MCRmy Hollywood (Los Angeles/SoCal) - A My Chemical Romance fanbase

EVENT: THE BLACK PARADE - 20th ANNIVERSARY TAKEOVER AT HOT TOPIC

2026-09-30T20:20:05.973-07:00

SCANS - MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - THE COMPLETE STORY

2026-09-26T19:29:10.293-07:00

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - THE COMPLETE STORY

NEWS: My Chemical Romance Release 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition)'

2025-06-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Today, My Chemical Romance release the expanded edition of their 3x platinum certified sophomore album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge – out now. Additionally, the official music video for “The Ghost Of You” has also been film restored.

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition) arrives nearly 21 years to the original release date. The Deluxe Edition is remixed and remastered and will be available on CD, multiple colored vinyl variants, including a stunning zoetrope 2LP, and digitally. The 2 LP vinyl formats are 3-sided, with Side 4 boasting a special etching, making them collector’s items for the MCRmy.

Purchase/Listen to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition) at https://MCR.lnk.to/ThreeCheersDeluxe

To commemorate the band’s beloved 2004 album, GRAMMY®️ Award-winning producer Rich Costey has done new mixes for the Deluxe Edition. It is also presented with brand new artwork. The collection features four bonus tracks recorded for BBC in 2005: previously unreleased live versions of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” “Helena,” and “The Ghost Of You,” plus a live take on “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison” – originally released as a B-side on the limited edition UK CD single of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise).”

The band’s impact continues to reverberate from one generation to the next—and that influence shows no signs of diminishing. If anything, My Chemical Romance’s upcoming 2025 North American stadium tour – “Long Live”: The Black Parade – proves just that. Limited tickets remain for their highly anticipated summer tour, which includes 2 nights at Dodger Stadium. Tickets are available here: https://www.mychemicalromance.com/?frontpage=true

NEWS: Mikey Way Throws First Ceremonial Pitch at Dodger Stadium

2025-06-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

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NEWS: MCR Announce North American Tour

2024-11-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

“LONG LIVE":
THE BLACK PARADE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
TICKETS ON SALE
NOVEMBER 15TH AT 10AM (LOCAL TIME)

It has been seventeen years since The Black Parade was sent to the MOAT. In that time, a great Dictator has risen to power, bringing about "THE CONCRETE AGE”; a glorious time of stability and abundance in the history of DRAAG. His Grand Immortal Dictator wishes to celebrate our rich and storied culture, fine foods, and musical entertainments by welcoming you to these great demonstrations of power and resolve. And lending voice and song for the first time in six thousand two hundred and forty six days, their work privilege ceremoniously reinstated, will be His Grand Immortal Dictator's National Band... The Black Parade.

Long Live Draag

“Long Live:” The Black Parade North American
Tickets On sale Friday, November 15, 2024 10am local time

http://www.livenation.com/ http://www.mychemicalromance.com/tour

July 11, 2025 | Seattle, WA | Special Guest: Violent Femmes Link

July 19, 2025 | San Fransisco, CA | Special Guest: 100 Gecs | Link

July 26, 2025 | Los Angeles, CA | Special Guest: Wallows | Link

August 2, 2025 | Arlington, TX | Special Guest: Garbage | Link

August 9, 2025 | East Rutherford, NJ | Special Guest: Death Cab For Cutie/Thursday | Link

August 15, 2025 | Philadelphia, PA | Special Guest: Alice Cooper | Link

August 22, 2025 | Toronto, ON | Special Guest: Pixies | Link

August 29, 2025 | Chicago, IL | Special Guest: Devo | Link

September 7, 2025 | Boston, MA | Special Guest: Idles | Link

September 13, 2025 | Tampa, FL | Special Guest: Evanescence | Link

NEW (old ) SCANS

2023-11-11T16:34:00.003-08:00

METAL HAMMER PRESENTS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

PLUS hundreds of other magazine scans spanning MCR's career!

CLICK HERE

NEWS: My Chemical Romance’s Mikey Way Collaborates With Fender On Sleek New Bass Guitar

2023-05-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

Mikey Way has teamed up with Fender to release a new Jazz Bass guitar.

Sharing the news via Twitter, My Chemical Romance have revealed that their bassist’s new collaboration will arrive this June.

And they shared a snapshot image of the gorgeous silver guitar – see it for yourself below.

We are crazy excited to announce a collaboration between @Fender and @mikeyway coming your way in June. Head to the link for a first look and for a chance to win a signed Limited Edition Mikey Way Jazz Bass.⁰⁰https://t.co/2rfwDM75b7 pic.twitter.com/MsFpJXpzq6
— My Chemical Romance (@MCRofficial) May 30, 2023

More information on the product will soon appear on the Fender website.

