No Filler Music Podcast - Rewind: Jimmy Eat World - Clarity

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

Another rewind episode? What are you guys on vacation or something? Yes. Yes we are. Now considered a touchstone record of the emo genre, we take a look at Jimmy Eat World's 1999 classic Clarity, and... how the sound they were perfecting ushered us into the third wave of emo music. Before that we go all the way back to the spring of 1985 in Washington D.C. to explore the origins of emo, and discuss how difficult the genre is to define. This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!
Starting point is 00:00:17 The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. With MX Platinum. You have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.
Starting point is 00:00:45 It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes. because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials.
Starting point is 00:01:08 Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. The Starbucks Pistachio Latte will transport you to your happy place. The comforting flavor of pistachio, warm espresso, and milk, all with a brown buttery topping. Make today a good day.
Starting point is 00:01:28 Order ahead on the Starbucks app. With one of the best savings rates in America, banking with Capital One is the easiest decision in the history of decisions. Even easier than choosing Slash to be in your band. Next up for lead guitar. You're in. Cool. Yep, even easier than that. And with no fees or minimums on checking and savings accounts, is it even a decision?
Starting point is 00:01:54 That's Banking Reimagined. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See Capital One.com slash bank for details. Capital One and a member FDIC. Welcome to No Filler. No time has passed between the recording of our last intro and this one's intro. I'm still staring at Quinn's face.
Starting point is 00:02:28 It's been about three, four seconds. Yeah. I'm down in Plano visiting family for the week. Yeah. If you didn't listen last week, Q was in town. Last week was a rewind episode. This week is another rewind episode. But yeah, this week we decided we're going to dust.
Starting point is 00:02:48 off an old Jimmy E. World episode that we did. We're going to talk about clarity on this episode, which was the record that they put out right before Bleed American, and they exploded. And so, you know, this is somewhat
Starting point is 00:03:04 you know, under the umbrella of Alt Rock that came out in the 90s. Actually, I feel like clarity came out in 2000, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe. Could have been 99. But anyway, you know, this is when we're starting to, to lean toward email.
Starting point is 00:03:20 So, you know, it's going to be a little bit different. I feel like this is where the alt rock progressed from 90s through the 2000s. Yeah, this was like the stepping stone. It went from like alternative shoegasy grunge to emo and then the garage rock revival. Yeah, like the 2010s. The pop punk stuff too. Yeah. Well, it's around this time like blink and some 41 and all that.
Starting point is 00:03:44 Yeah. So this is a pretty old episode, dude. I don't know. Yeah. We're not staring at a computer. staring at each other. That's the way we've got this mic set up. So we don't have Wikipedia at the ready this time. But, yeah. But no, this was an early episode. So apologies if it sounds like crap. Yeah, it might sound like crap. And you know what? If this is an old enough episode,
Starting point is 00:04:04 you're going to hear a what you heard segment in the beginning. That's right. Which is interesting. I think it is. Because back in the day, we used to do what you, we used to do what you heard's each episode. We just bring one song each. So yeah, obviously we scrapped that for monthly what you heard, which I've enjoyed doing. But anyway, you're going to hear that, which is kind of weird. But yeah, here we go. So this is Jimmy E. World's Clarity.
Starting point is 00:04:32 Before we view the episode up, let's take a quick break. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. So, Trave, I actually have used BetterHelp in the past. and it was a really, really great experience. I loved my therapist. He gave me a lot of great tools that I still used to this day. You know, without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is hard. Good news is therapy does work. But what is therapy exactly? It's whatever you wanted to be, really. Maybe you're not feeling motivated right now and you would like some tools to help. Maybe you're feeling insecure in relationships or at work, not dealing well with stress. Whatever it is, you're not you're not, you're
Starting point is 00:05:19 you need. It's time to stop being ashamed of normal human struggles and start feeling better because you deserve to be happy. And now you don't have to worry about finding an in-person therapist near you to help. BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. And it's much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapists in under 48 hours. Join the millions of people who are seeing what online therapy is really about. It's always a good time to invest in yourself because you are your greatest asset. And we've got a special offer for no-filler listeners. You can get 10% off your first month of
Starting point is 00:06:06 professional therapy at betterhelp.com slash no-filler. That's better-h-el-p.com slash no-filler. Thanks again to Better Help for sponsoring this episode. When something gets larger than the scene that created it, it's pretty much dead. When we were in high school and stuff, like in the mid-early 90s, it's like the emo was kind of synonymous with hardcore. Another word that could mean something greatly different if you grew up in Southern California than when you grew up on Long Island. It was like punk rock and screaming hardcore. That's what it kind of meant to me. and we didn't really fit in with that sound,
Starting point is 00:06:49 so it kind of puzzled me why people were pauling us that. And welcome to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. With me, as always, is my brother Quentin, and the voice you heard in the intro was Jim Adkins, frontman lead singer of Jimmy E. World,
Starting point is 00:07:26 which is the band we are going to be talking about today. And he was talking about emo music and how he thought that they didn't really deserve that label. And in all honesty, I have never used that label to describe Jimmy Eat World, which proves how much I didn't know about emo music going into this episode. So, Kiew, what about you?
