Boys Like Girls
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Boys Like Girls |
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Boys Like Girls is a four-piece American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group completed nationwide tours with Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit the Lights and Butch Walker and topped the Top Unsigned Artist chart on PureVolume, within a few months from forming in late 2005. In August 2006 they released their self-titled debut album Boys Like Girls on Columbia Records/Red Ink. They were the co-headliners for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour 2008 that recently toured across the U.S. along with Good Charlotte, The Maine, and Metro Station. [1]
Formation
The group Boys Like Girls was formed in the final months of 2005, when singer/guitarist Martin Johnson formerly of the Boston act Fake ID/The Drive; wrote a handful of songs he wanted to record. He recruited bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe, both of whom had been in bands of different setups with the frontman, most notably in the pop punk band Lancaster and less notably the short-lived local act The Bends. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, whom he had recorded a brief demo with, to complete the line-up. Oddly enough, the two learned that they were distant cousins several months later.[2][3] The quartet soon opened a PureVolume account to showcase their music, and uploaded a rough demo of "The Great Escape" and an acoustic rendition of "Thunder". By the end of the year, the group had landed the #1 spot on the website's Top Unsigned Artists chart.[4]
Eventually the buzz around the band was overheard by booking agent Matt Galle and record producer Matt Squire, who contacted the band about a future collaboration. With their full support, Boys Like Girls embarked on their first nationwide tour with A Thorn for Every Heart, Hit the Lights and Keating in late February 2006. Following the month-long venture, the group immediately entered the recording studio with Squire to record their debut album for Columbia Records/Red Ink. During their time in the studio Squire introduced the band to another of his alumni, Cute Is What We Aim For, who offered Boys Like Girls an opening slot on their upcoming headlining tour. Once the album was recorded, Boys Like Girls played back-to-back tours, including the Cute Is What We Aim For tour in June, as well as a two week stint with Butch Walker in late July.[5] In between tours the band filmed their first music video for their album's lead single, "Hero/Heroine", directed by Mark Serao and Chris Vaglio of Grey Sky Films.[6]
The first ever Boys Like Girls show was in Club Deniro in Taunton, Massachusetts, and there were only about 25 people that came to their show.
Self-Titled Album
On August 22 2006, the eponymous Boys Like Girls hit record store shelves. As of August 2008, the album has sold over 580,000 copies within the United States.[7] While, as the title might suggest, songs about boys liking girls clearly prevail on the album, Johnson threw in the occasional escape from the pre-, mid-, or post-relationship formula, and touched upon themes such as his mother's battle with cancer, leaving home and precocious adolescents. Concerning the latter, he discussed the motivation behind the song "Dance Hall Drug":
So many kids are growing up too fast. 13 year olds are giving each other hand jobs in the back of the bus, 14 year olds are already drinking and partying, and kids spend more time worried about growing up and being cool than they do actually growing up and being a kid.[8]
In the light of the album's release, Boys Like Girls completed their first headlining tour, supported by Permanent Me and Scenes from a Movie in August and September, before heading out on an East coast tour, opening for Lostprophets and Eighteen Visions throughout October 2006. The remainder of the year was spent playing first on a five-band bill with Spitalfield, Punchline, Over It, and Valencia, as well as on the Tournado Tour, where they shared the stage with The All-American Rejects, Motion City Soundtrack, and The Format.
The year 2007 began with a short headlining run with Self Against City, after which the group joined Cobra Starship supporting a two-month Cartel tour in February. In between releasing their album's second single, "The Great Escape" (reaching #9 on the Pop 100), performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live on February 22, 2007, and eventually charting the Billboard 200 for the first time in April 2007, Boys Like Girls played their first international concerts during the Canadian leg of a North American tour with Hellogoodbye and the UK festival Give It A Name 2007.
In mid-2007, the group performed on the annual Vans Warped Tour for the first time and on July 31, 2007 the band reached the #1 spot on the MTV show Total Request Live. The following month, on August 20, 2007, Boys Like Girls members Johnson and DiGiovanni played a private show at 105.1 The Buzz radio station. They announced that they would be performing five shows in Japan for the month of September and that the group would then do a U.S. headlining tour with All Time Low, The Audition, We the Kings, and Valencia.
