The Emo Social Club Podcast

"For me, it's just like I write the song so that I could get it off my chest, and I think it's the coolest thing in the world."    

LØLØ stops by the club to discuss her jump to Hopeless Records, the power of hyper-specific lyrics, and double standards for women in pop-punk.    

Canadian artist LØLØ joins Brian and Lizzie to talk about her upcoming album, god forbid a girl spits out her feelings! She explains why treating her songwriting like a personal diary actually helps fans connect more deeply, rather than alienating them, and what it was like making the move to a new label. 

The conversation also tackles the reality of being a woman in the alternative scene. LØLØ breaks down the double standard of women getting criticized for writing 'I hate this man' tracks, while male pop-punk artists have built entire careers on the exact same premise. 

Plus, Brian and Lizzie debate whether Ashlee Simpson's Autobiography era actually qualifies as an underrated scene record. 

 

"For me, it's just like I write the song so that I could get it off my chest, and I think it's the coolest thing in the world."

"I feel like a lot of women are writing that kind of song, honestly. And I see a lot of people commenting like, oh, like, imagine a guy wrote this about a girl."

"That kind of stuff is important as an escape when there is so much going on in the world."

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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We are the Popeye's chicken biscuit of the metal scene. People can't take us because they choke immediately. The first bite, they're already on the ground gagging... You can't f*** with UnityTX.

UnityTX is the Popeyes chicken biscuit of the metal scene—if you aren't ready, you're going to choke. Jay Webster and the band join Lizzie right after their set at Bottom Lounge in Chicago to get real about the current state of heavy music, the BIPOC hardcore experience, and dodging the Octane-core formula.    

Lizzie sat down with Dallas heavyweights UnityTX at Bottom Lounge in Chicago for an unfiltered conversation about the reality of modern heavy music. Touring alongside Varials, the band digs into the writing process behind their track 'Heinous' and how they intentionally fuse horrorcore, 90s rap, and the heavy grooves of Korn and Meshuggah without falling into the predictable Octane-core radio trap. As a predominantly BIPOC band bridging hardcore punk and hip-hop, they open up about the frustration of 'torch passing' in the nu-metal revival—explaining the massive difference between genuine support from acts like P.O.D. versus surface-level nods from the Limp Bizkit or Papa Roach camps. Stick around after the interview as Brian and Lizzie yap to debate who actually holds the top three spots in the new wave of nu-metal.

"I feel like on this record, we didn't cater to, like, trying to get on the radio. We didn't cater to try to, you know, make the heaviest breakdown... We just wanted to make music that feels timeless for us."

"That's what nu metal is to me. That is, like, the ultimate combination of cultures. UnityTX is really good at doing that, and everybody wants to acknowledge it only when it's cool."

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"Listen. If 9/11 didn't happen, we wouldn't have My Chemical Romance. We wouldn't have Twilight. We wouldn't have this entire Tumblr core era of girly pop."

 

We took the podcast to C2E2! In front of a live Chicago audience, we are unpacking the pipeline between My Chemical Romance, early 2000s pop-punk, and the comic book industry.

Lizzie officially steps into her role as our resident Gerard Way historian to explain how The Umbrella Academy and The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys took the intricate, non-linear storytelling of MCR and translated it into graphic novels that spoke directly to scene kids.

Plus, we talk about the bizarrely perfect era of 2000s superhero movie soundtracks, and yes, we actually connect 9/11 to the creation of My Chemical Romance and Twilight (we told you it was a live show).

 

What we cover on the panel:

• Why The Umbrella Academy is essentially a family trauma story dressed as a superhero comic

• Gerard Way’s transition from the Black Parade era into comic book writing

• The emo lore behind Patrick Stump and Max Bemis entering the comic space

• Why movies like Daredevil and Spider-Man had memorable scene soundtracks

• The infamous 9/11 to MCR to Twilight domino effect"   

 

"Is Umbrella Academy an emo comic book? I would argue yes. It's acknowledging family trauma and abandonment in a creative way that makes people draw that inwards, just like listening to My Chemical Romance or Paramore."