Starting point is 00:07:50 Did you, when Bleed American came out and Jimmy Eat World was all over the place, did you think of them as an emo band? Well, let's figure this out real quick. Oh, we're going to figure it out, my friend. Okay. All right. Well, so I don't think I knew the term emo when Bleed American came out.
Starting point is 00:08:13 What age, so we're not talking about Bleed American today. No, we're not. That was the album that they got really famous. Yeah, that is the album that put Jimmy World on the map. and along with bands like Dashboard Conventional, brought Emo music into the mainstream. But there are many different flavors of Emo music is what I have discovered and what we're going to kind of get into.
Starting point is 00:08:39 And we're going to talk about the history of Emo and pretty much up to clarity, which is the album that we're talking about. But for this particular discussion right now, I think the reason that I never considered Jimmy World and Emo band is because when we were listening to music, getting into music really, which is around that time, right, when Bleed American hit hit the scene. Emo meant very particular specific sound and more so it was tied to like a certain look, you know what I mean, and like a scene, right?
Starting point is 00:09:17 Yes. So, and that sound, that emo sound that I'm referring to is considered the third. wave of emo music. There's four waves because apparently emo is making another comeback and that's the fourth wave recently. But bands like Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, you know, Under Oath, the Used, like those are bands that to me were obvious emo bands. That's third wave.
Starting point is 00:09:45 That's third wave emo. Okay. Jimmy World is second wave emo. Okay. Damn. But so before we get into the history. Q, I'm going to do a little exercise here because this is relevant. I'm going to name some bands and you're going to tell me if you would consider them an emo band.
Starting point is 00:10:06 Okay. Okay. Fall Out Boy. Absolutely. Under oath. Yeah. Amberlin. Amberlin?
Starting point is 00:10:18 No. I wouldn't have thought of them as emo. Weezer. No. No. Newfound glory. Newfound glory? No, not emo.
Starting point is 00:10:30 Punk. Isley. Remember them? Yeah, remember them? Isley is not emo. Panic at the disco. Uh, on the fence for that one.
Starting point is 00:10:43 I got news for you, buddy. All of these bands. Have the emo label applied to them. And here's, that's the whole point. So, the term emo has pretty much been hijacked by third wave emo and like that's that's what people think of when they think of emo music the you know fallout boy the sound of fall out boy and then screamo being like under oath right yes i was going to say for me growing up you know in the time that we did emo is synonymous with
Starting point is 00:11:15 screamo for me that's what i always historically you know growing up getting into music that at the time that we did, I always thought of emo bands as the more hardcore screamo bands. So, and here's what's interesting about it. First wave emo, which is, we'll get into a little bit later, had a lot of screaming in it. Interesting. So the funny thing is, third wave emo brought back some of first wave emo. Huh. But, so let's get, we'll get to that later. So, yeah, let's get into our what you heard. It's my brother. Okay, yes. So let's get into our what you heard. And for those of you who do not know. This is our weekly segment where we both bring a band to the table that we've kind of been listening to lately, just to give kind of another flavor before we dive into the
Starting point is 00:12:05 album of the week. So Q, what you heard, what you've been listening to lately. Let's hear it. I listened to Clarity all the way through for the first time this past week, just preparing for the show and I immediately dove back into those bands that I was listening to in like 2002, 2003. And you remember Watashiwa? They're also on the list of emo bands. Did you think that they were emo? Absolutely not. Well, they are.
Starting point is 00:12:39 But this is a band that was on tooth and nail records, which was a record label that had a huge impact on me as far as the artists that they signed. Yes. And for me in my high school years. Let's name them off, dude. Let's name off those bands. Amberlin. Amberlin?
Starting point is 00:13:04 Yeah. May. Yeah. Emery. Yeah. And slow coming day. So here's the thank you. Tooth and nail is an emo record label, dude.
Starting point is 00:13:14 So every artist on that label is emo. And that's another thing. It seems obvious now when I, think back on it, but... It really... That's what I was about to say, dude. Like, at the time, I didn't put all of... I didn't group all of those bands under that same genre, you know?
Starting point is 00:13:32 Anyways, this album, The Love of Life. This is the album that I got into. So this is With Love from Me to You on Watashi Waugh's 2003 album, The Love of Life. So that's Whatashi Waugh. Yeah, and I remember that song now that I hear it again. So the funny thing about this is, it's like, well, what else would we call it back then other than emo music, right? Because when you hear it now, it's like, well, yeah, you know, that's really the only genre to put it in. So emo's short for emotional?
Starting point is 00:15:42 What a great segue, my friend. So I've essentially spent the last week digging into emo music, the history. of emo music going and listening to like what's considered the first emo band and whatnot. So we're just going to go right into it and we're going to kind of skip over my quote unquote what you heard. But basically it's it's what we're about to play, which is we're going to take a trip back to Washington, D.C. in 1985. that is the widely agreed upon origin of Emo music is the DC hardcore punk scene in the 80s.
