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Okay, if you've seen my tumblr (or twitter) in the past, oh, three weeks or so, you'll realize I'm on a Jonas Brothers kick.
So, this primer was assembled so the people following me at least know who the fuck I'm talking about.
Okay!
The Boys
So first, these are the Jonas Brothers:
From left to right: Kevin, Nick, and Joe.
Nick was, once upon a time, The Jailbait. (Now, he's twenty, and every fangirl over the age of eighteen is ecstatic.) Now he dresses like he's living in Ryan Ross' closet and it's down to the hipster chic or the Rose Vest. He's generally considered the most serious out of the three. No, seriously, he practically screams Serious Musician when he focuses on music. (For information purposes, born Nicholas Jerry Jonas, September 16th, 1992.)
Joe was, also once upon a time, The Pretty One. He's still pretty, and he is, just like he was then, a goofball. (No, seriously. They did a livestream about two months ago and Joe treated it like it was a talk show and he was the host. It was adorable.) (For information purposes, born Joseph Adam Jonas, August 15th, 1989.)
Kevin is, er, The Other One. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fleurdelisee said on tumblr: "I can never remember the name of the third one. The one no one ever remembers exists." He's married, happily, and is on a show on E! called Married to Jonas, which pretty much follows him and his wife around. Except to the bathroom and in bed. Thank god, because there are some things I never want to know about Kevin Jonas. (For information purposes, born Paul Kevin Jonas II, November 5th, 1987.)
Also, because, let's be real, that picture is, uh, not entirely complimentary, have some way better pictures, because really, they are quite pretty.
Nick. Referred to by Joe as anything from Nicky J (often), to various president jokes. (Apparently, there was a period, and he might even still be like this, where he wanted to be president.) Ridiculously attached to Joe, even during the Jonas Brothers' hiatus. (They live together in NYC and also share an apartment in LA. They cite it being easier or something. Whatever. You're millionaire popstars, you can afford separate apartments.)
Joe. Adorkable. Currently has a mop of curls that I could not find a good picture of that are adorable as hell on him. Openly favors Nick. Also has saved his brother's life twice, according to Nick. (Once because he was the one to figure out something was wrong with Nick and after months [and I mean months] of pleading with his parents, got Nick taken to a doctor where he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. The other time was a car accident when they were younger. A driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit the back of their car. With an eighteen-wheeler truck. Joe saw it coming and pretty much blanketed himself over Nick to protect him.)
The Other One Kevin! Not nearly as weirdly attached to the other two as they are to each other. Yeah, no, that's pretty much it. I like Kevin, really I do. He was even my favorite for a while. He's not as Srs Bsns as Nick, but not as goofy as Joe. He's content to sit in the back and play his guitar and occasionally sing back-up while Nick wears his emotions on his sleeves on stage and Joe continues his ridiculous antics.
The Band
Okay, not-so-quick history lesson here, folks. That history being the rough outline of what the fuck happened to Nick, Joe, and Kevin before their songs were played on repeat ad nauseum on the Disney Channel. I will try to keep it short, but Nick Jonas' apparent goal in life is to do everything ever, so...
Basically, Nick is the Master from Doctor Who. Okay, not really, but at three years old, he apparently went up to his dad and said (and I quote), "Do you hear that? Do you hear that music? It's always playing in my head." His dad, who was, supposedly, a music instructor, started helping Nick learn to play instruments. He, at last count, plays guitar, drums, piano, bass, various percussion instruments, and the glockenspiel. Oh, and he started singing.
Nick got discovered in a barber shop. (No, I am not kidding.) He was found by a talent agent in a barber shop in New Jersey, and at seven, he was performing in Madison Square Garden's run of A Christmas Carol as Tiny Tim. He then went on to do Annie Get Your Gun, Beauty And The Beast, and Les Miserables, all on Broadway. (And now, for a moment of hilarity, keep in mind that he played Gavroche in Les Mis, and then later went on to play Marius. Eponine, honey, you have a crush on your brother.) He also did The Sound Of Music at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. (And take a moment to enjoy this collage of images of Nick on Broadway as a kid. And the one in the upper left corner of him with Joey Fatone of Nsync.)
