The Faux 8 Diaries

Have you ever seen that video of a guy dancing alone at a music festival? It’s broad daylight in a wide-open field. Some people sit scattered around on blankets, but there he stands, dancing all alone, waving his arms like a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, grooving out in the truest sense of the word. Eventually, another guy wanders over and starts busting out his funkiest moves, and all of a sudden, this shirtless dude who was standing off by himself is now dancing with someone. Then another person joins in, and three is a crowd. Shortly after that, another couple of people come up, then a group of three. Soon, the mass is growing too fast to count. By the end of the video, people are running towards the crowd, eager to join the actively expanding dance floor. That’s what Fauxchella feels like.

For the uninitiated, Faux (fka Fauxchella) is a DIY/emo/punk music festival in Bowling Green, Ohio, organized by the now-defunct house venue The Summit Shack. While the first two incarnations were hosted at The Shack, all of the following Fauxchellas (plus a few seasonal offshoots) have taken place at Howard’s Club H, a 200-cap dive bar with two stages, $3 PBRs, and $2 shots. Hell yeah. Previous iterations of the fest have included the likes of Origami Angel, Ben Quad, saturdays at your place, Michael Cera Palin, and so many goddamn more. I’m not being hyperbolic at all when I say that it’s basically heaven on earth if you like fast music and guitar tapping. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the history of Fauxchella and The Summit Shack, a couple of years ago, I conducted a long-form interview with Conor Alan, which serves as a retrospective of the festival in all its iterations. There’s also a big recap I did on Fauxchella VI, complete with lots of video footage of different sets.

This June, I made the 12-hour drive up to Bowling Green for Faux 8, because this was one I could not miss. First and foremost, this was set to be the last Fauxchella at Howard’s, given that the fest has long outgrown the confines of the dive bar’s charming sticker-covered walls. Musically, I was excited to catch sets from old faves like Equipment, Summerbruise, and Kerosene Heights. There were also many bands on this year’s lineup I was ecstatic to catch for the first time, like Waving, 95COROLLA, Fend, red sun, and Keep for Cheap. On top of all this, the lineup for day two felt like a miniature sequel to Liberation Weekend, featuring the likes of Pretty Bitter, Ekko Astral, and Home Is Where

Home Is Where

Since I just published a big write-up on Liberation Weekend, I wanted to do something different for Faux and not just go through the lineup band by band. Swim was also tabling the event, slinging shirts, totes, lighters, and cool little zines, so I knew I’d be too busy to realistically catch every set. Instead, I brought my trusty digi cam and tried my best to snap pics of every set and merch spread, plus some cool portraits of band members. Esteemed members of the Swim Team, Josh Ejnes and Ben Parker, were also on-site, so you’ll find their thoughts on each day below, plus some other surprises. 

Thanks to Conor, Ellie, Jake, Mike, Sergei, Trey, Nick, Jacob, and all the people who make it possible to put an event like this together. It truly takes a village, and it’s been an absolute blessing to join in and be a part of it. Faux forever. 


Faux[DACTED]

Before we get any further into this article, we should address the name of the festival. While the previous seven iterations of the fest were named “Fauxchella,” this year’s iteration was unceremoniously re-titled “FAUX 8.” That’s because, back in April, The Summit Shack received a cease and desist from AEG, the second-largest ticketing company in the world, and, notably, the purveyors of the Coachella music festival. Despite the fact that Coachella is the name of a place, despite the fact that the fest is named after a joke from Workaholics, and despite the fact that “Fauxchella” is a 200-person music festival happening halfway across the country at a college town dive bar in Ohio, AEG still felt the need to sic the lawyers on ‘em. 

The Crowd for FinalBossFight!

In the end, Faux 8 played out exactly like any other Fauxchella would, and nothing sizable changed aside from a knowing gap in the posters that were amended to read “FAUX       8” with a big blank spot. A good handful of the bands poked fun at this from the stage between songs, calling attention to how absurd it is that the people running the $600-a-head Influencer Music Festival were getting litigious and using intimidation tactics on a defunct DIY venue. While I’m glad Faux continued unabated, to me, this just feels emblematic of the way that these giant companies will crush, mangle, and intimidate anyone they can if it means a few extra dollars. The fact that they seemed to take so much glee in threatening a zero-profit emo festival, it’s no wonder why live music is in such a bad spot. Fuck you and your $15 beers. 

Alright, that's enough preamble, let's get into it. 


Josh & Ben on Faux 8: Day One

In all honesty, my specific memories of Faux 8 are few and far between. Edibles are partially responsible for this, but a bigger factor is that—at least for me—enjoyment of an event like Faux comes from surrendering to the experience as a whole rather than latching on to any particular moment. When I try to file things away in my brain for later, I often miss other stuff that’s happening right in front of me, so I prefer instead to just let everything wash over me. One benefit of this approach is that when I do remember something distinct, it means a little more; the imprint a result of organic impact rather than personal diligence. 

The thing that stuck with me the most throughout the first day of Faux 8 was how good the sound was; it kind of didn’t make any sense. Over the two days of the festival, more than 40 bands played half-hour sets in rapid succession, a schedule that doesn’t accommodate typical load-ins or soundchecks. On paper, this should be a recipe for frequent technical issues and a poor mix, but everything sounded great. I’m not even grading on a curve here because of the circumstances; the average Faux set sounds better than what you’d expect to hear at your local venue’s regular shows. I think that this high-quality sound production is an underappreciated element of what makes Faux sets so special. Shout out to Jake Pachasa and Mike Seymour, absolute killers on the boards. 

Boyclothes

There are so many bands out there that I mean to listen to but don’t. I’ll see a band come across my feed, I’ll pull up Tidal to check them out, and then bang, the doorbell rings or my dog needs to go to the bathroom. By the time I come back to the computer, I've forgotten what I was doing, and suddenly I’m listening to the Menzingers for the thousandth time. FinalBossFight! were a frequent victim of this pattern for me; they just kept falling through the cracks. Watching their set on day one of Faux, I felt like an absolute fool for not checking them out sooner; they were so good and 100% in my wheelhouse. A few songs in, I was thinking about how their stripped-down approach to pop-punk kind of reminded me of Joyce Manor, a thought that was immediately followed by their killer cover of “Five Beer Plan.” It was very serendipitous. FBF! are now a band that will forever be in my regular listening rotation, thank you Faux for the introduction.

Another day one highlight for me was Bottom Bracket, a Chicago band I’d listened to a few times but had never managed to catch live. Their set was a way more arresting performance than I was expecting. I can't fathom how someone can play guitar like that and sing so well at the same time. Their set was at 7 pm, which is where I found myself starting to feel the fatigue of the day, but they snapped me right out of it. Good bands I enjoy; great bands send a jolt through me, and Bottom Bracket firmly sit in the latter camp—very cool stuff. 

One of the things I was most looking forward to at the fest was Carly Cosgrove’s performance. This was my first time seeing the band since the release of The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty, and I’ve so badly wanted to yell “You, old, dog, you old dog, you, old, dog, you old dog, you, you old dog, you old dog, you!” in a room full of people since first hearing the record. I finally got to do it at Faux, and it was just as magical as I imagined. Tough to beat seeing a band with a no-skip discography live—great way to cap off the night.
– Josh Ejnes

I am foolishly the kind of person who sees the opportunity to spend a total of 24 hours inside a small dive bar in Ohio and thinks, “How can I spend as much of my time as possible there without leaving?” On day one, I am proud to say I left only once, and that was during the much-earned hour-long break built into the schedule. Even then, I only went next door to a little deli for a chicken sandwich and some waffle fries that were better than they needed to be.  

The real reason I wanted to spend so much time at Faux was not just because of the incredible line-up of bands and absurdly cheap drink prices, but because Faux 8, much like all years prior, is really built on such a small and niche community that unites yearly to dance and drink $3 beers together. Nothing from the day stands out more to me than going around and seeing people from the internet who I have been aware of for a long time and was finally able to meet. 

There is also something really special about attending a festival and being able to get in a moshpit with the same people that you paid money to see. The band members are all running around and taking time to see the sets. It is very rare anymore that you go to a major show and get to actually talk to the folks who are the show. It is one of the things that makes Faux feel like a giant DIY family reunion. 

Bee’s Faux Bucket Hat

There are two bands that I want to take time to talk about, and the first is Later Gator. The Indianapolis emo outfit delivered an incredible side-stage set, despite being in a challenging position, immediately following Topiary Creatures and preceding Bottom Bracket. I was at the first-ever Later Gator show, and to have seen them grow from what they were to a band that can fill the room for a Faux set is incredible. Guitarist Jonathan Bayless and his ability to wield both a guitar and trumpet at the same time is nothing short of wizardry. There were two different covers that the band performed: one was “Higher” by Creed, and the other was a spontaneous, improvised cover of “We Are Young” by fun. that materialized after Bayless broke a string. This band kept the room moving, and it was incredible to see. 

