I See You . . .

I wasn't happy with the way the pictures of  this article turned out so I took the time (a lot of time) to re-type it for you. I hope you enjoy.

The person who deserves all the credit for this is unapologetic apathy on imnotokay.net so please so if you're ever over on that site, look her up and say hi and thank you to her.
Here: http://www.imnotokay.net/board/topic/20908/55/



It's the kind of cute, gimmicky slogan that tempts headline writers whenever they morbidly military-garbed superstars grace the press with their cosmetically clouded faces and lofty declarations about mortality. Yet it's not until you surf the pages of ImNotOkay.net and MyChemicalRomanceForum.com, or witness a thousand teens in the pit, roaring, "I am not afriad to keep on living!" in a communal burst of affirmation, that this claim of salvation becomes a palpable principle.

"It's the mantra of the band," says bassist Mikey Way, from MCR's tour bus, which has just traveled 34 hours, from San Diego to the Riverside Theater, in frigid Milwaukee. "Kids would say they were gonna kill themselves, then they heard our music. It's great when you can impact someone like that. It's our mission."

I even wrote my suicide letter. I even planned a date that I was
going to kill myself. But then, My Chemical Romance came into my
life..... They helped me believe that I wasn't alone, that someone
actually cares. Their music inspires me so much. And I cannot
thank them enough for giving me a reason to live. For giving me a
reason to be myself. Thank you, MCR, for saving my fucking life.

The My Chemical Romance phenomenon bridges two of the new millennium's most significant, if far-flung, cultural convulsions: the tragedy of 9/11 and the launch of MySpace. Than'ts heavy stuff for a Jersey band that thrashed around that state's beasement punk scene before graduating, in 2004, to lavish arena rock and the kind of worshipful success that has made earnest believers of even themselves. Not that the role of pump rock'n'roll savior didn't take some getting used to. With every online post crediting them with rescuing another soul, devotion to the band approaches religious fervor. "I'd meet these kids that were outsiders," says frontman Gerard Way. "And I realized they're looking to us for the anwser. It started to scare me."

Any fear of that responsibility has since turned into an embrace.

On the strength of their 2002 debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, these former misfits - Mikey, 26, his brother Gerard, 29, drummer Bob Bryar, 27, and guitarists Frank Iero, 25 and Ray Toro, 29 - built a die-hard following playing New Jersey basements and VFW halls. But it wasn't until 2004's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and the vidoe-driven success of its post-Weezer anthem of teenage disaffection "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" and the maniacal dirge "Helena" that My Chemical Romance found their voice.

*All posts taken from MySpace and the message boards of ImNotOkay.net, and MyChemicalRomanceForum.com They have been edited for clarity.

And the voice of a new generation of jaded youth - the unloved, the overlooked, the burned, bruised, and battered, punks, preps, jocks, and  the sworn enemies of punks, preps, and jocks.

Fittingly for a band that, more than any other since Smashing Pumpkins' med-'90's run, has had tremendous therapeutic impact on its fan base, they often soundcheck wit the Pumpkins' "Zero." Consummate Corgan pupils that they are, MCR followed Three Cheers with a dip into the infinite sadness: last fall's ambitious The Black Parade, replete with Mellon Collie-meets-Night at the Opera bravado, plus a flash of Sgt. Pepper's panache.

They appeal to the darker side of my personality that I suppress to
be the happy bunny most poeple think I am.

The Black Parade furthers a mystical connection to 9/11 that's been with MCR since budding comic-book artist Gerard witnessed the Twin Towers crumble and immediately resolved to start a band and change the world. In fact, the new album's first single, "Welcome to the Black Parade," recieved its initial radio play within a week of September 11, 2006. "There was no plan behind that," says Toro. "It was a coincidence. But it's crazy that whenever [the 9/11 anniversary] passes, it always brings me to the band."

Sonically and thematiclly, the new album represents, as Mikey puts it, "the definitive My Chemical Romance." If abandoning the noir emo of the first two albums for the Quenn-channeling bombast of The Black Parade, seemed like an odd leap to some, it didn't to Toro. "Our sound has matured into what we always wanted," he says, "[From the start], we envisioned ourselves as a big rock band that played epic songs. It just took awhile to get there."

Likewise, the band has moved beyond its funereal fashion osbessions and macabre lyrical preoccuptions and toward a more affirming message. Using the fictional story of a protagonist called the Patient, The Black Parade delivers a carpe diem call. "He's an Everyman who realizes his time is up," Iero says, referring to the  Patient. "He didn't live his life to the fullest and wishes he had another chance."