And while Nick was doing show after show at the tender age of not-even-ten, his brothers were both acting as well. Joe had a part in the children's chorus of Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme, which was actually really awesome and set in the '50s. Kevin did commercials. Basically, Nick and Joe became workaholics before they hit puberty and kept doing theatre work while Kevin attended his sophomore year of high school like a normal person.
Nick and his dad, while Nick was in Beauty And The Beast, wrote a song together. (And, uh, supposedly Nick did most of the writing. He was ten. I feel woefully inadequate at the moment.) It ended up on the album Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols For A Cure. After it ended up with airplay on a few Christian stations, and Nick Jonas ended up with a record deal by the time he was eleven. He and his dad and sometimes his brothers wrote the songs on his solo album. It came out in 2004 and, uh, did not do terribly well. (To be fair, Nick wasn't even twelve when it came out, and it was Christian rock/pop. The two singles from it were "Dear God" and "Joy To The World (A Christmas Prayer)" [a solo version of the song that was on the Broadway's Greatest Gifts album].)
It really majorly flopped, but Nick Jonas is kind of freakishly determined, a workaholic, and has a perfectionist complex. So, in 2005, he ended up auditioning for Columbia Records, who realized they liked him better with his brothers, and signed them together. They were originally called Sons of Jonas but changed it to the Jonas Brothers before anything official came out. The three of them (and occasionally, their dad) wrote the album, which also featured two songs that were covers of Busted, "What I Go To School For" and "Year 3000". They crammed themselves into a very very tiny van and toured a lot, opening for Jesse McCartney and Kelly Clarkson and the Backstreet Boys.
Around this time period, Nick was diagnosed with diabetes. What actually happened was that Joe kept noticing (for, apparently, months) that something was wrong with Nick, and tried to get his parents to listen, but everybody brushed it off as Nick hitting puberty. Finally, Joe went swimming with Nick, saw how skinny he was (pieces of paper weigh more than he did), and got his parents to see and take him to the hospital. (Where Joe, reportedly, passed out multiple times because he was that worried about Nick.)
(Sidebar: And now for your hearbreaking moment of the day, upon waking up in the hospital: “The first thing Nick asked was, ‘Am I going to die?’")
And Nick decided that an autoimmune disease that nearly killed him was not enough to slow him down and pretty promptly dragged his family back on the road to tour more. (Fact: If you look up "workaholic" in the dictionary, it shows you a picture of Nick Jonas.)
They did a bunch of tours and their album was set to be released (which had a few singles, "I Am What I Am", "Mandy", and "Year 3000"). Details are fuzzy, but the story is that one of the people backing them, Sony, pulled out, which caused their album to be pushed back repeatedly, though it was finally released (and didn't do well). And then Columbia dropped them. They still drove around in a tiny van and played whatever venue they could manage, and pretty much just did what they could to make ends meet.
Including, hilariously, them doing the Baby Bottle Pop song. With commercials.
Then Hollywood Records picked them up and "Year 3000", "Hold On", and "S.O.S." were burned into the public consciousness for all eternity.
Now for the fun part, where they apparently manage to run on five hours of sleep, soda, and sheer willpower. (No, I'm not kidding. Their wake-up calls were at 4:30, depending on their schedule, which was usually pretty busy, and they'd fall into bed pretty late. And Nick and Joe would stay up until, like, five AM talking to each other until they fell asleep. Again, I'm not kidding.)
They released three group albums under Hollywood Records (Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer, and Lines, Vines And Trying Times), and a number of singles. All of which are disgustingly catchy.
They guest-starred on Hannah Montana, and toured with Miley Cyrus. You can see their bits in the episode here and the best part of it is at roughly 1:05, where Nick goes "Dudes, it's Hannah Montana" and Joe becomes Spider-man in an attempt to beat Kevin to the door. And right after that. "We're such big fans!" "We love your music!" "You're pretty! ...Pretty good with the singing... and the dancing that you do. ...Wow, you're pretty. *gets smacked*" "Nice save."
And performed at the AMAs (where Joe tripped, landed on glass, and cut his knees and hands, but got right back up and did the song anyway). And filmed Camp Rock. The tour came after the filming, I think.
