NOFX's Fat Mike at Warped Tour in Uniondale, New York, on Saturday
Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images

For most bands, landing a coveted slot on the Warped Tour is like finding a golden ticket. But this year, bands have been dropping off the annual summer tour's 11th installment like flies.

From First to Last bolted just three weeks into the festival so frontman Sonny Moore could undergo surgery to remove a nodule on his vocal cords (see "From First To Last Singer Dispels More Rumors, Reveals Why Band Left Warped").

Then, Gatsby's American Dream dropped out. "There's no juicy gossip to report, we just need a break to be with our families at this time," the band said in a statement.

Next, it was Christian-leaning rockers Underoath, who bailed late in July, saying they needed to resolve some internal issues. "We're deeply frustrated and sorry for any inconvenience this has caused," the band said in a statement. "We felt it necessary to take some immediate time to focus on our friendship, as that's more important than risking it for the sake of touring at this time."

However, many have noted that the band was on the receiving end of a persistent string of gibes from NOFX frontman Fat Mike. Underoath did not grant MTV News' requests for an interview.

Earlier this week, Mewithoutyou announced that they, too, were leaving Warped, citing much-needed tour-bus repairs — the bandmembers, who bring their families on tour, travel in a special vegetable-oil-fueled bus (see "Mewithoutyou: Not Your Average Christian, Vegetable-Oil-Fueled, Flower-Flinging Rockers") — as well as frontman Aaron Weiss' lingering throat malaise.

"No bus, no touring — pretty simple math," they reasoned in a statement. The band's manager told MTV News that the band was playing on the SmartPunk stage (for which acts are not paid) and, after the bus issues, simply couldn't afford to continue the tour.

And then there were Spitalfield, who on Wednesday — with just five dates remaining before Warped '06's Sunday finale in Montreal — dropped out as well. Frontman Mark Rose told MTV News that guitarist Dan Lowder will be leaving the band in the fall.

"With our new record slated for an October 3 release, we were forced to face [replacing Lowder] right when the record came out or canceling a string of shows to get home and begin rehearsing with a fill-in guitar player," he said. The band chose the latter option.

"Spitalfield have been trying to get on the Warped Tour for four years," he added. "It's really disappointing to not be able to finish the dates on such a high-profile tour."

Later that day, gypsy-punk act Gogol Bordello dropped off, citing drummer Eliot Ferguson's need to seek medical treatment for cellulitis in his arm.

Those are all valid reasons for why Warped has had more bands drop out this year than in any other during its 11-year history.

Yet members of some bands say there is definitely a higher level of tension on this year's trek. While some blame the summer's sweltering temperatures and the pressures of spending two long, grueling months on the road, others say there's an old-punks-vs.-new-punks battle that has resulted in tension between bands.

Fat Mike, who has spent eight of the last 11 summers on Warped with both NOFX and cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, says the tension is due to all of the above.

"The thing is, a lot of bands sign up for this, and they have no idea what it's about, and how difficult it is if you're a smaller band," he said. "If you have to do this tour in a van, it's really, really difficult. Our whole goal on this tour is to have as much fun as we possibly can — that's what it's all about, so if you can [accomplish] that, it's a really great tour.

"A lot of bands are here to further their careers," he continued, "and that's not going to happen. You think a band goes on the Warped Tour and suddenly they get big? It's going to happen to somebody, but it doesn't make your career. There are 100 bands on the tour — with so many choices, the only people who are going to watch you are the people who [already] like you."

He went on to say that attitudes definitely have played a role. "From First to Last came on the tour like total rock stars, and everyone alienated them," he said. "And they were gone in a week or two."

Mike also admits that his constant mocking of Underoath got to them, but he doesn't think it was a reason for them to pull out of Warped. He attended one of the band's Bible-study sessions as a joke but claims he was nothing if not respectful.

"I didn't help their cause at all, but I wasn't the main reason either," he said. "They're a weird band. I was going to go after them as soon as I found out they were on the tour."

The no-longer-so-fat Mike also says he witnessed several of the younger bands on the tour copping what he called "rock star" attitudes because "they have a hit record that sells a few hundred thousand copies and they think everyone's there to see them. The older bands, we really don't care. We're just happy to still be around."

Thursday's Geoff Rickly, who is about to finish his third Warped, says the friction largely amounts to a battle between the old school and new school.

