The Juliana Theory

There are a few social norms we’ve all learned to follow. Don’t eat yellow snow. Beer before liquor, never sicker. With music, it’s even easier: Never listen to a band you cried to in the early ’00s. The exception to the no-emo rule, however, is the Juliana Theory. This Pennsylvania quintet even foreshadowed the demise of its own genre with 2000’s aptly titled Emotion Is Dead. Still, the album was about as tear-stained as emo could get. But Juliana Theory’s members dried their eyes (a little bit) and turned up their amps for the release of 2002’s full-length follow-up, Love. Early demos for a planned 2005 release suggest an even more progressive sound from lead vocalist Brett Detar and crew. With such a constantly evolving sound, the Juliana Theory makes it much more difficult to pretend to forget all those bands we used to love.