Frank's blog

hello friends,

happy 3rd week of April! Things have been super crazy on the My Chem front; songs written and recorded, coffee consumed...lots of coffee, babies being ultrasounded, crazy ideas becoming reality, and absolutely no sleep for the caffeinated and weary...ever.

To all the collectors out there who snatched up the limited edition art prints 1&2, congrats and thank you's all around, we hope you enjoy them. Its rare we get to do something really special like this, and it feels good to offer you guys something a little more personal than just another t-shirt design. (but if tshirts is whatcha crave, there are new designs coming soon I promise.). Installments 3&4 will be revealed next month, so keep checking back. Register to the site now to receive updates and info on prints and other My Chem related topics before anyone else. In the mean time here are two new pics from the studio for your inspection.

And for all of you thinking about entering the speed-reading lyrics contest, Good Luck! I cannot wait to see these videos, channel the micro machines guy and let it rip. Oh and NO CHEATING! Mumblers and people who speed up video tape will be disqualified and farted upon by my gaseous dog, Professor Buckley.

Now without any further adieu....what everyone looks forward to every April...another installment of:

A VERBAL HISTORY: Catchphrases of the Modern Age as told by My Chemical Romance.

Episode 19- "I don't mean to step on the dog..."

It was a warm spring night at the local recording studio when auxiliary musician Jamie Muhoberac first coined the popular phrase "I don't mean to step on the dog". Jamie, who has worked on the last 2 MCR records and is most famous for "pizza organ" and "crazy ray gun sounds", uttered the now infamous line as he literally almost stepped on Raymond Toros beloved Yorkshire Terrier, Jack Bauer. It was not long before the phrase found a home in the heart and on the lips of today's youth. Appearing on tshirts and bumper stickers the phrase quickly replaced Jesus's quote to the apostles, "I don't mean to shit on anyone's birthday cake here, but one of you is going to betray me." as today's most popular way to tell people you're not trying to bum them out, before saying something that will definitely bum them out. Witnesses to the invention of Jamie's catch phrase were quoted as saying "It just makes more sense. I mean really, when's the last time someone shit on your B-Day cake? And if it did end up happening, you can only experience that feeling once a year! Where as in today's day and age someone literally steps on a dog every 3 and a half minutes." (This statistic does not include Albania or Puerto Rico, and therefore cannot actually be proven.)

xofrank

Hello Friends,

It's time to unveil the first 2 installments of our limited edition photo set. My intention with these prints is to allow you to own a small portal into the creative life of the band over the past year.

From my eyes to yours, moments you may hear on your stereo later this year but would otherwise have never been witnessed. It's an experiment in slowing down the speed of sound, allowing you to view the action months before hearing the reaction, and time to imagine what these images will sound like. I hope you enjoy viewing these memories half as much as we did making them.

Print #1 is entitled "vocalocity", it is an image of Gerard taken in the spring of this year laying down vocal tracks in Los Angeles. There is something magical that happens when Gerard enters a vocal booth, some of my favorite images I've ever captured are of him doing just this. He has the rare ability to convey emotion, ideas, and movement through his voice and It happens to please the ears quite a bit...he sings well...get it?

Print #2, "timing is everything". This image is of my favorite guitar player, Ray Toro, laying down tracks in Los Angeles around thewinter of '09. The amount of passion and intensity Ray puts into every note he plays is matched only by his level of skill. He makesengineers duck and cover and guitar players weep with envy. In the real world he's a nice guy who likes gadgets, but when there's a guitar involved, Ray Toro is a god.

These photos are very limited and, in order to cut down on slimy Ebay-ers, will only 1 of each print will be available per person. You can buy 1 of either print for $30 or bundle prints 1&2 for $50. If you are a registered mychemicalromance.com user you will be notified before anyone else and recieve first crack at obtaining these prints. (*hint hint if youre not, sign up now!)

Check back next month for installments 3 & 4.

Until then, peace, love, and anthropophobia. xofrank

Hello Friends,

Are you finally ready for some good news? Let me hear you say, "Eh, OK but make it quick".

Well my darlings, as I sit down to write to you, we are in the studio working on a brand new song. Ray's laying down some guitar tracks and I must admit, it's kicking my brain in the pants. I can't wait for you guys to hear this stuff, the songs we ended up writing this past month are so far advanced from where I thought this record would end up, it's not even funny.

Let's put it this way... say you had a time machine, and used said time machine to go back in time 1 year, found me, and played me some of the songs we just wrote. I would absolutely say, "you're a liar, and a full blown crazy person"... partly because the technology of a time machine doesn't really exist, but mostly because these new songs are light years ahead of our creative head space last year.