(Somewhere in all of that, Nick Jonas met Miley Cyrus, they fell in love, and pop-dom had its actual One True Pairing the likes of which have not been seen since. And then broke up the week after Christmas in 2007. Okay, that's a lie. It wasn't "somewhere in all of that", it was June 11, 2006, and they fell ass over tea kettle like the red string of fate yanked as hard as it could.)
They did Dick Clark's New Year's Eve thing, one of the songs being with Miley, for, uh, uber fun. Following that, they had their own short solo tour, called the Look Me In The Eyes tour. There was a reality series called Living The Dream that filmed them behind the scenes on that tour, which was supposed to show what they were like behind the scenes, but ended up being 75% staged stuff and 25% NickandJoe. The various footage that was taken from this tour was used in the video for "When You Look Me In The Eyes".
After that, Camp Rock premiered. I love that movie. It's so unashamedly ridiculous. It has a predictable plot and all, but it's so fun. Plus, apparently, Joe Jonas can summon invisible back-up singers and band members when he's playing his guitar and singing to Demi Lovato.
Following Camp Rock's premiere, they got their butts back on tour to promote their album that was coming out, A Little Bit Longer. (Fact: A Little Bit Longer was mostly recorded on the Look Me In The Eyes tour, on a specially outfitted bus that followed them around, so they didn't have to stop to record and could churn out another album instead of waiting for downtime. I don't think Nick Jonas believes in downtime.) The tour was called the Burnin' Up tour, and most of the shows (the big arena shows, no less) sold out in minutes. (Yes, I am proud of them, ignore me.) Several of the shows were filmed and edited together for the 3D concert movie, because everybody needs to see Nick and Joe be overly affectionate with each other in 3D.
Then there were the VMAs and PurityGate, where host Russell Brand picked on the fact that they had purity rings. (If I had a dollar for every time someone picked on that, I'd be as rich as the JoBros.) Jordin Sparks said something equally bad in an attempt to defend them and it was just... not good. Which is a shame, because it overshadowed the truly epic performance of "Lovebug" that the boys did.
(Sidebar (again): Sometime around this, Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift dated. And Joe, eventually, broke up with her, because he supposedly had trouble with long distance. He has only ever outright said anything about it once, and that was a blog post on their myspace that was since deleted. Basically, Joe thought it wasn't working out, called Taylor, and tried to talk to her. Taylor hung up on him and there was a big thing with her about the fact that Joe broke up with her.)
Anyway, at the AMAs, Taylor sang "White Horse" and supposedly pointed at Joe. While crying. The boys retaliated with the most fantastically pissy performance of "Tonight" ever. I think Nick was about to take someone's head off with his guitar, because he's glaring and swinging his guitar around in ways that make me glad I was at home. Also, the boys won an AMA for Breakthrough Artist.
They released a book, called Burnin' Up: On Tour With The Jonas Brothers. I'll fess up, I want a copy. They also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and Nick Jonas smiled so wide that I could count his teeth.
They also played Rockefeller Center's Christmas Tree lighting and New Year's Eve in Times Square again. They played at the Kids Inaugural event, because Sasha and Malia were (at least then) big Jonas Brothers fans. (You have excellent taste, girls.) They also apparently were snuck into Sasha and Malia's sleepover the following night to be a surprise for the girls.
They performed at the Grammys, WITH STEVIE WONDER. Which was a dream come true for all three of them. They lost the Best New Artist Grammy to Adele, but they gave no fucks, because they performed with Stevie Wonder. Who apparently had the Jonas Brothers song "Burnin' Up" on his iPod. At which point, all three of them died happy fanboys. They did "Burnin' Up" and "Superstition", and it was glorious.
Following the Grammys, they were on Saturday Night Live for an episode, which can be torrented here. I'm downloading it now, but from what I understand, calling it hilarious is an understatement. They also performed two of their songs. "Tonight", and the amazingly nasty "Video Girl". (I would take issue with how mean it is but, honestly, they are rarely nasty in any way. The only other song they've written that was in any way mean was "Move On", which was never officially recorded or put on an album anywhere, which sucks, because I like it.)
