Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008

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i think the book also succeeds in reflecting on insular the scene was--how male dominated and how white it was. Right from the jump Payne says in the introduction how he's going to attempt to "depict where and how brand new drove the narrative of the 2000s emo boom, without glorifying Lacey himself... I truly hope I captured it in a way that feels accurate to the era, and bring no further pain to those Lacey hurt." And yes, many people highlight the rampant misogyny and sexism in the scene (kudos to Payne for including female and bipoc members of the scene for these parts) it seems like brand new/lacey is the only example brought up in this way, which was a frustrating missed opportunity. Satirical headlines like these don't pop up because of just one band yknow? Another reviewer pointed this out and wondered if it was due to legal issues and I can't help but wonder the same. Carrabba: They just said me. Wait, I think we won this. Avril was sitting right in front of me. I remember her turning around to clap when they announced my name, which I thought was nice. My coding degree from MySpace University still comes in handy. You will notice on the desktop experience that the cursor is the Green EnV that I had in high school that ceased to operate after I put it in my green and white boucle fake (!!!!) Prada baguette bag and a lemonade-flavored Vitamin Water spilled on it. Yes I tried putting it in a bag of rice, and nothing could revive it. Ian Cohen (music journalist): If you didn’t know all the words to the songs, you were gonna feel out of place.

Egan: Afterwards, we went to the Interscope after-party and Eminem performed. A hundred people in this little bar up in the balcony. Then like an hour in, he comes up to the railing, the music drops, he starts freestyling. We’re like, “What kind of life are we living?” We had a shoot for GQ the next morning. And I had a Newsweek interview at 9:00 a.m. a 4.5 rounded up -- I would've loved a longer epilogue from Payne talking about his experiences/feelings of the scene as a whole, but also understand that he refrained from doing so to let his interviews (over 300 hours!) speak for themselves. It was a mix. And some people – there definitely were like youth group kids, who will say like, “Oh, I love the Underoath and Norma Jean and Emory and Mewithoutyou, because I wanted to be into this music but the Christian bands were all my parents would let me listen to!” So there was those youth group kids, and then there were kids who had no idea who just loved it because it was like heavy music that sounded really like of the time. Others — interviewees include techs, managers, producers, roadies, former head of Tumblr, merch designers, concert crew, record executives, much more. Very comprehensive.

Marsh: I remember walking down the aisle to get up onstage and seeing Gwen Stefani looking at us … How did I get here, man? Eminem and all these massive artists. I don’t know how we got here so fast. So immediately there’s a narrative, there’s a hook that draws you in, other than just, “Oh, here’s an album, the songs are good.” Narrative is always so important with pulling people into music. And this one definitely has unsavory parts to it, and parts that are pretty corny in retrospect. But the rivalry was very real, definitely for a few years in the early ‘00s. Finally, it's from the perspective of one person who had the help of his networks and whoever could be leveraged to be available for the book, so it won't include everyone, I imagine. It's the people who are willing to talk.

Marsh: We went to Jimmy Iovine’s house [months later] to view MTV Unplugged in his massive theater room. I remember some of his comments: “You guys are gonna be the next big band. You guys are gonna be the next Nirvana!” I so enjoyed reading the history of the movement. I was aware of the fact that Long Island and NJ were hotbeds of the scene because we always seemed to be driving there for shows, but reading an actual history (it started in this VFW hall, that club that was willing to do all-ages shows etc) was like coming up off the ground and seeing my own reality from a 30k foot view. For me, when that stuff comes on in like a very public setting, I’m not into it. I think unfortunately, a lot of people either don’t care or just don’t really know. I think working in the music industry, it’s easy to forget how a lot of people’s experience with music is just streaming it on Spotify. And these people aren’t reading Wikipedia or keeping up with news or even keeping up with much of anything specific about the artist. Probably a lot of people, the songs off Deja are the songs that pop up sometimes on emo playlists on Spotify. And probably a lot of people aren’t even aware of the Jesse Lacey situation. Wood: Dashboard was a cultural moment. But in terms of radio, “Screaming Infidelities” did not get that kind of airplay. The book does have some occasional missteps, but they’re well-hidden. I thought that Gabe Laporta (Midtown/Cobra Starship) was used in the book a bit more than I was originally expecting, since I personally don’t find that his projects had the same trajectory of say Jimmy Eat World or Dashboard Confessional. It does a decent job of dealing with band controversies, especially with Brand New, and cautions the reader appropriately when discussing heavier subjects like drug use and suicide. Payne explains the reasoning behind this in his introduction, and I found that to be right from the heart.Carrabba: At award shows, they stage a camera near you. I was really aware of the camera. I felt uncomfortable in my own skin. I remember them announcing the names of the nominees, which included the Strokes and Norah Jones. Norah was sitting not far from me, and I could see the camera on her. The Strokes were a couple rows behind me. But as I was saying with the stuff that kinda predates me, I really wanted to make it authentic. And the more people from the ‘90s who were part of the scene who I talked to, the more it felt like Jimmy Eat World getting big with “The Middle” felt, like, so out of left-field. People were so psyched for them, but it felt so unexpected. Whereas where the scene really was at its core — and what people were talking about, what bands were rewriting their albums to sound more like — it was stuff like Saves the Day and Thursday. These bands were really where the core of this narrative was around ’99, 2000. You know, with the book – another thing that I write, is that I truly hope that this book brings no further pain to those who were hurt by Jesse Lacey. Brand New, to tell the narrative, had to be included. But I just hope that I brought no further pain into anyone’s life. Tom Mullen (marketing, TVT Records, Equal Vision Records): I was so amazed that people were paying attention because emo was largely ignored for so much of my life.

