Piano Man: the Andrew McMahon primer
BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: most of this info and pictures are culled from wiki sources, fansite links, interviews and secondhand public knowledge/gossip, so some things may or may not be accurate and this is by no means complete and definitely not objective. NONE of the pictures are mine. airgiodslv has the short version here, this is the embarrassingly long version. NOT AT ALL DIAL-UP SAFE.
This is Andrew McMahon. He was born on September 9 1982 and is famous for fronting Something Corporate and his solo project Jack's Mannequin.
from left to right: Brian Ireland (drums), William Tell (guitar), Andrew McMahon (piano/vocals), Josh Partington (guitar), Kevin "Clutch" Page (bass)
Something Corporate was formed in 1998 when all the band members were still in high school. Their name stemmed from their frustration over deciding a band name. They self-published a demo album, Ready...Break, in 2000 and based on the strength of those demos and local shows, they signed with Drive-Thru Records. Drive-Thru released the Audioboxer EP in 2001, which features their first single and biggest hit, "iF yoU C Jordan." The video features another high school storyline and the Shermanator from American Pie as the titular bully.
A couple months later, their official debut, Leaving Through The Window is released with two more singles following "iF yoU C Jordan." They tour relentlessly, including their first of several Warped Tour legs and the release of their first DVD, A Year In The Life. The DVD documented their history up to the time, along with music videos, footage of a Tower Records instore appearance, the making of the album and interviews. Sadly, this DVD is pretty much out of print unless you can manage to snag a copy off Amazon or eBay.
SoCo were known for their energetic live shows with key moments being the infamous near-10-minute-long "Konstantine," and Andrew's upright piano. Yep, they lugged around an upright on tour and those fuckers are heavy. Andrew has done things like climb on top of it and dance or using his feet to play the keys, spinning himself around so that he's perched over the keys and plays from that position, or whatever that comes to his mind. One show famously ended with the top of the piano being lit on fire. SoCo's final tour before the hiatus ended with the piano being smashed. See below in case you thought I was making it up.
And yes, anyone who's ever had piano training will look and recoil in horror because that's pretty much piano abuse. But the guy has been around the instrument his whole life, he goes to great lengths to keep them in working order otherwise he wouldn't be playing an actual piano instead of the standard professional keyboards on tour. The uprights themselves are kind of iconic in their own right: the pianos were usually covered in tape and stickers and other random pictures and after the release of the second album, they were then painted to match the album's cover art.
SoCo's second album, North, is released in 2003 with "Space" being the only single. By early 2004, guitarist William Tell quit the band to focus on a solo career and Something Corporate officially went from five to four members. However, their friend Bobby "Raw" Anderson (who also serves as the Jack's guitarist) stepped in as their touring guitarist and he appears in all the band's tv performances as well as on their concert DVD, Live at the Ventura Theater. The DVD also has a nice little behind the scenes feature and the band in their element prepping for the show.
o hai, Bob!
SoCo went on hiatus in late 2004 after years of touring and so far, the most recent activity from the band was a surprise three-song performance at the end of the Jack's set at the 2006 Bamboozle Left. There's currently no intentions to put out new SoCo material in the near future, but the possibility is still open if they feel like it. So far, the only news is that drummer Brian Ireland is playing with a new band called Streamline, former guitarist William Tell put out a solo album, and guitarist Josh Partington taught guitar lessons, his own project Firescape, and is currently in the UK studying for the bar exam.
clockwise: Jonathan "Dr. J" Sullivan (bass), Jay McMillan (drums), Bobby "Raw" Anderson (guitar), Andrew McMahon (piano/vocals)
In the wake of hiatus, Jack's Mannequin was actually a sort of therapy that evolved into a solo project. In one interview with Alt Press, Andrew admitted to having been so burned out from touring that when he returned home, he bought a pair of electric shears and shaved his head. At the same time, his relationship with his then-girlfriend (now wife) Kelly became very strained and their relationship as well as getting readjusted to life at home, formed the basis of the original Jack's demos as a coping mechanism. Those demos evolved into the creation of Jack's Mannequin, with the name coming from a discarded demo called "Dear Jack" and The Mannequins, a name he liked if he came up with a new band name.
