These days emo has taken on some wild identities, from the chaos of the screamo bands Pg. 99, Circle Takes the Square, and Orchid to the false pop mainstream of Hawthorne Heights and Underoath. Though there are some discrepencies between the different styles, Emo has become a pretty strong-based music with a plethora of bands to choose from, however back in the early '90s this was nowhere near the case. The genre was still finding its footing and starting to walk. Most of the bands back then came and went without much besides a couple limited 7"s and a tack or two on a compilation, some of those bands did not break this rule but with those few songs signaled of changes to come.
One of these bands is Native Nod, they have 3 7"s and a cut on a rare compilation, all of which are hard to track down. However, in '96 Gern Blandsten records released Today Puberty, Tommorow the World released those 9 tracks onto one compact disc. These songs precursed the schizophrenic bastard child of Emo to come later on known as screamo, with dynamic musical subtleties and spoken along with screamed vocals, which is one of the most aped vocal deliveries in the scene currently, that portrayed at many times emotional breakdown and a longing to understand just what the hell is going on. I will not get into a track by track review as I feel to fully appreciate Today Puberty, Tommorow the World one must listen to the album beginning to end. Mostly the songs are about personal and social problems which nowadays is cliche but is powerful as presented here. There is also a few songs that deal with the bands political views which though not unheard of at the time is somewhat surprising as the most notable song of this sort by Native Nod is also probaly the most notable musically as well displaying Jazz, Garage, and Noise-rock influences, that song is Mr President. The band made a few of the songs into complete epics with seperate acts, buildups, a climax, and slight letdown. This was not, however, post-rock type buildup, as much of the music is the same just intensified and desperate. Overall impressive musical thought adapting limited overall playing skills.
All in all Native Nod was a great band who ended too soon. Today Puberty, Tommorow the World is a great compilation of all of a great band's works able to stand up there with other great discographies such as Analphabatology, End on End, and Minor Threat's Complete Discography. Reccomended to anyone who wants to discover the roots of Emo and an amazing band overall.
Some stellar tracks: Mr President, Tangled, High Tide in Alaska
