Do the terms Emo, Screamo and xXhardcoreXx mean something to you? Did you wail along with your favorite sad sack band in a stuffy store front music venue in your home town? Did you curse Summer Roberts for not knowing a good thing when she had it when Seth Cohen tried to woo her using Death Cab music? Well, you’re not along because that was me and that is apparently you, cause you clicked on this link. Emo may have faded into the musical ether but the memories and the music will always be ours. Here are just some of the best emo bands. .
Dashboard Confessional
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If Dashboard Confessional was your favorite band than they’re not your fave because you probably only know them for A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar and you can move along. But if you know Dashboard Confessional as a solo act that was birthed from Further Seems Forever. If THAT Dashboard is your favorite than you can still hear the sing alongs in your head and the occasional tear slip down your cheek as you remember locking eyes with Chris Carrabba as you and all the other sad emo girls and boys gathered around him as he sang solo on a bar stool. Those were the days. You probably gave up somewhere around the time they rerecorded Hands Down because any additions or subtractions from the original recording of that song is an act close to terrorism. You might as well be burning great works of art with the Nazis. If a man walked by you today with dark cuffed denim, a half sleeve of tatts and some dark, dark hair you’d probably fall over yourself to find his name was Matt, Ben or Your name is probably Chloe or Sabastian or NIKKI PIERCE. .
Weezer
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If your favorite band was Weezer you’re probably a bit of a purest as to what albums you’re a fan of aka you probably only listen to the Blue album or Pinkerton and deny any of the others ever happened. You remember when Rivers went to Harvard and lived in a dorm room and you hated him for putting the band on a temporary hiatus and dating only Asian girls. You got over that because you realized Brian Bell was the real catch of the band and from there on out you were a happier Weezer fan. Now as a 30somethingishwhatever you think that Say It Ain’t So is a totally acceptable karaoke song and you’ve not alone because by the time you hit the chorus everyone is drunkenly screaming along. RIP Mykel and Carli. .
Death Cab for Cutie
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If your favorite band was Death Cab for Cutie you probably listened to them long before Seth Cohen made them famous on The OC. You spent many hours in your car just driving around the town you grew up in thinking about how maybe one day you’ll leave. And then one day you cry as you listen to all 12 minutes of Stability as your hometown grows smaller in the rearview mirror as you move to Los Angeles. When they left Barsurk for Warner Brothers and Ben starting dating Zooey Deschanel you took it personally and took to your LiveJournal to share how disappointed you were in the direction of the music circa Narrow Stairs and Codes and Keys. Last year you and your closest Death Cab friends left your creative director jobs early to make the Postal Service reunion show wherein you cried and swooned and paid a lot of money for the IPA beer on tap at the venue. You won’t admit it out loud but when Ben and Zooey announced their divorce you silently cheered because you knew this meant a return to the Death Cab of yore. Your name is Kim, Charissa or Seth. .
The Get Up Kids
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If your favorite emo band was The Get Up Kids then you knew how to have a good time growing up. Even now you can be driving and when someone asks how long it’s gonna take to get downtown you start singing “… it’s 10 minutes to downtown… 10 minutes. to down. town.” If you’re a girl and your BF liked The Get Up Kids then you probably received a mix cd with a red doily pasted to the cd case on Valentine’s Day with what else besides the songs, Valentine and Out of Reach. Of course. So maybe your boyfriend wasn’t a rocket scientist but he was full of the feels and YOU are a loner, Dottie, a rebel. .
Promise Ring and/or Braid
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If Promise Ring or Braid are you favorite emo bands then you remember the birth of the genre and we should all bow to your superior knowledge of the subject. You probably live in Portland or Silver Lake and have two kids named after characters in Salinger novels. You rarely make it out to shows any more but the scrapbook of tickets stubs and that scar on your nose from a mosh pit are all the mementos you need of a decade well spent. .
Bright Eyes
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If Bright Eyes was your favorite band, again you probably know that it’s not a band but a guy named Conor Oberst who wrote most of his “emo” music and created his own record label when he was an angry, sad teen. You probably still wear thrift store sweaters with moth holes in them while searching OK Cupid for your date to the F-Yea Fest. Even though Bright Eyes is way more angry country, blues, rock now, it’s still quite enjoyable and nice to see that even thought we start angry and sad doesn’t mean we’ll always be that way. Well, maybe every other day. Or when your boss at the bookstore denies your request for the weekend of Hardly Strictly off. SCREW THE WORLD! .
Fallout Boy/My Chemical Romance
GET OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS. You were clearly 14 in 2004 and shopped and Hot Topic and have no idea what we’re talking about here. Take a seat, thanks. Did I miss your favorite band? Who was the best emo bands you listened to? Which band would you put down a second mortgage on your home to see reunite?
