This was an article I found in the July issue of Guitar World... I am
hoping that this won't begin a whole debate on emo, but there is some
stuff about Sunny Day and I found this article really interesting...
Feelings
Call it emo, call it post hardcore. Call it punk with a heart of gold.
Rising from the underground is a sensitive new sound that just might come
to your meotional rescue.
Once again there's a hard rocking sound galvanaizing the underground.
Call it post hardcore, call it post-punk; you can take a step back and
just call it indie rock. Any name you choose is bound to trigger an
argument with somebody, so you might as well bite the bullet and call it
the name that nobody likes: emo.
Emo is short for "emotional" music. One of the few things that
fans accept is that its root stretch all the way back to the Reagan ero,
specifally the first self-titled album by Rites of Spring on Washington,
D.C.'s Dischord label. After that, everything else is open to debate,
including whether many of today's best known bands(the Promise Ring,
Braid, Jimmy Eat World, the Get Up Kids, Mineral, Karate) even qualify.
From the start, emo seemed like a goofy name for a genre. The
story is that Washington, D.C. punk icon Ian MacKaye was onstage with
Embrace(a short-livedgroup that fell between his pioneering Minor Threat
and Fugazi) when someone shouted from the audience, "You guys are
emo-core!" MacKaye supposedly responded, "You mean Emo Phillips?"
The fans aren't much clearer on what emo is today. Take, for
example, this recent exchange on the www.punk.com emo message board. One
David Turner asked (quite reasonably, I'd say),"What the fuck is emo?"
The query solicited a wide array oif responses.
Frank:"Emo is Elmo minus the L"
"Stevie Wonder":"I must say, my friend, you are truly fucked up!
Stop censoring yourself! Emo's emotional music."
Lauren: "Emo is high-pitched and whiny music usually played by
tortured souls; very good sounding! Try Piebald or the Get Up Kids for
beginners. Warning: This music is very emotional."
None of this is ver illuminating, so I'll add my own general
observations before we get much further. Emo is often defined sonically
by dramatic use of loud/soft dynamics, complicated(for punk rock)
arrangements and an intense, breathy singing style. At their bets, the
lyrics tend toward extremely personal poetry; at their worst, they're like
the scribblings from a sophmore journal. The bands and their audiences
are resolutely unfashionable, except in a sort of anti-fashion Revenge of
the Nerds sense. As everyone knows, most nerds are boys, and some view
emo as the sensitive young boys' answer to riot grrrrl.
According to a knowledgable acquaintance of mine, "Emo is all
about odd time signatures and white-boy pain," but that's slightly unkind.
I prefer to think of it as punk rock that's more melodic and
introspective/depressing than hardcore but still taps into that primal
energy and anger.
"Something all these bands have in common is a desire to
communicate with people," says J.Robbins, formerly of the band Jawbox and
now frontinga new group called Burning Airlines. Robbins is higly
regarded by emo cognescenti because of Jawbox's influence and because he
produced recent efforts by Braid and the Promise Ring, among others.
"It was weird when people started using the term emo because it
was like, 'What, up until now, noboy ever thought music was supposed to be
emotional?'" says Robbins. "I'm a few years older than all of the guys in
bands like Braid and the Promise Ring, but I know that something we have
in common is that our first exposure to hardcore punk really shook us all
and made us want to go out and do something. I feel like it's more of a
sense of purpose and being inspired by the Eighties post-hardcore scene.
All of the bands that I know that we're calling emo take that as a
jumping-off point. Philosophically, there share a work ethic and a sense
of the band and music as this engine that proppeled them to experience."
Robbins, who hates to generalize about music, doesn't much care
for "emo" or any simplistice label, and that's understandable. Musicians
are always opposed to being handily categorized because it makes them that
much easier to write off. Meanwhile, fans of punk rock/underground music
have seen their community co-opted, corporatized, and ripped-off countless
times between the Clash and Green Day as poseurs and suits swoop in
looking to turn rebellion into money. One sure sign of trouble: There's
actually an emo compilation album being prepared by the supremeo hack
re-packagers K-Tel International ("as seen on TV!").
