Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key has been battling vocal-cord ailments for nearly six months -- and he's finally given up fighting.

On Monday (April 24), YC's label, Capitol Records, released a statement saying the band has been forced to postpone a string of early summer gigs because Key has been diagnosed with a cyst on his cords, an ailment that requires surgery.

"We're disappointed to be postponing these dates, but it's a relief to know the source of the problems I'd been having with my voice," Key said in the statement. "And it's much better to confront it now [rather] than later when it could be more serious. We'll be back on the road in June when we can give 100 percent."

Shows up to and including the band's May 7 show in Memphis, Tennessee, will proceed as planned. The postponed gigs include a May 18 gig at Boston's Lansdowne Street Music Hall, a show on the 19th at Lupo's at the Strand in Providence, Rhode Island, and a May 28 concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

Five shows in June have been rescheduled: June 1 in Tempe, Arizona (now August 9); June 2 in Tuscon (August 7); June 3 in Albuquerque, New Mexico (August 8); June 5 in Las Vegas (August 5); and June 7 in Bakersfield, California (August 10). Tickets purchased for the June shows will be honored for the dates in August.

Key's throat problems first came to light back in December, when the band was forced to pull a host of U.K. shows after its frontman developed a nodule on his cords that required immediate rest ("If we don't take care of it now, there is a serious risk of surgery," Key wrote on YellowcardRock.com).

The following month, Key's cords flared up again, and Yellowcard canceled a handful of dates on their club tour in support of the just-released Lights and Sounds (see [article id="1509400"]"Yellowcard Line Up Club Tour, Post A Preview Of Newly Named LP"[/article]) -- including, ironically enough, a pair of shows in Albuquerque and Tempe.