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Thursday have always been difficult to categorize. Although they famously rose out of New Brunswick, New Jersey’s basement culture they’ve always been far too cerebral to be considered a traditional hardcore band. Over their eleven-year career they’ve toured with everyone from the Cure to Cursive, but have retained an inherent aggressiveness that can only come from being weaned on similarly independent nineties acts like Ink And Dagger and Lifetime. All of these references to other bands only serve as guidelines-and with Common Existence Thursday have finally reconciled all of their seemingly disparate literary and musical influences into a collection of songs that span the spectrum of human emotions from frustration to hope and, above all, love.
When Thursday-singer Geoff Rickly, guitarists Tom Keeley and Steve Pedulla, bassist Tim Payne, drummer Tucker Rule and keyboardist Andrew Everding- delivered the genre-defining Full Collapse, Alternative Press called 2001 “The Year Punk Broke Again.” SPIN christened the band the “The Next Big Thing” featuring Rickly on its cover in 2004. Thursday’s major-label debut, War All The Time, was a commercial success - but, ultimately, Thursday abandoned that route. Instead, they became something far more impressive in today’s musical climate: A band that eschewed gimmicks, instead forging a unique, organic and evolving sound more lasting than trend. The New York Times concluded, “They may not be rock stars, but by a kind of critical consensus they have emerged as the standard-bearers for their sound, the band considered most likely to survive the vagaries of rock trend-hopping.”
It worked and fans embraced the band’s subsequent releases such as their Dave Fridmann-produced 2006 opus A City By The Light Divided, 2007’s CD/DVD package Kill The House Lights and this year’s extremely well-received split-EP with the legendary Japanese screamo band Envy. Though the band have taken some time off to work on other projects-including Rickly’s visceral outfit United Nations , Keeley’s Black Jets project and Rule’s jaunt overseas to fill-in with My Chemical Romance-they have spent the better part of the past twelve months in a damp warehouse in New Jersey writing the songs that comprise Common Existence. “We worked on this record every day for almost a year,” explains Rickly, adding that the band spent six hours a day poring over the instrumentation and arrangements of these songs until they came up with something they were all ecstatic about.
“Writing this album was an enormous amount of work because we wanted to do something that was a progression and was also closer to the heart of what Thursday’s sound is about,” Rickly explains. “I think the rest of my band has really amazing chemistry and I really wanted to push them to find even deeper strengths than they had before,” he continues, “despite all the hard work, it’s the most fun I’ve had making a record.” And it shines through while listening to the disc in lieu of the sometimes heady subject matter.
From the cathartic “As He Climbed The Mountain”, which is probably the first distortion-drenched hardcore song to feature a slide-guitar break; to the stripped-down post-hardcore anthem “Friends In The Armed Forces” (which features Quicksand’s Walter Schriefels); and the simultaneously dizzying and jaw-dropping rocker “Resuscitation Of A Dead Man” (featuring Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath), Common Existence reminds listeners why they’ve always loved Thursday. Even the band’s new-wave and indie-rock influences shine through on “Time’s Arrow”(in which the subject of regret is illustrated by literally turning the tape around at the end of the song and replaying it backwards to undo the damage), and “love Has Led Us Astray”, further confusing cynics who attempt to slap the latest musical tag on Thursday.
All of this wouldn’t mean anything if the lyrical content on Common Existence wasn’t equally as urgent and incendiary. Tracing a path from lonely last calls to frenzied fallout shelters, the themes are explored in the compassionate and desperate tone that Rickly has been developing his entire career.
“So many of our songs have been about crazy or devastating situations and this record is about growing up and seeing that everyone shares the same existential crisis that we’re going through,” Rickly explains. “Everybody feels like they’re special or different and this record is about me realizing that everybody has these feelings and there’s nothing more common than what we think is our individuality.”
Rickly notes that he gained new perspective from various sources including a fan who lost her family to Hiroshima-related-illnesses and literary icons Cormac McCarthy (As He Climbed This Dark Mountain), Martin Amis (Time’s Arrow), and David Foster Wallace(Circuits of Fever) and that they’ve always been inspired by the troubadour tradition, in which every song is a story and every story has its own narrative force.
“I think that we’re still a post-hardcore band,” Rickly says. “Once you’ve been playing this long it’s natural to want to wring power out from different things, different chords, different time signatures,” he adds. “It doesn’t necessarily change the fundamental swing of your music; it just makes you want to express that same center in different ways.” With Common Existence that center remains intact, but Thursday have created something new and relevant, that can’t be ignored.
