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Imagine John Mayer if the first album he ever bought was Green Day’s Dookie. The mix of punk power with serious songwriterly introspection, delivered with a passion that makes Liza Minnelli look like a master of restraint, makes up emo. No emo band worth the name will ever admit to it, but the genre has been offered a Kleenex by the mainstream with the success of Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World. Want to know what it’s all about? Here’s our guide to 15 bands who’ll win your bleeding heart. |
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Click on artist name for bio, news, CDs, and more. |
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Cursive
By the time of 1998's The Storms of Early Summer: The Semantics of Song, this Omaha band were hitching their concerns to raging epic rock. But the weight was too much - they split, only to reform two years later. The bite of 2000's Domestica 's came from singer/guitarist Tim Kasher's failed marriage. After "Sink to the Beat" tore into their emo rep, Kasher went on to chart his sexual dissolution on 2003's The Ugly Organ . |
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Saves the Day
After ironing out their quirks over four albums, the Princeton quintet might just be the poppiest emo group since Jimmy Eat World. Their concerns remain the same: "I long not to be angry with the world and angry with myself," singer Chris Conley has told the press. And the passion never stops. Driven by Windex-clean pop (and even a hint of jazz) the new In Reverie finds them trying to withstand a steady stream of joy and tears. |
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Thursday
Tipped as the next emo band to dent the mainstream, the five friends who make up Thursday started out playing in the backyards of New Brunswick, N.J. Inspired by Charles Bukowski, they apply a deadly earnestness to matters of the heart. Amid the wailing, they reach the sad beauty of wilting love affairs. They could be trying too hard, actually. Making the new War all the Time was so arduous, singer Geoff Rickley nearly had a nervous breakdown. |
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The Used
Now here's a band with something to scream about. Lead singer Brett McCracken survived drug addiction. The band panhandled on the streets to eat. They come from the remote burg of Orem, Utah. Oh, and McCracken dated Kelly Osbourne. Suburban angst this ain't: the Used's self-titled debut rocks more than it whimpers, and McCracken has been known to put so much into his live performance that he wretches onstage. |
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Brand New
"Unlucky" might be Brand New's middle name. The Merrick, N.Y., band lost the hard drive with their punky first album on it, and their bassist had his car stolen while recording album two: Deja Entendu. The good news? They inspire devotion as fervent as that offered to Mr. Confessional, they've mastered loud/soft dynamics, and they sing lyrics like "I hope this song starts a craze, the kind of song that ignites the airwaves." |
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Dashboard Confessional
The handsome ex-music teacher from Boca Raton, Fla., plays, and the entire crowd sing his songs back to him. Christopher Carrabba discovered Fugazi via skateboarding, and although he once suffered from stage fright, he found writing songs were the best part of breaking up. Diehard fans agree, and the eloquence of and fervor around DC's A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar made most American rock fans familiar with their name. |
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The Get-Up Kids
More Midwestern melodrama! Their second album, 1999's Something to Write Home About , landed these sincere Kansas City youths on the map after a torrent of seven-inches, one split with Illinois crybabies Braid. Tours with Green Day and Weezer hinted at bigger ambitions, but R.E.M. knob-twidder Scott Litt brought post-rock tones to 2002's On a Wire . Great titles, though, like "I'm a Loner, Dottie, a Rebel." |
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Jets to Brazil
The confluence of members of Jawbreaker, Handsome and Texas is the Reason got emo hearts fluttering with 1998's Orange Rhyming Dictionary , although by 2000's Four Cornered Night , the Blake Schwarzenbach-led trio almost disappeared up their own navels (albeit verrrrrrrry sloooooowly). Flutes and cellos contended with post-punk buzz on Perfecting Loneliness, their torch song trilogy's epic finale. |
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Jimmy Eat World
They formed in Arizona, inspired by early Def Leppard and Rocket From the Crypt and dreaming of opening for Rancid. 1998's Clarity pegged them as emo. "Simple music, elaborately prepared," said singer/guitarist Jim Adkins. After getting dropped by Capitol for their DIY indie releases, Bleed American cracked them with the smash success of "The Middle," still emo's catchiest tune. |
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The Promise Ring
This Milwaukee foursome predicted their own end with "Stop Playing Guitar" on 2001's Wood/Water , their last album. "In a second life, I'd never become a singer," wailed Davey von Bohlen. He had just had a brain tumor removed. In this life, the Ring formed in 1995 and set shrink couch lyrics to peppy power punk. Wary of the emo tag, Wood/Water 's new acoustic direction alienated most of their fans. |
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Sunny Day Real Estate
Seattle's SDRE added eccentricity to Fugazi's creed. They did one interview, initially didn't bother with song titles, appeared in ads for Nordstrom department stores, and never played California. Singer/guitarist Jeremy Enigk's passionate phrasing powered the draining anthems, but SDRE split in 1995 when he found God, then broke up a second time in 2001 after an acclaimed reunion and The Rising Tide , their best LP. |
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Fugazi
Dashboard Confessional aside, Fugazi are the sole band bigger than the scene many try to make them fit. Picciotto, MacKaye and Canty formed the group in 1987, establishing a new standard of aesthetic dedication with $10 CDs, $5 shows and no moshing. Their straight-edge lifestyle inspired its own following, their musical wallop influenced groups from Rage Against the Machine to Interpol. |
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Embrace
Somewhere between Minor Threat and Fugazi, Ian MacKaye formed Embrace and kick-started the emo evolution in 1985. Embrace allowed MacKaye to explore melody as opposed to punk shouting - and move from politics to the personal, in particular his fears of failure. It's said an audience member dubbed the band "emo-core." They split after 10 months, but the music was compiled on 1987's Embrace. |
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Rites of Spring
Guy Picciotto supplied the intense personal scrutiny and tether-end vocals; the rest of these Washington, D.C. emo pioneers set it to a torrent of hardcore noise that could suddenly evaporate into something more fragile, beautiful even. But in spite of this versatility - or perhaps because of it - they only lasted two years and 17 songs before splitting in 1986. Picciotto and drummer Brendan Canty went on to form Fugazi. |
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