Mikey previously hinted at the collaboration over on Instagram back in April, showing off his signature embossed on the back:

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REVIEW: My Chemical Romance thrills fans during its five-night residency at Kia Forum

2022-10-18T23:29:00.006-07:00

The fans were more than just OK at the sold-out My Chemical Romance show at Kia Forum in Inglewood on Wednesday night.

During the band’s second of five evenings at the venue, the audience sang along so loudly, so passionately, and there were several spotted cry-singing as they belted out the lyrics to songs they’ve been waiting so long to experience live.

“I’ve waited two (expletive) years for this,” a fan screamed as the band launched into its third song, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise).”

The New Jersey-based emo rock group disbanded in 2013, but reunited for the first time in seven years back in 2019 and played a sold-out warm-up show at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles ahead of announcing a comeback tour in 2020. The global pandemic derailed those plans. However, fans, like the one screaming his heart out on Wednesday night, never gave up hope and held on to his seats through a few postponements, to throw on his My Chem T-shirt from the early ’00s and finally cut loose.

Since the band has several shows at the venue this month, it’s changing up the set list each evening. While the first night at the venue on Tuesday had songs like “Our Lady of Sorrows,” “This Is the Best Day Ever” and “Vampire Money,” night two got “Bury Me in Black,” “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” “The Ghost of You,” and “I Never Told You What I Do for a Living,” the last of which was dedicated to a fan dancing high up in the nosebleeds wearing a glowing skeleton outfit that caught vocalist Gerard Way’s eye mid set.

Of course, the big hits will remain on the list including “Helena,” “Welcome to the Black Parade,” “Teenagers” and the band has opened with its brand new song, “The Foundations of Decay,” at every tour stop.

Way is also swapping out his stage outfits each night. On this reunion tour, he’s been a ghost, a kitty cat and a skeleton. During the first evening at Kia Forum he donned a cheerleader outfit and on Wednesday night he paid homage to Princess Diana by wearing her iconic black sheep sweater.

“Sweaty good times,” the 45-year-old frontman said as he slicked back his sweat-drenched hair and smiled. After rain fell throughout the day, it was so humid in Southern California that night, but Way kept that sweater on for nine songs, letting the crowd know, “… this sweater is really hot, but I like to commit to a look.” He wasn’t too committed as he slid it off and rocked a white collared undershirt just in time for “Thank You for the Venom.” Though his speaking voice is softer and higher pitched, Way can transition from a pretty vocal run into a deep belly growl into a lengthy scream. He also has a tremendous stage presence. Whatever he said, people did. He told them to sing and they sang. He told them to put their hands up and they did. He asked them to scream and heck yeah they did that too.

The band was ferocious in its first show back at The Shrine, but Wednesday night it was in top performance shape. It sounded like a well-oiled machine, but had enough wiggle room for moments of spontaneity that allowed the band to reconnect with its die-hard followers. The fans that were smashed up against the barrier in front of the stage were spotted looking like they were at a My Chem show circa 2005, when smudged red eye shadow and thick black eyeliner, leather (or most likely pleather) accessories with silver chains and studs and all-black clothing from Hot Topic was all the rage.

Fans cheered as they appeared on the large screens hanging above the band and sang-screamed into the cameras during “Famous Last Words.” There was a massive amount of energy in the room, a palpable excitement that lasted the entire set and into the encore, which found Way lying on the stage, breathing heavily after the fiery “Helena.” As the audience cheered, Way seemingly took in the moment from his horizontal state, before rising slowly and delivering the much calmer, sweeter-sounding, “Desert Song” to close out the evening.

Each tour date has included different opening acts, selected by the members of My Chemical Romance. Tuesday night featured Taking Back Sunday while Wednesday’s show included Dilly Dally, Shannon and the Clams and Los Angeles-based rock band The Regrettes. The band continues its stay with Meg Myers and Nothing Oct. 14; Thursday and The Homeless Gospel Choir Oct. 15.; and Midtown and Waterparks on Oct. 17. There are still some tickets available to each of the remaining show dates in Inglewood.

The Regrettes are pure energy and fun. They kept the pit dancing to songs like “California Friends,” “La Di Da” and “Poor Boy.” Vocalist Lydia Night had her fan girl moment, thanking My Chemical Romance for having them on the bill. “I’m not OK,” she said with a laugh, noting that they were her favorite band in high school and that they “truly changed my life.”

