Murder by Death.
My dad had been trying to get me to listen to this band for AGES. They just sat there, taking up space on my iPod for the longest time, and all I ever really heard was Killbot2000 and I didn't like it. So I deleted them and my dad gave me glares for a week. Then, one night sometime around the new year, he was on the computer and he started saying. "Oh, wow."
Me: "What?"
Dad: "Gerard Way does vocals on 'The Devil in Mexico.'"
Needless to say, there was a large gap in dad's CD collection for the next week as I LISTENED TO NOTHING BUT MURDER BY DEATH. I will forever kick myself for not listening to them sooner. (My dad would like to point out that if you like Murder by Death, listen to ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. They have something like eight albums, so, good luck.)
Left to right: Matt Armstrong (bass), Adam Turla (vocals, guitar), Dagan Thogerson (drums) and Sarah Balliet (cello, keys).
Let’s start with a history lesson, shall we?
Murder by Death wasn’t always Murder by Death. They used to be Little Joe Gould, and they looked like this.
Vincent Edwards (keys), Matt Armstrong (bass), Adam Turla (vocals, guitar) Alex Schrodt (drums), and Sarah Balliet (cello)
They’re all from Bloomington, Indiana (which is, according to Wiki, the seventh largest city in Indiana. It’s also the town where a little kid threw a rock at Soulja Boy’s tour bus.) They met at the University.
They were first signed on a little label called Eyeball Records. (Maybe you've heard of it.) They released an EP (four songs) on Eyeball before releasing Like The Exorcist, But More Breakdancing in the summer of 2002.
(this is a re-issue. Same art, different band name.)
Little Joe Gould is thanked on My Chemical Romance’s debut I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, which was released a month after Like The Exorcist.
Then, in 2003, the band did a split with Volta do Mar, who are now broken up. There are eight songs, three of which are Murder by Death. By this point they are now officially Murder by Death. The name is taken from a play/1976 movie, which is a spoof on murder mysteries, but they chose it because it’s dark but funny.
Their third album, Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left Of Them? is a concept album about the Devil destroying a small town in the South. The album begins with a song called "The Devil In Mexico," in which the Devil gets shot and Gerard Way screams his lungs out for the last minute. The disc has “Marc and Alex coming to your house and punching your ass apart,” on the copyright warning, which is upsetting because they didn’t get in personalised like My Chem, but whatever, onwards!
(outside slip cover)
The band then toured. A lot. In fact, they toured for three years. They played dates with My Chemical Romance, Thursday, Minus The Bear, Against Me! and William Elliot Whitmore, just to name a few.
They released a tribute 7" in that time for a close friend named Matt Davis, and there are only two songs on it and 1,000 copies in existence. It was released on Murder by Death’s own record company, called TentShow records.
In mid-2004, keyboardist Vincent Edwards left the band to go back to school.
Murder by Death are thanked on My Chemical Romance’s second album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, a whole bunch of times (MCR, Mikey, Ray, Frank and technically Gerard). Murder By Death has only printed one thank-you list, and it was on their most recent album and there was only like twenty-two people listed. (None of which were My Chemical Romance or it’s members.)
This brings us to In Bocca Al Lupo. It’s a Latin term, translating into “In the mouth of the wolf,” but its use in Italian means “good luck.” The title is a wish to the characters in the story, of which there is no main character as there was in Who Will Survive, but rather it’s twelve seperate tales of sin. Bocca was also released on TentShow.
They toured more after that, mostly opening for The Hush Sound. I think this is the most insane line up ever, even stranger than the entire tour where MBD opened for the Reverend Horton Heat. The number of Murder by Death fans that were horrified at the thought of staying for a Hush Sound concert and the number of Hush Sound kids who think Murder by Death are a bunch of assholes is just saddening, but whatever.
At one point or another, Alex disappeared and was replaced by a guy named Dagan. Dagan is from Indiana as well, and he and Matt met one day in the bathroom at a bar. No joke. The story is, apparently, that they were both taking a leak and studying the graffiti on the wall. Dagan points out one line in specific, lyrics from one of his favourite bands. He says something along the lines of “I wish I knew who wrote that.”
To which Matt replied “That was me.”
They’ve been friends ever since, and once Alex disappeared, Dagan was in the band.
