Taking Back Sunday

Britney Spears, Taking Back Sunday Video Worlds Collide Thanks To Director

08 Jul 2011 17:08:34 EDT

Chris Marrs Piliero explains why the cat in 'Faith (When I Let You Down)' comes across an Easter egg from 'I Wanna Go.
By Jocelyn Vena

Taking Back Sunday's video for "Faith (When I Let You Down)" is a social commentary about the fleeting nature of Internet fame, as illustrated by a fake cat trying to make it in Hollywood. It also happens to be the latest installment in the kooky videography of music video auteur Chris Marrs Piliero.

"It was an idea that I had floating around in my head, and when I listened to the song ... the meaning of the song clicked in my brain," the director said of the clip, which follows his cheeky video for Britney Spears' "I Wanna Go."

"People just love cat videos," he explained. "And I just thought it would be fun to see what it would like if a cat had the brain to be like, 'Sh--, I'm a big deal.' "

In the video, Taking Back Sunday post a clip of their cat online, and soon "OMG, WTF TBS Cat" goes viral. The cat eventually hops on a bus to L.A. (with a quick nod to Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"), finds fame, disses the TBS guys, fails to make it as an actor, winds up in porn and eventually can't handle the pressure. Then, of course, TBS Cat heads back home.

Was that cat as difficult in real life as he was in the video?

"I was like halfway into the shoot, and he was throwing out demands," Piliero recalled, laughing. "It got to the point where no one was allowed to make eye contact with him on set. I had to sit him down and have a heart to heart with him."

Along with the GNR homage and a few other pop-culture references, the video includes a cute Easter egg for Britney fans: One of TBS cat's discarded audition scripts is for the fantasy Spears sequel, "Crossroads 2: Cross Harder," which is also on the marquee in "I Wanna Go."

"I made the TBS video right after the Britney video," he said. "I felt like the cat could exist in the same world as the 'I Wanna Go' world, so I thought it would be a fun little Easter egg. Also, [frontman] Adam [Lazzara] from TBS texted me after watching the Britney video, and I didn't even realize that during the paparazzi fight when she swings the mic around — that is something that Adam does all the time, which is something I was very conscious of — but I didn't realize the scene happened in front of a store called Keaton's, and his son is called Keaton!"

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Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara Talks Reunion, 'Group Dynamic'

12 Apr 2010 18:39:00 EDT

'There's this excitement and urgency embedded in the songs now,' the frontman says.
By James Montgomery

Taking Back Sunday's last album was titled New Again, a rather appropriate handle for several reasons, chiefly because they just had replaced singer/guitarist Fred Mascherino with new axeman Matt Fazzi (but also because, over the course of a decade, TBS had shed something like five different members).

So one has to wonder what their next album will be called, because — to the delight of many — they've mended fences with former members John Nolan and Shaun Cooper (and parted ways with Fazzi and bassist Matt Rubano), bringing the band back to their 2002 Tell All Your Friends heyday. Perhaps Old Again?

"Well, having John and Shaun back in the band has nothing to do with any of the old records — it has everything to do with being happy and what's good for the group dynamic," TBS frontman Adam Lazzara told MTV News. "Because if things kept going the way they were going, there wouldn't have been another record at all."

Lazzara wouldn't get into specifics about just what drove the band to split with Fazzi and Rubano, only saying that "it started to get to the point where the thing that used to work to our favor — the five totally different personalities — started to get to a point where it worked in the opposite way," and added that he holds no ill will toward either man. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"Every person you encounter in your life, you learn a little something different from them, and I think that's a cool thing. I had an opportunity to share this big part of me with these two guys, and they were both amazing," he said. "[Fazzi] turned me to a lot of different bands and he exposed me to a lot of new ideas. [Rubano] was one of the best bass players that I've ever seen. With him, a lot of times, I remember getting lost in what he was playing. Just thinking about the conversation we had, it makes my stomach knot up ... but it got to the point where the bad times started to outweigh the good."