At some point in recording, Tommy Lee got involved and played the drums on the record. They became acquainted when Tommy called and asked him to do a guest spot on his record, Tommyland: The Ride. Alt Press claims that Tommy was a fan of North, but Andrew has said it was a rumor. Andrew co-wrote and sang on the songs "Hello Again" and "I Need You" and in return, he and his producer were invited backstage at a Mötley Crüe show where Tommy laid down all the drum tracks that night. (Tommy would later on make a cameo in the video for "Dark Blue," play at the very first post-leukemia Jack's show, and narrate Dear Jack, a documentary following Andrew's experience with leukemia. Fair warning, the trailers might tug at your heartstrings. Unless you are that heartless.)
Between making the record, Everything In Transit, and playing a few solo shows to test out the tracks live, his health gets all weird with a case of laryngitis and he's forced to cancel shows and see a doctor. Eerily enough, the day that he completed the final recordings is the day that he learns that he's been diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia and has to start treatment immediately, which mean all Jack's activity and SoCo's Warped stint gets cancelled.
August 23, 2005 becomes a very important date because not only is it the release date of Everything In Transit, but it's also the day he underwent a stem-cell transplant using cells donated by his older sister Katie. The operation was a success and as a thank you gift, the song "Katie" was written and recorded for her.
After several months of recuperating, he was deemed healthy enough to do shows and promo again, starting with a special invitation-only show in L.A. 100 days after the transplant. Other appearances included Jimmy Kimmel Live, festivals, and a guest appearance on One Tree Hill. The One Tree Hill appearance also coincided with the charity soundtrack for breast cancer and re-release of "The Mixed Tape" as the lead single with Hilarie Burton in the second version of the video. After that, Jack's went on tour as headliners, openers for O.A.R., a string of dates on Warped, and opening Panic's Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour. Since then, Jack's have played more festivals and several tours and are currently in the process of finishing up the second album, The Glass Passenger, which is slated for release in September.
Count me in as one of the excited fans. ♥
I can tell you from firsthand experience from attending Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin shows that the fanbase is fiercely loyal and probably one that has approximately equal numbers of fanboys and fangirls. When the news first broke of his leukemia diagnosis, AbsolutePunk created a fundraiser in which they sold orange wristbands with the phrase "I Will Fight" stamped on them and donated all proceeds (over $16,000) to the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. Multiple fanmade fundraisers have donated quite of a bit of money to the PCRF as well and the Dear Jack Foundation was created to channel all those funds and future charity drives to the PCRF and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In fact, fans have become regular participants in the annual Light The Night charity walks in the name of the Dear Jack Foundation.
Andrew McMahon is a ridiculously charming and humble guy with a wry and self-deprecating sense of humor and is very passionate about his career and his life. I've met him twice and he's the nicest guy EVER. He's just an amazing human being and just loves his life, for all the curveballs that's been thrown his way. Even the shit talkers that are the AP.net boards and ONTD rarely have bad things to say about him.
He's a vegetarian (but rumored to have lapsed), a perfectionist, and is quite open about his drinking and occasional pot use, often referencing them in songs although he's since toned down all that down after his recovery, but he still enjoys the occasional drinks. The guy did take the last of his cancer medication with a shot of Jagermeister, his booze of choice.
He's also kind of a musical genius. Okay, so he doesn't have the greatest voice but there's an everyman charm about it. He composes and writes all the Jack's Mannequin songs, but splits SoCo's songwriting duties with guitarist Josh Partington. While Andrew isn't a jack-of-all-instruments like say, Patrick Stump, he's incredibly skilled at piano and has been playing since he was about nine. The Beach Boys, Petty, Dylan, Clapton, and Ben Folds have been cited as his major musical influences. Last year, he got to work with Mick Fleetwood on a cover of John Lennon's "God" for Instant Karma, a charity compilation for Amnesty International's efforts to alleviate the conflict in Darfur. MICK FLEETWOOD. First Tommy Lee and now Mick Fleetwood? Yeah, who's awesome? Andrew McMahon is awesome.