Starting point is 00:16:28 So. Damn. Dude, I would never in a million years would I have thought that Emo started in the 80s. Never in a million. Well, here's why, dude. Emo stemmed from hardcore punk. So basically, like, if you think punk rock in the 80s, right, you've got like, like the mohawks and, you know, the leather studded vests, right?
Starting point is 00:16:52 And like, you know, the sex pistols and like minor threat. The misfits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the hardcore punk scene. And like, you know, what are those? No effects and all them. So anyway, that scene was called hardcore, right? Hardcore punk.
Starting point is 00:17:11 there was this offshoot of of hardcore punk bands in Washington, D.C. in particular, that formed and were sort of grouped together and considered part of this movement, if you will, called the Revolution Summer, I think. Yeah, that's what it was called. It was called the Revolution Summer. And that was the Summer of 85 in D.C. and that was this social movement that these bands were lumped into that sort of they tried to kind of push back on the mainstream media's like portrayal of punk right okay like the you know the imagery that you think pretty much what I just described right and uh you know their concerts their live performances they would basically mosh pit the moshing original in this movement because instead of like... Hang on a second, hang on. You're telling me that that moshing wasn't a thing before this revolution summer? Moshing was a thing,
Starting point is 00:18:24 but you would get a fist in the face in the mosh pit. Gotcha. Before this, because, so like part of this Revolution summer movement, if you will, was mosh pitting became more about. just, hey, let's shove each other around, you know. So maybe he was trying to have a better image for punk. Yeah. For like the punk scene.
Starting point is 00:18:47 Yeah. So, you know, there is a handful of bands that were considered part of that movement. Two of them are widely considered like the origin of the term emo started with these two groups. So the first one, and I've got a clip here, this band is called Rites of Spring. So part of the, along with this movement, really the only difference when you look at these bands compared to the other hardcore punk bands was their approach to lyrics. So their lyrics became more reflective and more expressive as far as like inward emotion or whatever. And that's why when you listen to this, it's going to sound like a punk band because that's what it is. But the term emo was used to describe the lyrics more so than anything else in the 80s.
Starting point is 00:19:58 let's play the rights of spring clip first uh this song is called theme and i'm gonna i'll read the lyrics afterwards if you can't tell what they are but so so when did this song come out 1985 okay wow all right cool let's hear it okay so the lyrics and if i started crying would you start crying and it goes on to say and hope is just another rope to hang myself with to tie me down something real comes around So hardcore punk fans would be at the venue listening to these guys and they would, you know, kind of make fun of the lyrics and stuff because it was kind of corny, you know what I mean? Showing their emotions on their sleeve, right?
Starting point is 00:21:57 Compared to other punk bands from that era, you know what I mean? I feel like the lyrics of punk rock band, it was all about rebellion, right? Like rebellion against the system, society, the social norms and, I know a lot of punk bands were very political as well in the 80s. Yeah, so these groups started like turning it in on themselves when they wrote the lyrics, right? Yeah, yeah. So that's, okay, so let's now let's transition to this next band. Also, let me back up by saying there is this really good list on, there's this Rolling Stones article that covers the, it's their ranking of the 40 best emo albums of all time.
Starting point is 00:22:40 Okay. So I want to keep referring to that, just to give you context. They put this album, the Rights of Spring album, as number two on their list, number two. Okay. So that's a pretty big deal. This next group, they're called Embrace. And this song is called Dance of Days. This is number 24 on the list of 40 greatest emo albums, according to Rolling Stone.
Starting point is 00:23:05 But this group in particular, is extremely important to the emo music history because this is when emo, the term emo was coined to describe this band. So there was this magazine, this punk rock magazine, I think it was actually a skateboard magazine called Thrasher. And there was an article or a review of this album in 1986. And the author coined the term emo core to describe the music. And he said, It goes by the name of emo core or emotional core. Bands like Embrace, Rites of Spring, and Beefeeder, among others, are taking the severe intensity of an emotional projection and adding it totally into their respective live sets.
Starting point is 00:23:56 Crowds are said to be left in tears from the intensity. So, he was using it more to describe the live act, you know what I mean? But that's because these singers would get so into it in the live performance. performance when they were singing these really personal, like, reflective lyrics that they would literally sometimes like come like to tears while they're up there. Not like sobbing, you know what I mean, but just like the emotional intensity of the moment. So the term emo core was was coined. And then that just over time was just shortened to emo. Got it. So let's hear their, let's let's hear the song. Again, it's called dance of days. And when did this come?
Starting point is 00:24:40 out. 1986. Oh, dude. I mean, you could start to see the, you know, you can start to hear a little bit of what happens later on in email music, you know what I mean? Like you can start to hear it a little bit. But again, it's- A lot.
