nothing,nowhere

One Liner: emo rapper

Wikipedia Genre: (look at this list!) emo rap, trap, indie rock, pop punk
Home:  Vermont and Massachusetts

Poster Position: 14
Weekend One Only.

Friday at 2:30 on the Honda Stage

Thoughts:  Joseph Edward Mulherin performs under this happy moniker, mainly making unhappy emo rap tracks that include good times lines like "i don't give a fuck if you hate me
 or "losing you's a win/win, i don't need a fake friend."  Lots of guitar in the mix for some of these, so it almost sounds less like rap and more like emo rock, but the lyrics are pretty clearly more like rap.  He's got KennyHoopla on a track, so maybe he also has Travis Barker on all of these tracks like that guy.  Apparently not, but they did do a collaboration together.

In 2017, the New York Times called this guy's album Reaper "one of the most promising pop albums of the year."  WTF, old grey lady.  Really?  Also, Wikipedia mentions that he has sometimes debilitating depression and anxiety, which led him to cancel a string of shows in 2018.  That sucks.  Wild to become a touring artist with anxiety in your makeup.  Like, singing in front of a crowd has to be the most anxious thing around for many people.

His newest album, joyfully titled Trauma Factory, starts with a spoken word intro by some grizzled, unhappy man who lets us know that life is a trauma factory.  Then we go right into "lights (4444)," which is also not a very happy experience.  "imma go my own way, i don't give a fuck if you hate me."  But the beat is kinda snappy!  "upside down" has a happy sounding track for sure.  Most of the beats on the straight rap tracks on this album are relatively generic.  Some 808 thumps and trappy little snaps over the top - listening to "exile" right now and it's just boring.  Maybe it's supposed to sound ominous and spare, but instead I just want him to quit saying "yeah."  "death" is an actively terrible track, like a super shitty NIN track.  But then a lot of the songs are more Blink-ish with guitar and drums.  The overall feel of the album is all over the place - no two songs sound exactly the same - you might hear Blink 182, or Nine Inch Nails, or Fall Out Boy, or Sum 41, or whatever other yelpy emo rappers exist out there.  "fake friend" (heavy on the pop punk feel to me, and pretty catchy) and "nightmare" are the two top tracks on the album, here is the latter with 9.8 million streams.

It's fine.  I can see pogoing to it in a field and singing about how you want to break stuff because your girl has a new guy.  But nothing about it feels particularly new or interesting to me.  It just dawned on me that people who like Machine Gun Kelly might really like this - maybe that is how this dude is on the bill, seeking out other rap/rock/emo people to gather together.

Interesting thing is that despite the NYT thinking Reaper was some sort of classic, no song from that album makes n,n's top ten songs.  One track features Dashboard Confessional and cracks the 13 million stream zone, but most of them are in the 5 million-or-less stream zone.  But, this is a much more cohesive album - the songs almost all aim for an emo rap feel.  "Clarity in Kerosene" is the top one after the Dashboard collab, with 8.8 million streams.

I get it.  I can absolutely see a 13 year old, messed up over some relationship, playing that song over and over and wallowing in his broken-heartedness.  And singing along about hoping that she dies with him on her mind.  Childish fantasizing about jilted revenge.  The next song is called "Funeral Fantasy," which is more of the same - "if I die would you even cry, would you weep, would you keep it on the side."  Dude is deep in his feelings.  Next song is all "all I think about is YOOOOOUUUUUU!"  Funny thing, the track on here that drops the rap feel in favor of heartfelt singing, "Marykate," is also the least streamed one of the album.  This would not have been named a top album of 2017 for me.

I'm good without seeing this live.  Feels like it would be me stuck in a field with a bunch of sad teenagers crying about broken relationships and then trying to halfheartedly mosh against each other to escape the pain.