Best Emo Records

Emocore

So this is my attempt to delineate the history of emo into a few discrete trends and geographical hubs. None of this will be all-inclusive, but should give you an basic idea of what happened when, where, and by whom. Under construction.

After Minor Threat broke up in late 1983, the vibrant DC hardcore-punk scene that exploded in 1981 seems to start to run out of steam and fresh ideas within the established DC hardcore sound. The wistful, posthumous Minor Threat 7" "Salad Days" comes out in 1984 and drives the final nail into the coffin of DC hardcore punk. Bands all over the country begin casting about for new things to do : DRI and Bad Brains start going cheeze-metal, New York bands start doing tough-guy mosh, 7Seconds goes jangly U2 alternative, etc. The prevailing change in D.C. is toward melodic rock with punk sensibilities.

1984 marks the release of Zen Arcade by Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü, documenting their new mature sound combining furious, intense vocal delivery and driving guitars with slowed-down rockish tempos and more-complex, melodic songwriting.

In spring 1984, a new band called Rites Of Spring forms from members of The Untouchables/Faith and Deadline. This band retains a punk speed and frenzy, but brings a totally new vocal approach to the mix. Singer Guy Picciotto keeps an out-of-breath punk style most of the time, at times delving into intensely personal lyrics dripping with emotion and sweat. His voice breaks down at climactic moments into a throaty, gravelly, passionate moan.

The summer of 1985 becomes known as "Revolution Summer" when a new wave of rock-tempo, melody based, sung-vocal bands forms out of the DC punk musician pool with diverse rock sounds - Three, Gray Matter, Soulside, Ignition, Marginal Man, Fire Party, Rain, Shudder to Think, etc. Few bands retain the fast hardcore punk-based sound with the new vocal approach, Dag Nasty being the notable exception.

Minor Threat's singer, Ian MacKaye's, sings for a band called Embrace (compare the band name to earlier DC bands Minor Threat, Void, and State Of Alert) whose lyrics are emotional and deeply self-questioning, but still clear and unambiguous. Musically, the group (formed mostly of ex-Faith members) writes midtempo, somewhat jangly music with a lot of pop guitar hooks. MacKaye's vocals retain his trademark bold enunciation, with only occasional sparks of emotive delivery.

These bands' sound eventually becomes known as the classic "D.C. sound." Some of it is derisively labeled "emo," as shorthand for "emotional." One account has this term first appearing in a Flipside interview with Ian MacKaye. Shortly thereafter DC bands aquire the tag "emo-core."

Slightly later (1986), some bands begin to focus on the "emo" element itself. The Hated in Annapolis (near D.C.) seem to be the first post-Rites of Spring to do this. Shortly thereafter, Moss Icon appears in in the same town. Moss Icon strips the "emo" element down to the core, and adds a great deal of intricate, arpeggiated guitar melody (by Tonie Joy, later of Born Against, Lava, Universal Order of Armageddon, etc.) with a strong focus on loud/soft dynamics. The vocals, too, break new ground by building up to actual top-of-the-lungs screaming at songs' climaxes.

Moss Icon, as a relatively well-known band that toured some, introduces the punk scene to music that has core emphasis on emotion instead of punk energy. As such, I consider them the starting point for the emo movement, not Rites of Spring as is more commonly asserted. Later emo bands draw heavily from the Moss Icon dynamics, guitar style, and vocal delivery.

Embrace self-titled LP/CD [Dischord Records #24, 1985]. This band just wasn't around long enough to polish all their songs. Some of the lyrics are kinda funny in their lack of subtlety, but some just cut right down to the core of the human condition.

Emo

Rites of Spring - "End on End" LP/CD [Dischord Records, 1985]. I don't even need to talk about this. This band wrote the book.

Dag Nasty - Can I Say LP/CD (CD includes later "Wig Out at Denko's) [Dischord Records, 1985]. Musically, this is fast melodic punk but the vocals are *so* heartfelt and emotive, and the lyrics *so* unrelentingly introspective and hopeful.

Fugazi - self-titled 12" EP, "Margin Walker" 12" EP / "13 Songs" CD [Dischord Records #?, ?]. They showed us that sometimes there's more depth and power in restraint and quietude than in full-power blasting punk. Sometimes you just need to all strum the same octave chord and shut up.