The other band I need to mention is Strelitzia, the Arizona-based math rock group who put on what had to be one of the most special performances of the entire Faux weekend. The band rarely gets out of their home state, let alone all the way to the Midwest, so getting to see them come out and play songs off their 2024 album Winter was nothing short of astounding. I sat there at the front, thrashing around and sobbing the entire set. All I can truly say is if you have the opportunity to see this band, take it, because they are better than anybody could ever tell you.
– Ben Parker


Merch Mayhem

Ever since my first Fauxchella six years ago, I’ve viewed merch as an essential part of this festival’s identity. Bands travel from all over for this fest, many already on tours routed to or from Bowling Green just for Faux. This means that almost every band has merch with them, and at this scale, you’ll never know what you’re gonna get. Free stickers? You bet your ass. Hooters logo rips? Sure, why not. Crocheted alligators? Obviously

Tucked in the back corner of Howard’s main room, spread across two pool tables and half a dozen other surfaces, you will find a packed corner of all the best emo finery you could want. Most bands had shirts and stickers, some of which were custom-made just for this fest. Others offered vinyl records, CDs, tapes, lighters, tapestries, friendship bracelets, and toothbrushes. Several of the bands provided free earplugs, Narcan, drug test kits, Plan B, leftist literature, and wallet-sized cards about how to talk to ICE, as well as other harm-reduction supplies. It was impressive to see all these merch spreads and the infinite ways that artists create beyond the music you hear on the record. Here is a gallery of merch spreads, all photos taken with permission from the bands.
– Taylor Grimes


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Caro’s Warped Tour Report: Day One

Hi Taylor, Josh, and Ben! It’s Caro, and I am on the ground and reporting not-live from that national embarrassment happening in D.C. You know, the first stop of the 30th Anniversary of the Vans Warped Tour. 

The first thing I did was follow a guy smoking a cigarette and wearing a Memphis May Fire hoodie because I thought he would know where the gates were. He didn’t. But, thanks to my bloodhound navigational skills and a giant sign that said “ENTRANCE HERE,” I found the doors. When I approached the security check, they were blasting “Can We Just Get High?” by Carpool. Honestly, I thought I was imagining it for a second, like a desert mirage, heat psychosis already setting in, but it was real and it rocked. It was finally time to take my first steps into the very big parking lot where this was all going down and start paying $18 per tall boy White Claw all weekend. 

The day started with D.C.’s own Origami Angel performing in the first hour slot on one of the main stages to a giant crowd. They played a fuck-this-shit-up version of “Dirty Mirror Selfie” and a “Love Sosa”-infused “Doctor Whomst”. I want to make it clear that people went off for our hometown heroes.

Photo by @realkayls

Publicly, I wrote an article last year about the ascent of saturdays at your place as one of the pillars of contemporary emo — you should read it — so I felt pretty clever when they were announced for Warped Tour. Privately, I’ve had a list on my phone for the past few years called “bands that deserve to have Warped Tour re-invented so they can play in a parking lot at 2 pm,” and saturdays has been on that list since 2023. Hang my byline in the rafters because guess where I was standing at 2:35 pm. Also, why did the founder of Emo Nite walk by me?

saturdays were playing on one of the smaller stages, not the one sponsored by Ghost Energy, not the one sponsored by Beatbox, not the one sponsored by Vans, and not the other one sponsored by Vans. This corner of the festival hosted smaller artists with looser genre affiliations (think local bands like Angel Du$t or legends like Fishbone) and rowdier crowds. In this slice of paradise, saturdays kept the audience locked in through fast jams like their Blink-182-ish “pourover” and the more anthemic songs like “it’s always cloudy in kalamazoo.” The founder of Emo Nite walked by me again. When the band launched into their Certified Emo Classic, “tarot cards,” the crowd reacted accordingly, launching crowdsurfers towards the stage

After saturdays, I walked over to the Vans Left Foot Stage to scope out the crowd and watch Chiodos. Taylor, Josh, and Ben, I am here to say that there were fewer Elder Emo shirts than you would think. I’m assuming that you picture everyone here wearing something like that, but honestly, of the annoying apparel, it’s pretty evenly divided between Elder Emo shirts, Make America Emo Again hats, and It Was Never a Phase patches, but overall, it just wasn’t a lot of people. Everyone else was wearing band shirts or getting a sunburn in tank tops. Also, Chiodos ruled.

Historically, the Vans Warped compilation CD has never cost more than $5, and Smartpunk collaborated with the festival to keep this tradition alive. They also worked with Warped to do a series of less-formal sets under a tent in the middle of an alley of vendors. On Saturday, they showcased local bands like American Television and The Dreaded Laramie, as well as the cannonball-ish local band Combat. Many reading this may remember Combat’s bombastic Faux performance last year, so imagine that, but at literal Warped Tour. They rocked the fuck out, took requests from audience members like Ryland Heagy and Esden Stafne, and started a thrashing moshpit with passerbys from the Sublime and Cartel crowds. 

Photo by Combat

I want to end with this begrudging Day 1 thought: I know it’s easy to be dismissive of the Warped Tour revival. Like I know the jokes write themselves and it’s easy to pick apart, but believe me, your field reporter, the crowd was consistently fucking hyped. For the most part, everyone here paid a lot of money to hear good ass music and good ass music is what they found. Minus Ice Nine Kills.
– Caro Alt


Josh & Ben on Faux 8: Day Two

Trading card trading floor

Went into day two of Faux more tired than I would have liked. I bought a Deal or No Deal DVD game for the trip, sort of as a gag, but my friends and I actually ended up getting quite addicted to it, and our sleep suffered as a result; despite this, I was able to power through and watch some great sets. An earlier-in-the-day favorite of mine was Palette Knife, a late addition to the fest, who had the side stage absolutely rocking. Felt similarly about them as I did Bottom Bracket: how can you play like that and sing like that simultaneously? Doesn’t feel like it should be possible. “Jelly Boi” is one of my favorite emo songs, and I loved hearing it live. Definitely going to be catching Palette Knife next time they’re in Chicago. 

Pretty Bitter’s set at Faux 7 was one of the best of the weekend, so I was super stoked to see that they were on the lineup again for Faux 8. I felt like last year the band didn’t fully get the hype they deserved (partially due to a tough mid day timeslot), so I was really happy to see so many people dancing and singing along as they played this year; it seems like they’re a band whose fanbase is growing exponentially, which I couldn’t be happier to see. Through their set, the band’s new stuff mixed in seamlessly with the old, culminating with an all-out performance of the incredibly hooky “The Damn Thing is Cursed,” which brought the house down. Everyone in Pretty Bitter is a great performer, but at Faux 8, I found myself particularly drawn to their drummer, who was smashing those things and doing all sorts of stick spins and tricks—rockstar stuff, love to see it. 

Pretty Bitter, Pretty much killin’ it

This brings us to my favorite set of the festival: Fend. I don’t think I’d even heard of Fend heading into Faux, and in all honesty, I had intended to skip their set to catch some fresh air before Summerbruise played. As I started to walk by the side stage, the band’s sound pulled me in like a tractor beam; they were unlike anyone else at Faux. I’ve been listening to their record, Disc, pretty much continuously since I got home, I just can’t get over their vocal melodies. Honestly, I wish I had more specific things to say here, but their set put me into a stupor of sorts; my reaction was visceral in a way I struggle to describe. I guess it was kind of like the first time I had Nerds Gummy Clusters and my brain was firing off in ways it hadn’t in years, the result of elements I’m familiar with being put together in a combination I can’t effectively deconstruct. They just sounded awesome. Listen to this band. 

The last day two act that I want to shout out is Leisure Hour, who closed things out on the festival’s side stage. It feels like Leisure Hour have been touring nonstop lately, and their reps on the road are paying off. The band was already great when I first saw them in Chicago last October, but since then, it seems they’ve leveled up even further. The crowd reaction during their closer “jenny” is probably the most hype I saw people get all night, they absolutely owned the space.
– Josh Ejnes

Smash is still a Faux tradition

Much like my peers, I went into day two with little to no sleep. I also overheated on the way in because my friend and I chose to walk the 20 minutes to Faux from the hotel. This was also one of the few times during any fest that I was willing to miss any of the sets, as I was down the road from Howard’s with many Faux attendees for the No King’s Day protest. It was powerful to be there with friends and band members as we all chanted and felt the spirit of protest. It was beautiful, as many Bowling Green locals were out and the streets were lined. I am certain that, of all the things that happened during the weekend, this had to be the most important.

Upon arriving at the festival, I chose to spend my day wandering around and taking time to meet people while passively viewing most of the sets. You kind of hit this realization that you are surrounded by people you won’t see for at least a year, and all you want to do is bask in that community. I took the time to meet the people I was terrified of, such as Mel Bleker from Pretty Bitter, with whom I have developed a friendship over the years on Twitter due to the nature of us both being poets. It led to a beautiful and surreal moment where we were both able to complement each other’s writing and connect as humans. I also got to go with my friend, who had never seen Summerbruise, over to their merch table and talk to Mike, who called me the “Michael Jordan of attending Summerbruise shows.” Being in moshpits and always having a group conversation to walk into is exactly what Faux is about. 