"Emo has been giving a lot of bands a real knee-jerk reaction,
partly because there are a lot of terrible bands being lumped into this
genre," says one veteran observer of the scene who preferred to remain
anonymous. "These are really mediocre bands full of young boys who play
kind of mid-tempo music that's really heartfelt, but their lyrics are kind
of boring. In that sense I think that the more challenging bands that are
being lumped under this emo umbrella are like ,'We're not emo! We're not
like X, Y, and Z!'"
"Don't get me wrong, I actually like few of the big emo bands
today," says Dan Sinker, editor of the fanzine Punk Planet. "I don't have
anything against movements or genres at all, just that bansd in them
should always be pushing the boundaries. But when ska bands drop the
horms and make the transition to emo bands-which is happening by the dozen
right now-it's time to call in the preist and administer the last rites."
Record companies tend to feel differently. After Wilmington,
Delaware's Jade Tree label, New Yrok City's Deep Elm is one of the biggest
purveyors of emo today, and the source of three well-respected emo
compliations.
"When we sell records, we have to deal with people who are like older
sales reps, so we'll use the term emo because it's become a term they
know," says label owner John Szuch. "All music is emotional, but when I
listen to a band like Planes Mistaken for Stars os some early Sunny Day
Real Estate material, this well of emotion starts building inside of me,
and it's like I totally want to rage. When you're singing a fun pop song
about lost love or what you did last summer, it's a lot different than
when somone from Rites of Spring or Planes Mistaken for Stars is up there
exposing his entire soul and offering up everything he's got and he's
pretty much maked in front of all these kids. You see these kids in the
back with their mouths open, crying, because they're so moved by the music
that it takes them somewhere. That is a kind of power that I think is
really amazing."
Emo-core as introduced by the pioneering Rites of Spring in the
mid Eighties seemd revolutionary in the face of prevailing hardcore punk
sounds. Here was a band that expressed its intimate sentiments in a style
that was never sapp, thanks to music that was both pulverizing and
delicate. Rites of Spring broke up and vocalist Guy Piciotto went on to
form Fugazi with Ian MacKaye in 1987. To some extent fugazi moved the
legacy of Rites of Spring and Embrace forward, though its music was never
quite as emotionally exposed. It would fall on the bands that followed to
fashion emo into the style that it is today.
One school of emo was based in the Midwest, around the Chicago
area and the Detroit suburb, with a sound that was largely based on the
music of Rites of Spring. Leading this camp was Cap 'N' Jazz, which, like
many emo bands, was extremely short-lied and has beomce influential
primarily after that fact.
"Cap 'N' Jazz was sp much bigger after they broke up," says Jason
Gnewikow, who formed the Promise Ring with his old friend, Cap 'N' Jazz
singer Daven von Bohlen. "I think the fact that people name them shows
two things: One, kids have a really short attention span, and two, it
shows the age of who is involved in the scene right now. If somebody asks
me what emo is, it's Embrace and Rites of Spring, not Cap 'N' Jazz, which
arrived later."
Actually, the influence of all three bands can be heard in one
branch of emo. Sometimes called screamo, it includes "purist" bands like
Current, I hate Myself, and Boy Sets Fire.
The other, more-heralded branch is often traced back to Sunny Day
Real Estate, a punk-pop quarted from Washington state that released two
acclaimed albums on Sub Pop in the mid-Nineties-before breaking up when
singer Jeremy Enigk became a born-gain Christian. (Enigk went on to make
a lushly orchestrated solo album for Sub Pop while the Sunny Day Real
Estate rhythm section joined Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters. However,
Sunny Day recently reunited for a tour and a new album called How it Feels
to Be Something On.)
