacred Nirvana cow -- I guess she doesn't like them -- that makes this controversial. If we picked a slightly different generation for comparison I think we "MCR is this generation's Bon Jovi" and it would be equally true and feel a lot less argumentative.

well, they're paid by either money earned from advertisers who want 16-year-old kids to buy their warez OR by 16-year-old kids buying their magazines. they probably have some commercial considerations in mind beyond "about music that they like and see value in".

xpost
Well, yes, obviously, but the market is larger than just 16-year-olds. Also, presumably, those commercial considerations would actually drive more media coverage (which is not necessarly the same thing as music journalism) of MCR if they were really as popular as Britney et al.

(And maybe I'm just proving that I'm 35 here, but the "commercial considerations" that drive Pitchfork and Stylus, Sean Gramophone and Matthew Fluxblog, Chuck and Xgau, Robert Hilburn and Ann Powers, etc. are very different.)

Bon Jovi were the Nirvana of hair metal.

What did occur to me was that, uh, there is this assumption that MCR "mean" s.th. to "this" generation, but when Nirvana were active & Cobain alive, I don't recall them "meaning" anything like that to the equivalent generation back then, though obviously layers of "meaning" have been applied to Nirvana & Cobain in the intervening years. Perhaps.

I've heard MCR on the radio a bit, but I didn't think they were particularly, well, particularly anything, really. Then again, I'm 40 and I like Hawkwind.

As always, it would be interesting to see some numbers comparing column inches, record sales, and airplay for MCR, Kanye, etc.

Bon Jovi were the Nirvana of hair metal.

Exactly my point, except that the rockists among us won't take umbrage at comparing Bon Jovi and MCR the way they do Nirvana.

Another question is what does "this generation's Nirvana" mean?

I have no idea what this means either! Does she mean they're a band that are changing the greater musical landscape or does she simply mean that they're important to angsty kids? Or both? I don't geddit.

i suppose the more subjective answer is that many music hacks still see pop and rock music as essentially 'youth' forms, not without reason, really, and that youth phenomena are important, a sign of the times. probably this is because more music obsessives are teenagers than 35-year-olds.

One thing about Nirvana I suppose is that yer old buggers were into them way before yer 16-year olds knew who they were. Is this her point? I don't know!

Also, at the time Tad were the media tip for the big act to come out of Sub Pop.

I don't really recall this, but I wasn't really paying that much attention. Was this on the evidence of God's Balls vs. Bleach? 'Behemoth' was good, but not that good, IIRC. Anyhow Mudhoney would've been the obvious choice to me, but it's nice thinking about a planet where Tad released Nevermind. If only Dave Geffen had listened to that demo of 'Smells Like Beef Dripping'...

If u/grl'z "it's yoof, you oldies don't understand" blather is true w/r/2 MCR's audience, then I don't see the comparison, & I bet she's just tossing it out b/c she knows it'll annoy some Cobain=godhead type ppl.

(blethering about the innate musical & rocking superiority of Mudhoney to any of this shit ruthlessly excised)

I saw them on the same tour, and yeah, that was what the crowd were like. Later on, it was more of your grebo-lite Neds types. But certainly not kids.

Yay! Oh wait...

MCR might not fare as well in the retrospective critical opinion, but does that matter to their core fanbase? I mean, look at the NME readers in the UK -- they think that there's some canon with Arctic Monkeys and this Pete Doherty stuff near the top! That sounds like kids thinking they're living in some crucial moment to me.

Pash, OTM It wasn't until the deification of Cobains death in the late 90's that the angsty kid's became their core audience.

these seem to be the four things that made nirvana the nirvana of their generation: loved by the kids, loved by the non-kids, enjoyed by the critics, suicide.

Lol did not realize they are an East coast band. I also assumed they were from California, since like RHCP, they sing about it so much

imo the bare bones garage rock approach gets ropier the further they get into ballad territory

I'm not sure if you were also referring to "The Light Behind Your Eyes", but it's probably my favorite track from Conventional Weapons, even if it's a bit of a misfit with the other material. I also like "The World is Ugly" but they've done some better songs in that style on other albums

yo!!!! i love it when this band pretends to be the pixies

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 18, 2022 10:47 AM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok i have heard this now - omg even gerard's singing style on this lmao! it IS great though

Ned, MCR are massive Anglophiles - they've covered Blur and Pulp in the past, some of their songs reference Smiths lyrics, so being into Suede is completely unsurprising

I mean Gerard's early hair was "I think I'm Robert Smith" so I should damn well hope they're Anglophiles!

one nice thing about getting into this band so late is discovering how quietly revolutionary they've always been

so easy for ppl to dismiss them as a band for preteen girls back in the day, but i can't imagine how incredible it must have been for a preteen girl who was into pop-punk/emo to have seen gerard way say this in 2005:

"If you ever see shitty ass rock dudes in shitty ass rock bands asking you to show them your tits for backstage passes, I want you to spit right in their fucking faces and yell FUCK YOU!"pic.twitter.com/wV1ddK2XGX

— grace (@vintageemisery) January 7, 2020

lots more examples like that in the twitter thread

gerard looking absolutely adorable performing “Mama” in a cheerleader’s outfit <3

THIS IS THE BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE pic.twitter.com/0ulEMYGEMR

— nati | mcr in 3 days (@nataliawraggm) August 24, 2022

lol. God bless him. Wish I had tickets.

