Emo-core band from Long Island, Taking Back Sunday have grown to be one of the most popular artists of their ilk. Their style could best be described as a fusion of pop punk band Blink 182 and emo-core rockers Thursday. For those curious, they took their name from song by a fellow Long Island band, The Waiting Process.
The current band line-up is:
- Adam Lazzara: Vocals
- Eddie Reyes: Guitar
- Fred Mascherino: Guitar/Vocals
- Matthew Rubano: Bass
- Mark O'Connell: Drums
The founding member was Eddie Reyes, former member of emo band The Movielife. He was joined by Adam Lazzara and Mark O'Connell, as well as John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, who played guitar and bass, respectively.
Actually, that's not entirely true. Before this Taking Back Sunday, there was another form of the band. The line-up is unknown, and information on it is relatively scarce. In this incarnation, Adam Lazzara likely played on bass, and there are rumours going around that Jesse Lacey of Brand New fame was lead singer - others point to a mysterious man named "Antonio". At any rate, this form of the band recorded a demo with the following tracks (though not necessarily in the following order):
Despite the mystery surrounding this release, MP3s of it are quite easy to find on a P2P file-sharing network like Kazaa.
At any rate, this line-up was changed, and Adam was placed onto vocals. This new version of the band was then signed to Victory Records.
After being signed to Victory, the band produced a short, five track demo, which is quite rare, though much less than the aforementioned one, and MP3s from it, again, are fairly easy to find online. The tracks are:
- Great Romances of the 20th Century
- The Blue Channel
- Bike Scene
- Mutual Head Club
- Your Own Disaster
With the exception of final track, all of the above songs appeared in cleaner, more produced form on Taking Back Sunday's first official, full-length release, Tell All Your Friends, which was produced by Sal Villanueva and released in March 2002.
With the help of a highly active tour schedule alongside bands such as Jimmy Eat World and New Found Glory, Tell All Your Friends was an immediate hit. As of this writing, it's already sold more than 200,000 copies - an unbelievably impressive sales figure for an indie release. Much of this success can be accounted for by Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From The Team), the second single from the album - a driving, catchy, furious pop punk burst of energy and emotion. This is the formula behind Taking Back Sunday's success - the emotional connection felt between the audience and the singer when they, in near unison, scream together such lines as "Why can't I feel anything from anyone other than you?" from Cute Without the 'E', or the oft-LiveJournal-quoted phrase, "The truth is that you could slit my throat and with my one last gasping breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt" (from third single, You're So Last Summer), is utterly tangible.
Despite the success of their debut, all was not well in TBS' world. Tensions within the group became high, and eventually John Nolan and Shaun Cooper left to form Straylight Run with John's sister Michelle and Breaking Pangaea drummer Will Noon. Ironically, Fred Mascherino also left the broken Breaking Pangaea to join Taking Back Sunday, along with new bassist Matthew Rubano.
The band is currently on tour, opening up for Blink 182 alongside The Used. They're also busy putting the finishing touches on their sophomore release, Where You Want To Be, which is due for release on July 27, 2004. | 
