WHO The New Jersey screamo band got together in 2001, after singer Gerard Way suffered a nervous breakdown. "I was a failed comic-book artist," he says. "I'd had a shitty year, and I was like, 'I need to do something more meaningful.' "

SOUND Scary-sad punk that lives up to emo's unspoken promise: that sometimes the most miserable songs are also the easiest ones to sing along with. Though My Chemical Romance have built a following touring with fellow screamo bands such as the Used, their music is a weirdly catchy hybrid of goth, glam, metal and punk. "A big inspiration for us goes back to the glam era, where there was an element of theater involved in rock & roll," says Way. "We love bands like Queen, where it's huge and majestic, but also bands like Black Flag and the Misfits, who would go absolutely crazy."

CLEAN LIVING Way recently decided to stop getting wasted as a method of coping with his problems. Though he says the first few performances were rough, he's starting to dig playing shows sober. He says he realized that "I'm really this nuts on my own."

LOOK FOR Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, the band's second disc, out now. "It's about two Bonnie and Clyde-type lovers who die in the desert in a gunfight," Way says. "The guy goes to hell and meets the devil. But the woman isn't there, and the devil says they can only be reunited if the guy brings him the souls of 1,000 evil men."