Yellowcard is an American rock band who formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1997. Their official lineup currently consists of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Ryan Key, who was previously a guest vocalist, lead guitarist Ryan Mendez, bassist Josh Portman and violinist Sean Mackin. Mackin is the only remaining original member. Primarily a pop-punk group, the band has included various other genres of music since its inceptionto include hardcore punk, melodic hardcore punk, alternative rock, and emo-pop/punk. Yellowcard's music is recognized for having a distinct and unique sound in its genre due to their prominent use of a violin. The group's most-recognized singles includeOcean Avenue, Only One, and Lights and Sounds. Released in 2003, "Ocean Avenue" and its parent album of the same name are both certified double platinum and platinum in the US respectively by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); "Only One" and the band's 2006 album Lights and Sounds have been certified gold.
During their first two decades together, the band released ten studio albums, with the last, Yellowcard, released in 2016. Following this release and supporting tour, the quartet disbanded. The band announced a reunion in May 2022 and resumed their recording and touring career, beginning with the Childhood Eyes EP, released in 2023. Their eleventh studio album Better Days followed in 2025.
History 1997–2002: Formation and early material Yellowcard was formed in 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida, after its members met at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. The band got its name from a phrase its members used in high school: whenever somebody did something stupid at a party, such as spilling beer on the carpet, they cited soccer laws and gave the offender a "yellow card" for committing a "party foul".
Yellowcard's original lineup featured Ben Dobson on vocals, Todd Clary on rhythm guitar and vocals, Ben Harper on lead guitar, Warren Cooke on bass, and Longineu Parsons III on drums. Modern Amusement frontman Ryan Key sometimes appeared as a guest, on background vocals, as did violinist Sean Mackin. Key had also been in California band Craig's Brother.
Yellowcard recorded their first LP, Midget Tossing, at the Music Factory in Jacksonville Beach with Michael Ray FitzGerald at the board. Where We Stand, the band's second album, featured the same lineup as Midget Tossing, while Mackin was brought in for more songs.(doing about 7 or 8 in Where We Stand. As to one in Midget Tossing) however, the band outsted Dobson and replaced him with former guest vocalist Key. This changed the band's style from hardcore punk to pop punk.
In early 2000, Yellowcard recorded the Still Standing EP. Soon after it was released, Todd Clary left the band. Key then filled both Clary's and Dobson's duties, guitar and vocals respectively. After sending the new EP to friend Steve Lubarsky at Lobster Records, the band signed its first recording contract in June 2000 and in November, headed west to Camarillo, California, to begin working on another full-length album. The group released its third album, One for the Kids (Lobster Records), in 2001 and followed up with The Underdog EP (Fueled by Ramen Records) in 2002. Both of these were well received by fans. However, soon after The Underdog EP was released, Warren Cooke left for personal reasons on July 16, 2002. The band then asked Pete Mosely from Inspection 12 to play bass, and he joined the band four days later.
2003–2005: Ocean Avenue Shortly after releasing The Underdog EP, Yellowcard signed with Capitol Records. The group recorded their major-label debut Ocean Avenue in February–March 2003 and released on July 22, 2003. During the recording of the album, Mosely left Yellowcard, devoting his time to his first band, Inspection 12, and finishing the band's album, Get Rad. The members of Yellowcard began the search for a new bass player and chose Alex Lewis, whose sister, Alieke Wijnveldt, contributed vocals to the Ocean Avenue track "View from Heaven". After Lewis joined, the band filmed an unreleased music video for the song "Powder". The video was later put on the enhanced version of Ocean Avenue.
Yellowcard released its first single from Ocean Avenue, "Way Away". The song did exceptional on MTV2 and rock radio, peaking at No. 25 on the modern-rock charts. The song gave them enough notoriety to cause the band's mainstream explosion. In the middle of the band's first headlining tour, Peter Mosely decided to leave Inspection 12 and asked if he could rejoin Yellowcard. Because Mosely had been an integral part of the writing for Ocean Avenue and had also been friends with most of the band's members since high school, Lewis was asked to leave on March 1, 2004, and Mosely was reinstated as the bass player.
In late 2003, Yellowcard finally broke through with a hit single, "Ocean Avenue", in part due to the song premiering on MTV's Total Request Live. Radio eventually picked up on the single, with it peaking at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the summer of 2004. The band experienced its peak popularity during the second half of 2004. They were cover features on Alternative Press magazine, a headliner of the 2004 Warped Tour, performed "Ocean Avenue" and won the MTV2 award at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, and were featured in the season 2 premiere of One Tree Hill with their song "Empty Apartment". The band was featured episode 3 in season 8 of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge (later abridged to "The Challenge"), performing "Way Away" while cast members trashed a mock hotel room for a "rock star redecoration" challenge. The album's first track, "Way Away", appeared on the video game soundtracks of SSX 3 and Madden NFL 2004. The album's second track, "Breathing", also appeared in EA's video games Burnout 3: Takedown and FlatOut 2. Following the success of "Ocean Avenue", the band released the single "Only One", a rock ballad which also did fairly well on TRL and radio. Ocean Avenue went on to sell close to two million copies in the U.S. alone and six million overall worldwide.
