What’s it like in your corners of the world this week? Are you, like me, annoyed that Riot Fest continues to troll us instead of releasing the damn lineup? Feeling old at the thought that Thursday’s A City by the Light Divided is about to turn 20? Yeah, same. 

The good news: we’ve got a lot of fun stuff to talk about, including…

Let’s get into it.

A couple weeks ago, I spent my Saturday chugging cold brew and listening to academic lectures about emo and pop punk. It was my favorite day in years. It was EmoCon 2026 at Washington University.

When I first read about EmoCon 2026 (on LinkedIn, which is how I know I’m old), my first thought was, “Sign me up!” An academic conference dedicated entirely to emo? That’s basically a Laura Bradley fever dream. 

But if you’ve been an emo fan for a while, you won’t be surprised to hear that the academy is… generally not interested in the genre. 

When I chatted with EmoCon co-organizers Varun Chandrasekhar and Patrick Mitchell last week, they confirmed that published literature on emo is absurdly scarce. That’s what inspired EmoCon in the first place.

 “If scholars are all about the gaps in the literature,” Varun says, “that seems like a pretty big one.”  

I talked with Varun and Patrick about why emo scholarship matters, the tension between “pop” and “punk” in pop punk, and what “counts” as emo.

👀I’ll send that interview on Thursday, so get ready. 

Tour updates to keep you moshing all year long.

🤘The Fest’s lineup is out now, with The Bouncing Souls and PUP both playing two sets. Even if this fest weren’t a proud tradition of my hometown, I’d be singing “¡Olé!” 

🤘Remember how Taking Back Sunday recently announced they’re playing their third album, Louder Now (with Fred) at Red Rocks in October? Turns out, that’s part of a bigger tour set for this fall with Thrice and Save the Day. Hell yeah.

🤘Bring Me the Horizon added 8 more tour dates to their Ascension tour. Canada and Michigan, you lucky ducks, you’ve got some planning to do.

🤘The Story So Far tickets are now on sale for this fall. Buy them here.

A fond, nostalgic look at the friendships, feuds, and fringe-y stories that shaped 2000s culture. 

This week, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the silliest media feuds in emo history: Brandon Flowers vs. Pete Wentz.

Let’s go back to the mid-2000s, when Mr. Brightside loved to start shit with anyone and everyone — including The Bravery, Green Day, John Mayer, and The Fray. (Who the hell fights with The Fray?) Brandon’s feud with Fall Out Boy apparently kicked off because he didn’t like sharing his Artist and Repertoire (A&R) exec, especially with some lousy emo band. 

What started as a petty industry squabble quickly turned into a full-blown ~media feud~ that played out across NME, MTV, fueledbyramen.com, and various teen mags — ensnaring Panic! At the Disco, the high-end sushi restaurant Nobu, an unreleased song, and the reputation of emo itself. 

At first, Pete batted away Brandon’s JEAAAAALOUSY. “It’s too bad [Brandon] wrote a couple of good songs,” he told MTV News, “otherwise it’d be that much easier to write him off.” So true, bestie. But then, the FOB bassist chose symbolic violence, threatening The Killers’ Vegas supremacy with a little band he’d just signed to his record label. Maybe you know them. They’re called Panic! At the Disco.

“I hope none of THE OTHER Las Vegas BANDs get jealous that there is another gem out in the middle of the desert,” Wentz wrote. “… F—ing wasting my time on FLOWERS.”

Yup. Totally normal typing habits we all had back in the rawring 2000s. 

Anyway, twenty years ago this month, Pete swore to NME there was “no animosity on our part,” as proven by FOB’s choice to invite The Killers out to a Michelin-starred dinner. “I think it would be awesome,” Wentz said. “He’s probably a good date. And I’m buying, Brandon! I’d take him somewhere classy, maybe go to Nobu and get some sushi.” 

Sadly, Brandon prefers beef. Instead of apologizing for all the things that he’s done, he told NME, well, this, in June 2006: 

“Emo, pop-punk, whatever you want to call it, is dangerous. We don’t wanna dislike anyone, and we’ve still never met Fall Out Boy, but there’s a creature inside me that wants to beat all those bands to death. They just all go into the happy emo funnel and everyone loves ‘em without thinking. ‘Oh, Fall Out Boy likes you? Fuck! I’m gonna go buy your CD!’”

That’s not a very human or dancer thing to say, if you ask me. And that, dear friends, is the story behind the unreleased Fall Out Boy song “You Can’t Spell Star without A&R.” It’s all water under the bridge now, so thnks fr th mmrs, guys! 

Need something new to add to your playlist? Give this a listen.

Daisy Grenade’s new EP, So Much to Say, comes out May 15 — and you can listen to their new song, “Girls Are So Lucky,” right now. 

It’s hard to overstate how great this band is, and I’m not just saying that because they’re from New York. Look around, and you’ll see Daisy Grenade is often labeled “power punk bubble grunge.” It’s a bit marketing-speak for me, but it does capture their brand. They’re grimy, growly rock mixed with cotton candy girlishness. Every song feels like blasting Hole’s “Awful” in your car at full volume with the window down.

“Girls Are So Lucky” skews poppier than it does dark, but you know what? With everything going on in the world, we could all use a little sugar rush.

Also worth your time:

That’s it for this week. If you liked this newsletter, I’d love it if you’d forward to a friend or send them here to subscribe. 💙✨

More on Thursday, and in the meantime, I'll be ~making history~ like I do. You'll know it's all because of you.

xoxo