so, what am i expecting out of a survey of mewithoutyou?

i again had absolutely no interest in this when it was coming out around the early 00s. i mean, i had some vague understanding of what was then contemporary hardcore, but i just wasn't into it and couldn't have had much of a conversation around it besides articulating a broad, general dislike of the form. i remember asking around for punk that was specifically political in nature and getting blank stares like i was missing the plot. i mean, that was partly why i liked post-rock a bit better - i could actually relate to the subject matter. these emo kids were speaking greek; i didn't understand their perspectives very well. the people i was around were more into nu metal and glam rock, as well, so the exposure i had through them was on the other side of the genre.

i don't expect that i would have liked them much at the time if i knew they were there, but i may have had a better opinion of them than the stuff i was exposed to. as it is, though, i wasn't around the kind of people that were into this...and wasn't into it myself, either.

so, despite being alive and of age at the time, my understanding of mewithoutyou is mostly through a back rec via bands like la dispute, which i've been able to connect with more readily.

that said, i don't actually expect these records to sound like la dispute, or for me to connect with them on the same level; i've surveyed this before, and not come to that conclusion. rather, i expect to find them mildly interesting, but ultimately be turned away by the same things that turned me away from most hardcore of the period. it's probably going to be a string of Cs, and maybe a few weak Bs.

i don't know if i'm going to like them more or less as they mature. we'll find out.