rites of spring - end on end

Looking back on this post, I was somewhat considered with the flippant way I dismissed Rites of Spring's role in the history of emo.  They're considered the fathers of "emocore," but every time I listen to End on End, I'm struck by how similar they sound to every other decidedly non-emo mid-80's post-hardcore band I know.  Admittedly, however, it had been over a year since I last gave Rites of Spring a listen--certainly enough time for a change of heart--so I decided to revisit them and see if my opinion of these forefathers was still the same.

In short: it is.

Rites of Spring represented what amounts to a rather minor stylistic shift from hardcore punk, largely just melodic chords changes and personal lyrics.  A handful of distracters labeled their sound "emocore," and it was all downhill from there.

In hindsight, this makes absolutely no sense.  Guy Picciotto is no Dan Hoerner--his lyrics may pack an emotional punch, but his delivery here really isn't any different from his future Fugazi performances.  As for the musical changes, I can't help but personally find them a welcome, needed development of the mechanized nature of DC hardcore.  So too did Ian Mackaye himself, leading the vaunted Minor Threat frontman to from a band in the same vein, Embrace.

As dubious as its beginnings were, "emocore" eventually did succeed in becoming a true genre of its own--it simply happened eight years after Rites of Spring broke up.  These guys simply tweaked hardcore at a time when the DC scene was becoming increasingly stale and repetitive, and in response, the scene slandered them, tainting them perhaps forever as the founders of a weak, laughable derivative sound, instead of recognizing them as one of the better bands to ever come out of DC.

When we finally re-write the rock 'n roll history books, the emo chapter is gonna start with Sunny Day Real Estate.  Let Rites of Spring stay in the Dischord annals where they belong.