"It's a genre that my co-host and I feel passionate about. The late `90's emo emergence played a huge part in our adolescent musical discoveries and shaped our future musical endeavors," says Morgan. "The bands and music coming out at that time hold a very special place in our hearts."
If you aren't privy to the musical sub genre, it's an offshoot of hardcore defined by its melody and confessional lyrics. Labels like JadeTree and Deep Elm specialized in the genre.
"The idea behind Emo Night came from a friend of mine who runs the podcast Washed Up Emo, It's a great podcast that interviews band members from some of the greatest and most respected emo bands from the late `90s and even current bands that have that similar sound," explained Morgan. His friend co-hosts a similar monthly emo night in New York.
This seems like the next natural step for Morgan who helped spearhead emo nights on Instagram where he and emo-loving vinyl collector friends share video of records and guess each other's picks. He also posts photos from his growing vinyl collection, which is heavy on emo, daily.
I remember an old boyfriend explaining "emo" to me in the late `90s as if the genre gave normally masculine punk and hardcore guys permission to emote. The bands Morgan namedrops as candidates for emo night - Mineral, the Promise Ring, Karate, Cursive, Cap'n Jazz, Piebald, and Sunny Day Real Estate - are the soundtrack to that year with that old boyfriend.
I teasingly called it whiny boy music back then, but I liked a lot of it too. I loved Lifetime and a lot of Cursive. I wore out Jimmy Eat World's pop crossover "Bleed American" and Sunny Day Real Estate's last album "The Rising Tide" (right, I know, no one picks that one). While the genre was predominantly made up of emotional men, it had a few angst-ridden women as well. My very favorite bands featured male/female vocal interplay - namely Rainer Maria and lesser known Whirlpool, which was a side project from Sense Field's Rodney Sellars.
"Nothing Feels Good," which takes its name from the Promise Ring record (which Andy Greenwald's 2003 book also borrowed), will take place every first Tuesday of the month. Boswell and Morgan may be playing DJ, but "Nothing Feels Good" is no dance night - hence the name.
"It's a chance to come out and have some beers with friends while Buck and I spin some of those classic emo records," says Morgan.
Music starts at 8 p.m. and there's no cover charge.
Posts
