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« Two media posts... | Main | Three Parts Giving up, One Part Hope... »
Journey to Emoville
May 7, 2007
Rites of Spring was the original emo band. I believe I am 100% correct here. That is my story and I am sticking to it. They were probably the best, too, but that is an opinion and if you disagree...you have inferior taste.
At any rate, I think it was M.K. who told me I needed to listen to Rites of Spring. Back in the winter of 1986? maybe? or 1987? I can't remember exactly when, but I do know that I asked my mom to write a check so I could order the album from Dischord. hahaha.
And when the package arrived, the needle on my record player was broken, and I couldn't listen to it for at least a week. I spent that time memorizing all of the lyrics, which to my 16 year old brain were fucking brilliant works of sheer genius. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that now, but really only a little. They are unabashedly EMO is what they are. Unpretentious, though...not like the crap the kids spew out these days...but maybe that is just me being a crotchedy old lady.
So I was expecting, judging from the lyrics, something that sounded quite a bit like, oh...THE SMITHS. And what I got when I finally was able to replace the needle was a wall of guitar feedback and a vocalist who managed to be both gutteral and screeching in his vocal assaults.
There is a reason why emo is a word that describes (or at least did describe, back in my day) music that is primarily written/sung by men. In fact, I can't think of a single emo band fronted by a woman. If I were to ask my friend Chris the reason, I am certain what he would say is "That's because you bitches are emoing all the damn time." hahahaha. But I don't even have to ask him because A) I know this is what he would say and B) He hates Emo and therefore will never read this and therefore will never know that I put an alleged quote from him in a conversation that never happened in this essay.
At any rate, yeah...there is a reason for emo (or having been) the domain of men, and it's only partially because of what Chris would have maybe allegedly said. It's more because it's the perception of society that emotions are the domain of women, and a man emoting is something that needs to be labeled as such to reinforce it's mythical oddity.
I know I just totally stated the obvious there, but I feel like it must be said, anyway.
But back to Rites of Spring and the caterwauling of the lead singer dude (I just hate it when people put the names of the band members in essays like this...as if anyone really cares what their names are...) My response to the initial listen was much like my response the first time I heard The Jesus and Mary Chain. I had to check and make sure the needle was actually fixed and that I wasn't listening to the sound of my new vinyl being ripped to shreds by a bare tone-arm (that's, you know, a PHONOGRAPH technical term meaning "that little arm-ey thing that the needle rests in") And, in fact, after I realized that what I was hearing was what I was intended to hear...it took me some time to adjust my prediction of what the music would sound like (based on the lyrics.)
That's because it was something totally new. I mean, Saccharine Trust had the same caterwauling lyrics, but they wrote mostly about drugs and, if about love, then in a more obscure sort of way (with, maybe, the exception of "A Human Certainty"...but even that is more of a story than an epic emotional outpouring. Nice fucking crying at the end though! I keep thinking I need to make a mix of music that has good painful crying or shouting or whatnot. "Human Certainty" is on that list, and so is "Drink Deep by Rites of spring...which, oh yeah, is who I am supposed to be writing about right now.) So that is how I KNOW Rites of Spring were the first emo band.
And, like all emo bands worth their salt, they were not long-lived. One album and one 7" and a handful of shows that were, as the story goes, plagued with strange and mysterious disasters...Rites of Spring had a short season. The 7" was a very stripped down affair with none of the assaultive guitar feedback, but I guess a bit of caterwauling. After that, there were a few Emo bands I liked...Moss Icon was good, Jawbreaker. I liked Jawbreaker a lot, but it was more straight-up punk with emo lyrics...already losing that edge of noise. And really I only started to like Jets to Brazil much later and that's just because I have a big crush on Mr. What-see-giggy lead singer and I want him to write love poems about me for the rest of my life. hahaha. Otherwise they would never have interested me.
But, yeah...Rites of Spring were the first. And they are the perfect thing to listen to at the end of a very long, emotionally-charged and riddle week. There is nothing better to keep me from yelping out cries of frustration than listening to that scratchy, pained voice and remembering...fucking a! At least I am not a teenager anymore!
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Comments
yeah, kids these days and that noise they call music...
seriously, who came first - rites of spring or embrace?
and they called it emocore back then, as i'm sure you recall...
and where do albums like "beneath the shadows" and "zen arcade" fit into all this?
Oh, crap...you are the second person who called me on the Embrace thing! Or maybe the first, but the second that I read.
I don't know what goes where. My intention here was to say Rites of Spring rock ass, and all of the crap that is coming out now gives emo or emocore a bad name. :P
i don't think i'm "calling you" on anything pal - i think there's a lot of boxcars in this historical trainwreck. some of that stuff was overlapping, as i recall. in any case there was a third band in there that was vegan emocore and was all about animal rights and stuff...can't remember the name.
my brother made the snarky comment that minor threat was the first emo band, which is sort of true in a way. but if we want to be that way about it, we might as well say that the first emo band was tears for fears. at least then we'd have a recognizable continuum from the past to these bands people call emo now. same hair, same vocals.....