The Academy Is...

The Academy Is...
Background information
Origin	Hoffman Estates, Illinois, USA
Genres	Alternative rock Pop punk Indie rock
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen Atlantic Records
Associated acts	Cobra Starship Fall Out Boy Gym Class Heroes We The Kings Hey Monday Jack's Mannequin
Website	theacademyis.com
Members
William Beckett Michael Guy Chislett Mike Carden Adam T. Siska Andy 'The Butcher' Mrotek
Former members
Michael DelPrincipe AJ LaTrace Tom Conrad

The Academy Is... is an American alternative rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 2003.^{[citation needed]} They are currently signed by the Decaydance imprint of the Fueled by Ramen label. They were originally known as "The Academy", but added the "Is..." in 2004 to avoid legal complications with other established bands already under that name.^[1] As of 2009^[update], the band has released three full albums, Almost Here, Santi, and their newest album, Fast Times at Barrington High.

History

Band beginnings (2003)

William Beckett (singer) and Adam T. Siska's (bass) plans for starting a band together came to fruition on March 4, 2003 recruiting Mike Carden (guitar) after his former band, Jodie, which had members of Victory records act June, broke up^[2][3] then eventually adding AJ LaTrace as a rhythm guitarist and Michael DelPrincipe (Little Mike) as a drummer. They recorded their self-titled debut EP, The Academy (2004), for the Chicago-based label LLR Recordings. LLR Recordings had previously released Beckett's solo project Remember Maine's debut album The Last Place You Look in 2002 and Mike Carden's solo folk album in 2003. The EP was recorded in Villa Park, IL at The Gallery of Carpet by producer Brian Zieske. Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy heard it and was impressed. The label- Fueled By Ramen- immediately signed the band. There is some speculation among fans that Fueled By Ramen asked The Academy Is... to sound like fellow labelmates.

Almost Here (2005)

In 2004 the band headed to Florida to record their Fueled by Ramen debut Almost Here, produced by James Paul Wisner, who has worked with Dashboard Confessional, Something Corporate, Further Seems Forever, and Underoath. After recording the album and a doing a summer tour, the band underwent a lineup change. Tom Conrad, formerly of Chicago local band 5o4plan, replaced LaTrace as the second guitarist/backing vocalist and Andy Mrotek, formerly of Last Place Champs, replaced DelPrincipe as the drummer. Andy Mrotek and Thomas Conrad are listed in the liner notes, but were added to the band after the recording of Almost Here to replace DelPrincipe and LaTrace, respectively. They hit the road hard, touring with Fall Out Boy, Something Corporate, Midtown, Matchbook Romance, Motion City Soundtrack and Armor for Sleep. The album was released on February 8, 2005 and the following summer, the band embarked on their first headlining tour alongside Plain White T's, Days Away and June. On Billboard's charts Almost Here peaked at #7 on Top Heatseekers, #16 on Top Independent Albums, and #185 on The Billboard 200.^[4]

On October 26, 2006, The Academy Is... had announced via the blog on their official website that Tom Conrad and the band had parted ways. Although the blog provided no reason, Tom later made a post on his website, Forevernever.net, in which he states that he never "quit the band," which has led fans to speculation about Tom's departure. Michael Guy Chislett joined the band to replace Tom on guitar.^[5]

Santi (2007)

William Beckett singing in 2007 on the Honda Civic Tour.

While touring as a main act on the 2006 Warped Tour, the band began the process of writing songs for their second album. Once finished, the band flew to Los Angeles to record their record with Butch Walker. As of December 23, 2006, the band had officially finished the recording process and the album, entitled Santi, was released April 3, 2007 on the Fueled By Ramen label.^[6] The release of this album was listed on Blender's 25 reasons to love 2007.^[7] On January 26, 2007 a sample of "LAX to O'Hare" was released on the band's AbsolutePunk profile. The album peaked at #32 on the Billboard 200.^[4]

The band went on to release the song "We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands" as the album's first single, before releasing the album on April 3, 2007. Fall Out Boy, +44, Cobra Starship, and Paul Wall all joined the band on the 2007 Honda Civic Tour, after which the band moved on to the "Sleeping With Giants" tour with support from The Rocket Summer, Armor for Sleep and Sherwood. Partly through the tour, Cobra Starship was added to the support. The tour ended on November 24, 2007 in Chicago.

Fast Times at Barrington High (2008)

The band's third studio album, Fast Times at Barrington High, was released on August 19th, 2008 through Fueled by Ramen. The title refers to the high school William Beckett, Adam Siska, and videographer Jack Edinger attended. The first single, "About a Girl," was added to the band's MySpace page on July 15, 2008 and was subsequently made available from various download sites. On August 25, 2008 "About a Girl" was played on The Hills (season 4, episode 2). They also released the songs Summer Hair = Forever Young and His Girl Friday of FTABH on their MySpace page and PureVolume page. The album made it onto Rolling Stone Magazine's 50 Best Albums of the Year ranked as #46^[8]. It peaked at #17 on The Billboard 200^[4]

Lost in Pacific Time (2009)

On William Beckett's Twitter page, it was said The Academy Is... have finished recording their new EP, Lost in Pacific Time: The AP/EP. It was released on September 22, 2009 on iTunes, and will be sold on the AP Fall Ball Tour. A limited amount will also be sold on their webstore^[9] The track "I'm Yours Tonight" has already been released, and is on the band's Myspace page. Another track, "Days Like Masquerades" was played at an anti-suicide benefit at Barrington High School, in Chicago, Illinois.^[10] William has also been posting or linking lyrics on his blog.^[11] The newest song, "Sputter" (featuring Jack's Mannequin singer Andrew McMahon), is streaming on Banana's Music club, linked by both William and Pete Wentz via Twitter on September 21.^{[citation needed]} On September 29, 2009, Pete Wentz announced via Twitter that TAI would replace the All-American Rejects for the St. Louis date of the Blink-182 tour.^[12][13]

