Well, some people know them. This is pretty obscure stuff, though. Each of these bands is a better definition of "emo" than anything in the last six to eight years (yeah, it's been at least that long). If that term immediately brings Bright Eyes or The Get Up Kids (or the new "emo," like Taking Back Sunday or Hawthorne Heights), then please go buy any of these records you can find. I provided handy links for some. Enjoy.

Anasarca

Anasarca was a band from Washington DC (read: various suburbs in Maryland). They existed for only a short time, but produced a powerful catalog. These guys were some of my best friends when I lived in DC, so I saw them a lot. They were also the only people I knew who had cars, so they took me to a lot of other shows. Many of the bands I am listing here I only know because Mike Weltz (original drummer) and Chris Afzal (guitarist) showed them to me.

At the time (1994-1996), Anasarca was a big draw in DC and beyond. There were almost four hundred people at their last show in the basement of the Happy Hardcore House sidenote: Did anyone ever go to this house? Have flyers? Pictures? Recordings (video or audio)? Please email me. Full disclosure: I lived at the HHH and booked some of the shows and played in others. Anasarca shows were big affairs, and kids always cried. Their music actually was that powerful (though a lot of kids cried at shows anyway). Check out what I have found from Anasarca on the web (BTW, there was a German death metal band named Anasarca as well).

• The Sound of Indie has an mp3 of the song Eugene Debs live from Minneapolis Punk Fest in 1996. The Megan referred to on the page was one of my roomates.
  
  
• 
  
  At Goleta Fest 1996.
  
  
• Second Nature Recordings has an (almost) complete show listing, and an mp3 of the studio version of Eugene Debs for download.
  
  
• Last.fm has a well-written description of the band. They also have 30 seconds of four tracks you can listen to.
  
  
• Buy Anasarca's Discography
  

Lincoln

Lincoln was a band from Morgantown, West Virginia that lasted for only a short time and released only two 7 inches and a split 7 inch with Dischord band Hoover. The core of the band, Jay Demko and Justin Wierbonski, went on to form a bunch of other short lived bands, of which the most popular was KuKim. Wierbonski is such a good drummer that I couldn't really hear the rest of the songs for the first few plays. And then I found out that the rest of the songs were amazing too. Read the descriptions of the 7 inches at Art Monk Construction. They are worth the read, even if you hate the band.


Waterboy


Benchwarmer

• The Sound of Indie has an mp3 of "Benchwarmer," the B-side of the infamous "Two Headed Coin" 7 inch from Art Monk Construction. That record is still one of my favorites. I am thrilled that I still have it (as well as Lincoln's other 7 inch) and a record player.
  

Native Nod

Native Nod may have inspired more bands than any other on this list. They came from the New York/New Jersey area and didn't play many shows outside of there. If you listen to mewithoutyou, then you should find out where their sound came from. Chris Leo's intense, melodic speak-sing-screaming is visceral and beautiful. His brother, Danny Leo, was also in the band, and their other brother is Ted Leo of (duh) Ted Leo and The Pharmacists. Chris went on to form The Van Pelt.

• Wikipedia has a slightly suspect entry.
  
• Epitonic has a brief bio and the song "Tangled" available for download.
  
• Somebody put up a Native Nod MySpace page with three songs available. But one of them is "Tangled."
  
• Listen to "High Tide in Alaska" and "Answers" on Last.fm
  
• Buy the discography, "Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World
  

Labels: Hardcore, Hardcore Music, Indie, Shows, Video