Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy is an American rock band, who rose to fame with their single 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race.

Formation: In Chicago, 2001, Fall Out Boy was formed by Joe Trohman and Pete Wentz. Trohman overheard Patrick Stump talking about the band Neurosis in a bookstore and invited him to join the band. Initially, Patrick auditioned as the drummer but his vocal talents were soon discovered and he took up the role of vocalist. T. J. Racine and a man known only as 'Mike' completed the line-up, on guitar and drums, respectively.

In 2002, the band recorded a demo and in May of that year, Uprising Records released their debut EP, followed by a mini LP, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend, in 2003. Following the record's release, Andy Hurley joined the band, whilst Racine and Mike both left. It was around this time that Stump began to play the guitar for the band.

The band's name is a reference to a character in The Simpsons. The character was the sidekick to Radioactive Man.

Breakthrough: In 2003, Fall Out Boy signed a deal with the label Fueled By Ramen, who released their acoustic EP My Heart Will Always Be the B-side to My Tongue.

Later that year, they also signed a deal with Island Records, who gave the band an advance payment to record Take This To Your Grave, with Sean O'Keefe at Smart Studios, owned by Butch Vig (of the band Garbage and renowned for his production work for Nirvana). Despite some songs receiving airplay, the album was only really a commercial success after the release of their next album.

In 2005, From Under the Cork Tree was released and sold over 68,000 in its first week of sale. The first single from the album, 'Sugar, We're Goin' Down', peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The band was nominated as Best Newcomer at the 2006 MTV Awards.

In 2007, the band released Infinity on High. Their single 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race' was the band's highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as in the UK singles chart. The single was remixed by Kanye West and Fall Out Boy have also collaborated with Timbaland.

In August 2008, the band began a viral internet campaign to promote their next album, Folie à Deux, causing widespread speculation regarding the release date of the album.

• Fall Out Boy once wrote a song for the Shrek soundtrack. It didn't make the cut, but it did make it onto 'Infinity On High'! So, surprise- 'Bang The Doldrums' could have been a song on Shrek.
• 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs' has no vowels because their label told them they needed to have shorter song titles.
• Pete Wentz was the vocalist of Chicago-based metalcore band Arma Angelus before he formed Fall Out Boy (and Tim McIlraith from Rise Against was in the band too).
• Patrick Stump has synesthesia, which he's shared means to him that “most letters and numbers feel like a color. Music also can have colors associated with them (but this is a lot less pronounced than my grapheme-color associations). I’ve talked to a lot of musicians though and the more I talk to [them] the more I’m finding out that this is fairly common.”
• The story goes that Fall Out Boy named their track 'Our Lawyers Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued' after their lawyers were concerned over the name 'I Loved You More Before You Were A Myspace Whore'. UNTRUE; the track was actually called 'My Name Is David Ruffin And These Are The Temptations'.
• They auditioned 19 unsigned bands to support on their 2007 Young Wild Things Tour (and ended up taking out Doug from November 09).
• They've established their own charity - the Fall Out Boy Fund, which has so far seen them provide over 20,000 kids in the Chiago area with food education and organic gardening kits. NICE!
• Patrick initially auditioned to be the drummer, but his soul voice saw him take on vocal duties.
• In 2002 Fall Out Boy released a split EP with a band called Project Rocket- who Andy Hurley was a member of at the time.
• Pete and Patrick hold the world record for the number of interviews performed by a duo in 24 hours. They managed to knock over 74 interviews with radio DJs within a single 24 hour period, and despite beating the old record of 57 interviews after ten hours they decided to continue the stunt for as long as possible.
• They had to get permission from Uma Thurman to name their song 'Uma Thurman'. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Pete shared "A lot has changed since Outkast released 'Rosa Parks', we might have been able to get away with it under parody law, but we don't know many lawyers. We do have a ragtag bunch of friends and someone was able to get it right to her and explain the vibe".
• They once raised awareness for blood drives for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 by giving away posters signed with their own blood (yup, really). Speaking about their decision Patrick shared "These disasters don't last just a year, there are still people living in the aftermath of the tsunami and the aftermath of Katrina. It's in times of low publicity on blood drives that people really need blood."