And like any good major scene figure, he had a blog. That blog is no longer updated as he now blogs on the official Jack's website, but there's a good amount of content on the old blog. His writing style has a very poetic flow and in my opinion, trumps Pete Wentz's style by miles. Although he's not the greatest at paragraph breaks. In one entry, he wrote about how excited he was to learn that "The Astronaut" was used in one of the wake-up calls on a Space Shuttle Discovery mission and admits his "mild obsession" with space. (Mild is an understatement. Google the lyrics and you'll find a space metaphor in practically each song.) See, his band got a song into space. (Well, so did Less Than Jake's cover of the Proclaimers and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones amongst others.)
In addition to the blog, he has a clothing line, River Apparel, in the works but currently stalled, and a fledgling record label, Airport Tapes and Records. Currently, the only signing is the Chicago band Treaty of Paris. Reviews of that band have been mixed, so to each their own.
He's got scores of scene connections but I think that because he is based out in Southern California, it's not as strong as say the Decaydance/Chicago/New Jersey/Long Island webs. Then again, this entire music scene is connected in one way or another, your brain will hurt if you try to make all the connections.
There's the Drive-Thru connection: Something Corporate and Midtown were briefly labelmates before the sketchy distribution deal between Drive-Thru and Geffen allowed the major label to essentially poach Drive-Thru's roster, which included New Found Glory, Fenix*TX, Finch, Midtown, Senses Fail, The Starting Line, and Something Corporate. There was a subsequent amount of drama that ensued, but that's all past history that no one really likes to talk about except in backhanded comments and a chapter in Andy Greenwald's book about emo. Weirdly enough, Something Corporate is the only band left that still officially carries the Drive-Thru/Geffen imprint as all the other bands soon left or got dropped by Geffen. Jack's Mannequin was previously on Maverick, but relocated to Sire Records (Against Me!, Regina Spektor, Nightmare of You) when the former was bought out and folded.
Tours are always going to be the biggest and most important connections as bands from all over the scene and different labels will tour together whether it's because of friendships, labelmates, similar sounds, and whatnot. Festivals like Lollapalooza and Bamboozle as well as Warped Tour are often a good place to start because there's a huge gaggle of bands and they all know each other.
Something Corporate have played Warped since 2002 until they were forced to cancel their 2005 stint, and Jack's Mannequin did a brief stint on Warped '06 and again on this year's Warped. I'm not going to even bother listing with the bands that played Warped, every band has played Warped at some time and I don't even remember what other bands toured with Something Corporate other than 311, Straylight Run, Armor For Sleep, Yellowcard, Rx Bandits, Days Away and Mae. Jack's played shows with Copeland, The Audition, Head Automatica, Cute is What We Aim For, O.A.R., etc. The man is a tour fiend.
The Academy Is... are close friends and have opened a few SoCo shows and Andrew made a surprise appearance during TAI's set at 2007 Street Scene and sang on "Neighbors" and William returned the gesture by appearing during the Jack's set to sing on "La La Lie." Andrew will also make a guest appearance on TAI's new album and on the dates that Jack's played Warped, Andrew and William made appearances during each act's set. And don't forget the TAI TV episode in which Andrew is Bill Beckett's heat-induced hallucination.
o hai Bill.
The Hush Sound have toured with Jack's along with and Darren Wilson interviewed Andrew for Friends or Enemies when both bands played the 2007 SXSW festival. Jack's, Cobras (replacing Bloc Party), and Plain White T's were the openers on Panic's Nothing Rhymes with Circus tour and Jack's opened Fall Out Boy's Australian shows as well as a 2006 Fall Out Boy show. (Rumor has it that Jay-Z was there?) Around the time of Andrew's diagnosis, MTV had a blurb about FOB planning an eBay auction with the money going to the PCRF in his name. And remember One Tree Hill? Jack's appeared on the same episode with Pete's second appearance and Patrick being a better actor than Pete even though Patrick had two lines.
Pictures
Have some more pics. Most have been saved from something corporate fansites and buzznet, NONE OF THEM ARE MINE.
OMG BB!SOCO
Andrew McMahon rocked the flip flops live way before anyone else did.
Clutch! ♥
yes, that's Alicia Way.
