E-Mail This Article to a Friend Top o’ the heap Taking Back Sunday and Midtown get Warped BY SEAN RICHARDSON

A year ago this month, Dashboard Confessional became the music industry’s latest indie success story with the Top 10 debut of A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar (Vagrant). Now they’ve got company at the top of the emo heap: Taking Back Sunday just hit #3 on the Billboard 200 with their second album, Where You Want To Be (Victory). The video for the disc’s first single, "A Decade Under the Influence," has become an MTV staple. And the Long Island band are one of the top draws on this year’s Warped Tour, which comes to Foxborough next Thursday. All of which means that now, after many years of hard work, it’s official: their Chicago label has realized its dream of becoming the next Epitaph.

As most alt-rock fans know, Where You Want To Be almost never happened at all. Around the same time Dashboard were breaking through, TBS were imploding: they had to pull out of last year’s Warped Tour because of the abrupt departure of co-frontman John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper. Still riding high on the success of their 2002 debut, Tell All Your Friends, the band decided to hire two new members rather than throw in the towel. Co-frontman Fred Mascherino, who had already made a name for himself on the emo scene with Philadelphia’s Breaking Pangaea, was the first to join. The second was bassist Matt Rubano, who had done a stint with NYC jazz-rockers Schleigho and played on the Lauryn Hill hit "Everything Is Everything." The new line-up jelled to the point that TBS ended up on the Warped Tour after all, playing the last three dates on the East Coast.

As for Nolan and Cooper, they’re gearing up for the September release of the Victory debut from their new band, Straylight Run. Ever since the split, emo gossip channels have been abuzz with finger pointing. But over the phone from a Warped Tour stop in Virginia, Rubano insists that the controversy surrounding TBS has little effect on their day-to-day operations. "To give you an idea, I don’t really go on-line except to check my e-mail. That’s where a lot of that nonsense comes from. It bothers me when I hear people slag the guys in my band, but our policy is to let everybody that wants to talk trash just go for it. We’re not going to fuel the fire. I’ve had nothing but fun the whole time I’ve been in the band."

Since part of the band’s appeal lies in the two-singer format, getting a proven talent like Mascherino to take Nolan’s place alongside co-frontman Adam Lazzara was an important step in maintaining their identity. So even with the new line-up, "Decade" feels like classic TBS. There’s a driving pop-punk chorus, with a savage twist that makes for prime message-board fodder: "Who’s to say you’ll have to go/I could go all night/To hell with you and all your friends." Halfway through, the guys share an enervating screamo meltdown that addresses familiar themes of lust and disillusionment: "Anyone will do tonight/Close your eyes just settle, settle." The intensity level keeps building, and Mascherino ends the track with a desperate howl.

Once the new line-up was in place, TBS didn’t waste time getting back to work. They spent most of the fall on tour, and by March, they had enough new songs to head into the studio. Where You Want To Be was recorded in NYC and New Jersey with producer Lou Giordano, whose impressive résumé also includes hit albums by the Goo Goo Dolls and the Ataris. According to Rubano, that’s when being on an indie instead of a major really paid off for the band. "We had a unique situation. For a band that’s as well known as we are, at that point, so many business people are concerned with the record you’re going to make. You know, you’ve got A&R dipshits in the studio, and all kinds of people trying to mess with your music. The five of us went in, and nobody crossed the threshold of the studio until we were done. I think our managers heard it right before it went to mastering. We handed them a finished record that nobody had any influence on except us."

So it stands to reason that even though it’s full of radio-friendly choruses, Where You Want To Be feels more like the work of a living, breathing rock band than most of the albums it’s rubbing elbows with on the charts. And no disrespect to Nolan and Cooper, but the level of musicianship in the group has gone up a notch: Mascherino and Rubano both went to college for music. TBS spread their wings on "New American Classic," a gorgeous ballad built on acoustic guitars and a string section. Lazzara — like the Used’s Bert McCracken, a troublemaking longhair with a vulnerable streak — keeps things from getting too sappy with his trademark sarcasm. "Just ask the question/Untie the knot/Say you won’t care," he sings, the defiance in his voice undercutting the gloss.

