The Beginning

Thursday was formed in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1997. Their longest-running and best-known lineup consists of vocalist Geoff Rickly, bassist Tim Payne, rhythm guitarist Steve Pedulla, lead guitarist Tom Keeley, drummer Tucker Rule and keyboardist, Andrew Everding.
In the 90s, North Jersey was ablaze with basement shows, igniting the careers of some of the best hardcore, pop-punk and emo bands of the era, like Poison The Well, Midtown and Saves The Day. Many of these mythical shows were hosted at the now infamous, 331 Somerset Street where Thursday's future lead singer Geoff lived and organised shows. Geoff's involvement in the scene led the formation what would become Thursday with Tim, Tom, Tucker and later in 1998 rhythm guitarist, Bill Henderson.
They recorded their first album together in 1999, Waiting, on the legendary Jersey label, Eyeball Records. Waiting,if you haven't listened already is a beautifully constructed album. It foreshadows the bands future sound whilst also being a totally unique part of their history, capturing a time when the band was finding their feet.

Full Collapse

By 2001 Bill Henderson left the band and was replaced permanently by Steve Pedulla. The band was steadily growing in popularity and it was getting harder for Eyeball to support them. Before the release of their next album, Thursday left Eyeball Records to sign with the larger indie label; Victory Records. This would mark the start of a short-lived but tumultuous relationship. Thursday's second album, Full Collapse was released in early 2001 on Victory and was not as commercially successful as the label or the band had hoped.
However, at the end of that year their video for Understanding in a Car Crash, which Steve directed, had blown up on MTV and everyone was talking about Thursday. Understanding's success marked a huge moment for both the New Jersey basement scene and the post-hardcore genre, as it paved the way for similar-sounding artists to gain mainstream success, the likes of which were unheard of years prior. The album has since been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest post-hardcore records ever. It perfectly captures Thursday's diy past playing basements and their future as artists unafraid to experiment with sound and push the boundaries of post-hardcore. Full Collapse is a perfect introductory album to the band and is definitely worth listening to.
As Full Collapse began to take off, Victory started to backtrack on their previous comments about the album as a commercial failure and wanted to capitalise on Thursday's popularity. In 2002, Thursday decided to leave Victory. Although they didn't particularly want to sign to a major label their contract stated that the only way they would be able to leave early would be by signing to one. By May of that year, Thursday had signed with Island-Def-Jam but were still contractually obliged to release an EP on Victory. The Five Stories Falling EP was released in October and features only one new song; Jet Black New Year.

War All The Time

2003 saw the release of the band's major label debut, War All The Time. Post 9/11, the band's songs had become even more political but in typical Thursday fashion are still beautifully abstract. The album was described as being 'poppier' than their last and some older fans complained about the band becoming sellouts and gaining popularity with a mainstream audience. Much to their dismay, Thursday even had a Thanksgiving appearance on the Late Night Show with Conan O’Brien.
The stress of their new fame had started to take a toll on relationships in the band and by 2004 they had essentially stopped talking to each other. This forced keyboardist Andrew (still only a touring band member) to become their 'band counsellor'. This would mark a particularly dark time for the band, from a near-death experience where their plane crashed on the runway to members of the band struggling with both health problems and addiction. By Warped Tour 2004, Thursday had decided that this would be their last tour as a band.
Fortunately, as the tour went on the band realised that by deciding to disband, they actually started to enjoy being in Thursday again. In an interview with MTV in 2004 Geoff says "We started the Warped Tour as our last tour. And looking at it that way, there was this weight lifted off our shoulders. We were having the best time and we were best friends again, and we realized how fun it was to play together again,". Things began to look up for the band as in August they were personally invited to support one of their major inspirations, The Cure on their festival tour. This marked their last tour for a while as they entered the studio to write their fourth album.

