"mEMOries" Part 7 feat. Boys' Club

8 years ago, back on the old site, we did start a series called mEMOries. It was all about asking new Emo-bands or other scene affiliates about their all time favourite (Midwest-)Emo-record. It was about nostalgia. And it was about connecting the new with the old. I had big plans for this series, wanted to collect 20 parts and then release some sort of a sampler with an XL-booklet attached, that features all of the text pieces...

...after 7 parts the series was buried, when the end of borderline fuckup 1.0 was on the horizon. I'm still in love with the idea and tried my best to start a relaunch in 2021, but it mainly was a chore. However, I already have some new material waiting to be released. To start it off correctly I'll recycle the parts from the old site. Now, here's part 7 for your reading pleasure!

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// The band // Boys' Club

BOYS' CLUB out of Edmonton/Winnipeg, Canada existed from 2012 to 2017. They played a charming version of Emo-Punk and left a discography of 5 EPs worth checking out. In 2014 their singer/guitar player Zac Houston took his part in mEMOries...

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// The record //
Moneen - Are we really happy with who we are right now?

Release: 2003 // Label: Vagrant Records

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Zac Houston on "Are we really happy with who we are right now?" by Moneen

Our story takes us to the desperate metropolis that is Winnipeg, Manitoba circa 2007. I was a prototypical 16-year-old suburban raised aspiring-punk. I was insatiably restless and a chronic insomniac. Most nights were spent awake hours later than my friends and family, obsessively scouring the Internet for bands who understood my suburban alienation. One night I stumbled upon the video for .moneen.’s “Start Angry… End Mad” and I will never forget the rush.

In those days, if I liked a song I would do all I could to avoid hearing another song off the record until I owned the physical copy. All of my free time then involved a frantic search for their sophomore classic “Are we Really Happy with who we are Right Now”. The couple of days after I found the CD remain some of the most defining of my adolescence. My younger sister was a travelling hockey player and that took her and my parents out of town many weeks during the year. This left me alone with a car, unable to sleep, and without friends willing to break curfew on weeknights during school. I wandered down to the city’s sad excuse for an art district and found a used copy at my favourite record store. I spent the rest of that spring night and morning driving aimlessly around the city listening to it on repeat.

Musically it was as captivating and intense as anything I had ever listened to. Intricate guitar work, creative rhythms, all overshadowed by the most passionate delivery. From the syncopation of the bridge on the opening title track to the deranged screams on the closer, I had never felt as comforted as I did during that night. As clichéd as it sounds, it was as if finally I had found someone who understood exactly the life of a bored and bitter teen in a mundane Canadian city.

However, that record was more than an angst filled emo record of teen anthems to me. For the remaining nights until my family returned home, I walked the streets with .moneen. on my ipod and explored my hometown with a new appreciation for the mediocrity I grew up surrounded by, knowing others were “suffering” just as I was. The older I got the better that record seemed to age. I grew to realize that “Are we Really Happy” addressed the desperation, restlessness, alienation, and malaise that follow you far beyond your adolescence.

I listened to it once a day for months and it has gotten more play than any other I own. My relationship with this record really culminated in 2009 when I saw them on what is potentially their last Canadian tour. Getting the mic shoved in my face so I could scream the “DIE”s during “Start Angry… End Mad” with a crowded room full of other sweaty wandering souls solidified that record as the most important of my life. The saddest songs for the saddest kids.

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"mEMOries" Part 1 feat. Mosey Jones
"mEMOries" Part 2 feat. Daniel Becker (Time as a Color Records, Amid the Old Wounds)
"mEMOries" Part 3 feat. Former States 
"mEMOries" Part 4 feat. Edie Quinn (Middle-Man Records, Coma Regalia)
"mEMOries" Part 5 feat. Human Hands 
"mEMOries" Part 6 feat. Alex Miles (Is this Thing on?)