This POLL Will Become the Anthem of Your EMO Voting Thread / You're Two Floors Down CAMPAIGNING in the Back Room.

dgi

flagging ur post bc u self-identified as happy in the emo thread

if ur happy get out

LOL

Agreed tbh

idk if i'm often sad tbph, more like perpetually angsty and anxious

i'll allow it

I didn't nominate anything cause I was never really into the late '90s early '00s pop-punk emo, but this is a damn fine list of albums. I'll try to get a ballot together.

xxp - That's why you're running the poll and not me. I'm going to put on an I Hate Myself album now and see if it helps...

OK gonna attempt to campaign for two of the bands on my nomination list: Hot Water Music and Small Brown Bike...

At their core these are very similar acts. Three word band names! Dense, detuned guitars! Scruffy dudes howling over each other in gruff voices! Both take cues from acts that came before: HWM, say, Leatherface; and SBB, say, HWM and Jawbreaker. Both at/were near the top of my late 90s-early 00s post-hardcore/emo-core/punk fandom.

Fuel for the Hate Game and Forever and Counting are the essential HWM albums for me because they manage to be both strong and sensitive, lyrical and gutteral, and complex yet simple in their execution in true punk style. The lyrics are damn near impossible to decipher (especially considering the singers are frequently singing different lines at the same time) but they still bring a sense of unity, purpose, and optimism. Musically, their rhythm section and syncopated play has always impressed me... dare I say they can even be "groovy"?

Key tracks for me: On Fuel, "Turnstile", "Blackjaw", "Drunken Third". On Forever, "Better Sense", "Just Don't Say You Lost It", "Minno".

Small Brown Bike, at first, sounds very similar to HWM. I know they played shows/toured together, and both were mainstays of No Idea Records during their careers. SBB is a bit more emo, I'd say -- more songs about relationships and less about scene unity. The fact that they're from my home state of Michigan definitely plays into their selection on my part, I've probably seen them live a dozen times. At times they feature three vocalists taking on different levels of screaming/shouting the words, often answering one another. Of these two albums, Our Own Wars is the earlier and probably the more complete work, but the production and live execution of Dead Reckoning was amazing in its time. Neither have held up as well as I feel the HWM albums have, but I still love them.

Key tracks: On Dead Reckoning, "Sleeping Weather", "This Ship Will Burn", "I Will Bury You In Me". On Our Own Wars, "The Cannons And Tanks", "Zerosum", "Make This A Holiday" -- the last being the best SBB song ever and one I'm not ashamed to admit I will scream along with at full volume if given the chance.

"listen to I Hate Myself and see if that helps" would be an excellent name for the poll imo

Turnstile is one of my fave songs ever.

All of the experts say you ought to start them young. / That way they'll naturally love the taste of corporate cum.

<gag>

lmao i love that line/song

Hah, I assumed that line was from one of Dan's screamo bands, but then I looked it up. Good song!

lol my shortlist turns out to be 107, and that's not including some of my absolute favorite records that I never considered emo before (Blood Brothers, Refused, Unwound). Time to do some trimming.

I wish refused had more songs about being sad

ugh i def should've made the ballot larger. i guess 30 is plenty but my personal list would love to be ~50

yeah, I'm about to cut serious classics of the genre and it hurts me inside, which is appropriate.

flagging ur post bc u self-identified as happy in the emo thread

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Tuesday, February 21, 2017 10:19 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao great exchange

weird, i didn't even notice that only one piebald record was nominated and it's not my favorite piebald record

crybald

I want to put in a word for The Weakerthans' Left and Leaving for anyone who hasn't heard it. That was a HUGE record for me once upon a time and I relistened to it for this poll for...maybe the first time in a decade?...and it's still so fucking good. Definitely pioneering for how it finds a crossroads between (ugh) "literate" indie songwriting and emo+pop-punk flavor, with almost impossibly wistful and impactful lyrics. (Propagandhi is definitely the better band but there's no way in hell I'm voting for them in this poll.)

I got to 30 that I could rank without relistening to anything, so I just sent in my ballot. Now I'm going to go listen to some of this stuff.

I can't believe I forgot to nominate Drexel - The Inevitable Is Available

So, I was reminded of this by this poll, but in college I downloaded a song mislabeled as Karate that clearly wasn't; instead it was some spazzy British synth-pop thing. But it was really good. So I pulled it up, hoping maybe Shazam could identify it. But nothing.