During this time, Yellowcard contributed songs to various other soundtracks. The first, "Gifts and Curses", appeared in the hit film Spider-Man 2. Another, a cover of Lagwagon's "Violins", was featured on Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2 compilation album. At the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, Yellowcard performed a cover of the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" during a special tribute to the movie The Breakfast Club.
On August 13, 2013, an acoustic version of Ocean Avenue was released in honor of the album's 10th anniversary.
2005–2006: Lights and Sounds
After almost two years of touring, Yellowcard took a few months off at the beginning of 2005. Ryan Key and Peter Mosely moved to New York City to write the songs for the group's next album. The rest of the band remained in Los Angeles. The band regrouped in LA in the spring and began pre-production for the follow-up to Ocean Avenue in March. Recording and production was finished in September, and advertising began for the album. The band had originally announced that the album was expected for August 2005, but production and other delays pushed the release date back several months.
In the months following, many problems had arisen between the bandmates, with Key stating, "The fame went to our heads." After months of increasing tension stemming from Ben Harper's increased involvement with his indie label Takeover Records, Harper was removed from Yellowcard. He was replaced by Ryan Mendez from the band Staring Back.
Lights and Sounds was finally released on January 24, 2006. A loose concept album, the theme centers around Yellowcard's negative feelings towards Los Angeles. Prior to the release of Lights and Sounds Ryan Key said that this ambitious album would probably alienate a large portion of the group's fan base, and that he was "100 percent okay with that." 20 songs were recorded for the album, 14 of which are on the CD, plus a B-side available on import versions, CD singles, and at the iTunes Store, called "Three Flights Down". The opening track, "Three Flights Up", was the first instrumental track on a Yellowcard album since "Interlewd" on the band's first album, Midget Tossing. Those two and "Convocation" from their 2014 release, Lift a Sail, are the only instrumental tracks the band has released on an album.
The title track, "Lights and Sounds", was the first single, released a week before the album. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks. It is also featured on the video games Burnout Revenge, Burnout Legends and Guitar Hero: Modern Hits. In its first week of release, the album sold just over 90,000 copies, but it only went on to receive gold status. High first week sales are most likely the result of high anticipation of the album, as it was the follow-up to the highly successful Ocean Avenue; low total sales backup Key's statement about the album being very ambitious and different in sound from Ocean Avenue. On May 6, 2006, the second and final single and video of the album, "Rough Landing, Holly", was released. The single was not as well received as the first, and after its first week of release, it quickly dropped on the charts.
In May 2006, Ryan Key had surgery on his vocal chords after having problems with his singing. He had started having problems in December 2005. He was mute for a week and could not sing for more than a month. Yellowcard, after canceling some shows and receiving some time off from touring, joined the Virgin Mega Tour for the summer of 2006.
2006–2008: Paper Walls
On October 16, 2006, Yellowcard announced via its website that the group was back in the studio recording a new album. Guitarist Ryan Mendez posted on the official Yellowcard message board on October 21, 2006, that three songs had been completed and stated, "I really think fans of both older and newer Yellowcard are going to be very happy." Pre-production began in October 2006, and tracking began in January 2007. Between the months of January and March 2007, studio footage labeled "Yellowcard Sessions" regarding the band's progress on making the album was posted on their Myspace, with a new video added every Thursday. In total, 10 videos were posted, with additional footage released on the deluxe CD/DVD edition of Paper Walls. Additionally, in January 2007, some sample demo songs were released on the band's MySpace, though they were only rough recordings from pre-production and not the final recorded versions. The first demo was a 30-second preview of the iTunes bonus track, "Bombers", and the second was a clip of an unmixed version of "Light Up the Sky".
The first Yellowcard show since October 2006 took place on March 29, 2007, at the Troubadour in Hollywood, California. At the show, lead singer Ryan Key announced to a sold-out crowd that the new album would be titled Paper Walls. He said he would "probably get in trouble for [it]", but went on to announce the title anyway; Key also announced the album title during a concert at Southern Connecticut State University. During the Troubadour show, the group played two songs from its new album ("Fighting" and "The Takedown"). Yellowcard played an acoustic set the next night at the Troubadour and premiered two new songs, "Shadows and Regrets" and "Light Up the Sky".
In the teaser of an interview with Jason Tate of AbsolutePunk released on June 17 (one month before the release of the album), Key described the album:
... very much a record of hope and finding yourself again. It's after you've come through all of that – going to the height of it – and picking yourself back up again. And by "hitting rock bottom", I don't mean in record sales or fame or any of that shit. I mean personally – emotionally ... Paper Walls is the story, the feeling, of what it's like to be out of those holes, looking back, no regrets, but smarter and having grown through them.