Oakland-based indie act Shannon and the Clams, which has a doo-wop, R&B and garage rock sound, impressed with songs like “Year of the Spider,” “Do I Wanna Stay” and “Mary, Don’t Go.” Way proudly announced that he chose Canadian grunge rock band Dilly Dally, who opened the show with songs like “Sober Motel” and “Marijuana.”

My Chemical Romance

With: The Regrettes, Shannon and the Clams and Dilly Dally

When: Oct. 12

Where: Kia Forum, Inglewood

SOURCE

LIVE PHOTOS: 10/12/22 - KIA FORUM

2022-10-18T21:49:00.002-07:00

10/12/22 - KIA FORUM

REVIEW: My Chemical Romance Reunion Proves a Communion for the Punk-Starved

2022-10-18T21:20:00.001-07:00

Nearly a decade has passed since the disbandment of My Chemical Romance (MCR), the post-hardcore, pop-punk group led by frontman Gerard Way. And as a generation of Vans Warped Tour devotees grew up, so, too, did Gerard’s 13-year-old daughter, Bandit, who is now of age to appreciate her father’s music in all its angsty glory.

At the Oct. 15 show of the band’s reunion tour, which had been postponed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gerard’s daughter was front and center at the Kia Forum with a squad of her friends. The vocalist dedicated his 2006 hit song “Teenagers” to her, which was a surreal moment for adult concert-goers whose punk awakening similarly began in early adolescence.

“For this next song, I never know who to dedicate it to, but tonight I definitely know,” Gerard announced to the audience, before briefly pausing for extra effect. “It’s my teenage daughter, Bandit, who is here tonight with all her friends. This one’s for you.”

Now 45, Gerard Way has maintained not just his vocal range and balls-to-the-wall energy, but also his baby face, which looks as if it’s barely aged in 20 years. Throttling the microphone, he had no problem hitting the range-stretching high notes of songs like “Famous Last Words” and, at the same time, radiate lower-register growls for the darker, drum-heavy material.

As is the Ways’ way — Gerard and bassist Mikey Way are brothers — anthems were aplenty. “Helena” from the band’s 2004 album created an audible rumble not unlike the planes landing at nearby LAX, as guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero breathed new life into a classic. And it took no more than a single note for MCR fans to instantly recognize the 2006 hit “Welcome to the Black Parade.” The one notable difference? Most of the songs were sung a half-step down from their original key signature. But to Gerard’s credit, the modification was not inherently obvious — and given that he started the band at 24 years old, his vocal range has undoubtedly shifted.

As for the new material: “The Foundations of Decay,” the band’s first new song since 2014, served as the warmup and opened the show, but other tracks dated back as far as MCR’s 2002 debut “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.” One of the album’s most popular tracks, “Vampires Will Never Hurt You,” made the set list toward the end of the Oct. 15 show, and Gerard marked the occasion by donning full Dracula regalia.

Theatrics were present but not overwhelming as the band more than met its responsibility to entertain — Mikey, Toro and Iero certainly deserve a lot of the credit, leaping across the stage and shredding, clearly enjoying the craft with zero jadedness.

After so much time away, MCR had a lot to live up to and it rose to the occasion over five nights at the Forum. But more than a “reunion” show, it was a “communion” — of like-minded Los Angeles devotees of all ages and stripes chanting “so long and goodnight,” but thinking, don’t take too long.

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2022-08-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

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VIDEO: Watch My Chemical Romance Play ‘Bury Me in Black’ For First Time in 19 Years

2022-08-21T19:05:00.004-07:00

Band also performed "This Is the Best Day Ever" for the first time since 2005

My Chemical Romance pulled out two rarities during a show at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City this weekend as they kicked off their North American reunion tour. The band showcased “Bury Me In Black,” a B-side from 2004’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, as well as “This Is the Best Day Ever,” from their 2002 debut LP, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.

The 22-song set marked the first time the group had performed either track live in over 15 years. Elsewhere during the show My Chemical Romance played hits like “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Teenagers.”

My Chemical Romance launched their reunion tour earlier this year at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. Prior to the tour, the band released a new single, “The Foundations of Decay.” The sprawling, six-minute epic that blends to-the-rafters emo rock with clever twists and turns into hardcore and prog that marked My Chemical Romance’s first new music in eight years.

After disbanding in 2013, the group announced their return in fall 2019 and played a single show that December, but the first wave of Covid-19 forced them to put their touring plans on hold. The dates were initially rescheduled for 2021 but pushed again because of ongoing Covid concerns. The North American leg runs through October.

