Watch Patrick Stump Perform National Anthem at Chicago Bears Game

Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump’s 2015 is already shaping up to be a good year.

The band is coming out with a new album in January, some tour dates worldwide have been announced, Stump’s wife welcomed a baby and he’s been chosen to fill a void at the judges’ table on The Sing-Off. Oh, and just last night, they performed on NBC’s hit singing competition show, The Voice. So what more could this Chicago guy ask for?

How about the chance to sing the National Anthem before one of your hometown teams’ games?

Stump did just that on Monday night before the Chicago Bears took on the New Orleans Saints, even though they did lose.

Check out Stump’s performance including “bombs bursting in air” below.

Fall Out Boy’s new album, American Beauty/American Psycho is due out on Jan. 20 through Island/DCD2. Pre-orders are currently available while the band recently revealed vinyl versions of the album will be available soon.

Watch Patrick Stump Get Welcomed to ‘The Sing-Off’

It’s official, Patrick Stump is now one of the judges on NBC’s acapella competition program, The Sing-Off.

If you’re thinking, “well, no duh. That was announced last month,” we know that, but the network just released a preview of the show featuring Stump being questioned by host Nick Lachey.

Like Stump said in the clip, he will be filling for Ben Folds for the season since the singer is currently off on tour leaving his seat on the panel vacant.

“How do I fill those shoes? They got the other nerdy rock star they could find,” joked Stump in the clip as well as revealing that his dad was excited for him, but then asked where the Ben was.

We guess Papa Stump is a fan for Ben Folds then?

The fifth season of The Sing-Off will begin next Wednesday (Dec. 17).

But, maybe the show needs to have a back-up plan for Stump. Fall Out Boy recently announced they would be releasing their new album, American Beauty/American Psycho on Jan. 20.

Considering that more often than not when a new record is released, the artist goes out on tour in support of it and we hope FOB do the same.

But then again, who can ever be too sure with them? Check out the preview clip of Stump’s introduction on The Sing-Off below.

Head “Back to Earth” with Steve Aoki and Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy and Steve Aoki?

If you think that the pairing sounds weird, then you might be right, but for some reason the DJ and the band have joined forces for Aoki’s new song, “Back to Earth.”

The song which was released yesterday, is featured on Aoki’s recently released new album, Neon Future I available through Ultra Music.

While the fact that the two spectrum of the music world came together on a track might seem kind of weird, the band and the DJ had tweeted pictures (as seen above) earlier in the year from inside the recording studio confirming that FOB’s Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz were working on something with Aoki.

Check out “Back to Earth” below.

With Fall Out Boy on the list, it appears that Aoki’s new album has a wide range of guests including Luke Steele from Empire of the Sun, Will.i.am, Flux Pavilion, and Waka Flaka.

As for Fall Out Boy, the Chicago-boys recently released a new song titled “Centuries” which will be featured on their upcoming new album although all we know the lead single and that it’s slated for a Spring 2015 release date.

Watch Fall Out Boy Participate in a Drum-Off

Fall Out Boy has just begun their “MONUMENTOUR” Summer tour with Paramore and New Politics this past week, and we have already begun to get some cool videos from it.

Yesterday, video surfaced of FOB covering Queen’s iconic song, “We Are the Champions” and today, video was released of frontman Patrick Stump and drummer Andy Hurley having a major drum-off to the tunes of, get this, Slayer AND Jay-Z.

Quickly, it seems like these kind of drum-offs will be a major staple of Fall Out Boy’s set during this tour, because video of them doing similar antics during their stop in Mansfield, MA and Hartford, CT has already made its way onto the internet.

Check out the video below and if you haven’t already gotten tickets to an upcoming date of the “MONUMENTOUR,” you might want to reconsider that.

Patrick Stump Write Blog About Tenth Anniversary of ‘Take This to Your Grave’

In what may seem like yesterday to the kids that grew up in the early 2000’s, Fall Out Boy’s hit album, Take This to Your Grave, celebrated its tenth years anniversary. In honor of the anniversary, Fall Out Boy frontman, Patrick Stump released a blog where he reflects on the past ten years which includes inspirations for songs that made it on the album and just reflecting on their journey to become a band.

