Take a nerdy kid from Jersey with a wicked voice and a penchant for horror, maudlin optimism, and Freddy Mercury-esque stage theatrics. Put his dorky little Jersey scene-king brother on the bass. His friend on lead guitar shreds like Van Halen. The rhythm guitarist was airlifted in from a Jersey thrash punk band. Top that with a Chicago kid with a kit the size of a small suburb, who beats on it like they're making it illegal.

This is the best explanation of MCR's sound I've read in a while, and needed repeating.

MCR are not a goth band. Gerard is, at heart, a comic & gaming geek from the fringes of the goth scene, and a lot of MCR's aesthetic is very gothy, but the band itself? Wouldn't be labeled as goth.

a lot of MCR's aesthetic is very gothy,

Ah -- that's where I was taking my assumption from. Bad Teppy! No bandom!

Tep, I had some YouTube links earlier in the thread, which will give you a good idea of the FOB sound.

And I can hook ya up with some of those wacky Cobras, iffin you need. Thankfully, there's a lot of FBR (Fueled By Ramen) stuff available officially on YouTube, so it's a good way to check them out.

It's like if you threw carnivale and a rave in bed together and had a fast-paced acid-tongued baby with a predeliction for eyeliner and disaffected teenage sarcasm.

This makes me wish I actually liked Panic, since I don't really.

I described The Hush Sound as "sociopathic piano rock."

Oh, how perfect.

Stage Ray by the booze.

Hee. Based on that, I could *totally* find someone in any given venue.

Take a nerdy kid from Jersey with a wicked voice and a penchant for horror...

I want to amalgamate aggregate all of these descriptions on my lj, w/ credit of course, but I'm probably too lazy. Someone else should do it so I can link.

Have fun, shrift! Good luck with the smooshfest.

Well, to confuse the "MCR - Goth or Not?" question even more: the explanation I gave is how most goths (who don't outright cross themselves and spit when MCR are mentioned) feel. Personally, I think the band falls neatly into the goth-punk spectrum, and are just as much of a goth band as, say, The Cure or Sisters of Mercy. (Both goth icons, both have denied being goth.)

There was a special on MTV2 a couple of years ago that was for the big Rhino Records goth box release. The two hosts? Peter Murphy (sainted goth icon) and Gerard Way. At the beginning of the show, the expression on Gerard's face was pretty much holy shit! Peter Murphy! I'm sitting next to Peter Murphy!

(There's an interview with Gerard I've got somewhere in which the reporter mentions the gothy types that show up at MCR shows and asks, "So which do you prefer? Mall goths or gutter goths?" Gerard's replied "Elegant club goths, actually". He knows there's a difference. OH MY HEART.)

What bands would y'all consider to be emo?

Also, are there any bands that consider themselves to be emo?

What bands would y'all consider to be emo?

Emo in the actual way that subculture defines it, or emo in the way that popular news media defines it? Two verrrry different things.

I would not consider MCR emo (and they don't consider themselves emo), and I can't really think of any of the FBR bands that fall under that label, either.

I always thought emo, the way media described it years ago, was bands like Dashboard Confessional. But I could be way wrong.

Popular news media seems to slap the term "emo" on a lot of bands that are listened to by high school students, regardless of their actual musical content. Panic's first album was called "emo," though it was much more techno-inspired, and Fall Out Boy is far closer to punk than "emo."