THE USED **

The Used is an American rock band from Orem, Utah. The band was founded in 2001 and signed to Reprise Records the same year. They rose to fame in June 2002 after releasing their self-titled debut album. They followed up with their second album, In Love and Death, in September 2004 and their third album, Lies for the Liars, in May 2007. An EP, Shallow Believer, was released in February 2008 that featured most of the band's B-sides to date. They spent the entire year of 2008 working on their fourth studio album, which was released on August 31, 2009, called Artwork. The band has achieved both Gold and Platinum statuses in more than six countries worldwide and has sold over 3 million records worldwide.

History

Formation and Demos from the Basement (2001)

The Used continued to write songs together and recorded a demo album in drummer Branden Steineckert's bedroom titled Demos from the Basement. Steineckert sent their songs to producer John Feldmann from the skagroup, Goldfinger. After he heard the song "A Box Full of Sharp Objects", he gained an interest into having the band signed to a label. Feldmann flew the band to Los Angeles taking them out of their home state for the first time in their lives and played the songs for various record executives to try to get them signed, however, the first few weren't interested and it left John discouraged. Eventually, many copies of the demo were received by many record label representatives who found an interest into signing them. With many labels at The Used's choice, they decided to sign to Reprise Records in late 2001.The Used was founded in January 2001 with the recruitment of members that were a part of several other bands throughout the 1990s. Founding members Branden Steineckert,Quinn Allman and Jeph Howard engaged into the plan of starting the band and had music already prepared, but did not have lyrics and required a vocalist. Auditions for singers were held at Jeph Howard's residence. Upon observations, the band was not satisfied with any of the results that the vocalists displayed and described the auditions as "terrible". Although, when Allman confronted Bert McCracken, he asked if he was interested in joining the band. Upon McCracken's meeting of the other band members, he was impressed with the material they created. After being given music that the band had written, McCracken wrote the lyrics to what would become "Maybe Memories" and returned the next day to record a demo version of the song. McCracken was then officially confirmed as being the band's vocalist. Throughout all of this, the band members suffered from poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse. They even panhandled for change in order to buy food to stay alive. The members decided on their band name as being "Used" when their friends claimed they felt "used" when contact was lost between them and band members due to them becoming more involved in the band.

Self-titled album and Maybe Memories (2002-2003)

In 2002, it was discovered that a Boston band had already trademarked the name "Used," so they decided to add "The" to their name, thus deciding "The Used". Their self-titled debut album was released on June 25, 2002, and was produced by John Feldmann. The album received mixed reviews and featured four singles: "A Box Full of Sharp Objects", "The Taste of Ink", "Buried Myself Alive", and "Blue and Yellow", with the latter three entering the charts. The album has been certified gold.The Used would go on to play Warped Tour, Ozzfest, and Projekt Revolution, as well as Box Car Racer's first and only tour. During these tours, they had a 5th member, a touring guitarist by the name of Greg Bester. He was forced to return to his home country when he couldn't get a working Visa. The band received much recognition when Bert McCracken dated Kelly Osbourne. These events brought the band much fanfare and popularity. In July 2003, The Used released a compilation CD/DVD combo package titled Maybe Memories. The CD features live, rare, previously unreleased tracks, and demo material while the DVD features the history of the band, member bios, and part of a live concert. Upon its high sales, Maybe Memories has been certified platinum.

In Love and Death (2004-2005)

Lies for the Liars (2006-2007)

In 2004, lead vocalist Bert McCracken's ex-girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, died of a drug overdose.Their second studio album was thus named In Love and Death, released as a reference to the tragedy McCracken dealt with during the recording. The song "Hard to Say" was a reference to McCracken's ex-girlfriend; although the song was written years earlier, its dedication was only then declared. In Love and Death received generally favorable reviews and spawned three singles: "Take It Away", "All That I've Got" (which earned them their first MuchMusic Video Award nomination), and "I Caught Fire", before being re-released in 2005. "Under Pressure" (a Queen and David Bowie cover song performed with My Chemical Romance) was featured as a bonus track on the re-release. The album has been certified gold. After finishing up an international tour for the album, The Used took about 8 months off before starting to work on their next album.