Their 3D concert movie premiered, was considered a flop because it didn't match the Hannah Montana movie in terms of ticket sales, had Joe and Kevin without their shirts, and the boys singing. A lot. And Nick Jonas doing backflips. And Joe and Nick being their usual borderline-inappropriate affectionate selves. (Apparently, Joe felt it necessary to tell Nick he loved him before they went on stage, doing their forehead thing, and completely ignoring Kevin's existence. Fandom was not the first person to ignore Kevin. No, that title goes to Nick and Joe. Sorry, Kevin. At least your wife loves you.)
Now here's where things get a bit fuzzy, so bear with me.
Kevin got married in 2009, had a wonderful wedding, reception, and honeymoon. Nick, as Nick does, wrote them a song for the reception. And they filmed and premiered their show JONAS, which is about three, er, "fictional" brothers named Nick Lucas, Joe Lucas, and Kevin Lucas, who are all in a band named JONAS. With their real life brother Frankie playing... Frankie Lucas. The first season pretty much consists of no fourth wall. Ever. At all. The second season, in 2010, got a re-tool, changed to JONAS L.A., gained a fourth wall, but with lots of jokes that reference the brothers. It got both better and worse, depending on who you ask.
They also, in here, filmed Camp Rock 2, and did their world tour. Oh, and wrote and released Lines, Vines And Trying Times, did most of the music videos for it, and Nick started a side solo-ish project called Nick Jonas And The Administration when the band went on hiatus.
NJ&TA released their debut solo album in early 2010, and Nick went on tour for a bit. Then he stopped, and did Les Miserables for the 25th Anniversary Concert, made me sob like a baby, and then continued on doing his thing. (Oh, and he wrote the incredibly heart-wrenching song "Stay", which goes like this: "Don't let the world cave in, just tell me that you'll stay. Now that the pain is done, there's no need to be afraid. We don't have time to waste, just tell me that you'll stay.")
Nick also did Hairspray and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying as Link Larkin and J. Pierrepont Finch respectively, soundly kicked ass at both, and left elitist Broadway fans in the dust. He did guest spots on multiple TV shows: Smash, Mr. Sunshine, and Last Man Standing. (The first of which is a dude who got his start on Broadway, the second one is a bitchy nightmare popstar who is what Nick Jonas could have turned out to be had he not been too busy being a workaholic, and the last redefines playing against type, with him playing a guy who got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, ditched town, is an asshole who charms everyone, and his idea of a steady job is a knight at Renn Faire.)
Kevin was busy being married, and signing with E and doing... Whatever it is he did during the Jonas Brothers' hiatus.
Joe released a solo album called Fastlife that earned a Parental Advisory sticker for explicit language. (Lil Wayne raps on a song and uses "fuck" and "bitch". Sadly, Joe does not swear.)
Nick and Joe moved in together, or maybe just never moved out, and spent months hanging around New York and going out to lunch and shit. And eventually, they decided to get the band back together and started working on new songs for an album. They did a reunion concert at Radio City, made fangirls everywhere cry, and did a brief tour of Asia, where they took the time to sightsee, since apparently, despite multiple world tours, they apparently never got to really see any of the cities they visited.
And that brings us to now, where they've finished the first of three shows at the Pantages theater in LA, and are playing Jingle Ball on Saturday, with still no news about what their next single or album's going to be or when. But it's on the horizon, so who knows?
And, at some point, I will make a part 2 of this post, which will get into Joe and Nick and them being JoeandNick.
And now for the part you were all hoping to avoid, the music section. I will keep this brief and just list personal favorites:
Turn Right (live), from the Walmart Soundcheck
Just In Love, from Joe's solo album
Conspiracy Theory, from Nick's solo album
Poor Unfortunate Souls, which is still amazing.
Lovebug, which should be watched solely for the aesthetics porn.
And finally, A Little Bit Longer, which Nick wrote about his diabetes. (Understandably, both Joe and Nick have cried on stage while this was performed.) This is live, but the album version doesn't convey the emotion as well.
