Where to Buy Stuff
eBay - lots of rare old 7"s if you look hard
Skylab Commerce is exclusively a hardcore/emo/indie/punk sale and trade site. Lots of rare things to be found here.
Ebullition has a very deep mailorder catalog specializing in hardcore and emo.
No Idea Records in Florida is way cheap, with hardcore, emo, pop punk up the wazoo.
Stickfigure Distro in Atlanta is cheap, DIY, with lots of hard to find European stuff as well as US emo, hardcore, and related stuff.
Lumberjack Distro is another old standard with lots of emo, punk, and hardcore. One of the few with secure online credit card orders.
Insound is a little more corporate and expensive, but lots of reviews and info, as well as MP3s to try stuff out first. Focused on indie rock and electronica but lots of emo and rock mixed in (try the "annex" section).
Bands
This section used to be longer, but things change too fast for me to keep up. Now it's mostly bands I've played with recently.
This website is officially down with Emo Summer - "we are all about preserving the summer 94 Cupertino scene." What more can an emokid ask for? This band has it all - falling over, knocking down equipment, fetal-position screaming in the middle of the pit, band members totally naked by the end of the set.
My band Funeral Diner
Bright Calm Blue - these guys are not real well known yet but they're by far the best band I've seen in years. Their drummer puts Neal Peart and Damon Che to shame. Catch their summer 2002 tour.
Staircase from Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz, CA. Our tourmates and buddies.
Still Life are still somewhat together, but mostly dormant. I guess being brothers and best friends makes a breakup sort of unlikely
The Pine from Bakersfield, CA. Great new band with really amazing tunes.
To Dream of Autumn - these guys didn't last long but they were intense. Best screaming female vocals I've ever heard, and genuinely frightening music.
Wolves - ex-Orchid.
Envy - Japanese band that mixes brutal screamo with melodic rock parts, very intense.
Labels and Distros
Bloodlink - includes a nice descriptive history of each release.
Council Records - newly active after many years of dormancy.
Caulfield Records - best feature here is the RealAudio jukebox with a lot of music.
Contrast Records, also a record store in Providence RI. At one time the reviews in Al's distro list were encyclopedic...
Crank! Records for the mellow stuff.
Dim Mak Records out of Santa Barbara
Dischord Records has a great site after years without one. Watch for lots of classic out of print Dischord releases to be remastered and rereleased on CD.
Ebullition Records and distro
Gravity - once the torchbearer for the definitive emo records. Most are out of print, but there's some history in their page.
Info / Link sites
Unamerical Activities - Not emo in particular, but VERY cool and written by a guy whose opinions and noisiness were very influential on me. His list of great bands of all time is required reading.
a link page focusing on San Diego hardcore emo
The Emo/Postpunk WebRing
FLEX! an internet discography project, deals mainly with old-school/hardcore but good info on older Dischord bands
WORLDWIDEPUNK - punk in general. Huge.
Infoshop - online anarchist community
Indymedia - as Jello Biafra said, "don't hate the media, become the media." Internet democracy in action.
My link page from 1996 with all kinds of broken links...
some friends:
updated 04-24-02