Each of the band's albums involves some kind of story line (Bullets follows a couple of Bonnie and Clyde types; Three Cheers recounters the devilish efforts of a man - possibly the Clyde figure - to reunite with his late lover), But Gerard isn't coy about it. "Every fiction the band has used is just a layer over very personal things," he says. "That first record's about a bad breakup. The second's about my grandma's death. And the third's about amking the choice to live your life." It's this last concept that has rallied the band's most fragile and rabid followers.

"What sticks out in my mind when we play," says Bryar, "are kids just breaking down and crying in the front row. Perhaps that happens to a lot of bands... but it's different for us. The music brings out shit in them. It's a release."

They fill a void... a missing part of me ... a part of my heart and
soul... a part of my confidence. Their music makes me happy. Their
music makes me feel beautiful.

"Sometimes, honestly, I feel we're moderating [a support group]," says Gerard. "We Tap into dark stuff from the high school years, and it's our responsibility to bring kids a positive, nonviolent solution." Without dismissing the collective catharsts provided by MR concerts (hich continue in late February wit hte first leg of an arena tour), the impact of the mosh pit pales next to the band's powerful online presence.

MCR's MySpace page boasts over 3,000 comments per day - ranging from thank-you notes to appeals for like-mided allies. (By comparison, the daily comments on the Strokes' MySpace page barly number 150.) the fan sites and message boards transcend mere idol worship, though. They offer visitors a forum to discuss topics ranging rom the relatively mundane (fashion) to the deeply troubling (cutting yourself). Threads titled "My Chemical Suicide Story" or "It's a Band to Save Your Life" not only honor the group but also have helped establish MCR as the avatars of a superhighway supprt system. "The fans look out for each other," notes Mikey. "It's like a gang - but not in a negative way."

They have given me a reason to live and to keep on living.
Seriously, if it wasn't for them, I would be dead right now... MCR are
like my guardian angels. lol

But who's looking out for the band? Turns out even saviors need salvation.

While recording The Black Parade last year in Los Angeles, MCR moved into athe allegedly haunted Paramour Mansion. "When you're in a band like this, there's this persistent feeling of being torn apart by external forces, that you're always surrounded by wolves waiting to eat you," explains Gerard. The combination of the Paramour's Shinkg-esque diensions and the overwhelming expectations for Three Cheers' follow-up apparently proved too much for Mikey, who suffered what he calls "a series of nervous breakdowns" before temporarily leaving the band.

"All the things that have happened in my life, mixed with the expectations, collapsed on me," Mikey says, alluding to among other things, his clinical depression and his father's (nonfatal) heart attack during the Three Cheers tour. "I started mixing antidepressants with alcohol, which made me manic-depressive. I had this feeling I wouldn't make it through another recond, so I left."

Mikey's hiatus forced the members to reconsider the project and ultimately galvanized the rest of the band, who were battling their own doubts and fears.

"The anxieties and pressures started to build and give me nightmares, too," recalls Gerard. "When [Mikey left], we finally had to face these issues. I had found this painting called March of the Saints in this dungeon bathroom in the house and thought about precessions, Joan of Arc, stuff from childhood, All this Catholic guilt and doubt. I started investigating that and soon saw patterns in the songs."

With Mikey back in the fold, the band responded to Gerard's Parade epiphany with a surge of creativity taht yielded the album's most exhilarating moments ("Cancer," "Sleep"), culminating in "Famous Last Words." "That song's so undeniably powerful because it was born out of that period," say Gererard.

And yet the anthem, with its clarion chorus, "I am not afraid to keep on living," had to survive crisis before it could deliver catharsis.

I think I just died. I love it 'cause it's not an ordinary performance
video, where bands just... well, play. It actually shows MCR doing
their thing. Their intensity. Like the part when Frank suddenly
stops playing and sits on his knees gasping. And the end, with
Bob's injury, breaks my heart every time.

In August, Bob Brary nearly died while filming the video for "Famous Last Words." And his wasn't even the first injury associated with the clip. Earlier in the shoot, Gerard destroyed the ligaments in one ankle after, he says, he was "tackled accidentally" by Iero.

This video sequel to the new album's "Welcome to the Black Parade" clip shows the band performing before the Black Parade float, which has been set ablaze in some barren waseland. On the set, Bryar was positioned too close to the flames and his pants caught fire. Watch the video closely and you can see the accident unfold in real time.

Bryar's third-degree burns called for a skin graft, but rather than go to the hospital, the drummer found a doctor to treat his wounds in the hotel room. A staph infection follwed, which spread with abandon. "An abscess was resting on my brain," Bryar says. "I couldn't talk. When I tried to leave the hospital, they said I'd die in two days if I left. So I sat back down."

