STACK #160 Feb 2018

MUSIC FEATURE

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Patrick Stump, JoeTrohman, PeteWentz and Andy Hurley - you may know the names, but do you know the factoids? Read on to learn 10 truths about Illinois punkdogs Fall Out Boy. Words Zoë Radas 10 factoids ABOUT FALL OUT BOY

1 Pete Wentz was already a local icon of Chicago’s hardcore scene when he and friend Joe Trohman met Patrick Stump in 2001, performing in at least five other bands; he was considered a champion of the genre’s interest in political activism. 2 Fall Out Boy’s first performance was at DePaul University in Chicago, in the establishment’s cafeteria. Notable alumni of the Uni include actors Gillian Anderson, John C. Reilly and Joe Mantegna. 3 According to Wentz, despite the fact bandmates Trohman and Stump are major The Simpsons fans, the group initially had no idea that their bandname was related to the television series. At one of their first performances they asked the crowd to suggest possible bandnames; a punter shouted out “Fallout Boy” – the sidekick of in-world comic book hero Radioactive Man – and it stuck. 4 The band are known for their ridiculously long songtitles, mostly from tracks recorded in the early ‘00s. The prize for longest title is a tie at 19 words, and both songs are from 2005’s From Under The Cork Tree . They are Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part To Save The Scene And Stop Going To Shows) , and I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me .

5 In February 2005 Wentz attempted of a Best Buy (consumer electronics store) in Chicago. He was rushed to hospital where doctors pumped his stomach, and recovered. 6 At a Madison Square Garden performance in 2009 – their last concert before an announced hiatus – the group had Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus shave Wentz’s head on-stage, while the rest of the band played Saturday (from 2003’s Take This To Your Grave ). It was revealed Wentz had only kohl- lined his left eye; the right was usually obscured by his fringe. 7 In February 2013 the band announced the end of their hiatus suicide, swallowing a handful of Activan (anti-anxiety medication) in the carpark also publishing an image of themselves burning copies of their own back catalogue in a bonfire at Comiskey Park – the site of the original Disco Demolition (a 1979 baseball event which involved smashing and burning disco LPs). and the release of their fifth album Save Rock and Roll ,

8 In April 2015, Fall Out Boy inducted hearing a cassette of Green Day’s 1994 album Dookie : “It was all the things you expect from punk rock – it was angry, it was loud, it was fast – but there were these subtle overtones, of an awareness of music theory and music history, that were wise beyond [their] years.” 9 In other fanboy facts, Stump has described Kanye West as “the Prince of his generation.” 10 The original guy in the purple llama costume – commonly seen in a 2017 M A N I A teaser clip, but also featured in the video for single The Last Of The Real Ones’ and as the subject matter of a lot of FOB fan art – is Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendan Urie. Urie’s band were unknown until 2004, when they sent Wentz a songlink via LiveJournal. Wentz subsequently made them the first signees to his then-new label, Decaydence. Green Day into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In his speech, Stump described

• M A N I A is out now via Universal

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FEBRUARY 2018

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