Keep for Cheap

There were many sets from Day Two that I loved, and the first I wanted to touch on is Echo. This is a fascinating band as it is essentially just Summebruise flipped around with the drummer, Stanli, taking over vocals and leading the band. They began with a magical cover of “Shooting Stars” by B.o.B. This stood out to me because I had spent the time walking into the fest joking about the concept of a band playing this song on Twitter. The rest of the set was filled with some fun-filled, ass-throwing emo music that had the kids moving early in the morning, as it was many of the protest group’s first set. 

Another one of the sets I wanted to highlight is Tiny Voices. This set was always going to be different as their vocalist was unable to make the fest, and Luke Ferkovich (Kule, Endswell) was filling in on the mic. The crowd for this set was absolutely raucous and filled the main stage room. I was right at the front, and early on, I got forced onto the stage from the crowd pushing forward, and not once was I able to get off. It is a testament to this band that even without their vocalist, they were able to put on one hell of a show. Half of the vocals were provided by the crowd, as a beautiful cacophony of mic grabs took place repeatedly throughout the entire set. At one point, Luke even went into the crowd and got the whole room moving. It was the kind of set that jumpstarts a band’s momentum, à la Combat at Faux 7.

Jesus was in attendance

The pinnacle of the day for me was getting to see Summerbruise for the 12th time. They are a truly special Indiana band and one of the few things I feel pride for in my home state. This was a strong four-piece Summerbruise lineup, which couldn’t be a full-band set as Mitch Gulish was at Warped Tour playing with saturdays at your place. Summerbruise played all of the hits, and the first moment that stuck out was during “Dead Daddog 20/20” when the entire crowd overpowered vocalist Mike Newman, who broke down into tears on stage. It was a beautiful moment that was well-deserved by a band that has been a mainstay in the Faux lineup over the years. Outside of Equipment, Summerbruise is the Faux band. This group inspires community and supports each other in a way that not many others do. 

Summerbruise was also able to debut their recently released track “Never Bothered,” which really took off at the bridge as around six different band members rushed on stage to grab the mic for backup vocals through the end of the song. The set concluded as many Summerbruise sets do, with Mike introducing “Bury Me at Penn Station” as a song for the community and the people who make these shows worth it (despite it being about his wife). However, this performance was a little different, as Frederick Loeb of Dear Maryanne came onto stage to play guitar, allowing Mike to spend the end of the set in the crowd, connecting with people in a way he usually can’t due to his dual role as a guitarist and singer. Beautiful set from a fantastic band.
– Ben Parker

Summerbruise


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Caro’s Warped Tour Report: Day 2

Hi Taylor, Josh, and Ben! I respawned in Parking Lot 6 and am once again live from the Bam Margera Look-Alike Convention. The Hot Topic Conference on Reviving Wallet Chains. The Consortium of People Who Loved Illegally Drinking the Original Four Loko. Vans Warped Tour Day 2. And I am here to see motherfucking Carpool. This bit was sponsored by Ghost Energy. #DRINKGHOST

Warped Tour has an infamous no crowdsurfing rule. Obviously, it’s a joke rule that was historically ignored, but that didn’t stop Kevin Lyman and Co. from putting up the old “you mosh, you crowd surf, you get hurt, we get sued, no more Warped Tour" signs. What they didn’t have a sign against was bands jumping into the crowd. Enter Carpool.

Carpool - Photo by Alec Pugliese

Carpool ripped through heaters like “Come Thru Cool,” “I Hate Music,” and “Thom Yorke New City” (thank you again for playing that), but everything came to a boiling point for “The Salty Song” when Stoph Colasanto jumped the barricade to join the crowd, turning the pit into a party. It has long been the belief of this site that Carpool fucking rocks, but this was the pinnacle so far. The only way for Rochester’s rowdiest crew to go is up. (And if you haven’t checked out Pretty Rude’s new album — fix that.)

Now, Taylor, Josh, and Ben, I don’t think anyone I’ve ever bought old band merch off of has ever performed on a festival main stage, but then Eric Egan walked onto the Ghost stage, so I guess I can cross that one off. I know a lot of y’all have watched Heart Attack Man’s rise and might have even caught them at Faux last year, but did you know they also played in 2018 pre-Fake Blood? It’s all pretty cool and even cooler to see a lot of people came to Warped explicitly for Heart Attack Man. 

God bless the state of Oklahoma. That’s all I can think when Cliffdiver starts up. I’ve seen them a lot over the years, but every time I catch them, I can’t help but get completely lost in their positivity and zest for life, despite it all. Like a couple of bands this weekend, Cliffdiver discussed how monumental it felt to be performing at Warped, and it genuinely did feel like an event. After all, how could you not feel important and joyous when Cliffdiver is playing “goin’ for the garbage plate”?

Cliffdiver - Photo by Caitlyn McGonigal

Between Bri Wright’s stage banter and Joey Duffy’s FUCK ICE shirt, Cliffdiver spent a lot of time addressing the political state of things. If you missed the news, Trump held a military parade for his birthday in the city, flooding D.C. with violent dipshits and that tension made its way over to the Festival Grounds of RFK Stadium. All weekend, artists addressed the state of everything: The Wonder Years spoke about trans youth, ICE, and Palestine while Dan Campbell wore a FREE GAZA shirt, Big Ass Truck gave a speech about what they hate, Meredith Hurley from Millionaires wore a Protect Trans Folks shirt, and Buddy Nielsen from Senses Fail addressed the history of sexual assault this festival festered and used his time to advocate for Palestine. This doesn’t even include all the other artists, such as Origami Angel, Scene Queen, Pennywise, Motion City Soundtrack, The Suicide Machines, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Magnolia Park, Combat, sace6, and Fever333, and MORE who also dedicated time in their sets to using their voices to advocate for change. This also isn’t even including all of the political conversation happening in the crowds, which largely expressed similar sentiments to these bands and responded with support. 

The MVPs of the whole weekend are easily Leisure Hour, who played Fauxchella Saturday night and dipped down to D.C. to play the Smartpunk tent on Sunday evening. Not to mention that their load-in at Warped Tour was literally through the crowd since they weren’t playing a formal stage. Rock and fucking roll. And I concur with Josh, go listen to “jenny.”

Rain had threatened the entire weekend, and the storm was finally unleashed as Kerosene Heights was taking the stage after their drive from Bowling Green. That didn’t stop anyone from partying; in fact, it got everyone even more excited. I was stopped several times through the set by people passing by to ask who they were, all to which I replied, yelling, “KEROSENE HEIGHTS FROM ASHEVILLE.” It was just so fun. It’s kind of what this is all about, you know?

Kerosene Heights - Photo by Alec Pugliese

My final thoughts? I think there’s a temptation to get into an us (very cool music listeners) vs them (nostalgia-obsessed poser) mentality. Because yes, the whole Elder Emo thing is grating, but this was also the first music thing I’ve been to where someone was wearing a Pg. 99 shirt — which is objectively some of the most authentically Elder Emo you can get. My point is that on the ground, it didn’t matter; we were all already there, so there was nothing left to do but have fun. I’m immensely proud of all the new bands that got spots to play the festival and I would be lying if I said I didn’t love seeing the old shit too. I literally almost waited in line to meet Levi Benton from Miss May I.
– Caro Alt


Taylor’s Portraits

Grabbing portraits of bands was something I wanted to do at Liberation Weekend, but I never quite worked up the courage to commit to fully. Because I knew the bands and the space better at Faux, I was much less shy about asking band members for a quick picture whenever the opportunity presented itself. Most of the time, I was operating on a simple “one and done” philosophy, snapping one pic and saying “cute” or “sick” and thanking the band. I’m incredibly proud of how some of these came out, and I hope I can continue to take many more pictures of band members in this capacity.

If you haven’t seen it, we've just launched a Photography wing of this website, featuring photo recaps of concerts. I plan on doing a Faux 8 photo recap at a later date, so more of these to come.


Faux 8: Honorary Day 3

While Faux 8 was only a two-day fest, a daytime Sunday show at The Swarmyard, a local BG DIY institution, acted as an unofficial continuation of the festivities. The lineup consisted of Decatur, Illinois folk rocker Marble Teeth (who we profiled earlier this year) and Equipment. When I showed up at The Swarmyard a little before doors, a group was forming across the street already a few dozen strong. By the time they started letting people in, it was clear the basement would not fit everyone comfortably or safely. Instead, everyone poured back out into the street and assembled at the front of the house for two front porch acoustic sets. 

