For years, no, decades now, Midwest Emo has remained a constantly referenced and objectified sound in math rock. Its hallmark wistfulness and nostalgic tendencies make it easily endearing to many, but we never really thought to ask… where is the other emo coming from? Is it even out there? It has to be, right?
Well, of course it is – sad emotions are not regionally exclusive, and Telecasters are easy to come by, so you could probably find emo sounding music anywhere on the globe. But even so, the influence of Midwest Emo and associated East Coast boom in the early 2000’s is hard to overstate.
So when our friend Alek Wiltbank reached out with some new music from his multi-media comedy group Bumpy Soup, something started buzzing in our brains, but we couldn’t figure out what. Then it hit us – this is the first time something naturally occurred to us as Southwest Emo.
Check out the video for “Does This Remind You of Something” below:
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The Southwest strain seems to have a similarly informed approach to jazz influence as Midwest Emo – you got those little stacked augmented chord clusters, classy vocal harmonies, glockenspiel… but you replace the brass and strings with things like delta blues and dusty guitar jams. It might not sound like the most obvious mix, but honestly, it’s fascinating. It’s got the emotional and technical stimulation you’d want out of math rock, but also lets you relax. Like, really relax, not in a post-rock build up way.
It’s all uncanny too because this feels uncharacteristic of the completely tongue in cheek hijinks of Bumpy Soup’s crew – the band won 2023’s Best Web Series award at the Poor Life Choices Comedy Film Festival for Good Show, and have worked with Indieflix to put out a couple of episodes since. But The Bumpy Album is pretty much stacked with mellow gold that a lot of people are going to appreciate on a legitimate level, so whether you’re looking for a laugh nor not, we highly recommend you check it out, and keep an eye out for more. We’ll be looking.
Check out more from the crew here.
(Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, PCRF, the Beagle Freedom Project, Kindness Ranch, and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more. Thanks again!)