in the end, i think the most important thing i'm going to get out of my little foray into trying to find listenable screamo is a reminder of just how fucking awesome drive like jehu were. i've largely resigned myself to the conclusion that the obscure screamo i'm looking for doesn't exist and i'm instead picking up an influence from one of the least obscure records of the period - ok computer. i'm going to keep looking, but that's the likely reality: today's arty hardcore kids grew up listening to radiohead like everybody else.

but back to drive like jehu...

i always thought of them as alt. rock that was heavily influenced by sonic youth (well, what from the period wasn't?) and had a strong affinity with the artier side of the genre: jane's addiction, smashing pumpkins, i mother earth, primus, chili peppers, stuff like that. in hindsight, i can hear a ton of meat puppets. you could even make the argument that they sound like a prog rock nirvana. there didn't really seem to be a reason, to me, to be more specific than that. it's just some of the best alt. rock of the period.

i mean, snaking through, i can hear an influence. i'm not sure it's entirely necessary, but it's real. that is to say that these more obscure acts i'm pulling out were definitely listening to dlj, but, if they weren't, they could have just as easily synthesized what they were doing from fugazi and sonic youth - albeit not at the same level of quality that dlj did (and these guys couldn't touch dlj, anyways).

it might be a function of the media i was exposed to at the time, but i never heard anybody call them emo, either - just like i never heard the term applied to sdre or weezer. so was i an emo kid and just didn't know it? no. those categories piss me off. i tend to take the best acts out of each genre and discard the generic; i wouldn't have had any more of an interest in a thousand generic emo bands than i did in a thousand generic grunge acts...

i've remarked repeatedly, though, that it's funny that i was listening to almost all of the most creative emo acts all the way through the 90s, and yet never heard the term used until something like 2005.

anyways, this is a legitimately awesome rock 'n' roll album that you should check out if you missed it. if asked to present an objective argument, i'd have to say the other one is equally as good, but i like this one better. it's just a bit weirder.