#not the life it seems

[storyofitall]

And people were surprised when they started wearing dresses on stage?

#there were so many signs #seriously #mcr #mcr return #gerard way #Not the life it seems

[earlycuntsets]

#i better see some fucked up killjoys #killjoys #danger days #lmao #mcr #my chemical romance #frank iero #gerard way #mikey way #ray toro #2010 mcr #from the book not the life it seems #not the life it seems #danger days gerard #party poison #kobra kid #ttlotfk #ddttlotfk #fun ghoul

[acasternaut]

thought i could handle reading more of not the life it seems but i need to read it alone otherwise i will sob like a bitch in public

reading about the creation of your fucking favorite song. im shattering every bone in my body.

#work is incredibly slow today so i thought i'd maybe try to read some more #nope. #my chemical romance #mcr #not the life it seems #red talks

[girlmikeyway]

listen i'm not saying the cover for Where Are Your Boys Tonight is good at all but if you're going to complain then let's also acknowledge that all the covers for Not The Life It Seems look like this

the shitty graphics are camp and part of the experience just go with it

#the third one is the most passable cover but. it's servicable at best #not speaking on the actual quality of the books btw #where are your boys tonight #not the life it seems #text #ash speaks #mcr

[sososososososomething]

nonfiction books including my chemical romance as subject matter be like "gerard way smelled so fucking bad in 2003 dude. he was so fucking stinky. jesus christ."

#mcr #where are your boys tonight #not the life it seems

[tothelastparade]

Things said about Ray Toro that make you want to tear up

#he’s just so HAPPY now 😭😭 #ray toro #my chemical romance #mcr #not the life it seems

[sentientxlena]

2013 frank iero - oh boy do i have news for You

#my chemical romance #mcr #not the life it seems #frank iero #gerard way #mikey way #mcr return #mcr 2022 #mcrmy #mcr tour

[party-lemon]

Some of my favorite excerpts from Tom Bryant's Not the Life It Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance (Part 3)

"'I think the reason why I play the way I do is probably because I never feel good. I'm always trying to spite myself. It's not an emotional thing, it's a physical thing - I always feel tired and run down, my immune system is destroyed because I have the Epstein Barr virus. I have a weird stomach problem that constantly makes me feel queasy to the point where I think I'm going to throw up. The only time I really feel good is when I just get offstage because I think I must have sweated everything out. It's the one time I don't feel sick any more.'"

#mcr #my chemical romance #tom bryant #not the life it seems #frank iero

[jetergentstar]

#not the life it seems #mcr #gerard way #mikey way #my chemical romance

[mieux-de-se-taire]

Our Lady of Sorrows - MCR Interviews

89.5 WSOU FM Interview - 7/11/02

7:32-7:46, 21:09-21:14, 22:20-22:28

Interviewer: I don't think I’ll be able to play track 5. Gerard: Oh yeah, 5 (Interviewer laughs) Ray: Probably not that one. Interviewer: That’s alright ‘cause that’s gonna be one of those that uh, you know, kids are gonna hear this, and they’re gonna get the record, and then, track 5 is gonna be like the track that everyone loves (Gerard laughs) ‘cause it’s the one they didn’t hear. Frank: (After being asked his favorite song) I like “Knives” a lot to play, and “Vampires” is always fun. Gerard: My favorite song to play live is “Knives,” um, “Our Lady of Sorrows,” sorry. We’re using the old titles for songs, sorry.  Interviewer: (Overlapping) Another name change? Gerard: Yeah, it’s called “Our Lady of Sorrows”. That’s my favorite.

/

Noise Theory Interview - 11/13/02

Page 2, paragraph 1

Interviewer: MCR’s music can be pretty varied, do you have a particular favorite song that you like to play live? Ray: Hmm…live I think my favorite songs to play are Our Lady of Sorrows, just because of the pure energy in the song, and Vampires, because it has quiet parts that gradually explode and it’s fun to see kids whig out when that happens.

/

Alternative Press #197 - 9/17-20/04

Page 6, paragraph 1

The trio recorded a demo in Pelissier’s attic. “My attic had no walls,” he says, laughing. “It was a wooden, run-down piece of crap. I had a really cheap 16-track board, and we had a bunch of crappy mics. I basically had the drums and guitars playing upstairs and ran mics down the stairs and had Gerard sing in the bathroom.” What came out of those sessions were the blueprints for “Our Lady of Sorrows” (original title: “Bring More Knives”), “Cubicles” and “Turnstiles.” “You could hear that it was something really new, and it was kind of a weird idea, but for some reason, as poorly as it was coming together, it really worked,” remembers Gerard. “And a lot of people loved the demo.”

/

Kerrang #1045 - 2/16/05

Page 6, paragraph 2

Gerard: We always turn the houselights up during ‘Our Lady Of Sorrows’ because it’s a special song to us.

/

FUSE Q&A with Bert McCracken and Gerard Way - 2/26/05

4:27-4:38

Gerard: My favorite lyric has always been my favorite lyric, and it is “oh, how wrong we were to think that immortality meant never dying” from ‘Our Lady of Sorrows,’ our first record. I don’t think I’ll ever top that line. It’s my favorite.

