A bunch of people I know are out tonight reliving the “90s” and going to see Faith No More. When I think of 90′s music and what gets me excited, it’s bands like Texas is the Reason and their side of the split 7″ with The Promise Ring on Jade Tree back in 1996.

Also the great thing about this type of nostalgia is that it rarely brings up jokes about 90s fashion faux pas.

The good thing about being EMO is that no matter how late in the day it is, you can always be emotional. OK, that made no sense but how about I was sooo EMO today, that it took me all day to make this post. Better? Good, so lets begin…

Evergreen was a lesser known Emotional hardcore band from the late 90s. They only had a few releases to their name including the “These Last Days” 7-inch on Gravity Records. I actually played the A side of this record so often that it was eventually unplayable. The clip above is for the B side, “Prainer the VIII”. You can download the entire Evergreen discography HERE.

I never really knew much about Union of Uranus, except for that the first time I heard them they blew my mind. It was such aggressive and super dynamic hardcore, and like nothing i had ever heard before.

As as kid I knew they were one of a few bands out of Canada on The Great American Steak Religion label, which housed some other bands that I loved (One Eyed God Prophecy, Drift, and Shotmaker). If you click on the link it will go to a MySpace fan page that  basically sums it all up for you.

This spilt with Immoral Squad (I never really listened to that side) was on of my favorite (and most brutal) 7″ records that really got me going in my youth. I never had the opportunity to see them live, but I’m sure they were more than impressive. I did however get to see the guitar player Yannik’s other band, His Hero is Gone, so I am sure I would have not been let down.

I remember my 2nd semester of college. I moved off campus to one of the student apartments across the street. I had a two bedroom apartment with my new friend Casey Woodling. He was your typical clean cut emo/indie guy in a button down shirt and vintage corduroy pants, who would usually be carrying around some book by either James Joyce or Henry Miller. At the time I was listening to lot of hardcore and crust punk, He was into a few other things.

One of those things were The Promise Ring. I am not sure that I would have ever admitted to liking The Promise Ring when they first came out, but there was something about this 7″ that really did it for me. Casey and I must of seriously played this record around 1000 times. We would listen to it again and again, and we would get so amped. (Yes, we were lame)

The A side, “Tell Everyone Were Dead” was the one that really did it for us. I am not sure why, but we would just listen to it again and again screaming out the lyrics.

I couldn’t find a YouTube clip that had the 7″ recorded back to back, but I did find a site where you can download it.

I know I have been slacking a lot this year with my EMOnday posts. The main reason is that I had a new (and better) idea for this as a weekly post. Instead of finding a few videos, I would rather, each week, focus on a record that had some significance to me growing up.

My view of “EMO” growing up in the punk scene in the late 90s is a lot different than the connatation that it has to day. Essentially the EMOnday posts are sort of my platform for the music that really inspired me as a kid. A lot of it is pretty damn Emo, while others times it’s just poppy or  plain ripping. Hope you enjoy.

The first post is the Less Than Jake/Jimmy Eat World split 7-inch that came out in 1996 on Capitol Records. This was the beginning of the end as some would put it for the punk/emo/indie scene as a whole. Not this 7-inch in particular, but the idea that what was left of the underground was now going mainstream. Although these songs appeared on other releases I think this is a pretty solid split, and totally represents where I was at age 16.

Tracklisting in the comments.

Left Alone – I Hate Emo

Tiger Army – Incorporeal

Horrorpops – Ghouls

The Heart Attacks – You Oughta Know

The Unseen – Scream Out

Sparklehorse – Comfort Me

Sparklehorse – It’s a Wonderful Life

Sparklehorse feat. PJ Harvey – Piano Fire

Sparklehorse – Eyepennies

—–
R.I.P. Mark Linkous

Los Crudos were a Latin hardcore band from Chicago that ripped and thrashed through the 90s. I forget exactly how I was introduced to Los Crudos but it was probably one of the million (or so it seemed) compilations that they were a part of.

What turned me on the most to Los Crudos was the intensity of their recordings and the fact that the members were Latin and sung in Spanish. I am Puerto Rican, but was raised mostly in an English speaking household and had mostly white friends. So being able to identify with my ethnicity, especially through the punk rock culture was something that was exciting to me as a teenager.

I was lucky enough to see Los Crudos play a few times in my life. Once at a festival in Columbus, Ohio and another time at this house party I threw in Central Florida. Which was also last show my high school band, Kills Competition, ever played.

I know some have given me crap about the bands that I have been posting on lately for Emonday as not being “emo” but you have to remember that the original idea of “emo” (although sometimes looked down upon by people in the scene back then) was of “emo(tional) hardcore” and it’s vastly changed since then. This distinction separated (and came into conflict) with a lot of the “tough-guy” hardcore acts of the day. These bands would have a 15 minute set of blasting intensity after which they would spend another 15 minutes talking about animal rights, political prisoners, woman’s issues, etc, etc, in-between their usual minute long songs

There are a ton of other video footage of Los Crudos on YouTube and you can also get their full discography online.

Modern English – I Melt With You

Beirut – Elephant Gun

It Hugs Back – Work Day

The Big Pink - Dominos

Anni Rossi – The West Coast

Charles Bronson were the emo-violence thrash punk hardcore (whatever you wanted to call it) band from the mid-90s. They influenced every single band that came after them in the late-90s and beyond. Every 7″ they put out ripped! Their songs were not only chock full of Charles Bronson (the actor) sound bites, each releases artwork always contained some sort of image of CB.

A complete Charles Bronson discography was put out on CD a few years back, and now there’s a movie about the band which is a compiles live shows from 94-97. The above clip is just part one, so I’m sure you can imagine what I am going to post next week.

On a side note: Guitarist Mike Sutfitn went on to have an amazing art career after the band called it quits.