Tell All Your Friends
TAKING BACK SUNDAY started with Eddie Reyes, punk rock for life who was calling Long Island home in 1999. A fertile area for some of today's most (insert synonym for promising here) advantageous, bright, favorable, felicitous, fortunate, golden, halcyon, happy, opportune, propitious, prosperous, rosy, timely, well-timed young artists, Eddie quickly found three friends nearby with a shared musical vision and recruited one from a little further away (current vocalist Adam Lazzara originally moved to NYC from High Point, North Carolina) to play bass. After their initial demo circulated, (insert line-up change here) Victory Records quickly signed the band and put them in the studio with Sal Villanueva of Thursday fame running drills.TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS, their debut album was released in March 2002 and the band continued to tour, winning fans over by their (insert synonym for exciting here) agitative, animating,impressive, zestful live shows. By the summer of that same year, only a few short months later, shows were selling out in advance and word of mouth continued to spread. Sharing the stage with Boxcar Racer, The Used, Jimmy Eat World, New Found Glory quickly followed and the band saw less and less of home and more and more fans dedicated to the catchy yet meaningful songwriting layered over a unique blend of rock's best attributes. Lyrics such as "Why can't I feel anything from anyone other than you" taken from Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From The Team) and "You could slit my throat, and with my one last gasping breath I'd apologize, for bleeding on your shirt" taken from their upcoming single You're So Last Summer became anthemic sing alongs with audiences quickly overpowering stage wattage output at tour stops from coast to coast. Believe it or not the entire band writes as well. All of them play guitar and write melodies. No fact checking necessary, even drummer Mark O'Connell is very involved in the writing process.Fast forward to spring of 2003: TAKING BACK SUNDAY embarked on the Takeover Tour, their first national headlining tour. Playing to (insert synonym for sold out here)  wall-to-wall crowds in most of the US and Canada (2,200 fans in Toronto when the band had never stepped foot over the eastern border) helped the press take notice and features in Rolling Stone, Spin, Alternative Press (cover) and Revolver quickly followed.By now TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS had surpassed 200,000 records sold. The band had plans to travel to Europe and then return to the US to spend the summer as one of the main stage acts on the 2003 Vans Warped Tour. (insert line-up change here) Instead they welcomed Fred Mascherino and Matt Rubano to the mix. Mascherino comes to Taking Back Sunday from one of their favorite bands, Breaking Pangaea, best known for significant college radio airplay and critical raves. Fred's strong backing vocals, guitar virtuosity and insightful lyrics bring an added dimension to the Taking Back Sunday sound. New Bassist Matt Rubano is a native of Baldwin New York and a life long friend of Mark's, so the chemistry between the two is unmistakable. Matt has recorded and toured with a variety of artists from all genres of music, but is best known for his work on Lauryn Hill's grammy winning debut, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill".Debuting the new line-up at the last three Warped shows in Philly, NY and NJ respectively allowed the band to dispel the rumors of a (insert synonym for break-up here) adjourn, take apart, terminate and allowed TAKING BACK SUNDAY to blast through songs from the record and introduce some new ones which received a more than favorable review from fans and press alike. Their third video for You're So Last Summer will feature a guest appearance by Public Enemy's Flavor Flav. Why you ask? "Why not," would be their reply, there are no rules.