What he would expound upon was the first meeting with Nolan and Cooper, who both left TBS under decidedly weird circumstances (chalk it up to "personal reasons") which were so heavy that Lazzara didn't speak with Nolan for more than seven years. Until January, when — at the insistence of drummer Mark O'Connell — the two got on the phone together and the drama of past disappeared almost instantly.

"Mark had some crazy ideas, and sometimes they're dead on. And one day he called me and was like, 'Hey, man, what do you think about us going back to our original lineup?' And I was like, 'Are you crazy? I haven't talked to John in, like, seven years. I don't know if he'd want to do it,' " Lazzara said. "But he kept bringing it up, and then I got a call from John, and when he called, it felt like no time had passed. It felt like we had just talked a few days ago. We didn't start off talking about making music together — we were getting reacquainted with what had been going on in our lives. Because for me, I genuinely missed his friendship, and same with Shaun.

"So when it started, it was more like I was happy to have this person back in my life. And then as those conversations went on, we started to send music back and forth ... and we were realistic about it. We both thought, 'There's a great chance this might not work,' " he continued. "But then it got to the point where we were like, 'Oh, man, I think this could work.' So we got together down in Texas, right near Juarez, Mexico, and right when we walked into that room and strapped instruments on, and the songs were just there. And what would typically take Taking Back Sunday six months to do we did in a week."

Inspired, TBS announced the reunion to the world, and they're already making plans to get back into the studio to flesh those songs out. The plan, according to Lazzara, is to record with Eric Valentine (who recorded their 2006 album Louder Now) and hopefully have an album out later this year. But just what will the new (old) Taking Back Sunday sound like? It's still too early to tell.

"With us it's all growth, all the time. The music is always trying to move forward," he laughed. "It's not the kind of thing where we went in and all sat around the table and were like, 'OK, this part has got to be like something from the first album.' All I know is that there's this excitement and urgency embedded in the songs now. You can't fake it."

What do you think of Taking Back Sunday reuniting? Let us know in the comments below!

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Blink-182, Weezer To Headline 2009 Virgin Mobile Free Fest

24 Jun 2009 11:30:00 EDT

Franz Ferdinand, Taking Back Sunday, Public Enemy, more also join August 30 show in Maryland.
By James Montgomery

Perhaps taking a page from the Osbournes' concet-planning playbook, or perhaps realizing how many people are unemployed these days, organizers of the Virgin Mobile Fest announced late Tuesday that they're putting on a free show this year.

Or, more specifically, a free festival, headlined by Blink-182 and Weezer.

Dubbed the Virgin Mobile Free Fest, the free, day-long show takes place August 30 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. Joining Blink and Weezer on the bill are Franz Ferdinand, Taking Back Sunday, Public Enemy, Wale, the Hold Steady, Girl Talk, the National and more.

Organizers will give away nearly 35,000 free tickets for the show, where parking will also be free. After Virgin Mobile customers get first crack through Ticketmaster on June 25-26, the rest of the tickets will be available to the public starting on June 27.

The Virgin Fest debuted at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course in 2006, and featured the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Who atop the bill. It expanded to a two-day event the following year, with a bill that featured the likes of 311, the Smashing Pumpkins and Velvet Revolver. Last year, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Nine Inch Nails and Bob Dylan all appeared. In previous years, tickets to the Virgin Fest cost $100 per day.

"In a time of economic challenges and daily sacrifices, we wanted to throw a fantastic party so people could let loose and have a great time — on us," Sir Richard Branson, founder and president of Virgin Group, said in a statement.

For more information, check out the festival's official site, VirginMobileFestival.com.

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Blink-182 Take Us Inside Their Wild Pre-Tour Party

19 May 2009 12:49:00 EDT

Members of Taking Back Sunday, Chester French, Panic at the Disco join band at Mexican restaurant.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Matt Elias

LOS ANGELES — There was a mariachi band, flaming margaritas and lots of musicians on Monday night at the El Compadre Mexican restaurant, as Blink-182 took over the joint for a fiesta in celebration of their upcoming summer tour.

And while there was much celebrating — the mariachi band belted out Blink tunes and the margaritas flamed late into the night — the party also served another function: breaking the ice. After all, when you've got a tour that's positively packed with bands (not just Weezer and Fall Out Boy, but a rotating cast of opening acts like Panic at the Disco, the All-American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, Chester French and Asher Roth, to name just a few), there's bound to be an odd act out. And Blink wanted to change that.

