The Academy Is...

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Biography

The Academy Is... was an American Rock music|rock band from Chicago, Illinois , formed in 2003. Before disbanding, they were signed by the Decaydance Records|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. , the band has released three studio albums, Almost Here (The Academy Is album)|Almost Here , Santi (album)|Santi , and Fast Times at Barrington High , and four EPs. On 8 October 2011, the band announced they would go their separate ways.

History

Band beginnings (2003)

William Beckett (singer)|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 http://pulp.chargerbulletin.com/bottom.php? id=music/012509_1133-0& s=f Pulp Magazine retrieved 1-31-09 then eventually adding AJ LaTrace as a lead guitarist and Michael DelPrincipe (Little Mike) as a drummer. They recorded their self-titled debut EP, The Academy (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.

Almost Here (2005)

In 2004 the band headed to Florida to record their Fueled by Ramen debut Almost Here (The Academy Is album)|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 doing a summer tour, the band underwent a lineup change. Thomas 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 (band)|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 (band)|June . On Billboard's charts Almost Here peaked at #7 on Top Heatseekers, #16 on Independent Albums , and #185 on The Billboard 200.
Later on in 2005, while Pete Wentz was finishing up work on Fall Out Boy's second album From Under the Cork Tree and his Decaydance Records|"latest side project" with John Janick of Fueled by Ramen, he discovered Panic& #33; at the Disco and helped them release their debut album '' A Fever You Can't Sweat Out through his label Decaydance . The Academy Is... was also signed to Decaydance that year, making them the second group on the new label. citation needed this needs references May 2005

On October 26, 2006, The Academy Is... had announced via the blog on their official website that Empires (band)|Thomas Conrad and the band had parted ways. Michael Guy Chislett joined the band to replace Conrad on guitar.

Santi (2007)

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 (album)|Santi , was released April 3, 2007 on the Fueled By Ramen label. The release of this album was listed on Blender (magazine)|Blender 's 25 reasons to love 2007. 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.

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 (band)|+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 (band)|Sherwood . Partly through the tour, label mates Cobra Starship were 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 19, 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 (The Academy Is song)|About a Girl ," was added to the band's MySpace page on July 15, 2008 and was subsequently made available from various download sites. The lead model in the official music video for "About a Girl", Brittany Moser, also went to Barrington the same time Adam and William were in high school. 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. It peaked at #17 on The Billboard 200

Lost in Pacific Time (2009–2011)

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 number will also be sold on their webstore 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 Barrington, Illinois. William has also been posting or linking lyrics on his blog. 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. 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, due to an injury to the AAR lead singer Tyson Ritter.

On May 26, the band announced that they will be supporting Kiss (band)|Kiss on their upcoming summer tour. The band also said that this tour will not affect the release date or direction of their new record.

On the tour with Kiss (band)|Kiss , they have been playing a cover of Sweet (band)|Sweet 's "Fox on the Run", of which they contributed a recorded version to the soundtrack of the movie When In Rome.

Departure of Andy Mrotek and Michael Guy Chislett, 4th studio album and break up (2011)

On May 24, 2011, The Academy Is... made an announcement on their official website that said that bandmates, Andy Mrotek & Michael Guy Chislett, were leaving the band to pursue their own musical careers. There has reportedly been no hard feelings during this decision. William Beckett also stated that the three remaining members would be entering the studio soon to record their fourth full-length album. This announcement featured a minute-and-a-half snippet of a track called "Chicago". William Beckett stated in a UStream interview that Mrotek,Chislett, and Siska were not present on "Chicago", and that it was just Beckett and Carden.

On May 26, 2011, William Beckett tweeted that they had entered and recorded in the studio.

On October 8, 2011, The Academy Is... announced their disbanding on their official Facebook page, stating that they had "decided to go their separate ways" but "though we may not be together, you can look forward to hearing new music from each of us" http://www.theacademyis.com/

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 the offstage life of the band. TAITV episodes are available on iTunes and new episodes aired 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 took a break from TAITV to tour with Cobra Starship filming their podcast, CobraCam.Tv, until their new album, Hot Mess, was released. No new episodes have been released since mid-2009. However, on December 5, 2009, bassist Adam Siska stated via his Twitter account that "TAITV is not dead. It's like Han Solo in the carbon tomb between Empire and Jedi. Sooner or later Luke will come kick Jabba's fat ass..."

Because of the break up, TAITV has been discontinued.

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". http://www.fueledbyramen.com/news/ Retrieved 1/23/09 posted 08/19/2008 - 10:01 AM EST 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.

Band members

Former Members:

William Beckett (singer)|William Beckett – Lead vocalist|lead vocals , guitar (2003–2011)

Mike Carden – rhythm guitar , backing vocals (2003–2011)

Adam T. Siska – Bass guitar|bass , Backing vocalist|backing vocals (2003–2011)

Andy Mrotek|Andy "The Butcher" Mrotek – Drum kit|drums , Percussion instrument|percussion , backing vocals (2005–2011)

Michael Guy Chislett – Lead guitarist|lead guitar , Backing vocalist|backing vocals , piano (2006–2011)

Thomas Conrad – lead guitar, backing vocals (2005–2006)

AJ LaTrace – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–2005)

Michael DelPrincipe – drums, percussion (2003–2005)

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
Year	Album details	US	US Rock	US Indie	US Heat	UK	AUS
2005	Almost Here (The Academy Is... album) Released: February 8, 2005 Label: Fueled By Ramen	185	—	16	7	—	—
2007	Santi (album) Released: April 3, 2007 Label: Fueled by Ramen/ Atlantic Records / Decaydance Records	32	7	—	—	94	—
2008	Fast Times at Barrington High Released: August 19, 2008 Label: Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance	17	5	—	—	—	30
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

EPs

The Academy (EP)|The Academy (2004, later rereleased as The INFO 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 Singles Chart|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 (The Academy Is song)|About a Girl " (2008), #88 U.S. Pop 100|Pop

"Summer Hair = Forever Young" (2008)

"His Girl Friday" (2009)

"The Test" (2009)

Winter Passing

" Winter Passing (song)|Winter Passing " (2008)

Lost In Pacific Time: The AP/EP

"I'm Yours Tonight" (2010)

"Sputter" (2010)

Compilation appearances

Music from Degrassi: The Next Generation (2008), contributed "Neighbors"

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 (The Clique song)|Superman "

Warped Tour 2005 Tour Compilation (2005), contributed "Checkmarks"

When in Rome (Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2010), contributed "Fox On The Run"

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
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1. Phantom Planet 2. Cobra Starship 3. All American Rejects 4. Mayday Parade 5. Meg & Dia 6. Roses Are Red 7. Sherwood 8. The Junior Varsity 9. The Paper Chase 10. TheAUDITION 11. Warped Tour 12. We The Kings 13. Capital Lights

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