Insanely Awe-dical

Kate was asking me about the whole story about Reggie and the Full Effect, and my story kept sounding dumb: "It's really James Dewees...well yes it is 'Reggie' but the band behind him isn't The Full Effect -- its just a character. Well, yes Common Denominator is yet more characters...."

You can freakin imagine me stumbling.

So here is the bio from the Vagrant website. There is more info after it, but it is mostly concerning the newest record, which is drifting from the point of this post which is to talk about the backstory of RATFE.

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Reggie and the Full Effect have always been a mystery. Who are they? What do they want? Where do they come from?

There have, of course, been explanations. Studio fires, faked deaths, cryptic bios and tall tales of many sorts were countered by rumors that James Dewees—keyboardist for rock heroes The Get Up Kids' and drummer for seminal metalcore act Coalesce—was somehow behind all the crazy characters taking credit for Reggie and the Full Effect’s synth-rock goodness.

First there was the enigmatic Reggie, the band's apparent namesake and protagonist in a strange musical tale beginning with the release of the band’s Greatest Hits 1984-1987 in 1998, followed closely by Promotional Copy in 2000.

Then there was the mustachioed frontman Paco, who came to the fore on 2003's Under the Tray, and album which also featured an ever-growing cast of characters—Finnish metal band Common Denominator, English synth-pop god Fluxuation, death growler Hungary Bear, the ubiquitous Drunk Guy at the Get Up Kids Show—increasing both the band's popularity and perplexing mystique.