mayday parade

The organizers of Riot Fest have announced that the festival is returning to Douglass Park in Chicago this fall. In typical Riot fashion, the lineup for Sept. 17, 18 and 19 is stacked. “We’ve missed you and we can’t wait to see you this year,” the festival organizers shared.  Headliners include alternative veterans Nine Inch […]

The emo genre is cathartic by nature, but slow songs provide an opportunity for artists to reflect even more deeply on the feelings that make us human. And somehow, even when featured alongside angst-fueled, uptempo tracks, the ballads always end up being some of the most memorable songs on their respective albums. They have this […]

Fact: Guitar solos are awesome. Plain and simple. They’re just as much fun to see live as they are to listen to, as they fully display the guitarist’s raw passion for the instrument. While solos are a staple of certain rock subgenres, they’re far less common in pop-punk songs. So, when we do come across […]

We knew we meant it when we said it wasn’t a phase. What we didn’t know, however, was just how attached we were going to be to 2000s pop punk forever. Fortunately, despite the mainstream decline, the genre is alive and well. While many early favorites such as All Time Low and Mayday Parade continue to thrive, we’re […]

glimmers have shared an emotional new single “By The Lips” with fans ahead of the release of their five-track sophomore EP, Worlds Apart. The song chronicles the intimate parts of a relationship as well as the delicacy it takes to navigate love and everything that comes with it. Read more: Ashland’s new EP let them […]

The scene era taught us just how important album covers are. Seriously, we can’t even start to fathom the collective hours we spent uploading art for records we’d pulled from totally legal sources. Did you know, though, that many of the most iconic cover designs of the era came from the same creative mind? Kyle Crawford […]

We’ve already established that there are some surprises that come with RIAA certifications. That said, there’s nothing more troubling than realizing that some of the most iconic alternative albums have never been certified gold. It’s not particularly surprising that there are some discrepancies between an album’s generalized reception and its certification standing. After all, the criteria […]

There’s nothing more devastating than a band breakup. If you’ve been invested in the alternative music scene for more than a day, you probably know that feeling all too well. If not, then it’s just a matter of time… We’ve been fortunate enough to follow a number of our favorite 2000s scene outfits through long-lasting […]

It’s easy to look back at 2000s emo music with a sense of longing. After all, it boasted artists and sounds that have long since dissipated… That’s not really the case, though, is it? While we can still stream music by our favorite bands of the time, new artists are constantly developing reminiscent styles. So, […]

In a culture driven by instant gratification, it’s important to start off on the right foot when putting out content. This of course doubles for music, especially now that streaming services put a seemingly endless number of albums at our fingertips. Fortunately for the alternative music scene, starting off strong has been a long-set precedent. […]

The genre affectionately known as emo started out as a wave of internalized rage bubbling under the surface of Washington, D.C.’s Revolution Summer in the mid-’80s. Within three decades, it had permeated the mainstream and changed beyond all recognition. Like it or not, the bands inspired by that initial breakthrough, including Rites Of Spring and […]

Emo may be a vague term, but it conjures up some seriously vivid 2000s nostalgia. You know, memories akin to straightening our bangs and overlining our eyes while listening to the saddest songs imaginable…  Regardless of what exactly your emo phase looked like, there were certain staples that everyone had to load onto their iPods. […]

YouTube‘s Alex Melton is back at it with another entertaining pop-punk cover. This time around, Melton is letting you all know what it would sound like if Machine Gun Kelly, YUNGBLUD and Travis Barker‘s “I Think I’m OKAY” was covered by your favorite pop-punk bands. With 11 different covers in total, Melton channels blink-182, Real […]

We know how to exhaust the discographies of our favorite bands, going back to their early foundations. But how often do we follow their journeys back to where they really started? Prior to achieving career success, many now-iconic artists started somewhere else entirely. Often, we’re so removed from these preceding outfits that we don’t even […]

No lie, as exciting as it is when our favorite musicians take on new projects, it’s always a little disconcerting. After all, we have to wonder if they’re going to live up to the greatness we’ve come to expect. That said, a number of alternative artists have already proved that success doesn’t have to be a […]

Musical talent often transcends any individual instrument. A piano player may often feel inclined to try out their voice. A guitarist may dabble with the bass. Often, though, career musicians opt to dedicate themselves entirely to a specific role. Of course, that isn’t a hard rule. There are a number of alternative multi-instrumentalists out there who lend […]

Picturing our favorite bands in their fledgling stages is no easy task. But imagining them devoid of any original music and instead performing cover songs? That’s straight-up impossible. Remarkably, it’s not all that rare for now-iconic artists to reveal that they’d formerly performed as a tribute act. After all, what better way to get a […]