History :
Formation and Waiting
Thursday was formed in 1997 by vocalist Geoff Rickly, guitarist Tom Keeley, guitarist Bill Henderson, bassist Tim Payne, and drummer Tucker Rule.
The band began playing basement shows in New Brunswick and surrounding New Jersey and New York areas. They played their first official show on December 31, 1998 in Rickly's basement alongside Midtown, Saves the Day and Poison the Well.
They recorded demos to hand out at shows, and in the summer of 1999, teamed up with MP3.com for their first official release, the 1999 Summer Tour EP, which featured demos of songs that would soon be found on their debut album, Waiting. The album was released on January 18, 2000 on northern New Jersey-basedEyeball Records without any singles or support from television or radio.
Full Collapse
Hesitant to join a larger label, but with full support from Eyeball Records, Thursday signed to Chicago-based label Victory Records and released Full Collapse on April 10, 2001, without much radio or television support, but in a way that the band had not originally intended. Victory Records originally wanted to remove the lyrics from the packaging against the band's wishes in order to cut costs, but the released LP has all lyrics and minimal artwork, a rare thing for the band.
Thursday toured in support of the album, including a tour with Saves the Day that caught the attention of Victory Records. Victory Records filmed a music video for "Understanding in a Car Crash" consisting of live footage of the band and marketed the song as the band's first single, without the band's authorization. The video for this song received heavy airplay on both MTV2 and what was then known as Muchmusic. The song gained the band a large underground following. A second single, "Cross Out the Eyes", would follow, but it received much less attention.
Thursday was routinely upset at Victory Records over the use of the band's image and promotion, including the label's attempts to distribute Thursday-themed whoopie cushions. The band's newfound popularity and disgust with the label led to internal problems that bred the Five Stories Falling EP, a release the band used to fulfill contractual obligations with Victory Records. At live shows, the band routinely told fans not to purchase the EP, but instead to download "Jet Black New Year", the one new song found on the EP amidst live performances of four Full Collapse songs and the first song created since Full Collapse, a time during which the band almost broke up. "Jet Black New Year", the only studio track on Five Stories Falling, showed a darker side of the band that was only hinted at on Full Collapse.
War All the Time
Having parted ways with Victory Records and joining Island Records, Thursday issued their major label debut, the critically acclaimed War All the Time on September 16, 2003. The entire writing and recording process took only six months; the band has claimed they almost forced themselves into a contained sound on the album. The album's title, coupled with it being released approximately two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led many critics to believe it was a political album; however, Rickly has denied this on many accounts, instead claiming that he is speaking about love being a war. War All the Time features Andrew Everding on keyboards, though he would not become an official member of the band until December 26, 2003, when he was officially welcomed into the band at the band's Christmas holiday shows held at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey.
War All the Time spawned two singles, "Signals Over the Air" and "War All the Time", though the latter received considerably less attention due to MTV banning the video for controversial material involving a fake news feed that appeared to be real and teenagers being weapon targets.
Thursday toured extensively to support War All the Time through many dates with acts such as AFI, Thrice, and Coheed and Cambria. On these tours, Thursday performed many in-store acoustic sessions at various Tower Records stores and other record stores. The band also recorded a live acoustic session for Y100 Sonic Sessions, a radio program on the now defunct Philadelphia-based radio station, Y100. The live acoustic version of single "Signals Over the Air" was used on Y100 Sonic Sessions Volume 8.
Following War All the Time, the band released two EPs. The first was Live from the SoHo & Santa Monica Stores Split EP and sold exclusively on iTunes; the second was a promotion found in Revolver, called Live in Detroit EP.
The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2004. The band cited label pressure, extensive touring, and health problems as the sources of their newly discovered fatigue. However, Thursday returned once again for a charitable cause to save New York City's CBGB, on August 25, 2005. This performance was streamed live through the CBGB's website.
A City by the Light Divided
In fall 2005, five Thursday demo songs were stolen from My American Heart's tour manager's iPod. Rickly had recently collaborated with My American Heart for the track "We Are the Fabrication". The band issued a statement on their official website stating that they were disappointed the unfinished products leaked, but that they were glad that people take that much interest in their music. The band confirmed the title of one demo, "At This Velocity" and promised it would make their upcoming album. Three other songs ("The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (Of Control)", "Telegraph Avenue Kiss", and "Autumn Leaves Revisited") would also make the album. The remaining demo would later become the song "Last Call" on their fifth studio album, Common Existence.
