Park are a legendary emo pop band from Springfield, Illinois. I say 'are' instead of 'were,' because despite forming in the 90s and not having released any material since 2014, the band still pops up on the bill for various live events, usually local. Park's sound changed quite a bit over the course of their releases, but this post is focused on their early discography, from formation to the 2001 release of their second album. During those years, Park played the emo pop of the late 90s, catchy punk not too far off from the early work of bands like Northstar, Hot Rod Circuit, or Four Minute Mile-era The Get Up Kids. The sound of the band would shift towards post-hardcore\alternative over time; of course, given how many different lineups the band has gone through, it would have been more surprising if their sound hadn't changed.
Park's discography is extensive, but I've amassed everything they released (as far as I can tell) between their formation and 2001. Their Wikipedia entry says they formed in 1996 but I have a demo that's supposedly from 1995, so one of these things is wrong, but I don't know which one. The demo aside, the band's first official release was the Blue Screen EP in 1996, followed by the Mood Ring 7". 1998 saw the release of the first album, Scene 14, as well as a split with Civic. In 1999 they put out the Random and Scattered EP, and in 2001 released their second album, No Signal, which features a big jump in production values compared to the first. In between all these releases were multiple unique compilation tracks.
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