Marble Teeth beguiled with his talky acousti-folk setup, playing guitar, harmonica, and CRT TV. At the beginning of each track, Caleb Jefson would select a song off a custom-made DVD menu, which would provide the beat as he sang and played guitar. He wove through songs off his early LPs Cars and Park, 2023’s top 10 times i’ve cried, as well as some new material that Jefson teased as part of an EP coming out on July 4th. 

Marble Teeth

After Marble Teeth’s set, Nick Zander took the mantle of the front porch for an all-request Equipment set. Occasionally joined by Penny and Ellie, the group rocked through a one-of-a-kind three-hour set, playing everything from embarrassing cuts off their 2015 demo to the then-just-a-few-days-old “espresso lemonade.” It was a staggering thing to take in deep cuts from every era of this band as Zander shredded and sang with Springsteen-like endurance. The crowd sang along whenever words were forgotten, and Zander was more than happy to provide the crowd with fun backstory and lore about nearly every track. 

The afternoon set was a beautiful and unique experience that will sadly act as the last from the Swarmyard, as the venue was forced to shut down following this show. Much like the AEG C&D, this feels like an overreaction and overreach; the last drops of life being squeezed out of a passionate group of people putting on shows purely out of love. That said, if I know anything about Jacob and Beautiful Rat Records, it’s that this energy will not go away, merely be diverted to other projects. Plus, if there’s any way to close up your house venue, it’s hard to beat a massive, mega four-hour show headlined by hometown heroes like Equipment.
– Taylor Grimes

Equipment


Some Closing Thoughts

Six years ago, I attended my first Fauxchella because a few bands I liked were performing. I figured it was worth the 90-minute drive down from Detroit to see Origami Angel, Stars Hollow, and Charmer. It turns out that “worth it” doesn’t even begin to capture the experience. I came away from Fauxchella III more inspired and enthused about music than I’d ever been in my life. As I sat eating Rally’s on the hood of my car after the gig, I found myself in absolute awe at the type of communal experience that was possible outside the confines of a traditional music festival experience. To me, this realization goes part and parcel with my Pacific Northwestern ass experiencing authentic Midwest DIY culture for the first time, amazed that people could throw shows out of their living room or basement, not to mention the ability to support and interact with bands directly, as opposed to strictly over a merch table (if at all). 

After attending Fauxchella III, I came back to Bowling Green for DIY Prom, then (on two separate occasions) made a 12-hour drive up from North Carolina just for Fauxchella. It wasn’t lost on me how silly it was to travel so far and take time off work for a festival happening in a college town outside of Toledo, but the lineups were too specific and too tailored to my tastes. It was like someone took my last.fm charts and turned them into a festival lineup. How could I miss that?

This year at Faux 8, I spoke with a couple who had traveled up from Mexico specifically for this festival. I was pretty amazed and said, “You guys probably traveled further than anyone here.” These were words I wound up eating mere hours later when I was talking to another group who had traveled from Alaska for Faux 8. 

On the second day of the festival, I found myself out back chatting with members of Keep For Cheap and Fend when Autumn Vagle said, “Minnesota needs something like this,” referring to Fauxchella’s tight-knit sense of community and impressive artistic draw. Similarly, at one point in the night, I was catching up with Jael Holzman, frontwoman of Ekko Astral and one of the people who spearheaded Liberation Weekend. She cited Fauxchella directly as an inspiration for how a festival like this can and should run, saying that watching Faux over the years was proof of concept that they could do something similar in DC. The result of that inspiration was an incredible festival that raised nearly $40k for the trans rights advocacy collective Gender Liberation Movement. That’s inspiration in action.

With next year’s venue still an unknown, any future Faux will look undeniably different. There will be no more Fauxchella as we’ve known it, but hopefully, there will be Fauxchellas sprouting up everywhere as people take this energy and inspiration back to their home scenes. Fauxchella itself isn’t special. It’s not the venue, the lineup, or even the people running it; what makes Fauxchella special is the community. It’s all these people coming together for two days of music and friendship and $3 beers. What makes Fauxchella special is you.

It feels poetic that Conor Alan, the person organizing most everything related to Fauxchella and the Summit Shack, had a baby on the literal day before Faux 8. As Conor steps into the role of father, it feels as if his other baby is now finally old enough to go off and live on its own. The format of this festival is something that can (and should) be replicated in every music scene across the country. And hey, maybe the first version is just a bunch of local bands and comedians performing in a garage, but keep at it, and who knows how big it could become? Who knows how many people will travel from other states and countries to be a part of your scene? What I do know is that you won’t find out until you start.

Fauxchella, as it has existed for the last near-decade, is gone, but in its place will come another Fauxchella in a different place run by the same people. Then another Faux-like festival with a different name, run by a completely different group of people. Then maybe even one in your hometown. Faux is more than just a music festival; it’s an idea, and ideas can be replicated, shared, and built upon. This is yours now. 

Fauxchella Forever ∞

Origami Angel – Feeling Not Found | Album Review

Counter Intuitive Records

In case you haven't heard, it's pretty much impossible to remove the looming shadow of the Internet from the current state of music... Well, the current state of everything really, but this is an album review, so, music. In fact, the tangibility of the Internet has never felt more salient: public streaming numbers are turning music listening into a prizeless competition, artists with one viral song are getting Grammy nominations, and meme culture dyed the Internet lime green for a summer. It’s all making the way people interact with life and art weird. 

Sure, the web is a tool to connect music to listeners and audiences to artists, but the relationship between music and the ‘Net is complex. It’s a place for buzzing discussion just as much as it is endless discourse. It’s a way to DM secret show addresses and document music scenes, but also a place where artists have to scrape by in an uneasy relationship with companies who have monopolized the technical side of things without considering the music side of things. Much like existing, The Online can be emotional and overwhelming and loud and cruel and intoxicating and real. Over the last few decades, we've watched it build and build until one day, it feels like everything will finally just be blue screens. Shrouded in this blue glow is where we find Origami Angel’s latest album, Feeling Not Found.

On their third album, buried between the 0s and 1s, Ryland Heagy and Pat Doherty dive deeper into familiar (certifiably Gami) territory while simultaneously breaking into exciting new realms. Through their discography, the band has always been driven by a handful of specific themes and tricks, and Feeling Not Found is no exception – but this is their brashest and boldest project yet. After years of experiments within the emo sound, their third full-length catapults Origami Angel into another echelon of expertise as they experiment with even more genres, deliveries, and emotion. They're combatting information overload with information overload. 

In Feeling Not Found, there’s always another layer, another lyrical twist, another reference, or another unpredictable change around the corner as Origami Angel contends with the tensions of tangible reality through digital metaphor. With earlier song titles like “ROM Hack,” the story of how Origami Angel broke Minecraft and their rise to Emo Fame via online DIY circles, it’s impossible to separate Origami Angel from their existence within the Internet—and no one is more aware of this than the band themselves. 

This concept-album-type-thing is not new to Origami Angel. Their first album, Somewhere City, imagined an escapist town filled with backyard roller coasters and endless refills of Dr. Pepper. To give you an idea of how much this band commits to the bit, physical copies of their debut came with a map of the city, and the album rolled out through a now-defunct augmented reality game. They continued the conceptual thread when they recorded their sophomore double album, GAMI GANG, in Heagy’s bedroom during lockdown. While that feels like a lifetime ago, Origami Angel hasn't stopped releasing music since. On a random Friday in 2022, the duo suddenly dropped re: turn, a gentle acoustic EP, and on the following Monday, they uploaded DEPART, a twin, body-slamming hardcore EP. On the back half of their latest, The Brightest Days, they dealt with the excruciating inner turmoil they feel towards the treatment of their hometown through the sunny confines of a breezy, Weezer-influenced mixtape. All of this makes the new album’s digital framing a natural and even necessary perspective for this particular project. It also gave the band an excuse to send Nintendo DS cartridges of the album to fans, which I bet they have wanted to do for a very long time.

Feeling Not Found is a pointed conglomeration of all the sounds and themes they experimented with over the past few years as they ascended to emo stardom. Release after release, album after EP after mixtape, Origami Angel have always stuck to a pronged emotional core with general ideas like longing, grappling with betrayal, pinpointing the authentic self amongst the weird, and breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to their audience. This consistency is one of the band’s most underhanded strengths, a common center that the duo can always ascend from, revisit, adjust, and reaffirm. Feeling Not Found comfortably continues these established concepts while newly remembering that the opposite of 'want' is 'take.'

The album begins with its thesis, “Lost Signal,” a soft synth track laced with grief. Heagy’s vocals digitize slowly as if suddenly engulfed by the computer screen he imagines. He ends the song solemnly with the suggestion that “maybe there’s a way out that nobody sees, In the static displays of our old CRTs, The sounds of the universe being created, And most people hate it.” This song sets the tone of Feeling Not Found and opens the window into the digital landscape: the hope for hope amongst numbness.