My Chemical Romance’s last studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, was released in 2010. Following their break-up, they released the compilation May Death Never Stop You in 2014, a greatest hits set that featured one new song, “Fake Your Death.”

SOURCE

SCANS: NEW (OLD) KERRANG! SCANS

2022-06-23T04:58:00.000-07:00

KERRANG! #1556

KERRANG! #1583

LIVE REVIEWS: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE OVERSEAS

2022-06-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

One teen was devastated after her mom sold the tickets she had purchased to see her favorite band, My Chemical Romance, live — all to buy shoes for her brother instead.

Read More: Mom Sells Teen's MCR Concert Tix to Buy Shoes for Her Son | https://popcrush.com/daughter-outraged-mom-sells-concert-tickets-buy-brother-shoes/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

My Chemical Romance – Live Review At Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, 28th May 2022

My Chemical Romance, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - caring, sharing emo kings holler to the heavens

My Chemical Romance, Frank Turner, Starcrawler, Crawlers @ Victoria Park, Warrington, UK, May 27

Here’s what My Chemical Romance played on the final night of their UK tour

Live Review: My Chemical Romance at Sophia Gardens Cardiff

LIVE: My Chemical Romance – Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, 28/05/2022

My Chemical Romance review: Nostalgic night for fans of emo as rockers pack out stadium on same night as Ed Sheeran

My Chemical Romance: Victoria Park, Warrington – live review

Pictures and review: My Chemical Romance at Victoria Park

My Chemical Romance in Warrington (not Manchester despite what Gerard Way kept saying) - Review and gig pictures

My Chemical Romance Live Photo Gallery From Stadium MK, Milton Keynes, May 22nd 2022

Live Report: My Chemical Romance resurrect emo at Royal Kilmainham Hospital

Gig Review : MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE WITH STARCRAWLER AND GAYLE ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM, DUBLIN MAY 24 2022

Review of My Chemical Romance at the Eden Project in Cornwall

My Chemical Romance perform Cancer live for first time in 10 years at final Milton Keynes date

Live Report: My Chemical Romance - Stadium MK, Milton Keynes

My Chemical Romance live in Cornwall: giddy rock’n’roll from returning emo heroes

My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way waves flag with names of fans who died during pandemic at Milton Keynes show

My Chemical Romance air more fan favourites as UK tour hits Milton Keynes

Gerard Way wears blood-splattered white suit at first MCR Milton Keynes show

GALLERY: This Is What My Chemical Romance’s Gigantic Show In Milton Keynes Looked Like

My Chemical Romance, Stadium MK, Milton Keynes

My Chemical Romance bring spectacular Black Parade to Eden Project biomes

My Chemical Romance’s Live Return Review + Photos: “Absolutely Unstoppable”

My Chemical Romance: two years late, but as vital and evocative as ever

My Chemical Romance review – emo’s elder statesmen march into new era

One teen was devastated after her mom sold the tickets she had purchased to see her favorite band, My Chemical Romance, live — all to buy shoes for her brother instead.

The teen shared her story on Reddit explaining she had listened to the emo band "religiously" since she was 7, noting the concert was "really important" to her since the show had been rescheduled twice.

Her excitement for the show quickly dwindled after she found out her mom sold her tickets to buy her brother some shoes.

Read More: Mom Sells Teen's MCR Concert Tix to Buy Shoes for Her Son | https://popcrush.com/daughter-outraged-mom-sells-concert-tickets-buy-brother-shoes/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

One teen was devastated after her mom sold the tickets she had purchased to see her favorite band, My Chemical Romance, live — all to buy shoes for her brother instead.

Her excitement for the show quickly dwindled after she found out her mom sold her tickets to buy her brother some shoes.

Read More: Mom Sells Teen's MCR Concert Tix to Buy Shoes for Her Son | https://popcrush.com/daughter-outraged-mom-sells-concert-tickets-buy-brother-shoes/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

MAGAZINE SCANS

2022-06-21T00:27:00.006-07:00

LINKS ARE ALL UP AND RUNNING AS OF 06/21/2022

MAGAZINE SCANS

LISTEN: My Chemical Romance release first new music since 2014, “The Foundations of Decay”

2022-05-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

My Chemical Romance have released a new track, “The Foundations Of Decay.” The single is their first new music since 2014.

Ahead of their performances next week in the United Kingdom, My Chemical Romance have dropped the new song out of the blue in true mysterious My Chemical Romance fashion.

“The Foundations Of Decay” offers a dark, ominous single cover to allude to what might come next.

The band just released this via their social media, with no initial warning.