But for Bryar, that wasn't the worst of it. "We canceled three shows" he laments. "I hate canceling shows. We pride ourselves on giving fans something to do. If they are going through some shit, they can go to a show and heal. I didn't want to let anyone down."

Real men wear makeup.

From the gothic glissades of "Helena" to the apocalyptic cavalcade of "Black Parade," MCR are dedicated to the visual side of music-making - as if Bryar's "sweet scar" (as he now calls it) and the unnatural stiffness on the left side of his face weren't sufficent proof.

"The visual elements is another tool that helps tell the story," Toro says. "The videos ar an exercise in creativity - the fun stuff where you let your wildest imagination come to life. Rock music is becoming stale. Let's put the fun back."

In addition to MCR, band like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco are returning rock videos to their mid-'90's glory days, when highly conceptual, story-oriented, and just plain awesome clips like Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" reigned. But the man most responisble for this charge stand surprisingly uncertain.

"Sometimes I think it has gone so far that it takes away from the music," says Gerard, a Rocky Horror Picture Show freak who now models MCR's aesthetic on the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children) and Terry Gilliam (Brasil). "I question it because I believe that much in the music. When we talk about this arena tour, we talk about how can we keep it a rock show, how can we keep it about the five people. The visuals give your work its art, but the part that saves lives is how forthcoming we are with personal information and the music."

Indeed, that honesty can get muddled amid too much makeup. This never seemed more apparent than on the 2006 live CD/DVD Life on the Murder Scene, which features footage of a visibly intoxicated Gerard Way throwing up behind a bus. "One of the hardest things to deal with is looking foolish," says Gerard, who's been sober for two years. "To create a mythology, you have to be an open book. It lends a certain turth to that mythology. It was important to show how foolish I was and send a  message that there's no glamour [in that]."

Find that one thing that fills you with utter joy, and hold on to it,
as long as you can.

My Chemical Romance do not care about being called sellouts. They abandoned their screamo origins. And they relish their place next to Fergie on TRL."If you can reach more people, you'd be stupid not to do it," proclaims Bryar. "we never waved the punk-rock flag, and we've always been honest about our ambitions beyond playing basements," adds Gerard, which could mean an even softer sound on future albums, to the dismay of punk poyalists in basements everywhere. "I already feel we want to create something new, "Toro changing. There could come a time when you hear "Cancer" followed by "My Humps" on the same station. That's nothing short of amazing. When you get that big, you're having an effect on culture."

And for MCR, what does that effect translate to? Hope regained. Lives no longer on the brink of oblivion.

"When this stops being special, when we become part of  the problem, it will be time to quit," Gerard says, "It can happen next recond or five records from now. When this stops meaning something, we'll all walk away."

My, I have a lot of friends on my friends list. Only thing is I don't know 75% of you. How sad. Please, if you've never properly introduced yourself, now's a good time. This would be the perfect opportunity to do so.

Hi! My name is Millie, I'm 29 year old and I'm a Buzznet Junkie. Along with that sad fact comes a happy one - I LOVE MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE! What's your favorite MCR song right now? Holla!

Well, I've been getting a lot of people asking me how to do screencaps. I'm sure there's lots of ways to do them but this is how I do it:

1, I find a good quality video, I get mine from youtube.com because I can't view a lot of the stuff on other sites.
2, During the video, pause it whenever you see a good 'picture'
3, Hold down the Alt key, then press the Prt Scrn Button at the top of your keyboard
4, Minimize the youtube screen
5, Open up Paint or PaintBrush or whatever painting or drawing program you have
6, Click on Edit, then paste
7, Crop the piece of the picture you want.
8, Minimize that PaintBrush and open a second PaintBrush
9, Click on Edit, then paste.
10, Hide the white box so that it doesn't show up on your picture
11, Click on File, Save As
12, Don't forget to save it as a jpeg image at the bottom where it says 'Save As Type:'
13, Upload on Buzznet
14, Done

I hope this works for you. If you know of a better way, please let me know. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll reply on your page. Take Care!

xoxo, Millie

 A MESSAGE ABOUT THE JIMMY KIMMEL PERFORMANCE

A note from the people behind the scenes at Jimmy Kimmel Live

"Unfortunately, due to a production error, the rehearsal footage for "My Chemical Romance" aired on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" Monday night in lieu of their proper performance.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused the band or their fans.  Please tune in on Monday, January 15th when their actual performance will be broadcast -- complete with fireworks."

The Black Parade...the new album from My Chemical Romance - out now.