/

Zero Magazine Interview - December 2005

Page 5, paragraph 10 and page 7, paragraph 1

Gerard: There’s always a fear that people might overlook “I Brought You My Bullets…” Occasionally, when we play on this tour, with the exception of Vampires and Our Lady of Sorrows, we play 4 or 5 old songs, usually when the venue’s quietest - but then again, when we play the UK, those are some of their favorite songs. The UK was very accepting of Bullets, whereas America didn’t know about it. They like hearing it, they’re just not familiar with it.

/

Not the Life It Seems: The True Story of MCR / Kerrang #1142 - 1/17/07

Page 33, paragraphs 3-4

“We met once a week for the next four weeks to practise,” said Gerard. “It seemed that anything was possible at that point. Ray wrote “Our Lady of Sorrows” – which was the second complete song we had. It fitted because it didn’t really fit. That was something we always wanted to do – to put songs together that shouldn’t work together but do. This song was really aggro and metal – there were bits we cribbed off Helloween in it. There were a lot of bizarre references around that time.

“The genesis of the sound came from sitting in Ray’s room in his Mom and Dad’s apartment that he shared with his brothers and sitting at his computer with two guitars and just talking about the sound a lot. We were completely on the same page about it, 100 per cent.”

Page 14, paragraph 3

Initially called ‘Bring More Knives’, this was written by Ray Toro and was the second song MCR ever completed. “There were bits we cribbed off (old school metallers) Helloween in it,” says Gerard. “It came from sitting in Ray’s room in his mom and dad’s apartment, sitting at his computer with two guitars and just talking about the sound a lot.”

/

Kerrang #1350 - 2/9/11

Page 7, paragraph 8

Frida (Sweden): What are your favourite lyrics you have written? Are they still from ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’? Gerard: Yeah, I think so.

#mcr #my chemical romance #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love #bullets #our lady of sorrows #interviews #song interviews #not the life it seems #i usually try to find the interviews that not the life it seems draws from but i couldn't find the full quote for the kerrang 1142 one #it's probably another kerrang magazine #but i have no idea #next up is headfirst! #which is mentioned a lot #so it'll probably take a bit

[cloudsmovelikeawraith]

and they did !

#id in alt text #👨‍💻 #not the life it seems #mcr

[boo-cool-robot]

Not the Life has interesting parts in it, but I wish that someone would approach in-depth biography of My Chem from a queer/trans perspective. Like it is completely unthinkable to me that this section discusses Gerard’s frustration about being seen as more mainstream while recording Conventional Weapons, but does not bring up how gender performance affected that perception at all:

--

---

Gerard goes ‘I cut my hair and wore a tie and got offers to be on men’s magazines and I felt trapped.’ That’s absolutely about him being seen as gender-conforming for the first time in his career and hating it! 

Especially notable is that 2 chapters previously, Bryant discusses Mexico City attacks on emo youth that associated themselves with MCR. He explicitly names homophobia and enforcement of gender norms as the driving force. There are dots to be connected here!

[ID in alt text]

#gerard way #my chemical romance #not the life it seems #mcr tag #the gender/sexuality stuff is so weirdly underanalyzed in this book #there's stuff said that bryant just completely breezes past #transgay mcr biography when #also did you know you can add alt text in desktop but you have to use the html editor. extremely annoying.

[genderfreakxx]

I’m the girl of the band!

#grinning #this is literally. still just the FOREWARD #the entire part under this where ray calls himself the ‘annoying father’ of the group is also fucken precious #this book is gonna kill me #not the life it seems #gerard way #ntlis #mcr

[awsugar]

hi!! i was looking for a pdf of tom bryant’s mcr book and saw your post come up 😭 are you able to send that pdf or still have a link for it? thanks 🥺

hi im sorry i have not been on tumblr much due to my work hours and i was out of town the past couple days! but also, my posts about the book are my own iphone photos of my copy lol....not a pdf. although i have heard on exists!!! so if anyone sends the link in the replies or sends it to me i can rb this for you!

#anonymous #asks #mcr #my chemical romance #not the life it seems

[ruhearingvoicesagain]

do you ever

#my chemical romance #gerard way #ray toro #i cry #not the life it seems #rob cavallo

[party-lemon]

Some of my favorite excerpts from Tom Bryant's Not the Life It Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance (Part 2)

"'I stood up on a chair, and they powered through their set: it was like a hurricane,' said Frank, watching from the back of the room before Pencey were due to follow them. 'No one knew what to expect as it was the band's first show, so they stood back for a bit. Then it went crazy. Ray and G were kicking each other, it was awesome. You just knew something important was happening. The band was just too good for something not to happen. From that day, I went to every single one of their shows: from the first note they played, they were my favorite band.'"

#mcr #my chemical romance #tom bryant #not the life it seems #frank iero #bullets #i brought you my bullets you brought me your love