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August 24 2023: A Comprehensive List of Current MCR5 Proof

This article aims to address the following rumors, proof, and misinformation in relation to MCR5:
• 1) "Frank Iero was seen eating at a restaurant in LA outside a recording studio!!!"
• 2) "All of MCR was spotted in LA!"
• 3) Frank's fortune cookie post
• 4) TPK leaked songs + copyright strikes
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"Frank was seen eating outside a recording studio!" This one is based in truth, but has been subject to the internet version of Telephone, where every person that passes it along tells a different story. Here's what we know for sure: Frank Iero was in Los Angeles on August 6th 2023 because he was on tour with LS Dunes. Both Ray Toro and Gerard Way were confirmed to have been in attendance as they both live in Los Angeles, and interacted with a venue employee. The LS Dunes tour continued to Phoenix, AZ, San Francisco, CA, and the tour concluded in Garden Grove, California on August 11th. Mikey Way was in attendance, which we know because he posted about it on his Instagram story that night. Why Mikey was in California is unknown, he could just be visiting his family, taking his kids to Disney again, or he extended his July San Diego Comic Con visit to August. When the Dunes summer tour was announced, people theorized that it ended in California so that Frank, with no current musical committments, could work on MCR stuff in LA. This theory seems likely, because Frank did not immediately return to New Jersey after the Dunes tour ended. On August 15th, 4 days after the Garden Grove show, Frank was seen eating at a restaurant called Sweetgreen on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. We know this because someone on Twitter posted a Tweet reading "My old roomie just posted this [...] I would cry if I ran into him lol" along with a screenshot of someone's private instagram story, a grainy picture taken from afar showing Frank sitting in a restaurant with the caption "Tell me why Frank Iero was at this sweet green on sunset". The Tweet was deleted, probably because someone told the poster that it's uncool to share creepshots of people minding their own business, or that it's equally uncool to share someone's private IG story. Here's where things get a little complicated. I don't know how it started, but people started saying that the restaurant was actually across the street from a recording studio. This is not true. A quick Google Maps search shows that there are no recording studios across the street from that restaurant. Yes, there are multiple studios in the area, but that should lead you to asking questions like: Would it make sense for MCR to record there? Is this a recording studio with any major label credibility? And of course, this is Los Angeles. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting an indie recording studio. Also, I've seen some people spread this rumor but with Ray Toro instead of Frank, which isn't true. Ray was spotted at the LA show sitting in the balcony, but he hasn't been seen out and about in LA as of late.
On Frank being in LA. To finish up our timeline, our last confirmed instance of Frank being in LA was on August 16th, when he posted on his story about a new tattoo he got by Jack Watts (@tattoosforyourenemies), an LA based tattoo artist. From August 17th to 22nd, we got no confirmed update as to his whereabouts, but it is presumed he remained in LA. This brings us to the last entry on the timeline: Yesterday, August 23rd. He posted a series of "Rad Mail Day" Instagram stories showing off new band merch and a new custom Fender he recieved, as well as a video on his feed of him, in his house, in New Jersey, playing the guitar. Before he posted the video, I cross-referenced the red rug the guitar on his IG story was resting on with the rest of his IG feed, finding multiple posts featuring a guitar and that rug, confirming that he was in fact in his house. You may find this excessive, and so do I, but one of my friends thought it might have been the rug in Gerard's home studio, so we had to double check.

"All of MCR was spotted in LA!" Not true. All of MCR was supposedly in LA at the same time, but they were never seen in public as a group. If they were, you and I would both know already because the images would spread like wildfire.

Frank's fortune cookie post. On August 18th, Frank posted a paper fortune from a fortune cookie on his Instagram story. The fortune reads "Let's finish this up now, someone is waiting for you on that." He captioned this with "ZERO CHILL." Many, including myself, took this as confirmation of MCR5. This is because historically speaking, Frank has been known to post fortunes ahead of significant MCR events. This has happened 3 times before, and I am inclined to believe we are 4 for 4. On February 18, 2022, he posted a fortune reading "You will soon witness a miracle." It is widely believed that this was posted in reference to the Foundations of Decay, which was released 3 months later. I'm not entirely sure about this because I wasn't actively involved in the MCR fandom at the time, but I think it might've been believed that he was in LA then too. On February 16 2020, he posted a fortune that read "Even a broken clock is right two times a day." This is in reference to a statement he made in 2019 on the Zach Sang Show, when asked about the MCR reunion rumors alleged by Joe Jonas. In that interview, he said "that rumor is like a broken clock [...]" and then on December 20, 2019 (one day before MCR played their return show at the Shrine Auditorium in LA), he tweeted "if you were to pay close attention, i say 'that rumor is like a broken clock...' some might think i meant to say broken record, but i did not. Because even a broken clock is right twice a day." Finally, on May 10, 2017, he posted a fortune reading "You will be rewarded for your patience and understanding," ahead of his solo show at the Troubador in Los Angeles, where Gerard, Ray, and Mikey publicly reunited for the first time since the breakup (I think). Some people consider this the first event in the chain reaction that led to MCR officially reuniting in 2019. So, that is why the fortune cookie posts are significant, especially since he posted that duing his supposed time in LA.