Thursday originally toyed with the idea of a double album to follow up War All the Time, but scrapped that idea, reporting on their website that not even The Beatles could properly fill two discs with enough worthy material.
Dave Fridmann-produced A City by the Light Divided, Thursday's first full-length album not produced by Sal Villanueva. The title is influenced by a poem from Octavio Paz – Rickly combined two lines from one of his poems to create the title. The album was officially previewed on the band's MySpace on April 18, 2006, and officially released May 2 on Island Records in America and Hassle Records in the UK.
A City by the Light Divided was generally received well by critics, and spawned two singles, "Counting 5-4-3-2-1" and "At This Velocity", though the latter received considerably less attention.
Kill the House Lights
The band parted ways with Island Records in early 2007. A private show they performed on May 3, 2007 in New York City allowed long-time friend "The Rev" to propose to his fiancee on stage. Thursday also held a performance on May 5 at The Bamboozle under the fake name "Bearfort". They cancelled all tour plans until their fall tour with Circle Takes the Square andPortugal. The Man in support of Kill the House Lights, a DVD/CD retrospective. At their 2007 New Year's Eve show at the Starland Ballroom, the band announced that they will be writing and recording new material in 2008.
Split album with Envy
Thursday announced on April 2, 2008 via a MySpace bulletin and their official website a new split album with Japanese post-hardcore band, Envy.
| “ | We've decided to convert rumor into fact and lay it all out for all you good peoples. New Jersey's Thursday and Old Tokyo's Envy will come together to release a split LP+CD this fall, released by Temporary Residence Ltd. It will be a limited edition LP+CD set; there will be no separated CD or LP versions. Both formats will come in one package, and both will contain the same music. This means it may not be available in Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, or most 'record' stores in the mall. But it will certainly be available at your local independently owned record store, while supplies last. We're not yet sure how limited it will be; maybe 10,000, maybe a billion (probably closer to the former, as we really don't have space for a billion LPs). In addition, there will be a deluxe, hand-printed edition that will be sold exclusively through our webstore. These will be screenprinted by hand, and will be limited colored vinyl editions. There is no specific release date set yet, but look for this around Sep/Oct. | ” |
—Thursday.net, "SPLIT WITH ENVY". 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2008-06-10. | ||
The band debuted a song from the album live in Poughkeepsie on April 24, 2008.
The album was released on Temporary Residence Limited on November 4.
Common Existence
The band announced on September 30, 2008 that they'd signed with Epitaph Records. Regarding their new label, the band said the following: "It's a great feeling to have a label encourage you to be more socially conscious and politically active."
Thursday finished recording and mixing their full-length album entitled Common Existence which was released on February 17, 2009 under Epitaph Records. In a March 2009 interview, Rickly explained the album's title refers to humanity's shared experience, and that many of the songs were influenced by the words of his favorite poets and authors.
| “ | Almost every song on the record is connected to a different writer. The first song, "Resuscitation of a Dead Man" is influenced by Denis Johnson's Resuscitation of a Hanged Man. Another song is based on a book [Martin Amis'] Time's Arrow. The whole record also has a lot of themes from Roberto Bolano, a poet who wrote The Savage Detectives and a few other things. The song "Circuits of Fever" is very influenced by [writer] David Foster Wallace. | ” |
Cormac McCarthy has also influenced Rickly.
Thursday headlined the 2009 Taste of Chaos Tour with support from Bring Me The Horizon, Four Year Strong, Pierce The Veil, Cancer Bats and a local act.
Logo
Thursday uses the dove logo on their albums and merchandise. The dove is believed to have been conceived by Tom Keeley on a tour bussometime before Full Collapse was recorded.
Lyrics from "Cross Out the Eyes" find the band referencing the dove:
We can rise on the wings of the doveSee blue skies getting caught in the trail of all this smoke
We can rise like candles in the dark – yours always
And an envelope marked with your new address
As well as:
...And the mourning dove gets caught in the telephone wire.
It is unknown whether these lyrics were inspired by the dove art or vice-versa. Since the dove's conception, however, it appears on every disc that Thursday has released in some form, though it is not mentioned lyrically aside from "Cross Out the Eyes". There is also a dove present in the "Cross Out the Eyes" video, which Darren Doane, in the commentary for XDOANEX, said was the hardest prop he's ever had to procure for a music video.
The band also has adopted a new logo – a red bullseye with a small chevron below it – for A City by the Light Divided. This logo appeared on merchandise related to the album, and is seen faded in the background of the cover for Kill the House Lights.
