Merging bands Kid Named Chicago and Defining Moment into a new group; Derek Sanders, Jason Lancaster, Jeremy Lenzo, Jake Bundrick, Alex Garcia, and Brooks Betts didn't have a moniker picked out when they went into the Tallahassee studio with Lee Dyess to record Tales Told by Dead Friends in 2006.

Mayday Parade - Tallahassee Locals

"If you're looking for fun music with catchy hooks, talented musicians and vocalists who can actually sing well, this is a band you need to check out."

Mayday Parade - Makings of a new band

Merging bands Kid Named Chicago and Defining Moment into a new group; Derek Sanders, Jason Lancaster, Jeremy Lenzo, Jake Bundrick, Alex Garcia, and Brooks Betts didn't have a moniker picked out when they went into the Tallahassee studio with Lee Dyess to record Tales Told by Dead Friends in 2006.

The actual naming came about during the week spent in the studio, being dubbed after the fond memories of the friends watching the downtown winter parades from the rooftops and adding Alex's favorite word, mayday, to become the punk rock group named Mayday Parade. They followed the 2006 Vans Warped Tour like groupies, selling over 10,000 copies, with the golden lining signing with Fearless Records out of Los Angeles at the end of the tour.

Mayday Parade's freshman album A Lesson in Romantics was recorded in 2007 with recordings of many of the songs written while following the Warped Tour. Between the January recording start and the July release date, guitarist Jason Lancaster left the group, stating 'personal reasons' but later releases lean more towards a rift in the songwriting credits arena.

A Lesson in Romantics sold 140,000 copies while topping Absolute Punk's King for the Hill Feature, PureVolume.com, and SmartPunk.com, making #8 on the HEAT chart, and #31 on the Independent charts for the US. The band spent most the next two years touring with the 2007 and 2008 Vans Warped Tour and United Kingdom performances at the Give it a Name festivals in London and Sheffield as well as the US Compromising of Integrity, Morality, and Principles in Exchange for Money tour in the fall of 2008.

It took six months for Mayday Parade to write and record their sophomore album Anywhere but Here, and another four months before it finally released in October, 2009. They began posting singles from the album on their MySpace page in July, starting with Anywhere but Here in July, followed with The Silence (also through iTunes) in August, and Kids in Love in September. They co-headlined at the 2009 Fall Ball tour supporting their new album leading to a Top 200 chart position of 31. RockStopScene cited it as a good album - but without the same spark as their previous album with Lancaster as part of the team.

Take Action

Mayday Parade was also co-headliner on the 2010 Take Action Tour during the first quarter of the year which raised $60,000 for the Driving for Donors organization, sold almost 8,000 Take Action Volume 9 Compilation albums, and made their goal for fans signing with the National Bone Marrow Registry. Their webpage fairly shouts of the success of their second United Kingdom tour. MySpace shows performances booked throughout the US and they have signed to the 2010 Fall Ball tour as well.

A risqué video

Their official website maydayparade.com as well as their MySpace touts several contests they run with prizes being albums, tickets, t-shirts or other official band paraphernalia and the fans seem to love it. Mayday Parade released a very controversial video for Kids in Love in April, 2010, with the band denying, via their website, that they condone the drug and alcohol abuse, and rampant sexual escapades that were the theme calling them "risqué" and "giving the lyrics a darker more edgier twist". Many of the comments on their website, made by their own fans, don't seem to agree with the picture the band seemed to be trying to share, being rather vocal about the overt sexual theme and nudity abounding in this video. One comment classified the video as 'more raunchy than artsy'.

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