"We're actually here with all the bands and friends going out on tour — it's always awkward when you first start touring, and it's the first day and there's a bunch of people walking around and you don't know who you're supposed to talk to or not, and some people are standoffish," Blink bassist/singer Mark Hoppus told MTV News. "So we thought, 'Why don't we throw a big party before the tour, [so] everybody can come and hang out?' You know, get some beans, eat some Mexican food, bond. The guys in Chester French gave me some flowers. We bonded. It's going to be a good tour."

Oh, and about that tour: Yesterday, after Blink appeared on KROQ's Kevin & Bean show, MTV News reported that — per a caller's suggestion — the guys were considering naming their summer jaunt "One-Way Ticket to Boneville." As it turns out, that name was actually "Bonerville" (you know, a tiny hamlet just west of Boneville), and though it's currently in the lead, Blink aren't quite ready to start printing up the tour T-shirts just yet. There are still other contenders to the tour name throne.

"There's a new one that Mark is probably a little too scared to do, but I like it: 'Brokeback Mountain: The Tour,' " guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge smiled. "I thought that would be f---ing great, but there's some debate within the band about that."

"I was also thinking of 'High School Musical 5: The Tour.' I don't know about something like that," Hoppus said. "Actually somebody called up on the radio station today and said 'One-Way Ticket to Bonerville' which I think is really genius ... 'One-Way Ticket to Bonerville: Come for the 'ville, stay for the boner.'"

"I've been there," DeLonge added. "You don't need the other ticket."

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Taking Back Sunday Get Sloppy In 'Sink Into Me' Video

11 May 2009 19:34:00 EDT

Band debuts its latest incarnation by playing in some sticky, black sludge.
By James Montgomery

Taking Back Sunday's "Sink Into Me" video is a mess.

Not of the "OMG, what were they thinking?!?" variety, mind you, but rather in the "icky, inky, sludgy, gooey, that's never gonna come out" sense.

Filmed deep in the heart of Brooklyn and featuring gallons of what can only be described as sticky, black sludge, "Sink" is the sloppy, exhilarating debut of the new Taking Back Sunday, in more ways than one. It's the first clip they've made since replacing departed guitarist Fred Mascherino with new axe-man Matt Fazzi, the debut of their new, big-and-hooky sound, and the first video from their new album, which, fittingly, is called New Again.

It seems like a pressure-packed situation, but when we went out to the set of the video last month, the guys didn't seem to be feeling the heat in the slightest. In fact, it looked like they were having an absolute blast.

Flailing around in the black goo — which, as frontman Adam Lazzara's hands, face and clothes can attest, turned a bizarre shade of purple when dry — sinking into the rigged stage and mugging for the camera, TBS really did appear to be new again. And Fazzi fit right in, joking with drummer Mark O'Connell that he looked extra purple, thanks in large part to his ultra-pale complexion.

For as fun as it looked to make, the "Sink Into Me" clip is just as fun to watch. Dig the trickle of black goo that slips down Lazzara's face — it's a subtle nod to the so-called "black oil" on "The X-Files." And the whole "sinking" thing seems to be a loving ode to the Strokes' underrated "You Only Live Once" video (which, in turn, is an ode to the infamous "Trash Compactor" scene from "Star Wars").

As for the song, well, TBS have always been known for penning insanely huge choruses (check "MakeDamnSure" for proof), but this time, they've applied that concept to an entire track. The result is a jarring, rocking fist-pumper — one that will most certainly go over like gangbusters with live audiences.

Let's just hope they don't shower the stage with black goo. That stuff stains.

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Taking Back Sunday Join The Online Haters Instead Of 'Sitting Back'

09 Apr 2009 18:56:00 EDT

Rockers make light of their revolving-door lineup by sending out T-shirts that say 'I Used to Be in Taking Back Sunday.'
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Steven Roberts

Taking Back Sunday have gotten used to silencing critics. That tends to happen when you shed five different bandmembers (including two singers) over the course of a decade.

