Berkeley, CA · melodic punk · emo

Samiam

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Berkeley's bridge between 90s melodic punk and emo — Jason Beebout's ache over big, rolling hooks. Aging beautifully and criminally underrated.

Samiam formed in Berkeley, California in late 1988, after the breakup of the band Isocracy, a mainstay of the 924 Gilman Street club, and played their first show that January with Christ on Parade. Guitarist Sergie Loobkoff and singer Jason Beebout have anchored the band across its various line-ups since.

The band released early records through New Red Archives and Hopeless Records in the US and Burning Heart Records in Europe, before signing to Atlantic in the 1990s when the choice, as they saw it, was between a deal and breaking up. Their major-label debut, Clumsy, appeared in 1994; its single "Capsized" received considerable MTV airplay, and the band appeared on The Jon Stewart Show that year.

The band's sound pairs fast, melodic punk with mid-tempo, minor-key songwriting and Beebout's rough, plaintive vocals, an approach frequently cited as a precursor to later emo and melodic hardcore. Their own influences ran to bands such as Leatherface, Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr.

Atlantic rejected the album that followed Clumsy; it eventually surfaced in 1997 as You Are Freaking Me Out on Burning Heart, with the single "She Found You" getting notable radio play the following year. The band has shared bills with Bad Religion, Green Day and Blink-182 among others, and after a 2001 hiatus kept touring abroad, releasing Whatever's Got You Down in 2006, Trips in 2011 and Stowaway in 2023, featuring guest vocals from Chris Wollard of Hot Water Music.

More than three decades on, the band still tours intermittently, with a following that has stayed especially steady in Europe. The current line-up rounds out Loobkoff and Beebout with drummer Colin Brooks, guitarist and bassist Sean Kennerly, and bassist Chad Darby.

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melodic punkemo