On 4th March, 2008, my life was completed with the release of Murder by Death’s fourth album, Red of Tooth and Claw. It was released on Vagrant Records, and I have no idea what happened to TentShow.
There’s lot of evidence to say that RoT&C is a prequel to Who Will Survive. (Listen all the way to the end of Spring Break 1899)
Good Morning, Magpie was released on 6th April, 2010. Adam wrote it while spending a few weeks living in the Smokey Mountains. Like. He lived alone in the Smokey Mountains for a couple of weeks. Keeping up with their love of referencing other cultures,
/lecture! Now pretty pretty pictures!
This is Adam. (With a fan.) (And that's Vincent in the background.)
Adam Turla is the lyricist, vocalist, and guitarist. For the most recent album, his voice was compared to Johnny Cash, which was awesome until people starting using it as a negative thing. He has the most amazing guitar in rock and roll history (pictures later) and he ate snake eggs once. (Don’t try this at home. They had to cancel a show he was in so much pain.)
Adam took religious studies in university, and that is really obvious in his lyrics. He’s claimed he always had difficulties writing about “girls and normal song stuff,” so he took his studies (the fiction class he took helped out as well) got three concept albums out of them.
Adam’s Italian, twenty-six and five foot nine. He has a few tattooes, including one of a steam train on his bicep. He got it as “his travelling tattoo,” considering they’ve been doing nothing but for like seven years. I'm completley unsure how to describe his other ones, which can be seen in a bit of detail in the picture here.
I think he’s pretty. He doesn’t. (But he thinks Sarah is.)
He had a phase of really bad David Grohl-like long hair.
but. it's over now!
and, from the Brother video shoot:
glee.
Now, the flame guitar!
It is the most amazing guitar ever, but apparently, “It's also the largest and heaviest guitar ever as well." He doesn't play it at every show, and one time in October last year somebody asked where it was, and he replied:
"When the bewitching hour comes, so will the flame guitar. And then you will all become pregnant with fire."
If that doesn’t make you want to kiss the man’s feet/have his babies, you’re screwed, imo.
This is Sarah.
Sarah Balliet plays the cello and keyboards, but her cello comes first. They can’t play "You Are The Last Dragon" off of Like The Exorcist..., because a) they forget how and b) Sarah would have to become a “six-armed....middle eastern.....goddess.”
I believe Sarah took religious studies as well, but I can’t remember where I heard that so nothing’s set in stone. She doesn’t usually help with the lyrics, but she contributed a little bit to the new album (including the line “Oh baby it’s been so long, that even the roses hips are turning me on" from "Fuego!")
She often wears dresses. Recently, she’s also been doing the Amy Winehouse eyething, which normally would make me cringe but this is Sarah, and I love her. I don’t think she has any tattooes.
and Brother video shoot:
This is Matt.
Matt Armstrong plays bass. He has a bunch of tattooes. He reminds me of Bob Bryar, which is awesome.
Matt is one of the members who semi-regularly posts on their webiste's board, which is also awesome. Dagan's posted like twice and I have yet to discover and Adam or Sarah post.
(Seriously? I really hate this woman.)
This is Dagan. (SERIOUSLY. Same fan! Agh!)
Dagan Thogerson plays drums. He’s a very aggressive drummer, which helped shape Red of Tooth and Claw into the masterpiece that it is (not that the Dagan-less albums aren’t masterpieces, because trust me, they are. They are.) Dagan also has a few tattooes, but I have no idea what they are. He’s very Patrick Stump-like and always wears a hat.
PAST MEMBERS
This is Vincent.
Vincent Edwards played keys.
Vincent left the band in mid-2004 on very good terms. Tour life wasn’t for him, and he left to go back to school. They’re all still really close and Vincent played keys on "Ball & Chain" on the new record. He also played the 29th October Chicago show, and they bought him a bottle of whiskey and a huge cigar. The whiskey is just awesome, because it’s a really important part of Murder By Death. (They call in Vitamin W. They also mention it countless times, mostly on Who Will Survive and RoT&C.)
As much as I love and lust after Adam, I have the most insane crush on Vincent.
This is Alex.
Alex Schrdot played the drums. He’s really, really, really tall, and that’s almost all I know about him.
