The Cab are SO YOUNG. They're just week little babies. Decent act live, though.

I *will* drag you to see Cobra Starship when they come back through. You must see the excellence of the G.A.B.E.

For reals.

Cobra Starship: tongue so far in cheek that I'm surprised Saporta hasn't bitten it off yet.

And yet! A core of substance. Saporta's wickedly smart, and the whole thing is almost performance art. Though I will reluctantly admit that sometimes, the lyrics, while not aimed at slagging on women, do have that sort of Dean Winchester Sexism to them. (Even though they're one of the acts with an Actual Factual Female Member.)

Briefly interrupting bandom talk for further thoughts on Symphonic Stones:

Symphonic Street Fightin' Man is glorious and almost sounds like something Beethoven would have written, had he been hanging out with Keith Richards.

Also, the version of Ruby Tuesday features vocal by Marianne Faithful. It is just as awesome as you think that would be, except the mix on the chorus sucks, because the horns kind of drown out Marianne's voice.

Also, the version of Ruby Tuesday features vocal by Marianne Faithful.

I could be wrong, but I think "Ruby Tuesday" was the last song Brian Jones wrote for the Stones. (Deb would know.) Anyway, that's one reason why it sounds rather atypical for them (conversely you could say that it does sound sort of like "Lady Jane" so maybe the Stones "typical" isn't as narrow as I'm arguing.)

I'm very sad that that CD seems to be missing from the SF library. It sounds fun.

Lee, you were asking for a PowerPoint presentation? Bandom so kindly provides: [link] It's long, and bandom-fic oriented, but funny.

Um, what to say about The Cab. They are young. Younger than Panic. They do rock with a kind of R&B flavour to it, largely because of Singer's (lead vocals, hence nickname) very smooth, surprisingly sophisticated voice. They're going through the touring-in-a-van-parents-buying-groceries phase of baby bands right now, but I wouldn't expect it to last long since they are all rather pretty and have decent songwriting skills, enough to break mainstream.

The Academy has been around as long--perhaps longer--than Fall Out Boy. They were formed shortly after Mike Carden (guitarist)'s previous band 504plan (with Jon Walker of Panic at the Disco) broke up in 2002/2003ish. Billy Beckett (lead vocals) is younger than me. (I spend a lot of time noting the relative ages of various bandom members.) They have probably the most radio-friendly rock sound, and I wouldn't put them in the same genre as Fall Out Boy's pop-punk; but because of Beckett's strong and clear vocals, it's always fallen just short of rocking out for me.

Cobra Starship: sarcasm with a beat and eighties throwback style. I don't know, man, my opinion of Cobra Starship is based a lot around hearing Gabe talk about it as a project he put together after Midtown (his previous hardcore-synth rock band) broke up. Everything about it is pretty carefully planned, and we're only seeing what we're allowed to see; nothing is taken for chance with this band. As meta, it's awesome. As music, it's remarkable mostly because it is so fucking catchy.

The Hush Sound is probably the most musically accomplished and talented of Decaydance's stable of artists. They are also fucking young. Greta, female lead vocals and piano, is twenty. Bob, male lead vocals and guitar, is 23. The level of sophistication in their songwriting is pretty astounding, and they're the band I'd place bets on most likely to last and remain musically relevant and interesting. They play with genres without ever losing the unique quality that sets them apart from other bands their age. If they weren't signed to FBR/DD, Sub Pop would have snapped them up in a second.

Tyga is 18, Travie (McCoy of Gym Class Heroes)'s relation, and just starting his career; he's a rapper that is decent but may grow with time. Decent hooks, a lot of mentoring. The first real foray into rap that DD has taken; on Bat Squad, which is Travie's imprint of Decaydance, which is itself an imprint of Fueled By Ramen. My head hurts now.

Gym Class Heroes is technically the first band Pete Wentz signed to his label (The Academy and Fall Out Boy moved to DD after Panic broke half a million records and moved Decaydance from being a boutique imprint to an actual functioning label that currently has more artists on its roster than its parent label, FBR) and has had a pretty longstanding following on the East Coast. They're putting together their third LP now, and they're style is probably best described as MC-rock with nerdy flavor thrown in. Travie is also in two other projects that aren't on DD.

Ancillary bands, aside from My Chemical Romance, include Empires, a relatively recent project that is the baby of Tom Conrad (formerly of 504plan and The Academy Is) and Sean Van Vleet. They are part of the Chicago scene that gave birth to FOB, TAI, The Hush Sound, etc. Currently unsigned on purpose, gaining momentum in the Chicagoland area, and are the first band in this nutty thing called bandom aside from The Hush Sound that I liked on first listen and didn't have to work for.

See also Leathermouth, the side project of Frank Iero (MCR) and Jamia Nestor (wife of Frank) on their Skeleton Crew...thing. It's a label, it's a production company, its a publisher, it's whatever they want it to be. Leathermouth is very much in the line of Jersey hardcore, and is pretty much unknown outside of Jersey and certain corners of the internet. Demos out, but not really signed outside of Skeleton Crew.

See also Ashlee Simpson, for obvious reasons; and certain corners of hip-hop, including but not limited to The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, and Timbaland (continued...)

( continues...) for their Patrick Stump connections.

/bandom wikipedia

Oh! And this doesn't include the All American Rejects, who have their own bandom thing that sometimes interacts with the rest of bandom, or The Libertines, who had a separate fandom/bandom thing pre-Babyshambles, or anything about bands prior to 2000. Because that's a whole bucket of worms I'm not going to touch.

See also Ashlee Simpson, for obvious reasons

What obvious reaons? Was she dating one of them?

She is engaged to Pete Wentz.