Starting point is 00:26:12 And dude, that's blowing my mind right now that that, that came out in 86 that these, they were done, you know, because it's, that's not punk. You know, it's not punk. But it's definitely, but it's definitely got punk, like a punk underpinning or whatever. But yeah, like you're saying, like you can see those, you can see this. gradual change. Yeah, and another key aspect of emo music
Starting point is 00:26:34 compared to punk or or, you know, hardcore rock is that the guitar and the music in general has more of an emphasis on melody, like melodic, almost to the point of like math rock sometimes, which is what, you know, we covered that
Starting point is 00:26:53 with the Foles episode that we did. But again, it's more about the lyrics back in the 80s, that's how the term was coined and all that. And, you know, when you read these lyrics, we all struggle for our dreams to be realized. They end up objects of our own despise. Why? The dance of days. So again, it's like, it's almost like, you know, and this is, this is kind of funny because
Starting point is 00:27:16 like another cliche of emo, the emo scene kids, you know what I mean? Is that they would like write or type on their live journals. You remember live journal back then? Yes, I had one for a while, did. You did? Did you really? Yeah. But yeah, so, you know, these are very reflective lyrics, like somebody's writing in a journal, you know, or whatever. So that's kind of the origin of it.
Starting point is 00:27:40 So now, let's jump into the 90s. So this is considered first wave emo, right? Second wave emo is considered to have started in the Midwest. And that is where this next band, and you'll see a definite shift because you've got to think like this is you know this 10 years later 10 years it's 86 97 so this this came out 97 so yeah just about okay 10 years later and this has kind of another gone on to receive sort of iconic status for for emo music this was number three on rock and number three on rolling stones list of 40 greatest emo albums but what you're going to hear now is the definite shift more
Starting point is 00:28:26 toward like melodic guitar and uh you know kind of more of that like upbeat punk rock sound but with you know almost no uh no hint of hardcore whatsoever like that's like the screaming and all that that's that's out of the picture at this point so this band is called the promise ring uh they were formed in Milwaukee Wisconsin and again you're going to hear a shift more toward melodic music and This is when you're going to start to hear the trademark like whiny voice, you know, that anybody associates with emo. Yes. Second wave emo is kind of where that started.
Starting point is 00:29:07 So this is called Why Did We Ever Meet? It's interesting to hear that, dude, knowing that it came out in 97, because it does have a lot of punk in it, you know. Yeah, but it's... But it is different. It is different. Exactly. It's the, when you listen to the punk from the 80s,
Starting point is 00:30:55 like it's the shift more toward that kind of more playful punk, I guess. More playful. See, so I immediately thought of Green Day when I was listening to this. More so the guitar riffs and the drumming. Yeah, well, I mean, it had this. Even some of the way that he was singing, but then it does kind of steer in another direction away from those more classic punk rock bands from the 90s.
Starting point is 00:31:21 Yeah, I mean, this is the, that's the punk sound that you and I first heard as far as like punk, you know what I mean? Like Blink, Blink-R-R-A-2 was our, like, intro to punk, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:31:33 Which is what, late 90s even for, for them. Yeah. But like Green Day, you know, Green Day's album, Duky came out in 94. Yeah, and that's got your, that's your classic 90s punk.
Starting point is 00:31:46 Yeah, right. And that was playful, but then listening to this, song from Promise Ring. Like there is a difference with it. It is. Yeah, like you said, it's more playful. What are the lyrics?
Starting point is 00:31:58 Do you have those pulled up? I've got one little snippet here. Under that threat of sky, we lied together. Why care about the weather? It only ends in darkness. So, I mean, dude, like out of context, not hearing the song whatsoever. Like, that's a pretty depressing lyric.
Starting point is 00:32:17 Like, it's basically he's like saying, like, why do we even give a shit about this nice, weather, dude. Everything into darkness. Yeah. So like, but then you listen to the song. It's got a very upbeat, you know, ba,
Starting point is 00:32:29 ba, you know what I mean? Like it's, yeah. That part, that part in particular is where it steers away from this, from the typical punk of the 90s. But again,
Starting point is 00:32:39 like in this, in this particular context, the reason that this is emo is because of the lyrics, dude. That's why. So like, anyway, like to give some more context,
Starting point is 00:32:49 like two years, later in 99, Newfound Glory's album came out, their first album. Nothing gold can stay. Right? So, and remind me again, Newfound Glory is on that list of emo bands. Yeah, Newfound Glory is an emo. Okay. I mean, that's the thing that, emo is just a, you know, a term that gets applied in addition to other labels that are put on these bands, because obviously Newfound Glory is a punk band, you know what I mean? It's a punk, pop punk is what I would put them under now, like in retrospect, you know. Right, exactly.
Starting point is 00:33:21 So, okay. So now, now, here's a little interesting piece of trivia here, Q. So the name of that song was, why did we ever meet? Does that, do those words sound familiar to you? Why did we ever meet? They will. They don't. Once I, okay.
Starting point is 00:33:41 Here is why they do sound familiar to you. Do you remember the song? Do you remember the, the Jimmy World song? A praise chorus on Bleed American? Yes. So the lead singer of the Promise Ring, his name is Davy von Boland. And Jimmy World and Promise Ring toured together in the 90s. Okay.
