Let’s rock but with our emotions!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY FRIENDS! 🫢Woohoo, I am so excited about this series (pls say you are)! The start of this short series may take a few of you by surprise as it feels like it’s more punk or rock, but I think it’s important to start here to show the progression of the genre. Let’s dig in…

Okay, I wanted to use big words - SUE ME! But on the real, I think that to start with emocore / first wave emo here for this series is super important to understand the gravity of the genre and how it began to develop (i.e. the foundation with which emo was built). One of the main premises of the genre was sort of a reaction to hardcore and some of the deemed “thugs” in those groups, but also just the inherent rage of the lyrical content. Some of those folks wanted to be a bit more artsy, melodic, and poetic but with a similar grit and dynamic intensity - that is sort of (somewhat loosely) how emocore came to be.

Who Kicks It Off?

It all starts with a few dudes, some homies (kinda), who came together and formed Rites of Spring with the goal of being hardcore but accidentally ended up being a bunch of emo friends. I think that this piece from wiux.org crushes in its description of their path,

This inspired groups like Embrace (a callback to last week!) and Dag Nasty to expand the genre, and grow big in the Midwest 👀. I feel like I am beating an unalive horse here, but seriously, this is going to feel quite hardcore and quite punk to many of you, cause it most definitely is, LOL.

I’m 100% certain this is how they looked… and I say this with 100% uncertainty.

Now, let’s get some emocore / first wave emo recs under our belts! From thugs and angry screams to hugs and poetic screams.

Rites of Spring - Rites of Spring. This could be a little harder of a listen for folks, unless you dig that raspy and rugged production of the mid-80s. I think this record is endearing, but is also a foreshadow of what’s to come down the line for emo music. Starts off with high energy, be ready!

album rating - 5.7/10, fave track - For Want Of

Dag Nasty - Can I Say. This is a fun one! I really can feel this record in some of the newer rock and emo tunes I jam. I think the vocals are the shining element for me with this album! You will hear the influences of Rites of Spring and Embrace all throughout.

album rating - 6.2/10, fave track - Values Here

Fugazi - 13 Songs. Honestly, I love the guitar on this record. While I do not typically jam emocore all that much, this is a very accessible record for those interested in it, so for that, I rate it a little bit higher than maybe expected. I will say, this is borderline emocore, but its close enough that I’ll rec is as such!

album rating - 7.5/10, fave track - Bad Mouth

I hope you all have enjoyed this week’s Finetuned! Share your thoughts by replying to this email here, or shoot me a message on Twitter. I want to hear from you! (email is fine too, [email protected])

Please do share Finetuned with your friends & fam! I believe great music should be shared, cherished, and understood from all sorts of perspectives.

Little note here, most of the links to albums will be on Spotify, where I also have playlists that feature my recs based on the month their newsletter came out. You can find those here!

See you all next week! 🙌