What a journey this has been, arduous at times, but always resulting in the band reaching new heights. Which is how it should be with a band that is never satisfied with just "good enough"...if it doesn't change the game, it isn't My Chemical Romance. You as fans shouldn't expect anything less. It feels as though everything we've ever done has been leading up to this moment. Like our entire lives have been a drill preparing us to stumble upon what Gerard has been referring to as "the new shit god-dammit."

So lets get down to it, with these new songs, or "the new shit god-dammit", plus the songs we've written over the past year, we basically have enough material for about 2.5 records now. However, we feel this past month has raised the creative bar so high that only the best of the best can live in harmony on the new record. But who knows...down the line, some of the songs we wrote over the past year that don't make this record could possibly surface again as b-sides or fun movie soundtrack stuff. I think it would be kinda rad at some point to have you all hear the songs that led us to our new found creative enlightenment. Either way, I just wanted to keep you all posted and let you know the record is coming along swimmingly, and we're working hard on making it the best we possibly can... can't wait to wrap it up and give it to you.

OK, good news part 2 of 3: I don't know if you knew this, but I like taking photos, and I've been taking quite a few pictures over the past months, trying my best to document the recording process. Some of which came out really good, and I'm pretty proud of. Recently, we've decided to take a few of these photos and share them with you in a really cool way. The past few days I've been staying up very late hand stamping, numbering and signing a set of 6 very limited art prints that will go up for sale on this site in the near future. The art prints will be released 2 per month for 3 months and are limited to 200 each. In the meantime, 2 new pics are up now and we will be posting new shots that aren't included within the print set in the photo section every week. So keep checking the site for the release of these prints and the posting of new photos from the My Chem inner sanctum.

Last, but certainly not least, I am proud to announce the addition of two new members to the MCR extended family. Recently, my wife and I found out we will be having twins later on this summer. I cannot express in words how happy this makes us, it seems everything's turning up Milhouse. I just can't wait to meet the little ones, and may God have mercy on the world now that there will be 2 more Ieros wreaking havoc on the earth.

Until next time friends, let us drink to peace, love, and never taking any shit off anybody.

xofrank

Hello Friends,

Recently it seems as though every time we write to you guys we have bad news, and we apologize for that, but we've learned in life you can't have the sweet without the sour. As a band we have been very fortunate over the years that our sweet times have greatly outweighed the sour ones, and a great deal of that is owed to you, the fans. Which is why we wanted this news to come from us and not some bullshit gossip site.

As of 4 weeks ago, My Chemical Romance and Bob Bryar parted ways. This was a painful decision for all of us to make and was not taken lightly. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors and expect you all to do the same.

We also wanted to give you all a quick heads up on how the record is progressing. We have been writing some very powerful new songs so this week the four of us entered the studio once again, and what has been ending up on tape each night is some of the most exciting and honest work we have ever created.

Hello Friends,

I got some good news and I got some bad news....while in the studio recently, Gerard started having some problems with his voice. At first we weren't too concerned about it and thought it would pass, as these things usually do, but the longer it went on the more worried we all got so he went to see the doctor. The good news is he's getting the best treatment possible and is going to make a full recovery, trust me we couldn't be more relieved. The bad news is it's not gonna go away overnight and we have to do what we hate doing most, cancel shows.

When we started this band all we ever wanted to do was write songs that meant something to us and play them live for as many people as we possibly could, and now in our old age all we want is exactly the same thing... and thats why canceling shows kills us so much, playing for people is what we live for. Your off-time applause, your beautiful dirty faces, your raw energy, and your wretched little voices singing our lyrics back to us fuel our fire, you make us feel alive, and we love every single one of you for that.

So know that as excited as you guys were to see us, we were even more excited to see you. But in order to make sure that we can continue to create music and play it live for all of you for a long time to come we need to give G the time he needs to heal.

We are incredibly sorry for bumming anyone out by canceling, and we hope you find it in your hearts to understand. We promise we will be back in Australia to make it up to you guys/gals as soon as possible. We miss you.

Until we meet again, xofrank

P.S. Please send all angry letters to:

Gerard Way's Throat
666 Coffee and Cigarettes Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Please visit http://www.soundwavefestival.com for further information.

All of us have been watching the enormous destruction as a result of the Haiti earthquake. The daily horror these people are going through has been painful to see. If you are able, please donate anything you can at www.redcross.org to help the victims of this tragedy, or donate blood at your local blood bank. You can also send a $10 donation through the Red Cross by texting 'Haiti' to 90999.

this is for mikey way because he likes football.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1m5FK7S-FE&feature=youtube_gdata

Jim Carroll RIP

soon.