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WELL, MAN, WHAT'S NEXT FOR SCREAMO!?
As with all grassroots phenomena that suddenly find themselves bankable, screamo bands are now baking under the industry's hot spotlight. ''We started getting major-label attention as soon as we had one song recorded. It was crazy,'' says Gerard Way, frontman of New Jersey's My Chemical Romance. Way, whose band signed to Warner Bros.' Reprise after one indie album (2002's doomy ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love''), is already a scene veteran. In today's download-first economy, the struggling major labels see a lot to like in young bands that have a back-breaking touring ethic, a preexisting fan base, and, most important, devotional loyalty from today's deep-pocketed but ever-elusive kids. Promising groups like Thrice and Story of the Year have already released their major-label debuts -- and expect the drizzle to turn into a deluge in 2004, with screamo hopefuls Fall Out Boy, Scatter the Ashes, and Avenged Sevenfold waiting in the wings. Still, Way is optimistic that screamo can avoid the fate of grunge, the last major underground rock genre to be strip-mined by an eager industry. ''We have all these kids that are singing with me,'' Way says. ''And we're trying to save their lives. That's all that matters.''
A PRIMO SCREAMO PRIMER
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A PRIMO SCREAMO PRIMER
RITES OF SPRING Rites of Spring 1985 Dischord Still the Rosetta stone for all emo. Future Fugazi antistar Guy Picciotto screams infidelities over roaring Washington, D.C.-style melodic hardcore.
SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE Diary 1994 Sub Pop Orchestral post-punks upped the pomp and circumstance and taught sensitive lads that it's okay to daydream about angels and croon in a piercing falsetto.
CONVERGE Petitioning the Empty Sky 1997 Equal Vision These Boston boys are the kings of the underground; their barking hardcore assault is beloved by the Used and others. Not for the faint of heart.
THURSDAY Full Collapse 2001 Victory The Jersey quintet's second LP was their breakthrough, a breathtaking collision of basement hardcore fury and wistful Anglophilia.
THE USED The Used 2002 Reprise A dark-tinged but irresistibly pop sonic 12-step program and the debut of one of the most popular MTV screamers since the Osbournes.
