If mentioning the genre ’emo’ conjures up memories of teenage boys squeezed into pairs of their little sisters jeans, sporting neon-coloured fringes and an unhealthy obsession for Gerard Way; then congratulations, you have fell foul of the subversion of the label! Once upon a time, in the late ’90s, Emo was used to address the rising selection of American Mid-Western bands – the indomitable Kinsella brothers and their bands Cap’n Jazz & American Football spearheaded this movement.
Followed by other angst riddled guitar noodling in the form of Mineral, The Promise Ring, I Hate Myself and many others. Offering up angst filled sonnets reminiscent of the preceding Grunge era and in direct countenance to the then current trend of Nu-Metal and Rap that was prevalent.
These flashes in the pan were popular on a local scale but eventually drifted into relative obscurity until the rise in prevalence of online music sharing, soon a whole new generation were drawing inspiration from the scene and creating their own lo-fi caterwauling.
Capitalising on this was Count Your Lucky Stars, a label set up in 2007 to amalgamate this burgeoning resurgence, and they have achieved this with gusto: signing reformed emo pioneers such as Kind of Like Spitting as well as arguably one of the best of the current crop Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate).
To thank the fans for their support over the years Count Your Lucky Stars have put up their entire digital discography for free/pay-what-you-want download for the next 7 days. Be sure to head on over and redefine your initial forebodings of the genre!