And that's it. Bug me for more information if you want. Or, y'know, if I've sucked you into the fandom.
Have some gifs, y'all:
(from Nick's bit on Smash.)
(You guys should probably know that Joe really loves pulling Nick into hugs, whether he wants them or not. Nick gives up fighting after a few seconds, inevitably.)
Aaaaand now I'm done.
So, this primer was assembled so the people following me at least know who the fuck I'm talking about.
Okay!
The Boys
So first, these are the Jonas Brothers:
Nick was, once upon a time, The Jailbait. (Now, he's twenty, and every fangirl over the age of eighteen is ecstatic.) Now he dresses like he's living in Ryan Ross' closet and it's down to the hipster chic or the Rose Vest. He's generally considered the most serious out of the three. No, seriously, he practically screams Serious Musician when he focuses on music. (For information purposes, born Nicholas Jerry Jonas, September 16th, 1992.)
Joe was, also once upon a time, The Pretty One. He's still pretty, and he is, just like he was then, a goofball. (No, seriously. They did a livestream about two months ago and Joe treated it like it was a talk show and he was the host. It was adorable.) (For information purposes, born Joseph Adam Jonas, August 15th, 1989.)
Kevin is, er, The Other One. As
fleurdelisee said on tumblr: "I can never remember the name of the third one. The one no one ever remembers exists." He's married, happily, and is on a show on E! called Married to Jonas, which pretty much follows him and his wife around. Except to the bathroom and in bed. Thank god, because there are some things I never want to know about Kevin Jonas. (For information purposes, born Paul Kevin Jonas II, November 5th, 1987.)Also, because, let's be real, that picture is, uh, not entirely complimentary, have some way better pictures, because really, they are quite pretty.
Nick. Referred to by Joe as anything from Nicky J (often), to various president jokes. (Apparently, there was a period, and he might even still be like this, where he wanted to be president.) Ridiculously attached to Joe, even during the Jonas Brothers' hiatus. (They live together in NYC and also share an apartment in LA. They cite it being easier or something. Whatever. You're millionaire popstars, you can afford separate apartments.)
Joe. Adorkable. Currently has a mop of curls that I could not find a good picture of that are adorable as hell on him. Openly favors Nick. Also has saved his brother's life twice, according to Nick. (Once because he was the one to figure out something was wrong with Nick and after months [and I mean months] of pleading with his parents, got Nick taken to a doctor where he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. The other time was a car accident when they were younger. A driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit the back of their car. With an eighteen-wheeler truck. Joe saw it coming and pretty much blanketed himself over Nick to protect him.)
The Band
Okay, not-so-quick history lesson here, folks. That history being the rough outline of what the fuck happened to Nick, Joe, and Kevin before their songs were played on repeat ad nauseum on the Disney Channel. I will try to keep it short, but Nick Jonas' apparent goal in life is to do everything ever, so...
Basically, Nick is the Master from Doctor Who. Okay, not really, but at three years old, he apparently went up to his dad and said (and I quote), "Do you hear that? Do you hear that music? It's always playing in my head." His dad, who was, supposedly, a music instructor, started helping Nick learn to play instruments. He, at last count, plays guitar, drums, piano, bass, various percussion instruments, and the glockenspiel. Oh, and he started singing.
Nick got discovered in a barber shop. (No, I am not kidding.) He was found by a talent agent in a barber shop in New Jersey, and at seven, he was performing in Madison Square Garden's run of A Christmas Carol as Tiny Tim. He then went on to do Annie Get Your Gun, Beauty And The Beast, and Les Miserables, all on Broadway. (And now, for a moment of hilarity, keep in mind that he played Gavroche in Les Mis, and then later went on to play Marius. Eponine, honey, you have a crush on your brother.) He also did The Sound Of Music at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. (And take a moment to enjoy this collage of images of Nick on Broadway as a kid. And the one in the upper left corner of him with Joey Fatone of Nsync.)
And while Nick was doing show after show at the tender age of not-even-ten, his brothers were both acting as well. Joe had a part in the children's chorus of Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme, which was actually really awesome and set in the '50s. Kevin did commercials. Basically, Nick and Joe became workaholics before they hit puberty and kept doing theatre work while Kevin attended his sophomore year of high school like a normal person.
