Four Year plan

With an explosive pop-punk sound and sharply honed live show, the Worcester band Four Year Strong has spent the past two years crisscrossing this country and invading Europe to pick up bundles of fans one concert at a time.

Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz happened to be one of those fans. His Decaydance imprint, part of the massive Universal Music Group, inked a deal with Four Year Strong and is releasing the band’s “Enemy of the World’’ early next year.

“FYS reminded me of Fall Out Boy during ‘Take This to Your Grave,’ only version 2.0,’’ Wentz said by e-mail when asked about his interest in Four Year Strong. “They are raw. They are authentic. They get in the van and sweat out every single fan. I love it and back it. . . . Besides, they can grow beards. Most of our bands can’t.’’

Four Year Strong’s songs are radio-friendly, yet the band has gotten this far with virtually no mainstream airplay. Nor was the band’s break out of Worcester particularly conventional.

FYS did not play countless band battles. It did not plug into the city’s network of nightclubs (a couple of the guys even ’fessed up to never having seen a show at Worcester’s fabled Ralph’s Diner, much less playing one there). It did not chip in songs to any of the CD compilations that area bands cranked out as promotional devices. And in the process it never got stuck in the rut that the vast majority of bands fall into in trying to get out of their own backyards.

Yet it’s not that Four Year Strong felt above it all.

“We weren’t old enough to play in clubs, and our friends couldn’t get into clubs,’’ explained bassist Joe Weiss. “We played places that were all-ages, so our friends could get in.’’

Three of the five band members attended the city’s Doherty High School, and the other two filtered in from different bands playing in Worcester’s bustling local music scene. Guitarists and singers Alan Day and Dan O’Connor and drummer Jake Massucco got the band going in 2001 while still in high school. Keyboard player Josh Lyford and Weiss were on board by the time the band made “Rise or Die Trying,’’ its breakthrough recording on I Surrender records, which has sold 50,000 copies.

“When we signed with I Surrender, the stars aligned,’’ Lyford said. “They were small; we were small. But everyone was willing to work really hard, and nobody was afraid of bigger bands and bigger labels.’’

Even before signing to I Surrender, Four Year Strong had a work ethic to go along with its distinctive hard-core-meets-pop sound.

“The live show is it,’’ Day said. “We practiced every day. We treated it like a job because we didn’t want to get real jobs.’’

Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz posts pictures of injured face on Twitter, asks readers to guess reason

The Fall Out Boy rocker uploaded a series of images of himself with cuts, scratches, bruises and blood all over his face. He refused to reveal the cause of the injuries, instead posting a list of possible "excuses" for his appearance.

Click here to see the pictures of Pete Wentz and decide for yourself what went on

The 30-year-old star wrote: "Several unsightly wounds are scattered around my face and eyes. Choose your own excuse... My face was badly bludgeoned because. you decide."

The accompanying list included: "Late night game of 'face jousting' gone horribly right," "I was wasted. You should see the other guy," "Realised my sex appeal was getting in the way of my art, like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon,"

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"Watched Fight Club in like, super hi-def dude," "Bored," "Fell for the old "face-wash/sulfuric acid switcheroo," and "Emo self-mutilation".

He even tried to blame his 13-month-old son Bronx, writing: "Keep meaning to cut Bronx's nails."

Pete's injuries got even more mysterious when a fan posted a messages saying "looks like you got beat up!"
The star replied: "much deeper than that i wish i could explain it alll. they got what they deserved (sic)."

He then posted a message reading: "kind of like that in moment in fight club when you taste your own blood and it tastes like iron and salt and it is a drug. does anyone know where I can get some vintage chanel sutures? (sic)."

Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux Tracklist

01. Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes
02. I Don't Care
03. She's My Winona
04. America's Suitehearts
05. Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet
06. The (Shipped) Gold Standard
07. (Coffee's For Closers)
08. What A Catch, Donnie
09. 27
10. Tiffany Blews
11. w.a.m.s
12. 20 Dollar Nose Bleed
13. West Coast Smoker lyrics

Folie à Deux is the fifth album by American rock band Fall Out Boy. The album, which is the follow-up to their 2007 album Infinity on High, was first released on December 13, 2008. The album is certified platinum in Australia, gold in the United States and silver in the UK.

Fall Out Boy From Under The Cork Tree

However, it is the group's songcraft that impresses the most. Each of CORK TREE's 13 tracks is rife with pop hooks. From the churning chords and expansive chorus of the opener (cheekily titled "Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued"), through the brightly up-tempo "Sugar, We're Goin Down," to the minor-key "XO," CORK TREE is overflowing with potential hit singles. Singer/guitarist Patrick Stump's clear tenor and evocative lyrics (which balance confessionalism, metaphor, and witty cleverness) are the icing on this sweet punk-pop cake.

Fall Out Boy cooks up an immediately digestible combination of crunching rock, highly melodic songwriting, and expressive singing on 2005's FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE, the Chicago unit's first release on Island, and its most accomplished to date. Building on an instrumental foundation that owes debts to both hardcore (drummer Andy Hurley has a thunderous, bass-drum-heavy approach that gives the band tremendous muscle) and indie rock (guitarist Joe Trohman peels off melodic solos), Fall Out Boy packs quite a sonic punch.

Major Label Debut From Chicago Band.

1. Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued
2. Of All the Gin Joints in All the World
3. Dance, Dance - (remix)
4. Sugar, We're Goin Down - (remix)
5. Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner
6. I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)
7. 7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)
8. Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year
9. Champagne For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends
10. I Slept With Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me
11. Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me", A
12. Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows)
13. Xo