Midwest Emo Throwback

The Darién Gap is a brand new band – the indie punk duo met last year via a Craigslist ad and have one EP to their name as of August 18th. However, listening to Haunted Lots, it’s hard to believe that the band formed so recently. Playing a straightforward take on early 2000s Midwest emo and pop punk, The Darién Gap’s easy grasp of melody makes Haunted Lots a solid listen for anyone craving a nostalgia trip, despite the slight lack of originality in their sound.

The name Haunted Lots brings to mind a bleak image: hanging out in condemned houses and leaning against chain link fences, a lonely, gutted version of teenage rebellion. The music’s sound pays ample tribute to this; the EP opens with “Looking,” a frantically melodic track, high-pitched arpeggios echoing like wind chimes through the music and giving the song a ghostly edge. “Looking” is a strong start for The Darién Gap, the pace expertly speeding up and slowing down to build the song’s energy before dissolving into a raucous, yell-along chorus. The song fades into the equally strong “Albany Bowl,” drums and guitar weaving together into a moody pit of noise as singer Brian Moss describes dark crawl spaces and full moons. The tracks of Haunted Lots feel compact and tight, capturing Midwest emo’s unpolished darkness without stretching off into meandering, ten-minute songs. Consistent with their fixation on early 2000s alternative rock, Haunted Lots at times takes on a pop-punk edge – there’s something reminiscent of early Fall Out Boy in the attitude and melodic structure of their music, though less clean in production. Distorted guitar and messy vocals give the songs a jagged drunken edge, the backup singer half harmonizing and half shouting through “Bad Comment” and “I Wish I didn’t Wish,” rock drums satisfyingly high in the mix.

As faithfully as the band recreates these genres, however, it’s hard not to feel like something is a little off. Midwest emo vocals are deceptively hard to get right; though the amelodic shouting that the genre is known for may not seem like it takes much talent, it’s easy for vocals of this style to be so raw as to become grating. Moss has a little too much grit in his voice to quite fit the style, and the shouted vocals often feel less like raw expression and more like an affectation. Perhaps moss could be an adequate punk singer, but he’s an unconvincing Midwest emo vocalist. This issue could come from the fact that Moss sounds older than most of the musicians that The Darién Gap emulates; skilled instrumentalists as they are, it feels as though The Darién Gap has slightly aged out of what they’re trying to be.

The Darién Gap hits all the highlights of Midwest emo, from the soft bridge at the end of “The Shroud,” to the picked arpeggios at the beginning of “I Wish I Didn’t Wish”. While they’re certainly talented at playing the nostalgia card, there’s nothing particularly new about their music. Midwest emo is a genre that’s very much of its time – when modern bands recreate its sound without a modern twist, they can risk sounding a little outdated, adults pretending to be high schoolers, playing garage rock sound from the comfort of a studio. While Haunted Lots was adept at recreating a throwback style, it will be exciting to see where The Darién Gap takes their sound moving forward – dredging up more of the past or inventing their own future?