#samiam

『HELLO BASTARDS』 LIFETIME 【September 1995】 In 2005, some eight years after their break-up, the band resumed their activities, and in 2006 released an album of their early works from their old label Jade Tree. The band then signed to Decaydance, a label headed by Fall Out Boy's Pete, and in February this year released their first new self-titled album in 10 years. Lifetime, the punk heroes who have made a comeback. The band started in New Jersey in 1990 and released their second album, Hello Bastards, in 1995. They became a leading figure in the New Jersey scene with their speedy, concise, and melodic sound with a positive message. The album also features a Hüsker Dü cover, but it is a melodic punk with a hodgepodge feel from the 80's SST label. Nowadays, New Jersey is a mecca for bands with momentum such as Thursday, My Chemical Romance, Midtown, Saves the Day, and more recently Armor for Sleep, but it was Lifetime who has been making powerful steps at the forefront of this trend. Their comeback album is filled with the same unchanging speed and energy, and is extremely cool. (Saori Yoshiba)

『DEAR YOU』 JAWBREAKER 【September 1995】 This is Jawbreaker's only major album and is an unquestionable masterpiece. However, there is a tragic story behind it. In the mid-90s, after witnessing the huge success of Nirvana, major companies began actively buying up alternative bands they had previously ignored. Jawbreaker were also targeted and released this album, but they were treated badly, with no publicity and no follow-up afterwards. This album, their fourth album in total, turned out to be their last. It's infuriating. This album was co-produced by Rob Cavallo. The content gives a glimpse of Jets to Brazil, which Blake would later start, and it was controversial among fans of the band at the time who liked their earlier, rougher sound, but with Blake's more expressive vocals and more refined, sublime melodies, it was a wonderful album that drew listeners in. It was out of print for a long time, but has been reissued with five additional bonus tracks. (Tomoko Nakagome)

『DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?』 TEXAS IS THE REASON 【April 1996】 Texas is the Reason (TITR) is a four-piece from New York that has been active for less than three years, leaving behind several EPs, split singles, and just this one album. However, the band has influenced many East Coast emo and post-hardcore bands, including Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, Saves the Day, and others. The members were originally from a macho New York hardcore background, but in TITR they captured the hearts of kids with a new approach that combined fresh arpeggios and guitar ensembles with emotional songs by Garrett (now Solea). The band released a split single with Promise Ring from Jade Tree and was produced by J. Robbins, and while keeping the hardcore spirit in their roots, they expanded their horizons with a flexible sensibility. After the band broke up, each member joined bands such as Jets to Brazil, New End Original, and Gratitude, bands that are also indispensable when talking about emo, and are still involved in various projects. Last autumn, ten years after the album's release, the band played a reunion show in New York. They have continued to receive higher praise even after 2000, when followers began to emerge. (Saori Yoshiba)

『30°EVERYWHERE』 THE PROMISE RING 【September 1996】 “Pop that makes you cry” - this is how the sound image of emo that spread in Japan in the late 1990s can be (forcibly) summarised. For me, the image evokes, for example, the pain of youth, a lot of ‘WHY?’, and clumsy running to dry the tears, but I think The Promise Ring was one of the bands that condensed all of these. They were derived from Cap'n Jazz, a legendary early emo-core band (the other being Joan Of Arc), and developed their pop sensibility while releasing emo classics, including this album, on the prestigious Jade Tree label, and with their 4th album, which was their last album after moving to ANTI, they transformed into a band that plays universal “songs” that go beyond punk and emo. The author highly evaluates this trajectory as one of the few examples of a band that survived the emo movement, which changed with musical fragmentation and the intervention of major labels and was consumed as a genre, but this first album is the one I want young rock fans to listen to first. It's music that gives you the courage to get up and start running again even if you fall down. (Mariko Sakamoto)

『YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT』 SAMIAM 【June 1997】 The first time I saw Samiam was at Guilty in Ebisu in the spring of 1998. Despite their delicate and lyrical melodies, their performance was incredibly powerful. And it was never sad. Rather, their extremely manly sound made me laugh off any hardships I had in my heart, and I was instantly blown away by their music, and ended up buying not only their CD but also their T-shirts and hoodies on the spot. When I walked down the street wearing them, I was interrupted by strangers several times, who said, "S-Samiam!?" The members of Husking Bee even confronted me, saying, "Where did you buy that!!" and it was funny to see them look so frustrated when I told them, "When you guys played together." Anyway, they were a band that was known by those in the know, and were oddly popular mainly among artists, but that didn't mean they were for professionals at all, in fact, they were very catchy. Their previous albums are all good, but I think this one is the most pop of them all. The band had actually been inactive for a long time, but recently happily reunited and released a new album. This is also extremely passionate, strong, exhilarating, and wonderful. (Tomoko Nakagome)

『HOW MEMORY WORKS』 JOAN OF ARC 【May 1998】 In the mid-90s, Chicago, along with Omaha and Kansas City, became a mecca for indie emo in the central US. Joan Of Arc, along with The Promise Ring, was derived from Cap'n Jazz, which is considered to be the forerunner of this genre. After their first album “A Portable Model Of,” which embodied the essence of both bands, this album is the one in which Joan Of Arc's avant-garde sound, symbolized by synth noise, vocal samples, offbeats, etc., is most sublimated into their own. In terms of the rough-hewn greatness, it's probably the first album, but the solitary refined emotion of this album, which was born at a time when many emo artists were signing with indie labels and “emo” was (becoming) mainstream and becoming a trend, is still deeply resonant and universal. It is said that Tim Kinsella's reaction to this work as “non-emo” led to the next album, “Live In Chicago 1999”, but this overlaps with the way Owen and Make Believe continued to gather new supporters in the 2000s, despite being non-mainstream. (Mami Hatori)

Translator's Note: A mutual of mine had asked me earlier on why they didn't see My Bloody Valentine in the article, since it was thought that the band is "emo". I've checked Wikipedia, but they don't have the "emo" genre attached to them.

I'm only on the second page of translating this "emo" article, but from what I observed and picked up, it seems that part of the criteria of what counts as part of the "emo" music scene back then in the 1990s and 2000s is that the most common of music genres tends to stem from, like, a few specific ones, which are the following: Post-hardcore, alternative rock, pop-punk, and indie rock. If you're not any one of those, then the bands that you thought of as "emo", in reality, aren't "emo" at all.

Moominktober/Inktober Day 28 Camping/Amusement Park

Every part of the imp was sucked into the spotted pouch

Until the balloon loudly exploded—and made everyone crouch

The imp was finally defeated and turned to stone once more

A silent calm and a restful resolution settle around galore

The heroes left alone in the destroyed amusement park

Realizing their victory as the sun rose from the dark

But soon, the heroes would notice that Snufkin wasn’t in sight

Was he hurt or drain of his life during this agonizing plight?

Moomintroll wouldn’t leave Snufkin behind, his love so strong

Even if he had to camp out in this world for however long

Today I finished my very first animation. I've always wanted to give it a try and ofc I chose my baby boys to use for it~❤️ This is for an MV I'm making and more shorts like this will be in there!

Listen/purchase: Monterey Canyon by Samiam