Fuel 7" and LP, or discography CD. If not for this band, I think the world would have been too afraid to infringe on the sound Fugazi had carved out. Fuel wasn't afraid to write great, powerful songs on the Fugazi foundation. (I gather there's a different band called Fuel on the radio these days, kinda techno?)

Jawbreaker - Unfun and Bivouac LP/CDs. Beautiful, angsty pop-punk with a huge minor-key edge, deep, incisive lyrics that cut right to your soul, and a keen sense of when to relax, when to build up, and when to just blast it out at full power and scream.

Samiam - untitled LP/CD [New Red Archives, 1990]. Aspired to the same thing as Jawbreaker, but somehow more sincere and honest.

Ignition CD discography [Dischord Records]. From 1984 to 1989 or so, this band covered a lot of ground under the DC guitar rock banner.

Hot Water Music - Finding the Rhythms CD (compilation of early EPs) and Fuel For The Hate Game. Takes the best of the Fuel/Fugazi twin vocal/twin guitar drive and adds a sweaty Avail pop-punk pulse, with scratchy, gruff singing that doesn't need to be beautiful to get the point across. This band positively embarrasses bands with only one singer.

1.6 Band - CD discography. Took the best of the Dag Nasty energy and catchy, corkscrewing riffs and added the best emo style 16-year-old vocals ever recorded.

Kerosene 454 - Situation At Hand [Art Monk Construction]. A temple to the DC octave-chord noisy over-distorted SG/Marshall guitar. This is the guitar sound bands dream about. These are all sweet pop songs made impossibly heavy by the crushing weight of the loudest guitars ever recorded.

Lifetime - 2nd 7" / "seveninches" CD on Glüe Records. Good God, talk about heartfelt singing, adreneline-charged bouncing energy and speed, and the sweetest melodies ever written. This band's mission was to reunite punk and hardcore and emo.

Falling Forward - Hand Me Down 12"/CD. Right in the middle of a bunch of styles - a bit of moshy east coast hardcore, a bit of emo yelling, a lot of Midwestern emocore melody. Introduced a lot of sxe kids to melodic, sensitive rock that was still powerful.

Split Lip/Chamberlain (same band) - Fate's Got a Driver. Perfectly crafted songs dripping with Midwestern melody and driving energy. Some people hear crooning bar rock, but the emo buildups and the way the singer's voice breaks in the loud parts prove otherwise.

Rites of Spring - "End on End" LP/CD [Dischord Records, 1985]. Essential for the sheer intensity and emotion of the vocals.

Moss Icon - "Lyburnum Wit's End Liberation Fly" LP/CD [Vermiform Records #15, 1988]. The beginning of the soft/loud emo crescendo, and advanced the emo vocals a long way. The CD has an almost-discography of stuff that's very hard to find now.

Native Nod - "Answers" 7" EP and "Bread" 7" / "Today, Puberty; Tomorrow, The World" discography CD [Gern Blandston Records]. The "Answers" record has some of the earliest full-on emo screaming. "Tangled" remains one of the very best emo songs ever. Excellent guitar stuff. "Bread" is a lot more developed, with some of the earliest emo-peggio (god, I hope that term doesn't catch on) twinkly guitar parts alternating with full-bore crashing distortion. The CD includes a later reunion recording (not as good).

Hoover - "Lurid Traversal of Rte. 7" [Dischord Records #89, 1993], and the later 12" EP/CD, which is a 1997 reunion recordings of songs that never got released before the band broke up. Wow. Some people say this sounds like Fugazi,and they miss the point. It sounds like classic DC twin-guitar midtempo style, as do Fugazi and a hundred other bands. The important part was the way the evil slithering basslines made it seem so dark and serious, and the way the singer worked up from whispering to a tortured animal howl at the end. "Cuts Like Drugs" has it all.

Hoover/Lincoln split 7" (Art Monk Construction #1). If you ever had to be stranded on a desert island with four emo records, this has to be one. Perfectly captures everything that was happening in emo in 1993. Gut-clenching pain and sublime beauty at the same time. Amazing.

Lincoln - both 7"s. The first, on Watermark in 1992, was fascinating because it was basically a heavy DC sxe record (Worlds Collide and such), with screaming emo vocals and slowdown emo parts in the middle. They were really the first to do that, and shortly thereafter most moshy sxe bands started doing the screaming thing. The second 7", Art Monk Construction #7, was full-on DC octave-chord painful-screaming emo recorded in 93 but not released until 1995. Both are amazing. The first is extremely rare, so snap it up if you see it.