'sup Bill and Butcher?
joking around with Steve of Monty Are I
MONKEES SHIRT. <3
The Music
This is only a partial selection as there's just a lot of material out there like Ready...Break that can be found online but I'm linking to some favorite b-sides and the three major albums.
Something Corporate
Leaving Through The Window
North
Watch The Sky [North B-side]
Unravel (Bjork cover) [North B-side]
This Broken Heart [North B-side]
Just Like A Woman (Dylan cover)
Forget December
Konstantine
Babies of The 80's (live with a snippet of Need You Tonight in the middle)
Hey Ya! (live cover)
Jack's Mannequin
Everything in Transit
The Holiday EP (web-only Christmas release)
The Lights and Buzz
Last Straw
Lonely For Her
Meet Me At My Window [The Sound of Superman]
Bruised (remix) [Snakes on a Plane soundtrack]
Bruised [Punk Goes Acoustic 2]
God [Instant Karma] (iTunes and Amazon)
My Name is Jonas (live cover)
American Girl (live cover)
Videos
Acoustic version of "Hurricane" in which Andrew snorts at Josh's revelation of the real meaning of the song.
covering Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and joking around with Josh. Josh offers to shotgun a beer. ♥
The Distance as done by Something Corporate
Konstantine as backing music for Travis Wall's dance solo. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Andrew and TAI
Bill Beckett's guest appearances on "La La Lie"
The piano stool is keeping him from ever having babies.
You little shittalker.
dancing on the baby grand
Doctor McMahon and his Ph.D in "sweet ass rock"
crowd-surfing to the soundboard and back
discussing his tattoos. I love that each tattoo has significant meaning behind it. ♥
NYC Fuse special with clips of fans chatting in the opening bumper.
links
the old blog
Official site and blog
jacksmannequin.org the original Jack's Mannequin fansite. Lots of audio and video but requires account registration to download anything.
andrewmcmahon.com One of the bigger fansites with a much larger gallery. Currently undergoing maintenance but the gallery is still available.
soco-online.net the oldest Something Corporate fansite on the web, really. Lots of video and audio of recorded shows archived.
Official SoCo site
jacks_mannequin official lj comm
This was a lot of time, effort and love. comments are appreciated. :)
This is Andrew McMahon. He was born on September 9 1982 and is famous for fronting Something Corporate and his solo project Jack's Mannequin.
from left to right: Brian Ireland (drums), William Tell (guitar), Andrew McMahon (piano/vocals), Josh Partington (guitar), Kevin "Clutch" Page (bass)
Something Corporate was formed in 1998 when all the band members were still in high school. Their name stemmed from their frustration over deciding a band name. They self-published a demo album, Ready...Break, in 2000 and based on the strength of those demos and local shows, they signed with Drive-Thru Records. Drive-Thru released the Audioboxer EP in 2001, which features their first single and biggest hit, "iF yoU C Jordan." The video features another high school storyline and the Shermanator from American Pie as the titular bully.
A couple months later, their official debut, Leaving Through The Window is released with two more singles following "iF yoU C Jordan." They tour relentlessly, including their first of several Warped Tour legs and the release of their first DVD, A Year In The Life. The DVD documented their history up to the time, along with music videos, footage of a Tower Records instore appearance, the making of the album and interviews. Sadly, this DVD is pretty much out of print unless you can manage to snag a copy off Amazon or eBay.
SoCo were known for their energetic live shows with key moments being the infamous near-10-minute-long "Konstantine," and Andrew's upright piano. Yep, they lugged around an upright on tour and those fuckers are heavy. Andrew has done things like climb on top of it and dance or using his feet to play the keys, spinning himself around so that he's perched over the keys and plays from that position, or whatever that comes to his mind. One show famously ended with the top of the piano being lit on fire. SoCo's final tour before the hiatus ended with the piano being smashed. See below in case you thought I was making it up.
Click to viewAnd yes, anyone who's ever had piano training will look and recoil in horror because that's pretty much piano abuse. But the guy has been around the instrument his whole life, he goes to great lengths to keep them in working order otherwise he wouldn't be playing an actual piano instead of the standard professional keyboards on tour. The uprights themselves are kind of iconic in their own right: the pianos were usually covered in tape and stickers and other random pictures and after the release of the second album, they were then painted to match the album's cover art.