Starting point is 00:34:02 And praise chorus, which is on Bleed American, Davy sings backup vocals on the song, on the song's chorus, particularly the, you know, the Crimson and Clover. Ah, that one. Right, over and over. So that's Davey singing that part. And then Jim starts singing, you know, our house in the middle of the street. Why did we ever meet?
Starting point is 00:34:28 There you go. So he's referencing this song while the lead singer is in the studio with him. Wow. And then, you remember the next part of the song? He says, so come on, Davey, sing me something that I know. Yes. Yeah, dude. So there you go.
Starting point is 00:34:46 It's all tied together. Cool. So, anyway. So, so obviously, um, this band, Promise Ring was, was an influence on, on the boys and Jimmy, huh? Well, they were writing, well, here's the thing, though. They were, I mean, they were writing music at the same time. It's not, okay. Promise Ring didn't come before Jimmy E. World.
Starting point is 00:35:06 Okay. So I guess it's time to, let's jump into Jimmy World then, huh? Yeah. So, okay. Now we're going to finally get to Jimmy. So before we talk about clarity, which is the album that we're talking about today, I wanted to play a snippet from their previous album, which was called Static Prevails, just to kind of give you a contrast between, like, how their sound changed. Because when you listen to Jimmy World, when you listen specifically to Static Prevails and then Clarity and then Bleed American, like basically they take Emo Wave 2 and completely transition into and usher us into Wave 3.
Starting point is 00:35:48 And you can hear it. You can totally hear it between these three albums. So let's listen to this song. It's called 17. And it was off of their album Static Prevails, which came out, I believe, in 96. This came out a year before the Promise Wing album came out. But anyway, this is called 17.
Starting point is 00:37:11 You know what that reminded me of, dude? What? Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Yeah. So is that the same? singer, dude? No. So here's a deal. Okay. Here's the deal. Prior to clarity, Tom Linton, which is rhythm guitar, and lead guitar, was the primary singer. Now, Jim Adkins would sing also, like, he would do lead, he would sing lead on some of the songs, but it was mainly-
Starting point is 00:37:39 So wait, was that him that we could hear in the background? Yeah, probably. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I thought I picked up on, on his voice somewhere in there. I just wasn't sure if he was just singing a little bit differently than he usually does. Yeah. You know, than what I'm used to. The funny thing is when you listen to the tracks on Static Prevails where he is singing the lead, you can tell it's him, but he still, you can tell he hadn't really, like, mastered his, his singing voice, I guess, because he fully, like, hit it with clarity.
Starting point is 00:38:10 Like, he found his voice and, like, in all that jazz. That's probably why he pretty much took on lead vote. from then on out. But Tom Linton sing lead on the majority of the tracks on Static Prevails, and he has a very different voice. Does he stick around? Oh yeah, yeah. He's there the entire, the entire run of the band, but he just goes to background vocals. There is a track on clarity where he sings lead vocals. It's called Blister. And you can tell, I mean, you can, like I said, they have two very different voices. So his,
Starting point is 00:38:47 his voice lends itself more to like traditional punk sounds. You know what I mean? Right. That's what I was thinking. So, and that's all important, right? Because when they shift to June... You know what? Listening to that song too, it's not just the voice.
Starting point is 00:39:01 It's the guitar strumming patterns. It's the drumbeat. It's all punk, you know? I guess that's really that's where it all stems from. But that's the thing. Emo music has almost, always had like a punk like bass layer to it you know what I mean well and like you said emo is just one descriptor you know yeah right exactly emo and punk
Starting point is 00:39:25 scream because if you think about it there's screamo in there's screamo there's hardcore emo there's and here's the thing there's there's emo pop emo pop music is third wave emo okay and that's what Jimmy World pretty much Jimmy World and Dashboard Confessional, like transition from second to third wave by writing emo pop music. Got it. All right. So let's transition now. Let's talk about clarity.
Starting point is 00:39:57 This is their third album, Jimmy World. They were signed to Capitol Records prior to Static Reveils. So Static Reveils was their first record on a major label. Clarity is like when they kind of kind of like what we're talking about with Spoon, where they kind of went all in. on it, you know? Uh-huh. Because, hey, you know, they kind of had already written all the songs for Static prevails and were being, like, corded by different labels, and then they made the, the record.
Starting point is 00:40:26 And that was in 96. So that's three years later they came out with clarity. So it was kind of their first, like, release under Capital, if you think about it that way, because they've been signed. They had all that previous material. Now they're working on new material for a new album on the, major record label. And like you can definitely hear like a change in quality of like the recording and like so
Starting point is 00:40:50 it was better produced and all that stuff. Their singles off of this album are Lucky Denverment, which is the song that you heard in the intro of this episode. And Blister, which is the song that Tom Linton sings on. But there is a huge change compared to all the stuff that we heard previously to a more poppy sound and that's where the email pop label gets thrown in there. But they still retain a lot of the, I don't want to say hardcore,
Starting point is 00:41:20 but like, you know, the thing that makes Jimmy World so great is that they go from like, they still have a little bit of like the first wave in some of their songwriting. But they also like, they transition well from one, from one song to the next.
