This blog will occasionally deviate from its championing of the underground to slightly more familiar bands. This is one such post. The planets have aligned and saw fit to have two of the original bands from the U.S. old school, emo/punk/post-hardcore scene play Glasgow this Summer…within 7 days of each other. Incredible.
Hard as it might be to imagine but there was a time when ‘emo’ was not associated with MTV bands with designer haircuts, eyeliner and pop hooks that may as well have come from Avril Lavigne’s songwriting team.
I remember searching online around ’97/’98 while at University, hunting on the web for more information about ‘emo-punk’. No Facebook or Social Media sites back then unless you start talking about GeoCities and Yahoo Groups.
That was one of the great things about going away from home and making new friends – being able to hear other people’s records! To this day it’s still difficult to trust anyone who doesn’t like Pavement.
Of course by 2002/2003, Jimmy Eat World (still one of my favourite bands) was on the cover of the NME for its emo edition (jesus wept… haha! *ahem*) …anyway… as soon as I saw that cover I knew the game was up. This underground thing was going mainstream and would eventually be watered down by major labels so that it became devoid of any artist merit.
Around that time I read an interview in a print fanzine in Northern Ireland where members of Fugazi talked about how ridiculous it is anyway to label certain bands with that tag because as far as they were concerned, it was a meaningless thing. They said something to the effect of, “what the hell does post-hardcore even mean? That kind of label means nothing to us.”
For music critics it was easier to lump all bands together and say that everyone sounded like Braid. Which I always found funny because at the time I didn’t listen that much to them, preferring Sunny Day Real Estate.
When UK bands came along in that decade and cited all these U.S. bands as influences, many reviewers would simply say go listen to the primary source. And as my history teacher used to say, secondary sources are always less reliable.
But I don’t see the point is being all po-faced about it. There’s worse bands to emulate than Jawbox, Braid and Burning Airlines. And I love Jawbox. J Robbins’ latest project OFFICE OF FUTURE PLANS are excellent and well worth a listen. I would dearly love to see them play live.
Which brings me to the Summer of ’13.
I never thought I’d get to write the following so here goes…
FRIDAY 26TH JULY, BRAID AT STEREO, GLASGOW
FRIDAY 2ND AUGUST, TEXAS IS THE REASON AT CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW
This is part of the farewell tour for TEXAS IS THE REASON, and I have no idea whether BRAID will ever return.
Add to that likely tours in the Autumn by JIMMY EAT WORLD and JETPLANE LANDING and I’m mightily excited.
So let’s just forget any “emo” bands we ever saw on MTV with their designer haircuts and eyeliner, and let’s get down the front for this noisy rock music that doesn’t need stupid labels. Just realised I’ve written this much and not mentioned Drive Like Jehu, At The Drive In and a whole host of others.
That’ll be for another day then.
BUY TICKETS NOW FOR BRAID, AT STEREO, GLASGOW
BUY TICKETS NOW FOR TEXAS IS THE REASON, AT CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW
