Q: why am i doing this?
A: it’s a cold, fucking windy November day here in Connecticut, and as a heavy veil of seasonal depression once again drapes itself over my mind, i find myself reflecting on music that got me through when i was a little younger.
i find it hard to explain just what it all means to me personally, though i suspect it will be quite different to many who lived and it at that time. because i’m a “zoomer”, of course. i found screamo as a high school freshman. this was 2013/14; obviously long, long after the now-legendary bands in the initial screamo scene had ceased operations, but right around the time of that 2010s-revival wave. Comadre released their s/t final album that year and that was important in introducing me to the sound. there was some interest in the style among my artsier friends at that time, but by-far more popular was the so-called “midwest emo” sound which was never hardcore enough for my tastes. being from CT, i remember hearing a lot about The World Is A Beautiful Place around that time.
growing up on /mu/ sharethreads, rym, what.cd, slsk, rutracker, etc. etc. my friends and i were quite spoiled by the abundant resources on the internet at that time and it made our obsessive exploration of music of all sorts relatively quick and easy. we were angry kids going through shit, and discovering early screamo music was, to my weird little friend group and i, both exciting and deeply rewarding. iykyk, obviously (why else would you be here?) but there’s no shortage of unfathomably passionate, exhilarating, all-around excellent music from this period of time. bands we listened to most included: jeromes dream, orchid, pg.99, heroin, mohinder, portraits of past, combatwoundedveteran, ampere, ostraca, echelons/unable to fully embrace this happiness, spirit of versailles, i hate myself, usurp synapse, and city of caterpillar.
My mission with AYPAI is to preserve somehow, in today’s boring, corporate internet landscape, a small piece of that community. in essence, it owes itself to the internet DIY/screamo communities of the past (CMHWAK, VLV, Skylab), at least so-far as i imagine them to be in my head, and is meant to facilitate the discussion of (primarily) EMOVIOLENCE/SCREAMO/SKRAMZ/HARDCORE/DIY music and art, as well as preserve the ethos and spirit of Hardcore emo culture. obviously i’m using freeflarum at the moment, but if we can get the ball rolling i’ll do my very best to move this to a more permanent home. The idea here is to just get the forum up and running in a preliminary, usable state, in order to gauge interest in the subject and attract a community of passionately interested people around it from all over the globe. i also hope to encourage physical media trading, webzine creation, and facilitate global connections between like-minded musicians and artists in the spirit of DIY self-production. music costs money; websites cost money also, unfortunately. my belief, though, is that the spirit of sharing and connecting to other human beings over passionate and inspired art is stronger than capitalism, stronger than artificial intelligence, stronger than politicians, whatever. it is real and powerful.
if anyone has any suggestions to improve the forum, or would like to assist in moderation, please PM me here. i am not even close to an expert on the matters of building a community, hosting or designing a website, etc. and i will need all the help i can get and am eager to learn. I should add on another note that I have personally always enjoyed the format of internet forums, have been a member of many throughout my life, and miss the days when they constituted a more substantial part of the internet ecosystem. out of nostalgia, yes; but also because i believe their design philosophy represents a more earnest representation of what a so-called “internet community” should be (in my eyes, anyway). fuck social media.
here’s to the spirit of community, energy, music, having fun, and being true to yourself.
RIDE BIKES
–marlon
