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"mEMOries" Part 13 feat. Joe C (What Price Wonderland?, Plaids, Zochor)

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 got back on track somehow, with a lot of support by some lovely people. Now, here's part 13 for your reading pleasure!

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// The author // Joe C


Joe Caithness was a mainstay of British Emo-music in the last two decades. He was one third of the beloved WHAT PRICE, WONDERLAND? and started some other projects, when they disbanded, the most well know of them was PLAIDS. His last band was ZOCHOR, and they totally blew me away when I discovered them. While communicating with Joe in regards to "mEMOries", he confirmed that ZOCHOR is no more and he will focus on his second big love in music: UK Garage and his project LITTLEFOOT. As you could expect from an insider like him, his choice for Part 13 is anything but a well know darling of Emo...

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// The record // Republic of Freedom Fighters - s/t

Release: 1996 // Label: MTN CIA

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Joe C on "selftitled" by Republic of Freedom Fighters

Truly great Emo albums are a fairly rare thing, some of the best crossover bands like Braid and At The Drive-in made proper 5/5 albums, but most of the pure straight up 90s Emo bands either didn't, or their EPs are stronger and more consistent.

One obscure, but absolute brilliant Emo album that no one ever talks about is by a Canadian band called Republic of Freedom Fighters. This isn't to say that ROFF are my "favourite Emo band", although they are up there, but they nailed the album format in a way most struggled to do.

It really hits every nail on the head for what makes brilliant gold tier proper Emo within seconds of taking it out the sleeve: Raw and intentionally slightly obscured production aesthetics, distant vocals crying and breaking up, dropping to a soft breathy spoken murmur in the lower dynamic sections. Right off the bat this is the purest strain of emo you will find.

The artwork itself is obscure, grainy, cut n paste and impressionist. It hits every 90s Emo cliché without feeling forced or too on the nose. It's better to just take a look than let me explain this to you, it's just very VERY Emo.

The album flows without pause for a breath and when it does drop it's beautiful twinkling yet urgent tension which always ends in gorgeous collapse. I remember getting this from Andy Malcolm (collective-zine, sncl) back when it was just a little Emo/Hardcore mailing list on Yahoo Groups in probably 2003 or something like that and instantly being drawn in to how intense and punishing this record is emotionally; it's tiring but in a good way and feel like you've let some bad blood by listening to it.

One of the key things for an Emo band for me to really kick me in the gut is when they allow themselves to break into pure Punk forward motion. They do it naturally and with urgency and when they break it down to full on Moss Icon style introspection they shrink to almost shyness, making you make the effort to go inside the music and lyrics.

The lyrics here are infamously bleak. I won't go into it too much, but it covers all the personal, political and social like 90s Emo bands did best. The mixture of impressionist musings and direct heart punching is the absolute good stuff. Bands like Current, Native Nod, Policy of Three etc did this perfectly also.

The guitars crush you with Drive Like Jehu style discordant counter point then break down into Indian Summer style looping build up which you never know when the collapse is going to happen and you grind your teeth knowing its coming.

Next time you are walking somewhere and it's raining you feel like shit put this on.
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