The album starts to quite literally rip from there, zipping through the circuits and directly into the electrifying introduction of “Dirty Mirror Selfie.” If “Lost Signal” sets the tone, “Dirty Mirror Selfie” sets the pace. In three minutes and thirty-seven seconds, the song touches on hair metal, power pop, emo, pop-punk, nu-metal, and something that reminds me of the build in a 00s singer-songwriter’s ballad before it's all blended into a hardcore breakdown that reminds you that their home, Washington D.C., invented this stuff. While this album fairly solidly pushes Origami Angel out of any stagnant “emo” descriptor and beyond the 5th wave ingénuity they contributed to, it’s not not-emo. For example, as the tracklist plays on, “Viral” trades in the melancholy realizations of “Where Blue Light Blooms” for dejected vulnerability, with lyrics pivoting briefly back to the more somber days of Quiet Hours amongst the squeal of a guitar and click of drumsticks. 

After “Underneath My Skin” softly shuts the door on its way out, “Wretched Trajectory” kicks it back open. Between descriptions of a building sense of panic and a private need to see someone again, this song slides closest back to the Somewhere City and Gami Gang of it all. Specifically, it could even be a callback to similar emotions expressed in “The Title Track” or later in “Self Destruct.” But that’s not all, because it's also just as loud as those predecessors. 

Pat Doherty’s drumming style is one of incomparable precision and intensity that glows throughout the entire album (and the band’s entire discography, for that matter). “Wretched Trajectory” is primarily driven through Doherty’s heartbeat of a kickdrum, a moment showcased best in the bridge as the rest of the music drops out and he powers all momentum. It’s impossible not to think of how these songs will translate into Origami Angel’s riotous live shows, where the circle pit never stops circling, and the crowd surfers never stop surfing. 

The final gang vocals of “Wretched Trajectory” arc down into the anguished ballad “AP Revisionist History” before leading into “Living Proof,” which begins with a beachy pop-punk beat that bounces along, grating against the simmering ferocity of the lyrics. As Heagy singsongs a reminder that “I don’t think that that’s how you’re supposed to talk to people you say you love,” the song slowly grows more sinister. Formerly boppy guitar riffs start to slice between Heagy’s words, matching their acerbic strikes. Suddenly, without warning, the floor falls out from underneath the song, revealing a pulsing beatdown. After years of releases, it’s become abundantly clear that Heagy is not afraid to get mad as fuck — in fact, he screamed across an EP about it in 2022. For the DEPART-heads out there, “Living Proof” picks up where “JUDGE” left off, and it’s even meaner. 

So, how have these past few years of emo celebrity and indie darling-dom treated Origami Angel? Thanks for asking. Past lead single “Fruit Wine” sits “Sixth Cents (Get It?),” one of the record's final singles. This song digs very openly at the uglier parts of being a working musician: the pay, the falsified enthusiasm, and the empty promises. A restless rhythm complements the song’s sardonic condemnation of The Music Industry, as the band seems to mimic the demands they’re receiving – specifically, the notion that artists have to constantly change themselves to be noticed by any kind of algorithm-based popularity machine. It’s funny, it’s rude, it races at a 2:15 pm-Warped-tour-mainstage-metalcore speed, and it resonates.

This song is immediately followed by the breathless “secondgradefoofight” and the two share an incredibly fun music video. Origami Angel has always worn their references on their sleeves, from proudly championing sidelined bands like Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! to instantly name-dropping DC’s The Obsessives when asked about their duo structure. As a band that does the most (haha) at every juncture possible, their references are endless – they're very clearly geeks with a deep appreciation for lots of music, and that makes it pretty easy to be a fan of theirs. However, the joint music video is the most they’ve ever referenced other artists as they step into their shoes and recreate the videos that made these stars famous, from Taking Back Sunday’s VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown-ready “Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team)” to Phoebe Bridgers’ highly-parodied “Kyoto” to that one frame of Modern Baseball’s “Your Graduation” that probably has a fan base of its own. But despite the perhaps therapeutic airing of grievances in “Sixth Cents (Get It?)” and the threats of the anxiety-riddled “secondgradefoofight,” there is still an emotional toll to it all. The stretch of anti-industry, semi-self-motivating tracks ends on “HM07 Waterfall,” a Pokémon-referencing song that cracks the screen Gami carefully placed between the digital and the real as it starts to apologize for the personal impact of these conflicts.

In Ian Cohen’s Pitchfork review of the comparatively hopeful Somewhere City, he concludes with the suggestion that “Origami Angel would be wise to explore the darkness on the edge of town.” It seems that in the tumultuous five years since that release, the band has found themselves in that exact fading light. On that album, Origami Angel ended with a repeated refrain, “The city never lets me down,” a sweet conclusion to a very sweet project. A couple of years later, the band ended their second album with the repeated confirmation, “This is goodbye.” Now, on the title track for Feeling Not Found, the band marries the two sentiments into the bittersweet affirmation, “No matter how much the world wants me to change.” It’s a conclusion that they could have only gotten to now. Suddenly, the anxiety of the blue light fades away.

After all of this, can you even look at the world around you without seeing the junk and firewalls? The digitalscape is woven into the reality of Origami Angel, not only in the music listening but in their lyrics, musical references, song titles, and conceptual outlook. In their own words, “When the cycle is over, and all the circuits are broken, you won’t be fighting resistance in spite of existence.” So log off, close this review, listen to the album, and remove yourself from the Internet. Just know that when you look away, there will be a split second where the brightness of this exact screen will still be burned over your vision, momentarily blending your digital life into your physical reality.


Caro Alt’s (she/her) favorite thing in the world is probably collecting CDs. Caro is from New Orleans, Louisiana and spends her time not sorting her CD collection even though she really, really needs to.

Origami Angel – Fruit Wine | Single Review

Counter Intuitive Records

Origami Angel, the Washington, D.C. second-wave easycore duo, is back to dunk on the haters with their newest single, “Fruit Wine.” 

This is the first we’ve heard from Gami since their sunny summer mixtape, 2023’s The Brightest Days. This time teaming up with Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip, the track features vocalist/guitarist Ryland Heagy slamming an anonymous antagonist, akin to the Drake vs. Kendrick discourse currently unfolding in the rap community. Heagy drops barbs such as “You’re only as strong as your greatest weakness, so you better get used to your obsoleteness.” While the aforementioned rappers have their fair share of gripes with each other, it’s hard to imagine anyone having beef with Gami when all they do is release banger after banger. 

The lyrics find Heagy comparing himself to Jesus in the humblest way possible when he lays out, “As simple as it seems, it’s still so hard for me to make it look easy… turning water into fruit wine.” Admittedly, I don’t know shit about wine, but here are my findings: fruit wines are generally harder to vint than plain grape wine, so Heagy seems to be speaking to the extra hard work himself and drummer Pat Doherty have been investing in the band. Formed in 2016, Origami Angel have released something (an album, EP, mixtape) each year for eight years straight now, keeping fans fed and letting their work speak for itself. The “gami gang” is real, and the duo didn’t build it by merely reaching for the low-hanging fruit. 

Clocking in at a brief two minutes and fifty-one seconds, “Fruit Wine” leans into the patented Gami Gang easycore-emo blend more than ever, maintaining those catchy vocals while still finding room for gritty chugs. After the feel-good breezy bops of The Brightest Days, it’s a welcome return to form to hear Gami spout off again. And, of course, none of this would be complete without Pat Doherty’s impeccable drumwork driving the track forward, bringing the perfect blend of power and detail that we’ve come to adore. The band has never shied away from disclosing their love for French easycore band Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, and that affinity is on full display in this track, which builds to a fist-balling breakdown in the last minute, narrated by Heagy’s guttural screams. 

It’s easy to see where Heagy is coming from when, even after the band released arguably one of the best emo albums of all time in Somewhere City, they were still paying their dues and working at grocery stores to make ends meet. So, while the band has smashed through various ceilings (and is even about to embark on a nationwide tour with Microwave), they’re still perpetually grinding away for something better. 


Brandon Cortez is a writer/musician residing in El Paso, Texas, with his girlfriend and two cats. When not playing in shitty local emo bands, you can find him grinding Elden Ring on his second cup of cold brew. Find him on Twitter @numetalrev.

Origami Angel – The Brightest Days | Mixtape Review

Counter Intuitive Records

There is something borderline poetic about listening to “The Brightest Days,” the title track of Origami Angel’s new mixtape, while you’re looking at a sky full of haze due to sweeping wildfires and simultaneously doom scrolling on the hellscape that is Twitter dot com. I, too, am asking where my sunny feeling is now that the sense of the world ending is so strong that it feels like I’m wearing concrete shoes and was just thrown into the bay. The soft ukulele and group vocals singing this lovely little melody quickly turn into a rug pulled out from beneath your feet as Pat Doherty’s drums come in like a punch to the face and the crunchy guitars take the forefront of the song. The backing vocals throughout this entire mixtape, especially this first song, are reminiscent of The Beach Boys. These swooning, summery vocals paired with the gritty guitar, the halftime breakdown at the end of this 2:27 track (a perfect amount of time, I am always saying that songs should be 30 seconds shorter), and the melodic guitar riff make for an absolute banger introduction to this mixtape that’s full of twists and turns. Throughout this release, you never know what you’ll get with the next track, and I think that was exactly what Origami Angel were betting on. The outro slips into the familiar ukulele, and the ghost of the guitar feedback leads you into the next song, creating a wonderful little bookend of sound that leaves the listener still reeling just a bit and excited to figure out what’s coming next.

