Last Updated on April 26, 2023, 1:56 PM | Published: April 26, 2023
The term “emo” has had a lot of lives.
It began, essentially, as a Midwestern style of blatantly emotional, fuzzy, angular post-punk, eventually morphing into a supermall fashion trend more concerned with hairstyles and histrionics than with genuine earnestness.
But everything tends to move in circles, and after a long period of misguided stylistic pastiches and jokes, stripped down, believable bands like OKC’s terrible thieves are emerging to once again carry the sound back to its landlocked, hearts-on-sleeves roots.
Their debut EP, “Songs to Sing Along To,” dropped this past week and is already making a case for itself as one of the tightest and most impassioned local debuts in recent memory.
Without any hesitation or time wasted, opener “Home” crashes the gates immediately with all the single-chord distortion, snare-cracking backbeat, and salivating screaming that you’d expect from the emo tag, but once the song opens itself up after the first few bars, things change. Something is different.
It’s tight, powerful, and remarkably well-produced.
Much of that is a testament to the skills of Ryan Ainsworth at Tulsa’s 1985labs, where the EP was recorded, but it’s more than that.
Too many “throwback” emo acts aim for a kind of artificially lo-fi, sharp-edged sound in an attempt to emulate the 90s indie production of the genre’s progenitors, and it mostly results in a sense of style-over-substance.
“Songs to Sing Along To,” makes no such mistake. The sound is rich and full, more akin to the best-produced modern metal, and that depth and power only serves to support the intensity in the songs.
Without that affectation weighing them down, terrible thieves are free to embrace the honest trajectories of each track without feeling beholden to some stylistic sheen of faux-authenticity.
And embrace them they do.
Each of the release’s six tracks showcases a full-range ferocity, with the genre trademark screaming-to-singing vocals imparting something like genuine rage, despondency, and even confusion, never a put-on whine or nasally moan.
There’s a surprisingly confident punk rock sneer in the melodic vocals that harkens more to Rancid-era skate-punk than to any kind of mainstream emo mewling, and the screaming is full-throated and forceful, not the howling dog yelping that so often puts off emo detractors.
Subject matter covers familiar ground, though that’s kind of the whole appeal. These are breakup songs, anthems for crumbling relationships, heartbreaking fights, and outright betrayals, each scored by a searing soundtrack of guitar-driven, heavy-hitting hard rock, just the way the emo gods intended.
That is, until you hit closer “The Constant.”
Glistening synths and acoustic strumming usher you unexpectedly – but reassuringly – into a world of pop-rock resolution, a welcome deep breath above the water after the sinking feelings of the five previous, crushing tracks. It’s a beautiful ending, every bit as powerful in its cinematic, credit-rolling pop as the roaring near-metal that came before.
Ultimately, the best acts from within almost any genre tend to transcend their label’s clichéd constraints. Some of the biggest crossover emo successes came from boundary-pushing, cross-genre hail marys like the theatrical goth-rock of AFI’s “Sing the Sorrow” or the electronics and pop songwriting infused into “Danger Days” from My Chemical Romance.
“Songs to Sing Along To” invokes some pretty major nods to both of those influences and more, and even manages to capture what felt special and urgent about them in their times.
Nothing about this release, or indeed about the sound of terrible thieves, comes across as them “trying” to do anything other than to be themselves and to fuse their influences and inspirations into something meaningful and real.
No matter how you label them, terrible thieves are likely to be one of the most exciting bands in the city for a while to come.
“Songs to Sing Along To” by terrible thieves is available now on all streaming services and at terriblethieves.bandcamp.com.
Follow them online at @terriblethievesokc on Instagram.
And … This!
It’s time again to kick off Norman Music Festival just down the road a bit.
From the 27th through the 29th, downtown Norman will be awash in everything indie, from rock, pop, hip-hop, and Norman’s favorite brand of wacked-out weirdo acts. Up-and-coming nationals like Illuminati Hotties, Soul Glo, and Ghost Funk Orchestra bring the jams alongside some of the biggest names on the local scene, such as Johnny Manchild, Jabee & Friends, and the mighty Sisteria.
New and exciting this year, however, is the Thursday-only stage at the brand new Legally Brewed showcasing some of the most creative underground rappers in the Oklahoma game, all curated by the inimitable Jarvix.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