Artwork (2008-2009) 

On September 12, 2006, The Used announced and confirmed that Branden was no longer a member of the band. They said they felt they needed to move forward without him, and that there was a personality conflict between Branden and another band member; however, they did say that they love Branden and wish him the best in whatever he does in the future. In late 2006, it was announced drummer Dan Whitesides of New Transit Direction would replace Steineckert. 

Branden has since joined Rancid to replace former drummer Brett Reed. On February 6, 2007, The Used released a live double-album, Berth, which includes a DVD that features the entire concert of their performance at the Taste of Chaos 2005 tour in Vancouver and a disc that features it on audio. The DVD also includes a biography of the band and four music videos. The biography depicts the band in the position of where they were after the release of Maybe Memories and what lead them into creating In Love and Death. The sellings of Berth lead it to be certified as gold. The Used spent most of the early part of 2007 on the Taste of Chaos tour, before their third album, Lies for the Liars was released May 22, 2007. They headlined the Give It a Name festival and in June, The Used played the MuchMusic Video Awards for the first time ever, and also received their second nomination for Best International Group Video, for "The Bird and the Worm". 

The Used were scheduled to play Warped Tour in June and July, in support of their album, but were forced to cancel due to McCracken's required surgery, of which required the removal of a node from his vocal cords. After McCracken recovered, the band played the Reading and Leeds festivals in August, and went on to tour the United States in September. Lies for the Liars charted in the top 5 in more than seven countries, and there were 4 singles released: "The Bird and the Worm", "Liar Liar (Burn in Hell)", "Pretty Handsome Awkward", and "Paralyzed". Although Dan Whitesides was chosen as the new drummer, Dean Butterworth of Good Charlotte recorded drums for the album. With a six-month recording process, it was the longest session The Used had ever done for an album. Lies for the Liars generally received mixed reviews. Originally, Lies for the Liars was expected to be a double-album 19 songs were recorded, but this plan was canceled after they decided to save the songs for a future release. Before the release of Lies for the Liars, The Used had planned on releasing an EP of the album's B-sides. On February 19, 2008 the EP was released, titled Shallow Believer; it was only released on digital music stores and it has charted #14 on iTunes' Top 100 albums.

They embarked on tour in support of "Artwork" in late 2009 with The Almost and Drive A, and on another supporting tour in early 2010 with Atreyu and Drive A.The Used worked on their fourth studio album throughout all of 2008. They took several breaks while working on the album to be the headlining band on the inaugural "Get a Life Tour" and to play shows Jakarta,Indonesia; Seoul, South Korea; and the 'Spare the Air Festival' in California. The album was produced by Panic at the Disco's producer Matt Squire, making this their first studio album not produced by John Feldmann. 

They decided to go with a different producer because they want the album to be different from everything else that they've done in the past. It is also the first studio album by The Used to feature Dan Whitesides as the drummer since he joined the band in 2006. In Alternative Press, McCracken stated "In the past, we've always kind of brought pop sensibility into heavy rock, but this is going to be all that much more tantalizing and brutal. Our songs are 10 times messier and noisier than they've ever been.", it also revealed information about the concept of the album: "This record is about coming to grips with how much you really hate yourself and knowing you can never hate yourself to the full extent, so you're free to hate yourself as much as you want to". McCracken went on to say "we [had not] been this excited about an album since our self titled back in 2002." 

The album was named "Artwork" and was released along with a DVD for the pre-order and first run of the album in stores. after. The cover of "Burning down the House" by the Talking Heads was released on the Warner Bros. cover compilation album Covered, A Revolution in Sound, and will also be featured on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Album. 

