THE WORLD EXCLUSIVES THAT NEVER WERE…

My Chemical Romance: New album ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’ due for release in November. The world premiere of the first single from it is called ’NanaNa’ was trailed on BBC Radio 1 all day yesterday as taking place on Zane Lowe’s 7pm radio show. And sure enough at around 7:30pm, together with a short telephone conversation with Gerard, the song was played out and then repeated soon after.

Here’s what Gerard Way said to Zane about the record:

“Na Na Na… is the song that changed everything for us and motivated us to start over.”

“We all kinda think we can start our lives again. With the song [Na Na Na) it's like the moment we said this song changes everything and it's the moment we're starting over - right now! We're starting over with [producer] Rob Cavallo. Everything up to the point of recording the new album felt like we were in statis, and statis equals death you know. It was so bad and the vibe was not good and then all of a sudden there was this big intensity underneath us and the momentum we needed to dig deep and record another album. So that to me is the power of the song [Na Na Na] and how it propelled all of us, and we hope it propells everybody else.”

“The spirit is back and it took a little while to figure out exactly who and what the band is. We re-embraced that as opposed to turning our back on it. hearing the UK show schedule sounded very real and surreal at the same time. Like we were looking at hard dates when we’re playing a show. We can’t wait to see our fans - I got this really cool Tweet from Manchester and it was vaguely threatening… it said, “Are you ready for us? I loved that“”

Zane was overcome with excitement and emotion at this ‘very special event’ and proclaimed,  ”We have another very special occasion and have many millions of Chemical Romance fans from around the world listening… we know there are many people out there hungry to hear it and always play the hottest record in the world for the first time at 7:30 on the dot. We do have a radio interview with Gerard Way, the first he’s done since the band returned with a brand new album.”

“We love the energy we’re getting from My Chemical Romance fans from around the world tonight, cos your band is almost back!”  Bless…

I had thought it pretty strange that an American band would not choose its own country to launch the song, and frankly quite weird the world exclusive was given to a single British radio station. Today I was searching the Internet for reactions to a song I thought was OK but retrograde when I found this:

“Most reports are saying that either Zane Lowe at BBC Radio 1 or KROQ were the first to play this song. I have firsthand knowledge that Radio 104.5 played the song at around 10:20 AM EDT. That’s several hours before Zane Lowe played it on Radio 1 and the “official” world premiere at KROQ. For what it’s worth, 104.5 were taken to task for jumping the gun. My take? The song showed up in 104.5′s inbox early; they’d have been crazy not to play it, regardless of who the exclusive might’ve been promised to. I would have done the same thing in their shoes.”

SHOCK & AWE! The Yanks have done it again and Zane and the BBC’s deal (whatever it was) came to nothing as the USA audience heard it first, and rightly so. Laughed? I almost wet myself! Here’s what the radio station said:

My Chemical Romance Premiered Here
Wednesday 09-22-2010 4:42pm ET
“Turns out the people at My Chemical Romance’s record label Warner Brothers were, shall we say, “disapointed” that we went ahead and World Premiered the New My Chemical Romance track “Na Na Na” this morning at 10:21a. Apparently, we ended up being a bit of a killjoy for their label as this disrupted some sort of synchronized World Wide premiere which even has the entire UK up in arms. We meant no harm, but stumbled across the audio and decided that it must be heard immediately. In case you missed the official “World Premiere“. Experience it here:

http://www.radio1045.com/pages/johnny.html?feed=373614&article=7628508

http://www.radio1045.com/main.html

And, MCR had a live studio interview on KROQ radio earlier in September… ( http://kroq.radio.com/2010/09/22/video-my-chemical-romance-in-studio-with-kat-corbett/)

As for the single, it’s teen pop-punk, very melodic with powerful, catchy choruses and rather strange lyrics. Here’s a pretty spot-on USA review by someone who heard it several hours before we did here in the UK:

“After four years, an aborted album that Gerard Way called “horrifying” and the departure of drummer Bob Bryar, My Chemical Romance are finally ready to show us what they’ve been up to. Earlier today Radio 104.5 here in Philly snagged the World Premiere1 of “Na Na Na”, the first single from Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, whose November 22 release date has been all but confirmed at this point. Frontman Gerard Way described the song as both “dumb as fuck” and “a punk rock ‘Hey Ya!’”. The title alone gives me evidence that it’s the former, and while “Na Na Na” is unabashedly fun, there’s no moment in the track that resonates the way “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” did seven years ago.That said, “Na Na Na” has all the unharnessed energy of a six year old after a dozen Pixy Stix. It’s loud, it’s jubilant, it’s more than a little ridiculous, but let’s face it; if you can listen to this song and get that hook out of your head after three listens, you’re a better person than I am. What’s most impressive here is that My Chemical Romance hold absolutely nothing back. In a period when punk rock is getting diluted and focus-grouped into something that’ll appeal as much to Hot Topic tweens as their soccer moms, “Na Na Na” is a sign that MCR couldn’t give a shit. The childish title and sing-song hook doesn’t strike me as laziness or pandering; it’s just the purest form of energy the band could muster to match the fury of the song. All in all, big win for My Chemical Romance. Put me down as being excited to hear the rest of Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.”