Emily?

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Matthew Robinson, Writer

It is not an exaggeration to say that Green Day is the greatest punk rock band of all time. Their sound is instantly recognizable and, even after 20 years; they haven’t lost their touch compared to some of the other rock bands that had hits in 1994. No other band can even come close to reaching Green Day’s level of punk awesome. Except for one.

Emily’s Army is a punk rock band from Portland, Oregon. The line-up originally consisted of brothers Max and Cole Becker on bass and lead guitar, Joey Armstrong, son of Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong, on drums, and Travis Neuman on the other guitar.

Originally they were called The Clocks, but there are already way too many bands with that name. The current name was given in honor of the Becker brothers’ cousin who has cystic fibrosis.

They released their first album “Don’t Be a D***” on June 14 of 2011. The best song from that album is “Broadcast This,” which is one of those songs about how current music sucks and how we don’t want to hear that crap on the radio. It’s by far my second favorite song by them. It’s also a good example for their sound, more punk than Less Than Jake or The Ramones but more mellow than Green Day.

Their second album “Lost at Seventeen” was released on June 10 of 2013 and it is more or less their equivalent to “Dookie.” Now, they don’t like being compared to Green Day, but this album makes it quite obvious of Green Day’s influence in their music. They still manage to have their own unique sound even while failing to completely shake off Green Day’s influence. This album’s best song is also my absolute favorite Emily’s Army song, “The Rescuers.”

There’s not much info I could read out of the song. But, from what I did gather, this could very well be their equivalent to “Longview.”

They haven’t released anything else since then other than their EP “Swim” last year, after which Travis Neuman left the band and was replace by Sebastian Mueller. The album’s okay; it’s got that upbeat brand of late 90’s “beach punk” going on.

As of September they have changed their name yet again, this time to The Swimmers.

These guys definitely have my seal of approval and I really look forward to their next album, whatever they’re called.