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The thought of "emo" not being followed with words like "sucks," "is lame" or "is for sissies who shop at Hot Topic and have
asymmetrical haircuts" is a thought that truly seems lost in the labrynth of
music history. For most folks today, those three letters simply refer to the leering
13-year-olds who hang out in the mall, paint their fingernails black and wear
tight-fitting, also-black t-shirts with neon lettering flaunting the name of their
new favorite band (which features, natch, a singer and a screamer). To top it all off, said band's name is usually something like Oh, My Love, The
Lord Has Left Us Alone In the Back of the Classroom, So Let’s Makeout or Walking Slowly Down a Darkened Hallway or something else brooding and lengthy.
The precise moment where emo jumped the shark is hard to pin down, but Hot Topic’s mid-2000’s takeover of suburban American would be a good start. It’s hard to keep a movement of deeply emotional punk rock earnest when it moves in next to Sears.
But emo wasn’t always such a vacuous pit of pre-teen
despair. Just in time to clear emo’s good name, both The Get Up Kids and Sunny
Day Real Estate are back on the road this fall to show the kids that music’s
about more than just haircuts. Indeed, the time is right to reminisce on the halcyon days of emo. And when you're finished with this list, you should head over to Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix blog on NPR's website for a personal recollection.
For now, though, sign out of your LiveJournal, toss aside your notebook of romantic/angsty poems and leave your girl-jeans at home. Here are 10 bands that prove emo wasn't always for the Hot Topic tween set:
1. The Promise Ring - Few albums sum up the mid-'90s emo
movement in sound or attitude quite like The Promise Ring’s Nothing Feels Good. (Incidentally, the album gets bonus points for spawning Andy Greenwald's must-read emo manifesto of same name.) Future Maritime
singer Davey VonBohlen’s voice quivers like a shy guy going stag to the prom
over the band’s scrappy guitar punk.
Most emo moment: When VonBohlen sings, “Nothing feels good
like you in your red and blue jeans and your white and night things,” during
“Red and Blue Jeans,” you can practically feel guys and gals snuggling up in
bed, whispering potential Dashboard Confessional lyrics to each other.
2. The Get Up Kids - There’s more fist-pumping to be done
during one listen to The Get Up Kids’ Something
To Write Home About than at a Judas Priest show, and it’s due to singer
Matt Pryor’s gravel-voiced laments about leaving home and breaking hearts.
Most emo moment: The waltzing piano ballad “I’ll Catch You”
could soundtrack the most romantic moment you’ve ever had. Then play “Out of
Reach” a few weeks later when she dumps you.
3. Weezer - Say what you will about anything Weezer’s put out
in the last decade or so (we certainly have), but Rivers Cuomo and Co.’s Pinkerton remains not only the band’s best, but possibly the best
emo album ever created. There’s more self-loathing, sexuality-confusing,
emotion-flairing angst on this record then in all the high-school locker rooms
across the country put together.
Most emo moment: On the pounding “Why Bother,” Cuomo broods,
“Why bother? It’s gonna hurt me. It’s gonna kill when you desert me.” Ouch. Then he sings, “Maybe we
could even get together. Maybe you could break my heart next summer.” Ouch with
attitude.
4. Texas is the Reason - Three years and one album is all it took this totally-not-from-Texas band to crack our top five. From 1994-97, Texas is the Reason were one of the top reasons to listen to emo. The nine songs of 1996's Do You Know Who You Are? are a gut-wrenching punch of jagged guitar anthems rife with paranoia and frustration.
Most emo moment: For the album's 10th anniversary, the band reunited for only two shows, leaving plenty of their fans shedding tears of longing.
5. Sunny Day Real Estate - Sunny Day's 1994 debut, Diary, is 52 minutes of singer Jeremy Enigk purging his soul, howling like a madman over swirling guitars in a sinister, dark corner. Spooky.
Most emo moment: On "Song About an Angel," Enigk sings as an angel to himself, "You're married to your pain." Sounds like it's time for an annulment!
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Couldn't agree with this list more if I was an agree-ing with lists machine.
totally forgot about Mock Orange - "The Record Play" holy jeebus
Love this list. I need to check out Braid though. For some reason I always just overlook them.
Totally think Moneen should be on this list too.
I think Braid's most emo moment is definitely in "Ariel" .. "I can't help it if my heart gets hard for you to hold".
Come on now...
And if Braid made more albums along the lines of Frame & Canvas they would most likely edge out The Get Up Kids in my book as 'favorite late 90s emo band'. But I have to give it to Matt Pryor and company because they have 4 minute mile AND something to write home about.
