Things Just Getting Awful (yes, that’s a The Promise Ring reference).

I have the best boyfriend in the world.

I expect lots of posts to start this way, so get used to it.

He sent me this article the other day. It made me laugh and cry a little inside. I’m a big fan of The Get Up Kids. I own several shirts of theirs, all their albums, know every word to every song. What brings this all up? I was singing 10 Minutes to Downtown on my lunch break. It flashed me back to being 17 again. Summers driving around the small town where I grew up in my red CR-V.

“What’s your favorite music?” People ask. And I answer, “Elvis, Bowie, Classic Rock, and circa 1995-2002 emo music.” I like a lot of other stuff too, but these are by far my favorite. I have a love of dirty dirty punk rock, the occasional baby-makin’ music (minus the baby-makin’ of course), 1960’s french pop, some random indie stuff… the list goes on. I used to work in a record store. I have eclectic tastes. And I’ve rambled off track again…

What happened to Emo music? How did it go from a branch of punk rock, only passed from person to person on mix tapes to whiny songs from some too pretty skinny male who spends way more time on hair and makeup than I do, wears tighter jeans than I do, cuts himself on a regular basis and was touched inappropriately by his dad? This new “Emo-Core” has lost everything “Core” about it.

For all my chart loving readers, here’s a time line of the brief history of The Emo:

A snapshot of the History of Emo

When interviewed by Sean Michaels of The Guardian, Get Up Kids guitarist James Suptic stated:

“If a band gets huge and they say we inspired them – great. The problem is most of them aren’t very good. What does that say about us? I don’t know. Maybe we sucked.”

Get Up Kids didn’t suck. But I want to know what got lost in translation to the new crappy bands inspired by them. I could list all the crappy New-Emo bands, but I’m sure you already know what circa I’m referring to. And it’s not just new bands, I’ve watched as the band I liked disintegrated into the mainstream crap-fest they call Emo, but is really a bunch of hacks who have watered down the heart and soul of what made the Get Up Kids, Jets to Brazil, Saves the Day, and The Brand New great. They’ve infected bands with so much promise like Head Automatica and Taking Back Sunday to fall to the shit-fest of the New-Emo Cesspool. (The first Taking Back Sunday album was good. I don’t care if you talk shit about it, I know you’ve spent some time singing “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team).”)

I’ve, for the most part, moved past the Emo thing. Whatever it was. I know it was there for me at a point of my life when I needed it. When nothing made sense, and they sang about the way I felt. It introduced me to something more than the mainstream. Allowed me to enjoy the unknown bands surrounding me, just like the Beatles helped me appreciate the mainstream bands surrounding me that are actually good (and for the most part were from the 70s). It doesn’t mean I don’t still play some classic Jimmy Eat World at top volume while I’m driving down the interstate from time to time.

The Get Up Kids recognize the crappiness of the scene they helped develop. And it tells you something else when the musical genius of the birth of Emo-core, Blake Schwarzenbach, would rather teach at in the Department of English at Hunter College than be associated with the scene. According to Wikipedia though, apparently is back on the music scene after a 5 year hiatus. I’m hoping he comes out with an experimental Jazz album.

Now excuse me while I go try to find downloadable Get Up Kids content for Rock Band.