Braid
High-energy Champaign emo band formed in December 1993, known for intense live performances and dual-guitar interplay. Started when Bob Nanna, having just left Chicago's Friction to attend University of Illinois, placed an ad in Maximumrocknroll looking to trade concert tapes. Roy Ewing responded, and the core was there. They played 600 shows over their initial run. Their 1998 album Frame & Canvas brought the Midwest emo sound to wider attention before the band's dramatic dissolution in 1999 following a disastrous Japan tour. "From the first note, the audience has been singing along louder than we can play," Tim Kinsella noted about their reunion shows years later.
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Discography
Frame & Canvas
Recorded with J. Robbins at Inner Ear Studios in 1998, this critically acclaimed album brought Midwest emo's high-energy dual-guitar sound to wider audiences. The band was riding high on its acclaim when they embarked on the ill-fated Japan tour that would lead to their dissolution—turnout lower than expected, money hemorrhaging, tensions boiling over.
The Age of Octeen
Released on Mud Records in 1996, this album helped establish the cycling guitar parts and unconventional vocals that would define Midwest emo's sound. One of three epochal albums released that watershed year, alongside Christie Front Drive and Chamberlain, establishing the template: cycling guitar parts, chugging bass lines, unconventional singing that sounded untrained but deeply felt.
Frankie Welfare Boy Age 5
Braid's debut album on Divot Records, recorded shortly after the band's formation in December 1993 and establishing their high-energy approach to Midwest emo. The foundation laid before Frame & Canvas brought them to wider attention.