Boys Like Girls

Boys Like Girls is an American rock band from Massachusetts. Formed in 2005, the group gained mainstream recognition when it released its self-titled debut album. Boys Like Girls was the co-headliner with Good Charlotte for the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour 2008 that toured across the United States.[2] The group's second studio album Love Drunk, was released on September 8, 2009. The band is currently in the studio with producer Matt Squire in preparations to record for their third upcoming album.The group was formed in Andover, MA[3] in the final months of 2005, when vocalist Martin Johnson, formerly of the Boston act Fake ID/The Drive, wrote a handful of songs he wanted to record. He recruited bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, with whom he had recorded a brief demo, to complete the line-up. Some of the demos' titles were "Free", "If You Could See Me Now", "The Only Way That I Know How To Feel", and others. Some months later Keefe and DiGiovanni learned that they were distant cousins.[4][5] The group later changed their name to Boys Like Girls.

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 was on the No. 1 spot on the website's Top Unsigned Artists chart[6] and within a few months had completed nationwide tours with Cute Is What We Aim For, Hit the Lights, All Time Low, and Butch Walker.
Lead singer Martin Johnson

Eventually, in 2006, the popularity of 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.[4] 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.[7]
[edit] 2006–2009: Self-titled album

On August 22, 2006, the eponymous Boys Like Girls was released. As of August 2008, the album has sold over 580,000 copies within the United States.[8] While, as the title might suggest, songs about boys liking girls clearly prevail on the album, Johnson occasionally touched upon themes such as his mother's battle with cancer, leaving home, and promiscuous 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.[9]     ”

The song "On Top of the World" is about Johnson's late mother.

In 2007, they began with a short headlining run with Self Against City, after which the group joined Cobra Starship supporting a two-month Cartel tour in February. In between releasing their album's second single, "The Great Escape" (reaching No. 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 Canadian leg of a North American tour with Hellogoodbye and the UK festival Give It A Name 2007.

In mid-2007, the group performed on the annual Vans Warped Tour for the first time and on July 31, 2007 the band reached the No. 1 spot on the MTV show Total Request Live. The following month, on August 20, 2007, Boys Like Girls members Johnson and DiGiovanni played a private show at 105.1 The Buzz radio station. They announced that they would be performing five shows in Japan and said how much Good Charlotte helped their career. In September 2007, Boys Like Girls released a 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 4, 2007, the band 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 played at the Slam Dunk Festival on the Glamour Kills stage, in Leeds, on Sunday, May 25, 2008. The group 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. The band was also the opening act for Avril Lavigne's 2008 Best Damn Tour throughout the majority of North America.

Boys Like Girls did not perform on the Van's Warped Tour for 2008, but instead, toured the summer, with Good Charlotte, The Maine, and Metro Station, for 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. On July 4, 2008 they played in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee at the 2008 Starjam concert, along with Metro Station, Good Charlotte, Ace Young, and Menudo. Two months later, Boys Like Girls and Metro Station performed together at Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri on August 5, 2008. A storm flew in while the concert was in session and the show was delayed for about 30 minutes. Six Flags then chose not to endanger the band or their fans, and decided to cancel the concert altogether. In between tour dates, they worked alongside Nickelodeon pop singer Miranda Cosgrove on her upcoming debut album, due for release in 2009.[10]

In 2008, five songs that were believed to be on the band's second album leaked onto the internet. The fan based EP, entitled Heavy Heart, consists of five demo songs that were recorded, but did not make it onto the band's first album. None of the songs would appear on their second record.

Boys Like Girls supported Fall Out Boy on their UK tour in October, along with You Me At Six. A month later the band's debut DVD, Read Between the Lines, was released on November 4, 2008.[11]

In January 2009, Boys like Girls toured the UK with Metro Station and Every Avenue supporting.


Members
Martin Bennett Johnson
Paul Charles DiGiovanni
Bryan Francis Donahue
John Joseph Keefe