"In a sense, I think emo is kind of where indie rock and punk rock
meet," says Jason Piovesan, the guitarist in an aspiring emo band and the
music director and host of an emo show at Michigan's WHFR-FM, the radio
station of Henry Ford University. "I think emo is a bad term anyway; I
prefer post-hardcore because to me the roots of it are in hardcore. A lot
of what's being called emo today is just indie rock, because a lot of it
is coming from Sunny Day Real Estate's point of view. There were sort of
on the edge; they took the emo thing but added something totally different
to it-a pop thing. When most people today think of emo they think of the
Get Up Kids, Mineral and other bands that come from Sunny Day Real
Estate."
True, in part. But the strongest emo bands meld pop and indie
rock infulences with the "old school" emo sounds-even if they're reluctant
to embrace the name. "It's all in the definition," says Gnewikow, the
guitarist with Milwaukee-based Promise Ring. "I could validate the point
that we are an emo band, and I could also go on the other side and
invalidate it. It all comes down to whomever's asking and their
perception of what it is. Emo is the most ridiculous thing to say. What
band isn't emotional? Whether it's Nashville Pussy or Fugazi, they're all
up there and they're all doing it and it's emotional. If it wasn't they
wouldn't be doing it, because this is not an easy thing to do. That's
what people forget."
Gnewikow should know: At the ripe old age of 24, he's a veteran
of countless tours and more nights spent sleeping in a cold van or on a
hard floor than he cares top remember. "I like touring, and it becomes
like this addiction," he says. "I can't imagine not doing it, but the
conditions I like to do it in now are a lot different. I like to do three
week stints max, where before I was like, 'Let's go for three months!'"
"People ask, 'what's the secret to your bands success?'" Gnewikow
continues, "and I just say it's just that we haven't broken up. One
really big issue when we started the Promise Ring was just to stay
together. After Cap 'N' Jazz broke up they were like 'We spent the last
four years doing this band and nothing really happened. Now it's broken
up and what do we have to show for it?' It was a bummer. We just wanted
to play and be in a solid group, and I don't think we really had any
expectations in the beginning. Or the expectations we did have were
really small. The first record we did, we just recorded it, and I
remember somebody mentioning Jade Tree. I thought "That would be amazing,
but it's was out of our reach!'"
Now the Promise Ring has released two singles and three albums on
Jade Tree, with a fourth due in September. Having developed a steller
national reputation, the band could have signed with a major label for the
new disc. But in the end it opted to stay with Jade Tree.
"I'm not 16 years old and still living at home, and I'm not in
college and having my parents pay the rent," says Gnewikow. "We had been
looking at major labels and stuff because, even if you're a successful
indie band, it takes so long for money to regenerate before you actually
see any of it. We sold lots of copies of our last record, and we're just
now starting to see the money from it. We considered signing to a major
labe, but things didn't start happening until the end of 1998, and by then
the whole major-label merger thing happened. For one reason or another we
didn't sign, and then we started to see royalties[from our indie records],
and we all stepped back and thought about it and said, 'You know, maybe a
major's not the best idea.'"
Not that Gnewikow looks donw on bands who do sign to a major.
"Majors definitely have their issues," he says. "But I think it's more
about what the band wants of what the band is about. Kids say, 'You lose
all of your creative control.' But we're not Motley Crue. We're not
going to put naked women on our cover."
Indeed, the Mesa, Arizona, quartet Jimmy Eat World is generally
perceived as having maintained its integrity despite the fact that it
released its second album, Static Prevails, and its latest effort,
Clarity, on Capitol Records.
"I'm watchin MTV right now, and it seems to me that the bands that
are getting successful nowadays are getting successful because they're
good but because they're clever," says guitarist/vocalist Jim Adkins. "I'm
sure Capitol would love it if we came out and called ourselves an emo
band, and then they could totally trumpet that. But I'd like to be a
career musician, so I don't want to do that."