The hooks on Where You Want To Be are sharper than those on its predecessor, but it makes no obvious concessions to the mainstream. "Set Phasers to Stun" opens the disc with a catchy staccato guitar hook that harks back to the days of the Police. Lazzara and Mascherino trade buoyant melodies on the chorus, but once again the words aren’t so sweet: "So pace the stairs to your apartment/Like that’s where you want to be." On the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack cut "This Photograph Is Proof," the band slow things down a bit, alternating between pretty harmonies and some of their heaviest bashing. Lazzara plays a spurned lover gone homicidal on "Little Devotional," which opens with a glittery cascade of guitars. And " . . . Slowdance on the Inside" closes the album with fitting irony: "Tonight won’t make a difference."

Whether or not TBS end up pulling off the rock-radio breakthrough they seem destined for, their future is bright, and Rubano is enjoying the ride. No emo scenester before joining the band, he nonetheless jumped at the chance to audition when drummer Mark O’Connell gave him a call. "I’m a music whore — I’ll play with anybody," he laughs. "Mark is my best friend’s younger brother. I’ve known him and his family my entire life. When the opportunity came up, I bought the record, went and jammed with them, and had a really good time. I really wanted to play in a rock band. When I was in high school, I was into Fugazi and Red Hot Chili Peppers. One of the first bass lines I learned was ‘Waiting Room’ by Fugazi, so playing in this band is kind of full circle for me."

FOUR YEARS AGO, Lazzara had yet to leave his native North Carolina to join TBS, but Midtown were already one of East Coast alt-rock’s next big things. In support of their Geffen debut, Save the World, Lose the Girl (Drive-Thru, 2000), the New Jersey band made a bratty video ("Just Rock and Roll") in which they sent strippers to labelmates New Found Glory. The follow-up Living Well Is the Best Revenge was their first album to hit the pop charts, and both efforts were produced by the renowned Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World). Now they’re back with Forget What You Know (Columbia), an opening spot on the current Lostprophets tour, and an appearance at the Warped Tour 10th Anniversary Reunion Show next Friday in Foxborough.

Midtown also have their biggest radio hit to date with the new disc’s first single, "Give It Up." Like TBS’s "Decade," the track piles several distinct hooks on top of one another in the name of regret. "Give it up, give it up/Don’t fall for mistakes that I’ve made," frontman Gabriel Saporta sings, over ringing guitars that bear the imprint of producer Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne). Walker isn’t the only new friend the band have made since switching labels: they’re also one of the first signings by A&R guy Matt Pinfield, who’s best known for his career as an MTV personality. The changes are more than just cosmetic: with the Clash-inspired kicks and hollers on "Give It Up," the group have jettisoned the American Pie trappings of their past.

Forget makes a case for Midtown as one of the most explosive bands in their genre: the mid-album standouts "Whole New World" and "Empty like the Ocean" are closer in spirit to Nirvana than to NFG. Some of their songs try too hard to be difficult, but Saporta’s neurotic delivery and despondent lyrics make him an original in a scene full of copycats. On the propulsive "Waiting for the News," he and his dad commiserate about their significant others: "And we operate but I still feel alone/And I can’t complain because she’s so beautiful/Yes, we all have made mistakes." The disc ends with a 10-minute lullaby that doubles as a requiem for an abusive relationship. By refusing to look on the bright side, Midtown have escaped the pop-punk pigeonhole in style.

Taking Back Sunday play the Warped Tour next Thursday, August 19, in the Gillette Stadium parking lot in Foxborough; call (508) 543-3900. Midtown play the Warped Tour 10th Anniversary Reunion Show next Friday, August 20, in the Gillette Stadium parking lot. They also open for Lostprophets this Friday, August 13, at Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street in Boston; call (617) 262-2437.