Today, Braid are a cheerful band. Happy to nonetheless be mates, completely satisfied to be about to go on tour, completely satisfied to have simply rereleased their landmark 1998 album, Frame & Canvas. As for being hailed as godfathers of Midwest emo, “happy” isn’t fairly the phrase. Amused? That’s extra prefer it. All in all, they’re grateful. Grateful their career-defining third album ignited a DIY scene far past the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and much past their native Midwest.
Frame & Canvas dropped April 7, 1998 on Polyvinyl Records. It was 5 years into Braid’s profession, and it appeared as an underground breakthrough. Frame & Canvas bought round 15-20,000 copies on first launch and took the quartet round the globe. Then immediately, earlier than the calendar may shift to the new millennium, the band had been no extra.
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Speaking to Braid just lately, there’s nonetheless a variety of feelings about their 1999 cut up. The songwriting chops of guitarists Bob Nanna and Chris Broach had been sharpening by the month, and the pinball rhythm part of bassist Todd Bell and drummer Damon Atkinson — who’d changed unique drummer Roy Ewing in 1997 — was legendary to anybody who’d seen it up shut. “Those [final] shows were bittersweet, but they weren’t sad,” Bell says.
But now and again, the stars realign. Braid reunited for a string of exhibits in 2004, and once more in 2011, which in the end led to a well-received comeback album, No Coast, in 2013. Polyvinyl Records aged effectively, too. Over the previous twenty years, releases from indie-rock bands like Alvvays, Japandroids, and Of Montreal expanded the label’s viewers effectively past Midwest emo. Albums like American Football’s 1999 self-titled debut, and of course Frame & Canvas, are at all times there to deliver Polyvinyl again residence.
Braid are at peace, and that’s why they’re about to spend this July on the street. How they bought right here — that’s one other story. Let’s rewind to 1997, half a decade earlier than emo broke the mainstream, to a school city two hours south of Chicago. Here is the story of a Midwest emo basic, advised by the voices of those that had been there…
MATT LUNSFORD (co-founder, Polyvinyl Records): Two phrases are coming to thoughts once I assume of Braid: tremendous inventive, tremendous formidable.
BOB NANNA (vocalist/guitarist, Braid): There was a spot in our basement the place we had been capable of apply. The means I bear in mind it, we practiced each night time.
CHRIS BROACH (vocalist/guitarist, Braid): We had been residing throughout one another, you already know what I imply? And we had been touring nonstop. That’s the place Frame & Canvas got here from.
DAMON ATKINSON (drummer, Braid): We had been all figuring it out, collectively.
TODD BELL (bassist, Braid): We struggle like brothers, we get by way of it. The good instances and the dangerous.
BROACH: We had been residing in Urbana, Illinois. We all lived collectively in a home.
NANNA: A school city. It was actually cut up. There had been the individuals who had been there to go to highschool, do school-related issues, be in frats and sororities. And then there have been the individuals who had been there for the scene.
BROACH: We didn’t hang around at the school bars… We performed loads of exhibits in a [nearby] space of Champaign referred to as Downtown Champaign, the native bars the place all the bands would play. That’s the place all the townies, if you’ll, would hang around. And folks like us…
NANNA: What we helped deliver to Champaign was this DIY home present thought. It wasn’t organized till we bought down there. Mike Kinsella was down there, and he began American Football. And Polyvinyl being round helped that all-ages, DIY half of the scene develop…
[Photo courtesy of Polyvinyl]
LUNSFORD: Polyvinyl began in 1996. My spouse Darcie, then girlfriend, we’d simply graduated highschool. We had been concerned in the DIY scene in our hometown, Danville, Illinois, which is about 35 miles from Champaign-Urbana. Braid had been mates of ours. We skated with Todd and [original drummer] Roy [Ewing].
The quantity of issues that occurred between late 1996 and early 1998 is fairly outstanding: We determined to drop out of school to see if we may make Polyvinyl a full-time endeavor and actually be supportive of an artist. We put out the first Rainer Maria document [1997’s Past Worn Searching], and that did fairly effectively.
KAIA FISCHER (guitarist/vocalist, Rainer Maria): I can’t bear in mind ever feeling aggressive with Braid. We had been facet by facet on the identical invoice so many instances. It was by no means like, “We’re gonna get ‘em this time!” Everybody was always so psyched for everybody else’s set.