SoCo's second album, North, is released in 2003 with "Space" being the only single. By early 2004, guitarist William Tell quit the band to focus on a solo career and Something Corporate officially went from five to four members. However, their friend Bobby "Raw" Anderson (who also serves as the Jack's guitarist) stepped in as their touring guitarist and he appears in all the band's tv performances as well as on their concert DVD, Live at the Ventura Theater. The DVD also has a nice little behind the scenes feature and the band in their element prepping for the show.
o hai, Bob!
SoCo went on hiatus in late 2004 after years of touring and so far, the most recent activity from the band was a surprise three-song performance at the end of the Jack's set at the 2006 Bamboozle Left. There's currently no intentions to put out new SoCo material in the near future, but the possibility is still open if they feel like it. So far, the only news is that drummer Brian Ireland is playing with a new band called Streamline, former guitarist William Tell put out a solo album, and guitarist Josh Partington taught guitar lessons, his own project Firescape, and is currently in the UK studying for the bar exam.
clockwise: Jonathan "Dr. J" Sullivan (bass), Jay McMillan (drums), Bobby "Raw" Anderson (guitar), Andrew McMahon (piano/vocals)
In the wake of hiatus, Jack's Mannequin was actually a sort of therapy that evolved into a solo project. In one interview with Alt Press, Andrew admitted to having been so burned out from touring that when he returned home, he bought a pair of electric shears and shaved his head. At the same time, his relationship with his then-girlfriend (now wife) Kelly became very strained and their relationship as well as getting readjusted to life at home, formed the basis of the original Jack's demos as a coping mechanism. Those demos evolved into the creation of Jack's Mannequin, with the name coming from a discarded demo called "Dear Jack" and The Mannequins, a name he liked if he came up with a new band name.
At some point in recording, Tommy Lee got involved and played the drums on the record. They became acquainted when Tommy called and asked him to do a guest spot on his record, Tommyland: The Ride. Alt Press claims that Tommy was a fan of North, but Andrew has said it was a rumor. Andrew co-wrote and sang on the songs "Hello Again" and "I Need You" and in return, he and his producer were invited backstage at a Mötley Crüe show where Tommy laid down all the drum tracks that night. (Tommy would later on make a cameo in the video for "Dark Blue," play at the very first post-leukemia Jack's show, and narrate Dear Jack, a documentary following Andrew's experience with leukemia. Fair warning, the trailers might tug at your heartstrings. Unless you are that heartless.)
Between making the record, Everything In Transit, and playing a few solo shows to test out the tracks live, his health gets all weird with a case of laryngitis and he's forced to cancel shows and see a doctor. Eerily enough, the day that he completed the final recordings is the day that he learns that he's been diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia and has to start treatment immediately, which mean all Jack's activity and SoCo's Warped stint gets cancelled.
August 23, 2005 becomes a very important date because not only is it the release date of Everything In Transit, but it's also the day he underwent a stem-cell transplant using cells donated by his older sister Katie. The operation was a success and as a thank you gift, the song "Katie" was written and recorded for her.
After several months of recuperating, he was deemed healthy enough to do shows and promo again, starting with a special invitation-only show in L.A. 100 days after the transplant. Other appearances included Jimmy Kimmel Live, festivals, and a guest appearance on One Tree Hill. The One Tree Hill appearance also coincided with the charity soundtrack for breast cancer and re-release of "The Mixed Tape" as the lead single with Hilarie Burton in the second version of the video. After that, Jack's went on tour as headliners, openers for O.A.R., a string of dates on Warped, and opening Panic's Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour. Since then, Jack's have played more festivals and several tours and are currently in the process of finishing up the second album, The Glass Passenger, which is slated for release in September.