The Paper Kingdom leaks. Paper Kingdom (sometimes referred to as MCR5 in interviews with the band, not to be confused with the concept of MCR5, their theorhetical upcoming album) is the scrapped 5th studio album of My Chemical Romance, which Gerard described in 2014 as a concept album about “a support group of parents who are dealing with the loss of their children, so they make up this story about the children all being missing in the woods and fighting this witch.” I recommend listening to the video I linked because Gerard explicitly lays out the reasons Paper Kingdom was sort of doomed to never happen, one of the reasons being that it got to the point where "I was finding anything else to do besides write music" and that trying to recapture the dark energy of the Black Parade went against their ideals as an artist. So, it was scrapped and lost to time. Around November/December of 2022, a user known as Excalibur posted on the leaked.cx forum (a website for sharing and selling leaked music) posted "[...]I've been holding onto this album for a while but I think it's time to share to the public. This is one of the most sought-after pieces for MCR's community, and it's highly [...] regarded as the 'lost MCR album.'" He shared 3 song titles, Dark Cloud, Witch, and Wake Up! and set the bidding at $15,000 dollars. This was the forum's most viewed thread of all time after recieving plenty of mainstream social media attention. Excalibur ultimately took the thread down, and talk of the Paper Kingdom went quiet. It is presumed, by general consensus of leaked.cx, that the album was privately bought and/or vaulted. This brings us to the past 24 hours.

Copyright strikes. Within the past 24 hours, @endlessnightmcr on Instagram shared a screenshot from an MCR fan Facebook group. The screenshot reads "Is this a new song title?!? This happened in the last hour. A stream we did in November where I played leaked snippets of 3 (potentially) new MCR songs got copyright claimed as an unheard of title. Last time this happened it was 'Paper Swords' this time it's 'Witch.' Both totally fit the theme of their latest music and overall aesthetic." Attached to the post is another screenshot of a copyright claim stating that the song Witch by My Chemical Romance appeared in the video and was muted. Here's how this all connects, and why it more or less means nothing outside of "huh, that's weird I guess."

Debunking. Firstly, Paper Swords and Witch are not new MCR songs. They are from the leaked album from 10 years ago. If this album was mostly completed and set to release before it was scrapped, which I infer it was seeing at the leaker was selling the fully mastered songs, it would make sense for Warner to copyright the songs. Even though the album never came out, they still hold that copyright. For what it's worth, while writing this I did spend about a half hour searching the United States copyright records to see if it's on file, and I wasn't able to find it. Warner Records Inc. holds about 46 My Chemical Romance related titles that I was able to find publicly, though I imagine it's possible they still privately own the rights to unreleased songs. For example, the copyright registration date for the Mad Gear and Missile Kid EP is September 8th 2022. This EP was only put on Spotify on August 25 2022, and was originally released with the Danger Days box set in 2010 as a physical CD. Also, Warner is notorious for scouring the entire internet to copyright claim music, so it is most likely true that they own the rights to these unreleased songs.

A note on the passage of time. As I did research for this article, I came across many comments and theories suggesting that the Paper Kingdom and it's "aesthetic" lines up with the aesthetic as "current era" MCR. These comments cited skulls, robes, and the visuals shown in "A Summoning" as hallmarks of MCR's current aesthetic, which I find inaccurate. If you've followed the tour for the past year like I have, you know what I mean. For starters, A Summoning was released in 2019 when the general aesthetic of the reunion was marble statues, skulls, and mysterious cloaked figures. It has been 4 years since then, and, in Gerard's words, "some shit has changed!" The Foundations of Decay is more or less the antithesis to the Paper Kingdom. It's main themes include regrowth, rebuilding, healing, fixing your heart, and leaving the past behind to become something new, whereas the Paper Kingdom was created during a time where Gerard was more depressed than they'd been before even starting the band. In the 2014 interview I linked above, Gerard says that "I felt very trapped. I went against what was in line with myself as an artist...and I think there was a part of me personally that was trying to recapture that Black Parade energy instead of doing what I know I should've always done, which is to never try to recapture, to always move forward." Now that MCR is back together, I highly doubt that they would revisit this concept when they have already demonstrated that they are moving forward from their past.

Conclusion. I know this is an insanely long read, but I hope it was helpful if you took the time to read it. Feel free to share this if you want. I'm just a little exhausted, reading misinformation regarding MCR day in and day out. If this is your first time on this website, feel free to poke around and explore. Xoxo Leo Romance.