Nation of Ulysses - "Plays Pretty For Baby" LP/CD [Dischord, 1992]. The first NOU record intruduced the world to the emo-as-über-stylish-mod-fashion-statement and band-as-mock-revolutionaries ideas, along with some of the best chaotic hardcore craziness. But it wasn't until this second LP that they really found their niche, with fantastic songs that just hang together perfectly, unexpected trumpet blasts and low-fi jazz interludes and all.

Still Life - "From Angry Heads With Skyward Eyes" 2xLP / CD (out soon?) [Ebullition Records], plus 8" and 7" EPs. Still Life were really the only emo band that stuck with the chunky palm-mute guitars. The vocals really took the gut-wrenching screaming to a whole new level. With two LPs worth of epic-length songs of unceasing intensity, this record really set a high mark. The earlier 7" was a bit moshier. The later stuff was less so, and more centered on darkly melodic basslines.

Navio Forge - "As We Quietly Burn a Hole Into..." 12" EP (no CD, may be out of print altogether) [Shadow Catcher Records #1, 1993]. Definitely the emo-est of all emo records. Powerfully churns through Fugazi-ish twin guitar attack and deeply sinister, turbulent emotion. Not the throat-shredding screaming, but rather slowly building sobbing and moaning breakdowns with heartfelt poetic lyrics.

all Indian Summer, especially their 7" and the Indian Summer/Embassy split 7". Indecipherable whispered words about milkweed and trees in between blasts of screaming and creamy, soaring, crushing octave chords, while low-fi Bessie Smith jazz records play softly in the background.

Current - "Coliseum" LP / discography CD (except for a few songs) [Council Records #2, 1993]. Just about as heartfelt as vocals can get, these guys had the quiet/loud poetic-lyrics catchy basslines emo down to a science.

Maximillian Colby / Shotmaker split 12" (Max Co songs available on a discography CD with other essential songs from their 7" and compilations) [nervous.wreck.kids, around 1995?]. Another perfect split record that captures everything about its time. MaxCo combined the DC beauty and fury with a Slinty sense of when to shut the hell up and listen to pins dropping. Shotmaker played rocked-out emo like they were pissed as hell and wanted desperately to play fast but somehow couldn't.

Policy of Three LP (Old Glory Records). DC style with a lot of Drive Like Jehu style mathematical tautness and complexity. They did the evil buildups bursting with tension like no one else could.

Floodgate LP and 2x7". Emotional punk with an insanely catchy songwriting talent stuck in its craw like a fishhook. Eventually the singer always goes crazy and screams like, "goddamnit get this thing out! Aiiiirrgh!"

Julia LP/CD (Bloodlink/Ebullition). Right at the tail of the emo boom, this record had a very tight, well practiced rocking DC groove with a wailing, just-barely-in-control singer always threatening to go completely nuts and topple the beautiful melodies the rest of the band was making. The best part is, strangely enough, an epic length song that slowly, purposefully builds up from nothing more than the sound of a ratchet driver drifting between speakers. There's also a Julia/Sunshine split 7" containing a live version of Julia's last song, and my god that song will break your heart. I saw three members of the band start crying and collapse at the end of that song once, and it broke mine.

Portraits of Past - LP (Ebullition). I personally know this band hated being called emo, but I don't care. This is emo of the highest caliber, with a crashing, shimmering beauty that was quite different from how they started out. Epic length songs build up to suprise stops, with long caressing indie rock guitar parts that break the melody down to its fundamental units, then slowly put everything back together again for a giant exploding finale.

"All the President's Men" compilation LP [Old Glory Records]. One of, in my opinion, very few cohesive and interesting emo compilations. At the time, this was essential for a demo version of Hoover's best, unreleased song "Breather Resist" (now on their reunion EP).

Hardcore Emo

This is the stuff that appeals to me personally most intensely.

Heroin - self-titled 12" EP / discography CD [Gravity Records, 1992?]. This record is the end-all, be-all of emo for me. A wall of furious, chaotic noise, vocal-cord-shredding screaming, lyrics of ultimate disillusionment and pain, just the right amount of melody to pull things together without interrupting the flow of angst. The 12" is a perfectly constructed 20-minute epic of emotional disaster. The 2nd 7" that preceded it is historic for its vocal brutality and unrelenting guitar attack.

