Five emo bands that don’t suck

Photograph: Brian Tamborello

1. Rites of Spring Fugazi’s Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty got their start in this short-lived but highly influential D.C. group, credited with kicking off the emo movement.

2. Sunny Day Real Estate Led by raw-throated eccentric Jeremy Enigk, these recently re-formed Seattleites helped canonize the loud-quiet-loud dynamics that came to define ’90s emo.

3 The Get Up Kids Despite its unabashedly twee approach, this Kansas City, MO, outfit—whose reunion tour hits NYC for three dates this week—mixes wistful heartache with bubblegum hooks.

4 My Chemical Romance Gerard Way’s inventive combo set the gold standard for emo flamboyance with 2006’s The Black Parade.

5 Paramore This slick, ultrapopular Tennessee band hinges on the awesomely rousing wail of Hayley Williams, one of emo’s few female icons.

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