“Ten years ago today, my band released our debut album Take This To Your Grave. We were just four unsuspecting Midwestern nerds named after a moderately obscure Simpsons character, living life like the background characters in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. We were totally unprepared for everything that followed.

Up to that point in the band’s history, we were merely something to do before we were forced to give in to the pressures of real life. We saw ourselves as a pretty cool excuse for a semester off of college. My accountant mother was also the ex-wife of a musician (my dad in point of fact). She knew empirically the odds weren’t in our favor and wisely advised me to consider planning on getting a real job. Instead of taking her advice, I went ahead and recorded an album.

Take This To Your Grave began as a demo…a supremely lucky long shot lightning strike of a demo. The band was a fractured and seemingly futureless mess at the time; No drummer, having also freshly lost our most recent of many revolving door rhythm guitarists. We had all entertained the thought that our collective candle for our little pop-punk odyssey was about to flicker out when the great Sean O’keefe offered to record us. We discussed a three song demo to be recorded at the legendary Smart Studios in Madison Wisconsin. We thought “What the hell? Why not?” We didn’t even have three new songs to record, but who doesn’t love a hearty bluff?

I remember writing “Homesick at Spacecamp,” on the plane home from visiting family only days before the session.

We’d asked our friend Andy Hurley to play drums on it. He said yes…granted he could make it to Madison in time after tracking an entire album earlier that day for another band in Chicago. I actually checked drums with Sean, under the assumption that I’d have to play them. We were literally about to start my first take of “Dead On Arrival,” when in walked Andy.

I guess in a lot of ways, in walked the actual beginning of Fall Out Boy as well; From that point onward, Joe, Andy, Pete, and I were a proper band. The three songs we recorded in what felt like two days (“Dead on Arrival,” “Homesick at Spacecamp,” and “Saturday,”) would go on to become three of our most enduring, and certainly the first time any of us heard ourselves in speakers and went “Huh! We definitely don’t suck!”

It laid the groundwork for many “Huh! We don’t suck!” Moments to follow on our four subsequent albums.

So here we are, ten years, two gold and two platinum albums, three MTV VMAs, a couple Kerrang awards, and a Grammy nomination later. Hell, we just had our second Billboard number one album a couple weeks ago! I guess I can say this now: Mom, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m getting a real job.

Thanks to everybody who’s supported us over the years. It continues to be a crazy ride.

Love, Patrick”

Pete Wentz Addresses Some Fan-centric Concerns

Last month, Fall Out Boy frontman, Patrick Stump addressed something that he had on his chest concerning the “hate” culture in the pop culture world. Now, bassist Pete Wentz is following suit with writing up several blog responses to some issues that have been boiling with in the fan base.

Some of the issues include pitting certain band members against each other, meet and greet opportunities that might not happen in the upcoming tour and the instant negative reviews the band got when they released the album art work for their upcoming album, Save Rock and Roll.

You can read some of his responses right here:

“just to address a few things that have been weighing on me lately…

1. if you are a fan of this band- please don’t pit us against each other. however you feel about patrick i feel it x a million. that was one of the things that led to us taking time off- we felt as though some of the base and media pit us against each other. were a team. we fight for the user.

2. I’ve had a few people in my timeline bugging out about me not sticking around after shows. last year i got a threat during a post show hang. i don’t feel comfortable or safe sticking around areas that aren’t secure because of that. if you happen to run into me for sure come over and say hey- i do not bite, much. until i feel a bit better about that stuff I’m gonna stick to m&g’s and what not.

