College does funny things to a man.  I am finding this out now since I have 
recently started attending the educational institution that is Augustana 
College, located in Rock Island, IL.  When you attend college for the first 
time, as I am doing now, you start to notice things that you would have 
never noticed before.  It might be something tangible, like noticing the 
leaves on a tree rustling in the wind, or it might be something intangible, 
like coming to the inevitable conclusion that, in only one and a half weeks 
of college, I have realized: emo is dead.  Now, this sounds really weird 
coming from my mouth.  In fact, it's freaking me out even typing it.  I 
mean, I was über-emo.  I might not look it, but I used to eat, sleep, and live 
emo.  It all started my sophomore year in high school.



A good friend of mine who was into the "scene" made me the typical mix tape 
of assorted emo bands, featuring Braid, the Get Up Kids, Jimmy Eat World 
[who I was already into without her help], Jejune, and a few others.  Most 
everyone who is into the whole underground scene, it seems, has received a 
tape like this at one point in their lives -- chances are, they still 
listen to it, as do I.  I played that tape constantly, to the point of 
actually breaking the tape player in my car.  The songs contained on there 
motivated me, cheered me up, opened my mind, and inspired me.  Never before 
had music changed my life this much.  Not even when I got into punk was I 
this excited about music.  I immediately immersed myself into as much emo 
as I could find.  I bought stuff at random from my local indie record store, 
some of it turning out to be great finds [Cursive, Christie Front Drive], 
some of it being somewhat disappointing [Sweep The Leg Johnny, Blueprint], 
but I didn't care.  I had found my niche, and what a wonderful niche it was.  
Then it became popular.



All of the sudden, emo was a hit song away from being on MTV.  The Promise 
Ring in Teen People?  At The Drive-In opening for Rage Against The 
Machine?  The Get Up Kids being courted by major labels?  Emo looked to be 
the next big fad, following the successful punk outbreak in 1994 and the 
not-so-successful ska invasion in 1996.  It didn't help that some of these 
emo bands were just spending their time writing the catchiest songs never 
heard by the mainstream.  Labels perked their ears up.  In the past two 
years, upstart bands like the Ultimate Fakebook and A New Found Glory were 
lured to major labels, as well as established acts like Modest 
Mouse.  Where did this leave the scene?  Cries of "sell out" and "I never 
liked that band anyways" echoed throughout half-empty venues with 4 kids 
playing their hearts out in the corner.  Those four kids?  Big, Big Furnace 
[I bet you were all wondering when I would talk about the CD].



Big, Big Furnace would be referred to as "emo" by me had I written this 
review a little over two weeks ago.  Back then, the old Scott thought this 
was boring and derivative.  It is your basic jangly-guitar, clever 
play-on-words ["Whether the weather," "B-14 sunk my destroyer / To no end I 
think it would destroy her"] unassuming emo that has been done a million 
times before.  Of course, that was the old Scott.  I have now realized that 
emo really is dead.  It is hard to explain how I realized this, it just 
sort of came to me.  Like I said before, it is intangible.  There is just 
something about trying to explain "emo" to other college kids that makes 
the whole thing sound really silly and redundant.  Regardless, I have a new 
outlook on old and new bands alike.  Braid?  Rock.  Promise 
Ring?  Pop.  The Get Up Kids?  Keyboard-drenched pop-rock [so I get a 
little descriptive, sue me].  Big, Big Furnace?  Indie rock, simply because 
they're indie and they do know how to rock.  The 6 songs on here are a nice 
mixture of fast and slow, none with too much of an edge, and some are 
almost too sappy for their own good.  But so what?  This has gone from 
unassuming emo which I did not enjoy to unassuming indie rock, which really 
gets me into a good mood.  I dare you to listen to "Tanky Porter" and tell 
me that it didn't get you bopping around in your chair.  These kids are 
trying to crack into an extremely elitist audience right now, and I wish 
them the best of luck -- as long as they keep doing what they love, I will 
back them.