CAITHLIN DE MARRAIS (vocalist/bassist, Rainer Maria): I really feel like Chris from Braid and perhaps Todd had been the ones that advised me that we had been thought of an emo band. We went to the Braid home, and on the wall somebody had… the Remo drumheads are available in the field with the phrase “REMO,” and so they had lower out the “R.” I checked out it, and I simply mentioned, “EMO.” I clearly bear in mind somebody from Braid saying, “Well, that’s the genre that we’re in. That’s the joke.” I used to be like, “Ohh…”
When would you say we began getting lumped in with the Midwest emo scene, Bill?
WILLIAM KUEHN (drummer, Rainer-Maria): Maybe that [1997] Braid tour… I believe the affiliation with Braid and Polyvinyl lent itself. People would put [the word “emo”] on flyers as a result of they wished children to come back to the present, in the event that they thought emo was fashionable of their city.
BROACH: If you listened to early Braid, the first seven-inch was loads heavier, perhaps even nearer to first-wave emo than… no matter wave we’re.
LUNSFORD: Braid had put out their first two information. The first one [1995’s Frankie Welfare Boy Age 5], the label it was on, was virtually kinda self-released. The second document [1996’s The Age of Octeen] had come out on Parasol, one other native Champaign-Urbana label.
NANNA: When we completed recording Age of Octeen, we instantly began writing new songs… We all stored journals on tour. I bear in mind we wrote “Never Will Come For Us” in anyone’s front room on tour.
BROACH: There had been interpersonal issues. There had been issues taking place with girlfriends… Heartbreak, being an insecure 20-year-old not realizing your home in the world.
KUEHN: I vividly bear in mind [on tour with Braid in 1997] Chris and Bob — we’re staying at somebody’s home — they’re sitting on a mattress and writing songs for the [next] album… The one I really feel I heard them writing was “A Dozen Roses.” It was simply so, so catchy.
FISCHER: Bob had an actual dedication to storytelling. That tune “A Dozen Roses” [opening with the line], “A dozen roses in the car and I don’t know where you are.” Like, fuck! It drops you in the center of a movie.
LUNSFORD: Braid was making an attempt to determine a house for his or her third album. We wished to do it actually badly.
BELL: [Matt was] like, “If you want to do your next record with us, we’d love to have you guys.” Polyvinyl had simply completed the Rainer Maria document, and we realized how professional Polyvinyl was changing into, for his or her measurement.
BROACH: Matt was dependable, and he provided us a superb deal, a 50/50 cut up.
LUNSFORD: That set the tone for the complete ethos of the label, being a 50/50 associate to artists. It’s one thing we nonetheless apply immediately… We subtract bills from no matter cash the document made after which divide by two.
BROACH: He agreed to pay for us to go work with anyone we grew up idolizing…
ROBBINS (producer; vocalist/guitarist, Jawbox, Burning Airlines): Jawbox had damaged up, and I used to be working at Inner Ear Studios [near Washington, D.C.].
BELL: Years earlier than, all of us went to see Jawbox play in Champaign. We made them cookies. I bear in mind giving them to [Jawbox bassist] Kim Coletta at the merch desk and simply being starstruck: “Oh, my God, we love your band. We just wanted to say we love you.”
ROBBINS: I labored with Texas Is the Reason, which led to working with the Promise Ring, which was a very fantastic relationship. All these bands had been mates, or pleasant acquaintances. There was an excellent cross-pollination of inspiration.
[Photo courtesy of Polyvinyl]
LUNSFORD: I bear in mind listening to a couple of of the Frame & Canvas songs stay. I don’t bear in mind listening to too many demos. And then they went out to D.C. with J and made the document in lightning pace.
BROACH: It was a whirlwind. We bought there…
NANNA: It was a blur.
ROBBINS: Five very lengthy days… But they had been tremendous candy and humorous and funky. Such good power. There was a bit of fear as a result of it was an unfamiliar studio. Bob’s bought to sing an entire document, and his voice could be fragile. Sometimes it did get sort of blown out.
I bear in mind listening to “The New Nathan Detroits” for the first time. Such an excellent tune. It was similar to, “Hold onto your hats…”
LUNSFORD: And it was completed: “Well, here’s the record!”
