Mayday Parade

Mayday Parade
Mayday Parade at the 2008 Buzz Bake Sale
Background information
Origin	Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Genres	Pop Punk, alternative rock, indie rock, Emo[1]
Years active	2005—present
Labels	Fearless (2006–present) ILG (2011–present) Atlantic (2009–2011)
Associated acts	Go Radio Kid Named Chicago Defining Moment Stages & Stereos
Website	maydayparade.com
Members
Derek Sanders Jeremy Lenzo Alex Garcia Brooks Betts Jake Bundrick
Past members
Jason Lancaster

Mayday Parade is an American rock band from Tallahassee, Florida. The band formed in 2005 when members of popular local Tallahassee bands Kid Named Chicago and Defining Moment converged in 2006. Their debut EP Tales Told by Dead Friends was released in 2006, and sold over 20,000 copies without any label support.^[2] On July 10, 2007, Mayday Parade released their debut album A Lesson in Romantics. After signing to Fearless Records in 2006, the band also signed onto a major label with Atlantic Records in 2009.^[3] Their second studio album, Anywhere But Here was released on October 6, 2009^[4] and their third album, entitled Mayday Parade, was released on October 4, 2011. They will be headlining The 2011 Noise Tour powered by Journey's with fellow artists You Me at Six, There for Tomorrow, We Are the In Crowd, and The Make.

History

Tales Told by Dead Friends (2005–2007)

With an undecided name, the band went into the studio to record their first EP Tales Told by Dead Friends with producer Lee Dyess. During the week they spent recording in the studio, they decided on the name Mayday Parade. The band went on their first U.S. tour with Brandtson and Mêlée, then on another tour with Plain White T's shortly after the release of the EP.

A Lesson in Romantics and Lancaster's departure (2007–2008)

In January 2007, the band started to record their debut studio album, A Lesson in Romantics. In April, shortly after the album was completed, however, not released yet, Jason Lancaster left the band for personal reasons.^[5] He would later go on to form the band Go Radio. In a news article regarding Go Radio on Absolutepunk.net, Jason replied with reasoning why he left the band, as well as his relationship with the band.

...You guys should know things about this band that I can't tell you, but believe like I do that they are all good at heart, just a little misguided at times...Mayday was a big part of my life but ask them next time who wrote the album, I bet my name doesn't come up. Or why I am off the bio completely, or maybe how I am denied credit in the album for writing anything. Or maybe ask Derek how he can take credit in so many publications and reply to me "I understand if this means we can't be friends anymore" when I asked him about it. Ask Jake how easy it was to write me off when I had no more chorus' for him. We had been playing together for 6 years. I'm not bitter anymore and all will heal with time, but know the bands you love, and know they aren't always what they seem.^[6]

On August 6, 2007, Lancaster posted another response regarding his departure from the band on Go Radio's MySpace blog:

A lot of people keep asking about what happened with Mayday, and I still don't quite know what to tell them, other than we parted ways. I have to say that I was really upset about everything that was happening around me leaving the band, and I know that a lot of things were said on both parts that didn't really make a whole lot of sense. But in reality, I think everything came from the fear that I was about to lose 5 of my best friends...So for that all I can really say is I'm sorry guys...I hope that one day we can all be friends again and that you know I am leaving the door open for whenever you guys can bring yourselves through it again...I'm just waiting for you to say you still want it and that everything is cool.^[7]

The album was released on July 10, 2007. Mayday Parade supported their album on the 2007 Vans Warped Tour. The band made their first UK appearance in April 2008 performing at the Give it a Name festival in Sheffield and London. The band played the 2008 Vans Warped Tour and toured with All Time Low, The Maine, and Every Avenue in Fall 2008 on the Compromising of Integrity, Morality, and Principles in Exchange for Money tour.