Count me in as one of the excited fans. ♥
I can tell you from firsthand experience from attending Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin shows that the fanbase is fiercely loyal and probably one that has approximately equal numbers of fanboys and fangirls. When the news first broke of his leukemia diagnosis, AbsolutePunk created a fundraiser in which they sold orange wristbands with the phrase "I Will Fight" stamped on them and donated all proceeds (over $16,000) to the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. Multiple fanmade fundraisers have donated quite of a bit of money to the PCRF as well and the Dear Jack Foundation was created to channel all those funds and future charity drives to the PCRF and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In fact, fans have become regular participants in the annual Light The Night charity walks in the name of the Dear Jack Foundation.
Andrew McMahon is a ridiculously charming and humble guy with a wry and self-deprecating sense of humor and is very passionate about his career and his life. I've met him twice and he's the nicest guy EVER. He's just an amazing human being and just loves his life, for all the curveballs that's been thrown his way. Even the shit talkers that are the AP.net boards and ONTD rarely have bad things to say about him.
He's a vegetarian (but rumored to have lapsed), a perfectionist, and is quite open about his drinking and occasional pot use, often referencing them in songs although he's since toned down all that down after his recovery, but he still enjoys the occasional drinks. The guy did take the last of his cancer medication with a shot of Jagermeister, his booze of choice.
He's also kind of a musical genius. Okay, so he doesn't have the greatest voice but there's an everyman charm about it. He composes and writes all the Jack's Mannequin songs, but splits SoCo's songwriting duties with guitarist Josh Partington. While Andrew isn't a jack-of-all-instruments like say, Patrick Stump, he's incredibly skilled at piano and has been playing since he was about nine. The Beach Boys, Petty, Dylan, Clapton, and Ben Folds have been cited as his major musical influences. Last year, he got to work with Mick Fleetwood on a cover of John Lennon's "God" for Instant Karma, a charity compilation for Amnesty International's efforts to alleviate the conflict in Darfur. MICK FLEETWOOD. First Tommy Lee and now Mick Fleetwood? Yeah, who's awesome? Andrew McMahon is awesome.
And like any good major scene figure, he had a blog. That blog is no longer updated as he now blogs on the official Jack's website, but there's a good amount of content on the old blog. His writing style has a very poetic flow and in my opinion, trumps Pete Wentz's style by miles. Although he's not the greatest at paragraph breaks. In one entry, he wrote about how excited he was to learn that "The Astronaut" was used in one of the wake-up calls on a Space Shuttle Discovery mission and admits his "mild obsession" with space. (Mild is an understatement. Google the lyrics and you'll find a space metaphor in practically each song.) See, his band got a song into space. (Well, so did Less Than Jake's cover of the Proclaimers and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones amongst others.)
In addition to the blog, he has a clothing line, River Apparel, in the works but currently stalled, and a fledgling record label, Airport Tapes and Records. Currently, the only signing is the Chicago band Treaty of Paris. Reviews of that band have been mixed, so to each their own.
He's got scores of scene connections but I think that because he is based out in Southern California, it's not as strong as say the Decaydance/Chicago/New Jersey/Long Island webs. Then again, this entire music scene is connected in one way or another, your brain will hurt if you try to make all the connections.
There's the Drive-Thru connection: Something Corporate and Midtown were briefly labelmates before the sketchy distribution deal between Drive-Thru and Geffen allowed the major label to essentially poach Drive-Thru's roster, which included New Found Glory, Fenix*TX, Finch, Midtown, Senses Fail, The Starting Line, and Something Corporate. There was a subsequent amount of drama that ensued, but that's all past history that no one really likes to talk about except in backhanded comments and a chapter in Andy Greenwald's book about emo. Weirdly enough, Something Corporate is the only band left that still officially carries the Drive-Thru/Geffen imprint as all the other bands soon left or got dropped by Geffen. Jack's Mannequin was previously on Maverick, but relocated to Sire Records (Against Me!, Regina Spektor, Nightmare of You) when the former was bought out and folded.
Tours are always going to be the biggest and most important connections as bands from all over the scene and different labels will tour together whether it's because of friendships, labelmates, similar sounds, and whatnot. Festivals like Lollapalooza and Bamboozle as well as Warped Tour are often a good place to start because there's a huge gaggle of bands and they all know each other.
