Jump to content

Boys Like Girls

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Zizo1990 (talk | contribs) at 22:12, 21 December 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Boys Like Girls

Boys Like Girls is an American pop punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, who gained mainstream recognition when they released their self-titled debut album Boys Like Girls. They were the co-headliners with Good Charlotte for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour 2008 that toured across the U.S.[1]

The group's second studio album Love Drunk, was released on September 8, 2009.[2][3]

History

Formation (2005–06)

The group was formed in Andover, MA[4] in the final months of 2005, when vocalist 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. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, with whom he had recorded a brief demo, to complete the line-up. Some months later the two later learned that they were distant cousins.[5][6] The group later changed their name to Boys Like Girls.

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[7] and within a few months had completed nationwide tours with Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit the Lights and Butch Walker.

Lead singer Martin Johnson

Eventually in 2006 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.[8] 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.[9]

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.[when?][citation needed]

Self-titled album (2006–09)

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.[10] 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 promiscuous 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.[11]

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 and said how much Good Charlotte helped their career. 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. In between tour dates, they worked alongside Nickelodeon pop singer Miranda Cosgrove on her upcoming debut album, due for release in 2009.[12]

Boys Like Girls supported Fall Out Boy on their UK tour in October, along with Surrey's Pop band You Me At Six. A month later the bands debut DVD Read Between The Lines, was released on November 4, 2008.[13]

In January 2009, Boys like Girls toured the UK with Metro Station and Every Avenue supporting.

Love Drunk (2009–Present)

Martin Johnson announced that the band had begun to record their new album on his website on February 10, 2009.[14] The album was released on September 8, 2009[2] and was recorded half in Vancouver and half in New York City because there were two different producers/production teams, two different environments, and two different styles of inspiration. In an April 2009 interview with Paste Magazine's Sean Edgar,[15] Johnson explained that many of the songs on Love Drunk were written using templates from computer programs like Cakewalk Sonar and MasterWriter, and were market tested for album inclusion. The band will embark on a 2009 fall tour with Cobra Starship, A Rocket to the Moon, The Maine, and VersaEmerge.[16] The tour will begin on October 14 with the first show in Buffalo, New York. It is called the Op tour.

Boys Like Girls performing at MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia

On June 18, Boys Like Girls confirmed the title for their second album is Love Drunk[15] and it was officially released on September 8, 2009.[15] On June 24, 2009, the band released their first single. It is the title track of the album.[3] The "Love Drunk" music video features actress and singer Ashley Tisdale. The group released their second single "She's Got a Boyfriend Now" on iTunes in August. The fourth song from Love Drunk is called "Two Is Better Than One," featuring female country singer Taylor Swift. Johnson had previously worked with Swift to write the song "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home".[17] The new album contains eleven tracks.

The band made history on August 15, 2009 when it was featured alongside The All-American Rejects, Hoobastank, Raygun, Kasabian and Pixie Lott as one of the live acts at Asia's very first MTV World Stage Live concert that was held in Malaysia.[18]

The album is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, as well as many major retailers around the country. On iTunes, there is a "Deluxe Version" of the album that contains 3 bonus tracks; "Love Drunk(Acoustic)", "Heart Heart Heartbreak(Acoustic)" and a Mark Hoppus remixed version of "Love Drunk".

Rumors have been circulating that there would be another remix of "Love Drunk", featuring R&B singer Sean Kingston, as proclaimed on the band frontman's blog, martinsays.com

On Nov 21st, frontman Martin Johnson confirmed that the band would be releasing an all-new Love Drunk EP featuring exclusive versions of their hit single Love Drunk. The EP would be made available to be purchased and downloaded online on the iTunes store probably in the early 2010.

The band stated on its official site that it will perform at "The View" on the 22th of December.

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)[19]—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.[20]

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"[21] or "the soundtrack to summer",[22] 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.[23] In general, judgments ranged from predictable mediocrity to promising newcomer debut, though not necessarily in terms of longevity.

While the online 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),[21] 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.[24] 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.[25]

Discography

Main article: Boys Like Girls discography

Members

References

  1. ^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Billboard - Good Charlotte, Boys Like Girls Team For Tour". Billboard. May 13, 2008.
  2. ^ a b http://www.absolutepunk.net/artists/showlink.php?l=2192
  3. ^ a b Nguyen, Julie. "BOYS LIKE GIRLS REVEAL LOVE DRUNK RELEASE DATE". AP: NEWS. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
  4. ^ "WEB EXTRA: Q&A with rising Andover rocker Martin Johnson".
  5. ^ "Interview with Boys Like Girls (April 2, 2006)". For The Sound [dot] com. Retrieved October 8, 2006.
  6. ^ "Artist of the Day: Boys Like Girls (August 24, 2006)". Spin. Retrieved October 8, 2006.
  7. ^ "Artist Profile: Boys Like Girls". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved October 8, 2006.
  8. ^ "Interview with Boys Like Girls (June 23, 2006)". For The Sound [dot] com. Retrieved October 8, 2006.
  9. ^ "PHOTO: Grey Sky Films & Boys Like Girls". Video Static. Retrieved October 8, 2006.
  10. ^ "Boys Like Girls Milestones". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  11. ^ "Featured Release: Boys Like Girls". Euphonia Online. Retrieved October 8, 2006.
  12. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1591500/20080724/cosgrove__miranda.jhtml
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ Martin Johnson. "For the past week I have been on meditation". Martin Says. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
  15. ^ a b c Boys Like Girls. "New Boys Like Girls Album". Boys Like Girls: News. Retrieved June 17, 2009. Cite error: The named reference "Boys Like Girls 2009" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  16. ^ http://www.boyslikegirls.com/news/op-presents-boys-girls-w-cobra-starship-maine-and-more-pre-sale-wednesday
  17. ^ "Hannah Montana The Movie Production Notes" (PDF). Walt Disney Pictures. VisualHollywood.com. Retrieved October 16, 2009.
  18. ^ MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia http://worldstage.mtvasia.com
  19. ^ Jeffrey Kurtis. "Music Reviews: B". All Ages Zine. Retrieved October 19, 1969. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  20. ^ Tony Pascarella. "Album Review: Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved October 19, 2006.
  21. ^ a b Trevor Bivens. "Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls". Driven Far Off. Retrieved October 19, 2006.
  22. ^ Myra Haq. "Mammoth Reviews: Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls". Mammoth Press. Retrieved October 19, 1969. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  23. ^ Chad Grischow. "Boys Like Girls - Boys Like Girls: Something borrowed, not much new". IGN. Retrieved October 19, 1969. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  24. ^ "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)
  25. ^ "Boys Like Girls Makes It Into Billboard 200 For First Time". Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  26. ^ Boys Like Girls. "Biography". Boys Like Girls. Retrieved June 23, 2009. {{cite web}}: Text "The Official Boys Like Girls Site" ignored (help)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Boys Like Girls.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boys_Like_Girls&oldid=333134201"