Did I mention Beach Boys backing vocals? Yeah, welcome to “Thank You, New Jersey,” the first single from The Brightest Days and a song I take very personally as a New Jersey native. I’ll take a note from the Immortal Bard and say that brevity is the soul of wit, considering most of the community has already listened. It's here where the band really establishes the theme of surfy vocals, this time paired with crunchy, layered guitars... and that little waltzy bridge doesn’t hurt either. As a lead single, this was a fun and clever introduction to this mixtape that had me stoked to see what was coming next – Pat Doherty absolutely crushing the first 45 seconds of this song was truly what sucked me in here, not that the lyrical content wasn’t just absolutely up my alley. If there’s one thing New Jerseyans love more than people leaving them the hell alone, it’s also being at the center of attention. We are truly an onion of a people: full of layers. These D.C. natives genuinely seem to understand us. Another track clocking in under 2:40, Origami Angel is receiving a large ‘Your welcome’ from me on behalf of the Garden State.

Do I imagine “Picture Frame” as a song playing during the opening scene of some coming-of-age movie or TV show? Yeah, and I promise that’s a compliment. That guitar riff that starts off the song is head-bobbing, catchy, and a LITTLE Blink-182 if you squint. It leads directly into a high-energy chorus that I know will have people moving and grooving at the next Gami show, hopefully becoming a new staple of their setlist. The quick vocal lines in the next verse are a great addition to the song as the band continues to switch things up, never letting a moment go stale. Not only do no two songs sound the same, no two parts of a song sound too similar. The band never uses one idea enough times for it to get monotonous or boring. Once they have your attention, they don’t let it go.

As a Trekkie, “Kobayashi Maru (My Very Own)” was on my radar the moment I read the title. To give some context for those unaware, the Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Starfleet Academy – a test to show recruits and trainees that sometimes you simply cannot win despite your best efforts, greatest strengths, and high intellects. I love the symbolism used here, not just on a nerd level, but it is an excellent metaphor for that consistent feeling of failure and the resignation that sometimes you just won’t be able to win. I’m absolutely digging the ska-adjacent guitar strokes in the second verse; this song is probably giving the most Motion City Soundtrack energy out of all of them for me. The instrumental chunk that takes up the last 40 seconds of the song is stank-face-worthy (affectionate) and has the song ending with more energy than it even began with, which makes it a perfect transition into the next track.

Second Best Friend” is the second-longest song on the mixtape, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. Origami Angel has a way of bringing out some of the most ear-pleasing guitar riffs right at the start of a song and still managing to build and grow throughout. The hard-hitting drums and guitar lick quickly give way to dreamy vocals, soft, reverberating backup vocals, and acoustic guitars for just a moment–long enough that when the drums come back, it almost takes you off guard. They’re doing a great job at switching up dynamics all throughout this mixtape while still sounding definitively Origami Angel. I adore the synth in this song and how Ryland managed to create a great balance between guitar riffs and keys here, giving both the chance to round out the track without being overwhelming. This might be my favorite song of the mixtape given the dynamics – the lyrics, the stops and starts, and the varying instruments being brought to the forefront throughout the song. It sounds like Drew Portalatin really spread his engineering and production wings on this one, and it paid off. The entire mixtape is excellently produced, but this song in particular solidified that it was something special for me.

I love a transitional song, precisely what the less than a minute-and-a-half, ukulele-driven “Looking Out” provides. It allows the audience to catch their breath after listening to five high-energy back-to-back bangers before moving along. It’s a sweet little song too, with kind lyrics and ocean waves in the background. It throws you a little off your guard so that when the guitar feedback starts in the next song and that drum-heavy, gritty guitar intro to “My PG County Summer” comes in, you are wide awake, alert, and ready.

The second single, “My PG County Summer,” has received its love and praise from the public already, but I would be remiss not to mention it here given its relevance and the fact that it’s. The synth in this song, combined with the backing vocals that hit at that 1:43 mark, is what really drives it, in my opinion. I’ve been singing the praises of the backing vocals, and I shall sing them louder now. Origami Angel knows how to build a song, bring it to its height, and end it so that no drop of energy is wasted.

This all ends with the 4:22 “Few and Far Between,” which ties right back into the title track, giving the mixtape a rounded, cyclical feeling so that you barely know where it all ends and where it begins. Every downstroke of the guitar is purposeful, and the lyrics get brought to the forefront of this one which is perfect given this outro essentially sums up the mixtape as a whole.

And I still say that I love it here, behind clenched teeth and constant fear
Cause one day it will all disappear

This lyric struck me as something so true and universal – I feel it every single day, as I’m sure most, if not everyone, also feels. It’s an absolute shame to live in a world that is so imperfect and also so temporary. You want to stop and appreciate and love, and sometimes it is SO easy to do. Other days, it feels near impossible, but you make yourself love it anyway because, let’s be real, who would truly be surprised if tomorrow we found out it was going to be the last day we all had here? Not me, that’s for sure.

Origami Angel is calling The Brightest Days a mixtape rather than an EP or an album. There’s an incredibly neat balance between experimental and familiar, which is all wrapped up with a high energy, banging-guitar-riffing, climate crisis, and anxiety-having bow. Every song is different; I love the varied guitar tones and how quickly they switch from gritty and crunchy to bright and round. Even more impressively, Origami Angel have managed to create eight stellar songs that feel as though there’s no emptiness, no SPACE where attention or momentum could be lost. The soft parts of the songs have no weakness; the large walls of sound don’t seem overwhelming, but full and warm. It feels like everything is very purposely placed, nothing haphazard or rushed. And as the mixtape fades out with that same ukulele, the same lyrics, and that comforting sound of ocean waves – It just feels natural to let the whole thing repeat


August Greenberg (they/them) is a music lover from Philadelphia, PA, who has written for Spinning Thoughts and had a journey within the music scene by fronting the indie band Riverby. They love good music and never wanna shut up about it.

Every Origami Angel Song, Ranked

Photo by Bethunni Schreiner

Photo by Bethunni Schreiner

Origami Angel is an emo duo from College Park, Maryland, currently signed to Counter Intuitive Records. Despite only having existed for four years, the band already has one of the best discographies in the scene. Their music is a unique blend of tap-happy emo, hook-heavy pop-punk, and sing-along indie rock, all topped off with a dollop of upbeat easycore for good measure. Gami’s lyrics range from the grounded nerdiness of Pokemon and Rocket League to more existential fears of crushing self-doubt and the complexities of modern relationships. The result is equal parts moshable, danceable, relatable, and quotable, where each song overflows with positivity and hyper-technical displays of instrumental mastery. 

Gami’s first official release, Quiet Hours, is a 2017 EP that the band members have since dubbed their “soft emo album before [they] discovered blastbeats.” The duo started to make a name for themselves in 2018 with their second EP Doing The Most. Featuring poignant sentiments, hyper-online tendencies, and a now-iconic Herman Cain sample, this EP put the band on the map of the wider emo scene and helped them find a community outside of their east coast home. 

In 2019 Gami’s hustle was undeniable. The band kicked the year off with a Split between themselves and fellow Marylanders Commander Salamander in January. They released a Pokemon-themed EP in the spring and embarked on their first nationwide tour that summer. By the time November had rolled around, the group released their debut record by way of an augmented reality tourism site. Since racking up glowing reviews and numerous album of the year placements (including our own), singer/guitarist Ryland Heagy and drummer Pat Doherty have become the face of emo’s up-and-coming fifth wave. 

I figured what better time than the release of the duo’s sophomore album to sit down and formalize my thoughts on the band’s discography before it nearly doubles in size. I want to preface this ranking with the disclaimer that I don’t think Origami Angel has ever made a bad song. This may be a “ranking” in the sense that the tracks are ordered by increasing quality, but this list is less “worst to best” and more “amazing to flawless.” These songs are all different shades of incredible, my hyper-subjective taste is the only criteria here. Truth be told, this entire article is just an excuse for me to write about all of the band’s songs in one place. That said, this order is definitive and inarguable… Just kidding, please tell me what you think of my ranking and share your thoughts at the bottom.

Also, if you’ve made it this far, here’s the ranking in playlist form, in case you want to listen along, skip to the end, or just hear all of the band’s songs in the most arbitrary way possible. 