Anywhere But Here (2009–2010)

The band began writing their new record in December 2008, the first writing process as a band without lyricist Lancaster. The band finished recording in June 2009. The title track, "Anywhere But Here", was posted on their MySpace on July 28, along with a blog explaining that the first single of the new album will be called "The Silence", and would be released on August 11, 2009. On August 4, "The Silence" was released on Mayday Parade's MySpace and through iTunes. On September 9, Mayday Parade released another song from the album called "Kids in Love" to their MySpace page. The new album, entitled Anywhere But Here, was released on October 6, 2009.

Mayday Parade co-headlined both the 2009 Fall Ball tour with The Academy Is..., with supporting acts such as You Me at Six, The Secret Handshake, and Set Your Goals and the 2010 Take Action Tour along with We the Kings, A Rocket to the Moon, and There for Tomorrow The band covered the song "We Are the Champions" by Queen for the compilation album Punk Goes Classic Rock, released on April 27, 2010. They also recorded a cover of "In My Head" by Jason Derülo for the next release in the franchise, Punk Goes Pop 3, which was released on November 2, 2010.

Valdosta (2011)

In 2011, the band released an EP, entitled Valdosta (named after Valdosta, GA) that contained six tracks, including 2 brand new songs; "Amber Lynn" and "Terrible Things". The EP contained acoustic versions of "Kids in Love" and "Bruised and Scarred" from Anywhere But Here, "Your Song" from "Tales Told by Dead Friends" and "Jamie All Over" from A Lesson in Romantics. Valdosta was released through Atlantic and Fearless Records on March 8, 2011..

On March 10, Songkick recognized Mayday Parade as the hardest working band of 2010, with 194 bookings and 74,000 miles logged in the entire year, with Willie Nelson and Lady Gaga ranking #7 and #8 in comparison.^[8] Mayday Parade played all the dates on the Australian 2011 Soundwave Festival.^[9] The band also played Slam Dunk Festival (both North and South) in Leeds and Hatfield (UK) on 28 and 29 May 2011, coinciding with their UK tour with A Rocket to the Moon and We Are the In Crowd.

Mayday Parade (2011–present)

Written by the band in a beach house in Panacea, Florida, the self-titled album was produced by Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, who also produced A Lesson in Romantics.^[10] Kenneth Mount tweeted a picture of the album's tentative track list on April 13, 2011.^[11] Lead singer Derek Sanders also stated that "Oh Well, Oh Well" would likely be the first track.^[12] Four days later, Jake Bundrick, the drummer of Mayday Parade, tweeted to confirm that their third full-length album had been completed.

On July 6, 2011, Mayday Parade announced that they would be releasing their new self-titled album on October 4, 2011. They also released the track listing, revealing that the album had 12 songs.^[13] On July 27, Mayday Parade premiered the track "Oh Well, Oh Well" for the first time online at Alternative Press.^[14] On September 4, it was posted on Mayday Parade's Facebook page that they would be releasing a song from the new album, called "When You See My Friends" via iTunes on September 9th. This was posted followed by a series of pictures of the band captioned with lyrics from the song.

On October 4th, 2011 Mayday Parade released their new self-titled album, which quickly reached #5 on the iTunes albums list.

Band members

Current members

• Brooks Betts – rhythm guitar (2005–present)
• Jake Bundrick – drums, percussion, vocals (2005–present)
• Alex Garcia – lead guitar (2005–present)
• Jeremy Lenzo – bass guitar, vocals (2005–present)
• Derek Sanders – lead vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar (2005–present)

Former members

• Jason Lancaster – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2005–2007)

Album appearances (2006–2011)

Member	Album					Instrument
	Tales Told by Dead Friends EP	A Lesson in Romantics	Anywhere But Here	Valdosta	Mayday Parade
Derek Sanders	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Lead vocals, piano, acoustic guitar
Jake Bundrick	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Drums, vocals*
Jeremy Lenzo	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Bass guitar, vocals*
Alex Garcia	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Lead guitar
Brooks Betts	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Rhythm guitar
Jason Lancaster	Y	Y	N	N	N	Co-lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Daniel Lancaster	N	Y	N	Y	N	Additional vocals on "Jamie All Over"
Seth Mann	N	N	N	Y	-	Violin on "Amber Lynn", "Your Song", and "Bruised and Scarred".
Lee Dyess	N	N	N	Y	-	Cello on "Amber Lynn", "Your Song", and "Bruised and Scarred".