In September 2007, Boys Like Girls released a three song acoustic set for AOL's Sessions Under Cover as an EP in the iTunes Store, containing "The Great Escape", "Thunder" and a cover of Frou Frou's "Let Go". On December 4, 2007, the band performed a concert with Good Charlotte, with opening act NLT, for New Orleans radio station B97's "The Night B97 Stole Christmas" at the New Orleans House of Blues, located in the French Quarter.
Boys Like Girls played at the Slam Dunk Festival on the Glamour Kills stage, in Leeds, on Sunday, May 25, 2008. The group shared the stage with bands such as, Cute Is What We Aim For, Kids In Glass Houses, Valencia, We The Kings, You Me At Six and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. The band was also the opening act for Avril Lavigne's 2008 Best Damn Tour throughout the majority of North America.
Boys Like Girls did not perform on the Van's Warped Tour for 2008, but instead, toured the summer, with Good Charlotte, The Maine, and Metro Station, for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour which was kicked off in Southaven, Mississippi with a performance named Red White and Boom hosted by Q107.5 on June 3, 2008. On July 4, 2008 they played in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the 2008 Starjam concert, along with Metro Station, Good Charlotte, Ace Young, and Menudo. Two months later, Boys Like Girls and Metro Station performed together at Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri on August 5, 2008. A storm flew in while the concert was in session and the show was delayed for about 30 minutes. Six Flags then chose not to endanger the band or their fans, and decided to cancel the concert altogether.
Boys Like Girls supported Fall Out Boy on their UK tour in October, along with Surrey's Pop punk band You Me At Six.
The bands debut DVD Read Between The Lines, was released on November 4, 2008.[9]
Present
A Boys Like Girls CD/EP called Heavy Heart does not exist. The songs that are supposedly from this album are demos Boys Like Girls did on Johnson's laptop that did not make the cut and leaked. It consists the songs "Kill Me in a Record Shop", "Free", "The Only Way That I Know How To Feel", "Let Go" and "I Told You So". [citation needed]
In the summer of 2008, they worked alongside Nickelodeon pop singer Miranda Cosgrove on her upcoming debut album, due for release in 2009.[10]
On January 2009, Boys like Girls toured the UK with Metro Station and Every Avenue supporting.
On February 10, 2009 lead vocalist, Martin Johnson, stated on his website, martinsays.com, that the group had begun to record their new album. According to AbsolutePunk.net [11], their new CD is set to be released September, 2009. Their new album will be recorded half in Vancouver and half in New York City because there are two different producers/production teams, two different environments, and two different styles of inspiration. The great news to this Martin asked his former bestfriend Jasmine to help with recording and spend time with the band, hopefully this will all be great.
The single 'Love Drunk' will go to radio on July 6th, said AbsolutePunk.net on May 28th. Rumoured titles have been spread but it hasn't been verified yet. Some of these titles include : Love Is Not A Great Song,Party's Going On and Past-Times Sweethearts. The second single Missed Calls would be aired on radio on July 7th, a day after the air of Love Drunk the single.
mtvU is sponsoring their upcoming Summer 2009 tour. Boys Like Girls will be hitting the roads on their first stop of the tour in Philadelphia on June 19th, 2009 with supporting acts, NeverShoutNever and The Ready Set. The tour will run until July 27th, with the last date being held in Baltimore. On July 24th, they will be playing a special show part of the tour in East Boston, Massachusetts at Suffolk Downs, right near their hometown of Boston, with NeverShoutNever, The Veronicas, and Gym Class Heroes.