My daughter was at the show last night in Nashville. She's never been much of a concertgoer but would have run through a brick wall to get to this one, and I gather it totally delivered.

Lucky her! Definitely looked like it was a total blast

Touring The Black Parade in 2025.

But I'm wondering why they now look like they just signed to Captured Tracks:

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/67339a724c93b602d071a657/2:1/w_1920,c_limit/My-Chemical-Romance.jpeg

oh man i really would love to see that tour hmmmm

their list of tour openers/guests is kinda o_O:

Violent Femmes
100 Gecs
Wallows
Garbage
Death Cab for Cutie and Thursday
Alice Cooper
Pixies
Devo
Idles
Evanescence

fans are speculating that it’s new music/a TBP sequel, not just a tour based on the note that came with their announcement:

It has been seventeen years since The Black Parade was sent to the MOAT. In that time, a great Dictator has risen to power, bringing about “THE CONCRETE AGE”; a glorious time of stability and abundance in the history of DRAAG. His Grand Immortal Dictator wishes to celebrate our rich and storied culture, fine foods, and musical entertainments by welcoming you to these great demonstrations of power and resolve. And lending voice and song for the first time in six thousand two hundred and forty six days, their work privilege ceremoniously reinstated, will be His Grand Immortal Dictator’s National Band... The Black Parade.

Long Live Draag

Also this reply frank iero left on a random fan’s comment on instagram:

frank iero 🫡 pic.twitter.com/vcTDrhv34D

— MCR Updates (@gwayupdates) November 12, 2024

love their overdramatic asses, no mainstream pop band is doing it like this anymore

Got my ticket for SF. See folks there, metaphorically?

Eesh, this sucks.

https://amp.tmz.com/2024/11/29/bob-bryar-original-my-chemical-romance-drummer-dead-44/

fuck

oof. posts from mcr fandom show up from time to time in my x feed so I know that he’d been under a lot of online harassment from kids in recent months, some of it deserved (seems he’s turned MAGA since leaving the band).

but yeah this sounds awful. His political opinions aside, he was their best drummer

grim https://gwaypositivity.tumblr.com/post/118084873108/why-we-are-not-fond-of-bob-bryar-the-long-answer

damn a long tumblr post about emo band drama, takes me back

this guy did seem like he sucked and was really incredibly difficult to be in a band with. shame he was such a great drummer

mcr's statement, which they took several days to issue, is pretty brief and brutal - clearly no love lost there: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDFzbIjzhkD/?hl=en

Rock drummer in being asshole shocker. R.I.P. I guess.

The drumming on those albums IS really good.

Well that ruled. (That REALLY fucked ruled.)

Gerard introducing a cover song talking about how he had a religious experience with it during the pandemic intrigued me. Then he starts the cover: "The world is a vampire." Friends, I lost my shit, in the best way. (It was a killer performance, but the whole night was.)

Nice! I'm seeing them for the first time in September, psyched for it.

Sorry for the cut off piano intro but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3EEBGax_dY

Sorting through all my shots, I rather liked this one. (I was intentionally in the seats farthest back and highest up -- for the price, sure, but I also wanted to get a sense of how well they projected to the back of a stadium. Unsurprisingly, they had it nailed.)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreidunb6dixrccq6f3ys7jbjawcr5ueyjtg2vphu2q4fdmtqi7ernra@jpeg

awesome. also there’s something about seeing that sea of fans in black from above

anyway some fun behind the scenes stuff on the typeface/language they created for the tour: https://blambot.com/pages/the-language-of-the-black-parade

I had been wondering about that!

Another shot from the second stage/second set portion, with Frank Iero in view on the screens...

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreifmf4ugmm2kmgmkzhkgxg7dn6lhrz6dxugmhoehskhjbvdcpl3zym@jpeg

I swung for the rafters:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-weekly-155-134943056

they debuted this song at one of the recent shows - "War Beneath the Rain", which Gerard said was off the never-released post-Danger Days album they were working on just before the 2013 breakup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olj7w8z9A5o

it's just okay to me, but suggests they might be ready to dust off that record or pick up where they left off

Then he starts the cover: "The world is a vampire."

They went one better in Chicago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6xN6HY_ydo

Roffle. Makes sense!

I saw them at the Shaky Knees fest in Atlanta last night, great show, the whole world-building around Draag and the theatrical bits woven through were cool. Being a festival headliner is a little different from doing your own stadium show, obviously, and I heard from a few non-MCR fans who had basically wandered over from the Black Keys or Public Enemy sets that preceded it that the whole storyline just totally flummoxed them and they had no idea what was going on. But most of the crowd was an MCR crowd and knew all the words.

(Also as I was walking toward the main stage and hearing the Black Keys in the distance and thinking how lame they were, I ended up behind a group of two women and two guys and one of the guys — a bro in a ballcap — was whining to his girlfriend about leaving the Black Keys show early: "I can't believe we're leaving this to go to fuckin' My Chemical Romance!" I refrained from advising her to dump him, but the thought was there.)

The parade goes on — European and more U.S. dates next year.

https://pitchfork.com/news/my-chemical-romance-announce-black-parade-2026-tour-dates/