3. the album cover: I’ve always felt a particular draw to this part of the world. during WW2 my grandpa was shot down over burma and lived in a prison camp there. my grandma joined the OSS (the precursor to the modern CIA) and set out to thailand to search for him. since he returned to his family and i have been constantly interested in the area. i had a friend enter and document huge butterflies along the river and the discontent of the people and monks at their treatment by the junta. we held our breaths and watched as thousands of red cloths resisted.i love this photograph.it is so simple but says so much.it screams to me of a brothers separated by worlds- but connected forever as brothers.

i sometimes thing there isn’t a stronger yet more complicated bond than brothers. i love this photo. it is peace in a violent world. it is change in the face of an everlasting constant. but at the end of the day it is art. it is supposed to challenge you. we do not simply make things that we think are molded to be consumed by our fans- that is not what dictates what we create.  it is our art- i hope that you wait until you here the accompanying album to judge how you feel about it- but at the end of the day its art and you aren’t supposed to just like it. we aren’t a reality television show, were a band.”

Patrick Stump Addresses the ‘Hate-Culture’

Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy knows a thing or two about what it feels like to be looked at in a negative way. Back in 2005, when the band was getting big, there was a huge hate for the “emo” scene which included bands such as My Chemical Romance, The Used and Panic! at the Disco.

Fast forward to 2013 and the announcement of the Fall Out Boy reunion became such a huge topic that it nearly crashed Ticketmaster when the pre-sale tickets for their upcoming tour hit the web. But like life, there are still people who will say that they are a useless, talentless band, but many will beg to differ.

In a recent post, Stump takes a look at the ‘hate-culture’ and how people find it necessary to hate things just because it’s the thing to do. He goes ahead and talks about the hate people have for Nickelback even though they have sold more albums and tour tickets than anyone knows and even how people treat him whether it be with Fall Out Boy or on his solo stuff.

Take a look at what the frontman has to say about this and tell me if you think he hit it on the head or if it’s just fluff.

Hey! Don’t You Just Hate That (every)Thing?

How many people reading this are fans of Nickelback? How about Dane Cook? Now, I can safely assume that, unless this blog gets reposted on a site dedicated to those respective artists, those questions would be met with tumbleweeds and the distant sound of crickets. Like Creed or Limp Bizkit or the “Dude! You’re getting a Dell!” kid, they’ve become ubiquitously hate-able. I would not be exaggerating to state I’ve simply never heard someone admit to liking them.

Why is that? Now, I’m not saying I like them. Like you (fellow pop culture spectator) I am honor-bound by the unspoken law that, no matter what, I am not allowed to say anything positive about these artists. What have they really done wrong? Have they offended me? Not really. I’ve been more offended by Michael Richards famous rant or Sean Connery’s statements about hitting women. I still watch Seinfeld and James Bond movies. Hell, the misogynistic subtext of James Bond movies offend more of my sensibilities than anything Nickelback ever did and yet I don’t have any problem escaping to a world of fast cars and women with offensively suggestive names (Pussy Galore? Like…are we not even trying?) Somewhere in the world at this moment, some snooty contrarian is probably defending the paintings of Adolph Hitler. Yet for some reason, here I am crippled by a vague and probably unwarranted desire not to appear to be a fan of Nickelback and Dane Cook.

That’s sad. In this generation of blazing wi-fi and scathing tweets, I think it’s very easy to lose sight of anyone else’s opinion. We’re so busy broadcasting our latest cultural disdain that we scantly notice anything we enjoy. “Oh man, this Rebecca Black kid is terrible! Let’s laugh at her!” has become more culturally relevant than “I really love this new Bilal record.” I read an entire article examining why we as a society don’t like Anne Hathaway’s (in my un-necessary opinion, lovely) face. Well, criticizing art and the artists that make it is a lazier pass time than creating or appreciating it. 

I’m not saying professional critics aren’t good at what they do. On the contrary; Some of my favorite writers are and have been. The problem is that now everyone has a blog. Everyone’s a critic. Hell, I have a blog. That I’m writing on right now. I have movie reviews posted on here somewhere. What gives me the right? The late Lester Bangs knew what he was talking about. Roger Ebert has written enough scripts to know when somebody sucked at writing one. They earned their stripes as have countless current critics (too many to list here and I think to name names would be a conflict of interest). These people are artists in their own right.