So, when their latest departure — guitarist Fred Mascherino, who split in 2007 — had the detractors squealing once again, they decided it was time to try a new silencing strategy: They made T-shirts.

More specifically, they made yellow T-shirts, emblazoned with the slogan "I Used to Be in Taking Back Sunday." They've been sending them out with copies of their new album, New Again, due June 2, as a rather ingenious way of heading off haters at the pass. You gotta admit, it's sort of brilliant.

"We figured if you can't laugh at yourself, then you can't laugh at anything. We are from the school of not taking ourselves too seriously. So we've been sending out this shirt that says 'I Used to Be in Taking Back Sunday,' " TBS frontman Adam Lazarra laughed. "Because we've gone through some lineup changes, and you go on the Internet on blogs and things, and there's a lot of people who have a lot to say about that. So we figured that rather than sitting back, why don't we join the fun and also make fun of ourselves?"

There's a lot at stake with Again, which not only serves as the big unveiling of new guitarist Matt Fazzi, but pushes the musical boundaries into areas they've never explored. There are glockenspiels involved. And a flautist.

"When we went in to start writing for New Again, Matt joined the band and helped us out a lot with the writing process, and a lot of the things he brought to the table were a lot of the things that make the record so special, as far as it's clearly a growth to what we've done in the past," Lazarra said. "Experimenting ... a lot of different instruments, horns, glockenspiels, there's a flautist on the record. And it's stuff we never would've tried before. Him coming into the mix really helped us to grow as a band, both musically and personally."

That growth is evident on first single "Sink Into Me," for which the band shot a video earlier this week in New York with director Travis Kopach. It's immediate, fist-pumping and powerful, a song that — unlike some of TBS' earlier tunes — doesn't mess around when it comes to getting to the hook.

"I kind of like to equate it to a freight train. ... Like, if you were to stand in front of it, you would get pummeled. And that's what the chorus sounds like to me," Lazarra explained. "We wanted to come out of the gates swinging, and 'Sink' is one of the songs that sort of represents the direction that Taking Back Sunday is going. Plus, it has a little bit of flavor from where we've been. I think people will be pleasantly surprised. If not, they're a--holes."

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Taking Back Sunday Guitarist/Singer Fred Mascherino Leaves Band, Talks Solo Project

04 Oct 2007 17:38:00 EDT

'I felt I had taken the road as long as I possibly could,' ex-bandmember says; he's forming group called the Color Fred.
By James Montgomery

Guitarist/singer Fred Mascherino decided to leave Taking Back Sunday in early September, after the band wrapped its stint on Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution Tour. The only problem was, no one deemed it necessary to announce his departure — at least, until MTV News' inquiries led the group's label to issue a press release Thursday afternoon (October 4). So he decided to do it himself.

"This is the first time I'm talking to anyone about this," he laughed on Thursday. "But, yeah, I have parted ways with Taking Back Sunday. I felt like during the time we were together, we made some great music together, but it was getting to the point where I felt I had taken the road as long as I possibly could."

Though he wouldn't elaborate on just what made him decide to leave TBS — the band he joined in 2003 that rode to impressive heights thanks to 2004's Where You Want to Be and last year's Louder Now (see "Taking Back Sunday Record New Album, Duck Crazy People In Los Angeles") — he did say that it was something that was in the back of his mind for months. He noted that the band's musical direction, coupled with its rather tumultuous history (since forming in 1999 TBS have shed four members, including two singers) played a part in his decision.

"After Louder Now, I think the band was headed somewhere I didn't want to go, musically. [Louder Now] was a rock album, and there were some songs that I had written that were more pop than anyone else wanted to go," he said.

"There is a direction Taking Back Sunday has been on since before I joined, and it will continue. When you're in a band that has history, then that band sometimes carries responsibilities and weight with it. And as much as I enjoyed it, I just needed to move on from something that happened so long ago."

Mascherino said he's written more than 45 songs over the past two years — the majority of which he said were intended for the follow-up to Louder Now — but when he found the majority of his ideas being shot down by his bandmates, he started to realize that perhaps it was time to move on.

