In the FINALE of F&G’s second season, we’re treating you to the quintessential album about both Friends™ and Girls™, Taking Back Sunday’s 2002 breakthrough release, Tell All Your Friends. From the band’s feud with J*sse Lac*y, to Adam Lazzara’s sometimes cataclysmic mic swinging, to Flava Flav’s cameo in the “You’re So Last Summer” music video, we cover it all. Also - did you know that TBS has a PODCAST called Talking Back Sunday? Welcome to the club fam.

...And with our one last gasping breath, we’d apologize for bleeding on your shirt.

This week we’re expanding our emo canon to include everyone’s favorite lesbian Canadian twin sisters, the one (two?) and only Tegan and Sara! One the menu: 2004’s heart wrenching classic So Jealous. From explosive ‘80s power pop hooks (those are Tegan’s songs) to introspective heart wrenching odes to early-20s romance (that’ll be Sara) So Jealous deserves its place in the emo pantheon, and we’re here to prove it. Also: if you were to make a pop album with your sibling, would you kill each other? Just pondering.

Hosts: Jill Beytin & Cameron Cook

Cover: Edward Heinrich

Theme Song: Antonino Tumminelli

This week we tackle the seminal breakout album by Say Anything, the rock opera that never was, the soundtrack to every mid-‘00s self-deprecating crying jag: ...Is a Real Boy. From their humble beginnings at Jewish summer camp to touring the world with some of emo’s most prestigious acts, Zaddy Max Bemis and his band of unmerry gentlemen left an indelible mark on the genre with impeccable songwriting and master pop hooks. Take a deep dive with us as we uncover their legacy, and Jill coins the term “Jewcore” (she can do that it’s fine).

Hosts: Jill Beytin & Cameron Cook

Cover: Edward Heinrich

Theme Song: Antonino Tumminelli

In today’s ep, we cover the seminal 2003 emo/post-hardcore/goth rock/alt album, Sing the Sorrow by Tim Burton wet dream AFI. Jill & Cameron discuss AFI’s departure from their horrorcore roots, the fact that the band spent their junior year in Prague, Davey’s questionable writing projects, and that Davey is the Don Draper marketing genius of emo. Plus we cover the album’s most emo lyrics and our favorite new albums!

What follows has lead us to this place!

There are many crown princes of emo—Pete Wentz, Gerard Way, the realtor who let Sunny Day Real Estate keep their name—but there is only one man who, as the kids say these days, is on some king shit. That’s right, this week on Friends and Girls we take a long, hard look at Connor Oberst, aka Bright Eyes, and more specifically his 2003 absolute banger of an album, Lifted. Have you ever cried in the shower while listening to a grown man’s voice crack like he’s asking his 8th grade girlfriend to junior prom? Then let us tell you, this episode will take you to that place, and beyond. In a nearly flawless discography, Lifted is rightfully regarded as Oberst’s most enduring calling card. Join us in dissecting why.

Hosts: Jill Beytin & Cameron Cook

Cover: Edward Heinrich

Theme Song: Antonino Tumminelli

Cameron and Jill discuss some great black pop-punk bands and how the punk community can be more inclusive to POC.

Check out these bands!
A Place In Time: https://aplaceintime.bandcamp.com/
Meet Me @ The Altar: https://mmata.bandcamp.com/
Fuck U Pay Us: https://www.facebook.com/fupayus/
RadKey: http://radkey.net/
Whole Wheat Bread: https://www.facebook.com/wholewheatbread/
Black Pantera: https://www.facebook.com/BlackPanteraoficial/

Links to support demonstrators and the families of victims of police brutality/racial violence:
Official George Floyd Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
Justice for Kenneth Walker: https://www.gofundme.com/f/legal-representation-for-kenneth-walker
I Run With Maud: https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud
Minnesota Freedom Fund: https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/
Brooklyn COmmunity Bail Fund: https://brooklynbailfund.org/
Campaign Zero: https://www.joincampaignzero.org/
Unicorn Riot: https://unicornriot.ninja/
The Village in Oakland: https://thevillageinoakland.org/

For our second season premiere here at Friend and Girls, we wanted to bring out the big guns. What is an album that has made an indelible imprint on pop punk and Emo since the turn of the century? What band revolutionized the So-Cal sound, so precious to our teenage years? How many scatological puns CAN you cram into one record? These burning queries and more brought us to the only logical choice for our big comeback episode: Enema of the State by those merry pranksters of pop punk, Blink-182!

From their humble beginnings in suburban San Diego to topping the charts next to Britney and *NSYNC, Mark, Tom and Travis’ breakout was unlike anything punk had ever seen, and frankly, has seen since. Join us as we discuss how they made it big (get it?) and changed the game forever.

This episode is brought to you by Bear Radio. Big thanks to RØDE for the sponsored equipment!

Please send your emo-est stories and concerns to [email protected] and while you’re at it, a donation of any sort would be much appreciated, the link is PayPal.me/bearradio - all donors will receive a loving shoutout!

Hosts: Jill Beytin & Cameron Cook

Cover: Edward Heinrich

Theme Song: Antonino Tumminelli

WHEN I WAS... A YOUNG BOY... MY FATHER... TOOK ME INTO THE STUDIO... TO RECORD A PODCAST... In the season finale of Friends and Girls, Cameron and Jill discuss what may be the crowning jewel of mid-00s emo, the alpha and the omega, the nucleus around which we all orbit... My Chemical Romance’s 2006 epic masterpiece The Black Parade. An album, but also frankly a lifestyle, TBP represents the apex of what we find so ridiculously attractive about emo as a whole—introspective yet theatrical, voyeuristic yet larger than life. In short, it’s one of our favorite albums and it’s extra as fuck. While setting out to make the most ambitious record of their careers, Gerard & Co. succeeded in taking mall punk to its logical conclusion, and we’ve never been the same for it.

Thanks for sticking with us for an entire season. These six episodes took so much work and effort on our part, and we’re so grateful for every single one of you who went on this journey with us! Stay tuned very soon for more episodes, and a few surprises up our sleeves (we’re wearing a Jack Skellington jacket we got at Hot Topic). C U L8R!

On this week’s very special episode of Friends And Girls, Jill and Cameron discuss an album that has recently gone from being an early-‘00s emo staple to a creepy casualty of the #MeToo movement: Brand New’s 2000 debut LP, Your Favorite Weapon. Yes, Jesse Lacey had been fully cancelled at this point, and our goal with this episode isn’t to redeem Brand New in any way, but to honestly and truthfully explore why misogyny and toxic masculinity is so rampant in every genre of punk, and what we can do to change it.

Often on F&G, we discuss emo and pop punk as a thing of the past, something we’ve grown out of, a guilty pleasure of sorts. And that may be true when we’re exploring our deep-seated, bittersweet love of Allister’s debut album or Gerard Way’s red eyeliner circa Three Cheers era. However, this week we are taking a deep dive into a record that resonates with us to this day, perhaps the crown jewel of late-‘90s midwestern emo, an album that still brings a tear to our eye and makes us want to scribble its lyrics onto our Chuck Taylors. This week, we’re talking about motherf-ing Braid and their classic 1998 ode to introspection and heartbreak, Frame and Canvas. Did Cameron listen to this album on a loop during his last breakup? Does Jill’s mom dance around to “The New Nathan Detroits” in the kitchen for reasons we have yet to ascertain? We can neither confirm nor deny these allegations, but suffice to say that our love for Braid has never waned and we’re excited for you to take this journey with us.