Classic Emo Digging: Hoover is pretty damn good

[Against Will]

It might be the fact that I'm exhausted and have a slight buzz from the Miller High Life I just imbibed, but I'm listening to Hoover's "Lurid Transversal of Route 7" and it feels like the perfect album for the moment.


5 months ago I decided to get to the bottom of the whole emo business; so I logged onto fourfa.com and decided to take a look at what he suggested. Now, before anyone starts: this isn't the kiddie stuff bandied about as emo nowadays. No Green Day meets At the Drive-In pop stylings or Bad Religion channeled through Queen pompostiy. Most of the actual emo bands from the mid-80s into the early/mid-90's were the kids that used to be in hardcore bands and, though still angry, had matured some, got good at their instruments and got tired (physically and creatively) of playing super-fast howling hardcore like you'd find all over the US in the early and mid-80's. Some of the stuff may take a little digging to find, but it's pretty easily available considering how obscure some of these bands were in their heydays.

As I said, the emo bands fourfa suggested sound nothing like what most people associate with emo; Still Life sound like some terrible offspring of Section 25 and a shoegaze band, Moss Icon is like a skeletal hardcore and is pretty impressive considering the kids were just around high school age when they put it together. Orchid isn't too far from being grindcore, Antioch Arrow and Angel Hair...I don't know where they're coming from, Nation of Ulysses basically gave Refused their look, politics and musical freakouts, the list goes on.

Which brings me back to my point about Hoover, they are an awesome, incredibly talented band. Fred Erksine's bass forms the center of a lot of songs, he also doubles on vocals. The guitar work is great, rhythm is tight and pretty funky (in that DC/Fugazi/post-hardcore way). I would highly reccommend this album to anyone into bands like Drive Like Jehu and Fugazi. It took me a while to get into this album because the first two tracks aren't the best openers. They're growing on me, but I think the 3rd or 4th tracks: "Electrolux" and "Father", or "Private" are best places to start.

[The BurgerMeister]

thanks for the good info!

i remember my brother listening to Nation of Ulysees a little growing up (and along with that, i got a nice dose of Fugazi, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, and Bad Religion)... and i also seem to remember a time when emo didn't suck. did they even call it "emo" back then?

anyways, much appreciated!