Gym Class Heroes
By John Marks, Curator
Matt McGinley recently donated things from his time as drummer for the Geneva band Gym Class Heroes. In 1997 the group, originally four Geneva High School students, formed when Matt’s band was playing for a birthday party. Travis McCoy grabbed a microphone and began rapping, and the rest is history. The name came from a comment between Travis and Matt, standing in phys ed alphabetically by last name, that they were “gym class heroes.”
The donation was inspired by two of our formats. Matt said he’s followed our Instagram account, managed by Becky Chapin, for years and often shares posts with friends. While in town this summer, Matt stopped by the museum to see our exhibits. He was surprised to see the band’s picture in I’ve Been Everywhere: Traveling Genevans. He emailed me to ask if the museum would like to have his stuff from the band?
Gym Class Heroes (Matt McGinley is in the striped shirt)
Historic Geneva tells Geneva’s stories, and we don’t have an end date. New history is always being created. We want to add to existing stories, and local music is one of them. Twenty-first century hip-hop is part of the same timeline as Club 86, Scott LaFaro, Wilmer and the Dukes, and local bands from the 1970s through today.
Matt gave us an artifact and archive history of the group, with a 2001 self-produced CD and early stickers and T-shirt. A complete set of CDs included a Japanese version, illustrating the Heroes’ global appeal. There are backstage passes from different tours, more T-shirts, and 2008 national magazines. There are two platinum records for singles: “Cupid’s Chokehold” (one million digital downloads) and “Stereo Heart featuring Adam Levine” (five million downloads).
Responsible collecting means we ask ourselves, do we have room for a donation? We declined the 2007 Teen Choice Award surfboard for “Breakout Group.” It’s a short board but still takes up a lot of space. We encouraged Matt to keep items his children might want, as we can’t return museum donations. One of Matt’s daughters has the MTV “Moon Man” award for “Best New Artist” in her room, and it should stay there. If his kids tire of it in the future, Historic Geneva will be here to accept it.
In October we’ll display the full collection in our front hallway exhibit case. Come by to see it, and let us know if you have memories of the band.
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