Aside from compilation albums, this will be their first studio song since 2014’s “Fake Your Death.”

VIDEO: Watch My Chemical Romance's Reunion Show at the Shrine!

2019-12-27T17:58:00.001-08:00

NEWS: My Chemical Romance fan launches event to storm sold out reunion show

2019-11-24T18:01:00.001-08:00

My Chemical Romance shook the world with their return announcement. Sadly for almost everybody, the U.S. show at The Shrine in Los Angeles sold out almost immediately. This enables solely 6,300 folks entry to witness the comeback of all comebacks.

Effectively, a brand new occasion on Fb referred to as “Storm My Chemical Romance Reunion, They Can’t Stop All Of Us” seeks to alter that. We’re not joking. This can be a actual factor now.

My Chemical Romance coming again and taking part in a present with Thursday, along with different worldwide exhibits is outdated information. Its been so talked about up to now, that we’re discussing an image they posted advert nauseam. And we like it. Some folks, possibly are slightly too overzealous, nevertheless.

As most of you keep in mind, that is very related (virtually precisely) to the Storm Space 51 occasion that made worldwide information this 12 months. Whereas that exact occasion didn’t pan out as anticipated because of the navy warnings and total hazard and absurdity of the state of affairs, this one appears believable.

The web page data isn’t joking round, nevertheless it additionally slips in some nice My Chemical Romance puns.

!WE ARE NOT OK!

Many people have been ready for years…lastly My Chemical Romance is again collectively….we waited on-line for the beginning of the tickets gross sales….. and none of us acquired tickets!?!?! Honey, This venue isn’t sufficiently big for all of us?!?!

Screw AXS, Ticket Bots, and the smallest venue in LA!

Black your eyes, throw in your hoodie with the thumb holes, and are available out to kind a black parade to storm the present!

Meet throughout the road at McCarthy Quad Park (proper throughout from the Shrine Auditorium Gates.

Killjoys, Lets make some noise!

As you’ll be able to see, this occasion isn’t taking part in round. Created immediately, the occasion already exhibits 567 going and 1.2k . With the present being subsequent month, it’s going to have to realize traction fairly shortly for something substantial to occur.

To take a look at the web page, head right here: https://facebook.com/events/458399798114914/?ti=cl

To be clear, we don’t actually condone this. A ridiculous occasion to storm a navy base performs as a comedy to most. The plausibility of this, nevertheless, makes it a really actual state of affairs that might result in damage or felony fees.

All of us need to see My Chemical Romance. Simply be cheap and accountable and don’t do something fucking silly.

NEWS: My Chemical Romance to Reunite After Seven Years — for One L.A. Show, at Least

2019-10-31T18:03:00.001-07:00

The rumors that have been circling for years have finally proven true: My Chemical Romance will reunite — for one show, at least, on Dec. 20 at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, the emo icons’ first since 2012. Will there be more to follow? Seems a safe bet, but news of the one gig is all the band is giving up for now.

Speculation of a reunion gained traction in 2016 when the band’s social media accounts were, once again, active for the 10-year anniversary of their third and most critically acclaimed album, “The Black Parade.” That rumor grew significantly earlier this year, when Joe Jonas claimed My Chemical Romance had been rehearsing in the studio next door to the Jonas Brothers, which guitarist Frank Iero later denied.

The real push began with new profile pictures on My Chemical Romance’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Then earlier today they put out their very first Instagram post with the cryptic caption “Like Phantoms Forever…” (a nod to their first EP), alongside a graphic with the less cryptic show announcement.

My Chemical Romance released their last album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” in 2010. They’ve kept fairly busy on their own since the official split in 2013. Guitarist Frank Iero has had a steady solo career, most recently as Frank Iero and the Future Violents, with the album “Barriers” released in May of this year. Frontman Gerard Way also released a solo album, 2014’s “Hesitant Alien,” and a successful graphic novel series, “The Umbrella Academy,” which was adapted as a Netflix original series. Way also recently released a few solo tracks featuring My Chemical Romance lead guitarist Ray Toro.

Tickets for the reunion gig go on sale Friday at noon via AXS. Fans may want to cross their little black hearts that new music and a full tour are up next

NEWS: Pre-Order Alternative Press Special Edition #361 - My Chemical Romance Collector's Edition

2019-03-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

ALTPRESS

COLLECTOR'S EDITION

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

WELCOME

Introducing the first ever AltPress Collector's Edition featuring one of your favorites (and ours) My Chemical Romance. Our AltPress Collections are separate from our 12 issue magazine cycle and will not be distributed in the cycle. The special collector's edition series is curated specifically as a limited edition, collectible keepsake for you - the fans. Our collector's editions will only be available online and will showcase our 30+ year archive.