Starting point is 00:41:36 And the two songs that I'm playing off this album kind of prove that. So the first one is called Your New Aesthetic. This is Trek. track number three, you're going to hear kind of that punk heavy sound, but with Jim Atkins on lead vocals. And anyway, let's just play and then we'll talk about it. We're lowering the standards in a process selective, but formulas to win. But it takes more
Starting point is 00:42:10 than one person So everyone jump on I'll miss you when you're just like them Okay So great song Right song Can I just say real quick dude Because it's eating me inside
Starting point is 00:44:45 He obviously borrowed A little drumbeat from Dave Gorolla there That is straight up to mind Who didn't? Who didn't? That is the That is the my hero drumbeat, man.
Starting point is 00:44:59 Dude, you're right. But that's the thing, dude, this is the 90s, you know. It's the 90s and that's a badass drumbeat, man. Yeah, yeah. I would do it if it fit well in whatever song I was trying to add drums to. Yeah, I think you're right, dude. But, yeah. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:45:16 That's a great song. It's a great song. Yeah, so Jim Atkins on vocals, again. And like you can totally hear, this is them sort of like, perfecting the formula, right, that goes on to become the Bleed American album. Because this song sounds a lot like Bleed American, the song, right? As far as like, like, I really like that kind of transition into the chorus where it's like that sort of like off key like guitar like string bending type thing. That's my favorite part.
Starting point is 00:45:50 Yeah. That might be my favorite part of the song. Yeah, it's great, man. but you wouldn't necessarily consider this emo what we think of when we think of emo dude I was going to say the exact opposite man like listening to this now it's so obviously emo well I mean
Starting point is 00:46:07 yes now knowing the full like history and context of emo yeah but I mean as far as third wave emo when we think of taking back Sunday or like dashboard confessional right you know or what Toshia while that band he played earlier. Like you wouldn't fit them into this.
Starting point is 00:46:27 But as I said earlier, like they sort of like transition us into third wave. And that's where this next song is going to come in. And you're going to hear it completely. And you're also going to hear huge similarities to the kind of stuff they continue to write for Bleed American.
Starting point is 00:46:43 So anyway, this next song is probably one of my favorite tracks on the album. It's called 10. And what I've always appreciated about them as the vocal harmonies that they do. And this song has a great example of that with the chorus and whatnot. Anyway, again, this is called Tin. It's, who cares what track it is, right?
Starting point is 00:47:09 No one cares. I know, we keep saying, like, who cares? Let's stop doing that. Yeah. I don't know why. Who cares? Track number eight, if you're curious, but yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:21 All right. Let's hear it. Okay, so, right? I mean, it sounds nothing like the first track we played. It sounds nothing like the track from Static Prevails whatsoever. No, not at all. Or does it sound anything like any of those other bands that I played earlier? But like this is like the transition into the more softer, like sort of melodic, you know,
Starting point is 00:48:48 where it's less about the punk. There's not even a hint of punk rock at all in that. song, right? No, not at all. And like I was saying earlier, it sounds a lot like the vibe and the feeling that you get from some of the songs on Bleed American, like, like, Here You Me, you remember that song? Oh, yeah. It sounds almost exactly like that.
Starting point is 00:49:08 So like I said, they are like perfecting that formula, you know, that pretty much brought emo into mainstream. How many years between clarity and Bleed American? There was three years between static prevails and clarity And then two years between Clarity and Bleed American And that's the thing too Anytime we talk about
Starting point is 00:49:30 Length of Time between albums We're talking about length of time between release dates You know like Who knows how far back they were writing songs for Bleet American It could have been even even in the same time They wrote They wrote sweetness around the same time Because there's a
Starting point is 00:49:47 Really Expanded edition of Clarity where there's a demo of sweetness attached to it. Wow, dude, I think that might be my favorite Jimmy World song. Well, what's funny, dude, is, okay, you remember back in the day, Nirvana, or not Nirvana, Napster, Limewire, all those, right? Yes. The first version of sweetness that I heard was this version.
Starting point is 00:50:09 I just didn't realize it. Wow, you know what, dude, it's, I'm probably in the same boat. I just don't remember. Yeah, I downloaded sweetness off of LimeWire or Napster, and it was this version. It wasn't the Bleed America. American version. So I remember when I heard the sweetness single that came out, it sounded way different. And I actually, I actually like the, the demo version better. So I'll have to put that in the show notes. But anyway, so I have another clip from the song, because there's sort of a change.
Starting point is 00:50:39 There's like a, there's a, there's a bridge. And, you know, we like to play bridges around here. We love bridges. Yeah, because it gives you another, another part of the song that you're can hear on the verse chorus. But anyway, let's hear that and we'll keep talking about. Safety scares them. I can't bring myself to say, yeah, the chain. Really pretty harmonies.
Starting point is 00:52:38 Yeah, I just love that chorus, man. It's just so great. But yeah, there's another thing that I really love about the song. It happens in the chorus. But basically, after they sing their line, the drum and the guitar do this like, I don't know how to really, mimic it here, but like the drum, the snare drums hit twice.