While there was back-and-forth acclaim by the fanbase regarding Fast Times at Barrington High, this EP has brought back many fans who felt disconnected from the poppy third album and appears to be embraced by most of the band's former and new fans.^{[citation needed]}

Wearing Like A Butch (2010)

In November 2009, the group confirmed with Kerrang! music magazine that they would be releasing an all new EP which is set to be released during the middle of 2010. The EP, titled Wearing Like a Butch would be spawning two singles, one of them to be named "This Is What It's About".^{[citation needed]}

TAITV

TAITV is a video podcast series created by the band. The show, whose initials stand for The Academy Is... TV, was created to allow fans a peek into what happens backstage and on the tour bus. TAITV episodes are now available on iTunes and new episodes air every Sunday night at 9/8c at the band's website. There are currently over 65 episodes of TAITV (excluding Season "One"). Guy Ripley, played by Ryland Blackinton (of Cobra Starship) has his own show on TAITV called "Guy Ripley's True Things". The third season of TAITV premiered June 1, 2008. TAITV episodes are made by the band's photographer and friend, Jack "the Camera Guy" Edinger. Jack has appeared in many episodes as cameos, does all voice overs, co-writes, edits, and shoots each episode. He tours with the band and takes a lot of breaks with Adam Siska, as they live close together in the suburbs of Chicago. But recently he is touring with Cobra Starship filming their version of TAI TV, CobraCam.Tv, until their new album, Hot Mess, comes out.^[14] William Beckett has since taken over Jack's position^[15] but has yet to post more than one episode. Beckett claimed how excited he was to be the director once again of the band's webisode but has lacked further enthusiasm. The life or death of TAI TV is unknown but the fans wait eagerly for the band to get their act together and post something.

Bill & Trav's Bogus Journey Tour

On October 1, 2008, the band embarked on their fall co-headlining tour with good friends We the Kings, named "Bill & Trav's Bogus Journey Tour".^[16] The name refers to the 1991 movie "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey." Carolina Liar and fellow Decaydance band, Hey Monday also performed on the tour. On November 6, 2008 at House Of Blues in Chicago, Illinois, William Beckett debuted a new song called "Winter Passing" that the band had written only days before. Beckett has said the song is about winter time in the Midwest. He has since incorporated the song into other show sets. The track was released on December 2, 2008 on iTunes.^[17]

Influences

The band has cited influences from many alternative rock and rock acts such as blink-182, The Smashing Pumpkins, 504 Plan, Stomp Aberdeen, Hot Water Music, The Promise Ring, Travis, U2, Pink Floyd, Weezer, Death Cab for Cutie, Lifetime, The Audition, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Eat World, and Cursive.^{[citation needed]}

In the lyrics of "Down and Out" on the album Almost Here, multiple works by other artists are named. Given the nostalgic mood of the song, it can be speculated that this is a list of influences and/or well-liked albums by the band. They include Bookends (Simon and Garfunkel), Blue (presumably a reference to Weezer's self-titled album, nicknamed "The Blue Album"), Clarity (Jimmy Eat World), The Wall (Pink Floyd), Grace (Jeff Buckley), "Darkside" (presumably Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon), Wish (The Cure), and Figure 8 (Elliott Smith).

Band members

• William Beckett – lead vocals (2003–present)
• Michael Guy Chislett – lead guitar, backing vocals, piano (2006–present)
• Mike Carden – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2003–present)
• Adam T. 'Sisky' Siska – bass, backing vocals (2003–present)
• Andy 'The Butcher' Mrotek – drums, percussion (2004–present)

Former members

• Tom Conrad - lead guitar, backing vocals (2003-2006)
• AJ LaTrace – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–2005)
• Michael DelPrincipe – drums, percussion (2003–2005)

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

• The Academy (2004, later rereleased as The Academy Is)
• From the Carpet (2006)
• Warped Tour Bootleg Series (2006) (only in Rhapsody)
• Lost In Pacific Time: The AP/EP (2009)

Singles

Almost Here

• "Checkmarks" (2005), #115 UK
• "Slow Down" (2006)
• "The Phrase That Pays" (2006)

Santi

• "We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands" (2007)
• "Neighbors" (2007)
• "Everything We Had" (2007)
• "Sleeping with Giants (Lifetime)" (2007)
• "Same Blood" (2007)

Fast Times at Barrington High

• "About a Girl" (2008), #88 U.S. Pop^[18]
• "Summer Hair = Forever Young" (2008)
• "His Girl Friday" (2009)
• "The Test" (2009)

Winter Passing

• "Winter Passing" (2008)

Compilation appearances

• Warped Tour 2008 Tour Compilation (2008), contributed "Same Blood"
• MySpace Tribute to The Smashing Pumpkins (2007), contributed "Mayonaise"
• Warped Tour 2006 Tour Compilation (2006), contributed "The Phrase That Pays"
• Sound of Superman (2006), contributed "Superman"
• Warped Tour 2005 Tour Compilation (2005), contributed "Checkmarks"

References

External links

• Official Website
• The Academy Is... at MySpace
• The Academy Is... at Last.fm
• The Academy Is... at PureVolume