"The number of younger bands is much higher, and they seem to think they're the sh-- and all the older bands are has-beens or whatever," he explained. "I think there's an attitude of entitlement. Like, 'All these old bands don't even sell the amount of records we sell' and 'We should maybe be getting better slots' and 'We're the new sh--.' I kind of get that attitude from some of the younger bands, and that's too bad, I think. They don't even realize that when a band works hard for 10 years, there's a reason why they get respect. Just because you write a few pop songs and maybe get on the radio, you're not necessarily given the world."

While he says he's noticed tension between bands on every tour Thursday have ever done, the strain between some of this year's Warped bands is much more intense.

"I think there's, like, two sides to the tour, and those sides are tense with each other," he said. "There are the young, scream-y bands and the old punk-rock bands, and there are only a few bands that can float through both worlds, like us and Rise Against and Anti-Flag. I think, in general, the old guys are like, 'Dude, all these young punks think they know everything,' and all the young bands are like, 'Dude, all these old guys, all they care about is themselves, and they don't want to support anything new.' Each of them has a little bit of truth, and it's also a little bit overblown in their own heads. It just makes it a little tenser than it needs to be, I guess.

"There's been a lot of drama on the tour this year," he added. "The Warped Tour is just a pressure cooker because it's hot and long and seems like it never ends — it's 50 shows in 60 days. I think it pushes bands to a point that they're not quite ready to be at."

Some of that drama took place between Less Than Jake and Every Time I Die, after the long-running ska band mocked the screaming singing style of ETID's Keith Buckley — in ETID's hometown of Buffalo, New York, no less. Buckley responded by calling the band "washed-up."

"It's not going to stress me out," Buckley said. "I know they said something about us and we said something about them. When they found out we retaliated, they said, 'We didn't mean to upset anybody, we're just joking around.' And that's fine, but it's not like we know each other — I don't know them well enough to be joking around like that. All I know is they're making fun of us, and I had to say something back. But I guess once I said something back, they realized it was getting a little too out of control."

The beef has become so widespread that some bands on the tour are even parodying it. Fans hit various punk message boards to discuss comments Silverstein and Motion City Soundtrack were trading onstage — but according to drummer Paul Koehler of three-time Warped act Silverstein, it was all a joke intended to get people to lighten up.

"We did it because, here's all this other drama that's real on the tour, which people seem to be obsessed with, and we wanted to blow this thing up," Koehler said. "We'd make fun of each other's bands onstage, and we even wore T-shirts that said 'Motion Sh---y Soundtrack.' We came clean about it and told the kids not to believe everything they read on the Internet. That was the point we were trying to make, that all the drama on Warped is nonsense. It should just be about seeing good bands and having a good time."

Motion City frontman Justin Pierre said most of the bands on Warped need to loosen up, and should let barbs from the likes of Fat Mike roll off their backs.

"Fat Mike likes to f--- with people, and I don't really have a problem with that," he said. "Underoath and NOFX had a pretty big thing going on back and forth. He would rip on them for saying that everything they do, they do for Christ. But you need to have a sense of humor about things."

For his part, Kevin Lyman, Warped's founder, says that on average he loses three bands each summer, but he hasn't noticed any tension between any of the bands beyond the situation that unfolded between Fat Mike and Underoath.

"The thing with Mike and Underoath really got kind of blown up," he said. "It was more like they both have very strong opinions, and most of it was done in good fun. But Fat Mike tortures everyone — he tortures me all day long. There are a lot of bands out here who are having trouble. I don't like it, but it's been a bizarre year. We've never had a year like this, but there have been reasons why these bands pulled out."

A few years ago, Lyman noted, several bands got into an all-out brawl. "But there's been nothing like that," he said. "Where's this tension? Come into the parking lot. Everyone's having a great time. You have 900 people on the road, so obviously not everyone's going to like each other. There are seven parties every night, and card games.

"Maybe there is tension," he added, laughing. "I think it's the sexual type."

• Pink Spiders, Gym Class Heroes And More At Warped Tour 2006

• From First To Last
• Less Than Jake
• Mewithoutyou
• NOFX
• Thursday

From First to Last's Sonny Moore
Photo: Epitaph

By now, From First to Last's Sonny Moore is probably used to Internet rumors about him. After all, "news" of his death made the rounds on MySpace and message boards twice within the past six months.

So it's sort of surprising that he's reacting with such vitriol to the latest batch of gossip — that his band was booted off the Warped Tour because of its, according to one post, "rock-star, prima-donna attitudes." Remember, this is a guy who thought rumors of his own passing were "kind of cool" (see "Death Rumors Aren't Rattling From First To Last Frontman Sonny Moore").

