Blonde Allibi

Blond Alibi has a short discography. There is virtually no information to be found on them. They had one seven-inch and a live session on a local college radio station. They are reminiscent of an era of emo that now feels lost. Blonde Alibi is caught in between eras. They are not indicative of what is to come in the emo revival. They have more in common with what happened in the 90s, even covering Pegboy for a covers compilation. It kind of reminds me of Small Brown Bike and Hot Water Music. If Blonde Allibi was around now, I would call them orgcore or fest punk. 

Just Tell Me Who It Was

Live On WLUW

Penpal

Penpal was one of those bands that always seemed ahead of the trends. Their previous band, Marquette, was making midwestern emo before it became omnipresent, breaking up in 2007. It was in the lineage of American Football and is a nice peek into where the genre will go in the next decade. I could easily see Penpal playing alongside Oh, My God Elephant or Colossal, for example. The influences of Penpal would become very clear, choosing to cover Never Meant in 2010. Penpal would continue to explore the world of midwest emo, releasing two EPs and one record. 

Penpal

1. Times & Dates

2. What Happened When

3. Planes, Trains, Places & People

4. Two By Two

5. Aviary

6. You Your Me Mine We Wine

7. The Year Before TJ Got a Blazer

8. Japanesse Bonus Track

9. The One That Used to Have a Wurlitzer

10. In Bed By

Poetry Drawer

1. HOI

2. Some Sinatra (Secret Stars)

Postscript

1. Octopus

2. In Space, No One Can Hear Your Guitar

3. Bed Bugs

Yo Coyote

Maybe it’s the Algernon Cadwallader reunion, but I feel like we’re on the cusp of an emo-revival-revival. It’s now been long enough that people making music now can yearn for a scene that folded nearly a decade ago. While there are plenty of examples for a resurgence of twinkly emo, I’ll point toward Yo Coyote, a new Chicago emo band. There’s nothing particularly inventive when you listen to them. It’s comfort music for people of a certain age, mainly people in their 30s who spent their college years at DIY spaces like Strangelight and Treasure Town. But I find myself returning to A Dark Wave constantly. It does a good job of never being overzealous with its guitar athletics. The songwriting is strong enough on its own, never using virtuosity as a crutch.   

Repeating Colors

1. Blues

2. Owl

A Dark Wave

1. Last Song

2. Sticks

3. Unsaid

Oceans

While Oceans released their only record in 2009, they make more sense in the proto-emo revival era. Where many other bands were unafraid to show their hardcore/screamo roots, Oceans was unambiguously influenced by indie rock. They trafficked in the kind of post-rock that dominated the early 2000s, creating long, drawn-out soundscapes that are only broken up by an occasional vocal passage. It doesn’t always work, missing those intense moments of catharsis that make these songs’ long runtimes pay off. “Boy Detective” is one of the standouts, giving a peak into what drummer Nick Wakim would accomplish with his other band, CSTVT.

Nothing Collapses

1. Lit up Under Streetlights

2. We Are Ruins

3. Ways with Wolves

4. Boy Detective

5. Sound of Static

6. City at Peace

7. Terrified of What We Might Become

8. Traps and Traps

9. Your Plane Leaves Tommorow

Heccra

Heccra is a one-person project that sprung out of working in what they describe as a “shitty-seafood restaurant” and “feeling the fatalism of being trapped in a foggy, dark, and wet hometown.” What was created on White Eagle felt like emo’s version of The Shape of Punk to Come. It didn’t necessarily feel beholden to the emo revival we were experiencing in 2012 but something that was more a reflection of the modern internet age. The songs were kaleidoscopic and often featured breakdowns that made sense on a metalcore record. There was a sense of invention, as if something totally new could come out of the speakers in the next second. I don’t love to use the word genre-bending, but in this case, it feels apt because there’s no other way to describe it. As time went on, emo has moved closer to Heccra with fifth wave emo. You can hear Heccra’s influence all over the place, from Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly to Your Arms Are My Cocoon. 

White Eagle

1. Brain Damage Is My Friend

2. Homecoming

3. Greenfields

4. VHS Porn

5. Monster Cul De Sac

6. Shitty Water

7. Your Window, Water

8. AM

9. Best Dreams Ever

10. 1997: There's No Future!

The Last Weekend of Summer

1. I Spent July in Heaven

2. Camp Algonquin

3. <life sux/>

4. Patience

5. Teenage Corpse

6. This is Cinema

Heccra-Kazooie

1. Banjo-Kazooie

2. Corium Leak

3. Homemade Haloween Costume

4. Pissed Off Kids in the 90's

5. I Wanna Go on a Ski Trip With The Beach Boys

6. Smelling the Vents with the AC On

7. Life Sux! Pt. 2

Pizza Is Emo

1. I Only Wanted to Heelflip (Too Bad Maine is Full of Pricks)

2. Going to Hell

The Devil-Faces of My Old Friends, Beneath Me

1. Roses for Darth Vader

2. The Mint that Grows behind the Dumpster

3. Fox

4. Cabin in the Attic

5. I Drop Acid in my Spooky Victorian House

6. Port Deadwords

7. Koala Bear

8. Bikeride Eyes [Bonus]

9. Koala Bear [Fast Version]

Coping

Coping captures what makes the emo revival feel so special all these years later. It seemed as if a bunch of people unintentionally tapped into twinkly pop punk simultaneously. You get that same feeling of discovery when you put on Lawndale Cassette for the first time. There’s a palpable energy that comes across when I stream the songs through Bandcamp, trying to reach out to you. It's exuberant and youthful, as all great upbeat emo music should be. The only real knock against Coping’s first release is that it sometimes feels a bit too indebted to its influences to sound like its own thing.

By the time Coping released Nope, their only full length, they’ve settled into an identity, which is apparent with the 1–2 punch of Somewhere in Skokie into B(my favorite song). It still has those elliptical guitar runs that Joe Reinhart popularized, but the songwriting is on another level here. There are genuine hooks on here, helped by a more robust recording. The dual vocals make the songs pop, adding another layer of desperation. And in true emo fashion, this would be the last thing Coping ever released, leaving fans with a short discography to pour over.

Lawndale Cassette

1. Left Ear

2. Croquet

3. '95 Mariners

4. Mixed Horror Stories

5. Robert Pershing Wadlow

6. Seniors

Coping/The Clippers Split

1. Stoopin'

2. F For Now

NOPE

1. Somehwere in Skokie

2. B

3. Everything No Problem

4. Where A.T. At?

5. Teach Me How To Fish

6. Ro' Money Ro' Problems

7. Love Tigress

8. Knuckle Puck

9. #72 East

10. Double Perfect

The Hertzsprung Gap

There’s very little information on The Hertzsprung Gap except for a write-up on a YouTube video. I couldn’t even find one of their releases anywhere online. But from what I can tell, the band comes out of the ashes of Sweep The Leg Johnny and Punjab. It fits within the realm of 90s emo, playing alongside bands like The Sky Corvair and Karate. There are a lot of the quiet-loud dynamics that would typify emo’s second wave. I also hear many constituent parts of what will become twinkly emo in the 2000s.

 

The Hertzsprung Gap

1. Standish

2. Blindness! (On The Brink Of Sight)

Polyp

1. Polyp

2. Peninsulas You Thought Were Islands

Peninsulas You Thought Were Islands

1. Texas Hotel Parking Lot

2. Outrun The Sun

3. Strut Like Your Stories Strut

4. Chevy Chase Vs. Dundee

5. The Island Of Alaska

6. Can't Touch This

7. Put Your City In Neutral