14 Canadian bands who predate the emo revival

by Mark Teo

March 5, 2014

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Photo: Your Scene Sucks

By now, emo isn’t even a pejorative term anymore—everyone from Noisey to weekly alt-rags have been championing the so-called “emo revival” for a hot sec. We’re not going to pretend that’s a bad thing. Hey, we never really stopped listening to Through Being Cool, and we’re stoked that Saves the Day went from being a teen punk band, to a horrifyingly embarrassing, dyed-pink mall-punk monstrosity, to being a heritage act. It’s been a trip, guys. Where’s Eben D’Amico at?

But to call the renewed interest in emo a revival is a disservice to the bands who never lost faith in the genre in the first place. Earnest, emotional pop-punk, Saetia-worshipping American post-hardcore, Rev Summer-owing punk, and chaotic, Italian-informed noise never disappeared—it only flew under the radar. So, to the genre’s true believers, we raise a beer (or a root beer for the edgemen) to you. Here’s 14 bands that weathered the emo revival—and big-time props to Kevin Stebner, of Cold Water and Bart Records / Revolution Winter and Alberta’s Ghost Throats DIY Festival, for contributing names to this list.

 

Animal Faces

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Though their current releases have them flirting with stripped-down, exuberant songs—comparable to Montreal’s Solids, who they released a split with—Animal Faces come firmly from a post-hardcore background. Indeed, the dense, angular Anomie 12-inch, released last year, feels like it could’ve been released in an era where Level Plane ruled supreme. It’s a wonderful disc, to be certain—but their upcoming Half Asleep 12-inch has them moving in different directions.

 

Discord of a Forgotten Sketch

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These Montreal noisebringers have been around forever—so long, in fact, that they even predate the term “skramz.” Get past their nonsensical name, though, and you’ll find a fierce, impassioned band who’s been sharpening their craft since the early aughts. Expect to find yell-screamed vocals (delivered with a charming Quebecois accent), squawking guitars, and full-blown intensity in their songs—and despite the screamo tag affixed to their music, they’re not devoid of melody. Start with their One Side 12-inch and work your way back.

 

Todos Caeran

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Full disclosure: Kevin Stebner has released Todos Caeran on his label, Revolution Winter, and they’ve long been participants of the Ghost Throats festival. But they completely deserve to be on any list of Canadian emo bands. This Edmonton-based powerhouse is, in a word, fierce: Pairing sweeping post-rock with shredding screamo, Todos Caeran are in firm command of the tone and yes, emotion of their music. Town of Cats, below, also has literary origins: Its lyrics were inspired by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, which pairs seamlessly with songwriter James Ternovoy’s evident love of City of Caterpillar.

 

Woolworm

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Woolworm are described by many as a shoegaze or college rock act, but to our ears, they’re an emo band—the kind that ex-hardcore kids formed after they got tired of their hardcore records. Their debut LP, Believe in Ourselves, is the logical starting point—but be warned, they’ll veer from near shoegaze into Integ-style hardcore. The best part? They make it sound good.

 

Book of Caverns

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Book of Caverns hail from Edmonton—a city that harbours an incredible post-hardcore scene. (Lest we forget, it’s also the scene that birthed Born Gold and Purity Ring.) We especially love BOC, because by our measure, there aren’t many bands who play their style currently: Leaning on yelled lyrics, gang vocals, and spindly guitars, they hearken back to Revolution Summer-style emo. It’s the stuff that was perfected in the late ’80s and early ’90s in D.C., led by Dischord acts like Embrace and Rites of Spring—and evidently, it’s still going strong in Northern Alberta. For that, we’re thankful.

 

Hermetic

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Vancouver-based Hermetic’s ties to the punk scene are readily evident—no surprise, considering singer Eric Axen does double-time in melodic punk band Sightlines. Like the latter group, Hermetic flashes Axen’s penchant for earnest, borderline literary lyrics—we’d call him Canada’s Blake Schwarzenbach, but maybe we shouldn’t go there—but they’re also more sonically adventurous than Sightlines. Boasting rumbling Fugazi basslines and Jets to Brazil-esque riffage, Heartbreakology has just enough gruff to be excluded from pop-punk territories, but just enough melody to rattle around our heads for days.