"First of all, I would like to say that [the news site that published the rumor of FFTL's ouster] is the most unprofessional excuse for a music-news site. They have posted false news and rumors about our band numerous times," Moore told MTV News via e-mail. "These Neanderthals just loosely post whatever garbage sounds the most dramatic. Their sources of information are about as reliable as a chimpanzee's."

OK then. Well, if it wasn't FFTL's egos that got them booted from Warped, then what was the reason for their departure? Well, as it turns out, it was Moore's faulty vocal cords — which he's been battling for more than two years now — that spelled doom for the band.

"I have a giant nodule on my right vocal cord. I've been struggling ever since I joined FFTL. I joined the day before I started vocals for the first album and have never really known how to sing properly," Moore wrote. "Then, a couple weeks after we were done with [2004's Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count], we started touring and a week and a half into it I lost my voice for the first time and had to go home to rest while the other guys stayed on the tour and kept playing the songs without me.

"This happened numerous times; I would lose my voice and would have to take shows off. I developed my first nodule about a year later and went in for my first surgery in May 2005," he continued. "I started singing and touring right after I recovered, which gave me zero time to get vocal training. So it was inevitable that it was going to happen again. And that is what brings me here today."

"Here" is Los Angeles, where on Wednesday Moore will undergo a second surgery to remove the nodule from his cord. In the meantime, he's not able to speak much — hence the e-mail interview — and in a way, that's even more frustrating. Because he wants to lash out at those Internet smack-talkers. And harshly worded e-mails just don't seem to cut it.

"Obviously, [the site that spread the rumors] wouldn't know what a reliable source was if it bit them ... or they wouldn't be so off-point all of the time," he wrote. "Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they just don't like our band and like to spread sh---y rumors about us. Who knows, but either way, and for the record, the rumors aren't true. Don't believe me? Go ask [Warped Tour founder Kevin] Lyman yourself."

And we did, reaching out to Lyman via e-mail (he was on the road with Warped). And as it turns out, he backed up Moore's story 100-percent, adding that From First to Last were model citizens on the tour, and he would welcome them back as soon as the singer was well enough to perform.

"I'm not sure where this all came from, but it's bullsh--. He left the tour with nodes on his throat and from what I know he went straight home from [the June 28 Warped Tour stop in] Atlanta to get surgery," Lyman wrote. "And I have actually been holding their spot for them. Because if Sonny felt better and wanted them to come back, then he would certainly be welcome."

• From First To Last

From First to Last
Photo: Epitaph

Sonny Moore is not dead. He's alive and actually sort of psyched that he's become well-known enough to be the target of outrageous rumors. Within the last six months, fans of his band, From First to Last, have been duped — not once, but twice — into thinking the 18-year-old singer had died.

"It sort of blows my mind," Moore said about the most recent death rumor, which spread Memorial Day weekend via the Internet and resulted in fans posting memorials to the singer on the band's MySpace page. "It's probably some snotty kid. In a way, I commend him, whether he was trying to hurt me or not. This is the second time a 'dead' rumor has gone around with me. It's kind of cool."

The first death ruse was initiated five months ago, before the band went on the road with Fall Out Boy and Hawthorne Heights (see "From First To Last Might Outgrow Fall Out Boy Pranks Soon"), and soon after the release of the band's latest album, Heroine. That con claimed Moore had been the pedestrian victim of a fatal hit-and-run. A second prank began Memorial Day weekend when a link started circulating online that brought readers to a faux news report at the "Global Associated News" Web site.

"In what appears to be an apparent suicide, musician Sonny Moore was pronounced dead as a result of cardiac arrest after consuming more than two dozen sleeping pills," reads the "breaking news" article. "Complete details are not yet available, as this story is still developing."

From First to Last's fans took the bait and panicked. Moore even started getting phone calls from a few of his friends.

"On Sunday, this friend of mine called me and was like, 'Sonny, are you dead?' and I said, 'No, I'm at the doctor's right now,' and she kind of freaked out a little bit," Moore recalled. "And I said, 'I'm all right. I'm not dead. I'm just getting my throat checked out. Acid reflux, man — that's about it.

"The sh---y thing's, if this keeps happening, when I really die, no one's going to believe it," he lamented.

Moore said he'll prove he's still breathing this summer when From First to Last takes the Warped Tour's main stage accompanied by bassist Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit fame. Borland also played bass on Heroine, filling in for Jon Weisberger, who the band booted just before hitting the studio (see "From First To Last Are Done With Wes Borland, Target Rob Zombie").

