emo

Record #676: Fiddlehead – Springtime and Blind (2018)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

 

Across the music community, there are two things that rarely pay off: hype and supergroups.

Hype over a band often overshadows the actual output of the project, while the work of most supergroups fails to capitalize on the combined efforts of the members involved.

But luckily, there are exceptions to every rule. Springtime and Blind, the debut LP from Fiddlehead (feat. members of Have Heart and Basement) eschews every ounce of speculation directed its way and delivers one of the most heartfelt, teeth-kicking albums in years.

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Record #670: Grey Gordon – Forget I Brought It Up (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I sometimes forget that my friend Grey is more than just a memelord. From his constant online irreverence and roasting of just about every band in existence (see: his podcast Demolisten), it sometimes feels like he doesn’t have a heart at all.

But within a few seconds of his solo full length Forget I Brought It Up, I realize oh yeah, this guy does have feelings—and an incredible talent for communicating them through poignant lyrics and a rich mixture of 90s alternative, pop punk, and emo.

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Record #671: Cloakroom – Infinity (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Among all of the bands carrying the return of loud, low, heavy guitar music pioneered by bands HUM and Failure, one act is often hoisted above the rest as the standard bearers.

That band is Cloakroom, doomgazers/space rockers/slacker rockers  from Northwest Indiana (hey, that’s where I live)! And on their debut EP, Infinity, Cloakroom roars into infamy with the roar of a thousand amplifiers and an earth-crushing gravity.

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Record #668: Envy – Insomniac Doze (2006)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As long as I’ve been in the emosphere (read: like 2001 or so), I’ve somehow entirely ignored Japanese screamo pioneers Envy. It’s quite likely that I heard their names thrown around with acts like Orchid and Loma Prieta that I didn’t like at all, and assumed they would carry all of the same abrasiveness.

Had I known though that they leaned much closer to post rock than to hardcore, I wouldn’t have waited fifteen years to listen to this masterpiece.

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Record #665: Elliott – Song in the Air (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

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As convenient as online shopping has made it to find all the exact records that you’re looking for, perusing a record store can bring gems that you would have otherwise ignored.

Case in point: Song in the Air by Elliott, which I found at Planet Retro in St. Pete while browsing their impressive Punk/Metal section (Kate Bush was in there too, so take “punk/metal” with a grain of salt). Having been tangentially aware of them, I pulled up Spotify and scanned through some of the songs.

What I found was a powerful emo record that gets most of its emotional weight from the intricacy of its songwriting rather than the bombast of its arrangements.

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Record #641: HarborLights – Isolation Ritual (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Musical taxonomy is an interesting thing. Genres twist and mingle like gnarled branches, running parallel to one another but being careful not to touch.

Take for instance, metal and emo. Despite their affinity for sonic catharsis and death, there’s very little camaraderie  between the two. However, they each have a symbiotic relationship with post rock. Metal and post rock have fed off of eachother for decades, with bands like ISIS and Mogwai liberally reaching across the branch. Similarly, emo and post rock have much more in common than loud/soft dynamics and precious sonic elements. Bands like American Football and The Appleseed Cast have been mixing the two for two decades. And yet, metal and emo have remained distinctly distant despite this shared commonality.

But on Isolation Ritual, Boston’s HarborLights bridge the gap in a way that never feels incongruous.

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Record #637: Narrow/Arrow – Middle Children (2015)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The first time anyone sees Narrow/Arrow, their eyes are drawn to the same thing…Cody Nicolas’ second guitar, clamped to a keyboard stand in front of him. Everyone speculates as to its purpose, but no one is prepared when they see him play both guitars in tandem.

Naturally, that visual is completely lost in an audio format—which is why it’s a good thing that Narrow/Arrow relies more on quality songwriting and composition than on live gimmicks.

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Record #631: The Ataris – Welcome the Night (2007)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For an artist, growth is a funny thing.

On the one hand, no one wants to hear the same record released year after year. On the other, what happens when an artist grows into something unrecognizable?

Such is the plague of pop-punk demigods The Ataris’ fifth full-length, which was such a sharp left turn that the Wikipedia page says that “the group abandoned the pop-punk label.”

And while this record might seem like a huge curveball to anyone looking for So Long Astoria, Pt. 2, the sonic legacy of this record can be traced all the way back to their earliest records.

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Record #628: Nai Harvest – Hairball (2015)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

These days, I generally treat my record budget with a level of judiciousness. Every dollar is precious, so I typically don’t make any purchases without thoroughly vetting each album in my wantlist, listening and relistening until I feel confident enough to pull the trigger.

But every once in a great while, I’ll take a risk, such as the 5-for-$25 random bundle from Topshelf Records that landed me this record and Mock Orange (among others). But if this were the only worthwhile record in the bunch, it still might have been worth it.

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