"The Danger Days era was a vibrant, loud shift... having these big bright colors and being whimsical again. It's joy as an act of resistance."

"There were a lot of artists and a lot of songs that I found specifically from comic book movies of the early 2000s because there was clearly some crossover of, like, well, if you like Spider-Man, you're gonna love Dashboard Confessional."

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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"Well, you've been waiting this long for a white guy to explain a Mexican band to you. It's very upsetting for all involved."

In this episode of the Make Me a Fan series, we're tackling one of the biggest blind spots in Lizzie's scene history: Pierce The Veil. While Brian was championing the band's "Mexicore" roots and heavy guitar work, Lizzie was busy dodging the 2010s Tumblr fangirl hype.  

"In this episode of the Make Me a Fan series, we're tackling one of the biggest blind spots in Lizzie's scene history: Pierce The Veil. While Brian was championing the band's ""Mexicore"" roots and heavy guitar work, Lizzie was busy dodging the 2010s Tumblr fangirl hype and listening to Hollywood Undead instead.

 

Now that PTV is gearing up for their massive 2025 tour with Sleeping With Sirens, it's time for a proper retrospective. Brian tests Lizzie with five defining songs spanning from A Flair for the Dramatic to The Jaws of Life. We discuss Vic Fuentes' distinct vocals, the aggressive perfection of King For A Day, and whether the band's theatrical energy actually works for a first-time listener today.

 

Plus: The hilarious irony of a white guy enthusiastically explaining a Mexican-American band to a Mexican woman, and why the scene desperately needed non-white representation during the Warped Tour era.

 

Tracks Discussed In This Episode:

• King For A Day

• So Far So Fake

• Besitos

• Yeah Boy and Dollface

• Bulletproof Love

 

"Well, you've been waiting this long for a white guy to explain a Mexican band to you. It's very upsetting for all involved."

"I want my anxiety to make me feel like I'm constantly under attack. If I don't feel that I am always playing a DDR game, I don't know what to do with life."

"Me always not listening to white men. More for me."

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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"We do not look like the bands that we sound like, and we don't sound like the bands that we look like, which is what I'm kinda going for."  

Lee Jennings of The Funeral Portrait boards the tour bus to talk active rock, the rising cost of touring, and the operational reality of paid VIPs.  

Recorded live from their tour bus outside Allstate Arena, Lee Jennings of The Funeral Portrait joins Lizzie right before opening for I Prevail and Three Days Grace. Lee breaks down the band's aesthetic and sonic shift from 2010s scene core toward active rock, a move that recently culminated in a No. 1 Billboard Mainstream Rock hit for the band. 

He details the importance of bringing theatricality back to heavy music with their "Devotion Ceremonies," drawing direct inspiration from early-2000s acts like My Chemical Romance and his love for Hawthorne Heights' Skeletons album. 

The interview also tackles the harsh modern realities of being in a touring band. Lee provides a candid look at why the Warped Tour era of free meet-and-greets is over, explaining how paid VIP packages have become an operational necessity for bands facing skyrocketing merch cuts and travel costs. 

Back in the studio, Brian and Lizzie debate the cultural weight of "divorced dad rock" in relation to Three Days Grace, and recap the talking points for their upcoming panel exploring emo and comic book history at C2E2.   

 

"I think so much of it is our worlds are now meshing. Getting to form our own way has been really cool because I love being theatrical. I grew up being a theater kid, so of course it's gonna shine no matter what."

"We grew up going to Warped Tour and standing in line and meeting our favorite bands for free. There was never a paid wall... Now I'm charging for VIP, and it's hard because paid VIP pays for us to actually be on tour because it is so much more expensive to be on tour now than it ever has been."

"Those are the bands I grew up listening to... I loved lore-driven bands, and I think that's something that I really wanted to focus on. I want my own version of that."

 

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It was never just a phase. We connect the Myspace era to today's waves.

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