EMO REVIVAL
Community, DIY, and Rebirth in Post-Hardcore (2008-2018)
By Andrew Sacher (Clash Books)

In the early-’00s, I was nearly half a decade out of college, wearing a tie to work in a cubicle in an office without windows each day, and watched the events of 9/11 via a television in the lobby of my workplace before being evacuated to continue watching at home. While during these years, and the decade that followed, I was still burning the midnight oil travelling within ’90 minutes to see whatever live independent music I could, I also recognized that I’d moved solidly into emo-elder status, even if I was still avoiding evenings and weekends in Dockers.

While I pined for the basement and hall shows of my teens and early ’20s. MTV, Hot Topic, Victory Records and the like delivered a cadre of bands carrying the “emo” moniker, though most weren’t resonating with me, or leagues of other music fans whose formative years were composed of scores of shows in the ’90s. In my mind, they largely resembled the glam bands and big rock acts I eschewed in favor of whatever I could pull out of a cutout bin or catch on 120 minutes in my mid-teens. I secretly wondered where the bands who were inspired by Crank!, Jade Tree, No Idea, and Polyvinyl might be.

Thankfully, the internet made it easy to survey the new crop of bands who were influenced by the bands that I was front and center for in my formidable years, bands that included Braid, The Promise Ring, Mineral, At The Drive-In, Gorilla Biscuits, The Get Up Kids, Texas Is The Reason, Lifetime, and the like. This book is about the then teenagers who were doing the same homework.

Andrew Sacher’s Emo Revival captures the stories of emo’s third wave and the bands that were dominating the basements, VFW Halls, and message boards, and adopting a similar DIY ethos to the bands that deeply influenced them; bands that were in their shoes 10 or 15 years prior. While the second wave comprised mostly Gen-Xers, this is the story largely of millennial emo. Unsurprisingly, it is born from the same places where it took root in the ’80s, ’90s, and early ’00s — high school lunchrooms, community centers, skate parks, and also, largely, the dregs of Midwestern boredom. This time it also took root via Myspace playlist commonality where Blink-182 was a more-likely punk gateway than Green Day.

If you’re interested in the careers of bands like Title Fight, Joyce Manor, The Wonder Years, a nostalgic look at the scenes in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and the like, and labels like Run For Cover, Count Your Lucky Stars, and Topshelf, Emo Revival delivers in spades, and provides ample evidence of the crucial, and influence role these bands, places, and labels played in the special phenomena related to the subject matter.

The author, a New York City-based, music journalist, critic, and podcast host, was the longtime managing editor of Brooklyn Vegan, where he prolifically and passionately covered punk, emo, hardcore, and more for 15 years. Beyond his credentials, Sacher’s knack for storytelling, attention to detail, and his first-person familiarity with both the subject matter and his interviewees captures their personality, preferences, and perspective in a way that allows the reader to know exactly where they were coming from even if the reader wasn’t sweating and screaming in basements in Grand Rapids during the subject timeline.

Sacher also makes a compelling case for the foundation these bands built that allowed their predecessors, Jimmy Eat World, Braid, Sunny Day Real Estate, and especially American Football, to be primed for second acts that in some cases eclipsed what they accomplished monetarily and critically during their original runs. For that, my mid-life approaching, ever-elder, Peter Pan-emo ass is eternally grateful.

And, while I’m not a fan of critical reviews that are anecdotal and subjective, I just couldn’t help myself here. Six out of five stars, highly recommend… especially for those like me that still have copies of Nothing Feels Good by Andy Greenwald on their bookshelves.

Preorder a signed copy here.

Cover courtesy of Naomi Falk