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Matchbook Romance

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Matchbook Romance
Matchbook Romance playing at Webster Hall, New York, NY on February 13th, 2016 in celebration of their second full length album "Voices" 10th anniversary. From left to right: Andrew Jordan, Aaron Stern (back), Ryan Kienle, Ryan "Judas" DePaolo.
Matchbook Romance playing at Webster Hall, New York, NY on February 13th, 2016 in celebration of their second full length album "Voices" 10th anniversary. From left to right: Andrew Jordan, Aaron Stern (back), Ryan Kienle, Ryan "Judas" DePaolo.
Background information
Also known as
  • Fizzlewink (1997–2001)
  • The Getaway (2001–2002)
OriginPoughkeepsie, New York, United States
Genres
Years active1997–2007, 2009, 2012, 2015–2016[5][6]
LabelsEpitaph
Past membersAndrew Jordan
Ryan "Judas" DePaolo
Ryan Kienle
Aaron Stern
PJ Manzo

Matchbook Romance was an American emo band from Poughkeepsie, New York, initially formed in 1997 under the name Fizzlewink (1997–2001) and then The Getaway (2001–2002). They were signed to Epitaph Records and released two full-length albums, one EP and one split EP with Motion City Soundtrack with them. Their EP West for Wishing, released on April 8th 2003, was their first professional record and was produced by Brett Gurewitz from Epitaph Records; and then on September 23rd 2003 they debuted their first full-length album, Stories and Alibis.

History

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Matchbook Romance formed in 1997 under the name Fizzlewink, the initial band line up consisted of Andrew Jordan as vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Ryan Kienle on bass, Aaron Stern on drums and PJ Manzo on lead guitar, this period of the band was heavily influenced by the sound of bands like NOFX, Bad Religion and Pennywise but sometime in mid 2001, the band began to write new songs that were more akin to what is commonly known as third wave emo or mall emo and during this transition, they also hired Ryan "Judas" DePaolo as their third guitarist before changing their name to The Getaway in late 2001. With the new material and songs that they wrote over the last months, the band soon began promoting itself on the internet, leading to posts on PunkNews.org about their music. When Epitaph Records president Brett Gurewitz read one of these posts and downloaded "Ex Marks the Spot", one of the new songs that the band had wrote, he contacted the band to sign them.[7] After being officially signed, they changed their name once again to Matchbook Romance in order to avoid a name conflict with The Getaway, a Canadian based Pop-punk band.[8] And then after clarifying this legal issue, they started writing their debut LP under the direction of Brett Gurewitz. It is reported that Brett initially contacted the band and asked them to not release what was suppose to be The Getaway's debut EP titled "...If All Else Fails" which was supposed to be released on May 24th, 2002, and in return, he offered them guidance to record a full length album. At this point of time, PJ Manzo decided to leave the band due to creative differences and the fact that he wasn't happy with the direction that the band was going. He then went to join melodic hardcore and punk band River's End.

The group debuted with West for Wishing, an EP released on April 8th 2003, and later they released their first LP, Stories and Alibis, on September 23rd 2003. They also appeared on a 4-song split with Motion City Soundtrack in which an acoustic version of "Playing for Keeps" and "In Transit (For You)" were featured.

After two years of touring, they returned in 2006 with their second album, Voices, which marked a new change on their sound. The lead single "Monsters" appeared in Madden NFL 07,[9] Arena Football: Road to Glory, and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as well as few other games. It also received heavy rotation on radio stations and MTV.

On March 12, 2007, after a 10-year career, they announced via a MySpace bulletin that they were going on an indefinite hiatus, an actual reason was never stated. During this hiatus, Aaron Stern joined Taking Back Sunday as a touring member on Projekt Revolution.

In May 2009, the band came back to play on a small tour on the East Coast.[10] After this tour, the band decided to work on separated projects: Drummer Aaron Stern went on to join God or Julie.[11] Guitarist Ryan "Judas" DePaolo started his own band called Hill Valley[12] and debuted their first album called "Salutations" in the summer of 2009, and followed with "Upside Down" in the summer of 2011. Vocalist Andrew Jordan formed DriftDivision and released a six song self-titled EP on October 26th, 2010, in a video posted by his new band, he stated that he worked on some songs with bass player Ryan Kienle. Around this time, Stern also joined the supergroup D.R.U.G.S. (Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows) that was started by Craig Owens, formerly of Chiodos, this was after he toured with You, Me, and Everyone We Know from 2008–2010. A debut album was released on February 22, 2011 but the band split up in 2012 and later returned in 2020 but this time without Aaron.

The band briefly returned in 2012 to play two reunion shows on December of that year and three years after, it was announced that they would be playing select dates on the 2015 Vans Warped Tour.[13] The band finally, went on to play a few shows in early 2016 to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of their second album before parting ways again.

Band members

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  • Andrew Jordan – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboard
  • Ryan "Judas" DePaolo – lead guitar, vocals, programming, synthesizer
  • Ryan Kienle – bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Aaron Stern – drums, percussion
  • PJ Manzo – lead guitar (1997–2002)
  • Chris Vicious – touring guitar

Discography

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Studio albums
EPs
Compilations featured on

Music videos

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  • "Promise" (2003)
  • "My Eyes Burn" (2003)
  • "Monsters" (2006)

References

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  1. ^ "Matchbook Romance – Split EP Review". Drowned in Sound. 19 October 2004. Archived from the original on 2018-02-04. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  2. ^ Dwyer, Michael (October 7, 2005). "Matchbook Romance". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  3. ^ Matchbook Romance Declare War on Cheesy Music MTV, January 26, 2006.
  4. ^ "Matchbook Romance | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  5. ^ "Matchbook Romance | Vans Warped Tour". Archived from the original on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  6. ^ "The Wonder Years, Matchbook Romance, Icon For Hire, more announced for Warped Tour 2015 - News - Alternative Press". Alternative Press. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  7. ^ Harrington, Richard (2006-02-23). "Matchbook Romance, Ready to Take Action". Washington Post. Washington. Retrieved 2024-03-05. Brett Gurewitz, an inveterate Net-trawler, came across a particularly enthusiastic post on punknews.org and downloaded the track "Ex Marks the Spot."
  8. ^ Baker, Brian (2005-02-02). "Upcoming Concerts with Matchbox Romance, Interpol and More..." Cincinnati CityBeat. Cincinnati. Retrieved 2024-03-05. But before they hit the studio, a band with a similar name threatened legal nastiness and Getaway became the even cooler sounding Matchbook Romance.
  9. ^ "Madden NFL 07 Soundtrack - Music News at IGN". Music.ign.com. Archived from the original on 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
  10. ^ Paul, Aubin (March 13, 2009). "Bomb". Punknews.org. Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  11. ^ Paul, Aubin (June 12, 2007). "Matchbook Romance drummer resurfaces in God or Julie". Punknews.org. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  12. ^ Paul, Aubin (December 4, 2007). "Ryan DePaolo (ex-Matchbook Romance) unveils Hill Valley". Punknews.org. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  13. ^ "Vans Warped Tour". Archived from the original on 3 July 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  14. ^ Chart Positions, AllMusic
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