Nick and his dad, while Nick was in Beauty And The Beast, wrote a song together. (And, uh, supposedly Nick did most of the writing. He was ten. I feel woefully inadequate at the moment.) It ended up on the album Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols For A Cure. After it ended up with airplay on a few Christian stations, and Nick Jonas ended up with a record deal by the time he was eleven. He and his dad and sometimes his brothers wrote the songs on his solo album. It came out in 2004 and, uh, did not do terribly well. (To be fair, Nick wasn't even twelve when it came out, and it was Christian rock/pop. The two singles from it were "Dear God" and "Joy To The World (A Christmas Prayer)" [a solo version of the song that was on the Broadway's Greatest Gifts album].)
It really majorly flopped, but Nick Jonas is kind of freakishly determined, a workaholic, and has a perfectionist complex. So, in 2005, he ended up auditioning for Columbia Records, who realized they liked him better with his brothers, and signed them together. They were originally called Sons of Jonas but changed it to the Jonas Brothers before anything official came out. The three of them (and occasionally, their dad) wrote the album, which also featured two songs that were covers of Busted, "What I Go To School For" and "Year 3000". They crammed themselves into a very very tiny van and toured a lot, opening for Jesse McCartney and Kelly Clarkson and the Backstreet Boys.
Around this time period, Nick was diagnosed with diabetes. What actually happened was that Joe kept noticing (for, apparently, months) that something was wrong with Nick, and tried to get his parents to listen, but everybody brushed it off as Nick hitting puberty. Finally, Joe went swimming with Nick, saw how skinny he was (pieces of paper weigh more than he did), and got his parents to see and take him to the hospital. (Where Joe, reportedly, passed out multiple times because he was that worried about Nick.)
(Sidebar: And now for your hearbreaking moment of the day, upon waking up in the hospital: “The first thing Nick asked was, ‘Am I going to die?’")
And Nick decided that an autoimmune disease that nearly killed him was not enough to slow him down and pretty promptly dragged his family back on the road to tour more. (Fact: If you look up "workaholic" in the dictionary, it shows you a picture of Nick Jonas.)
They did a bunch of tours and their album was set to be released (which had a few singles, "I Am What I Am", "Mandy", and "Year 3000"). Details are fuzzy, but the story is that one of the people backing them, Sony, pulled out, which caused their album to be pushed back repeatedly, though it was finally released (and didn't do well). And then Columbia dropped them. They still drove around in a tiny van and played whatever venue they could manage, and pretty much just did what they could to make ends meet.
Including, hilariously, them doing the Baby Bottle Pop song. With commercials.
Then Hollywood Records picked them up and "Year 3000", "Hold On", and "S.O.S." were burned into the public consciousness for all eternity.
Now for the fun part, where they apparently manage to run on five hours of sleep, soda, and sheer willpower. (No, I'm not kidding. Their wake-up calls were at 4:30, depending on their schedule, which was usually pretty busy, and they'd fall into bed pretty late. And Nick and Joe would stay up until, like, five AM talking to each other until they fell asleep. Again, I'm not kidding.)
They released three group albums under Hollywood Records (Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer, and Lines, Vines And Trying Times), and a number of singles. All of which are disgustingly catchy.
They guest-starred on Hannah Montana, and toured with Miley Cyrus. You can see their bits in the episode here and the best part of it is at roughly 1:05, where Nick goes "Dudes, it's Hannah Montana" and Joe becomes Spider-man in an attempt to beat Kevin to the door. And right after that. "We're such big fans!" "We love your music!" "You're pretty! ...Pretty good with the singing... and the dancing that you do. ...Wow, you're pretty. *gets smacked*" "Nice save."
And performed at the AMAs (where Joe tripped, landed on glass, and cut his knees and hands, but got right back up and did the song anyway). And filmed Camp Rock. The tour came after the filming, I think.
(Somewhere in all of that, Nick Jonas met Miley Cyrus, they fell in love, and pop-dom had its actual One True Pairing the likes of which have not been seen since. And then broke up the week after Christmas in 2007. Okay, that's a lie. It wasn't "somewhere in all of that", it was June 11, 2006, and they fell ass over tea kettle like the red string of fate yanked as hard as it could.)
