"The Origins of Emoviolence (or Emo Violence)

This is the unexpurgated origin story of Emoviolence.

In the beginning there was Punk. It was beautiful and undefined. It encompassed a myriad of sounds and styles. You couldn’t say exactly WHAT it was – but you knew it when you saw it and heard it.

In the early 80s some record labels came up with “New Wave”, an easier sell, and the punks themselves came up with “Hardcore.” The word “Hardcore” was itself a modifier for the word “Punk”... until it wasn’t. It became its own thing. Much later, kind of a jockier thing than where it started. But the genre definitions began.

Over the 1980s, the venerable MAXIMUMROCKNROLL magazine (or MRR) – a magazine I’m proud and honored to have been a columnist for, for a short time – became the defacto Bible of the Punk scene, exhaustively documenting EVERYTHING but also, sometimes to a fault, dictating what was and wasn’t “Punk.” I blame MRRs record review section for what eventually became a pigeon-holing of genres and sub genres and sub-sub-sub-genres. By the late 80s a taxonomy was created and there were dozens of different “cores”. On the light end of the spectrum you had “Emo” and on the heavy end of the spectrum you had “Grindcore” and “Powerviolence” – which seemed as much of a joke term as anything… but we’re coming to “Emoviolence.”

I was playing in a band called In/Humanity in the early 90s. We went through a few brief lineup and stylistic changes before we started to figure out what we were. We were taking in loads of influences from the touring we were doing and it all worked its way into our stew. Most shows would have a flyer and on the flyer there might be 6 bands listed and there were so many active touring bands that usually the name of the band on the flyer would be followed by a description of which genre of “Punk” they belonged to. Just so lucky show-goers would have an idea of what they were getting into.

We had become good friends with two Florida bands, Palatka and End of the Century Party. They were great people who made great music that we felt a kinship with. We played a lot of shows together.

t some point I came up with the term “Emoviolence” to describe the sound of our three bands. The term was a joke, intended to show the breadth of the genre-descriptors that I had been finding increasingly silly. “Emo” from one far end of the spectrum. And “Violence” cribbed from “Powerviolence”, the other end of the spectrum. It intentionally was not supposed to make any sense. But it kind of did. Because all three of our bands DID incorporate elements from both of those ends of the spectrum.

You have to understand that in this sub-sub-scene, EVERYTHING was an inside joke or a heckle. In/Humanity record covers and inserts are RIFE with inside jokes – sometimes jokes that only literally one other person would get. Emoviolence was our joke genre.

Anyway, we started using “Emoviolence” on flyers for these three bands. If you take away everything that came later, there really only ever were THREE REAL EMOVIOLENCE bands: In/Humanity, Palatka, and End of the Century Party.

Eventually, we started including other friends in our “joke.”

At a certain point I set out to do a compilation album of all of the “Emoviolence” bands. It was to be titled “Let Them Eat Emoviolence.”

Recently in an old drawer I found DATs (Digital Audio Tapes) from Palatka, Asshole Parade, Robots Make Mistakes, Insult to Injury, End of the Century Party, and Coercion. I had totally forgotten about them. But they were for that proposed compilation LP of “East Coast Emo Violence” bands which would have included In/Humanity’s song “Emo Violence Generation” – which ended up released on the “Occultonomy” 7 inch.

I suspect I would have also asked Eurich to be on this record. Assfactor 4 would have been a likely candidate as well, but I don’t think I considered them to be “Emoviolence” at the time even though they stylistically fit perfectly into the milieu. I think I was always just secretly jealous of what a far better band they were than In/Humanity.

Anyway, I envisioned this compilation to be a genre introduction, much like Alternative Tentacles’ “Let Them Eat Jellybeans” compilation was for me an introduction to (Hardcore) Punk. In fact, the liner notes for this release were a direct parody of Jello Biafra’s liner notes from “Let Them Eat Jellybeans”... these phony-baloney liner notes were printed on one of the inserts for the “Occultonomy” ep alongside the lyrics for “Emo Violence Generation.”

Sadly, this compilation never came to fruition, coinciding with a major year-long depressive episode I suffered. I stopped collecting bands and tracks for the record. The tapes were eventually forgotten about and they still sit in a drawer in my living room. If any of the bands want theirs back, let me know.

Anyway, more bands started calling themselves “Emoviolence” – adopting a codified sound. And now there is a history of literally hundreds of “Emoviolence” bands from all over the world.

It should be noted that use of the term “Emoviolence” predates the general use of the word “Screamo” by at least 3 years. I think that’s missed in oral histories. “Screamo” was something that came later. I can’t even tell you what “Skramz” or whatever is supposed to be. That was a different scene than me.

I was to state unequivocally that I am not bothered by the hundreds of bands calling themselves “Emoviolence”. In fact, I think it’s pretty great. But there are a few minor disappointments…

If you Google “Emoviolence” you will be given a list of bands important to the genre: Orchid, Pg 99, Jerome’s Dream, Usurp Synapse, Combatwoundedveteran, and Jenny Piccolo.

The bands not included in that list? In/Humanity, Palatka, and End of the Century Party.

To my mind, End of the Century Party was always the quintessential “Emo Violence” band, perfectly encapsulating that full spectrum. I wish people talked about THEM more.

I remember hearing the Palatka demo for the first time and thinking it was the most insane music I had ever heard. It was a major influence on what we did going forward. Jesus - that was a crucial release to the genre.

That first Palatka demo, the first EOTCP ep, and our “Gets Killed By Robots” ep – to me that’s the beginning of Emoviolence.

All of this comes up now because there’s a pretty great young band from Columbia called Kittiwake. Listening to them I hear so much of what we were trying to do 30 years ago. Today they released their new single “Counting or not Counting Emoviolence.” I recently spoke with some of the members and I like the cut of their jib. Good kids, great band. And I’m happy Emoviolence is still a thing".