I never thought I’d eulogize the fall of 2010, especially not a mere five years after the fact.

I was a freshman in college, which is already reason enough to keep it in the darkest recesses of my mind. I wore too many oversized cardigans, spent more time with self-loathing folk records than actual people, and didn’t understand how to keep even the slightest handle on my social life.

Despite such atrocities, I did a few things right in 2010, one of which was seeing The World Is A Beautiful Place at house show with Algernon Cadwallader. My future roommate was there, most of the people there eventually became my friends, and not a single discussion was had over whether emo needed reviving. Everyone knew every word to “Victim Kin”, a guitar narrowly avoided bashing into my jaw, and I was sold before TWIABP finished their set.

I’ve kind of lost touch with the whole emo revival scene, but TWIABP earned a permanent place in my “keep tabs” list for effectively salvaging my 2010. The band eventually grew to sandwich post rock, emo, spoken word, noise, and 10+ members on one stage, but such jagged combination became a calling card rather than something to shy away from. A single like “January 10th, 2014” seems logical after years of aiming for the highest reaches of grandiosity, but it also signals a band on a higher tier after signing to Epitaph this past year. With these new heights, the band’s first offering from Harmlessness is completely massive, rooted in a incredible (and very true) story of vigilantism in Mexico against sexual assault. Coupled with a video that only enhances the song’s aim for cinematic scope and socially conscious thinking, it appears TWIABP in turn is beginning to loosen their ties to the confined DIY/emo scene that birthed them.

This week, I offered “2014” to my father to judge whether or not TWIABP seemed ready for such career advancement, but honestly, I just wanted to see what would happen if I got my dad into some of emo’s finest twinkle daddies…

#9 – TWIABP – “January 10th, 2014”

A little like Lord of The Rings. Sorry, I meant Lord of the Flies.

Yeah, I could see that. The Flies, not the Rings. Actually, let’s touch on that later.

It’s like a movie soundtrack. And this video is wild! Very professionally done!

Compared to what? 

Well, compared to a lot of the bands you show me. This had very steady shots except for that running scene. The other music videos you show me look homemade. But the song was kinda like what we said last week with Titus Andronicus: very rock opera-ish. It kind of had an Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3.

I kind of did that intentionally, picking this song after last week’s. It is very grandiose, but in a completely different way than what Titus is doing. But on a basic level, what do you think of a band named The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid To Die?

It’s going to take a big t-shirt to get all those words on there! [laughs] 

But it’s kind of a cool title if you’re afraid to die. It means they’re brave and they’re ready to take on the world without worrying.

How about if I told you they’re a sometimes six-piece, sometimes nine-or-more-piece collective? Their lineup is never really stable and they sometimes have a spoken word poet and string players and…

I’m not a fan of that.

Why not?

I’m not into spoken word. It’s sorta like rap. But this song in particular, even without the video, is a really great arrangement. They sound well put together. I can’t compare them to anybody and I like that it’s a guy and a girl singing. They were both great. The vocals reminded me of that band on the [Warped Tour] compilation, what were they called?

Oh no, Warped Tour…

They were from Poughkeepsie! We Are The In Crowd, I think they were called? I think the other musicians were pretty darn good too. I especially liked the guitars… there was one part where I was like, “woah, that’s pretty cool.” But the video!

Yeah, let’s talk about that! What did you gleam from that? The story behind the song and video are real interesting.

Well, I think [the women in the video] died, but got revenge. I assume all those people were people he killed; that might be a wrong assumption. But they all came back somehow and it got very Lord of the Flies with all of the prehistoric costumes and… what was with the bows and arrows?

It’s part of the This American Life story the band wrote the song from. As I understand it, there was a horrific spree of violence and murders against women in Juárez that started on buses, so a vigilante named “Diana, Hunter of Bus Drivers” killed two drivers in 2013 and sent her story anonymously to a bunch of news outlets. She defended that women shouldn’t and wouldn’t stand for such atrocities since the government or authorities weren’t doing anything to stop the crimes. As a result, she gained followers in Mexico that regarded her as this demigod figure and the band based the song and video off that. A lot to chew on, but what do you think now that you know all that?

It’s interesting that they chose these prehistoric costumes and emblems to represent themselves. And yeah, they use bow and arrows… Why that? I guess it gets down to the primal feelings, the vigilante in all of them. Like, what was it that they were saying in the chorus? “Make evil afraid of evil’s shadow”?

Yep. And that’s after that great back and forth part where she announces herself as Diana. Most people’s natural response to someone that kills bus drivers is “yeah, shouldn’t I be afraid of you?”, but Diana is an instrument of change against evil, not just someone seeking to blindly kill all men or bus drivers per se.

Yeah, exactly. I think this song could make it big.

Yeah?

I mean, songs today push the envelope in terms of sound and message. And I think people are just so fed up with government and institutions and justice not being served. There’s a mood like, “we gotta get back to basics and be nice to each other.” If you’re not good, there’s consequences to be paid. And if the government won’t do it, we’ll do it.

Exactly. And that kind of thinking is becoming real evident stateside too.

I mean, I’m not sure if people will associate the true event with this song when they hear it, you know, if you hadn’t told me. But yeah, on a basic level, it’s a good song with a message. And it doesn’t have swears or sexual innuendo that prevent DJs from playing it.

[laughs] And there you go. The key to a hit song: don’t swear.