WHAT'S INSIDE

This special collector's edition includes every Alternative Press official story in the history of MCR's career. From I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love to Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - we're taking a look back and cherishing the incredible 12-year run of MCR. But don't worry, we're still waiting with you #MCRmy

ORDER HERE

NEWS: Gerard Way on Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion and the TV Series

2019-01-03T19:33:00.002-08:00

Gerard Way takes us on a trip to the Hotel Oblivion and beyond in our chat about the return of The Umbrella Academy.

This article contains Umbrella Academy spoilers.

Gerard Way is a bit tired on the third day of New York Comic Con. He'd stayed up late for a Netflix cast dinner the night before (he's in bed by 9:45 most nights) and had overslept this morning. Worst of all, he'd been forced to skip his morning meditation.

"It's kind of throwing my whole day off," Way tells me as we sit together in a corner of the Dark Horse booth at the Javits Center, hidden from the masses. The writer/musician is dressed in a big fatigue jacket, hair long and shaggy. He's starting to show hints of a shiny gray. Once impeccably clean-shaven, he now sports a mustache and beard.

Gone are the days of bleached hair, marching bands, and eyeliner. The force of nature who belted out songs about wasted youth, love lost, and doom as the frontman of My Chemical Romance is dead (like the Black Parade itself). Three cheers for the next life of Gerard Way, one of the best comic book writers currently working.

In October, following his excellent work on DC's Doom Patrol with artist Nick Derington, Way finally returned to his original comic book creation, The Umbrella Academy, after an almost ten-year hiatus. The new story arc, Hotel Oblivion, is a grand return for the series as well as for Way and the brilliant Brazilian artist Gabriel Ba, who first collaborated on the series in 2007 and won an Eisner for Best Limited Series in 2008.

The Umbrella Academy is the story of an estranged family of superheroes, years past their prime, who must navigate a nightmarish family reunion, prevent the end of the world, and deal with their traumatic pasts at the hands of their cold (and sometimes abusive) father. In the series' first arc, Apocalypse Suite, the team must stop one of their siblings, a classically trained violinist, from bringing about the end of the world with her evil orchestra. The follow-up, Dallas, is the story of Number Five, a time-traveling assassin who's hired to go back to 1963 and kill John F. Kennedy. It's up to his siblings to either help him or thwart the assassination from ever taking place.

Just three issues into Hotel Oblivion, Way and Ba have laid the foundation for another epic story, this time spanning not only time but also space. At the center of this tale is the titular hotel, a purgatorial prison located in an alternate dimension meant to house the world's worst criminals. The secrets of this hotel and the family's connection to it are the focus of the arc, but there are also plenty of other strange shenanigans along the way.

You have to read it to believe it: 43 superpowered orphans are born around the world at the same time to women whom just seconds before hadn't been pregnant. This is the big bang of Way and Ba's outrageous comic book universe, an alternate version of our reality where Kennedy wasn't assassinated and wrestlers wage war against giant space monsters in the ring. Seven of these orphans are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a rich scientist who also happens to be an undercover alien, and turned into the world's most famous superhero team, the Umbrella Academy. Together, these extraordinary kids have stopped the Eiffel Tower from taking over the world, defeated a rampaging Lincoln Memorial, and put all manner of costumed villains behind bars.

But those were the good old days.

By the start of the story, one of the orphans is already dead. You quickly find out he was the lucky one because the remaining six siblings are seriously fucked up, thanks to their manipulative and emotionally unavailable father, who's very good at saving the world but terrible at giving the kids what they need the most: love and support.

When the remaining members of the team -- Luther aka Spaceboy, Diego aka the Kraken, Allison aka the Rumor, Klaus aka the Seance, Number Five, and Vanya aka the White Violin (but only after discovering her apocalyptic powers as an adult) -- return home for Sir Reginald's funeral, things only get more complicated. Spaceboy struggles with depression, Kraken is unable to get close to anyone, Rumor's marriage is breaking down, Seance falls deeper into drug addiction, and Number Five...well, he's actually doing alright...

By the end of Dallas, the team is more broken than ever before and it seems that only distance from each other can help mend these characters. Well, a decade was plenty of distance, a lot of time for Way to consider what came next for his children. By the time Way started working on Umbrella Academy again in 2014, he found that the way he thought about these characters had changed.
"I think I understand them in different ways now," Way says. "I think I'm less hard on them. I think I've found more compassion in dealing with them. I've put them through some really hard things and sometimes I feel bad about it."

