Nothing makes me happier than unearthing an example of 90s-style midwest emo, which means this is a very happy post indeed. The emo dead zone gives up yet another one of its buried gems in the form of Bellador, a band from Jackson, MS, active in the early aughts. They were another midwest emo band that missed the second wave by a hair, and they were truly excellent.
If D.S. Sutton were carrying the torch for Sunny Day Real Estate, then Bellador were hauling a whole damn bonfire for Mineral—specifically, EndSerenading. Track four, "An Instrumental," sounds like it could easily be slotted somewhere into Mineral's second LP, complete with vocals straining for that same catharsis that Chris Simpson sought. Bellador's sound is a bit more polished than Mineral's, which means they sometimes sound like early-The Gloria Record, a comparison furthered by the occasional deployment of keys.
Prior to forming Bellador, the band was an emo pop outfit called Ransom Tree. Bellador's only release is 2003's The Day's Intent, though they have since put a couple unreleased songs up on streaming platforms.
Outsmarting Simon were a late-period second wave emo band from New Jersey, active in the early 2000s. They're a little better known than a lot of their peers from this time period, probably due to being signed to Triple Crown Records. Like most midwest emo bands who missed the crest of the wave, Outsmarting Simon formed right when the movement was running out of steam and didn't get an album out until a few years later. If not for the Triple Crown distribution, I imagine they'd be as unknown as Fly, Mordecai, Kid Brother Collective, D.S. Sutton, or The Autumn Year.
The band's first album, 2003's silent sober and sound, is their most well-known and also their best. It's pure 90s indie emo all the way through, packed with some of the best twinkly riffs the genre has to offer (so good, in fact, that nothing,nowhere. would sample the album twice on the who are you?EP). Just listen to that opening for "with five words." Their second album, Stand Up Straight, released in 2005, ditches a lot—but not all—of the midwest emo in favor of more straightforward indie rock\emo pop, but it's still worth a listen. Prior to both, the band put out a self-titled EP that contains a mix of unique tracks and some demo versions of tracks from silent. There are at least a couple songs on there, like "Polar," that are good enough that I think they should have made the cut for the album.
I'm also including scans for an advance promotional copy of Stand Up Straight that I have, which has a slightly different title for track four that I assume is a typo.
Half Hour To Go were a New Jersey band, active in the mid-90s. Their sound is fascinating to me, given the time period they were making it. It recalls the emo pop\midwest emo hybrid bands of the late 90s, but a couple years ahead of the curve; Half Hour To Go's sole LP, for example, was released the same year that The Get Up Kids formed. There's very little information on this band out there and I can't say for certain who they were or weren't an influence on, but they sound like they should have been an influence on a whole lot of people.
The band only had three releases. I believe the Don't Forget the Children 7" was released before the album, as it sounds like a rougher take on the LP's sound, but there's conflicting information on the release date, either 1994 or 1995. The album is called Items For The Full Outfit and was initially released in 95; my copy is a 1996 repress that has a slightly different track order than the original. In 1996 the band released a final EP, John Glenn, which I wasn't able to track down.
I wrote before about how difficult it is as a western fan to get into Japanese emo. Between the absence of most of it on digital services and the cost of physical media—up front and for import shipping—the barrier is high enough that at times it's downright impossible to collect a full or even a partial discography for Japanese emo bands. This is terribly frustrating because there are so many excellent Japanese bands in emo. Things are slowly changing, with more and more bands from Japan showing up on Bandcamp and streaming services, but they are late adopters and there are so many earlier bands whose work is utterly inaccessible.
Suffice it to say, it took me more than six months to get everything ready for this post, and if you're wondering how much money it cost me to put together this discography, the answer is I don't want to talk about it.
Bufferins were a legendary Japanese emo band, formed in 1993. They weren't just a band playing in the style of 90s emo, they were a true 90s emo band, contemporaries of the American scene despite being a world away. Their songs are energetic emo pop laced with midwest emo and a fuzzy, shoegaze aesthetic that reminds me of Evergreen.
The band's first release was a self-titled EP in 1997, also sometimes known as Pond. In 1998 they had a split release with Last Days of April and their first LP. The first LP appears to be self-titled, but is also called corrupt (or 'currupt' on the obi from the EP). I think the confusion is intentional, given the art from the album, so I decided to have corrupt be the album's subtitle. In 2001 they release their second album, koboreochirumono. I wasted months trying to track down a physical copy of this album but ultimately failed, so unfortunately I can only offer FLAC for the first LP and two of the EPs.
The group seems to have disbanded somewhere around 2002 but reunited long enough to put out a final EP, what a beautiful world, in 2009, though this timeline is confused somewhat by another EP they released in 2005. The 2005 EP appears to be self-released on CDr, so perhaps it was handed out at a reunion show or something similar. The band also contributed tracks to a few compilations, but the only unique track was on Cycle of the Moon 2 in 1999.
Audiocrush were a band from Santa Cruz, formed in 2000 and active for what looks like a couple years after. Their dual male\female vocals and big choruses make them seem like prime candidates to be a late-period 90s emo pop band—especially when you hear the chorus of the first song on the album—but overall their sound is actually much more post-hardcore and midwest emo than anything approaching pop punk. They sound kind of like Junk-era Jejune or Slow Fore, very Texas Is The Reason-inspired crunchy post-hardcore leavened with some midwest emo twinkles. Case in point is "Evil State," an excellent 90s-style midwest emo song even if it arrived at the very end of the second wave. The band's female vocalist was also active in Farewell To Youth.
The band's only release is the 2001 EP So You Call These Flowers.
