Of recent days, the name Fall Out Boy has coincided more with tabloid magazine cover spreads rather than their recognizable hardcore punk sound. The group seemingly all about the underground has become pawns in the mainstream thanks to bassist Pete Wentz. As longtime fans of Fall Out Boy, which really only stretch to the early ‘00s, know, the face of the punk band originally came in the form of vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump mostly in part because of their first hit single, “Sugar, We’re Going Down.” Suddenly Wentz appeared, with a clothing line, a bar, film production work, a record label, and a hot wife. Just as confused as the rest of us? Keep up with boys with Fall Out Boy tickets from .
Wentz’s life has commanded the punk band so much so that Fall Out Boy’s latest record, Folie a Deux, is set to premiere only after Wentz’s pop star wife, Ashlee Simpson, has their child. According to the Herald Sun, the rest of the members of Fall Out Boy have allowed for this family occasion. “Fall Out Boy's new record has been designed to work around [the birth]. I have a nomadic life. That allows your child and family to see the world's culture, so that will be a great thing,” Wentz told the paper.
Originally set to premiere Election Day, the Deux bump to December 16 was not only due to Wentz’s baby momma’s bump but also the fact that this November’s election is such an important one. “I perceived it as a gimmick, a cute thing,'' Wentz told the Herald Sun, ‘‘we were going to make ‘Vote for Fall Out Boy' T-shirts. But that seemed a bit cheap. So we decided to push it back. Our label wanted it out next year, we wanted it out this year, so now it's out two weeks before Christmas. We'll see how it goes. The election is more important than our record. If our record suffers for that, that's OK.”
Appeasing fans and their record company, Fall Out Boy has set another kind of record. Instead of searching for the number one sales spot this November, they instead set their sights on a Guinness World Record. The idea to break a World Record is not their first, incidentally. Earlier this year they hoped to put their names on a different page in the Guinness book by performing live on all seven continents within nine months. But when Antarctica’s weather proved to be a problem, they set their sights on something a little more feasible – “Most Interviews on Radio In a 24 Hour Period By a Pair of Two.” The two geniuses who performed the acts were none other than Wentz and Stump, who conducted 72 interviews on Halloween. Though the interviews still need to be confirmed by Guinness, they boys shattered the previous record, which held the mark at 57 and was set in May.
But for Wentz and his band mates, this is not the only record they hope to set even as 2009 looms nearer and nearer. With a pushed released of their fifth studio album and an instrumental presidential election on its way, Fall Out Boy plans on “clubbing” it in promotion of their new album. Beginning November 6th in Allston, MA, the punk rockers will continue on this record setting mindset as they limitedly promote an album yet to be released. What else could happen with Wentz and his crew? Only time will tell as Fall Out Boy continues to shock the nation with their outlandish desires.