Adkins pauses for a moment to reconsider the word career.
"Maybe I shouldn't say that," he says. "What I mean is that I have
no doubt that I'll always be making music or be involved in music in some
capacity. But being on a major label and all the crap that comes with it,
it's like not th emost important thing in the world to me. I really don't
care. I like it in the sense that we get to record the way we want to and
don't have to worry about time restraints. We took 10 days to mix this
album, and a lot of our peers will say 'We did our whole record in that
time!' I really wish that more bands would get the opportunity to record
for as long as they want. For most of them it's pay the rent or record,
unfortunately, and we'er lucky not to have that."
But in most other regard Jimmy Eat World operates exactly like its
peers the Promise Ring or Braid. "I like all of those bands; we tour with
them, play shows with them and hang out with them," says Adkins, 23.
"They're our peer group, I guess. I guess I feel like there is definitely
some sort of scene out there that I feel a part of, but I wouldn't use any
one word to describe it. When we first started playing out, emo was a
term synonymous or interchangeable with hardcore, like really creamy
vocals and really abrasive music and over-the-top dynamics with the singer
rolling around the ground writhing and screaming. Now it's as ridiculous
as calling something alternative. You don't see very many people running
around calling themselves grunge bands anymore, and I predict emo will go
that way soon."
Emo is clearly the genre that dare not speak its name, but let's
consider for a moment that labeling music isn't always a bad thing.
Somewhere in Montana or Kansas or West Virginia sits a kid whose listening
is limited to classic rock or country radio and the souless crap peddled
by MTV. He logs onto the net and discovers a world of web pages liked
together by something called the Emo/Post-Punk
Ring(emo.newdream.net/emoring.html), and suddenyl he discovers a world of
inspiring bands that he never knew existed, talking about concerns that
are a hell of a lot more real, more poignant, and yes, more emotional to
him than the nonsense spouted by Master P, Celine Dion, or Matchbox 20.
"There reall is a lot of stuff happening on the underground level
right now," says Bob Nanna, a guitarist/vocalist with Champaign-Urbana's
Braid. "We see a lot of brand-new bands out touring that shouldn't be
touring. We see younger kids who didn't understand how alternative
decimated the punk scene, and older kids who might have turned it up a
notch because of the whole backlash from the alternative thing, and it's
inspiring."
Braid came together in 1993 whn Nanna stepped out from behind the
drumset he manned for a band called Friction. It survived numerous
personnel changes and earned a reputation as a hard-working touring unit,
pausing only long enough to record a handful of EPs, split EPs and three
albums (Frame & Canvas, The Age of Octeen, and Frankie Welfare Boy Age 5).
In addition to their driving, challenging music, all of these discs are
marked by an extremely poetic and sophisticated approach to lyric written
more or less as "mini-screenplays" for movies of the mind.
"Chris [Broach] and I write all the lyrics," says Nanna. "When we
feel inspired we'll just start writing stuff down, whatever comes to our
heads, and when it comes time to write songs we'll just pick whatever
seems to make sense with the feeling of the music. It just kind of
naturally happens. There's definitely a climax to all of our songs, and I
really enjoy a lot of the cinematic qualities that occur in
Jawbreaker-type songs and Jets to Brazil-type songs. Lyrically, I really
admire the story-telling quality."
It's a literary approach that's also common to the Promise Ring.
"It's the most cliched and embarrasing thing to say, but Davey [von
Bohlen] was an English major in college before he quit, and poetry is what
he was really interested in. He has his book with him all the time and
he's always writing. If he wasn't in a band and he wasn't using them for
lyrics, I think he would definitely be using them as poems."
Finally, that may be the most unifying aspect of all the bands who
may or may not be emo: After years of post modern irony and camp, these
groups are not only daring to share what they feel are truths, they're
striving to share with them poetic flare. The best of them do it with
style, originality and more than enough energy to rock your sorry ass.
