Homesick (A Day To Remember Album) - Release

Release

In 2008, both Homesick and the re-release of the band's first album, as Old Record, were announced, with a further announcement claiming Homesick's release as February 17, 2009. After being moved up the schedule, the album's release date became February 3 for the U.S. In January 2009, the track list of the album was revealed, on the 6th; with pre-orders being taken the next day. On January 16, 2009 the song "Welcome to the Family" was put on the band's Myspace profile. On January 26, the song "The Downfall of Us All" was put on the band's Myspace profile. On January 27, the song "NJ Legion Iced Tea" was released as the first single. The second single was "The Downfall of Us All" and the music video was released on March 6. The track itself had been debuted on the band's Myspace profile on January 28. Homesick was released on February 2, in Europe, and a day later in the U.S. The cover art was meant to interpret different paths in a person's life, who one road can change your life. The album charted at number 21 on the Billboard 200, and at number 2 on Hard Rock Albums, number 1 on Top Independent Albums. It sold between 15,000 and 18,000 by February 4, and 22,000 copies within the first week. As of July 2010, the album has sold copies in excess of 200,000 sales. The album was charted at number 165 in the UK.

For the band's tours in promotion of Homesick, the band had a line-up change adding ­Kevin Skaff and dropping ­Tom Denney, the latter of which wanted to settle down, but was still working with the band behind the scenes. The band called "The Downfall of Us All" the "most fun", when asked what songs from Homesick like playing. A video of band performing "I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?" had been added on the band's MySpace profile, on October 16, 2009. A video of the band performing the song at Warped Tour had been included as a DVD trailer and people mistook this as the song's actual music video, as mentioned by guitarist Neil Westfall in an interview with Alter the Press!. In the same interview, Westfall said the band's following music video might be for "Have Faith in Me". "Have Faith in Me" was then anounnced to be a single on September 25, 2009. A re-issue of Homesick was announced on September 13, 2009, and released on October 27, with the original track listing intact, but adding acoustic versions of "Homesick" and "Another Song About the Weekend", and 9 live tracks from a performance in Switzerland. Westfall said the band wasn't going to re-issue the album "unless it's worth the fans' while." Around December, the band released a Christmas song, "Right Where You Want Me to Be", on their MySpace account. Homesick was voted by fans as number 1 of Kill Your Stereo's Album of the Year 2009.

In December, the music video for ""I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?"" was filmed, directed by Dan Dobi. On March 5, 2010 the band announced via their Twitter account that the video for "I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?", with a date of March 16. This was further confirmed on March 10, with some fans being able to have a view of the video before its release. A delay in releasing the video occurred because the band were trying to negotioate with MTV, as Westfall commented: "I think it's more important to have them on board, instead of just putting it on, like, YouTube." In a March 2010 interview with Alter the Press!, Skaff said the next video the band were working on was going to be for "Have Faith in Me", which Westfall said would be filmed on March 21. "I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?"'s music video had its TV premiere on MTV on March 16. The "I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?" music video came about based on an idea from a friend of the band, Kyle Crawford, as McKinnon said "he was like, "Hey, you should totally make a video where you guys are playing kickball and you play a bunch of kids and just kick the s*** out of them?" I was like, "That is a great idea. Let's look into it."" The idea for the video was later expanded thanks to a brainstorming session by Drew Russ. Asked why it was the band's next music video, Westfall said that because "it stands out compared to the other songs" as "it's a harder song."

The band had performed acoustic versions of both "Homesick" and "Have Faith in Me" before a gig show on April 9, for 98 Rock, and again, this time for KROQ a few months later. The band again played an acoustic version of "Have Faith in Me", but this time for MTV in April, which was posted on April 16. At the beginning of May 2010, the band said that were asking fans to name their next tour, which was shortly afterwards named as Toursick. The music video for "Have Faith in Me", directed by Mark Staubach, was released on July 14, receiving its world premiere on MTV. "Have Faith in Me" charted at number 40 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. The album, along with For Those Who Have Heart (2007) and Attack of the Killer B-Sides (2010), had a reissue on vinyl, in 2011. Two songs have featured on various artist compilations: the acoustic version of "Homesick" was released on the Victory Records Fall Sampler 2010, and "The Downfall of Us All" on Soundwave 2012. The song "NJ Legion Iced Tea" is available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour. The songs "The Downfall of Us All", "Have Faith in Me", "I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?" and "If It Means a Lot to You" are available as downloadable content for Rock Band. "I'm Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?" had been added at the request of the band's fans.