The Day I Realized My Chemical Romance Wasn’t Emo

Oct 4, 2015 · 7 min read

Written by Will Whitby for WashedUpEmo.com

When Weezer released Pinkerton I was only one and a half so my attention was set more on crayons and custard than dysfunctional relationships. When American Football released their self titled classic in 1999 I was four so I enjoyed Wacky Races and spinning round so much I fell over, not youthful discovery. Aged six when Jimmy Eat World brought Bleed American into the world my favorite song was the Westlife version of “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. So no, I did not have the emo upbringing.

2006 and the early teen years came and with that came my first encounter on what I thought was emo. I first found emo from the band that declared the genre as “fucking garbage”, that’s right My Chemical Romance *braces itself for abuse in the comments from the old school emo oracles*.
MCR to me were the first band that I found on my own that made the hairs on the back of my pre-pubescent neck stand up. Up until then Coldplay were my favorite band. Seeing the video for “Welcome To The Black Parade” on Kerrang TV was a big thing to aged 11, Will. To me that was emo, the black clothes and bleach white hair look was emo, the guyliner and deep fringes were emo, the distorted air guitar solos were emo and although I still feel like the album is a timeless classic in its own right, it’s not truly emo, more just another branch of alternative rock.

Like most kids my age discovering rock music, Kerrang magazine was definitely a big help. Arranging the posters on the wall like it was pieces at the Louvre, when really it was just an A4 poster of Fall Out Boy trying to look edgy.

I can pinpoint the day where I discovered what the emo council would consider “proper emo”. Summer of 2013 and I had just left my college to move to another one so I was in quite a turning point in life. Most nights when I got back from work (the glamorous job of washing dishes at a gastro pub) I would religiously sit at the family computer discovering new music on YouTube. I discovered my now unending love for Biffy Clyro and Bruce Springsteen through that and whilst watching the Foo Fighters documentary, “Back & Forth,”

I discovered Sunny Day Real Estate.

There was a clip of the band playing with pre-Foos bassist, Nate Mendel.
Through that I found “Diary,” in my opinion the best “old school emo” album ever, an album that came out before I was born yet seemed so current and relevant when I heard it 19 years after its release.

Do you know that scene in Jaws where PC Brody sees that kid on the yellow dingy get brutally torn apart by the shark and the camera zooms in but zooms out at the same time in a moment of life changing realization? Yeah that happened to me when I heard “Seven” for the first time. The angst I enjoyed from my My Chemical Romance days, mixed in with visceral power of the grudge that had been filling my iPod simply blew my mind.

It was then I discovered emo was for me.

Months that followed saw me discovering bands that were so unknown to me I just wanted to tell everyone that I met about them, I feeling that I had not felt since hearing The Black Parade many bad hairstyles ago. Time passed and I found American Football, the use of trumpet was something I really enjoyed. It gave the album a sense of rainy days and smoky windows. Weezer up until then were just a band that did that annoying “Pork & Beans” song and the only Jimmy Eat World song I knew was “The Middle.” Later I found the soundtrack to a forgotten youth, Bleed American and the geeky despair of Weezer’s first album- still two of my favorites today.
After exhausting all I could from the old school it was conveniently the time where new wave emo bands began to show their faces from the seemingly ruined, guylinered, dying genre. Basement, Moose Blood, The Hotelier, Brand New, Modern Baseball, Have Mercy to name a few names bringing a new sense of teenage angst for the misplaced youth of the mid-10’s.

I’m 20 now, I’m at university in Manchester, UK, bearded, tattooed, the cliché modern emo look and I’m not afraid to shout about it. Discovering news bands weekly and feeling more and more part of an underground movement that is slowly taking over the rock clubs of the UK. I connect with emo because of the vast sense of community, online and at gigs- it’s a bunch of likeminded individuals who are all accepting and on the same wavelength. Like Match.com in a flannel shirt. I like emo because in my eyes (or ears should I say) it’s quite simple but with underlying complexities to go with it. This is how I feel and this is how what I’m feeling sounds like. To new listeners it might sound miserable but to me and the growing fans of the new UK emo movement it’s speaking to listener and demographic that normal rock or pop punk simply doesn’t satisfy.
To more veteran emos of the 90s I’m hoping all of this didn’t sound to patronising or airy-fairy to you. But I feel discovering the older emo bands first have benefitted me a lot more to appreciate this new third wave of acts and new sounds. So here’s a top five of albums from this new wave that will hopefully help the helpless youth of the non-too-distant future.

Modern Baseball — “Rock Bottom”
A band on the lip of pop-punk to emo. The slight chirp of pop punk with a few emotional emo tit-bits and a snarky bite,is what makes Modern Baseball one of the most widely loved bands across the genres. Happy-go-lucky with an underlying sense of sarcasm. A new emo classic for a sunny day.

Tigers Jaw — “Hum”
The now twosome Tigers Jaw (3/5 of the band left in 2013) fifth album is an immersive emotional landscape with added lo-fi guitar and drums. If Shakespeare compared thee to a summer’s day, I’d compare Charmer by Tigers Jaw to a lonely night train ride home in the rain. HUM-

The Hotelier — “Your Deep Rest”
An album which to me represents the ups and downs of friendship and trust. Anthemic tracks with delicate subjects with a relentless message of staying strong through life and growing up. Definitely a band if you liked Jimmy Eat World in the 90s. With lead track Your Deep Rest being arguably the best track of this new wave of emo, I want this played at my funeral.

Have Mercy — “Cigarettes And Old Perfume”
The ultimate scream in the shower album. Is your relationship in trouble? Do you miss your special someone? Is your special someone just not there? Here’s the album for you *cheesey grin and wink*. Melodic and gritty it reminds you that music isn’t just for listening it’s for living too. A timely reminder that life can be shit and people can be dicks but hey at least there is a soundtrack for it.

Moose Blood — “Gum”
An album that encumbers all of the best bits of the above albums that makes Moose Blood the poster boys and hottest thing in UK emo right now. Melodically and lyrically brilliant start to finish it’s a melting pot of old emo, new emo with the right pizza-skateboard-leave-this-town dollop of pop punk to go with it. Pop culture references from Deja Entendu to Kelly from Saved By The Bell it’s essential listening to any self-respecting emo fanboy of my generation. Much like you can pinpoint 90’s emo classics now, I feel in a decade of two time this album will remain relevant and respected because although music might change the foundations and meaning of emo are something that doesn’t.