The immortal emokid - the Genet/Pyrrhus records emo years...

When I was 16 years old I was, like a lot of other kids, trying to find my way musically. I was fully developing my tastes and discovering a lot of music and subcultures. I saw a Congress and Blindfold show (there's a picture of this show on the back cover of 'Blackened Persistance') when I was 11 but I mostly remembered the Congress singer being quite little but singing and skating like a madman. I was pretty impressed by Blindfold and listened to my sister's Blindfold tapes on my walkman a lot!
I got sidetracked into more alternative rock (which I still enjoy) but at age 15 I got into skateboarding myself and turned into a snotty skatepunk. I really got into Jane's Detd. and Goodlife Recording's sister label Green Leaf Records and the well known American bands.

This all changed when I found two compilation cd's in my local recordstore. I got Revelation Records' 'In flight program' and a Genet Records/Sobermind Records sampler.

Three bands immediately stood out for me on the Rev sampler: Sense Field, Farside and Texas Is The Reason. My aunt lived close to Ghent and I asked her to pick up a cd in the Pyrrhus record store as a christmas present. I got Sense Field's 'Building' cd. It didn't leave my stereo for several months and I still know every song and every word by heart. This record had a serious impact on my developing music taste.

My beat up copy of 'Building'

The Genet Records/Sobermind Records sampler was called 'hardcore knockout' and I loved pretty much every song on the sampler but again three of them stood out: Serene, Reiziger and Kosjer D. I listened to these three songs religiously. At the same time I discovered fanzines like Yoda Magazine which (starting from the eighth issue I think) started covering more emo bands instead of the usual H8000 bands. A little while later I got my own crappy turntable and I started buying vinyl. The first records I ordered were from the Pyrrhus distro. I got the Reiziger 'the kitten becomes a tiger' LP on yellow vinyl (numbered!), the Kosjer D 'true' 7inch and a Blindfold shirt.

My first Pyrrhus order. I regret not having the Blindfold shirt anymore....

It was finally time for a visit to the Pyrrhus recordstore on my own. I remember being really siked for this. I got the Leiah 'Mood shifting tones' mcd, the Reiziger 'don't bind my hands' 12inch and a couple of other records. Leiah were quite the revelation for me. I liked the fact that they didn't look like most other bands at the 1999 Ieperfest and of course they played beautiful music. This was the time I started calling myself the Immortal Emokid (after a Serene song) online. Pretty cheesy and kind of cringeworthy looking back but hey, I was still only 17 years old... I got Leiah's first full length 'The Tigra Songs' on beautiful blue vinyl (again... numbered!) and there was no looking back. I got into all the bigger American bands like The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids, Braid, The Casket Lottery,...

'The Tigra Songs' by Leiah

The years passed and I bought a lot of great records in all kinds of different genres at the Pyrrhus Recordstore. I have really fond memories of buying records there and then looking at them on a bench next to the water nearby. The Reiziger/Bob Tilton split LP helped me getting into more complex or experimental music (the Bob Tilton side on the split caused that). I really got into the Deep Elm Records catalog. I played in an emo band called Wilson and we even opened up for Cursive and The Appleseed Cast. As Friends Rust and Saves The Day also became huge bands for me and I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some bands and records.

So thank you to Bruno and Kathy and Genet Records and Pyrrhus Records for helping me to find my way into music and for developing my taste. Leiah has reunited and released two new songs which I actually like. I saw a short rehearsal video on Instagram of them playing 'red star pilot' (my favorite Leiah song) and I got really nostalgic which could actually be the reason why I'm writing this. They also posted screen shots of an interview I did with them for my webzine when I was 18 years old.
I even bought a Kosjer D shirt on etsy last summer. How nineties is that! Some bands and records stood the test of time and some others didn't.

Let's listen to some of those records and prepare for 'The French Belgian Winter'!