Robb’s Recs: Cry January
Robb’s Recs: Cry January
By: Robb Laffoon
Edited by: Catherine/CZB
Happy New Year! Well actually, my guy Larry David says you can’t say Happy New Year after the third and today is the fifth so I guess I say happy insurrection eve? Did you leave out the beef tallow and ivermectin for your dumbest uncle? Hope you made it on his nice list this year or else it’s 12 more months of ruined holidays!
Okay, I should stop. Management has already spoken to me about January 6 jokes. Moving on!
Welcome to Robb’s Recs! A monthly article where I, a middle aged man (derogatory) suggest newer bands and artists to my fellow middle aged (complimentary) emo adults. I have obnoxiously declared 2025 the best year for emo (and emo adjacent) music in decades so 2026 has some big Toms to fill.
That being said, lemme do my best to kick your year off right:
Red Sun
Oklahoma’s Red Sun are like a mix of Ben Quad, Hot Mulligan and the best of 2000s pop-punk. Their debut album “At Their Very Best” comes out on January 30th via Wax Bodega records. Full disclosure, I’ve had this album in my digital possession for about a month and I think I’m about ready to declare it the best pop-punk record of the 2020s.
The first time you hear Ruff Ryderz will be the closest you ever come to god. This is all kind of a tease though, considering the album isn’t out until the end of the month. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with their 2024 split with Bonus and the new single Slayce until January 30.
The Low Blow
The Low Blow are what happens when you take a lifetime of Catholic guilt, transgender dysphoria and heart. A LOT of heart. Frontwoman Patsy Long will break your heart in the most beautiful way with her impassioned vocals and gut wrenching lyrics.
The Low Blow’s 2025 album “Forest For The Trees” was one of my top 25 albums of 2025 and one listen to Dead Nettles will show you why.
Dear Maryanne
Over the last 18 months or so, DM frontman Freddie has become the darling of DIY. The face of FACGCE tuning (okay I dunno what tuning Freddy writes in but the ladies love alliteration). Since 2024’s viral success of Natty Ice, Dear Maryanne has been on an upward emo projection. The band ended 2025 touring with Summerbruise and they’ll kick off 2026 headlining a full US tour with our pals in Pretty Bitter, Cheem, Equipment, See Through Person and Arcadia Grey.
With a heart on sleeve earnestness and vulnerability, it’s easy to see why ur biological mother (and so many others) have been charmed by Freddy and the fellers in Dear Maryanne.
Cheem
If you were abducted by weird battery-powered aliens and they asked you what 2001 sounded like, you would show them the 2025 album “Power Move” by Cheem.
Combining nu-metal with emo and R&B, this Connecticut quintet sounds like a sixth grade Sega Dreamcast sleepover. If a pair of JNCO Jeans formed a band with a can of Surge and your buddies copy of 3xtreme on PlayStation, they’d probably sound like shitty Cheem. When I interviewed Skye and Sam a few weeks ago on the critically acclaimed podcast Emo Kids Anonymous, they described their sound as “Older Brother Core” and while I’m not sure these dudes are old enough to have had brothers who were rocking the backwards baseball hat at the turn of the century, the description is just so fitting.
Thoughts On Bowling
Despite being a band for less than two years and only having four (4!) songs on streamers, the NW Arkansas emo band have made a helluva name for themselves.
After a short tour with our pals in Dear Cincinnati, Thoughts on Bowling spent the latter half of 2025 touring with Trsh, sports., Kerosene Heights and Camping in Alaska, becoming road tested in ways most bands full of 20-year-olds could never dream of.
A lengthy legal battle with their former vocalist kept them from releasing new music last year but with that finally behind them they’re set to release the long awaited “Who u callin pinhead?” EP on January 9 and shortly after that, Berkeley and the bowling boys will finally reveal their new singer.
