I almost lost it all.

The Emo Museum almost went the way of the buffalo.

I thought I was diligent enough with my archives. For someone that works in it all day you’d think I’d have thought of everything. One day around the holidays, the Networks Attached Storage or NAS server I have just died. No goodbyes or reunions, just straight up kicked it. My “cold storage” back up was there so I’ll just fire that up to view the content I’ve acquired and saved over the last 30+ years. Nope, that wasn’t loading.

As I collectively freaked out, I realized that it was ok if it was lost. It doesn’t matter in the end, we’re all just on a floating rock through space. There was someone else with this and I’d be ok. I settled and called a friend that knew IT and we rebuilt, reorganized, and paid for a few upgrades for this to never happen again.

What it really had me think about was where we throw up things on our favorite social media, including myself. It’s theirs, not ours. This isn’t rose colored glasses about the past but more about realizing the now is harder and harder to save and document the little moments, the ones that didn’t get a 1000 likes, or that fleeting moment that may have been a thought but the doubt of telling a friend lost to eternity.

Music is paramount to me as is the history of the genre. I sometimes do a great job and sometimes don’t listen enough to what’s happening or where another sound is coming from. There’s plenty of us out there to document, but are there enough saving and in ways that benefit the next folks after us.

I guess it freaked me out in that this is fleeting, our time is short, the music is now. Maybe it’s not saving but more about the time we’re in and it was ok if that music was lost or the audio of the interviews. What will be remembered, will be. I’ll try my best and I know you will to.

What kept me going as I was trying to rebuild the NAS server and the 30+ years of stuff was this newsletter group, Patreon, friends, acquaintances that had needed something from this or were interested in what was inside this “emo museum.” If it’s just one person or band that needed it to remember a song for a reunion, then job well done.

As I continue to work on what’s important, 2022 is a monumental year for Washed Up Emo and I hope I can celebrate it. 15 years ago this October I was sitting at Equal Vision Records and eternally frustrated that bands I loved weren’t online. Now sitting here equally as frustrated (I guess people don’t change much) that the music is still paramount. You remember some stuff, you forget others. It all washes out in the end.

The podcast, which thankfully was picked up by Double Elvis (makers of the amazing Disgraceland) are helping me find new audiences for the show and with who I have coming up, we’ll see if it’s just for the masses or the die hards. I think both will be happy. The Twitch stream I did for a few months was a blast and something I’d love to find a way to do weekly. At the moment, it’s on pause for the podcast. And books, the Anthology series is almost sold out again. Thanks for all those that purchased the pressings. No timetable on volume 3 or reprints. I’ll let that one figure itself out. And the radio show on Spotify, WUER, what a blast. I can’t quite get the algorithm with the show and bummed that only Spotify have figured out the Words + Music is a fantastic way to share stories.

As I head into 2022 all backed up (again), I hope you’re all safe and supporting music and the arts as best you can. In some small way just by reading this far, you’re supporting me and this ill fated destiny of emo that a precious bunch of us get from frontwards to back and still want to find the next “one” around the corner.

If you missed the 8th Annual Washed Up Emo Awards, the winners are listed here.

Thanks for reading.

-Tom