And don't forget about the original emo game!! Tim Kasher's apathy is the best part.
I would give a lot of things for Cursive to make music like this once again. You know, with how it's, like, good, whereas their new stuff kind of is not?
Great list, and while I applaud a lot of the bands, you guys have forgotten a few other great bands, who really made a difference as well.
1. Jawbreaker - Just listen to the song Chesterfield King and you'll understand. Without Jawbreaker, a lot of other bands wouldn't matter (ie- The Get Up Kids, Alkaline Trio).
2. Embrace - The other emocore band out of Washington, DC. Once Embrace and Rites of Spring both broke up, it led to Fugazi being found.
3. Husker Du - Yet another hard hitting band that was full of emotion. Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio cites Bob Mould as a hero.
4. Samiam - They were the ones to really bring in the melody.
Those were the big ones I felt you guys should've included. I never felt Cursive was emocore. I just thought they were indie rock.
Other great emocore bands that must be mentioned: Grey Matter, Cap'n Jazz, Saves the Day, Thursday, At the Drive In, Mineral, Lifetime, Glassjaw, and Brand New.
I was on the first page thinking, "Oh no, they're going to forget about Braid." Of course you guys wouldn't.
I was thinking Cap'n Jazz too. The Casket Lottery as well.
Where is Mineral?
Where is Christie Front Drive?
Where is boysetsfire?
Where is Embrace
My two cents on the list: Weezer is not emo. They didn't come from the scene and were on MTV before they were in a van.
Alkaline Trio? - Eye shadow shouldn't mean they get lumped in. Asian Man records had a punk band on their hands.
Christie Front Drive?
Mineral?
Penfold?
Indian Summer?
Knapsack?
Weezer and Alkaline Trio have great moments but don't belong on this list.
There is one thing here that may well be inaccurate (unless the author is well aware of this fact and simply didn't mention it):
He has mentioned lyrics from the Alkaline Trio song Clavicle. Although, yes, they are supposed to be partially romantic, the talk of kissing the curve of another's clavicle may well not be as romantic as it seems. The song is actually about cannibalism. To that end, I think kissing is used in a euphemistic sense. Of course, if you're truly into that sort of thing....
I do agree with other comments here - bands like Alkaline Trio shouldn't be put on this list. They are, in fact, my favourite band, but they aren't an important emo band. You could argue that their early stuff is of an emo style (although even that may not go down well with proper emo fans), but they are better classed as punk, or pop-punk. Plus, they probably appeared far too late (with their first album, Goddamnit, being released in 1998).
this is the worst written thing ever...the promise ring write-up alone makes me want to destroy that cd, especially for liking that particular song so much...*shakes fist*...and the fact that a band like Weezer is on this and not Mineral is retarded.
...also, Jeremy Enigk doesn't sing that line in that Sunny Day Real Estate song...Dan Hoerner does
...I am a loser
you guys are getting WAY too emo about this list...
"oh man this is not emo this is emo wait until i can get home and write about it on my livejournal and find a girl to talk about it with on makeoutclub."
seriously ...
Alkaline Trio is great...my favorite line from them (aside, of course, from "I watched flies fuck on Channel 11") is the last line of Blue in the Face - "So what do you say? Your coffin or mine?"
You gotta have Brand New on there. One of the best bands in general, "You Favorite Weapon" is one of the best albums of all time, Deja Entendu was amazing as well. And their 3rd one was incredible, very progressive sounding. Much better than A. Trio or Jimmy eat world
Weezer and Alkaline Trio were NEVER emo. They were main stream major label "wanna-be emo" and pop-punk respectively.
I can't believe this list is missing Embrace, Jawbreaker, Samiam and Piebald.
Honorable mentions go out to: Mock Orange, Park, Counterfit, Sensefield, Elliott, Mineral, Knapsack, Jawbox, Lifetime.
Absolutely brilliant. Couldn't agree more. I actually scrolled through to see if you added Jimmy Eat World before I read the whole thing just to see if you had some chops. :) Thanks for this comprehensive flashback.
seriously, everyone can argue over what is emo and what isn't emo until the cows come home, whatever the case may be it's a label, with no explicitly stated universally accepted requirements, as such people are going to disagree. And this is an opinion piece, so he's entitled to write anything he wants about what encompasses his perception of the term. Everybody who sits there and say "no, this is emo..." is wrong, because nothing IS emo, it just is in your opinion....
GREAT call on The Promise Ring for #1. So underrated.