By Christina Lee

Reason No. 6 why Fall Out Boy does not suck as much as you may think: “They’re an increasingly rare breed—that is, a massively popular rock band.” And to further classify the band as such a specimen, Fall Out Boy has announced that it will release a greatest-hits album, Believers Never Die.
“This album feels like our high school graduation yearbook,” the band’s statement reads. “Kinda makes us wanna write ‘don’t ever change’ or ‘have a great summer’ here.”

(more…)

By Michael Cavna
It’s a bleak, futuristic setting. Forces of authority are trying to control the development of machines. And in this illustrated tale, a toymaker scientist tries to imbue a doll-like machine with human emotions.

Nope, we’re not talking “9,” even though Shane Acker’s current film echoes some of the same themes. That description actually applies to “Fall Out Toy Works,” the new five-part comic-book series co-created by Fall Out Boy’s bassist/lyricist, PETE WENTZ. The title, from Image Comics is “inspired by the ideas & lyrics” of the Illinois-spawned, Grammy-nominated emo/pop-punk band, particularly — though loosely — its recent hit “Tiffany Blews.” (Part 1, launched this month, is titled “Tiffany’s Blues.”) The creative team includes co-creators Darren Romanelli and Nathan Cabrera, writer Brett Lewis and artist Sam Basri.

(more…)

One of the most contentious threads I can remember on ILX was over a blogpost by Ultragrrrl claiming that My Chemical Romance were “this generation’s Nirvana”. OK, the thread was contentious more because Ultragrrrl herself was a divisive figure than because of what she was saying, but it resonated with me. In MCR — and Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, and the raging rest of “mall-emo” — you had a kind of music which was angry, teen-approved, popular, guitar-driven… and a lot of major critical voices basically refused to take it seriously. For instance, there was plenty of expectation and enthusiasm for Fall Out Boy’s Folie A Deux among some Pitchfork writers, but the site didn’t cover it, and wasn’t alone. The sites and magazines that DID go for this music — like Britain’s Kerrang! — tended to do rather well out of it. But for more credible sources, the stuff seemed to be kryptonite. Why?
(more…)