Thursday (band)
Thursday is an American rock band formed in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1998. The band consists of Geoff Rickly, Tom Keeley, Steve Pedulla, Tim Payne, and Tucker Rule.
The band's debut album Waiting featured original guitarist Bill Henderson, who left in 2000 and was replaced by Pedulla. Thursday gained popularity with their second album Full Collapse, and the band's major-label debut War All the Time debuted at number 7 on the US Billboard 200. The band released A City by the Light Divided, Common Existence and No Devolución before announcing an indefinite hiatus following Australian tour dates in 2012, which Rickly later confirmed was a full disbandment.
Thursday reunited in 2016, touring for the next few years and breaking up again in 2019. In 2020, Thursday announced another reunion at Chicago's Riot Fest in 2021. In 2024, the band released "Application for Release From the Dream", their first new song in 13 years.
The band is considered influential in the post-hardcore music scene in the 2000s, and is credited as one of the key bands to popularize the darker emo sound and screaming vocals which came to prominence at the time.
History
Formation and ''Waiting'' (1997–2000)
Thursday was formed in 1998 by guitarist Tom Keeley and drummer Tucker Rule. Months later, Keeley met Geoff Rickly at an Ink & Dagger show and Rickly joined the band as lead singer. The group were soon joined by bassist Tim Payne and guitarist Bill Henderson and began playing basement shows in New Brunswick where they were students at Rutgers University and the surrounding New Jersey and New York areas, playing their first official show on December 31, 1998 in Rickly's basement alongside Midtown, Saves the Day and Poison the Well.The band recorded demos to hand out at shows, and in the summer of 1999, teamed up with MP3.com for their first official release, the 1999 Summer Tour EP, which featured demos of songs that would soon be found on their debut album, Waiting. The album was released on November 8, 1999, on northern New Jersey–based Eyeball Records without any singles or support from television or radio.
''Full Collapse'' (2001–2002)
In 2001, Thursday signed to independent label Victory Records. After signing, they were warned by their friends that they had "gotten ourselves into a situation that we would regret". The group was unsure what they meant, but thought things would turn out fine due to their contract with the label. They initially thought that part of the contract meant they could sign with a different label they wanted to. However, they realized the deal had stated they could only leave Victory if it was to join a major label, which they thought was "a far-fetched idea to say the least." Later in the year, they released their second album Full Collapse through the label, eventually reaching number 178 on the Billboard 200. Before appearing on Warped Tour, the group visited Victory's offices and learned about Thursday-branded whoopee cushions that the label was planning to sell at the tour. Vocalist Geoff Rickly discussed this matter with Victory founder Tony Brummel, and according to the band, responded that Victory "was a big company and that they didn't have time to run everything by the band."On several occasions, the group attempted to have better communication with the label in regards to promotion. On one occasion, Brummel informed them they were not living up to his expectations. Sometime afterward, the group was touring with Saves the Day. Brummel became more positive in his interactions, frequently calling the band "just to say hello, or to ask how record sales at shows were going." The group were disappointed that his positivity "wasn't there from the beginning.... Instead of Tony's relationship with us being based on a love for music, it was based entirely on numbers." The band's new-found popularity and disgust with the label led to internal problems, which almost led the band to disband. The situation caused the creation of the Five Stories Falling EP, a release the band used to fulfill contractual obligations with Victory Records. At live shows, the band routinely told fans not to purchase the EP, but instead to download "Jet Black New Year", the only new studio recording found on the EP, with the rest consisting of live performances of four Full Collapse songs. While all the interactions with the label were occurring, the group were being contacted by major labels. The group, who "didn't understand about major labels", pondered about other independent labels they would join. However, due to their contract they wouldn't be allowed to move to another independent label. Throughout 2001, people from major label Island Records had been to the band's shows since they became a full-time touring act. Soon after, the label expressed interest in signing the band.
