Have you seen the new Antenna magazine? If you haven’t, I was interviewed by Russ Bengston (formerly known to NT’ers as Slam Ed) in a profile about The Hundreds. It was one of the better interviews I’ve done in quite some time (and very well-written, might I add) because Russ got around to asking some pertinent questions about our brand that I hadn’t had the opportunity to field before (so thanks Russ!)… Most notably, the relevance of music to The Hundreds, and how various music subcultures structure our brand’s architecture.
Funny, because I don’t think any 2 of us actually share the same musical tastes. Ben grew up on West Coast rap, Jon leans towards oldies, Tony’s a Morrisey Whore-isey, Morgan’s hip to hip-hop. Benjie used to be a renowned drum-and-bass DJ (google it!), Scotty won’t listen to it if the band’s name doesn’t have “Goat,” “Blood,” and female sex organs in it. Oh but we do all agree on one thing. Switch listens to the worst music ever.
I’m not one of those people that says, “Oh I listen to everything,” because I’m not really keen to Flamenco or Gregorian chant (I think the people who say that usually just mean Rock and Rap. You know.. that’s “everything.”) However, I’d like to think that I have a rather broad sense of aural pleasure, after all, I used to write music reviews for a living. BUT, I also have more than my fair share of guilty pleasures when it comes to my iTunes library (how did Third Eye Blind get in here?) And a sizable chunk of that comes by way of Genre > Emo.
I guess kids these days align “emo” with what we used to call “goth” when I was in high school, but instead of bauhaus and lunchboxes, now it’s My Chemical Romance and cutting. But that’s not really how I remember it — as a hardcore punk offshoot — so I’ll just create my own utopian world and disregard everything that “emo” has become associated with in the past decade or so.
These were/are some of my favorite emo bands, many of whom I regret not being able to see perform live, so thank God for Youtube.
Rites of Spring: Theme
Considering the term “emo” actually doesn’t really exist (kinda like “streetwear”), this is supposedly where it started. And at the 9:30 Club no less.
Sunny Day Real Estate : In Circles
Their radio friendly album, but still great. The album art was a classic in itself.
Mineral: Gloria
Off of “The Power of Failing.” For some reason, I only like the odd-numbered tracks off this album.
Jimmy Eat World: Crush
I’ve watched this band grow up, from 7-person emo-core shows during my teenage years to MTV videos for the masses today. This was shot right before Clarity broke, arguably the greatest pop-rock/emo album of all time. Hard to believe 1998 was 10 years ago now.
Now go back, read all the “That’s not emo! / What’s emo? / Emo’s gay!” comments to the videos, and cry.
by sobbyhundreds