BELL: The distribution half of us signing to Polyvinyl was the factor we had been actually enthusiastic about. I can present my mother, “Hey I’m in a real band. Tell aunt whoever our album’s [in stores]!”
ATKINSON: All of a sudden, there’s much more buzz. We felt like this document was completed proper. As we’re getting on the market, we’re seeing folks speak about it… You begin noticing the distinction in response. When I’d play “New Nathan Detroits” — that opening drumbeat — I’d see folks get so excited as a result of it’s the first observe on the document. It’s the very first thing they hear.
NANNA: We’d recorded the album in December [1997] after which went on tour at the finish of January [1998] in Europe with the Get Up Kids.
BROACH: Part of occurring tour was that we did not need to work, proper? We had a per diem of 10 or 20 bucks a day. We ate low cost.
NANNA: Sometimes we bought fed at the exhibits, which was superior.
BROACH: If we did, then I bought to maintain my 10 bucks for the subsequent day!
We did not have cellphones. We did not have social media. So you permit city for a month, and also you may communicate to anyone as soon as, twice, perhaps ship a pair of postcards. I bear in mind leaving city, having a girlfriend, and coming again and being like, “I don’t have a girlfriend anymore.”
NANNA: If there was a payphone, run to it, as a result of Matt [Pryor] or Jim [Suptic] from the Get Up Kids would get there first, and so they’re going to be on it for 3 hours.
MATT PRYOR (vocalist/guitarist, the Get Up Kids): Bob could be very foolish, however he additionally takes what he’s doing very significantly: writing, performing, he retains a journal of each present they’ve ever performed… Broach was the wild card, at all times doing his personal factor… Damon was kind of the baby-faced new man, and he was the solely different man at the time in the complete crew that didn’t drink in any respect, so he and I might hang around as a result of I didn’t drink at the time… And Todd’s only a goofball, developing with pretend languages to talk, bizarre phrase video games to play in the automotive.
NANNA: It was each bands’ first time in Europe, so there have been loads of moments the place we had been experiencing firsts collectively.
BROACH: Like the first grenade thrown into the backroom.
PRYOR: It was our second night time in Germany, and we didn’t know what the political local weather was there, if Nazis had been coming after us.
BROACH: Some hooligans threw it backstage by way of a window. Luckily, no one was in the room at the time.
In Europe, some of the locations we had been taking part in had been much more DIY than the locations we performed right here. So much of squats. People took over some mansion we stayed in. Remember that place with the skulls in the basement?
NANNA: I believe it was in Switzerland. I had an image of Todd standing subsequent to a bunch of skulls.
BROACH: We had been up on this large attic with tons of outdated rubbish and this outdated electrical chair sitting in the attic.
[Photo courtesy of Polyvinyl]
ATKINSON: Frame & Canvas was out, we traveled to locations, and there’s tons of of children excited that we had been there. The exhibits had an power you possibly can’t replicate.
LUNSFORD: They put a ton of emotion into taking part in stay. And I don’t imply in a tacky emo means.
ROBBINS: Those guys at all times had a way of opposition of their preparations.
PRYOR: How would I describe Braid’s stay present then? Energetic, however that’s underselling it. They come from a Fugazi faculty of punk efficiency. So much of leaping, touchdown in bizarre locations. So much of disregard for the security of your physique.
NANNA: After Europe with the Get Up Kids, we bought residence and went on tour with Compound Red. Then we went with the Get Up Kids once more in the U.S. on the West Coast. We went on tour with Discount as much as Canada. And then we ended [1998] going to Europe once more with Burning Airlines.
BROACH: The band dynamics had been fascinating at that time. We had been having a bit of a tough time. We had been cohesive, we performed rather well, we wrote nice songs. But interpersonally, issues weren’t wonderful.
BELL: You’re out west, there’s loads of lengthy drives, your van’s breaking down, all people’s in a foul temper. You’re in a small area, so that you get on one another’s nerves. I’m positive folks hated me on sure days. I needed to wake all people up. Who needs to get woken up? That sucks. Gotta stand up and go! We bought a nine-hour drive if we’re going to make the present!
