It’s difficult to peer into the looking glass and tell what the year of music will bring.

For example: Who would have guessed one year ago that Lady Gaga would emerge as 2009′s most talked-about star? Outlandish, foolhardy predictions aside, here are some definites to look forward to in the next 12 months, from top concerts to hot albums.

Get ready.

6: My Chemical Romance, title/release date TBD: The New Jersey rock outfit’s fourth album is the first since it drove a nail through emo’s coffin with 2006′s grand, ambitious rock opera “The Black Parade.” This is said to be a back-to-basics release, and we’re hoping My Chem can withstand the pressure of following up that effort without getting wrapped up in audience expectations.

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Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!! And Happy 2010 to all our visitors – here’s to the new album!

My Chemical Romance have been talking about their next album.

Frontman Gerard Way says the fourth record from the band has been influenced by muscle cars, classic sci fi film ‘Blade Runner’ and rock gods Judas Priest!

“Judas Priest is considered metal, but it’s great rock ‘n’ roll,” he told Spinner. “It’s having nothing to do with that era of metal, the hair rock, but then having everything to do with like the birth of power-anthem metal. After ‘Trans Am,’ that started to really bleed into the record.”

MCR have already revealed it won’t be a concept album like their last release ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’.. and it’s due out here in spring 2010.

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After My Chemical Romance’s grueling two-year tour in support of their hit third album, The Black Parade, the quintet put the band on hiatus and retreated to their personal lives to recover. Frontman Gerard Way married and had his first child, daughter Bandit Lee.

It was the chance to cover Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” for the 2009 blockbuster/graphic novel adaptation of Watchmen that pried Way and his bandmates out of their houses, and found them beginning to formulate their next move. “It was a good test to play around with where we might potentially go,” Way tells SPIN.com. “We started with the Sex Pistols and then decided to go back further, before punk. What was before punk that was punk? So there’s the MC5 and the Stooges, and that Detroit sound.”

And those are just a few of the touchstone bands whose influences surface on MCR’s as-yet-untitled fourth album, due in the Spring. Hints of Judas Priest, Def Leppard, and the Hives permeate seven new songs previewed for SPIN.com: “Death Before Disco,” “Save Yourself,” “Trans Am,” “Only Hope,” “Light Behind Your Eyes,” “Black Dragon Fighting Society,” and “L.A. Heavy.”

And while Gerard is still writing songs to stir the jilted, with his typically snide worldview intact, these tunes reveal a band having a damn good time.

We caught up with Way to talk about the album, its roots in the band’s home state of New Jersey — and even a certain MTV reality show that’s filmed there.
Continue…

Thanks to mychemicalmedia, I’ve just added scans from MCR’s December appearance in Alternative Press – check it out! I have also added some more older pieces of Gerard’s artwork, and scans from November’s edition of NME where Gerard placed #12 in the 25 Best Rock Stars of the Decade.

Gallery Links
Magazine Scans – Alternative Press [Dec 09]
Magazine Scans – NME [Nov 28 09]
Other Projects – Artwork – Drawings / Paintings