These days, Way is interested in really digging into the trauma these characters have faced and maybe even giving them some space to heal.

"Trauma is a very intense thing and a very real thing and everybody experiences it in some way. I obviously did not have a childhood like these kids. But I did have a childhood in which I needed to escape a lot."

Hotel Oblivion certainly feels like an escape for the Hargreeves siblings, who are spread out all over the globe (and in the afterlife because that's how the Seance rolls). The first four issues are a sort of exhale for these characters, who are still recovering from major losses, heartbreak, and the whole JFK business.

After all the blood, explosions, betrayals, and deaths, Hotel Oblivion is meant to be cathartic, according to Way: "It's about the past. It's about mistakes. It's about fathers. It's about redemption. It's definitely a therapeutic series."

At the center of the story is still the concept of family. The Rumor is trying to help Vanya recover from the injuries she suffered in Apocalypse Suite while also trying to reconnect with her civilian family and working with the ultra-violent Number Five on his latest gambit.

Most surprising is the mending relationship between the Kraken and the team's former leader, Spaceboy. While stuck in an eternal sibling rivalry in the first two arcs -- Kraken challenges Spaceboy's leadership, Spaceboy condemns Kraken's impulsivity -- these scarred heroes start to reach out to each other in Hotel Oblivion. It's a change in the dynamic of the team that didn't seem possible back in 2009.

"Kraken's interesting and his relationship with Spaceboy changes in this series," Way explains. "A lot of it had to do with the fact that I was tired of writing that type of character, that rebellious fool, that Wolverine kind who always gives the leader shit. I never saw Kraken always being that way. I thought he was gonna be that way in the beginning and then he would grow."

Kraken, the loner who most resembles the "Batman" of the group, is actually the one trying to reunite the superhero team. Meanwhile, an overweight Spaceboy, who fled to Tokyo after the events of Dallas, is dealing with an existential crisis and no longer interested in leading his siblings.

"He's searching," Way says of Spaceboy. "I like the idea of a lost leader. A leader that doesn't have the answers anymore. Who's maybe not even a leader anymore. So I loved exploring that with Spaceboy."

Spaceboy isn't the only leader in need of redemption, though. Even Sir Reginald deserves a re-examination, according to Way.

"I learned more about him. I learned more about his history in working through this stuff, and I can't reveal any of that, obviously. But I've learned to find even compassion for him. Like there's a reason he is the way he is. Over the course of the series, you discover that reason of why he is this kind of ruthless person."

For these heroes, their father remains the catalyst for their problems. Will these characters ultimately find peace (and maybe even love) where it previously eluded them? It's too early to say, but at the very least, the search for the Hotel Oblivion gives them a new place to inevitably find and help each other.

"The story at one point was gonna be a little bit less about the people that live in the hotel, but over time I found that I really wanted to tell their stories, so there are a lot more characters in Hotel Oblivion than there were nine years ago."

The Hotel Oblivion, with its faceless bellhops and cockroach entrees, might remind one of Captain Willard's stay in Saigon in the opening minutes of Apocalypse Now. Willard's hotel room is a sort of purgatory before his journey back to hell, a way station where he's left to relive his trauma over and over until he's lying naked on the dirty carpet, crying, bleeding, and a bit mad.

Way's prison isn't quite as dramatic as that, but it's doubly as terrifying. When Sir Reginald sends the villainous Murder Magician to the hotel, we get to see firsthand the lengths to which Sir Reginald will go to "save the world," letting the bad guys rot in a TripAdvisor hellscape without a trial.

"The concept of Hotel Oblivion deals a little bit with capital punishment," Way explains. "I think in terms of current events and the state of our world right now, in future Umbrella Academy volumes, we'll see a little more of that creep its way into the book. But right now I really wanted to explore capital punishment because we know what a super prison is."

Watching the villain watch a grotesque Lynchian cartoon about mice on the hotel television with nowhere else to go for the rest of eternity, you even start to feel for him. In one panel, he looks out his window at the desert beyond the hotel, surrounded on all sides by desolation and the bony carcasses of animals. This place could break him, the villain's face seems to say (Ba's pencils bring depth and emotion beautifully to this book).

"You don't really see mainstream comics exploring the ramifications of somebody having to live in Arkham Asylum and what that does to somebody psychologically. Or if the Phantom Zone is ethical punishment. So it deals a lot with that."

Way took inspiration from his real-life travels when creating the titular hotel, which he based on the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon where he stayed while working on the original Umbrella Academy stories.

