D.S. Sutton

Any frequent visitors of the blog with probably have noticed by now that while it covers all the variations of emo, it tends to specialize in midwest emo. This is a reflection my personal tastes, as the original, 90s midwest emo sound is my favorite form of music. I do enjoy the Kinsella-focused emo revival version of midwest emo, but bands like Mineral, Strictly Ballroom, and Christie Front Drive will always be the best version of the genre to me.

Therefore, whenever I get my hands on an unknown bit of aughts music that purports to be emo, I don't allow myself to build any expectations on the midwest emo front. There are any number of emo pop bands from the 'mall emo' years that namedrop various 90s bands as inspirations and then play the exact kind of emo you immediately heard in your head when I said 'mall emo.' (Every now and then they'll throw me a bone with a nice twinkly part before hitting the same chords again.) So when D.S. Sutton claimed in their bio to be influenced by Sunny Day Real Estate and The Promise Ring, I didn't exactly get my hopes up.

I've rarely been so happy to be wrong.

D.S. Sutton were a band from British Columbia, active from 2001 to around 2004. When they started out, they played genuine midwest emo, similar to other bands that just missed the second wave like Outsmarting Simon, The Autumn Year, and Fly, Mordecai. The Sunny Day Real Estate influence can be felt throughout their excellent full-length Towards The Stars And Falling. It opens with the fantastic, anthemic "They Don't Believe Me." It closes with the epic, nine-minute "Ivan" which shows that D.S. Sutton, like Michael and The Interstate Ten, understood that emo mixes well with strings. 

In 2004, the band released the Hope EP with a new lead singer. From the outset, the EP leans more towards the glossy emo pop of their peers that the first completely avoids. That said, they never fully embrace the emo pop aesthetic. The first song, "This Is The Way The World Is Ending," could easily make you think you're about to get another Hot Topic-suitable album, and then on the second song they immediately resume the midwest emo. It's half and half, poised between the genuine indie emo of the album and the emo pop punk of the band's contemporary scene. In other words, if the album is Outsmarting Simon, then the EP is Hot Rod Circuit.

Hope was the band's last release, denying us the chance to hear where they would have gone with a second LP. One of the band members has a current indie pop project called Summer Eyes, and were kind enough to sell me a copy of the otherwise completely unattainable Towards The Stars And Falling.

Towards The Stars And Falling + Hope