''War All the Time'' (2003–2005)
In late May 2002, the group announced they had signed to Island Records, following a bidding war between other major labels. Up to this point, Full Collapse had sold 111,000 copies. On September 9, the group's signing to Island Records was made official following negotiations of an exit agreement with Victory Records. The agreement required parent company Island/Def Jam to buy out Victory's contract claim for the group's next two albums. Rickly said as a result of the deal, Victory Records received $1,200,000, which meant the band would be " that bill for as long as we were on the new label." In addition, their next two albums were required to feature the Victory logo.With expectation building for their follow-up album, Rickly wanted their next album to be "really aggressive and progressive... and have all these boundary pushing ideas". In September and October, the group went on the Plea for Peace Tour, and were planning to work on their next album following its conclusion. They said they had accumulated a lot of ideas but were unable to work on them due to touring. In mid-November, the group began writing new material.
After an entire writing and recording process that took only six months, the band issued their third album and major label debut, War All the Time, on September 16, 2003, to critical acclaim and strong commercial performance. War All the Time was the first release to feature Andrew Everding on keyboards, though he would not become an official member of the band until December 2004, when he was officially welcomed into the band at a Christmas holiday show held at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. The album's title, coupled with it being released approximately two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led many critics to believe it was a political album; however, Rickly has denied this on many accounts, instead claiming that he is speaking about love being a war. The album spawned two singles: "Signals Over the Air" and "War All the Time", though the latter received considerably less attention due to MTV banning the video for controversial material involving a fake news feed that appeared to be real and teenagers being weapon targets.
Thursday toured extensively to support War All the Time, featuring dates with acts such as AFI, Thrice, and Coheed and Cambria. On these tours, Thursday performed many in-store acoustic sessions at various Tower Records stores and other record stores. The band also recorded a live acoustic session for Y100 Sonic Sessions, a radio program on the now defunct Philadelphia-based radio station, Y100. The live acoustic version of single "Signals Over the Air" was used on Y100 Sonic Sessions Volume 8. The band released two EPs: the first was Live from the SoHo & Santa Monica Stores Split EP and sold exclusively on iTunes, and the second was a promotion found in Revolver, called the Live in Detroit EP.
The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2004, citing label pressure, extensive touring, and health problems as the reasons. However, Thursday returned for a charitable performance to save New York City's CBGB, on August 25, 2005, which was streamed live through the CBGB's website.
''A City by the Light Divided'' and Envy split release (2006–2008)
In fall 2005, five Thursday demo songs were stolen from the iPod of the tour manager for My American Heart, a band Rickly had recently collaborated with for their song "We Are the Fabrication". The band issued a statement on their official website stating that they were disappointed the unfinished products leaked, but that they were glad that people take that much interest in their music. The band confirmed the title of one demo, "At This Velocity" and promised it would make their upcoming album. Three other songs would also make the album, while the remaining demo would later become the song "Last Call" on their fifth studio album, Common Existence. Thursday had originally toyed with the idea of a double album to follow up War All the Time but the idea was scrapped, reporting on their website that they believed "not even The Beatles could properly fill two discs with enough worthy material".Thursday released their fourth album and second major label release, A City by the Light Divided, on May 2, 2006, on Island Records in the US and Hassle Records in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by Dave Fridmann, becoming Thursday's first full-length album not produced by Sal Villanueva. The title was created by Geoff Rickly by combining two lines from the poem Sunstone by Octavio Paz. The album was available for preview on the band's MySpace page on April 18, 2006, two weeks before it was officially released. A City by the Light Divided was generally received well by critics, spawning two singles: "Counting 5-4-3-2-1" and "At This Velocity", though the latter received considerably less attention. The band left Island Records in early 2007.
At their 2007 New Year's Eve show at the Starland Ballroom, the band announced that they will be writing and recording new material in 2008. During a private show they performed on May 3, 2007, in New York City, long-time friend and artist manager, David "Rev" Ciancio proposed to his fiancée on stage. Thursday also held a performance on May 5 at The Bamboozle under the fake name Bearfort. Thursday cancelled all tour plans until their fall tour with Circle Takes the Square and Portugal. The Man in support of Kill the House Lights, a DVD/CD compilation album and live album. featuring demos, unreleased songs, footage of live performances, and a documentary about the band. The album was released on October 30, 2007, by their former label Victory Records.
Thursday announced on April 2, 2008, via a MySpace bulletin and their official website, a new split album with Japanese post-hardcore band Envy. The band debuted a song from the album live during their show in Poughkeepsie on April 24, 2008, and the album, Thursday / Envy, was released on Temporary Residence Limited on November 4, 2008.