Jack's Mannequin

Andrew McMahon previously served as lead vocalist for Something Corporate, the West Coast punk-pop quintet that built a modest audience in the early 2000s, while simultaneously writing songs and playing piano as the creative force of Jack’s Mannequin. After Something Corporate went on hiatus in 2004, he assembled numerous friends and collaborators—including Mötley Crüe percussionist Tommy Lee—to begin recording the project’s first album. The resulting Everything in Transit, a sunny pop/rock concept album exploring his alienating return to the hometown he left to pursue his music, appeared on Maverick Records in August 2005 and earned favorable reviews. Listeners embraced the new direction as well, sending the record to number 37 on the Billboard album charts. A planned summer tour was nevertheless scrapped when McMahon received a diagnosis of Acute Lymphatic Leukemia that same summer. He recovered after a successful bone marrow transplant donated by his sister—for whom Something Corporate briefly reunited to cut the song “Katie”—and began the extended process of regaining his health.

During his recuperation, the video for the album’s lead single “The Mixed Tape” gained traction on VH1 and MTV. Jack’s Mannequin performed only occasional concerts in 2006, headlining a short summer tour before joining O.A.R. as support on a series of nationwide dates. A repackaged edition of Transit, bundled with a bonus DVD, surfaced that autumn, and the band reentered the studio in mid-2007 to start work on its second album. McMahon appeared on the cover of Alternative Press in January 2008, while an accompanying feature highlighted the forthcoming Jack’s Mannequin record as one of the year’s most anticipated releases. Although a summer street date had originally been planned, The Glass Passenger reached stores that September. People and Things, the group’s third studio album, arrived on October 4, 2011; its first single, “My Racing Thoughts,” had surfaced earlier in the year.