"The plan is to have us take [Borland's band] Black Light Burns out this fall on a club tour, and Wes is going to try and play two sets," Moore said (see "Bye Bye Bizkit? Wes Borland Says Limp Are Pretty Much Done"). He added that his entire band has been picking Borland's brain in an attempt to learn from his past.

"With Wes, it's just a real eye-opener for everybody in the band. It's cool to look at someone who's already been there and back, and how he reacts to things and how he does things," said Moore. "It really does make you almost mellower — like, you don't freak out about small things anymore. And the minute he stepped onstage with us the first time, it was like, 'F---, it's time for us to step it up now, because this guy's just destroying the world.' He knows how to play a show and makes us all stronger."

This summer, From First to Last will continue writing new material for their Capitol Records debut (they've turned one of their trailers into a portable jam space). The band signed with the label in March.

• From First To Last

From First To Last
Photo: Epitaph Records

It's obvious From First to Last frontman Sonny Moore's not too concerned with the ins and outs of the business.

The dude is sitting on a tour bus, rolling through Middle America and sipping hot tea. He's got his dog by his side, and he's half-asleep on the phone with someone he's never met, talking about his band. It seems he couldn't care less about major-label bidding wars, SoundScan reports or who'll be paying for his band's next video — presumably for the track "Shame Shame," which will be the second single off the band's sophomore LP, Heroine.

The 18-year-old singer is just enjoying the ride. Or maybe he's still wondering what last night was all about.

"The guys in Fall Out Boy raided our bus," Moore said. From First to Last have been on the road for the Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour with Hawthorne Heights, the All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy (see "Fall Out Boy Start Divulging New Tour Dates — The Real Ones, That Is"). "They came on our bus, with video cameras, and we were all in our pajamas. They came running through, screaming, and then ran off, and we were all looking around like, 'What just happened?' We're kind of the smaller band on the tour, so we get f---ed with. But it's all in good fun."

Between now and May 15, when the tour ends in Chicago, Moore expects more shenanigans. But that's cool with him because "these are the biggest shows any of these bands have played — 8,000 to 12,000 kids a night," he said. "We've been playing to thousands of kids who've never heard of us before — the types of kids we normally wouldn't be playing in front of. And we're selling tons of merch."

Not too shabby for a band that, back in December, was awaiting the release of Heroine and spending most of its time inside a claustrophobic van. Within the past four months, From First to Last have been the subject of an intense bidding war, waged mainly between two labels: Warner Bros. and Capitol. The band signed with the latter, and Moore expects to start working on the group's debut disc for the label early next year.

The ink was still drying on From First to Last's deal with Capitol Records when the Epitaph-issued Heroine started hitting shelves. A week later, the disc opened up on the Billboard albums chart at #25, with first-week sales of 33,000-plus. The week before sales totals were released, Moore said he was informed by Epitaph that all indicators pointed to between 35,000 and 40,000 copies sold. Moore wondered aloud, "Is that a lot?"

About two months ago, From First to Last shot a video for the first single, "The Latest Plague," in Sweden with Popcore Films (Norma Jean, Cult of Luna).

"It was f---ing awesome," Moore said. "It's like, 'From First to Last takes you through the wacky, wild adventure of how they got together as a band.' It starts out with us all living our sh---y lives, with, like, [guitarist] Travis [Richter] working at a gas station. And he steals a car and picks us all up, and at the end of the clip, we all rock out in this tower. It's hard to explain. We used model buildings for the shots, and it looks like old-school Alfred Hitchcock, where we're, like, driving in the car, and the outside's moving."

After the Fall Out Boy tour wraps up, From First to Last will head over to Europe to play a spate of festival gigs before returning to the U.S. for this summer's Warped Tour (see "Warped Tour Kicking Off A Day Early — Dates And Venues Revealed"). This fall, Moore said, the band will do a headlining run of the States with Wes Borland's Black Light Burns in the opener slot (see "Bye Bye Bizkit? Wes Borland Says Limp Are Pretty Much Done"). A third band will also be added to the bill.

He's not sure whether it'll be a stadium or club tour. That, he said, depends on how well Heroine does over the summer. Borland, who was called in to play bass on the disc (see "From First To Last Are Done With Wes Borland, Target Rob Zombie"), will play both sets on the tour.

Moore's not about to let the band's success get to his head — but the compliments are always nice.

"The best one I [got] was from Andy Wallace, who mixed the record," Moore said. "He also mixed all the Jeff Buckley stuff too, and he said, 'Wow, the vocals on this record and the vibe on this record takes me right back to when I was mixing Jeff Buckley.' That was, like, really f---ing cool."

