Fashion forward for Fall Out Boy

The band's idea man, Pete Wentz, has his hands all over the pop culture map, from a clothing line to a record label to a film company.

By JAY CRIDLIN
Published June 14, 2007

If you go

Fall Out Boy with +44, Academy Is, Paul Wall and Cobra Starship. 6 p.m. Friday, Ford Amphitheatre, Interstate 4 at U.S. 301 N, Tampa. $23.75-$39.25. 813 740-2446

After party

Featuring DJ set by Pete Wentz, 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Friday, Jackson's, 601 S Harbour Island Blvd., Tampa. Advance tickets ($10-$20) at www.piedpiperproductions.com. 

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Every dissection of the band Fall Out Boy should probably begin with whether or not you think bassist Pete Wentz is a loser or a genius.

On one side is a deafening chorus of critics who see Wentz as a business-first, pop-punk poseur who takes nude self-portraits, vogues in fashion ads, pals around with online gossipmonger Perez Hilton and has dated Ashlee Simpson and Lindsay Lohan.

On the other is an even more vocal nation of teens and tweens who see Wentz as the handsome, brilliant and charismatic leader of the most influential rock band of the MySpace generation.

"You go on Web sites that have what people think of Pete, and it's not always good, " said Andy Hurley, Fall Out Boy's drummer and a longtime friend of Wentz's, in a phone interview from Scotland, where the band was tuning up for its tour. "Obviously he's got really magnetic looks and a magnetic personality. He's definitely the most outspoken out of all of us. But I just think he's an idea man who has so many ideas, constantly, that you just can't deny someone like that."

Buoyed by thunderous guitars, Wentz's witty lyrics and singer Patrick Stump's frantic but soulful warble, the Chicago foursome -who play the Ford Amphitheatre on Friday - has ascended to punk royalty since 2003, when the guys released their first album, Take This To Your Grave, on Tampa's Fueled by Ramen Records.

The band's breakthrough album, From Under The Cork Tree, sold 2.5-million copies, spawned the insatiably catchy hits Dance, Dance and Sugar, We're Going Down, earned the band a Best New Artist Grammy nod and helped it garner 1.8-million MySpace friends.

In March, as the band's new album Infinity On High debuted at No. 1, the guys landed simultaneous covers of Spin and Rolling Stone.

In his spare time, Wentz has created a clothing line, a glitzy nightclub in New York's East Village and a film company. And his record label, Decaydence - an imprint of Fueled by Ramen - has spawned a slew of megaselling bands like Panic! At the Disco and Gym Class Heroes.

Because of Wentz's visibility, Madison Avenue now sees Fall Out Boy as a mainline to the teenage marketplace. The band has high-profile sponsorship deals with Nokia, Verizon, Tag Body Spray and Honda, and Wentz has modeled for the Gap and DKNY.

It is telling that Jay-Z, president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, has become a mentor to Wentz. And Wentz has made no secret of the fact that he wants to become a Def Jam-like corporate entity.

"I want to create a culture people are interested in, " he told Spin in March. "Our singles matter. Our videos matter. The clothes we wear matter. I want it to be this culture, the way Def Jam used to be."

Does it matter to fans that Wentz is so candid about his corporate aspirations?

"It is a weird line to have to balance, " Hurley says. "But I think when you get to a certain point in a band - especially our band - you have to make sacrifices like that in order to reach more kids. I think we've been able to do it in a way where we've had the right people working with us and letting us do what we want to do, and letting us bring our vision to fruition."

In other words, as long as the band keeps churning out hits, and as long as the Pete Wentz brand remains white-hot, Fall Out Boy will have free reign over the pop-punk landscape - and possibly beyond.

"I want to be the biggest band on the planet, " Wentz told Rolling Stone in March.

Notice he didn't say "we."

Jay Cridlin can be reached at cridlin@tampabay.com.

[Last modified June 13, 2007, 12:58:05]