Artist Profile: Paramore

Today's Artist Profile is one of my favorite pop-punk bands to come out in the last few years, Paramore. The band consists of Hayley Williams on lead vocals,  Taylor York on guitars and percussion, and Jeremy Davis on bass. The band was formed back in 2004 along with original members and brothers Zac and Josh Farro. The band's name is derivative of the word paramour which means "secret lover", but changed the name to Paramore to reflect the maiden name of one of the original bass players. Hayley was originally signed to Atlantic Records as a solo artist in 2003, but she felt more comfortable with playing pop-punk music instead of straightforward Top 40 pop which is what the label originally wanted. The band released their debut album on Fueled By Ramen Records in 2005 titled All We Know Is Falling. The album went gold on the strength of such resonating tracks such as "Emergency", "All We Know", and "Pressure".  The band embarked on a string of prominent tours such as the Vans Warped Tour and their profile immediately became increased due to their consistent touring.

The band took a little breather before heading back into the studio to commence work on their follow up effort released in 2007 called Riot. This would be the album that catapulted Paramore into near superstar status. The album contained such career spanning tracks like "Misery Business", my personal favorite track "Crushcrushcrush", "That's What You Get", and "When It Rains". The album went platinum and the band kicked off a series of tour dates to coincide with the release of the album. The band's next effort followed in 2009 and it was titled Brand New Eyes. This effort would pick up right where the last one left off and continued Paramore's meteoric rise to stardom and contained such awesome tracks like "Ignorance", "Brick By Boring Brick", "The Only Exception", and the stunning "All I Wanted". The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and eventually reached gold certification. Late last year, Zac and Josh Farro left the band due to a major fallout that they had with Hayley, claiming that they were just hired hands and were nothing more than a backing band for Hayley's solo career. Hayley then issued a statement denouncing Zac and Josh claims as unfounded and the band soldiered on as a trio. The band is currently working on material for their next album which should see the light of day sometime later on this year. When I first heard Paramore, I was immediately impressed with the band's musicianship and even more impressed with Hayley (who I've developed a huge crush on over the years), and the band's ability to turn that interpersonal strife between members into raw and brutally honest music that has captivated so many fans in such a short span of time. I can't wait to hear Paramore's next album and see how they will address their most recent troubles.