• From First To Last
• Fall Out Boy

Prince
Photo: Universal Records

The chances are good that Prince is going to party like its 1989 — the last time he hit #1 on the Billboard albums chart — only this time the victory is even sweeter. The musical icon sold 183,000 copies of his 3121 to earn the chart's crown, marking the first time one of his LPs has hit the top spot its first week in stores.

It's tough to imagine that Prince hasn't done it all over the course of a career that's coming up on its 30th anniversary. There couldn't be an unattained milestone left for him to shoot for as an artist, right? Wrong. This week Prince's 3121 became the very first batch of funk-fueled tracks in his entire catalog to debut in Billboard's #1 slot, according to the latest SoundScan totals.

It's his first #1 disc since the "Batman" soundtrack — he also hit the top with 1985's Around the World in a Day and spent a good chunk of 1984 at #1 with 1984's Purple Rain — to reach the albums chart's apex. Musicology, for instance, racked up a higher week-one-sales tally than 3121 — the 2004 album sold 191,000 copies — but failed to climb past the #3 spot.

Perhaps it was the prospect of seeing Prince perform live inside his Minneapolis manse later this year that bolstered album sales. Taking a cue from Willy Wonka, Prince's label placed purple tickets inside an undisclosed number of 3121 copies, which will admit those fortunate fans to the private gig.

With Prince on top, the soundtrack to the Disney Channel flick "High School Musical" has been unseated, but it only falls one spot to #2, with sales nearing 152,000. James Blunt's Back to Bedlam follows at #3 with 111,000 units scanned, while the latest effort from Barry Manilow, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties, rockets back into the top 10 thanks to a 140 percent sales spike. Manilow's appearance last week on "American Idol" helped propel the disc 20 spots to #4, with sales nearing 78,000. Ne-Yo's In My Own Words slides one space to #5, selling close to 72,000 copies, and The Legend of Johnny Cash hangs tough in the top 10, down two spots to #10 with 53,000 sales.

Prince's 3121 wasn't the chart's sole fresh face. Five new releases manage to penetrate the top 10 this week, while 13 others speckle the rest of the Billboard 200. New Orleans rapper B.G.'s The Heart of Tha Streetz, Vol. 2: I Am What I Am put up Billboard's second-best debut showing, opening at #6 with 62,000 plus scans. Both Sides of the Gun, the new one from Ben Harper, claims the #7 opening after selling more than 59,000 copies. Teddy Geiger's inaugural release, Underage Thinking, is right behind at #8, selling just 200 more copies than country star Alan Jackson's Precious Memories, which debuts this week at #9 with more than 56,000 sales.

Kenny Rogers' latest, Water & Bridges, net more than 44,000 scans to grab #14. A little further down the chart is Heroine, the sophomore LP from industrial screamo outfit From First to Last. More than 33,000 copies of the record were bought up — it couldn't have hurt that the band has been opening for Fall Out Boy for the last few weeks — to hit #25. My Chemical Romance's new live collection, Life on the Murder Scene, bows at #30 with nearly 31,000 sales — not bad for a DVD package chronicling the band's mercurial rise to "TRL" stardom.

The first Latin-flavored installment in the ever-popular Now compilation franchise opens at #36 with 27,000 copies sold; Now ¡Esto Es Musica! Latino features tracks from the likes of Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Juanes, Thalia, and Alejandro Fernandez. Chicago's XXX follows at #41 with 23,000 plus scans, and Christian rockers Kutless take the #45 slot with 22,000 units of their Hearts of the Innocent snatched up. In at #87 is the soulful Slow Motion 2 compilation, which moved nearly 13,000 copies on the strength of tracks from D'Angelo, Ginuwine, Floetry, Toni Braxton, Boyz II Men and other R&B hitmakers.

For Blood and Empire, the first major-label offering from political punkers Anti-Flag, debuts at #100 with sales nearing 11,000, while the Sounds' Dying to Say This to You debuts at #107 with 10,000 plus scans. The Game's forthcoming Dr. Dre-produced sophomore effort The Dr.'s Advocate, isn't set to hit stores until June 6, but G.A.M.E., a collection of old Game tracks, appeared on shelves last week and sold more than 6,800 copies to debut at #151. Murs and 9th Wonder's Murray's Revenge, occupies the #166 slot with more than 6,000 sales. Kill, the latest from death metallers Cannibal Corpse, checks in at #170 with over 6,000 copies sold, and Vol. 1, the debut disc from Hurt, takes #175 with nearly 6,000 sales.