#30 - Osmosis

First up, we have “Osmosis,” the third track from Quiet Hours. I’ll admit I placed this song dead last out of respect for the band since they’ve once voiced it as their least favorite. I figured this list may be divisive, but we might as well start on common ground, right? Despite the band's self-criticism, I think this song is pleasant enough; the guitar line is modest, the drumming is loose, and the line “get out my head and in my heart” is cute. Not a bad place to start.

#29 - Mark My Words

Mark My Words” opens with a sentiment that I think we all shared at one point in high school: “I don’t give a damn about conformity or who you think I am.” A little on-the-nose, but this sappy salvo makes way for a gorgeous bit of mellowed-out emo tapping that’s as reflective and meditative as the genre ever allows itself to get. Midway through the song, the band works this singular guitar twinkle into a fully-fledged riff before throwing back to the chorus one last time for maximum impact. 

#28 - Say Less

I’ll be honest, I love Somewhere City, but “Say Less” has always been a bit of a lull in the tracklist for me. Maybe it’s the slow open or the Star Trek clip that precedes it, but “Say Less” has always felt slightly different from the rest of the album. At its core, this is a song about a mean person who talks endless shit. Moreover, it’s about the person on the receiving end of this shit talking finding the power to fight back and stand up for themselves. A positive message, but possibly the most negative Origami Angel has ever allowed themselves to get, and that bums me out, maaan.

#27 - Step

Throughout this list, you’ll notice a trend of lots of Quiet Hours at the “bottom.” That's no fault of the band; they've just developed so much in terms of songwriting and production since their inception. “Step” is a lovely little romantic cut about needing someone by your side through all the ups and downs of life. Again, the band indulges in some nice guitar tapping and emo riffing throughout, even a little hand drumming at the end. The result is a slow-building love song that carries on despite the melancholy knowledge that love rarely lasts forever. 

#26 - Hey There

Hey There” opens with a series of name drops that take me right back to high school. The lyrics “I told Jacob I was in love with you since last April” instantly evoke hushed conversations between would-be lovers exchanging feelings in a crowded lunchroom. As most crushes go, this one doesn’t pan out but still resulted in some heartfelt lyricism, impressive drumming, and long-forgotten inside jokes. 

#25 - Juultide Carol

For those of you that don’t know, I’m a big Christmas guy. I run a seasonal Christmas blog, for god’s sake. I delve into the Christmas tunes as soon as the clock strikes midnight on October 31st, but that seasonal window means that songs like “Juultide Carol” don’t get many plays from me. Instrumentally, this track is a step up from most found on Quiet Hours, but the lyrics hinge on a (somewhat played) atheistic refrain capped off by an abrupt ending that feels like a slight lack of payoff. “Juultide Carol” is still a fun little emo Christmas tune, but demoted solely because of my principles which only allow me to listen to it for two months out of the year.

#24 - w / u

Here we have possibly the most romantic Gami song. Despite the loving lyrics and adorable merch, I think that “w / u” fits better as a centerpiece within the context of Doing The Most than it does on its own. It’s a moment to catch your breath between the breakneck pace of “ROM Hack” and the emotional outpouring of “Thanks! I Hate It.” On its own, this track is an excitable romantic song that finds a couple in newfound love looking forward in time, eager to spend the rest of their lives together. It’s a beautiful sentiment, complete with a picturesque fireplace and a series of cherubic “woo ooh’s” that sound as if we’ve been struck with Cupid’s arrow itself. 

#23 - Greenbelt Station

I avoided putting any tracks off Origami Angel Broke Minecraft on this list because (good as it is), it feels wrong to include remixes on a song ranking. That said, the band introduced “Greenbelt Station” as a ‘new song’ during their digital set at Minechella in early 2020 where they first played this EP in full. The song is a stark departure from the then-just-months-old Somewhere City, finding Ryland playing an acoustic guitar alone by himself and crooning. It’s a solo acoustic song that feels very “full circle” and honestly could have fit in anywhere on Quiet Hours. Only time will tell how it fits into the band’s upcoming sophomore album.

#20 - XD Gale of Darkness

On the complete opposite tonal spectrum of “Greenbelt Station,” we have “XD Gale of Darkness.” This high-bpm closer features spitfire hip-hop vocals, crowd-churning blast beats, and a piercing screamo howl. It’s the perfect way to end Gen 3 and includes a shoutout to fellow fifth-wave emo rockers Stars Hollow; what’s not to like?

#21 - Escape Rope

False narratives, fake friends, and daylight savings time. As you grapple with these things throughout various times in your life, sometimes they can overlap in a way that feels like the world is out to kick your ass specifically. “Escape Rope” is a reminder to persevere. Its title comes from an item in the Pokemon games that can get you out of a tight spot if your squad of pocket monsters are in rough shape. This song serves a similar purpose, reminding the listener that they can always try to remove themselves from a bad situation at any given time. 

#20 - Welcome To…

The intro track to Somewhere City feels like boarding a roller coaster. It’s pure hype that gets your mind racing and your stomach full of butterflies. As you board the ride and the over-the-shoulder restraint lowers, you can only imagine what lies ahead. This feeling is reinforced as the opening notes give way to group chants around the two-minute mark, and the entire track picks up speed, shooting the listener off into the wondrous realm of Somewhere City.  There are rapid rises, sudden drops, and hairpin turns, all of which are exhilarating and everlasting. The best part? It’s only the first track paving the way for 30 minutes of equally thrilling emo.

#19 - The Air Up Here

Perhaps a coincidence, maybe a subconscious choice, it only felt right to link “Welcome To…” and “The Air Up Here” in this ranking given that they bookend Somewhere City. For a song clocking in at only 5 minutes, this track has a surprising amount of tricks up its sleeve. Not only does “The Air Up Here” loop back to the opening track a-lah Cosmic Thrill Seekers, but it also weaves together a medley that calls back to previous songs on the album in the vein of pop-punk greats like The Wonder Years. The song is one last push, one final reminder of all the sights, sounds, and experiences you’ve taken in during your stay at Somewhere City. It’s a perfect closing track, and the best part is that it opens the door for the listener to start it all over again. 

#18 - Origami Bagel

Perhaps one of the most bouncy Gami songs, “Origami Bagel” begins with a jubilant guitar that sets both the tone and tempo for the rest of the track. The song sounds like summer romance as images of random happenings flash before the listener: German television dubs, sunlit glances, and hour-long bus rides, all in the name of love. A guitar slide and mini scream signal the emotional climax as Ryland sings that he’ll “never be alone” as long as he has this feeling of the other person in his life. Just beautiful.

#17 - Ride Our Bikes to School

The opening song to Gami’s first-ever release, “Ride Our Bikes to School,” is blissful. The guitars are gentle, the drums are subtle, and the lyrics are heartfelt. The sentiments are as delicate as a bed of cherry blossoms. It’s beautiful, youthful springtime love. Maybe it will work out, maybe it won’t. Sometimes all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. 

#16 - fin (the long and untold story of how i know it’s meant to be)

fin” begins with velvety smooth acoustic guitar and possibly the single sweetest line the band has ever penned, “I always knew you / Even before I knew who you would be / Maybe we were made from the same star.” A gentle cello enters the mix, softly guiding the listener like Homer in slumberland. As the narrator wonders if this relationship is fate or intentional, they look to the stars for answers, only to get a cosmic “no” in return. Are they going to let the celestial bodies dictate their love? Tune in next time to find out. 

#15 - Notice

One of the single most dynamic Gami songs, “Notice” begins with a barely audible acoustic guitar and softly-hummed vocals. “You may not notice, but I fucking love you,” Ryland explains earnestly. As they repeat this phrase, presumably in an attempt to get the person to notice, the instrumental suddenly swells to a fully-fledged shoegaze riff complete with distorted guitar, crashing cymbals, and a high-pitched wail. The same phrase is now delivered in a passionate scream, and it’s hard to imagine that the message went unnoticed after that. 

#14 - The Title Track

So what is Somewhere City? Well, the album’s title track contains every answer. Somewhere City is a place where you can let your hair down. It’s a place where you can be yourself, make friends, and bond over the same interests with ease. It’s also an escape from the real world where you feel like you have to shield parts of yourself. It’s a place where you don’t have to bottle everything up, and you are accepted for who you are. It’s a place with blastbeats and limitless love. The best part? Somewhere City isn’t something you can find on a map; it’s a state of being. It’s a mindset, and that makes it the ultimate escape.

#13 - Doctor Whomst

The second single off of Somewhere City is perhaps the single best manifesto of Origami Angel’s approach to both music and life. The track begins with two chuggy palm mutes before a whirlwind of emo riffage whisks the listener back in time. We soon find the band recalling how they used to feel watching Danny Phantom and eating Happy Meals as a kid. It’s a musical time machine back to a period in your life when the only worry you had was the next commercial break. It’s an anthem about reclaiming this youthful positivity and adopting it into adulthood. It’s about appreciating where you are now and still striving to achieve the best version of yourself. Thank you, Danny Phantom.