"I hoped to write another record, for sure. But there wasn't a lot of writing going on between the five of us, honestly," he said, speaking in slow, diplomatic bursts. "We weren't really coming together. I felt like it was just a good time to move on, because I was pretty sure I could never make another record with these four guys."

So rather than store those songs away, he's decided to let the world hear them on a solo project he's calling the Color Fred, a name that, ironically enough, was chosen for him by Taking Back Sunday fans ("I know it's kind of a silly name," he laughed, "but I think that's appropriate for my personality"). He's releasing an album on October 30 called Bend to Break, and he hinted that the songs will give TBS fans an inside look at just what led him to leave the band.

"A lot of the songs do sort of tell part of my struggle within the band. I mean, it's not an album about me leaving the band, but it's about what I've been feeling," he explained. "That said, it's just more of the stuff I've always written. It's not, like, me and an acoustic guitar, like, 'Oh, I'm Bob Dylan now!' I want people who have been following my music to like these songs."

When Mascherino takes his new project out on the road later this month, he says it'll be a bit weird, but also, "refreshing." And though he realizes that leaving Taking Back Sunday was a pretty big risk, he's excited about the possibilities of writing and playing whatever he wants. Whenever he wants to do it.

"I'm fully aware of the risk, but I grew up with nothing, and when I was in ninth grade, I said, 'All I want to do is play guitar for the rest of my life.' So as long as I can play guitar, I'm happy," he said. "It's about doing what I want to do for as long as I can. The times in my life where I've had money have not been happy ones. So I want people to listen to my record and hear the honesty in it. I want to make music that's really, truly the truth."

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Taking Back Sunday's New Album Not So New After All

19 Jul 2007 17:12:00 EDT

Fans puzzled over forthcoming release on band's estranged former label, Victory Records.
By James Montgomery

On October 30, Victory Records will be issuing an album from Taking Back Sunday, a bit of information that doesn't seem all that noteworthy until you realize that TBS has had fairly hostile relations with the label for more than two years.

And given that fact, there are suddenly a whole lot of people who are curious about just what this record will be — a list that also includes pretty much everyone who has anything to do with the band. It all started Wednesday afternoon, when Victory posted a news bulletin on its site that matter-of-factly stated:

"Victory Records will be releasing a Taking Back Sunday album on October 30, 2007 ... A more in-depth press release will be issued in August."

That got TBS supporters buzzing, especially since the band and Victory have maintained a rather icy relationship since the former left the latter to sign with Warner Bros. in 2005. (One infamous instance of said iciness: the leaking of an August '05 e-mail written by Victory honcho Tony Brummel to the Warner Music Group, in which he chastised them for certifying TBS records as gold without his permission and called WMG "a soulless corporate monicker [sic].") Had Taking Back left Warner and re-signed with Victory?

Well, if a band like Thursday — who went through a similar situation with Victory when they left the label in 2002 — could make amends with their old boss (see "Thursday Knew Victory Treaty 'Would Confuse Everybody' "), then anything seemed possible. Or, in an even stranger scenario, was Victory planning on releasing a re-recorded version of TBS' Tell All Your Friends, with current guitarist/vocalist Fred Mascherino and bassist Matt Rubano recording sections originally played by John Nolan and Shaun Cooper?

Well, as it turns out, the answer to those questions is a resounding "No." Victory will be releasing a TBS album, but a label rep said the album will be a collection of Victory-era tracks. The rep declined to provide further information.

When asked about the upcoming album, TBS manager Jillian Newman also declined to comment, but she did write in an e-mail to MTV News that "the release will consist of tracks released when the band was on Victory."

And finally, a spokesperson for Warner had no information about the Victory release, but stressed that Taking Back Sunday have already begun working on a genuinely new album while out on the Projekt Revolution tour (see "Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday To Headline Projekt Revolution"), and that record will be released on Warner "sometime in 2008."

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Live Earth: We're In This Together

07 Jul 2007 16:08:00 EDT

John Mayer has concerns, but Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, Fall Out Boy, Akon, AFI — and fans like you — insist that the event can make a difference.
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