Fall Out Boy is an American Grammy Award-nominated alternative rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of Patrick Stump, playing rhythm guitar and singing lead vocals, Joe Trohman as lead guitarist, and backing vocals, Pete Wentz, on the bass guitar, and Andy Hurley as drummer and percussionist.
With Pete Wentz as the band's primary lyricist, and Patrick Stump as the primary composer, Fall Out Boy reached mainstream success with its major label debut, From Under the Cork Tree. Released in 2005, the album won several awards and has achieved double platinum status after selling more than 2.5 million albums in the United States alone.
Fall Out Boy was formed by Joseph Mark Trohman and Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III. After playing in various hardcore punk bands in the Chicago area, they wanted to play songs they listened to growing up such as Green Day and Descendents. Trohman met high school student Patrick Martin Stumph in a Borders book store. Trohman introduced himself to Stump when he overheard him talking about the band Neurosis, in which they shared a mutual interest. Stump auditioned as a drummer, but as soon as his vocal range was discovered, he became the lead singer.
The band was nameless for their first two shows. At the end of their second show, they asked the audience to give them a name. One audience member suggested "Fallout Boy", a reference to the sidekick of the character Radioactive Man from The Simpsons. On 25th of January 2009, Fall Out Boy would play the theme ending on The Simpsons.
Two other Chicago musicians, T.J. "Raccine" Kunasch and Mike Pareskuwicz, were recruited to play drums and guitar. The following year, the band debuted with a self-released demo and followed it up with the May 28, 2002 release of Split EP, which featured Project Rocket, on Uprising Records. The group released a mini-LP, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend, also on Uprising Records, in 2003.
After the release of their mini-album, Andrew John Hurley, formerly of Racetraitor, joined the band and Stump picked up guitar, while Raccine and Pareskuwicz left. During this time, they played many local shows at the The Knights of Columbus Hall in Arlington Heights, Illinois, the site of their "Dead On Arrival" video. The same year, after signing to Fueled by Ramen, they released their first full-length album, Take This to Your Grave, on May 6, 2003. The band received an advance from Island Records to record its proper debut, but the advance came with a right of first refusal for Island on Fall Out Boy's next album. With major financing in place, the band recorded Take This to Your Grave at the Butch Vig-owned Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, with Sean O'Keefe as producer.
With singles "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy," and "Saturday" receiving video airplay on FUSE, mtvU and Target's in-store video stream and radio airplay on mainstream stations across the country, the album sold very well and eventually achieved Gold status, but only after the success of the band's next album, From Under the Cork Tree.
In mid-2003, the band signed with Island Records which is a part of the mainstream label Island Def Jam Music Group, along with Def Jam Records. This was after it picked up the option for its next album. In the meantime of recording its mainstream debut, the band released the acoustic EP My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue on Fueled by Ramen, May 18, 2004. It debuted at #153 on the Billboard 200, the band's first such entry on the chart. The two-disc set included more acoustic performances and a fan photo gallery.
With Pete Wentz as the band's primary lyricist, and Patrick Stump the primary composer, Fall Out Boy reached mainstream success with its first major label album on May 3, 2005, From Under the Cork Tree, which debuted on the Billboard 200 at #9, selling over 68,000 copies in its first week. The album achieved double platinum status after selling more than 2.5 million albums in the United States alone. Earlier that year, the band's stability was threatened when Wentz overdosed on the sedative Ativan. The track "7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)" from their album From Under the Cork Tree is based upon Wentz's experience.
Their first single, "Sugar, We're Goin Down", peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the Pop 100, and #3 on the Modern Rock Charts. The video reached #1 on MTV's TRL, where it was retired on August 26, 2005. The video won the MTV2 Award at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, prompting a huge new interest and surge in sales. The band was also nominated for "Best New Artist" at the 2006 Grammy Awards.
The second single off the album, "Dance, Dance", became their second Top 10 Single when it peaked at #9 on the Hot 100. It reached #6 on the Pop 100, becoming the band's highest charting single when it reached #2 on the Modern Rock Charts. The video for the song premiered on TRL on October 11, 2005; it soon reached #1 and was later retired on January 17, 2006. "Dance, Dance" was also featured on the PlayStation 2 version of Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova by Konami. The third single off the album, "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More "Touch Me"", was much less popular than both prior singles, but still managed to peak at #65 on the Hot 100 and hit #1 twice on TRL, retiring on June 6, 2006.
The band headlined the Nintendo Fusion Tour in the fall of 2005, joining The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack, Boys Night Out, and Panic at the Disco on a 31 city tour.Due to its increased success from their MTV Video Music Award, the group headlined the Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour, a pop/punk event that featured The All-American Rejects, Well-Known Secret, Hawthorne Heights, and From First to Last. The tour also featured The Hush Sound for half of the tour and October Fall for half. They played to 53 dates in the US, Canada, and the UK.
A CD and DVD of live material recorded during a June 22, 2007, concert at Phoenix's Cricket Wireless Pavilion was released on April 1, 2008. Of note, the album, simply called ****, contains a new studio recording covering Michael Jackson's "Beat It" with John Mayer as a guest on guitar. The song premiered for the first time on Wentz's site Friends or Enemies, and was released as a single on March 25, 2008. Following its release, it debuted at #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #19.
On March 18, it was revealed that Fall Out Boy had plans to play a show in Antarctica to go into the Guinness Book of World Records as the only band to play a concert on all seven continents in less than nine months; however weather conditions did not permit them to play in Antarctica.
Fall Out Boy collaborated with rapper T.I. for the album Paper Trail on a track entitled "Out in the Cold". However the song was left out of the final cut. T.I. told MTV that he may add some of the cut tracks to his next album.