BROACH: Braid was on the street eight complete months in 1998. And I went on tour for one more month with a facet mission.
NANNA: You bought residence for 3 days, and also you had been antsy.
BROACH: We used to name it post-tour melancholy, or PTD. And it’s actual. You bought residence from tour, and also you’re like, “What the fuck am I gonna do?”
ATKINSON: We flew to Japan from D.C. I believe Kim [Coletta] discovered these flights for one thing ridiculous, like $250 per individual. But that meant we went from D.C. to New York, New York to Anchorage, Alaska to Seoul, South Korea, to Tokyo. Like 27 hours of touring.
NANNA: We had a present in Japan, and there was a dude, a fan of ours in Hawaii, who was like, “Hey, I can book a show for you in Hawaii, too.” We’re like, “That’s great! If we do really well in Japan, we should fly our girlfriends to Hawaii for the show and then stay for a week.”
BROACH: We all felt a little bit bit like ballers.
BELL: None of us had ever been to Hawaii.
NANNA: We bought to Japan, and the exhibits had been not so good as we thought. Maybe I used to be simply too cranky from being on tour, the lengthy flight, and being crammed into this van. We had been at one another’s throats, combating loads, and I believe we ended up shedding cash. When we bought to Hawaii, we’re broke, we don’t need to be round one another. And right here we’re with our girlfriends in paradise, and we have now no cash.
BROACH: The exhibits in Hawaii, did we play two or three?
NANNA: We performed three. Two at the identical membership, after which we performed a home present… We thought it was going to be actually massive… The dude paid us $40… He was actually candy, a real fan… [But] I don’t assume folks knew who we had been.
BROACH: I bear in mind desirous to exit to dinner and being like, “You know what? Let’s just go to the beach. That’s free.”
NANNA: I don’t assume we frolicked in any respect.
BROACH: Our communication broke down.
NANNA: We bought again, and we performed Empty Bottle [in Chicago] with Alkaline Trio. Then we performed Krazy Fest. Krazy Fest was in Louisville…
BROACH: And we had been driving from Chicago… I didn’t drive down with the band as a result of I didn’t need to be in the van with the band. I used to be going to satisfy them there, proper? And I introduced my girlfriend at the time… There had been no cellphones then… I used to be late to the present and pulled up throughout what our set time was imagined to be.
NANNA: It was the time [zone] distinction, as effectively. It was an hour later.
BROACH: I believed, “Fuck!”
We had been all going to hang around with Promise Ring that night time, and so they had been like, “You should come.” I went again to the resort and frolicked with my girlfriend as a substitute. Then we met at Krazy Fest the subsequent day… The Krazy Fest folks allowed us to play… and it was uncomfortable.
NANNA: It wasn’t too lengthy after that we broke up.
BROACH: We did three songs at Coney Island [Studios] in Madison, [Wisconsin]… I bear in mind feeling beat up about Japan and Hawaii, and there was only a thickness in the studio that day… We actually completed mixing the final tune, and we’re like, “Should we go outside and have a band meeting?” And that was it. I believe all of us knew precisely what that meant. It wasn’t a cheerful factor. It was only a vital factor.
LUNSFORD: We talked about it on a cellphone name, if reminiscence serves.
FISCHER: So much of stuff modified round that point. You know, flipping over to the new millennium. Everybody wished to do new stuff.
[Photo courtesy of Polyvinyl]
BROACH: I don’t know the place the thought of final exhibits got here from, however I don’t assume we determined that day. We went residence and determined what we had been going to do…
BELL: Damon’s from Milwaukee. We had been gonna play a Milwaukee present. The band’s from Champaign-Urbana, we’re gonna play there. And we’re gonna play in Chicago as a result of Chris and Bob are from there. It was actually private to hit the cities we got here from [in August 1999].
We had been like, “We’re stopping being a band. And if you want to come see us play, we’re playing the Midwest. We’re going to have one show you can get advance tickets for, so if you’re driving out from someplace far away, you’ll at least be able to get into the Metro show [in Chicago]. We’re not going to sell it out. It’s huge. We’re Braid. We’re not going to sell it out. That’s where I grew up seeing bands I thought were the biggest bands in the world.”
LUNSFORD: Frame & Canvas was the complete focus of Polyvinyl for nearly an complete 12 months. We gave that document loads of consideration.
