Nick Carrabine
NCarrabine@News-Herald.com

It’s 2010 and clearly the cool thing for bands to do these days is break-up and reunite.

Last year it was Blink-182, earlier this year it was Taking Back Sunday and the latest to do so this week is the band, Yellowcard.

Yellowcard, one of the only rock bands that I know of who has a violinist in it, is far from one of my favorite bands, but they have released some great material.

Ocean’s Avenue was their breakout record back in 2003, which sold almost 2 million copies and their follow-up release — Lights and Sounds — was listed as one of my top 35 records released last decade.

The albums previous to those two (One for the Kids) and following them (Paper Walls) were just OK, if not disappointing.

Nonetheless, I am partially excited that the group is reuniting.

Here is a press release that the band’s new record label released on Monday:

“After two-and-a-half years Yellowcard have put the break to rest with the announcement of a brand new record on a new label and tearing into life on the road again.

Returning to their pre-major label indie beginnings, Yellowcard have recently signed with Hopeless Records for their seventh studio album, the first since 2007s Paper Walls. For round seven (and after 3 million records sold), Ryan Key (vocals/guitar) and original members Sean Mackin (violin) and Longineu (“LP”) Parsons (drums) continuing with Ryan Mendez (guitar) will be joined by longtime friend of the band Sean O’Donnell (bass), whose addition has been described as a “natural fit” for the current mindset and progression of the group.

“Hopeless seemed to be the right place for us; they were really interested in working with the band, very proactive, and had a lot of great ideas for us,” says frontman/guitarist Ryan Key. “They’re giving us the opportunity to do exactly what we want with it, and we’re thankful to have an established fanbase that is already interested in what we have to put out.”

“We have all been big fans of Yellowcard since their early days” adds Hopeless Records President Louis Posen. “Our team is having a great time working with the band and we are thrilled that there is going to be a new Yellowcard album soon. We know the fans want new music and we are honored and humbled that we get to play a part in helping such a great band write the next chapter in their career.

Key said the writing process has been like picking up just where they left off, that they “feel like kids again, having fun and driving around listening to the music we just created, no words yet, just the music over and over again.” They will soon begin recording with their tried-and-true producer Neal Avron - “the sixth member of our band” - and are aiming for a spring release, enough time to take new material and the classic benchmarks out for a refresher.

“We’re talking about a ton of different ideas, and we’re itching to start as soon as possible,” Key said. “Ultimately, we want to make something the fans will love. What we love to do most, is look out from the stage and see people exploding with energy, and I think we keep that in mind while we are writing. We miss being out on the road playing for Yellowcard fans all around the world, and without their support we wouldn’t have a career.”

Here’s a look at Yellowcard’s previous material: