Hell hath apparently frozen over, because there’s an emo scene in New York City. Well, there’s a DIY scene that emo bands are part of, but that might be even weirder to those of us who remember the many years that the city’s DIY scenes told emo bands they should keep that shit in the suburbs. Now, the boroughs are a place where the twee-pop duo Zachshots, the powerviolence band Risk Yo Life, indietronica acts ideasforconversations and The Dallas Cowboys, and the screamo band OLTH can share bills, split releases, and members with the melodic indie-emo band Branching Out, the screamo/emo crossover band Cash Only Tony’s, and second wave/Midwest-style emo true believers like Aeiou and Holidays In United States.
“Everybody’s really interdisciplinary. People aren’t just, ‘I’m a screamo person, that’s all I do,’” Annika Haakonsen of Holidays In United States, Aeiou, Cash Only Tony’s, and Zachshots tells me on a Zoom call with three other members of Holidays, which Annika takes on the way to a Cash Only Tony’s practice. “Everybody branches out really easily and just likes a lot of different stuff and and has a very expansive number of influences.” Drummer Simon Rosenthal looks up from the couch he’s sharing with guitarist/vocalist Connor O’Doherty to interject. “‘Cause that purity shit is lame!”
Holidays In United States was born in early 2024 but their origin story dates back to 2022. Connor and Simon met that summer as they were moving into the same apartment, and it was during a shared U-Haul drive that they did a Spotify blend and realized they had almost the exact same taste in music. Simon grew up in DC with a childhood friend whose father was Fugazi/Rites of Spring drummer Brendan Canty, so first wave emo is practically in his blood. Connor is from Portland, OR, which didn’t have any more of an emo scene than NYC did, but he gravitated towards Midwest and Midwest-style emo bands from other places, like late 2000s/early 2010s emo revival bands Algernon Cadwallader, Boy Problems, Marietta, Merchant Ships, and Midwest Pen Pals, as well as the ‘90s bands who inspired them like American Football and Cap’n Jazz.
After moving in together, Connor was always writing songs in the apartment, and Simon would sometimes sit in with the electronic drum kit that he purchased so he could practice at home without disturbing the other people in his building. They later met San Diego native, guitar player, and second wave emo fan Garry Winston (who had also been making electronic and indie pop on his own under the names Postcard Boy, carwash, and Great White Shark), and in January of 2024, the trio began writing their self-titled debut EP as Holidays In United States, which came out that July.
The seven-song EP immediately saw them staking their claim within the raw, mathy, shouty version of Midwest emo that they collectively love the most, and it has an irresistible charm that quickly caught on with their NYC DIY peers. Some of their first gigs surrounding the EP’s release were opening a couple album release shows for the folky indie rock/bedroom pop act Superfan, whose main member Kali Flanagan joined Holidays as their bassist around that same time. The following year, they put out a split with ideasforconversations and Branching Out (titled Ideas for Branching in United States, naturally) and another EP called This Is My Second Rodeo, and as they started touring, they started trading shows with other rising, second-wave-style emo bands like The Ritornello Form, Racecourse, and My Point of You.
Annika, who grew up in Connecticut and used to commute to NYC for shows even before moving there, first saw Holidays at Branching Out’s release show for their 2024 debut EP All Vines No Leaves, a show in Crown Heights that also had The Dallas Cowboys and Xcotland on the bill. When Holidays launched into the first song they ever wrote, “Time Breaks Down,” Annika was won over right away.
