YellowCard

YellowCard is a pop punk band(in the earlier years more punk rock) started in 1997, their music is very different due to the addition of a violin. The band had quite a few members who were all from the same school in Jacksonville, Florida. It was 1995 when Harper met Parsons that school year, after playing together for 2 years they met Cooke(bass), Clarry(guitarist) and Clarry friend Dobson(lead singer). They named their new formed band of 1997 YellowCard after their own highschool term for party foul, in fact they even played soccer together but stopped after realising they need more practice time for the band. They were all about practice after school and played a few times in school through the early years.

The band released their first album Midget Tossing in 1997, although Sean Mackin and his violin featured a few different songs on the album, he was not officially a member yet. Their second album Where We Stand still had a same lineup, but soon after it was released Dobson left the group out of lack of interest and personal problems with a few band members. Harper stated: people don't realize that the most important thing for a band is the relationships between the members. Dobson was replaced by Ryan Key(vocals and rhythm guitar). With Key in their group their music changed drastically from Hardcore Punk to Pop-Punk(although with still a hint of punk rock), which also changed there fans and started them with a fresh start. They also had Mackin play with most of there songs now being an official member.

In early 2000 they recorded their first extended play Still Standing, soon after it was released Clarry left the band and Key filled in his spot along with his own job. In 2001 the band signed their first recording contract with Lobster Records and headed to California to began working on their next full length album. Later that year they released the album One for the Kids, which was followed up by their forth album The Underdog in 2002. Although the fans recieved both albums with excitement, shortly after Underdog was released Cooke left the band. The group asked Pete Mosely, a friend of theirs, to play bass for them,he accepted. Somwhere between the released of their extended play and the time Cooke left the band, they filmed an music video for the song "Powder". They redid the video with Mosely and was released on their next album Ocean Avenue. http://youtube.com/watch?v=psIwACaJiIg

Shortly after releasing The Underdog, YellowCard signed with Capitol Records who were looking for more Pop Punk then anything else. They started writing their major label debut Ocean Avenue in late 2002, and finished in spring of 2003. However, during their recording for Ocean Avenue Mosely left due to personal problems with one of the members. The band immediately began searching for a new bass and found Alex Lewis, he became their bass player and in the process his sister, Alieke Wijnveldt, contributed to the vocals in the song "View From Heaven". (http://youtube.com/watch?v=6bdvfK58gfM&feature=related) After Ocean Avenue was released their popularity reached new heights. The band released the first single from the album which was Way Away(http://youtube.com/watch?v=9xw0UrML-fg).

During the middle of the bands headline tour(in support of Ocean Avenue) Mosely came back from his semi-retirement and asked for his place in the band back. Since Mosely was partially there for Ocean Avenue and was with them from the beginning back in the high school days, they asked Lewis to leave and let Mosely rejoin as the bass player.

In 2003 they released the single "Ocean Avenue"(http://youtube.com/watch?v=wkw0Ry7qYVo) which skyrocketed their popularity, they were all over from covers of Alternative Press, to headlines of the 2004 Warped Tour. Their track Way Away was featured on soundtracks of SSX 3 and Madden NFL 2004. Also their track "Breathing" was featured on Burnout 3 and Flatout 2. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=CbyzdTfVW74). With Ocean Avenue's success they released the single "Only One", a rock ballad that did well on the radio. Finally with just this one release gaining them so much popularity the result was 2 million copies of the album sold in the US alone.

As their popularity began to settle down again they spent some time writing songs for various soundtracks. The first was "Gifts and Curses" that was featured in Spider Man 2.(http://youtube.com/watch?v=SeCR6-gaQaA One of my favorite songs) Yellowcard also performed a cover of the song, "Dont You(Forget About Me)" for the movie The Breakfast Club.

After about 2 years of touring nonstop, the band took a few months break in the beginning of 2005 and Key and Mosely went to New York to start writing for their new album(the rest of the band stayed in L.A). The band regrouped in L.A and started their production for their next album. They excepted it to be released in Augast 2005 but it got held back for several more months because of slow production and other delays.

In the few months following issues had arisen between the band members, Harper and Key had made comments stating "the fame went to their heads", and after a few court sessions Harper left the band. Eventually Harper was replaced by Mendez, and Lights and Sounds as finally released Janurary 24th, 2006.
The album was more of a concept album, with most of its songs based of their negative feelings towards L.A. Key felt the album would alienate most of their fan base and he was OK with that. Twenty songs were recorded and fourteen of them were on the CD, it was also the only album with an instrumental intro track.
The first single released for this album was "Lights and Sounds" and was released a week before the album, and was featured on the video game Burnout Revenge.(http://youtube.com/watch?v=-FS8nG8SZEI) Just on its first week out it sold 90,000 copies, but only reached gold status. On May, 2o06 the second single was released titled "Rough Landing, Holly", it was recieved as well as Lights and Sounds and only after the second week it dropped off the charts dramatically.
In May 2006 Key had to have surgery on his vocal cords due to having problems with his singing since 2005. He was mute for a little over a week and couldn't sing for more then a month.

On October 2006 they announced on their official website that they were finally back in their studio starting their next album, and guitarist Mendez states that he think both older and newer fans will like their new album. The first YellowCard show since 2006 was on March 29, 2007 at Hollywood, California, at the performance Key announced their new album was to be titled Paper Walls. One night they played two songs from their new album, "Fighting" and "The Takedown",(http://youtube.com/watch?v=bIfa-EUHqr8) and on another night they played "Shadow and Regrets" and "Light Up the Sky"(http://youtube.com/watch?v=fZj-0nHmtuM) also from their new album.
One month before the album was released Key described their album: "...very much a record of hope and finding yourself again. It's after you've come through all that -going to the height of it-and picking yourself back up again. And by "hitting rock bottom" I don't mean in record sales or fame or any of that shit. I mean personally-emotionally...Paper Walls is the story, the feeling of what it's like to be out of those holes, looking back, no regrets, but smarter and having grown through them."
When I read that quote I said to myself: "Wow...Deep"
The album was released on July 17, 2007.

Yellowcard has been on tour promoting the album nonstop, also in their tours supporting Blue October and Linkin Park. While touring Mosely announced that yet again he was leaving Yellowcard for his own endeavors. The band hasn't made and official decisions yet, but Josh Portmant has been a stand-in bass player at the moment. They had to cancel severoul European tours due to Parsons taking a few months off to stay with his Grandmother in Florido whos health is failing. YellowCard has scheduled a few different tours, one in Iraq was canceled due to the presidents showing up and canceling all flights, and several others for random reasons.
Their most recent album, Live From Las Vegas at the Palms, was released January 22nd 2008.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-btPHNaQVc8&feature=related