#12 - Emerald

Tonally similar to “Doctor Whomst,” “Emerald” begins with a hard-charging punky riff that paves the way for a friendly Mr. Rogers-type greeting. The sunny disposition in the “Hi!” at the beginning of the song quickly crumbles as Ryland addresses some faceless other who we find out has written him off. Even though they may still think he’s a selfish mess of a person, the peace in this song comes from knowing that you have grown. This detractor hasn’t witnessed that development, and frankly, they don’t care. It’s an important life lesson to learn that you can’t win everyone over, despite how nice you are. The important thing is that you keep getting better and know that the negative people will filter themselves out of your life on their own. 

#11 - effective. Power

Here, we start at the beginning. “effective. Power” may not be the first-ever Gami song, but it’s wild to think about how this track served as my entry point into the band. This is where it all started for me. The opening notes evoke a very specific time in my life while also perfectly setting the tone for the release. As the guitars tap and the melodies sway, this song really just feels like one big instrumental flex. It’s Gami operating at high capacity. At this point, they are already a well-oiled machine and perfectly in sync with each other. 

#10 - 666 Flags

666 Flags” is a song indulging in the scenario that every kid who played Roller Coaster Tycoon dreamed about; what if I got a roller coaster… in my backyard!? This song sits perfectly between the fast-food pit stop of “24 Hr Drive-Thru” and the nostalgia field trip of “Doctor Whomst.” This song is the perfect connective tissue of childhood dreams come to life; the only difference is, in Somewhere City, those dreams are only a thought away. 

I still remember my first listen of this album, driving from Detroit to DC for the record release show. I must have been in the far left lane going 80 or 90 miles an hour, flying down the highway. As soon as the chaotic hardcore blast began in the final minute of the track, I remember looking in the rearview mirror and seeing tears welling up in my eyes as goosebumps popped up across my body—the perfect first listening experience. 

#9 - SpaceX T-Shirt

Here we have the final Quiet Hours song on the countdown and also Gami’s first biggest “hit.” The twinkle is strong with this one. On “SpaceX T-Shirt,” the band balances a heavenly effervescent melody with romantic lyrics like “I can only get to sleep if I know you'll be in my dreams.” The group continues this train of logic with, “And I can only dream if I know you'll be sleeping next to me” before throwing to the riffage one more time. It's still fuck Elon Musk.

#8 - Denny’s Devito

One of the reasons I put “Say Les” so low on this ranking is because I feel like “Denny’s Devito” captures the same sentiment so much better. The track begins with self-isolation stemming from a deep well of insecurity. After all, nobody can judge you when you're by yourself. We’ve all over-analyzed in the mirror. We’ve all wanted to change for entirely superficial reasons. We’ve all wanted an easy out. While the first half of the song is mired in these concerns, a realization takes place halfway through as Ryland sings, “If I’m gonna die all alone, gonna have a little fun before I go.” This line throws to a breakdown and high-tempo burst of energy that is beautifully moshpit-inspiring. “Denny’s Devito” is a feel-good song in the face of not feeling good. 

#7 - Skeleton Key

Skeleton Key” is a love song. The big difference between other love songs and this one is that “Skeleton Key” can apply to anyone in your life. This song can apply to your partner, your friend, your parents, your pets, anything. The track opens with anxiety about being away from your favorite person and how bad it would feel if you lost them forever. It’s the kind of perspective that being on tour brings out of nearly everyone. “I hope you know everything you do is special to me; you’re my skeleton key,” the band croons midway through the track. As the narrator assures this important person that they want to be there with them, the instrumental makes way for a phenomenal build of reassurances and a torrential outpouring of love.

#6 - Find Your Throne

Aside from Chunk! No Captain Chunk!’s “In Friends We Trust,” Origami Angel’s “Find Your Throne” is arguably the definitive song about the power of friendship. The track begins with a pounding hard rock rally that gradually builds into standard Gami fanfare. The song sees Ryland talking to the listener directly, tossing off vague affirmations, praise, and encouragement. 

What sets this song apart from the others on Somewhere City comes about halfway through, where everything quiets down to a hush. The midway point on this song is probably the most subdued the record ever gets, and it exists to shine a spotlight on the lyrics, intentionally making them impossible to ignore. Ryland sings, “I know it's hard to feel like yourself / When they see you and say you're somebody else / But I know you… I know you / I know it's tough, and that you've had enough / But if you feel like nobody does / I love you… I love you” It’s a beautiful, forthright, and wholesome message aimed directly at the audience. 

Suddenly the instrumental begins to build again. Ryland states, "And I won't give up that easily / Let me show you what I know…" the song drops out for a beat. A pinch harmonic comes in as he finishes his thought with a boisterous shout, "You're the goddamn king of the universe / Even when it feels like it can't get worse / All you need to do is find your throne / And you'll never be alone, you'll never be alone" a triumphant group chant then carries the song out for maximum positive friendship-fueled energy. 

#5 - Sapphire

In the lead-up to the release of Gen 3, Origami Angel released three of the EP’s four songs as singles. As hungry as I was for new Gami at the time, I tried my best to hold off on listening to “Sapphire” (the third single) until the official release. It just felt weird to have heard a majority of the EP before it came out. As I showed up to work the day of the single’s drop, a friend of mine convinced me to give it a spin and assured me, ‘dude, trust me you're gonna love it.’ Two lines in, and I knew exactly what he meant. 

With an opening salvo that name-drops Pokemon, Twin Peaks, and Rocket League all in sequence, “Sapphire” felt like a song tailor-made for me. The decision to filter a relationship through this densely-layered pop-culture lens is nothing short of genius. It is a love song unlike any other where the feelings of adoration are just strong whether they’re actively pouring out or you’re just chilling in bed together looking at Twitter. 

#4 - Thanks! I Hate It.

Perhaps my first favorite Gami song, “Thanks! I Hate It.” is an emotional powerhouse. The track begins bitterly as Ryland lays out the bummer qualities of someone’s personality. The band riffs, falls back into a dancehall gallop, then starts over again with a subtle emo guitar line. Suddenly, the emotions are bursting at the seams as every instrument turns up to eleven in a towering riff. Ryland screams the all-too-relatable lines at the high end of his register, belting, “I’m too broken to be with you / but I’m too scared to be alone.” Man. That shit hurted. 

#3 - 24 Hr Drive-Thru

If “Welcome To” (fittingly) served as the welcome to Somewhere City, then “24 Hr Drive-Thru” is the initiation. It’s a ride-along on a midnight McDonald's run. It’s the type of spur-of-the-moment decision that says time of day, weather, and number of calories be damned; I’m coming over, and we're going to hang out because that's what you need, and I care about you. 

Unforgettably, my first live experience with this song was at Gami’s hometown release show, where the power went out mid-song, but somehow the amps stayed on. Simply put, it was a powerful moment of Rock ‘n Roll Magic. As the band kept playing in the dark, the crowd kept singing along, eventually raising their phones one-by-one, illuminating the basement with the light of, fine, I’ll just say it; friendship. It was a beautiful moment and a live music experience I’ll never forget for as long as I live. 

#2 - Ruby

Ruby” is a perfectly crafted song. It has storytelling, it has a catchy hook, it has impressive instrumentals, and it’s barely over a minute long. This is an earworm of a track that perfectly captures the spark of meeting someone new who completely enthralls you. It’s a borderline pop song. It feels like this could be covered by anyone from Charli XCX to Toby Keith, and it would still work. Of course, a track like “Ruby” could only come from the minds of Gami, who turn it into a sparkly, uptempo shredder with a melody that you can never forget. 

#1 - ROM Hack

There could only be one way that this list ended, and it’s “ROM Hack.” This is the Origami Angel song; it simply has everything. A classic (and hilarious) opening sample, jaw-dropping instrumentation, and beautiful, heartfelt lyrics. Hearing Herman Cain, of all people, say “I believe these words came from the Pokemon Movie” now gets me hyped beyond belief. Trying to keep up with the whirlwind of emo instrumentation that follows it is just as fun. The solemn first verse over acoustic guitar is pitch-perfect. The song’s slow build under the sentimental lyrics is masterful. The second verse is a flawless bit of emo penmanship so good that I’m just going to transpose it here in full:

And not that you'd care
But I started getting the help that I so badly need
And not that you'd care
But I found some people who really like me
But I hope that you do
'Cause I started bettering me 'cause I wanted to be like you

This verse is followed by one more instrumental drop out before the band returns full-force for a repetition of “I started bettering me 'cause I wanted to be like you.” The song eventually winds down gracefully, but not before one last crowd-churning riff designed to pull out every last bit of serotonin you had left. The definitive Gami song. 


Well folks, there you have it, my ranking of every Origami Angel song. As the band revs up to drop their sophomore album later this week, I look forward to many more years of positive affirmations, exuberant guitar tapping, and immaculate drumming. Until next time, I’ll see you all in Somewhere City.