Since I started my own label this past year and I have a bit more of a :ahem: financial interest (investment?) in “the game”, I’ve been paying a little more attention to labels, critics, writers, etc that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have much interest in. I guess part of me thinks that if I’m gonna sink a few thousand dollars and countless hours into releasing a record, I should probably make sure someone out there is gonna care about it. So after diving deep into Instagram, Twitter and even Facebook (blech!) one thing I was NOT prepared for was finding out that there’s currently a HUGE market for nostalgia of 90’s “emo” hardcore. Now, I’m not argue which wave of post-hardcore was the first wave of “emo” but, trust me, when the bands I’m talking about here were new and I first heard someone call them “emo”, it was NOT a compliment. So forget Rights of Spring, Embrace, etc I’m not that old.. I’m talking about Gravity Records, Ebullition, Vermin Scum, Old Glory, white belts etc etc.. I mean, as someone who dreamed for YEARS about releasing a Scrotum Poles LP knowing fully well that there’s probably some 60 year old Scotsman out there who still refers to them as the worst band he’s ever heard in his life, I can’t say I’m too surprised that in 2023 there might be some 22 year olds who want to buy a deluxe repackaging of the Indian Summer discography or attend a Moss Icon reunion show. It IS a little humbling when something that excited you once when you were young and then maybe outgrew and maybe even ended up loathing as your taste changed is suddenly being celebrated by people who “weren’t there” the first time around and don’t have the same perspective but…who cares? I can’t say there’s any band who I saw that dyed their Spock haircuts with Nice’N’Easy Blue-Black, wore tight pants, couldn’t play their instruments and just flailed around on the floor crying in musty basements that were “amazing” when I was 19 but are now the butt of a joke that I wouldn’t be happy to see make a million dollars reuniting for crowds of iPhone-waving kids who have proudly outgrown.. I dunno..Avenge Sevenfold? Dashboard Confessional? Who are these kids outgrowing?? I can’t think of any really logical way to justify any sort of contempt for either the bands profiting off of music they made decades ago, or the fans, young or old, who are either experiencing their art for the first time or revisiting it after many years. I’m not saying I feel like I have to even have an opinion on it but the fact of the matter is: most of the music from that period that falls under the banner of “emo hardcore” meant a LOT to me back then and means virtually nothing to me now. I find it kind of hard to listen to. It sounded new and sophisticated back then, but I was young and naive. It then sounded stale and tired and now sounds almost embarrassing and in many cases, even opportunistic and fake. I haven’t read it yet but I was just alerted to an article in the new issue of The Wire covering the early 90’s San Diego hardcore scene penned by Tony Rettman. The thought of The Wire, a publication notorious for academicizing anything and everything that’s fun and innocent about music, trying to make sense of Antioch Arrow is very amusing to me but I have no doubt the conclusion will be that their motivation was something much more artistic and heroic than what it seemed like they were trying to do at the time: get laid. I’m guessing Numero Group already has Native Nod and 1.6 Band and Merel and Universal Order of Armageddon retrospectives in the works but me, always the celebrator of the even more marginal, would probably run out and buy an LP of unreleased Christopher Robin or Second Story Window recordings, just to see what didn’t make the cut the first time around.
So, now that I’m aware there’s this nostalgia for a lot of these bands from that time, you’d think I would have maybe done the ol’ “late night Youtube rabbithole” move and tried to remember why there was a point in my life when I had a deep regret for having never seen Mohinder live. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure it will eventually. I have reminisced plenty though, and through my label I’ve made a few connections with people who are around my age who came from the same general music background as myself and even (unsurprisingly) share some mutual friends. The “emo revival” has come up a few times here and there and each time I’ve recommended the person check out the 2006 self-titled LP/CD by Melbourne, Australia five-piece ON. I know next to nothing about this band. I happened upon randomly after discovering a small stack of used CD’s on the label Celebrate Psi Phenomenon in a record shop and took a chance just based on the label, primarily known for drone/experimental/noise releases. On is easily the first and only band I’ve heard post-1998 who channel the chaos of the early 90’s Gravity Record hardcore bands, the sludgy melodies of like-minded Olympia, WA band Unwound, and even the droning shoegaze-iness of “bigger” post-rock bands from the same period like Mercury Rev and Mogwai. BUT: they make it sound natural. Somehow, there’s not a hint of revivalism or nostalgia in their sound. I have NO idea if these five Australians were listening to early 90’s emo hardcore in real time, but I challenge anyone just hearing Heroin, Angel Hair or Clikitat Ikatowi for the first time to tell me who came first. I didn’t even know until a few years later that a label called Saucerlike had also released the On album on vinyl (apparently the same year the CD was released?) and it took me a few more years to track a copy down. There’s one US seller on Discogs who seems like they might have whatever copies are remaining from the Australian label. Like I said: I don’t know anything about this band, who they are, or why they sound the way they do, but for the past 15+ years their only LP has been pretty much my only connection to that 90’s “emo” sound I cared so much about when I was a teenager.
Here’s an alternate version of the first song on On’s s/t album, “We’ve Got TV”, that’s the only thing I’ve found online by this difficult-to-Google band. As always: if anyone does know anything about these guys, let me know…
