Genre: haHA Emo. This is an old rant for me now and increasingly pointless, but there was a time when people got really fucking pissy about Emo. I think in retrospect it is one of those genre labels that is, by its nature, going to cause a strong negative reaction in am american male population before they have heard a note of the music. What is interesting is that the genre got little or no attention until it in some way matched the assumptions its name conjured. Then the record industry could market it. Except that Emo never represented the thing that the industry tried to push, and when they started pushing it all its adherents ran like cockroaches startles by a light.
I guess I should back up a bit. Emo is defined as "Emotionally driven punk rock." It emerged from the hardcore punk scene in the late 80s, early 90s. Some credit Fugazi as the first, though most reject that assertion, possibly because Fugazi talked about other things than emotion and most likely because real punx like Fugazi and they can't possibly like Emo.
The first band everyone agrees on (for the most part) is a DC hardcore band called Rites of Spring. like many hardcore bands they are hard to listen to, partly because of their anti-mainstream ethic, and partly because of the shitty recording equipment available for a band that was essentially only together long enough for the members to discuss the possibility of real recording before breaking up. But their performances are legendary. The lyrics would have emotional intensity born of writing about topics of personal importance to the singer, who would thrash around stage, often finding himself too far from the mic to make his singing cues. So he would scream the lines at the the mic, lending further intensity.
From these beginnings the genre built in the punk underground, which became, over the course of the 90s, the main spiritual counterpoint to the mainstream. By the late 90s this underground had emerged repeatedly under various genred guises to thrust artistic integrity into the spotlight, only for the Industry to coopt and discredit the superficial aspects of whatever genre gained attention. Punk itself became a victim, as by 1999 the pop charts contained a strong contingent of shitty pop punk bands what had as much to do with Minor Threat as they did with Liberance.
Within the underground world of punk Emo represented something that stood against the hard, ideological lines of the genre, and by its nature stood against the macho posturing of much of the hardcore movement from whence it came. Emo became an incubator for a variety of strains of punk that were more interested in artistic expression than meeting some random mob's definition of Punx. The genre included everything from old hardcore style bands, to bands working with synthesizers and exploring melody in a way that was kind of verbotten outside what remained of the pop punk scene. These bands had nothing to do with each other musically other than that they sang with emotional intensity and they did not conform the the increasingly archaic and rigid confines of punk.
Of course, having handsom young men sing sweetly about emotions is, to a record producer, a great way to break into the tingly panties of the teenage girl market, and so that is what happened eventually, and so the Dashboard Confessionals came to define the genre in the public mind, despite having little in common with most acts labeled Emo. Acts which, for the most part, forswore the name by 2001 or so. After that, most bands calling themselves Emo were of corporate manufacture.
So Atom and His Package. Most of the music is about topics that pertain specifically to Adam Goren, the spectacled, slightly doughy Jewish kid from Philly who was for most of the band's existence its sole member. Like songs wishing his best friend's two year old a happy birthday. Or about how he wishes his room mate would quit smoking. Or about how he wishes he could start a private high school for punk kids. The Package is a bunch of music processors and synthesizers that Adam bought so that he could keep preforming music after his last band broke up. As such Adam was one of the early pioneers of the notion that, by the late 90s, the classic rock guitair band setup was actually pretty expensive, and it was way more subversive to cheaply make music on a computer than shell out thousands of dollars for guitars that you will mistreat.
Despite previous membership in a hardcore band, and very clear devotion to the punk lifestyle and aesthetic, the music is very very different from classic punk. It tends to be major key and funny and not all that angry. It is decidedly populist, high energy, and intentionally DIY, but this often results in songs that get halfway through, and then finish out the last verse by quoting a particularly catch 80s pop song. The lifestyle advocated is less live fast and die young, and more crunchy gutterpunk, living in a downtown, eating Vegan, and trying to steer clear of tourists.
Where would I have heard of them: If the above sounds like it is not a recipe for pop stardom you get a doughnut. Atom and His Package toured relentlessly, and gained a large and devoted following in punk and later indie circles, but never ever desired mainstream success. So, you wouldn't have, unless you were a punk or an indie kid in the late 90s, early 2000s.
Anything of Note: I guess that the title of the album is a pretty funny little dig at himself.
Is it good: Atom and His Package can be an acquired taste. The intentional low fidelity and lack of interest in quality songwriting are obviously a turn off. I, however, fucking love Atom and his Package. I have a few of his albums and as he went along each became more catch and fun. I think it helps that Adam Goren seems like a genuinely humble and likable person, and only gets moreso as he stops making fun of his weight as much and focuses on stuff about his life. it also helps that, as technology got better, the fidelity improved, possibly by accident. At its best, AAHP deliver fun, funny, catchy songs with lovable charm. At its worst it is barely listenable, but there are always enough of the good songs to get you through the album. The stand out on this album is "If You Own the Washington Redskins You Are A Cock," but this is a pretty good album overall. It falls in the middle of his career with The Package and is a pretty even split between meh songs and fun catchy music. I don't think there's any really terrible ones on this installment, which is nice.
So, I think this is a good album. I dunno if you will but AAHP is worth a look.
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