Great Noisey article: Chris Carrabba reviews the emo revival

[casecandy]

I used to get made fun of a lot for being an Emo kid for being into Thursday. Are you all telling me they aren't even Emo? They have come up at all and I thought they were the absolute greatest thing ever from age 12-15. I was also super into Minus the Bear and Gatsbys American Dream. I can't listen the Gatsbys any more without being bothered, but old minus the bear and Thursday I still dig out from time to time.

Are you saying my preteen hardships weren't even valid because I didn't know what real Emo music was????

I love all these bands so much

The Gatsbys self-titled used to be a daily listen for me, circa 2008 or so

"I'm not mad... I'm just tired... and I hate this place... it doesn't feel that different at all..."

I can still visualize my apartment in Maine when I hear it, every detail... weird.

I liked Thursday a lot up until about 2007 or so, City By The Light Divided was the last record I bought and I checked out after War, but they were so fucking important to the 2000s emo scene in New Jersey. Without Geoff dare I say there wouldn't have been a scene, not like it's remembered today. He brought so many people together

Also Minus The Bear's Highly Refined Pirates is some of the most untouchable guitarplaying I've ever heard. If "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse" isn't your jam, you're dead to me LOL. And Planet of Ice, that was another living-in-Maine-circa-2008 record, I used to walk to school singing it at the top of my lungs. I'd go into, like, Big Cheese Pizza still screaming it LOL

SHE'S GONE/SHE'S GO-ONE/CROSS THE BORDER, MAN/AND YOU'RE NEVEEEER/GONNA SEE HEEEEEER/AGAIIIIN..."

Good times

Thursday is 100% real emo whether ILFers will acknowledge it or not

The other two are kinda/sorta emo by extension

FUN FACT: The drummer in Gatsbys is the brother of the drummer in The Blood Brothers... Gatsbys, Waxwing, Blood Brothers, all connected through the Gajadhar and Votolato families. Kinda like the Verellen family... man I wish I had a punk family LOL

[jrmy]

I can still visualize my apartment in Maine when I hear it, every detail... weird.

Not to hijack or nuthin' (oh, wait - I already did that), but where in Maine did you live? I lived Down East, as they say, for quite a while before college. Still go back occasionally to visit.

[casecandy]

I lived in Presque Isle and attended UMPI.

80% of the teacher certification students are Canadian! LOL

Loved it there, super chill potato town, lots of different cultures... German, French, Scandinavian, etc.

Booze is so cheap in the USA... I got so fucking fat before I graduated

Anyway but true story, I grew up on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick

New Brunswick and Maine are 90% the same place, I don't even know why they bother with a border

I have been in and out of Portland, Bangor, Calais, Eastport, etc., my whole life

Maine is the shit, #1 State in the USA ranked

[D.o.S.]

We now agree on two things. One of them is about Tortoise.

[casecandy]

We now agree on two things. One of them is about Tortoise.

WELL THANK FUCKING GOD FOR THAT

Who doesn't like Tortoise

[casecandy]

Wait, you like Sleep, yes?

[D.o.S.]

More than a little.

[casecandy]

Well there you go.

[jrmy]

Damn, you've been to Calais? Spitting distance of the stinky mill town I lived in... small world and whatnot.

[rustywire]

Big difference between a tribute band and a band of poseurs jockin the steez of another group.
Also working cover/wedding bands. Those are paying gigs, and may not be high art but IMO equally valid as a form of entertainment.
Studio bands, live house party/jam bands. What separates the wheat from the chaff is passion and sincerity...even soul. You can be super serious about being a ridiculous silly/novelty fun band like Gwar or Green Jello. Putting on a good live show and putting out a good record are all but mutually exclusive. It's tough enough to be good at one of them, so finding a band that does both well is rare as it gets. Add in adjectives like "fresh" and "original" and you've got a once in a generation type group.

When the music industry was riding high by the 90s, no sooner than a "new sound band" broke through with mass appeal, the *hip young* A&Rs were sent scrambling to sign carbon copy bandwagon riders in attempt to cash in on the image trend. This was a break from how A&Rs traditionally signed bands & invested in making them the next big thing in anticipation of trends. That new model means marketplace becomes saturated with whatever the (diluted) flavor du jour is and a period of homogenous mediocrity results, until the poseurs hop ship to the next trend, desperate to stay relevant and keep the mansion lights turned on.
This explains the hair metal era in general, but also how Nirvana begat Bush, Pearl Jam begat STP, and the horrific boy/girl pop+bling bling rap+mallcore guyliner emo of the early 00s and so on.

Templates are for poseurs.

[D.o.S.]

Back when A&R guys had company credit cards, as someone put it fairly recently (I don't remember who).

I agree with that post, mostly.

[casecandy]

Damn, you've been to Calais? Spitting distance of the stinky mill town I lived in... small world and whatnot.

"Been to" Calais? I guess.

Grew up in St. Andrews.

Never got gas or ate Chinese anywhere else

[jrmy]

Yay Google Maps!

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[daseb]

I should also point out that while the copying thing bums me out (hardcore is the absolute worst for this right now, so many people seem hell bent on ripping off only one particular band or sound and sticking to it), I also regularly get to see and play shows with q bunch of bands of younger people here who absolutely get it and take all these 90s punk/hardcore/screamo influences and do their own thing with it, and they all absolutely kill.

[casecandy]

I also regularly get to see and play shows with q bunch of bands of younger people here who absolutely get it and take all these 90s punk/hardcore/screamo influences and do their own thing with it, and they all absolutely kill.

Great example: Titus Andronicus are influenced by The Promise Ring. On "No Future Part 3" when Patrick sings "Nothing feels good," it's in direct homage to them.