emo

Record #820: The Get Up Kids – On A Wire (2002)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Sometimes, context has a way of tainting our perspective. When we’re in the midst of events, we’re sometimes too close to be able to see clearly.

Case in point: On a Wire, the follow-up to their classic sophomore album, Something to Write Home About. While I personally wasn’t enthralled enough by that record to follow them any further*, many die-hard fans were disappointed with this disc to the point that they felt betrayed.

But for me, having come back to this record with two decades of space between its release and my listening, hearing it without the crushing weight of anticipation and dashed hopes allows it to blossom into a wonderful collection of great songwriting and catchy pop rock.
Continue reading →

Record #819: The Get Up Kids – Something to Write Home About (1999)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Over the years, I have stated publicly and often that I missed the Get Up Kids when I was in the throes of my emo phase. Most publicly, on the first episode of my podcast, which I host with a Get Up Kids superfan.

As a teen, I had a copy of the B-sides and rarities disc Eudora, but really only loved a couple tracks on it. I have a vague memory of buying Something to Write Home About, regarded by many to be their best, but I don’t remember being very enthralled with it.

However, a couple months ago I bought a box of records from a friend that had a number of emo classics, including many from TGUK. “I might as well keep this one,” I said of this disc, before putting it on and realizing something surprising…

I knew every word to this album. 

Continue reading →

Record #805: Cursive – Burst and Bloom (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

In my perception, Cursive has had two distinctive characteristics. The first is Tim Kasher’s conceptual and self-referential lyrics, which really came to their own on Cursive’s Domestica. The second is the presence of a cellist, which marked The Ugly Organ and their two reunion albums.

In that perspective, this is the first release in their chronology that really sounds like Cursive to me before my recent deep dive into their discography.

Continue reading →

Record #804: Cursive – Domestica (2000)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

On paper, it shouldn’t have worked. An emo concept album about a failing relationship loosely based on the singer’s own divorce doesn’t exactly sound like a formula for a hit record.

Lucky for all of us though, Cursive’s Domestica manages to avoid all of the self-indulgence and clunky storytelling that too many concept albums fail to avoid. Instead, it shows a huge leap forward in both Tim Kasher’s songwriting and the band’s musicianship, leading to an undisputed emo masterpiece.

Continue reading →

Record #803: Cursive – The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song (1998)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After their Crank! Records debut Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes, Omaha natives Cursive joined up with the then-burgeoning Omaha record label Saddle Creek. In a few years time, Saddle Creek would become a staple of the underground emo-ish scene, enlisting such bands as Rilo Kiley, The Faint, and Bright Eyes to their roster.

Now, when people talk about Saddle Creek, Cursive is always one of the first bands mentioned. But on their second album, released just five years after the founding of the label, Cursive was still building their legend alongside their new label. And while it might not be remembered as one of their best works, The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song is an important chapter in their mythology.

Continue reading →

Record #802: Cursive – Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes (1997)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

I’ve been a fan of Omaha’s Cursive for quite a while. I picked up a CD single of “Art is Hard” from my local music store in 12th grade, and I spun those two songs on repeat for weeks. I downloaded several songs from Domestica on LimeWire and burned them to my one of my many emo mixes. Through my “serious music fan” phase in college, The Ugly Organ was one of the few emo records that I still listened to regularly.

But as much as I love those records, I’ve never dug too deep into their earlier material. That is, until I bought a box of classic records from my friend Stephen that included most of the Cursive back catalog.

Continue reading →

Record #808: At the Drive-In – Vaya (1999)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Conversations about At the Drive-In’s best release usually dance around a gridlock between In/Casino/Out and Relationship of Command. 

However, that conversation simply cannot be complete without taking their incredible EP Vaya into consideration. While it contains absolutely no shortage of ATDI’s signature angular fury, it also sees the group adding experimental elements into their sonic palate. While it’s often described as a bridge between the two legendary full lengths, it even points to Omar and Cedric’s future in the Mars Volta with astonishing prescience.

Continue reading →

Record #807: At the Drive-In – In/Casino/Out (1998)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

Many years ago, I said that Relationship of Command was undisputedly the best record At the Drive-In had ever released. And while it remains my favorite, I can’t deny the fact that my 2013 claim wasn’t influenced by the astronomical price that vinyl copies of In/Casino/Out were commanding.

As fortune would have it though, I recently acquired a large lot of records from a friend that included an unreal number of classics for a more-than-agreeable price (thanks, Stephen), which included this record that, historical revisionism aside, means a great deal to me (and a whole lot more that will be reviewed in the coming days and weeks).

While the band had been active for four years before this with two EPs and a full length to their name, In/Casino/Out is really the album where they became the At the Drive-In that would become post hardcore legends.

Continue reading →

Record #796: You Could Be a Cop/Amid the Old Wounds – Split (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Perhaps the biggest problem with emo is how the term has been fundamentally misunderstood.

When the term finally broke into the cultural lexicon in the early 2000s, it was mostly attached to bands like Panic! At the Disco, Green Day, and My Chemical Romance, who are not emo bands—MCR would even tell you this themselves. And yet, legions of yuppies and soccer moms would see dark clothes, shaggy hair, and eyeliner and attach the three-letter epithet to it. Even bands who did claim the tag for themselves in those days bore little resemblance to the emo bands of yore.

But over the last several years, a crop of musicians have risen up to free the word Emo from the girl jeans of its mallcore misappropriation and return to the sparkling guitars, patient dynamics, and mournful vocals of the scene’s earlier days.

And this split, between Norway’s You Could Be A Cop and Germany’s Amid the Old Wounds, is a perfect example of what emo is supposed to be.

Continue reading →

Record #792: Christie Front Drive – Stereo (1996)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Emo kid that I was, I’ve discovered the last few years that there’s a fair amount of the genre that I missed. Obviously I was aware of early pioneers like Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral, but that was through turn-of-the-millennium bands like Further Seems Forever, The Juliana Theory and twothirtyeight. I was a big Jimmy Eat World fan, but I was far more familiar with Bleed American than Clarity.

I say this to explain that even though Christie Front Drive have been cult favorites among Second Wave emo fans, I had given very little playtime before buying this LP on the strength of their reputation alone.

And let me tell you what: 16-year-old Nat would have eaten this record up.

Continue reading →