• Prince
• B.G.
• Ben Harper
• Teddy Geiger
• From First To Last

From First To Last
Photo: Jeff Gross

Guitarist Travis Richter and his post-hardcore band From First to Last are on a bit of a lucky streak. When it came time for the Los Angeles group to start writing the forthcoming Heroine, the follow-up to 2004's Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count, From First to Last had one producer in mind: Ross Robinson (Glassjaw, Slipknot, Blood Brothers). And although it took some convincing for Epitaph, the band's label, to fork over the extra coin for the likes of Ross, the band got its wish.

And who do you suppose Richter and the boys wanted to mix their Heroine, which will hit stores on March 21? Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Avenged Sevenfold, System of a Down), of course. And Wallace agreed. Next, they'd like to work with Rob Zombie.

"We want him to direct the video for our first single," Richter said of the in-the-works clip for "The Latest Plague." "It's going to be the story of how our band got together, presented in a really crazy way. We are all independently living really boring lives, and we're just breaking out of it. It's going to be chaotic. We'll be driving around in a van like maniacs, going like 100 miles an hour, hitting cars and stuff. It's going to be sick."

The way From First to Last see it, getting Zombie to helm the video is not outside the realm of possibility. "We sit around and come up with the ideas and give them to our manager and the label," said the guitarist and lead singer. "A lot of cool stuff has happened to us this year that we didn't merit."

The band has nailed a support slot on the upcoming Story of the Year trek with Every Time I Die and He Is Legend. That'll be followed by the Fall Out Boy tour, which kicks off sometime in March; Hawthorne Heights and All-American Rejects are also on the bill. Oh, and then there was the time they dumped their bassist, Jon Weisberger, just as they were heading into Radio Star Studios in Weed, California, to start recording Heroine, and Robinson called on an old friend to come down and help From First to Last.

"Ross is a really good friend, and he asked me to come play bass on the record, and I just loved it," Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland said. "I think it's really going to break them out of the emo/screamo genre that they're in. Its cool stuff, and they're really talented guys and real young. I felt like a geezer around them. I did it up and played all the bass and wrote a bunch of bass parts and wrote a song with them."

That song wasn't one of the 11 tracks to make it onto Heroine, which includes the songs "Afterbirth," "World War Me," "We All Have a Hell" and "Waves Goodbye." Borland "learned all the songs, and recorded them in just three days," Richter said. "There was just a fire and chemistry with him." Tim Armstrong guitar tech Alicia Simmons has been brought on as the band's temporary touring bassist.

From First to Last have also received an invitation to headline this summer's Warped Tour, Richter said. The band is still weighing its options and hasn't RSVPed just yet. For now, Richter wants to focus on the release of Heroine, the making of which, he said, proved a "life-changing" experience — because of Robinson.

"When we started writing the demos for the album, we just decided to write whatever we wanted," he explained. "Ross adds another dimension to music that you don't even think about as a band. You know, rock and roll has lost a lot of its edge. And that's something we're trying to bring back to the table, an extremely sort of 'f--- it' mentality. And Ross isn't like a lot of producers, where he'll write your songs or try to make them more radio friendly. He'd pick out parts of songs and say, 'That's cool. But let's make it cooler.' And he would make us make it cooler, or more complicated, more intricate, more powerful, heavier. He's like a muse almost."

With Heroine, Richter said he and the rest of the band wanted to avoid making it "too ProTools," and instead capture the raw essence of From First to Last. Fans of the band's debut disc will notice the addition of "heavy pianos" and augmented tone, achieved by "playing our guitars direct, rather than through amps." The chord progressions are "insanely dark — sort of what you'd expect from Cradle of Filth." Richter also thinks it's beyond classification.

"This album is its own thing," he said. "You can't even put it in a genre of music. We could have gone in and written a perfectly pop rock record, but I think there's plenty of that out there already. So we decided to be just real musicians. I want people to see a difference, to see what we're doing and be like, 'That is obviously something completely different from what anyone else is doing.' If that happens, I can go to bed every night with a clear conscience. This album's some of the heaviest sh-- that's been rocked in a while."

• From First To Last
• Wes Borland
• Rob Zombie

Black Clouds & Underdogs Tour at Pepsi Arena, Albany, NY 03.15.2006

• Fall Out Boy
• The All-American Rejects
• Hawthorne Heights
• From First To Last
• The Hush Sound