A City By The Light Divided

Released in 2006, A City By The Light Divided saw Thursday at their most experimental yet. City is a two-part album, with the first being more 'quintessentially' Thursday with heavier moments like At This Velocity and Counting 5-4-3-2-1. The second sees the band lean into a more dreamlike and deeply emotional sound on The Lovesong Writer and Autumn Leaves Revisited. The introduction of Andrew as a full-time member also influenced this sound with many tracks featuring more keyboard and synthesisers. The division in the album represented a difference in vision between Geoff who wanted a heavier sound, and the rest of the band who wanted to explore other genres.
City would be Thursday's last album on Island, who like Victory never really had the band's best interest at heart. On the subject of Victory, the band actually released the documentary and compilation album, Kill All The House Lights on the label in 2007. The documentary is a must-watch for any Thursday fans and is the first time Thursday would work with their future bandmate and ex-Texas Is The Reason guitarist, Norman Brannon. The band would stay label-free until signing with indie label, Epitaph Records in 2008. Before their next album Thursday released a split EP with Japanese metal band, Envy, simply titled Thursday/Envy. For me this album isn't on streaming services but it's really worth a listen!

Common Existence

Thursday's first album on Epitaph is 2009's Common Existence. The album saw Thursday's sound change yet again and become as MTV puts it, "darker and more atmospheric". The album is centred around the idea that we all share a 'common existence' and fights against the more self-centred and inward-looking aspects of 2000s hardcore and emo.
2009 was certainly a turning point in the alternative rock scene at the time with emo and hardcore reaching peak commercial success with bands like Pierce The Veil and Bring Me The Horizon. This change left Thursday in a weird position, which Geoff explains in a Vice interview: "Everything we cared about was really out of fashion, and all the bands we really respected at the time held themselves as being too cool to be playing with a band like Thursday ... at the time it was never more pronounced how fucking uncool Thursday was.". In 2009, after a famously horrible last Taste of Chaos tour the band began to explore other avenues as individuals. For example, starting families and joining other bands, with Thursday becoming less of a central purpose in the members' lives. This new approach to the band would dictate the process of recording their final album - No Devolución.

No Devolución

2011's No Devolución marked a real shift in Thursday's approach to songwriting and recording, with the record being written in only two weeks. For the first time, the band agreed that Geoff should focus exclusively on the lyrics whilst the rest of the band wrote the songs. Andrew also took creative direction on some of the songs on the album which he had not done before. No Devolution is much lighter than Common Existence and has some really wistful reflective moments, particularly on songs like Turnpike Divides and Stay True. The album really shows how much Thursday have matured and grown since the start whilst still 'staying true' to their post-hardcore roots.
However, 2011 would be the year that the band would officially break up for the first time after nearly thirteen years together. The reasons behind this have been much disputed over the years. Still, from what I have gathered, numerous causes such as financial difficulties, addiction and health problems played a considerable role in the end of the band.

Reunion

After being broken up for five years, Thursday returned in 2016 and began to play shows together again. In these five years, the members had each pursued other projects outside of Thursday, meaning that the band was no longer their 'day job,' taking a lot of the pressure they had experienced near the band's end away. These projects include No Devotion, whose bassist Stuart Richardson would step in for Tim on many of the reunion tour shows. Presently, Stu is credited on all of Thursday's new singles and is a seemingly permanent touring band member. The band would tour up until the end of 2019 finishing their reunion shows by opening for My Chemical Romances' first show since their break up.

Present Day

Although the band claimed to be disbanding after 2019; "At the conclusion of this tour, we intend to put an end to ‘the reunion.’ When we stopped playing last time, it wasn’t on the best of terms... If we are ever able to do Thursday again, it will be a new, separate chapter.". Thursday would be back together soon enough doing shows, albeit virtual ones, during the pandemic. Their current lineup has changed somewhat since 2019 with Andrew not playing with the band after their second reunion and both Tim and Tom only playing a few shows. Both Stu and Norman Brannon would become permanent touring members at this time and will both go on to be a part of new Thursday releases as well. After in-person shows began happening more frequently Thursday were back in a big way, doing two North American tours in 2022 and one in 2023.
2024 was a big year for Thursday fans with the release of their first song in exactly thirteen years, Application for Release from the Dream. This release is incredibly important to the band as it is their "first release in 25 years WITHOUT a record label", which if you've read up to this point is a huge achievement for Thursday. 2024 also saw Thursday leaving North America to play some shows (finally) and the release of another brilliant new song, White Bikes. At present (Feb 2025) Thursday have released yet another new single, Taking Inventory of a Frozen Lake on New Year's Day 2025 and are currently touring. As for the future of Thursday? Who knows, all I know is to expect the unexpected!