# Matchbook Romance

Matchbook Romance was an American pop-punk and emo band from Poughkeepsie, New York, initially formed in 1997 under the name Fizzlewink (1997–2001) and then The Getaway (2001–2002). They were signed to Epitaph Records and released two full-length albums, one EP and one split EP with Motion City Soundtrack with them. Their EP West for Wishing, released on April 8th 2003, was their first professional record and was produced by Brett Gurewitz from Epitaph Records; and then on September 23rd 2003 they debuted their first full-length album, Stories and Alibis.

## History

Matchbook Romance formed in 1997 under the name Fizzlewink, the initial band line up consisted of Andrew Jordan as vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Ryan Kienle on bass and Jon on drums, PJ Manzo joined on lead guitar in summer of 1999, this period of the band was heavily influenced by the sound of bands like NOFX, Bad Religion and Pennywise but sometime in mid 2001, the band began to write new songs that were more akin to what is commonly known as third wave emo or mall emo and during this transition, they also hired Ryan "Judas" DePaolo as their third guitarist and Aaron Stern as their new drummer, who replaced Adam Bock and whom replaced Jon in mid/late 2000, before changing their name to The Getaway. With the new material and songs that they wrote over the last months, the band soon began promoting itself on the internet, leading to posts on PunkNews.org about their music. When Epitaph Records president Brett Gurewitz caught on one of these posts and downloaded "Ex Marks the Spot", one of the new songs that the band had written, he contacted the band to sign them and make a record deal with them. After being officially signed, they changed their name once again to Matchbook Romance in order to avoid a name conflict with The Getaway, a Canadian based Pop-punk band and then, after clarifying this legal issue, they started writing their debut LP under the direction of Brett Gurewitz. It is reported that Brett initially contacted the band and asked them to not release what was suppose to be The Getaway's debut EP titled "...If All Else Fails" which was supposed to be released on May 24th, 2002, and so in return, he offered them guidance to record a full length album. At this point of time, PJ Manzo decided to leave the band due to creative differences and the fact that he wasn't happy with the direction that the band was going. He then went to join melodic hardcore and punk band River's End.
The group debuted with West for Wishing, an EP released on April 8th 2003, and later they released their first LP, Stories and Alibis, on September 23rd 2003. They also appeared on a 4-song split with Motion City Soundtrack in which an acoustic version of "Playing for Keeps" and "In Transit (For You)" were featured.
After two years of touring, they returned in 2006 with their second album, Voices, which marked a new change on their sound. The lead single "Monsters" appeared in Madden NFL 07, Arena Football: Road to Glory, and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as well as few other games. It also received heavy rotation on radio stations and MTV.
On March 12, 2007, after a 10-year career, they announced via a MySpace bulletin that they were going on an indefinite hiatus, an actual reason was never stated. During this hiatus, Aaron Stern joined Taking Back Sunday as a touring member on Projekt Revolution.
In May 2009, the band came back to play on a small tour on the East Coast. After this tour, the band decided to work on separated projects: Drummer Aaron Stern went on to join God or Julie. Guitarist Ryan "Judas" DePaolo started his own band called Hill Valley and debuted their first album called "Salutations" in the summer of 2009, and followed with "Upside Down" in the summer of 2011. Vocalist Andrew Jordan formed DriftDivision and released a six song self-titled EP on October 26th, 2010, in a video posted by his new band, he stated that he worked on some songs with bass player Ryan Kienle. Around this time, Stern also joined the supergroup D.R.U.G.S. (Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows) that was started by Craig Owens, formerly of Chiodos, this was after he toured with You, Me, and Everyone We Know from 2008–2010. A debut album was released on February 22, 2011 but the band split up in 2012 and later returned in 2020 but this time without Aaron.
The band briefly returned in 2012 to play two reunion shows on December of that year and three years after, it was announced that they would be playing select dates on the 2015 Vans Warped Tour. The band finally, went on to play a few shows in early 2016 to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of their second album before parting ways again.

## Band members

* Andrew Jordan – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboard (1997–2007, 2009, 2012, 2015–2016)
* Ryan "Judas" DePaolo – lead guitar, vocals, programming, synthesizer (2001–2007, 2009, 2012, 2015–2016)
* Ryan Kienle – bass guitar, backing vocals (1997–2007, 2009, 2012, 2015–2016)
* Aaron Stern – drums, percussion (2001–2007, 2009, 2012, 2015–2016)
* PJ Manzo – lead guitar (1997–2002)
* Adam Bock – drums (2000–2001)
* Jon - drums (1997–2000)
* Chris Vicious – touring guitar

## Discography
### Studio albums

* Who's Listening(Self Released under Fizzlewink's name, 2001)
* Stories and Alibis (Epitaph Records, 2003)
* Voices (Epitaph Records, 2006) U.S. No. 43

### EPs

* West for Wishing (Epitaph Records, 2003)

### Compilations featured on

* Nada Recording Studio 2002 Sampler (Broken English Records, 2002). Featuring "The Getaway" version of "If All Else Fails" from their scrapped EP: "...If All Else Fails"
* Atticus: ...Dragging the Lake, Vol. 2 (Side One Dummy Records, 2003)
* Punk-O-Rama Vol. 8 (Epitaph Records, 2003)
* 2003 Warped Tour Compilation (Side One Dummy Records, 2003)
* A Santa Cause: It's a Punk Rock Christmas (Immortal Records, 2003)
* Punk-O-Rama Vol. 9 (Epitaph Records, 2004)
* 2004 Warped Tour Compilation (Side One Dummy Records, 2004)
* Matchbook Romance/Motion City Soundtrack Split EP (Epitaph Records, 2004)
* Punk-O-Rama Vol. 10 (Epitaph Records, 2005)
* Take Action! Tour Sampler Album (Sub City Records, 2005)
* 2006 Warped Tour Compilation (Side One Dummy Records, 2006)
* The Best of Taste of Chaos (Warcon Records, 2006)

## Music videos

* "Promise" (2003)
* "My Eyes Burn" (2003)
* "My Eyes Burn - alternative unreleased video
* "Monsters" (2006)