IN: Thursday is an American post-hardcore band, formed in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1997. The band consists of Geoff Rickly (lead vocals), Tom Keeley (lead guitar, backing vocals), Steve Pedulla (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Tim Payne (bass guitar), Andrew Everding (keyboards, backing vocals), and Tucker Rule (drums). Thursday released their debut album, Waiting, in late 1999 with original guitarist Bill Henderson, who left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Steve Pedulla. The band gained popularity with the release of their second album, Full Collapse, in 2001, and released their third album and major label debut, War All the Time, in 2003, which reached number seven on the US Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.

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 "[paying off] 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 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.

Did they tour to promote the album?

OUT: Thursday toured extensively to support War All the Time, featuring dates with acts such as AFI, Thrice, and Coheed and Cambria.


IN: The Darkness are an English rock band from Lowestoft, Suffolk, formed in 2000. The band consists of Justin Hawkins (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Dan Hawkins (guitar, backing vocals), Frankie Poullain (bass, backing vocals) and Rufus Tiger Taylor (drums). The Darkness came to prominence with the release of their debut album, Permission to Land, in 2003. Backed by the singles "I Believe in a Thing Called Love", "Growing on Me", "Get Your Hands off My Woman", and "Love is Only a Feeling", the album was certified quadruple platinum in the United Kingdom, with sales of over 1,300,000.

The Darkness were directed by manager Sue Whitehouse, who had managed them since Justin Hawkins' time as a creator of music jingles and their original band days as Empire. The Darkness were renowned for their live show, and such was the popularity of the band, they had a Carling Homecoming gig booked for the London Astoria before they had even signed a record deal.  The band already had music industry interest from their days as Empire through connections with Sue Whitehouse, who was based at Savage & Best in Camden. Joe Taylor, Aled Jones and Paul Scaife at The Tip Sheet first heard about the band through a post on The Tip Sheet message board, and featured Love Is Only A Feeling in January 2002. They started Record of the Day, and featured the song again around the time of SXSW in March 2003. They wanted to feature Friday Night too but they were told the band was saving it for an album.  According to A&R Nick Raphael in an interview with HitQuarters, there was no initial clamour to sign the band, "There couldn't have been less of a buzz, and only two record labels showed any interest in them." He believes the reason for lack of interest was that "The business as a whole thought they were uncool. In fact, people were saying that they were a joke and that they weren't real." However, throughout their career critics around the world would label them as a "joke band." As part of Sony Music UK, Raphael had attempted to sign them but the band instead opted to go with Atlantic Records.

What is the history of The Darkness band?

OUT:
The Darkness were directed by manager Sue Whitehouse, who had managed them since Justin Hawkins' time as a creator of music jingles and their original band days as Empire.