Turns out there are at least a few dozen people in the same boat, nobody's ever been able to identify what it is

http://benicetobears.com/2016/09/14/nobody-has-been-able-to-identify-this-song-for-15-years-autobahnkarate/
http://www.backofthecerealbox.com/2010/01/rest-of-my-life-i-will-always-drive-and.html

Maddening.

I also love Unwound but couldn't vote for it. Same with 3 of the 4 Converge albums on here (and I nominated 2 of them). Had to vote for Jane Doe but it felt wrong having 4 on there out of 30.

I left off a couple Rainer Maria albums that were definitely worthy of top 50 status, but I couldn't put all of them on my ballot. I did manage to get the first two DC albums and the first FSF album on there, though, but a lot of that is due to nostalgia.

I woke up with 'Jaws Theme Swimming' in my head, so I think my subcounscious is telling me to go and listen to Deja again.

counscious

finally getting into hot water music bc of this poll

I tried to listen to them this week (for the second time - a friend in high school was a big fan) and they leave me cold (har har); something v generic about their sound at least to my ears and I find the production boring.

A Flight and a Crash was one of my first punk records - I still really like the opening flurry of tracks

a future lived in past tense is like... super out of print, right? or does anybody know where i can buy it so i can finally hear it lol

youtube (partial) or uhhh soul seekin' are yr only options I'm afraid

ooooh discogs actually has some reasonable CD prices (just not for the vinyl lol) I might have to bite the bullet on that even though I abhor shelling out for intl shipping

ysi? lol

hahaha I can hook you up later tonight if you want. it's sort of insane that it's not available anywhere, wasn't DeSoto a subsidiary of Dischord? why aren't they also on bandcamp then? and why are their labelmates (eg D-Plan) on Spotify? I'm so confused.

related, but afaik the only related thing to come out post-Juno was this pretty neat (if low-key) record from 2014 as Atoms and Void. Pretty sure the original version of this band (Ghost Wars) had one or two Blood Brothers in it but that never came together I guess. It was nice to hear Carstens' voice again.

https://atomsandvoid.bandcamp.com/releases

tags: ambient rock dark ambient instrumental male vocals sadness

hahaha I can hook you up later tonight if you want. it's sort of insane that it's not available anywhere, wasn't DeSoto a subsidiary of Dischord? why aren't they also on bandcamp then? and why are their labelmates (eg D-Plan) on Spotify? I'm so confused.

yeah please! i found a copy ~around~ but it's at a really low bitrate

i did manage to grab this is the way it goes and goes and goes and holy shit what a record

you found a physical copy? I don't think I've *ever* seen one in Canada

ooooh discogs actually has some reasonable CD prices (just not for the vinyl lol) I might have to bite the bullet on that even though I abhor shelling out for intl shipping

Heh I literally ordered a copy from there this morning - I haven't heard the album in full for like 15 years (a housemate had it on CD) but I remember liking it.

you found a physical copy? I don't think I've *ever* seen one in Canada

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, February 22, 2017 6:53 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol nah, on the ~internet~

anyway to get back to other bands (lol) I'm gonna finally listen to Braid today

oh, i should rep for my favorite kitchen sink emo/pop-punk-ish record, johnny foreigner vs. everything. johnny foreigner toured with los campesinos! early on and they have similar energies but anatomically their songs are accelerated emo (one of my friends thinks of them as an extremely poppy pretty girls make graves which isn't wrong either). vs. everything is their extremely ambitious double album featuring piano ballads and spoken word interludes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq81bwSAlak

Heartwarming to see the Juno love spread through ILM. How cool would it be if those albums ended up somewhere in the top 20 or so?

<pleasedontbanme>Brad, you're not on slsk? There are some fine v0 rips floating around.</pleasedontbanme>

the last time i used slsk i discovered that the mac clients were basically unusable. i'll figure something out

re: Johnny Foreigner, I haven't heard the music yet, but the opening track is a strong contender for my number 1 on the song titles side poll.

i don't think anyone is going to ban u for mentioning soulseek :p

btw: http://www.avclub.com/article/drive-announces-first-new-album-17-years-250800

we're right in the midst of the emo revival zeitgeist!

lol that only 'drive' is left of the bandname in the url