Boys Like Girls is a four-piece American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group completed nationwide tours with Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit the Lights and Butch Walker and topped the Top Unsigned Artist chart on PureVolume, within a few months from forming in late 2005. In August 2006 they released their debut album, Boys Like Girls via Columbia Records/Red Ink.
History
The group Boys Like Girls was formed in the final months of 2005, when singer/guitarist Martin Johnson —formerly of the Boston act The Drive / Fake ID—wrote a handful of songs he wanted to record. He recruited bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe, both of whom had been in bands of different setups with the frontman, most notably in the pop punk band Lancaster and less notably the short-lived local act The Bends. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, whom he had recorded a brief demo with, to complete the line-up. Oddly enough, the two learned that they were distant cousins several months later. The quartet soon opened a PureVolume account to showcase their music, and uploaded a rough demo of "The Great Escape" and an acoustic rendition of "Thunder". By the end of the year, the group had landed the #1 spot on the website's Top Unsigned Artists chart. . The buzz around the band was overheard by booking agent Matt Galle and record producer Matt Squire, who contacted the band about a future collaboration. With their full support, Boys Like Girls embarked on their first nationwide tour with A Thorn for Every Heart, Hit the Lights and Keating in late February 2006. Following the month-long venture, the group immediately entered the recording studio with Squire to record their debut album for Columbia Records/Red Ink. During their time in the studio Squire introduced the band to another of his alumni, Cute Is What We Aim For, who offered Boys Like Girls an opening slot on their upcoming headlining tour. Once the album was recorded, Boys Like Girls played back-to-back tours, including the Cute Is What We Aim For tour in June, as well as a two week stint with Butch Walker in late July. In between tours the band filmed their first music video for their album's lead single, "Hero/Heroine", directed by Mark Serao and Chris Vaglio of Grey Sky Films.
On August 22, 2006, the eponymous Boys Like Girls hit record store shelves. As of April 2007, the album has sold over 200,000 copies within the United States. While, as the title might suggest, songs about boys liking girls clearly prevail on the album, Johnson threw in the occasional escape from the pre-, mid-, or post-relationship formula, and touched upon themes such as his mother's battle with cancer, leaving home and precocious adolescents. Concerning the latter, he discussed the motivation behind the song "Dance Hall Drug":
“ So many kids are growing up too fast. 13 year olds are giving each other hand jobs in the back of the bus, 14 year olds are already drinking and partying, and kids spend more time worried about growing up and being cool than they do actually growing up and being a kid. ”
In the light of the album's release, Boys Like Girls completed their first headlining tour, supported by Permanent Me and Scenes from a Movie in August and September, before heading out on an East coast tour, opening for Lostprophets and Eighteen Visions throughout October 2006. The remainder of the year was spent playing first on a five-band bill with Spitalfield, Punchline, Over It, and Valencia, as well as on the Tournado Tour, where they shared the stage with The All-American Rejects, Motion City Soundtrack, and The Format.
The year 2007 started out with a short headlining run with Self Against City, after which the group joined Cobra Starship supporting a two-month Cartel tour beginning in February. In between releasing their album's second single, "The Great Escape" (reaching #9 on the Pop 100), performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live on February 22, 2007, and eventually charting the Billboard 200 for the first time in April 2007, Boys Like Girls played their first international concerts during the Canada leg of a North America tour with Hellogoodbye and the UK festival Give It A Name 2007. In mid-2007, the band played the annual Vans Warped Tour for the first time. On August 20, 2007 Boys Like Girls Martin and Paul played a private show at 105.1 The Buzz radio station. On July 31, 2007 the band reached the #1 spot on the MTV show Total Request Live. They also announced that they will be playing five shows in Japan come September and that they will then do a U.S. headlining tour with All Time Low, The Audition and We the Kings. On September 11, 2007, the band released their three song acoustic set for AOL's Sessions Under Cover as an EP in the iTunes Store, containing "The Great Escape", "Thunder" and a cover of Frou Frou's "Let Go". On December 4th, 2007, Boys Like Girls performed a concert with Good Charlotte, with opening act NLT, for New Orleans radio station B97's "The Night B97 Stole Christmas" at the New Orleans House of Blues, located in the French Quarter. Boys Like Girls recently played at the Slam Dunk Festival on the Glamour Kills stage, in Leeds, on Sunday 25th May 2008. The band shared the stage with bands such as, Cute Is What We Aim For, Kids In Glass Houses, Valencia, We The Kings, You Me At Six and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Boys Like Girls will be opening for Avril Lavigne's upcoming 2008 Best Damn Tour throughout the majority of North America. The last six tour dates have been canceled for the tour with Avril Lavigne. They will not be going on the Van's Warped Tour for the 2008 concert dates, but instead, during the summer, will be on tour with Good Charlotte, The Maine, and Metro Station, titled the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour which was kicked off in Southaven, Mississippi with a performance named Red White and Boom hosted by Q107.5 on June 3,2008. Also, Boys Like Girls and Metro Station performed at Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri on August 5th, 2008. A storm flew in while the concert was in session. It was delayed for about 30 minutes. Then six flags chose not to endanger the band or the fans so, the concert was cancelled altogether.
In a recent Myspace blog it was announced that they would be releasing a dvd in the near future. A release date has not been set.
Musical style and critical reception
Stylistically, the band lists its musical influences as a variety of contemporary pop punk bands, such as Jimmy Eat World, Story of the Year, Relient K, The Academy Is..., Kelena, and Dashboard Confessional. They even find influences in the metalcore band Atreyu. While these tendencies are clearly audible in guitarwork and drumming, punk rock influences are far less obvious as far as vocal patterns and lyricism are concerned. Given Johnson's characteristic tenor vocal melodies—which are, due to sporadically placed falsettos, at times reminiscent of Tyson Ritter's (of The All-American Rejects fame)—the band's all-around sound is geared to late '90s alternative radio rock, along the lines of Vertical Horizon, Goo Goo Dolls, and Eve 6.
In comparison with the majority of their peers, Boys Like Girls has a more radio-friendly pop rock sound. Hence, Boys Like Girls has been labeled "an album full of hit singles"[10] or "the soundtrack to summer"[11], emphasising the up-and-coming quartet's potential to write mainstream compatible tunes. Other reviewers considered "a watered-down copy of Jimmy Eat World" a more adequate description.[12] In general, judgments ranged from predictable mediocrity to promising newcomer debut, though not necessarily in terms of longevity. Their first album follows a much honest musical concept initiated by Sum 41 in their album "All Killer, No Filler". Though songs are similar in style, each one is uniquely its own and detailed in structure that produced melodic quality.
While the on-line community precipitately crowned Boys Like Girls "2006's Fall Out Boy" (in reference to the pop punk band's commercial success with 2005's From Under the Cork Tree),[10] album sales were less convincing. Despite promotional front page features (such as Spin's "Artist of the Day" or the highly influential Absolutepunk.net's "Featured Band" and "Absolute Exclusive: Album Leak"), Boys Like Girls scanned a mere 1,472 units within its first week of sales, thus failing to chart the Billboard 200.[13] However, continuous touring and promoting helped gaining the record a #179 entry into the chart in April 2007. It continued to gain popularity as the single, The Great Escape, climbed the charts and eventually peaked at #55 in August 2007. After nearly falling off the Billboard 200, the re-release of the single Hero/Heroine jumped the album back up to #61 and was certified Gold shortly after.[14]
Members
Martin Bennett Johnson; vocals, guitar
Paul Charles DiGiovanni; lead guitar, vocals
Bryan Francis Donahue; bass guitar, vocals
John Joseph Keefe; drums, percussion
