It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while a band comes along who have crafted a sound that's so unique it's hard to believe they haven't been playing together for decades. For the past four years, the members of Tallahassee, Florida's Mayday Parade—vocalist/keyboardist Derek Sanders, bassist Jeremy Lezno, guitarists Alex Garcia and Brooks Betts and drummer Jake Bundrick—have been perfecting their unique brand of pop-inflected punk rock, a process that is currently culminating with the release of their major-label debut Anywhere But Here. "We really just wanted to follow our own path on this record and not worry about if we fit in anywhere," Bundrick explains. "We were striving to make a record that meshed together really well and that was actually an album in the sense that all the songs sound different, but are working together toward a common theme."
Correspondingly Anywhere But Here shows how versatile Mayday Parade are, a fact that has endeared the band to fans all over the world and helped them forge their own niche in the rock community. From soaring and instantly accessible anthems like "Anywhere But Here" and "Get Up" to heartfelt ballads such as "Save Your Heart" and melodic midtempo tracks like "Bruised and Scarred," Anywhere But Here shows how much the band have grown since their 2006 debut A Lesson In Romantics and also proves that when it comes to Mayday Parade, songwriting takes precedence over gimmicks or fleeting fashions.

Despite sharing their name with a northeastern state, the Maine formed in 2007 in Tempe, AZ, a collegiate suburb of Phoenix. Most of the bandmembers -- singer John O'Callaghan, guitarists Kennedy Brock and Jared Monaco, bassist Garrett Nickelsen, and drummer Pat Kirch -- were in high school at the time, and the guys wasted little time turning their '90s radio rock band influences into a familiar, infectious pop-punk sound. The Maine signed to Fearless Records and released a five-song concept EP, The Way We Talk, in 2007. After performing on the Vans Warped Tour one year later, the group issued a full-length debut album, Can't Stop Won't Stop, which was produced by emo-pop veteran Matt Squire. The record peaked at number 40 on the Billboard charts and caught the ear of Warner Bros. Records, who signed the Maine to a major-label contract in 2009. After releasing a deluxe version of Can't Stop Won't Stop later that year, the group returned to the studio, eventually emerging in 2010 with the sophomore album Black & White.