Bleachers also known as The Bleaches or Bleachers Band are an American indie pop act based in New York City. It is the official stage name of songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff, who is also part of the bands Steel Train, Fun, and Red Hearse. Bleachers' pop music is heavily influenced by the late '80s, early '90s and the high school-based films of John Hughes while still using modern production techniques. Their first single, "I Wanna Get Better", was released February 18, 2014.
In late 2019, Antonoff began recording the third Bleachers album. During this time the band embarked on a three-day "mini-tour" called the "I Love Making This Album but I'm Also Losing My Mind in Here & Need to Come Out and Play" Tour. On January 6, 2020, Antonoff announced on Twitter that a new Bleachers album would come within the year. In May, Bleachers was featured on Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Comeback" which was the first official release of the band in nearly two years. On the Bleachers Twitter account, a song called "Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night" has been teased for months, and starting on November 14, 2020, a phone tree was set up for fans to call to hear clips from the song.
On November 16, 2020, Bleachers released the first two singles from Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, "45" and "Chinatown", the latter featuring Bruce Springsteen. The same day it was announced that the album would be released in 2021. "Stop Making This Hurt", the third single, was released on May 18, 2021. Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night was released on July 30, 2021. Bleachers announced a North American tour for Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night in May, 2021. On October 28, 2021, Bleachers announced on Facebook that they will be performing two shows in March 2022 at Roadrunner, Boston dedicated to their first two albums: Strange Desire and Gone Now.
They made their musical guest debut, as well as Antonoff's 2nd musical guest appearance on Saturday Night Live on January 15, 2022, the tenth episode and the first show of New Year 2022 of Season 47, hosted by actress, dancer and singer Ariana DeBose, star of Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon! and the hit musical romantic film, West Side Story. They performed "How Dare You Want More" and "Chinatown".