Okay but for real: I don’t think it’s JUST Mark who is stopping Fred from coming back? Mark doesn’t like the guy and felt hurt by what happened between them, which we don’t know the whole story of, and is entitled to those feelings and does not owe Fred an apology or forgiveness simply because Fred might have apologized. Come on. I think that Fred made his choice to leave post-Louder Now, and TBS seems to be happy with John and Shaun in the band whether or not other people like what they’re putting out. They’ve now been in the band for twice as long as they were out of it. Fred has been gone for 17 years at this point, and—in my opinion—hasn’t done anything particularly remarkable enough in those 17 years that makes me think he would be bringing anything spectacular to the table if he came back.
I have no real hope for it ever happening, but I will say I really miss the kinds of leads he wrote when he was in the band. Spin, Miami, etc - fuckin shreds. I love 152 as-is, and I'm not saying it would have been better with more shreddy leads, but I do think it would be cool for them to have at least the option of that kind of dynamic again.
The last thing I really liked that Fred did was Terrible Things with Andy Jackson from Hot Rod Circuit and Josh Eppard from Terrible Things. Since then, not much
I loved that Terrible Things album. He later put out an EP with Terrible Things (but it was really just him) and it was fantastic. The Color Fred stuff has been very hit or miss for me.
TBS hasn’t done much that’s remarkable in sometime, either. Mark has kind of always been whiney when he doesn’t like how the band “feels”. But it’s not from a place of what’s best for the band. Just for mark.
Can we define remarkable? Because as a band they’ve put out a multitude of albums and consistently toured mid-size venues over the last 15 years. Emo will never be the stadium filling lure it was in the mid 2000s. Let’s be real. Feel like people give this band a lot of undeserved shit.
WYWTB era was lighting in a bottle, you can't catch that twice, if fred did another album with TBS you all would find something to bitch about it and compare it to the old albums anyways so who cares in the end
That reminds me, wasn't he in the process of rolling out an acoustic lp earlier this year? Stripped down renditions of songs from all his past bands. He released Set Phasers to Stun and a Breaking Pangea song and they both sounded great. But no updates since like March.
Look man, give me a lineup of Fred, Eddie, Rubano, and Fazzi, call it Taking Back Taking Back Sunday and take my money. (Will Noon can play drums)
I once saw will noon tweet that every time tbs goes through a line up shift, it really works out for him. When tbs got Fred, he went to Straylight. When Straylight broke up, he went on to be in fun. And that made me laugh.
They toured with 3 guitars for years anyway, since Nathan joined the live lineup. Fazzi could also just be the frontman when he didn't feel like playing guitar, I love his voice.
Oh yeah you're right. Oh, and I definitely agree. Fazzi had one of the best singing voices in the band, hands down.