Now here's something rather unique: once.lost.pictures were a two-person acoustic band from Iowa, active in the early 2000s; the vocalist was also in Dispensing of False Halos. once.lost.pictures are similar in most ways to other acoustic emo bands—they sound quite close to Full Surrender—but the drum machine, keyboards, and sampling set them apart. At times their sound is eerily prescient of the current emo trap movement, despite being released well over a decade before that music came to prominence. In that particular combination of sounds, these guys were way ahead of their time.
Their only release appears to be the forever.always LP, put out in 2002.
Crashcart were an emo pop band formed in 1999 and active to around 2003 or so. I'm not sure where they were from, but both of the record labels they were on were based in California, so that might be their home turf. Their sound is 90s-style emo pop, or what is sometimes called 'emotive pop punk' or 'emo punk,' distinct from the high-production sheen of 2000s emo pop. Crashcart were holdouts in that sense, releasing their last album in 2003 but completely ducking the trends of the time. This is emo pop with the occasional bit of midwest emo flair, similar to bands like The Get Up Kids or Notaword.
The band's first release was november for beginners in 2000, though it appears they were self-releasing the album a year earlier in 1999 before the label release. It's a rougher album that lacks the catchier qualities of the second. In 2001, Crashcart put out a self-titled EP. Two years later, they ended their career with the anthemic Sleepers Awake.
Dreams Forever Drowning were a band from New York, active from 2001 to 2004. Their sound is an eclectic mash up of early 2000s emo pop and influences from screamo and hardcore. The songs can turn on a dime, going from pretty standard emo pop to straight up hardcore within seconds, often changing multiple times within the same song. A review at the time said it was an interesting combination but one that didn't necessarily gel all that well, and I tend to agree. The styles don't always blend and some of the songs feel like multiple songs awkwardly crammed together instead of proper hybrids. That being said, it's still an interesting album and if the band had kept putting out music I think they may have smoothed things out, as evidenced by an unreleased EP from 2004 which is a little more cohesive.
The band supposedly did three releases: a demo, the Entire Parts Never To Be Left Incomplete EP in 2002, and the 2004 unreleased four-track EP. I have the 2002 EP and the 2004 EP on offer, but as of yet haven't found the demo.
Emo was and remains a worldwide phenomenon with plenty of room for all kinds of music under its wide umbrella, as emo pop outfit Shuttle Loop attest to.
Shuttle Loop were a band from Seoul, South Korea. I say 'were,' but it's vaguely possible they still are—their Facebook page was last active in 2017 and their website is down, so they've probably called it quits. Their sound is a highly polished aggregate of emo pop from the 2000s, from Straylight Run-style ballads to The Get Up Kids-style pop punk to the occasional burst of Hawthorne Heights-style mall emo screaming; there's even a little midwest emo put in here and there. The end result is something that sounds sort of like the emo pop of the early to mid-2000s without ever fully embracing its tropes. Over the course of their three releases, their sound shifts focus around these elements, emphasizing some while deemphasizing others.
After forming in the mid-2000s, the band's first release was the How Are You Today EP in 2008, followed two years later by their first LP, Time Is Not. It would take another five years for the band to release its last album, The Anchor, an album that recognizes "I'm Pretty Sure Every Fade Out Means Happy Ending" is the band's best song, because they rerecorded it. However, I can't decide if the rerecording is an improvement: It's more bombastic and 'better' produced, if you consider more production to be better, but emo often benefits from the raw qualities the first recording has, and I think that may be the case here.
Before there was Bellador, there was Ransom Tree, an emo pop band active around 2000. The band would release a single EP before changing their name to Bellador and releasing The Day's Intent in 2003. While the EP is mostly an emo pop release, there are plenty of signs pointing to where the band was heading. This is most keenly felt in the twelve-minute closer, "this isn't kansas," which with only a bit more polish could have easily been a track fit for Bellador's album.
Ransom Tree's only release before becoming Bellador is 2000's Pictures and Everything. They also contributed a track to TheChronicles of the Heart Vol. 1 compilation.
Another Sevenfold were a screamo band from North Carolina, active from the late 90s to around the turn of the millennium. Their sound combines the aggression of screamo with some of the elements of emo and emocore. They easily could have been around in the early 90s, they have that kind of first wave feel.
The band's website is somehow still active and reveals a discography that is mostly missing from Discogs and elsewhere. Through 1996 and 1997 they released four cassettes that can't be found anywhere. In 1997 they recorded the self-titled album, but all sources I can find say it wasn't released until 2000 on Motherbox. The record itself has no dating, which doesn't help. Later in 1997 they put out the Thousand Star Serissa 7", and that seems to be it.
I have a link for the album below, but if you'd like to get everything in one place then head over to do you feel at home?
