Saves the Day

Arriving on the heels of the Get Up Kids' success, Saves the Day burst out of the box with 1999's Through Being Cool, a terrific punk-pop album keyed to singer Chris Conley's lovelorn croon. STD's follow-up, 2001's Stay What You Are, vindicated the buzz and set the stage for a jump from Vagrant to DreamWorks for 2003's In Reverie. The major-label debut dispensed with any pretense of punk, though, as STD full-heartedly embraced pop, and produced an at times embarrassingly smarmy, sickly sweet album that undoubtedly felt like a betrayal to many longtime fans. Not surprisingly, it failed to meet sales expectations, and the band was subsequently dropped. Trying to recapture its momentum and looking for a label, STD's recorded a new album that marks a return to form ("The songs are short and fast and angry," says the band Web site). The band is joined on tour by fellow Jerseyites Senses Fail, whose chugging emocore has been compared to Saves the Day (except with occasional hardcore breakdowns and screaming).