You might be sitting there scratching your head and thinking, “What the heck is rust belt emo?” “Did they invent a new genre without telling me?” Fear not, you’re not getting (that) old. Sure, the genre is changing a lot, but rust belt emo exists courtesy of cokeworks, who coined the term themselves.
We coined the term rust belt emo & named ourselves cokeworks after the abandoned coke plants located in our town (just outside of Pittsburgh)
cokeworks
The band describes rust belt emo as “emo with the complex rhythms of math rock, indie rock & a bit of post-hardcore.” We have to say, we love the ingenuity and we’re curious to see what comes from this genre next.
So far, cokeworks has opened up for their first national tour, released 3 DIY singles, and they’re heading into the studio soon! A small band starting to make some bigger moves? We love to see it. Check out the singles and see for yourself why you need to hop on the cokeworks train now, so you can look back and say you knew them when.
‘Crime’
This is the first song cokeworks ever wrote as a band so if you want to be able to say you knew them when, this is probably the best place to start. ‘Crime’ has more of a classic pop-punk sound, with early 00s influence, and we love the range of their sound from these three tracks alone.
‘I Called Your Therapist To Ask About You (Scraps)’
We’re kind of obsessed with the opening guitar that flows through this one. This is definitely a standout favorite of ours, falling on the heavier side of their sound (which we’ll never say no to). The production of this one is awesome and if this is what rust belt emo is, consider us fans!
‘I’m Not A Flat Earther, But…’
They really said indie pop with this one. ‘I’m Not A Flat Earther, But…’ stands out sonically from the other two tracks, leaning more into the indie pop vibes than emo/post-hardcore. And who doesn’t love a good map motif? “A map that shows the edge of the earth, a map that leads us home” does in fact feel pretty emo to us, so maybe they’re not leaning so far with this one.
And there you have it. Now you know what rust belt emo is and you have a new band to check out! What do you think of cokeworks? What’s your favorite track from these 3? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our socials. We’re always buzzing on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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