Musical style and critical reception
Stylistically, the band lists its musical influences as a variety of contemporary pop punk and alternative rock bands, such as Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, Story of the Year, Relient K, The Academy Is..., Kelena, and Dashboard Confessional. While these tendencies are clearly audible in guitarwork and drumming, punk rock influences are far less obvious as far as vocal patterns and lyricism are concerned. Given Johnson's characteristic tenor vocal melodies—which are, due to sporadically placed falsettos, at times reminiscent of Tyson Ritter's (of The All-American Rejects fame)[12]—the band's all-around sound is geared to late '90s alternative radio rock, along the lines of Vertical Horizon, Goo Goo Dolls, and Eve 6.[13]
In comparison with the majority of their peers, Boys Like Girls has a more radio-friendly pop rock sound. Hence, Boys Like Girls has been labeled "an album full of hit singles"[14] or "the soundtrack to summer"[15], emphasising the up-and-coming quartet's potential to write mainstream compatible tunes. Other reviewers considered "a watered-down copy of Jimmy Eat World" a more adequate description.[16] In general, judgments ranged from predictable mediocrity to promising newcomer debut, though not necessarily in terms of longevity. Their first album follows a much honest musical concept initiated by Sum 41 in their album "All Killer, No Filler". Though songs are similar in style, each one is uniquely its own and detailed in structure that produced melodic quality.
While the on-line community precipitately crowned Boys Like Girls "2006's Fall Out Boy" (in reference to the pop punk band's commercial success with 2005's From Under the Cork Tree),[14] album sales were less convincing. Despite promotional front page features (such as Spin's "Artist of the Day" or the highly influential Absolutepunk.net's "Featured Band" and "Absolute Exclusive: Album Leak"), Boys Like Girls scanned a mere 1,472 units within its first week of sales, thus failing to chart the Billboard 200.[17] However, continuous touring and promoting helped gaining the record a #179 entry into the chart in April 2007. It continued to gain popularity as the single, "The Great Escape", climbed the charts and eventually peaked at #55 in August 2007. After nearly falling off the Billboard 200, the re-release of the single "Hero/Heroine" jumped the album back up to #61 and was certified Gold shortly after. [18]
Members
- Martin Johnson - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Paul DiGiovanni - lead guitar, backup vocals
- Bryan Donahue - bass guitar, backup vocals
- John Keefe - drums
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | RIAA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billboard 200 | US Heat | |||
| 2006 | Boys Like Girls | 55 | 1 | Gold |
Live albums/DVDs
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billboard 200 | US Heat | ||
| 2008 | Read Between The Lines | 121 | 21 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart Positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot | US Pop | UK | NZ | ||||
| 2007 | "Hero/Heroine" | — | — | — | — | Boys Like Girls | |
| "The Great Escape" | 23 | 9 | 72 | 36 | |||
| "Hero/Heroine" (re-release) | 43 | 32 | — | — | |||
| 2008 | "Thunder" | 76 | 32 | — | — | ||
| "Heels Over Head" | — | — | — | — | |||
| 2009 | "Love Drunk" | — | — | — | — | TBA | |
| "—" denotes the single failed to chart or wasn't released | |||||||
References
- ^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Billboard - Good Charlotte, Boys Like Girls Team For Tour". Billboard. May 13, 2008.
- ^ "Interview with Boys Like Girls (April 2, 2006)". For The Sound [dot] com. Retrieved October 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Artist of the Day: Boys Like Girls (August 24, 2006)". Spin. Retrieved October 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Aritst Profile: Boys Like Girls". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved October 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Interview with Boys Like Girls (June 23, 2006)". For The Sound [dot] com. Retrieved October 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "PHOTO: Grey Sky Films & Boys Like Girls". Video Static. Retrieved October 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Boys Like Girls Milestones". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved August 17.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Featured Release: Boys Like Girls". Euphonia Online. Retrieved October 8.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Columbia Records to Release Boys Like Girls' First DVD, read between the lines, Tuesday, November 4" (Press release). Columbia Records. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
- ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1591500/20080724/cosgrove__miranda.jhtml
- ^ http://www.absolutepunk.net/artists/showlink.php?l=2192
- ^ Jeffrey Kurtis. "Music Reviews: B". All Ages Zine. Retrieved October 19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Tony Pascarella. "Album Review: Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved October 19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ a b Trevor Bivens. "Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls". Driven Far Off. Retrieved October 19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Myra Haq. "Mammoth Reviews: Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls". Mammoth Press. Retrieved October 19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Chad Grischow. "Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls: Something borrowed, not much new". IGN. Retrieved October 19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Soundscan Results: Week Ending August 27th, 2006". Absolutepunk.net (Google cache). Retrieved October 19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Text "accessyear1969" ignored (help) - ^ "Boys Like Girls Makes It Into Billboard 200 For First Time". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved April 11.
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