"It's a very old hotel and it's kinda classy, but it's also a little bit old. From the outside, it kinda looks like the Hotel Oblivion," Way recalls. "I would be really isolated in that room just writing. I started to become inspired by the environment that I was in."

There was a time in Way's life when the writing didn't come so easy, though. Way told EW back in October that writing Umbrella Academy while on the road with My Chemical Romance became more difficult, describing the twilight of the band during that final tour as "really taxing." The band broke up in 2013 and Way jumped straight into a solo album, Hesitant Alien, soon after, further delaying his comic book work.

Way has a steady place to work now, a studio separate from his house. That's where the magic happens.

"I wake up really early, I hang out with my daughter, get her ready for school, I take her to school, I come back, I meditate, and then I start writing. And that takes up most of my time. I only make music on Fridays."

Since our chat, Way has released two groovy new songs, "Baby, You're a Haunted House" and "Getting Down the Germs," which show the artist moving away from both his emo pop roots and Britpop revival sensibilities to a more psychedelic sound. "Germs" even has a flute solo courtesy of renowned flutist Sara Andon. A third song, "Dasher," is a lovely Christmas ballad about a girl who falls in love with a reindeer, with backup vocals by Lydia Night of The Regrettes. Yeah, this is Way like we've never heard him before.

Way is also working on the upcoming Umbrella Academy Netflix series. The first season, which is set to debut on Feb. 15, will adapt both Apocalypse Suite and Dallas. That's quite a bit of ground to cover (across at least three different time periods), but Way, who has spent a lot of time on set as an executive producer, says that the series is going deeper into certain parts of the story than the comics did.

"Since they have more time, they can get deeper into things that may only be like two pages in the comic. And that's been really cool. They explore the characters a lot more." Way teases that both arcs "were expanded for the TV show. There are new elements in there. They've kind of enhanced the experience of those two graphic novels."

Beyond Hotel Oblivion and the Netflix show are more comics. In fact, Way is already developing the fourth arc with Ba.

"I'm putting all my notes together. So basically I know that there are eight volumes of Umbrella and I know what happens in each of them. I know what happens in the fourth. We're basically gonna take about three months between Hotel and when we start series four."

What can Way tease about series four? The arc will explore the biggest mystery at the center of their superhero universe, according to Way.

"We're finally gonna get to see some more of the 43 individuals." But he won't say any more about that.

Don't worry, though. The writer knows that you've been waiting a long time to learn more about these characters, to spend more time in their world. At the end of our chat, he opens up about how much it means to him that fans continue to ask for The Umbrella Academy.

"I just really appreciate them sticking around," Way says. "If people didn't care about it, I don't know, maybe I would have moved on to something else. But they still really want to know the whole story and so it's my duty to tell that story. I'm gonna give them what they want."

The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #1-4 are out now. Issue #5 is out on Feb. 6. The Netflix series premieres on Feb. 15.

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Gerard Way - Dasher (feat. Lydia Night) [Official Lyric Video]

2019-01-03T19:17:00.001-08:00

Gerard Way - Getting Down The Germs [Official Lyric Video]

2019-01-03T19:15:00.001-08:00

NEWS: Frank Iero Announces New Band

2019-01-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

Frank Iero has been hard at work on solo material since My Chemical Romance called it quits in 2013.
The guitarist put out an album with frnkiero andthe cellabration in 2014, and two with Frank Iero And The Patience in 2016 and 2017. Now, the singer-songwriter is beginning his third chapter as a solo artist by announcing the name of his new band. Iero shared a video on Instagram revealing the new project's name, Frank Iero and the Future Violents, and hinting that new music would be coming this spring. "here’s to a happy and healthy new jeers," he captioned the black and white clip.
Check out the post below.

View this post on Instagram

here’s to a happy and healthy new jeers. xofrnk #FIATFV - Spring 2019 chapter 3

A post shared by frnkiero (@frankieromustdie) on Dec 31, 2018 at 2:27pm PST

Iero isn't the only former MCR member who's working on a new project. Gerard Way gave us three new songs in 2018 — "Baby You're a Haunted House," "Getting Down the Germs"and "Dasher" — and is gearing up to premiere the television adaptation of his comic book series The Umbrella Academy on Netflix next month.

Although he hasn't officially announced the follow up to his 2014 solo debut album, Hesitant Alien, the new singles make us think that announcement should be coming sooner rather than later. This year is shaping up to be a good one for MCR fans, and we're only three days in!

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VIDEO: Gerard Way - 'Baby, You're a Haunted House' Official Music Video

2018-11-04T01:47:00.003-08:00