Starting point is 00:52:58 Ding, ding. That's kind of sound dumb if you play it back. That didn't sound like a snare drum at all. Well, that was the guitar strumming along with the snare drum hit. Okay. But anyway, like I said earlier, it's a huge transition from the previous two waves of Emo music, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:18 But it sort of ties in the more, well, I mean, there's a lot of bands that we didn't, Well, okay. Let me just fucking bring this up. Our sidetrack next week is going to be this band called American Football. They are also considered an early emo band. And they maybe perhaps could be considered the first emo band that stepped completely away from punk rock. And that's probably kind of what influenced Jimmy or Jim, I should say, Jim Atkins. because what they do so perfectly is they retain the punk rock vibes, but they also do sort of the slow melodic stuff.
Starting point is 00:54:04 And they did both perfectly, you know what I mean? And that's how they made it so big because they were able to come out with, I mean, think about it, dude. They released Bleed American, which was this like really heavy, loud song and the middle. Like, you know what I mean? I love that song I was just
Starting point is 00:54:23 That song was just playing in my head While you were talking just now Yeah it was Yeah and sweetness Like dude think about how different Those three songs sound You know what I mean I was just thinking that too man
Starting point is 00:54:35 Like Sweetness It's like sweetness is the perfect in between Yeah Of Bleed American and the middle Yeah That's where they got such huge success dude Yeah
Starting point is 00:54:46 Bleed American Or the middle specifically, that was such a big single. And that song was pretty big for us too, dude. I remember playing that song together when we were first kind of learning our chops with our instruments,
Starting point is 00:55:05 you know, like, yeah, I remember us playing that song together with just guitar and drums. Yeah, I remember right. And sweetness. I learned the solo on that song and I must have been fucking walking around like I was fucking bee's knees, dude. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:20 it's such an upbeat song it's it's so good yeah and the lyrics on that song are so great very uh well lifting which is kind of funny because emo lyrics are usually not uplifting but emo music has been like you know tied to like introverts and like people who are like have self-doubt and all that stuff you know what i mean yeah yeah so the middle is kind of like a you know hey it just takes some time. Yeah, don't write yourself off yet. It's only you're in your head. Right.
Starting point is 00:55:53 So anyway, we'll do an album, we'll do an episode on that album at some point because there are some killer songs on there that we're not singles. Yeah. Like authority, authority song, cautioners. What about your house?
Starting point is 00:56:07 Is that a single? That's my favorite song on the album. I love that song. That's an excellent song or excellent song. Hold on. You ripped my heart right out. According to this listing, Bleed American, praise chorus,
Starting point is 00:56:23 the middle and sweetness were the singles. Yeah, dude. So yeah, your house is great. Cautioners is kick ass. If you don't, don't. Oh, oh. Yeah. I forgot about that one, man.
Starting point is 00:56:36 Yeah. The authority song was great, man. Yeah. Damn. All right. Yeah, so we'll do that later. But yeah, it's important to, like, hear, like, what preceded
Starting point is 00:56:48 Bleed American and that's what clarity is and clarity has gone on to receive like critical acclaim what's funny is they actually got dumped from Capitol Records after this album came out no way
Starting point is 00:56:59 yeah because it didn't see much success Lucky Denver Man which was the single was on I think it was on never been kissed that film it was like a radio
Starting point is 00:57:12 never been kissed yeah with Drew Barrymore Drew Barrymore, yeah, I was going to say. Yeah. So that kind of, apparently that song because of the movie had sort of a cult following tied to it. So, but anyway, there's a lot of great songs on Clarity that I wasn't able to play. Like, I had like three or four songs that I wanted to play on this episode. But you'll just have to go back and listen to it.
Starting point is 00:57:38 But yeah, so we, like I said, we barely scratch the surface on the history of emo. There's a ton of other stuff out there. I mean, think about it, dude. we jumped from 87 to 97 with those two bands. There's emo music happening all in between there, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. But you can hear the evolution. Like, I always think of music genres kind of like the evolutionary tree.
Starting point is 00:58:00 You know what I mean? Where these branches and then they branch off, right? Absolutely. So like... Yeah, man, that's music for you. I mean, that's, yeah, obviously I'm not like some fucking like, that's not revolutionary in any... Yeah, yeah. like.
Starting point is 00:58:15 It is fun to look at it that way and to yeah. So when you find all those points that connect. Yeah. Because when you go to, you know, there's the punk rock branch. That branch is often to hardcore punk. I think that song that you, that you played earlier from that band Embrace was a great song to hear that
Starting point is 00:58:39 where those, where that point split into those two different genres. Yeah. because Rites of Spring, the song that I play from Rites of Spring, sounded more like a traditional punk song. Yep. With the exception of the lyrics. And then embrace,
Starting point is 00:58:54 it still sounded like a punk song, but it started to kind of throw in. It gets a bit more playful. Yeah, a little bit of more what you associate with emo. And then you jump to Promise Ring and like it sounds completely different. Yeah. But there's a lot of stuff happening in between those two bands. And one of which we'll do next week for our.