Something Corporate have played Warped since 2002 until they were forced to cancel their 2005 stint, and Jack's Mannequin did a brief stint on Warped '06 and again on this year's Warped. I'm not going to even bother listing with the bands that played Warped, every band has played Warped at some time and I don't even remember what other bands toured with Something Corporate other than 311, Straylight Run, Armor For Sleep, Yellowcard, Rx Bandits, Days Away and Mae. Jack's played shows with Copeland, The Audition, Head Automatica, Cute is What We Aim For, O.A.R., etc. The man is a tour fiend.
The Academy Is... are close friends and have opened a few SoCo shows and Andrew made a surprise appearance during TAI's set at 2007 Street Scene and sang on "Neighbors" and William returned the gesture by appearing during the Jack's set to sing on "La La Lie." Andrew will also make a guest appearance on TAI's new album and on the dates that Jack's played Warped, Andrew and William made appearances during each act's set. And don't forget the TAI TV episode in which Andrew is Bill Beckett's heat-induced hallucination.
o hai Bill.
The Hush Sound have toured with Jack's along with and Darren Wilson interviewed Andrew for Friends or Enemies when both bands played the 2007 SXSW festival. Jack's, Cobras (replacing Bloc Party), and Plain White T's were the openers on Panic's Nothing Rhymes with Circus tour and Jack's opened Fall Out Boy's Australian shows as well as a 2006 Fall Out Boy show. (Rumor has it that Jay-Z was there?) Around the time of Andrew's diagnosis, MTV had a blurb about FOB planning an eBay auction with the money going to the PCRF in his name. And remember One Tree Hill? Jack's appeared on the same episode with Pete's second appearance and Patrick being a better actor than Pete even though Patrick had two lines.
Pictures
Have some more pics. Most have been saved from something corporate fansites and buzznet, NONE OF THEM ARE MINE.
OMG BB!SOCO
Andrew McMahon rocked the flip flops live way before anyone else did.
Clutch! ♥
yes, that's Alicia Way.
'sup Bill and Butcher?
joking around with Steve of Monty Are I
MONKEES SHIRT. <3
The Music
This is only a partial selection as there's just a lot of material out there like Ready...Break that can be found online but I'm linking to some favorite b-sides and the three major albums.
Something Corporate
Leaving Through The Window
North
Watch The Sky [North B-side]
Unravel (Bjork cover) [North B-side]
This Broken Heart [North B-side]
Just Like A Woman (Dylan cover)
Forget December
Konstantine
Babies of The 80's (live with a snippet of Need You Tonight in the middle)
Hey Ya! (live cover)
Jack's Mannequin
Everything in Transit
The Holiday EP (web-only Christmas release)
The Lights and Buzz
Last Straw
Lonely For Her
Meet Me At My Window [The Sound of Superman]
Bruised (remix) [Snakes on a Plane soundtrack]
Bruised [Punk Goes Acoustic 2]
God [Instant Karma] (iTunes and Amazon)
My Name is Jonas (live cover)
American Girl (live cover)
Videos
Acoustic version of "Hurricane" in which Andrew snorts at Josh's revelation of the real meaning of the song.
covering Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and joking around with Josh. Josh offers to shotgun a beer. ♥
The Distance as done by Something Corporate
Konstantine as backing music for Travis Wall's dance solo. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Andrew and TAI
Bill Beckett's guest appearances on "La La Lie"
The piano stool is keeping him from ever having babies.
You little shittalker.
dancing on the baby grand
Doctor McMahon and his Ph.D in "sweet ass rock"
crowd-surfing to the soundboard and back
discussing his tattoos. I love that each tattoo has significant meaning behind it. ♥
NYC Fuse special with clips of fans chatting in the opening bumper.
links
the old blog
Official site and blog
jacksmannequin.org the original Jack's Mannequin fansite. Lots of audio and video but requires account registration to download anything.
andrewmcmahon.com One of the bigger fansites with a much larger gallery. Currently undergoing maintenance but the gallery is still available.
soco-online.net the oldest Something Corporate fansite on the web, really. Lots of video and audio of recorded shows archived.
Official SoCo site
jacks_mannequin official lj comm
This was a lot of time, effort and love. comments are appreciated. :)