* - Played main instrument on all albums; vocals only after departure of Lancaster

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Chart positions				Sales
		Billboard 200	Top Heatseekers	Independent Albums	AUS[15]
2007	A Lesson in Romantics Released July 10, 2007 Label: Fearless	–	8	31	–	170,000[16]
2009	Anywhere But Here Released October 6, 2009 Label: Atlantic, Fearless	31	–	–	–	99,500+[17]
2011	Mayday Parade Released October 4, 2011 Label: Independent Label Group	12	–	2	84	26,800+[18]

EPs

Year	Album	Chart positions			Sales
		200	HEAT	IND
2006	Tales Told by Dead Friends Released November 7, 2006 Label: Independent, re-released by Fearless	–	–	–	20,000[2]
2011	Valdosta Released on March 8, 2011 Label: Atlantic, Fearless	127	–	–	–

Compilation appearances

• Punk Goes Pop 3 with "In My Head", originally by Jason Derülo
• Punk Goes Classic Rock with "We Are the Champions", originally by Queen
• Punk Goes Pop 2 with "When I Grow Up", originally by Pussycat Dolls
• Punk Goes Acoustic 2 with "Three Cheers for Five Years" (Acoustic)
• Warped Tour 2007 Tour Compilation with "Black Cat"
• Warped Tour 2008 Tour Compilation with "Jamie All Over"
• Warped Tour 2010 Tour Compilation with "If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?"
• LBM Music Compilation Vol. 3 (Fall Edition) with "Jamie All Over"^[19]
• Take Action! Vol. 7 with "When I Get Home, You're So Dead"
• Take Action! Vol. 9 with "The Silence" (Hurley Studio acoustic)

References

1. ^ "Mayday Parade". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p818546. Retrieved 2011-09-16. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Mayday Parade at Fearless Records". Fearless Records. http://www.fearlessrecords.com/viewband.php?band_id=31#self. 
3. ^ "Mayday Parade Interview". SomethingPunk.com. http://www.somethingpunk.com/interviews.php?iID=120. 
4. ^ "Twitter / Mayday Parade: Here's the secret!". Twitter, Mayday Parade. http://twitter.com/Mayday_Parade/status/2300340859. 
5. ^ Alternative Press Magazine
6. ^ AbsolutePunk - Go Radio Posts New Song
7. ^ http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=196400358&blogId=296310968 - Full Quote
8. ^ http://www.songkick.com/blog/2011/03/10/the-hardest-working-bands-of-2010/
9. ^ http://www.soundwavefestival.com/Lineup
10. ^ http://www.maydayparade.com/blog/writing-blog-update-1/
11. ^ http://lockerz.com/s/92108898
12. ^ http://commonrevolt.com/post/4998291304
13. ^ "Mayday Parade Album Release Date/Track Listing". http://propertyofzack.com/post/7312228268/mayday-parade-album-release-date-track-listing. Retrieved July 6, 2011. 
14. ^ http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/exclusive_stream_mayday_parades_oh_well_oh_well/
15. ^ "Chartifacts - Week Commencing: 10th October 2011". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on October 11, 2011. http://webcitation.org/62LiSSq6e. Retrieved October 11, 2011. 
16. ^ "Mayday Parade". Asquaredmgmy.com. http://asquaredmgmt.com/artistsdetails.php?id=60. Retrieved 20 August 2011. 
17. ^ "Album Charts for 10/12/2009". Hits Daily Double. 2009-10-12. http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/sales/archcht.cgi?cht366. Retrieved 2010-07-02. 
18. ^ "This week in numbers: Mayday Parade sells over 26K, Blessthefall lands at #32, Jack's Mannequin sells 31K!". indiestar.tv. 2011-10-14. http://grafwall.indiestar.tv/. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 
19. ^ LBM Music Zine

External links

• http://www.maydayparade.com/
• Mayday Parade on Myspace
• Mayday Parade at PureVolume