Starting point is 00:59:14 our side track. These guys are called American Football. And they are, I think they just had one album. But they've, since then they've gotten back together and released other, more material, but they kind of have a cult following,
Starting point is 00:59:30 you know. But their music is a lot more melodic and slow. So that's that side of email. Cool. I'm excited to hear it. And they do some really interesting things. It's a great listen, the album all the way through.
Starting point is 00:59:44 but we'll get into them a little bit next week for the sidetrack so that's it man that is our like quick overview of email like I learned a hell of a lot dude one thing I I didn't really realize and reflecting back on it it's obvious now but like the vast majority of music that we listen to in like middle school and into high school falls under the email umbrella I just didn't realize it yeah Right. It is obvious now looking back at it. Because if emo music simply means melodic guitar mixed with emotional, like, reflective lyrics,
Starting point is 01:00:26 I mean, there's no wonder if so many bands get thrown under there. You know what I mean? Yeah. But when you branch off to that. Yeah. I definitely wouldn't have put Isley into that category. Man, dude, that's a band. I'm going to have to revisit.
Starting point is 01:00:40 Dude, I haven't thought about them in years. What was their hit? It was like Telescope eyes or something like that? Telescope eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh.
Starting point is 01:00:52 What was that other band that we were in? The like, remember them? Yeah, yeah. They opened for Kings of Leon. Did you see them open? Yes, I was there with you, dude. I can't remember if that was Kings of Leon or Spoon. It was Kings of Leon 100% for sure.
Starting point is 01:01:09 I know that, dude. It was the features. The features. by the like and then Kings of Leon. Pretty sure. Pretty sure Mitchell was at that show with us. Oh yeah, dude. Mitchell was at all the Kings of Leon shows with us.
Starting point is 01:01:22 Ain't that right, Mitchie? All right. Mitchell McNight. Yeah, so before we get into our outro, real quick, as always, I'm just going to make this short and sweet. Hop onto our website, no filler podcast.com. You can pretty much get everything. that you want on that website.
Starting point is 01:01:46 You can stream our episodes directly from SoundCloud on there. You can read our show notes for each individual episode where we dive into, we've got a track list for all the songs for each episode. We've got embedded videos with concert clips and interviews, links to all of our source material that we pulled. So if you want to dive a little bit, deeper into these artists and albums. Chances are you'll get some more information on our show notes.
Starting point is 01:02:20 And you can subscribe to us on pretty much any app, anything that you use to listen to the pods. We should be on there. Even Stitcher, right? We're on Stitcher now. Yeah, we have been added to Stitcher as well. Very cool. Very cool. All right.
Starting point is 01:02:40 Cool. So that's going to be. be it for today. So that's going to do it. So that's going to do it for today. To close out the episode, we'd like to, you know, pick an artist that,
Starting point is 01:02:55 in this case, an artist that Jimmy E. World mentions as a influence or a band that they got into. Jim Atkins in particular, there's an interview that I was watching where he references Fugazi as one of his top three favorite bands. I've never actually gotten into them
Starting point is 01:03:16 Here's the interesting thing about Fugazi Q We're about to go full circle Are you ready? I'm ready The lead singer Fagazi Is the lead singer of Embrace Oh my God What is going on here now?
Starting point is 01:03:31 Oh my God So basically Embrace was like very short-lived And The lead singer His name is Ian McKay formed Fugazi in 1987. He's been associated with a lot of acts that have sort of these cult followings. He was also in Minor Threat, which was a hardcore punk band before he came and did Embrace.
Starting point is 01:03:57 Before he embraced, Embrace. That's right. Yeah. So that's funny because, you know, minor threat, like, is hardcore punk with no hint of emo. Yeah, they were pretty big. Well, yeah, like I said, they've got, it's just one of those other kind of like cult following bands, you know what I mean? But, yeah. Cool.
Starting point is 01:04:17 Yeah, so he did a small stint of emo music with Embrace, and then he went back and did Fugazi, which is more like experimental, like punk, post-hardcore. So, anyway, this song is called, I think this is like, you know, their most popular song. So it's called Waiting Room. It came out for their first album called 13 songs, which came out in 87, 89, sorry. It came out in 1989. So again, this is one of Jim Atkins' favorite bands, or at least it was when he was interviewed back in the 90s. All right, so that'll do it. We're going to let the song play us out here.
Starting point is 01:05:00 Again, this is No Filler Podcast. My name is Travis. And I'm Quentin. See you all. time. Bye-bye. It's covered subject to policy terms. With one of the best savings rates in America, banking with Capital One is the easiest decision
Starting point is 01:07:52 in the history of decisions. Even easier than choosing Slash to be in your band. Next up for lead guitar. You're in. Cool. Yep, even easier than that. And with no fees or minimums on checking and savings accounts, is it even a decision?
Starting point is 01:08:11 That's Banking Reimagined. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See Capital One.com slash bank for details. Capital One and a member FDIC.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.