Carrabba: We were supposed to have a run of shows in the U.K., and we got nominated for the VMA. I felt really guilty canceling those shows. I remember that morning in New York City, getting coffee and feeling conflicted. It felt like skipping school. Andy Greenwald (music journalist, former Spin contributing writer): The front of Spin magazine was a section called “Noise” where they covered up-and-coming bands and things. The editor Tracey Pepper would often, generously, give me opportunities to cover bands other people weren’t interested in or she herself didn’t fully understand or appreciate. I was given the opportunity to write about Dashboard Confessional at CBGB. I went to the show a little skeptical, having listened to Chris Carrabba’s records and not personally connecting with them. Emo hadn’t been my scene at all. Marsh: I remember I couldn’t get my armpits to stop dripping. I couldn’t get my legs to stop moving. Chris was the same. It's also absolutely wild to read about these bands, who perceive themselves as outside of mainstream, as the counterculture, have rooted origins in just that and eventually becoming part of it. Truly fascinating, honestly, especially the anecdotes about meeting other huge artists of the time - p. 390 or so theres Pete talking about being friends with Christina Milian, and also about knowing Kim K., which is just a weird thing to read about because you can't fathom it? Winning awards at shows and attending alongside and interacting with Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Eminem LIKE? Hard to process for me, and I'm just here reading about it. Egan: The morning of the VMAs, I remember thinking we had no shot of winning. It was Dashboard, the Strokes, the Hives, and Norah Jones, all nominated in the same category, for the MTV2 award.Book Review — “Where Are Your Boys Tonight: The Oral History of Emo’s Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008” by Chris Payne Most of those bands are getting away from emo at that point, though. None of those bands really still sound like emo by the time they score this big hits.

There is a song – the last song on this album was written by the singer of a band called Copeland, or co-written, where they sing about Jesus by name, and it’s obvious. But aside from that, no one I don’t think would ever decipher it. If you could include one more song on this list that’s sort of from outside of the timeline of your book, from 2009 to present. What would be the one song, or some of the primary contenders for songs that keep the emo flame burning in the years since? Adkins: That was the most nervous I’d ever been. I grew up watching SNL. I would set the timer to record it so I could watch the musical guests in the morning. Then all of a sudden, you’re there. We’d played “The Middle” so many times by that point, and we were on tour. Once we started playing, it’s like, Oh yeah, we got this. But up until that point? Hooooooly shit. Insane. Egan: We had gotten tipped off from the MTV people, like, “Hey, you may want to prepare a few words.” The category Chris was nominated in was fan-voted. So it didn’t matter that 99 percent of mainstream America didn’t know who he was. It’s an extremely complicated question. That’s like a 10,000-word essay in and of itself. I mean, the scene was super-regressive and enforced traditional gender norms in a lot of ways. But then, like you said, you had these bands like The Used and MCR who wore makeup and definitely didn’t dress traditionally masculine. And Gerard and Bert kissing for the cameras – I mean, I don’t think it encouraged anyone to come out, at least not in large numbers, unfortunately.Carrabba: I liked the idea of songs you’d come to know one way being delivered in a fully different way. The ones that stood out to me most were obviously Nirvana’s and Pearl Jam’s, which they did pretty early on in their career. Chris Carrabba) "They just said me. Wait, I think we won this." Avril was sitting right in front of me. I remember her turning around to clap when they announced my name, which I thought was nice.