Plenty of other suck. But at least you've gotta give them all credit for
trying.
Make it an "E" for effort. And be sure to tell Elmo and
Mr.Phillips the news.
For The Record
Guitar World's favorite emo discs, new and old.
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring
(Dischord, 1985)
The one that started it all. Extremely moving and simply relentless.
Jawbox, Grippe
(Dischord, 1991)
Jawbreaker, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy
(Tupelo/Communion, 1994)
Where you consider them post-punk or proto-emo, both of these are superior
high-energy punk albums with smart, literate lyrics, unrelenting energy,
and strong, well-written melodies that keep you coming back again and
again.
Fugazi, Repeater
(Dischord, 1990)
Perhaps the single-most influential post-hardcore album, and a harsh
indictmentof all those who would sit idly by on the sidelines as life
rushes forward.
Braid, Frame & Canvas
(Polyvinyl)
The group's third and latest full album is a sprawling, extremely musical,
but always motivating set full of cinematic vignettes such as "Milwaukee
Sky Rocket," "Urbana's Too Dark," and "Collect from Clark Kent". A new
album is expected by the end of the year.
Cap 'N' Jazz, Analphabetapolothology
(Jade Tree)
A posthumous two-disc set issued last year that is devoted to exploring
how this influential combo expanded the basic Rites of Spring sound with
more sophisticated arrangements and time signatures while maintaining a
similar hyper-emotional approach.
The Get Up Kids, Four Minute Mile
(Doghouse)
I dig this effort for music that's slightly more straightforward than that
of some of the band's peers, with lyrics that are every bit as heartfelt
and romantic. Witness "No Love" and "Michelle with One 'L'." These Kids
are derided in some quarters because they recently signed to MCA.
Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary
(Sub Pop, 1994)
At the risk of sounding like the folks quoted in this story, I for one
never considered this group emo. Others, however, did and the influence
is now ubiquitous, so take it for what you will. Not nearly as personal
as the title might suggest (this was before Jeremy Enigk's conversion),
the songs remind me of U2 playing hardcore.
The Promise Ring, Nothing Feels Good
(Jade Tree)
Some emo fans say the Promise Ring has been getting further and further
away from the "real" or "old school" emo of their 1996 debut, but to my
ears their last long-player (released late 1997) is plenty emotional and
motivating.
Planes Mistaken for Stars, Planes Mistaken for Stars
(Deep Elm)
Label owner John Szuch wasn't just waxing hyperbolic when he spoke of this
band's emotional power. There's a quality to the music that is inspiring
without being corny or pompous, marking these Peoria-to-Denver transplants
as a group to watch.
Jimmy Eat World, Clarity
(Capitol)
Fluid, poppy, minimalist, with a crisp, killer production by Mark Trombino
(Blink 182, Drive Like Jehu).
Burning Airlines, Mission: Control!
(deSoto)
If Jawbox was proto-emo then J.Robbins' new band is post-emo. Or porno.
Or primo. Or something. Whatever you want to call it, the ultra-tight,
ultra-cool spartan punk-pop sounds of this debut comprise one of the very
best albums on this list, period.
Jets to Brazil, Orange Rhyming Dictionary
(Jade Tree)
Jawbreaker vet Blake Shwarzenbach has surfaced with a new post-emo combo
that, like Burning Airlines, takes an aeronautical name and a similarly
stripped down approach to poppy punk rock. Also on board is the drummer
Chris Daly of the late, lamented Texas is the Reason, formerly New York
City's leading entry in the emo sweepstakes.
Jejune, This Afternoon Malady
(Big Wheel Recreation)
Emo in slow-mo, heavy on the jangle.
Joan of Arc, Live in Chicago 1999
(Jade Tree)
Emo goes techno(and hangs out with Tortoise). The third effort by the new
Chicago combo led by Tim Kinsella, formerly of Cap 'N' Jazz.