They did Dick Clark's New Year's Eve thing, one of the songs being with Miley, for, uh, uber fun. Following that, they had their own short solo tour, called the Look Me In The Eyes tour. There was a reality series called Living The Dream that filmed them behind the scenes on that tour, which was supposed to show what they were like behind the scenes, but ended up being 75% staged stuff and 25% NickandJoe. The various footage that was taken from this tour was used in the video for "When You Look Me In The Eyes".
After that, Camp Rock premiered. I love that movie. It's so unashamedly ridiculous. It has a predictable plot and all, but it's so fun. Plus, apparently, Joe Jonas can summon invisible back-up singers and band members when he's playing his guitar and singing to Demi Lovato.
Following Camp Rock's premiere, they got their butts back on tour to promote their album that was coming out, A Little Bit Longer. (Fact: A Little Bit Longer was mostly recorded on the Look Me In The Eyes tour, on a specially outfitted bus that followed them around, so they didn't have to stop to record and could churn out another album instead of waiting for downtime. I don't think Nick Jonas believes in downtime.) The tour was called the Burnin' Up tour, and most of the shows (the big arena shows, no less) sold out in minutes. (Yes, I am proud of them, ignore me.) Several of the shows were filmed and edited together for the 3D concert movie, because everybody needs to see Nick and Joe be overly affectionate with each other in 3D.
Then there were the VMAs and PurityGate, where host Russell Brand picked on the fact that they had purity rings. (If I had a dollar for every time someone picked on that, I'd be as rich as the JoBros.) Jordin Sparks said something equally bad in an attempt to defend them and it was just... not good. Which is a shame, because it overshadowed the truly epic performance of "Lovebug" that the boys did.
(Sidebar (again): Sometime around this, Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift dated. And Joe, eventually, broke up with her, because he supposedly had trouble with long distance. He has only ever outright said anything about it once, and that was a blog post on their myspace that was since deleted. Basically, Joe thought it wasn't working out, called Taylor, and tried to talk to her. Taylor hung up on him and there was a big thing with her about the fact that Joe broke up with her.)
Anyway, at the AMAs, Taylor sang "White Horse" and supposedly pointed at Joe. While crying. The boys retaliated with the most fantastically pissy performance of "Tonight" ever. I think Nick was about to take someone's head off with his guitar, because he's glaring and swinging his guitar around in ways that make me glad I was at home. Also, the boys won an AMA for Breakthrough Artist.
They released a book, called Burnin' Up: On Tour With The Jonas Brothers. I'll fess up, I want a copy. They also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and Nick Jonas smiled so wide that I could count his teeth.
They also played Rockefeller Center's Christmas Tree lighting and New Year's Eve in Times Square again. They played at the Kids Inaugural event, because Sasha and Malia were (at least then) big Jonas Brothers fans. (You have excellent taste, girls.) They also apparently were snuck into Sasha and Malia's sleepover the following night to be a surprise for the girls.
They performed at the Grammys, WITH STEVIE WONDER. Which was a dream come true for all three of them. They lost the Best New Artist Grammy to Adele, but they gave no fucks, because they performed with Stevie Wonder. Who apparently had the Jonas Brothers song "Burnin' Up" on his iPod. At which point, all three of them died happy fanboys. They did "Burnin' Up" and "Superstition", and it was glorious.
Following the Grammys, they were on Saturday Night Live for an episode, which can be torrented here. I'm downloading it now, but from what I understand, calling it hilarious is an understatement. They also performed two of their songs. "Tonight", and the amazingly nasty "Video Girl". (I would take issue with how mean it is but, honestly, they are rarely nasty in any way. The only other song they've written that was in any way mean was "Move On", which was never officially recorded or put on an album anywhere, which sucks, because I like it.)
