Fall Out Boy: Streets Is Watching
Forget what you think you know: FALL OUT BOY are only as good as the sum of its parts. Don’t hate the player; hate the game.
STORY: Leslie Simon
Can I Get A…
There’s always time for cupcakes. Sure, we’re about two hours late to meet the gang across town at the Bel Age Hotel, but as soon as they see and-more importantly-eat the reason for our tardiness, we’re pretty positive all will be forgiven.
As we open the door to Sprinkles, an upscale cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills, the perky cashiers behind the counter perk up a little more and practically squeal with delight. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the fact that Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz just walked in; it’s merely because the girls are stoked to see one of their favorite regulars.
“I come here at least once a week,” Wentz whispers, as if to validate the unexpectedly boisterous reception. “Sometimes, I’ll drag my friends across the street to Barneys just so I can run over here. I never buy anything there, but I always end up getting cupcakes.”
A line forms behind Wentz as he orders a dozen cupcakes, a few Diet Cokes and a pair of Cup-A-Cake plastic containers (upon our request). Before his order is rung up, he adds a couple treats for Hemmingway, his beloved English bulldog, who has a slight wonky eye and a tendency to run full speed into closed glass doors, eat high-heel wedges and take big dumps in daddy’s dining room when nobody’s looking.
“Bye, Peter Pan,” says one of the cheery cashiers as she hands him his bag of goodies and a receipt. “We’ll see you soon!”
Unfortunately for Wentz & Co., normalcy comes in small doses.
99 Problems
It’s mid-November in Los Angeles and Fall Out Boy’s highly anticipated major label follow-up to 2005’s multi-platinum From Under The Cork Tree is nearly finished being mixed and mastered. Song titles have yet to be determined, and the name of the album, Infinity On High, was as much of a surprise to fans as it was to the rest of the band-singer/guitarist Patrick Stump, guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley-who were unaware of it until reading an article on MTV.com titled “Fall Out Boy Exclusive! Pete Wentz Reveals LP Title.”
Anyone who sits down with the band today will notice that Fall Out Boy v.2.0 is a much different band than the one interviewed a mere two years ago. And while they’ll vehemently deny much has changed (save for a couple million records sold and the amount of zeros to the left of the decimal point in their bank accounts), it would be impossible for the Boy-band not to evolve with their exponential rise through the musical ranks. Culturally, they’ve become red carpet darlings, practically guaranteeing each member will forever have “That Dude From Fall Out Boy” as their designated middle name. Sure, it’s a far cry from being Johnny Depp, but for a group of guys who have prided themselves on their accessibility and their candidness, it’s frustrating for them to see rumors and gossip steal the spotlight from what’s really important-the music.
“[Music is] what moves me but I don’t think anyone wants to read about that,” says Stump. “I can’t speak for Andy and Joe, but I think that the reason you don’t know that much about me is because I don’t really care about me. I’m not an interesting story.”
What is the “interesting story?” How about the so-called fabulous life of Pete Wentz-the story most journalists and celebrity bloggers would lead you to believe. Sure, Stump, Trohman and Hurley may intentionally shy away from spilling their guts in the press (that is, unless it has to do with Star Wars, free-jazz avatar Ornette Coleman or various theories on anti-civilization [see sidebar]), but that doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to say. It’s just hard to hear them over the shutter of flashbulbs outside Hollywood hotspots like Hyde and Bar Marmont.
“Everyone loves a scandal,” gushes Trent Vanegas, creator of Pink Is The New Blog, a celebrity blog which scores nearly 100,000 unique visitors a day thanks to posts about everything from Fergie peeing herself onstage to the emo-tastic tracklisting for the Superman Returns soundtrack. The scandal he’s referring to is the leak of naked pictures from Wentz’s Sidekick last March, which-while completely devastating to Wentz-managed to boost the band’s profile and thrust the bassist to the top spot of AOL’s list of most-searched naked celebs. “Everyone loves a nude celeb,” says Vanegas. “We were so used to seeing nude pics of female celebs that when Pete’s P33N [sic] pics came out, they spread like wildfire [and] proved to be the perfect marriage of technology and scandalous gossip. Since the pictures hit the internet via LiveJournal, they were able to spread very quickly. I’m not sure [the band would] be in exactly the same place without the leak. Those pictures gave Fall Out Boy media attention they might not have gotten otherwise.”
That’s something that fans and haters alike will never know. And while some people say there’s no such thing as bad press, those people probably haven’t had the world take a peek at their naughty bits. After all, it’s easy to ignore your own faults and foibles when they’re not garnering headlines on Absolutepunk.net or spread across the pages of Us Weekly.
“Everyone forgets what they do in their own bedroom, in their own time,” explains Stump. “I was never pissed at Pete for being Pete in his own time. I am pissed at whoever stole that picture and leaked it, and for being such a douchébag and having no sense of decency or privacy.”
The identity of the person who leaked the pictures is still a mystery. Conspiracy theories suggest it was 1) a bitter ex-girlfriend, 2) a bitter ex-friend who launched an online feud with the bassist a couple weeks earlier, or 3) Wentz himself. For better or for worse, the pictures ushered in a new era in the life of Fall Out Boy. The band no longer belonged to the Midwest. They no longer belonged to the Overcast Kids. Instead, they reluctantly became icons for the MySpace generation, a culture who subscribe-demand, actually-an unapologetically open-book lifestyle.
Coming Of Age
Back at the hotel, Hurley, Stump and Trohman have been playing house while rehearsing for a performance of the album’s debut single “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race” on the American Music Awards. The trio squeeze onto a couch in the suite’s living room. Wentz sits behind a desk a couple feet away, alternating between pounding on the keys of his Sidekick and pounding on the keys of an iBook. While fielding questions of big changes and bigger expectations, Trohman has turned the act of eating a cupcake into a contact sport. He picks off the candy wafer garnish, licks it and then makes a face in disgust. After placing the candy back in the cardboard box, the newly-fro’d guitarist attempts to shove the entire confection into his mouth, but ends up losing half of it to the wooden coffee table and the other to the carpet. He finally admits defeat and succumbs to a napkin and a fork.
Over the next hour, Trohman appears slightly dazed and confused, alternating between saying nonsensical remarks under his breath and paraphrasing much of what’s said by Stump and Hurley. The past couple years have been a blur of tour buses, rest stops and award shows, and as the baby of the band, Trohman seems to look up to his elder bandmates for everything from musical cues to life advice. At an age where the Average Joe would be graduating from college and entering the work force, Trohman is truly growing up in public. At 22 years old, he has been more places than most twice his age-and probably has more money than them, too.
“For me, the more money I get, the more I freak out,” he admits. And though he’d never complain about being financially secure, he’d definitely agree with the late Notorious B.I.G.-mo’ money, mo’ problems. “People need to understand that life doesn’t get better just because you [have more stuff].”
Trohman’s life has gotten better, though, thanks in part to setting down roots in Chicago (he recently purchased a condo in Wicker Park) and celebrating the one-year anniversary of the relationship with his girlfriend, Marie, a double-major college student who lives in Chi-Town, as well. “It’s very hard for us in our situation to meet a girl who’s going to be genuinely into us,” explains Trohman, who, due to the fact that his girlfriend “rules,” isn’t planning on reentering the dating pool any time soon. And while the former straight-edge, hardcore kid doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out, he’s well on his way.
“We’d be growing up and coming into our own doing anything else; it just happens that we’re doing what we’re doing.”
For the rest of the story, pick up AP 223 below…
