I was tattooing a friend who has started an emo cover band and we were discussing what that genre meant to us. I love the first and second waves if emo and was delighted a few years ago when there was a renaissance of that sound with new bands forming and carrying the torch and the original bands doing reunions. This sad, angsty genre became the butt of many jokes. You have to be a romantic and a little self absorbed to appreciate the album's offered up. If you like The Smiths you can make the transition to emo very easily. I bought this cd in 1995 because of 'zine reviews and also because I loved the album title. #mineral had taken the dynamic bombast that Sunny Day Real Estate had started and put their Midwest isolation stamp on it.
I became the butt of many jokes at work and at my apartment because this melodramatic music amplified my dour persona. I was bummed out at the time and I really felt that this music intimately belonged to me. The song "slower" off this album was a dangerous thing in my headphones. I would completely lose myself, reality would melt away from around me and I would become the star of a sad, angry music video. I'm sure more than one motorist was amused by the off-key howling pedestrian they just passed walking down Elmwood ave. I still love driving to that song. It made my trip to the Philidelphia tattoo convention a few years ago a lot shorter as I clutched the air above the steering wheel singing in disharmony unity with the band. It's powerful stuff once you let it envelope you. I really hope to catch my friend's band and maybe relive some of this stuff.
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