Here they are as a band, in their various stages:
(These are so small. But they're amazing.)
(Who Will Survive, And What Will Be Left Of Them?)
they dress up, occasionally.
but I think I like them best on stage, doing what they do best.
And seriously folks, these pictures are my reason for breathing:
This is Ray Toro of My Chemical Romance in a Little Joe Gould t-shirt.
and this is Frank Iero.
This is half of each band together. My love for this picture is painful, and I am heartbroken at its size and quality. If you have, or know of, a better one, please please please let me know.
l-r, this is (very old school) Adam, Mikey, Sarah, Ray, and Matt.
And I'm almost positive that Frank is wearing a Murder by Death shirt in LOTMS (MCR's first ever secret Santa) but I'm not entirely positive. If it isn't actually a Murder by Death shirt, then somebody should be sued for making nearly the same damn product and causing me emotional distress.
This is the only gay I could find:
And I really don't see this as gay. This is Adam being awesome, and Matt being really flexible. (Lessons from Frank Iero, maybe?)
Sarah isn't dating/enagaged to/married to/in any sort of romantic relationship with any member of the band, either. But as much as I love Alicia, I seriously ship Mikey Way/Sarah. I'm not entirely sure why, because there isn't any proof of that at all, but I think it would be amazing.
Links!
Official Videos (approx. chronological order.)
I’m Afraid of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe [Like the Exorcist…]
This is the emo kid song, folks. This video quality is horrible, and I think it’s about Alex trying to kill everybody. At least, I assume it’s Alex… because we never see him, but we do witness the deaths of Vincent, Adam and Matt. (I didn’t cry. Really. I almost did. But not quite.) and Sarah runs around a lot. *shrug*
Those Who Left [Like The Exorcist…]
WARNING, the video is 7:40. it’s 8:25 on the CD, so I don’t know what happened, but it’s 7:40 of Adam going insane, and Vincent looking like he’s a pure piano heaven. Matt does this totally awesome thing with his guitar, and yeah. Oh, did I mention Alex is shirtless?
This is part two of their Melody of… Evil I believe it’s called? The first part is called "Those Who Stayed," with a running time 3:57. Both are completely instrumental pieces (unless you count the screaming.)
Until Morale Improves, The Beatings Will Continue [Who Will Survive…]
Sarah’s dress hurts my heart, I want it so bad. The video, to me, is one of the greatest ever made, but only because I love story vids. SURPRISE ENDING DUN DUN DUN
Brother [Bocca]
“We get all our friends into a bar fight!”
Sometimes The Line Walks You [Bocca]
The truck Sarah’s driving is actually Adam’s (and I had a picture of him with it somewhere, but I can’t find it again. I’m starting to think I dreamt it) and I love this video as well because it actually has something to do with the song. Adam’s screaming “jailbreak!” while they’re jail breaking! It’s genius! Everybody should do this.
White Noise [Magpie]
As Long As Their Is Whiskey In the World [Magpie]
"The Devil In Mexico" isn’t up on youtube in any form, which is a crime against humanity. It’s just wrong. But it is on Last.fm and a few other similar websites, and if you listen to NOTHING else by this band, listen to it. The story is breathtaking, and Gerard towards the end? Ohmygod.
Helpful links
Their Myspace. They’re really good at keeping this up-to-date, and they post bulletins every few weeks about random shit.
Their official Website. This is amazing, and has a song-by-song for Who Will Survive, as well as a few songs off of Bocca. The news they post is always also on a Myspace bulletin.
Their Last.fm profile is really good, and they got an exclusive song-by-song with Adam for Red. (here.)
Buy them. Like The Exorcist... was reprinted under Murder by Death, but I really doubt your chances of finding it. I’m not sure about their availability in iTunes… my dad bought Like The Exorcist... ages ago, but I just checked again, and it’s gone. But check yours, because iTunes Canada is the worst thing on the planet. I think some garage sales have better selection than it does. Red of Tooth and Claw is there for sure, though. If you're a vinyl fan, then this band loves you (or maybe you love this band? idk.) They print a LOT of it, for all four albums.
Also: if you’re one of the Hush Sound kiddies who they managed to offend/scare because they were drunk, um, sorry.
First ever primer, and first post ever to a lj community. Fingers crossed that it all works!