ATKINSON: That Metro present bought out.
BELL: Like, “Is this a mistake?” Those final exhibits had been so profitable for us, we’re like, “Oh rats, maybe we should stay a band? Maybe it’s a fluke because we’re breaking up and people know this is the last time they get to see us?” I don’t know. But it was very bittersweet.
ATKINSON: We put an indication on the [Metro] door that mentioned, “If you weren’t able to get tickets, go to Fireside Bowl. The band is going to play there… In the DIY scene, that’s where everybody played… That show we had an idea… It was somebody’s parents’. Maybe Bob. There was a wheel…
NANNA: My mom was working at a retirement community, and they had this big spinning prize wheel they used for their fairs. I think there were 32 spots on it. We brought the wheel onstage, and each number had a song title on it.
BROACH: We played whatever song it landed on. Wasn’t there a prize underneath each song? I remember you gave away, like, a teapot?
NANNA: We gave away stuff from our band. Somebody won a grocery bag full of cassettes.
BELL: Those songs were ingrained in us. We didn’t even have to rehearse. We were used to going out and playing 20, 25 songs in a set, because we could, and we wanted to. If people wanted us to play, we were gonna play.
NANNA: The last show was at Mabel’s in Champaign.
[Photo courtesy of Polyvinyl]
BROACH: I remember the last song we were playing. It was “I Keep a Diary,” proper? Maybe “Chandelier Swing.” I bear in mind going behind my amp as a result of I began to get choked up. Like, “This is going to be our last song ever.” Going behind my amp and hiding. I didn’t need to, like… and I’m not…
NANNA: Just say it. Emo.
BROACH: Yeah, yeah…
ATKINSON: Tears of pleasure, but additionally tears of disappointment: “Oh shit, man, this has been so much fun. Too bad it’s gotta end.”
There had been lots of folks there who had been like, “Why would you break up? You just put out a record a year ago, and it did so well. Why would you break up?” It’s arduous to reply that for anybody else the place it is sensible to them. It made sense to us.
BROACH: Afterwards, I bear in mind folks developing and being bummed. It was similar to, you already know, what am I imagined to do with that? Like, “Me too.” But at the identical time, it did really feel proper.
NANNA: I distinctly bear in mind speaking to anyone after the present who was actually upset. And I used to be not feeling that in any respect. I wasn’t imply to the man, however I used to be similar to, “Everything’s great. I don’t know what to say.” I bear in mind it feeling like a job effectively completed, in a bizarre kind of means.
ATKINSON: So much of bands, firms, and relationships fail on the subject of cash. You know, if there had been loads of cash made and it was mismanaged or it wasn’t distributed pretty. That’s the place loads of folks get actually ugly. Lucky for Braid, we by no means made any cash.
BROACH: People speak about Frame & Canvas greater than I ever thought they’d. It’s the reward that retains on giving.
ATKINSON: It’s nonetheless a choice we’re completely OK with as a result of our lives, collectively and individually, have gone on this trajectory since then. And we’re all right here now, rereleasing Frame & Canvas and celebrating its twenty fifth anniversary.
FISCHER: Its uniqueness isn’t misplaced on us. So much of [bands] have completed issues with that mathy, sensible, double-vocal, double-guitar interaction. But at the time, that sound was actually popping out of nowhere. And it had a large affect [on] the complete musical idiom that we all know was Midwest emo.
ATKINSON: A pair months in the past, earlier than the announcement of the Frame & Canvas twenty fifth anniversary [album rerelease and shows], we had a advertising and marketing assembly with the staff at Polyvinyl and another people that we employed out, Bittersweet Media, who handles our digital stuff. We get on a Zoom, and there is 14 folks. I’m like, “Damn, this feels like a business meeting! This feels like the real deal.” It is, however I’ve my job, Todd has his job as a schoolteacher, Chris has his job. We all have our jobs outdoors of this. The band isn’t our job. It’s enjoyable.
ROBBINS: There’s an power these guys had. Super excessive power. But additionally, there was a heat. Some bands have that actual pissed-off sort of power. It could be a kind of darkness or theatricality. But for Braid, there’s only a sense of pleasure, you already know what I imply? That’s the first phrase that involves my thoughts: pleasure.
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