Reach Out 7" and split 7" with Honeywell. Thick, heavy, chaotic hardcore with an anthematic, epic feel.

Swing Kids - discography CD or 7" [31G Records]. Hard to sum up in a few sentences. The first track on the 7" is still probably the best single example from this style, heavy and gut-wrenching yet brilliantly musical. In my opinion this was Justin Pearson (Struggle, Locust, etc) at his very finest.

Portraits of Past - split 7" with Bleed [Ebullition]. This was a shock when it came out. The vocals on these two songs stand today as some of the most extreme hair-raising screams ever put to tape. Musically, this and the Reach Out stuff define the Northern California hardcore sound.

all Mohinder (two 7"s and a split 7" with the Nitwits). A deeply melodic hardcore band with basslines that twisted all around your skull, these songs were gems boiled down to one or two minute epics.

Merel LP/CD discography [Gern Blandsten]. Crazy chaos held together by a swirl of oddball looping riffs.

Antioch Arrow - In Love With Jetts LP or CD discography [Gravity]. Chaotic hardcore at its extreme. Nonsensical music somehow rhythmless and tight at the same time. Widely dismissed as fluff at the time for the lack of content perhaps, but these records stand well on their own.

Angel Hair - 7", LP / discography CD [all Gravity Records]. More taut and composed, starting to branch out into more adventuresome music like a Bauhaus cover. Still chaotic and heavy.

Guyver-1 7" - a little later in the game, but fantastically good hardcore.

Post-Emo Indie Rock

Christie Front Drive - both LP/CDs [Caulfield Records] This is where the "midwest emo" thing started happening, before anyone knew that rockish, mellow, twinkly emo-influenced indie rock would take over everything. I remember a record review in the Ebullition zine calling Christie Front Drive music that hardcore kids would put on to make love. It was a nice change of pace for us. Nowadays, you have to search to know that there was ever anything else.

Boy's Life - Departures and Landfalls LP/CD [Crank! Records] This record really sums up the Midwest emo thing for me... mellow tunes drifting in and out, train whistles from miles away, lots of building up and easing back. Never harsh, but still with lots of intensity at the climax. God, I sound like a beer ad or something.

Boy's Life/Christie Front Drive split 10"/CD [Crank! Records]. Another one of those desert island records, captured both bands at their height with no filler. Thankfully re-released on CD after many years out of print.

The Promise Ring - 30 Degrees Everywhere LP/CD [Jade Tree Records]. Lo-fi and out of tune in the cutest devil-may-care way, full of warped pop anthems in the sweetest possible emo-influenced way. These guys all started out in hardcore bands I liked, and when this came out I thought this signified the end and ultimate selling-out of hardcore. Their later records were hi-fi and in tune, and that totally spoiled their uniqueness and made them a lame pop band. Get this and the "Horse Latitude" EP collection, avoid everything else.

Evergreen - 12" (the one from SoCal, not Louisville). Very rare. Churning, dynamic songs with the sweetest whispered vocals. Their 7"s are also worth tracking down.

Sunny Day Real Estate - "Diary" and the pink album LP/CDs [Sub-Pop]. Well, what to say? For a lot of people this is the end-all and be-all of emo. It sounded like Smashing Pumpkins alterna-rock to my hardcore purist ears when it came out, with its slick expensive production and mega-compressed sound. Now I hear it as a fascinating mix of post-hardcore guitars with emo-inflected vocals and superbly busy drumming, although Jeremy Enigk's lyrical conceit almost spoils the whole thing. Avoid the third and later records, as they slipped into complete alterna-rock. Still, "Diary" is a great record for rescuing people from commercial rock.

Elliott - U.S. Songs LP/CD [Revelation]. One of the better Sunny Day Real Estate clones (there are millions).

Mineral - "The Power of Failing" LP/CD [Crank!] Another SDRE clone, but one of the more energetic and captivating ones. The rough production on this record grinds on my ears a bit. The second record is very nice to listen to, but lost the energy that made them so cool.

"Don't Forget To Breathe" compilation LP/CD [Crank!] Great sampler of this style, not many duds unlike practically every other comp in history.

I suppose I should put in an honorable mention for the Get Up Kids. I never liked them, and thought they were completely unoriginal, but their stuff seems to have staying power and a popularity that perplexes me. Certainly they put on a great live show.