Chicago Emo Review (2023)

I do not know if there are any big takeaways to take from emo in Chicago in 2023. There was a smattering of releases I enjoyed, with a couple standing out above the rest. Many artists that seemed on the rise in the city a few years ago have either moved away or slowed down. snow ellet concentrated its energies as a producer with Bottom Bunk and FOOTBALLHEAD this year. I’m still over here waiting for what Your Arms Are My Cocoon is going to do. They are still the template for that bedroom screamo bubble that seemed novel a couple of years ago.

If I were to make some bigger picture thoughts, I did see some bands emerging that felt distinctly of a newer generation. They were made up of the kids I see moshing and dancing at the DIY venue Bookclub to Ben Quad or finger-pointing along to Forests at Sub-T. It made me more hopeful for what the city could produce. I still do love much of what the early days of the emo revival in Chicago created, but if that is our main source in the present, that screams death. Like anything that is an offspring of punk, emo is youth culture. It is only as vibrant if the participants are young. It is how the past becomes recontextualized and still feels alive to a certain extent. All I hope is to see some more younger bands emerge, with some recordings to match their youthful exuberance. Even if I don’t like them, I don’t care. Just give me anything that feels alive and not like a bunch of adults rehashing versions of things that have already been done. Below are some of the highlights for emo in Chicago in 2023.

Dowsing-No One Said This Would Be Easy

A new Dowsing record is a gift. There were many times when the band could have ended. They could have followed the trajectory of many of their contemporaries in Chicago’s emo scene in the 2010s. I Don’t Even Care Anymore was a completion of an arc, coming out in 2013 and coinciding with a pivotal moment in the emo revival. Dowsing never made the same leap as others, continuing along the DIY route. Delia Hornik and Marcus Nuccio left the band as well, sectioning Dowsing into two distinct eras. Instead of breaking up, Erik Czaja retooled, making Okay, a record that encapsulates the fracturing of the emo revival in 2016. It’s spiteful and a tone that they would never return to.

In talking to Czaja months ago, he described No One Said This Would Be Easy as a middle point. It represents the two versions of Dowsing. It has the slower tempos of It’s Still Pretty Terrible. It feels like a breakup record when I listen to it, bringing me back to when I heard “Terminals” for the first time. The last ten years have just changed the context. Changing relationships feels different the more into adulthood you move towards. I never feel like it is spiteful, which is apparent by a lone line on “All That’s Left” (“I don’t hate you for moving on”). It is more a realization that things change, and you can do nothing about it. It makes me think of all those people I’ve slowly drifted away from while transporting me to when I first heard Dowsing in my dorm room ten years ago, as it soundtracked some of the loneliest nights of my life.

Rust Ring-North To The Future

It has been exciting to see the growth of Rust Ring from its beginnings. I met Joram Zbichorski at a house party many years ago when she was just beginning the project. I think the next day, the project was debuting with Boss Fight at Crown Liquors. One of the first songs, “Blackout,” seemed to be directly written in the throes of a breakup. That was in 2016, and a lot has changed since then. I can do the annoying music writer thing and say, “North to The Future” is the culmination of things. Where something like “Haircuts” pointed at gender dysphoria in 2019, North To The Future makes things a bit more apparent. Her love of Say Anything is a bit clearer. And the songs are much more punkier. When I was at a show with some friends earlier in the year, someone made a comparison to Good Luck, which, to me, is one of the strongest comparisons you can make.

Gay Meat-Lychee Ice // Not Even Sadness

Gay Meat is a relatively new entrant to the world of Chicago emo, but it is a welcomed addition. Before living here, songwriter Karl Kuehn spent time with projects like Say Anything and Museum Mouth. It differentiates Gay Meat from several other emerging Chicago emo bands. I’m not listening to someone just beginning to navigate how to exist in the world as an adult. The anxieties of your early twenties are not as present, though the lyrics are still diaristic. Instead, I feel like I’m in steady hands. Kuehn understands how to use a pop structure in a way that is borderline addicting. “Lychee Ice” adds some additional background vocals to give the feeling of enveloping you. “Not Even Sadness” was even more entrancing, resulting in me listening to it on a loop one week in the fall.

OK Cool-Fawn

If you’ve gone to enough emo shows in Chicago, there is a good chance you’ve seen Ok Cool opening for your favorite band at least once. I was really taken with the band since I first heard their three-song EP in 2020. It was a very charming take on indie pop with some spare tracings of emo embedded throughout. Since then, there have been some more small releases, but none grabbed me like I was hoping they would. Surrealist had some songs I enjoyed, but it left me wanting. With Fawn, though, it does feel like the most coherent release yet. It has the heft of an album in less than 20 minutes. The song structures aren’t always predictable, and the sequencing follows a sensible logic, making for one of the more impressive releases to come out of Chicago in 2023.