 

King’s Girls

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This brand new Halifax outfit has a moniker that, we assume, refers to the University of King’s College, the small liberal arts college housed in the city. So, what are they trying to say with their name? Are they criticizing the young women who choose to follow an academic path based on German philosophy? Are they critiquing the privileged, private-school roots of their student body? Are they attaching themselves to the school’s brand, considering it’s an institution that once hosted members of York Redoubt, Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers, and Rich Aucoin? So, what do you say, Kings Girls? We listened to I/II/III and Numbers, and we didn’t find any answers. All we found was devastating, unsettling screamo. What gives?

 

Veneers

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While most of the entries on this list recall certain bands, eras, or albums, we don’t want you to get the wrong impression: There’s plenty of room to experiment in emo and post-hardcore. Case in point: Toronto/Montreal-via-Newfoundland band Veneers. It’s hard to place neat categories on the band: Sometimes, they’re angular, navigating around herky-jerky rhythms. Other times, they shred their vocal cords, on par with most hardcore bands. Then, they’ll veer into off-kilter guitar acrobatics, almost reminiscent of Halifax’s post-North of America fare (see: York Redoubt, Quaker Parents, and bands like Each Other). That melange, glorious as it is, unspools in Light Movement, the two songs the band released in late 2013.

 

Mouse Ear

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While many bands on this list take a melodic, off-kilter approach to their music, others veer a lot closer to hardcore—like Mouse Ear. They’ve been compared to the work released by the seminal Ebullition Records, and for good reason: This Vancouver act writes dark, messy, and often chaotic compositions that feel like they’re a shade away from falling apart.

 

Vacant Eyes

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Saskatoon’s Vacant Eyes label themselves as emotional hardcore—with an emphasis on hardcore. Indeed, while it’s clear that these fellas love their skramz, their stark, blackened songs also feel like something that Kurt Ballou would love. The band themselves might deny such associations, but if you’re a fan of American Nightmare, Horror Show, or even APMD, Vacant Eyes carry hints of their brand of epic, bleak hardcore. To our ears, that’s a good thing.

 

Laureate

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Laureate bassist/vocalist Erin Power comes from more traditional hardcore roots than many of her emo and post-hardcore peers, and accordingly, her newest band recalls the American emo associated with the late ’90s labels like Revelation and Big Wheel Recreation. Think: Texas is the Reason, Braid, Samiam, and Mineral, but with stronger pop-punk sensibilities. Expect the band to linger on particularly effective octave chords, alternating vocals, and roadtrip-ready melodies—and luckily for us, they released two new songs from their upcoming LP in February.

 

Mahria

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Out West, there’s a definite obsession with harder-edged screamo—Yaphet Kotto, Portraits of Past, and Raein can be heard in B.C. and Alberta’s music. Case in point: Mahria, an in-your-face skramz act from Alberta who, in the past, have contributed a track to an Orchid tribute. (Orchid, for their part, remain luminary—their guitarist, Will Killingsworth, now also records some of the world’s best hardcore bands.) For their abrasiveness, though, Mahria have a wonderful way of balancing melodic fretwork with impassioned vocals—a track like “Ghost Limb,” below, is nearly an earworm.

 

Tel Fyr

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This Calgary band released a split 7-inch with Todos Caeran, but they don’t share many sonic qualities with their Edmonton brethren—rather, Tel Fyr are glossier, riffier, and rely on guttural, almost metallic vocals. When they’re not stomping on their distortion pedals, though, the band weaves in post-metal passages, adding a completely different—and frankly unexpected—dimension to their music. Settle into “Cult of Winter” for proof.

 

Tim the Mute

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Let’s get this straight: Tim Clapp, the founder of Kingfisher Bluez, is no Dashboard-esque emo hunk. But lest we forget, the emo scenes of yore always had their earnest singer-songwriter types, the type who’d record lovelorn ditties into pocket recorders or leave saccharine acoustic pop on the answering machines of their beloved. And Tim the Mute is all about that shit—his uber-conversational, uber-lo-fi songs talk about breakups, the state of his heart, and, of course, the record store where he works. And we won’t lie: that shit is damn charming.

Tags: Music, Lists, News, animal faces, book of caverns, discord of a forgotten sketch, emo

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