In the glory days' of emo (let's say late '90s to early '00s), New Jersey outfit Saves the Day paved the way for other upcoming emo bands of the time like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance to produce more elaborate and original videos funded by their labels. With the rise of channels like Fuse and MTV2 dedicated to giving some mainstream juice to the indie scene, Saves the Day front man Chris Conley and his band mates became an infinitely bigger because of how they used this format to make some pretty memorable cinematic art out of their poppy-yet-angst-ridden tunes. All of their major market attention ultimately contributed to the popularizing and so-called selling out that toppled the genre and crushed the hearts of many depressed tweens who now have less bands to turn to when album hunting at Hot Topic, etc. As one of the only bands to actually embrace the term 'emo' and one of the few that still holds onto it today , Saves the Day's music videos will be forever entangled in web that paradoxically helped spread the genre while bringing it crashing to the ground. In honor of them playing the Glass House tonight, we've compiled a list of our top five favorites.
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5. “Shoulder To The Wheel”
The first choice has to be Saves the Day's single from their first landmark album Through Being Cool, which paved the way for emo acts of the time. The name was based on a song title from Devo but more importantly it was a quote from the Jawbreaker song “Unlisted Track.”
4. “Anywhere With You”
This performance based video chronicles the band playing in a rehearsal space while the camera circles around the room. Coming out in 2009 there definitely were studio videos and live studio performances being shot. However, today there are more and more people In the scene shooting live recordings of videos shot just like this.
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3. “Freakish”
One of the most emo music videos ever made. This song is basically the band's outcast anthem, forever letting their freak flag fly.
2. “Deranged N Desperate”
This video, starring some children, is one of the most deranged in the Saves the Day archive. Coming out one year ago, this video marked the more modern trends the bands been aiming at.
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1. “At Your Funeral”
As the most popular song from the band, this video gained a lot of popularity they received. This song definitely has a special place in my childhood. Like singer Chris Conley sings, “This song will become the anthem of your underground,” This song became the anthem of my middle school years.
Saves the Day plays at The Glasshouse in Pomona tonight. You can get your tickets here.
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