Sweet Bike-Ode to Cody

Unlike other newer bands in this roundup, Sweet Bike feels distinctly millennial. The first song on Ode To Cody is called “Pall Mall Blart Cop 2.” Their first EP was cheekily named Discography. Chris Armstrong, the singer of Sweet Bike, has a sense of humor that is torn from the type of shitposters I would see on r/emo in 2016. In some ways, it does feel out of step with the current moment of emo, which isn’t necessarily bad. During what I’ll call the Counter Intuitive Records era of emo of 2016–2018, the style of emo that Sweet Bike played was oversaturated. The twinkles of the emo revival were replaced by muscular power chords that led to descriptors like party emo and sparklepunk. But I don’t think about that era most of the time when I’m listening to Sweet Bike; mostly, I’m enjoying myself and happy to listen to some emo that is a little less twinkly for once.

Pulitzer Priceless-Quarter Pound Credit Score

In going to enough emo shows, I’ve seen several Pulitzer Priceless members. I think I’ve seen one or two as moshing before, adhering to a tradition that the best moshers make the best musicians. Pulitzer Priceless is still in the stage of germination. The one song released so far mostly revolves around a central tappy riff that feels like the midpoint between Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly and Ben Quad. It shows a ton of potential, even if I find it a bit overlong at certain points. The kind of uptempo riffy emo works best in shorter increments. Some of the most iconic emo revival songs of the late 2000s throw out riffs, keep things fast, and tease the listener to the point where they may become frustrated. But as a first effort, Pulitzer Priceless shows a ton of potential, and I look forward to seeing what they can build out with an EP or an eventual record.

bottom bunk-Pizza Rolls/Used Goods

Bottom Bunk’s arrival was one of the more exciting developments for Chicago emo this year. They felt distinctly of the newer generation of bands emerging post-pandemic. The two songs released so far fit somewhere in the midpoint where pop-punk and emo meet. Both follow a very familiar structure, starting with a tappy Midwest emo riff before settling into a pop-punk groove for the rest of the song. Sometimes, a gang vocal or another riff will enter to add some variation. It will all feel very familiar to anyone who has spent time listening to the last fifteen years of emo. But even though I’ve heard a million versions of this kind of emo before, there is something charming about Bottom Bunk. Maybe it’s snow ellet’s production. Maybe it’s youthful vibrancy I can feel in that it is singer Grayson Dela Fuente’s first band. It is a good example of the need for new participants to make a scene not feel listless and dormant.

Griefeater-For Once, Then, Something

The first time I saw Griefeater, they covered Title Fight. I want to say it was “Head in The Ceiling Fan,” but I could be wrong. By covering one of Title Fight’s more dare I say, shoegaze-indebted tracks, I understood where Griefeater’s interests lie. Even without that knowledge, you can make similar conclusions within minutes of listening to For Once, Then, Something. It is an exercise in quiet-loud dynamic. A familiar guitar swell will enter before moving into Griefeater’s version of a breakdown. It is an EP that can coexist in several different segments. Though there is plenty of emo in it, you could easily classify it as something else. It results in a somewhat awkward Bandcamp bio, labeling themselves “blackened alt-emo.”

Routine Fuss-Live, Laugh, Fuss

I was really taken with Routine Fuss’ debut last year. It felt like a nice midpoint between indie rock and emo. It seemed like a reflection of someone who maybe listened to a little too much Into It Over It a decade ago, but I could be wrong. Some of the songs on the debut were rocking rippers, whereas others were slower, more contemplative stories. Live Laugh, Fuss leans more toward the energetic side of the project. “Headass” starts with an entrancing riff, slowly building to a wash of chords and driving drums. I’m personally a fan of this direction of the project, as someone who likes energetic emo over more subdued indie-rock versions of it.

micstandthruthethroat-note to self

micstandthruthethorat’s speaks to the far-reaching influence of Your Arms Are My Cocoon three years later. It uses the conceit of YAAMC’s debut as a launching point. The first noises you hear on note to self are some hoarse screams, which are set up against a familiar guitar riff that comes with bedroom screamo. The rest of the EP follows a similar pattern, never veering too far from its homespun aesthetic. Maybe a little synth will enter here and there. But that’s to be expected with bedroom screamo. Even as a relatively form of aggressive music, some tropes will mostly be followed with little deviation.

Mollow-Three More

Mollow will always be unfinished in some respects. They released one EP as a full band, and that is it. It was also an arrival for Jaclyn Nora, and the songs were a reflection of that. She was taking her love of emo and post-hardcore, referencing Title Fight on one of the songs. Health troubles from drummer Kevin Portelli would make shows more infrequent, along with other life happening in the interval. Though the band was essentially dead, Nora and the rest of the band still wanted some way to document some songs that came after Small. And that is exactly what Three More is. They were written between 2016 and 2019, and in the Bandcamp description, the EP is described as a “keepsake.” Though the songs still feel embryonic and not filled in, it is nice that they are documented in some way for the select few who deeply care about Mollow.