Forget What You Know
Forget What You Know is the third studio album by American rock band Midtown. Following the release of Living Well Is the Best Revenge (2002), MCA was merged into Geffen Records, and the band was not picked up by the latter label. The group spent time writing on their next album and following a meeting with Butch Walker, moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to start recording the new material. Walker headed the producing helm and Forget What You Know was recorded in late 2003 at Ruby Red Studios. The album is classified as an emo and pop punk release; its songs were compared with those of Division of Laura Lee, Recover and Jimmy Eat World.
Forget What You Know
The release of Forget What You Know was announced in April 2004 and the band embarked on a US tour, during which "Give It Up" was released as a single, and a music video for the song was released after the tour finished. Forget What You Know was released on June 29, 2004, through Columbia Records; it reached number 109 on the Billboard 200 and "Give It Up" peaked at number 32 on the Alternative Songs radio chart. Music critics gave the album a mixed reception with some complimenting its energy and sound, and others finding it average. Midtown went on two other US tours and performed shows in Australia and the UK, and embarked upon another US tour in late 2004. A music video for "Empty Like the Ocean" was released in March 2005 and a headlining US tour and a stint on the Warped Tour followed.
Background[edit]
In 1999, Midtown signed to the independent label Drive-Thru Records and released their debut album Save the World, Lose the Girl (2000) through it.[1] Sometime afterwards, communication between the label and the group became difficult. Vocalist/bassist Gabe Saporta was concerned Drive-Thru were focussing their efforts on New Found Glory, which Saporta helped to sign with the label, rather than Midtown, and a public feud between Saporta and the label's founders Richard and Stefanie Reines ensued.[2] Drive-Thru had a distribution deal with major label MCA Records that allowed MCA to acquire Drive-Thru Records' bands over a period of time.[3] Midtown's next album Living Well Is the Best Revenge (2002) was a joint release by Drive-Thru and MCA.[4]
According to drummer Rob Hitt, MCA had a few groups that performed well commercially and Drive-Thru "wanted to put every other band into that same cookie-cutter mold. And we didn't want that."[1] Midtown later had negative experiences with the label, which wanted to feature the band in teen magazines.[1] Around the time, MCA had acquired acts that were dissimilar to Drive-Thru's bands; MCA was investing in the less-successful groups and lost a substantial amount of money.[1] Midtown then entered into a legal battle to leave Drive-Thru that lasted for a year.[5] By mid-2003, MCA was absorbed by Universal Music Group subsidiary Geffen Records, and its staff and roster were moved to Geffen.[6]
Writing and recording[edit]
As the merger was occurring, Midtown was writing material for its next album.[1] Geffen believed the group was inactive due to their break from touring, and did not pick up the band from MCA.[1] Hitt said the band didn't wish to release a new album, despite "make it seem like we had all these things going on".[1] Saporta said "as far as anyone cared, we were dead. No one gave a shit" about the group by the time they were working on the next album.[5] Sometime afterwards, Midtown played a show with Butch Walker, after which Walker's manager started to manage the group. According to Saporta, after talking with Walker on another occasion, "he was like, 'Oh, I've heard your demos, I think they're great. I'd love to do your record' ".[5] Saporta, having grown suspicious of people talking to him after the legal battle, was ambivalent to Walker's offer.[5] By October 2003, the band considered themselves free agents.[7] They temporarily moved to Atlanta, Georgia,[8] where recording sessions were held at Ruby Red Studios in Midtown Atlanta with Walker and Russ T serving as engineers.[9]
Despite not being fans of Walker's work, the group worked with him for the sessions.[5] They wanted a rawer sound compared to the polished direction of the last two albums, both of which were produced by Mark Trombino.[10] Saporta's said Walker's work was "all very slick" and they wanted to create something "a little more rock and roll".[5] Saporta said they aimed to make the record for themselves and that "[we] were just like, 'Okay, we're going to make an awesome record for ourselves and prove something to ourselves,' and that's all we cared about."[5] In addition to playing their usual instruments, Saporta did some programming and Hitt sang.[9] With recording lasting three weeks in November, the group recorded 18 songs.[11] All the recordings, but "Give it Up", were mixed by Walker and Russ T, and mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound in New York City. "Give It Up" was mixed by Jay Baumgardner and mastered by Vlado Meller at Sony Music Studios, also in New York City.[9]
Release and promotion[edit]
Forget What You Know was sent to several record labels[17] in early 2004.[11] On January 23, "Is It Me? Is It True?" was made available for download through AbsolutePunk.[18] On April 7, the release of Forget What You Know was announced for June 2004,[19] and that it would be released through Sony Music Entertainment imprint Columbia Records. In addition, the album's track listing was revealed.[16] "Give It Up" was released as a single on May 18 that year.[20][16] Between late April and early June 2004, Midtown went on a co-headlining US tour with Armor for Sleep and Your Enemies Friends; they were supported on select dates by Time and Distance, the Working Title, Stars Hide Fire, Vise Versa, Emanuel and Lance's Hero.[21] Following this, they appeared at the Best Music Poll 2004 festival.[22] On June 12, a music video for "Give It Up" was released, together with a behind-the-scenes "making of" video.[16] Forget What You Know was released through Columbia Records on June 29, 2004.[19] It was subsequently released in Australia on August 16, Canada on August 24, and in Germany and the UK on September 24.[16]
To promote the album's release, Midtown performed a few in-store live shows.[16] In July and August 2004, the band went on tour with Lostprophets[23] and later played in Japan and Canada.[24] In September and October, the group appeared on the Rock Against Bush tour in the US.[25] The group then toured Australia and the UK with Hidden in Plain View.[16] They returned to the US in November for a tour with Matchbook Romance[26] and Hidden in Plain View. the Academy Is... and Name Taken appeared on select shows.[16] In mid-December, the group played three shows with Paulson, Senses Fail and Moneen,[27] and five shows with Fall Out Boy, the Academy Is... and Gym Class Heroes.[28] In March and April 2005, the group performed across the US as part of the Fueled By Ramen & Friends Tour.[29]
On March 18, 2005, a music video for "Empty Like the Ocean" was released.[30] At the end of April, the group appeared at The Bamboozle festival before embarking on a headlining tour with Plain White T's, Action Action and Rock Kills Kid.[31] The group was initially scheduled to appear on the Warped Tour between mid-June and mid-August[32] but pulled out of all of the shows except the last five.[33] The group disbanded later in the year, making Forget What You Know their last album release.[34] In a 2006 interview, guitarist Heath Saraceno explained that "it veered far away from any sort of resemblance to a democracy that it once had. One person in particular took all the control, and the rest of us were just kinda stuck there trying to give input and being shut down at almost every turn".[35] "Sister Golden Hair", a cover of the America song recorded during the album's sessions, was released in November 2006.[36]