I’m an artist. Not necessarily a good one (and certainly not as a critic), but I consider myself one nonetheless. I look at the music I create as art. I work hard to craft it. When I perform, I make as many sacrifices as I find reasonable in order to perform to the best of my abilities. It affects the way I eat, the way I sleep, the frequency with which I can drink, the medications I take, the nightclubs I can go to (namely: None); I have to take my entire life a little more seriously if I’m going to not sound like the Cave of Wonders from Alladin. I study other musicians. I’m always working to improve my abilities as a songwriter or a guitarist or a producer or a programmer or a lyricist, etc. I’m sure Nickelback, at least somewhere in they’re career, are or were no different. They worked (and potentially still are working) to be the best damned Nickelback they can be. All of the agreed upon pariahs throughout pop-culture history put their identities into the thing we decry. 

And yet we derive our own identities from the act of hating. We connect on the things we are disappointed in. Some may argue that nothing in history gathers a crowd like complaining about Lady Gaga’s meat dress. Near-masturbatory complaining has brought together more people than cheap liquor. “Who hates the government?” “Cheeer!!!!” “Don’t you just hate Justin Bieber?” “Huzaaaaah!”

What is it about pop culture though? We don’t have the same reactions to, arguably, more personal tastes/decisions such as food. We actually physically put food into our bodies. We are literally made of the things we eat. We don’t go into a grocery store and go “Ew! Hey, look at barbecue sauce! Don’t you just friggin’ hate barbecue sauce?” No. Because clearly tons of people love barbecue sauce and if we don’t like it, we will quietly opt out of eating it. There’s not instant value judgement in removing yourself from the crowd of barbecue sauce lovers. There’s also not a decided alternative to barbecue sauce because, hell, the whole damn grocery store is an alternative to barbecue sauce. If anything, in regards to pop culture, we don’t just go out of our way to avoid the things we don’t like; If it’s the grocery store we more or less put on our coats, brush the snow off our cars, drive across town, find a parking space, run into the aisle, and stand in front of the product going “Haaaa! Fuck this thing!”  All I can guess is this must simply be more entertaining than wasting time actually ENJOYING something.

You see it all the time in the music community. We partition ourselves off into little sub-groups. From those sub-groups, even littler still. When I was a kid I loved a Chicago hardcore band called Los Crudos. They’re reuniting and I’m excited about that. However, I would be (based on my career path) designated as either a pop-punk, emo, or outright pop-singer and therefor I feel a slight tinge of worry at my admission that I love Crudos. Part of me thinks “Wow, anyone who’s heard of that band almost certainly hates mine and will almost certainly hate me and want to disassociate themselves from me,”. I can’t watch the HBO show Girls (which I love) without thinking to myself “Oh man, these characters and maybe even some of these actors would probably be too ashamed to be caught dead even knowing someone who still owns a Fall Out Boy shirt.”

Because we define ourselves by hate. It’s an obvious insecurity we can’t see in ourselves. I can’t tell you how many times I (either as part of Fall Out Boy or as a solo artist) have asked another artist to tour together or work together on a song and been shot down on the grounds of “Oh you guys are lame.” I can’t tell you how many times I (either as part of Fall Out Boy or as a solo artist) have probably unwittingly done the same exact thing to another artist. That’s strange. A simple “No,” would have sufficed. But for some reason, we as human beings have to stamp it into the ground and shout it from the rooftops; “Let it be known that I wouldn’t be caught DEAD in a St. Anger t-shirt…just in case you were wondering. And Twilight SUCKS!…probably.”

Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to go around playing nice and never admitting that they dislike things. That’d be ridiculous. But perhaps we as a culture have exhausted (at least for a little while) whatever can positively be gained by ignorantly dismissing things as loudly as we can. I started off talking about Nickelback. I really couldn’t tell you one of their songs. What qualifies me to say I dislike them? Dane Cook? He was actually pretty rad on that Louis C.K. show. Maybe next time I’m at the proverbial pop culture grocery store and someone offers me the proverbial barbecue sauce, I’ll politely decline and head to another aisle to purchase something I enjoy.

-patrick