Say Anything Bemis is the lead singer, guitarist and primary lyricist of
Say Anything as well as a founding member of the band. After the resignation of the original band members, he is the only original member remaining. In 2000, Say Anything released
Junior Varsity. The band released its debut full-length album,
Baseball, in 2001. Despite attending
Sarah Lawrence College for a short time, Bemis kept the band alive, performing much if not all of the music that went into
Menorah/Majora and the band's
dormroom demos. After the album's release, the band went through a rocky period lasting over a year due to Bemis's mental health. The band canceled at least two tours and lost several members. By 2007 however, after going through rehab, Say Anything and Bemis got back on track with co-headlining tours with Saves the Day and
Hellogoodbye. In 2007, the band released
In Defense of the Genre, on which Bemis sang lead vocals and played guitar and keyboard. Say Anything's
self-titled album was released November 3, 2009. On November 5, 2010, at The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, Bemis announced a forthcoming Say Anything album. The album, called
Anarchy, My Dear, was released March 13, 2012, which was followed up with their headlining spring tour. Their first single from that album is "
Burn a Miracle". They released a music video for this single. On January 22, 2013, Say Anything released a collection of older songs and b-sides called
All My Friends Are Enemies: Early Rarities consisting of all of the material recorded by Say Anything prior to the release of
...Is a Real Boy. The band did a summer tour to promote the album. On June 10, 2014, Say Anything released the album
Hebrews through Equal Vision Records. On February 5, 2016, Say Anything released their new album ''
I Don't Think It Is'' without any prior announcement besides several teaser posts the day before.
Two Tongues After recording
In Defense of the Genre, Say Anything band members Max Bemis and Coby Linder worked with
Saves the Day's
Chris Conley and David Soloway on a side project named
Two Tongues. The group consisted of Bemis and Conley sharing the lead vocals and guitar duties, Soloway on bass and Linder on drums. Thirteen songs were recorded in Electric Ladybug Studio, Conley's home studio in
Chico, California. Bemis, Conley, and Linder had previously collaborated on a cover song of
Bob Dylan's "
The Man In Me" for the compilation album
Paupers, Peasants, Princes & Kings: The Songs of Bob Dylan released by
Doghouse Records in 2006. On November 7, 2008, a release date of February 3, 2009, was announced for
the self-produced, self-titled, thirteen-track collaboration on
Vagrant Records. In fall of 2010,
Two Tongues made their first performances as a surprise in the middle of
Say Anything's set each night of the
Motion City Soundtrack, Say Anything, and
Saves the Day tour. They performed the song "Crawl". Arun Bali (current guitarist of
Saves the Day) played guitar,
Kenny Vasoli (of
The Starting Line, and
Person L) played bass, Jake Turner (of Say Anything) played guitar as well, Coby Linder played drums, while
Chris Conley, and Max Bemis sang. Two Tongues released their second LP, "2", in 2016.
Other work Bemis has made cameo appearances on several albums. One of his earliest cameo appearances was with friend Andy Jackson and
Hot Rod Circuit on "Inhabit," a song from the band's album ''Reality's Coming Through''. In 2005, Bemis was featured on "Ready" from
The Starting Line's
Based on a True Story. Bemis worked with
Armor for Sleep on a cover of "
Today" for a 2008
The Smashing Pumpkins tribute CD entitled
The Killer in You. In 2007, he performed in two songs, "Maxim and the Headphone Life" and "Regional Community Theater," on LadybiRdS' debut album,
Regional Community Theater. Bemis sang along with Shawn Harris (
The Matches) and
Rachel Minton (
Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer) on "Hello Helicopter" and "Point Of Extinction" of
Motion City Soundtrack's
Even if it Kills Me.
New Found Glory's
From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II and Down to Earth Approach's
Come Back to You also featured guest vocals by Bemis on the songs "Crazy for You" and "See You," respectively. In 2008, Bemis sang vocals on Nightbeast's
Inside Jokes for Outside Folks. Also,
Forgive Durden's second album ''
Razia's Shadow'' featured Bemis as Barayas the Spider in "The Spider and the Lamps." Bemis also appeared on the opening track of
You, Me, and Everyone We Know's 2008 sophomore EP
So Young, So Insane, entitled "I Can Get Back Up Now". In August 2008, Bemis announced that he would be recording unique songs for individual fans written on their requested topics as a part of a project he hoped would decrease the growing gap between artists and fans. Bemis announced in September 2009 that he and his wife,
Sherri DuPree of
Eisley, were working on a small project that "became something even cooler". They created a side project called Perma and on October29, 2013, released the album
Two of a Crime on
Equal Vision Records. Bemis and Say Anything were also featured on the
Punk Goes Crunk album with their cover of
Ol' Dirty Bastard's "
Got Your Money". Bemis announced in late September 2010 that he had written and recorded a 10-song album of acoustic songs that he called
Max Bemis and the Painful Splits. Bemis stressed that this release was not an official solo record, but a collection of songs he had written that he was proud of and wanted to share with Say Anything fans. The disc could only be found and purchased by going to one of the show dates of Say Anything's tour with Saves The Day and Motion City Soundtrack October through November 2010. On his Twitter in mid-November 2010, Bemis announced, "There WILL be a second
Max Bemis and the Painful Splits record sold next year at a very special SA event that I can't reveal yet", confirming that there will be a second Painful Splits record. It was later revealed that this event was to be a Max Bemis solo tour in February 2011 across ten different venues, beginning on the 11th and finishing on the 26th. Subsequently, Bemis released several records under the moniker, usually coinciding with a specific tour. Bemis created an imprint label named Rory Records in 2012. The releases of his label are distributed by
Equal Vision Records.
TALLHART was the first signed artist of the label. In May 2015, Bemis appeared as a guest vocalist on the track "Friends" for
I the Mighty's album
Connector. He has sung and played instruments on several albums released by his ex-wife's band
Eisley.
Writing Bemis has been writing comics since 2013, when he announced a four-part limited series,
Polarity, published by
Boom! Studios. The story follows a hero, Tim Woods, who has
bipolar disorder and the trade paperback featured an exclusive acoustic four song EP composed and recorded specifically as a companion to the graphic novel. Fox optioned the right to create this story into a TV series. In 2013,
Marvel Comics invited him as a guest writer on
A+X No. 14 to write a story about
Magneto and
Superior Spider-Man teaming up against
M.O.D.O.K. and
A.I.M. In 2015, Boom! Studios announced an ongoing comic series called,
Evil Empire, which is about a complicated relationship between a musician and aspiring politician. In 2015 he teamed up with Logan Faerber for his third comic series,
Oh, Killstrike. Also in 2015, he wrote a five-issue miniseries for Marvel Comics,
X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever, first published weekly in January and February 2016, later published into a
trade paperback. He also wrote two arcs of
Crossed: Badlands for
Avatar Press and an adaptation of
Atari's
Centipide for
Dynamite Entertainment. In July 2016,
Marvel Comics announced a new five-issue series starring
Foolkiller, written by Bemis and art by Dalibor Talajic & Jose F. Marzan Jr. Issue No. 1 was released in November 2016, continuing through the March release of issue No. 5. Bemis penned the
Marvel Legacy reboot of
Moon Knight in 2017, covering issues #188-200 with artists Jacen Burrows and Paul Davidson. ==Personal life==