They played at the Bamboozle Festival (New Jersey) May 2009. The single "Blood on My Hands" was released on iTunes June 31, and was accessible to be streamed for one day only on the band's website. On July 21, the pre-order was available. Artwork became available world wide on August 31, 2009. The band played a major US tour in October and November 2009, and is now engaged in an arena tour supporting Three Days Grace in Canada. The band premiered the music video for the song "Empty with You" on December 9, 2009 via TwitVid.

On March 2, 2010, The Used released 2 EPs exclusive to iTunes.

On March 11, 2010, The Used announced that they are heading out on a US tour along with Chiodos and New Medicine. This tour begins on April 13.

Fifth studio album (2010-present)

On April 29, 2010, The Used stated on their website that they intend on releasing their fifth studio album before the end of the year. Regarding their canceled inclusions in Europe, Russia and the UK due to parting ways with their management team, The Used announced:

"We will reschedule these shows as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have begun writing and recording for our upcoming album. We look forward to returning with a new album and tour dates soon."

However, since this blog post was released, apparent conflicts with their management and record label have meant that the new album is now likely to be released in Summer/Autumn 2011.

Drummer Dan Whitesides revealed that the band had parted ways with Reprise Records (joking about "firing" them) and were currently searching for another record label; though he claims also to look into possibility of remaining unsigned for their upcoming fifth album. He also announced that The Used are now under new management (referring to them as 'Keith and John').

Following tweets and the SmartPunk interview, the 4-member band is understood to have started recording tracks for their currently un-named album at John Feldman's (producer of the first three albums) residence.

Musical style

The Used's music has been classified under many sub-genres of rock. Their musical style has been labeled as emo, screamo, post-hardcore, alternative rock, pop-punk, punk rock and even as hard rock, heavy metal, alternative metal and metalcore. On their official pages their musical style has been described as alternative rock, punk, rock, post-hardcore, "gross pop", "light jazz" and funk rock.

Gross pop

Gross pop is musical genre what The Used hoped to make with Artwork. In Alternative Press magazine, McCracken described the new genre as: "In the past, we've always kind of brought pop sensibility into heavy rock, but this is going to be all that much more tantalizing and brutal. Our songs are 10 times messier and noisier than they've ever been. Quinn Allman has said about "Gross pop" as: "It's gonna be pretty raw. I think a lot of the stuff is very much more poetic and lyrical, and the sound is more retro and raw with less production".

Controversies

Emo and screamo

Even thought their musical style has been classified as under many sub-genres of rock, their musical style has been mostly labeled as emo or screamo. Frontman Bert McCracken has denied the band being as "emo" or "screamo", he also described "screamo" as being a "very silly word". Jeph Howard has also said in a interview that the band is not "emo" or "screamo" and he claimed the band never was a "emo" or "screamo" band, just a rock band. McCracken has also made claims that [The Used] "No longer wanted to be a part of the scene that was eating them alive – screamo" along with other bands such as Glassjaw, Poison the Well, Finch, Thrice and Thursday.

Feud with My Chemical Romance

The Used and My Chemical Romance were friends with each other. They both recored a song together called "Under Pressure" for tsunami relief, cover from Queen featuring David Bowie, and they have been performed that song together. Bert McCracken appeared in My Chemical Romance's album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge at track "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" as additional vocals. In 2005, McCracken has stated that he and Gerard Way doesn't speak anymore and it has nothing to do with their success, but the rest of the band members are still friends with My Chemical Romance.In 2007, when The Used released a single called Pretty Handsome Awkward, there has been rumours that the song is about Gerard Way, but McCracken has stated that is not true and he also said "I Couldn't give less of a shit about MCR". There has been some rumours that The Used wrote songs about Gerard Way. Rumoured tracks are "The Bird and the Worm", "Hospital", "Slit Your Own Throat" and "The Best of Me", but they haven't answered about the tracks and it's not known that are they about Gerard Way.