Their 3D concert movie premiered, was considered a flop because it didn't match the Hannah Montana movie in terms of ticket sales, had Joe and Kevin without their shirts, and the boys singing. A lot. And Nick Jonas doing backflips. And Joe and Nick being their usual borderline-inappropriate affectionate selves. (Apparently, Joe felt it necessary to tell Nick he loved him before they went on stage, doing their forehead thing, and completely ignoring Kevin's existence. Fandom was not the first person to ignore Kevin. No, that title goes to Nick and Joe. Sorry, Kevin. At least your wife loves you.)
Now here's where things get a bit fuzzy, so bear with me.
Kevin got married in 2009, had a wonderful wedding, reception, and honeymoon. Nick, as Nick does, wrote them a song for the reception. And they filmed and premiered their show JONAS, which is about three, er, "fictional" brothers named Nick Lucas, Joe Lucas, and Kevin Lucas, who are all in a band named JONAS. With their real life brother Frankie playing... Frankie Lucas. The first season pretty much consists of no fourth wall. Ever. At all. The second season, in 2010, got a re-tool, changed to JONAS L.A., gained a fourth wall, but with lots of jokes that reference the brothers. It got both better and worse, depending on who you ask.
They also, in here, filmed Camp Rock 2, and did their world tour. Oh, and wrote and released Lines, Vines And Trying Times, did most of the music videos for it, and Nick started a side solo-ish project called Nick Jonas And The Administration when the band went on hiatus.
NJ&TA released their debut solo album in early 2010, and Nick went on tour for a bit. Then he stopped, and did Les Miserables for the 25th Anniversary Concert, made me sob like a baby, and then continued on doing his thing. (Oh, and he wrote the incredibly heart-wrenching song "Stay", which goes like this: "Don't let the world cave in, just tell me that you'll stay. Now that the pain is done, there's no need to be afraid. We don't have time to waste, just tell me that you'll stay.")
Nick also did Hairspray and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying as Link Larkin and J. Pierrepont Finch respectively, soundly kicked ass at both, and left elitist Broadway fans in the dust. He did guest spots on multiple TV shows: Smash, Mr. Sunshine, and Last Man Standing. (The first of which is a dude who got his start on Broadway, the second one is a bitchy nightmare popstar who is what Nick Jonas could have turned out to be had he not been too busy being a workaholic, and the last redefines playing against type, with him playing a guy who got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, ditched town, is an asshole who charms everyone, and his idea of a steady job is a knight at Renn Faire.)
Kevin was busy being married, and signing with E and doing... Whatever it is he did during the Jonas Brothers' hiatus.
Joe released a solo album called Fastlife that earned a Parental Advisory sticker for explicit language. (Lil Wayne raps on a song and uses "fuck" and "bitch". Sadly, Joe does not swear.)
Nick and Joe moved in together, or maybe just never moved out, and spent months hanging around New York and going out to lunch and shit. And eventually, they decided to get the band back together and started working on new songs for an album. They did a reunion concert at Radio City, made fangirls everywhere cry, and did a brief tour of Asia, where they took the time to sightsee, since apparently, despite multiple world tours, they apparently never got to really see any of the cities they visited.
And that brings us to now, where they've finished the first of three shows at the Pantages theater in LA, and are playing Jingle Ball on Saturday, with still no news about what their next single or album's going to be or when. But it's on the horizon, so who knows?
And, at some point, I will make a part 2 of this post, which will get into Joe and Nick and them being JoeandNick.
And now for the part you were all hoping to avoid, the music section. I will keep this brief and just list personal favorites:
Turn Right (live), from the Walmart Soundcheck
Just In Love, from Joe's solo album
Conspiracy Theory, from Nick's solo album
Poor Unfortunate Souls, which is still amazing.
Lovebug, which should be watched solely for the aesthetics porn.
And finally, A Little Bit Longer, which Nick wrote about his diabetes. (Understandably, both Joe and Nick have cried on stage while this was performed.) This is live, but the album version doesn't convey the emotion as well.
And that's it. Bug me for more information if you want. Or, y'know, if I've sucked you into the fandom.
Have some gifs, y'all:
(from Nick's bit on Smash.)
(You guys should probably know that Joe really loves pulling Nick into hugs, whether he wants them or not. Nick gives up fighting after a few seconds, inevitably.)
Aaaaand now I'm done.
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