The godfathers of Long Island post-hardcore set the record straight
By JULIA KAGANSKIY | July 5, 2006
Lifetime |
When Lifetime crawled out of the swamps of New Jersey in the early ’90s, underground music fans didn’t know what to make of them. Treading the line between hardcore and pop-punk, they didn't quite fit anywhere, and the majority of their seven years' existence was spent making their friends famous. Their opening bands, like the Bouncing Souls and Texas Is the Reason, blew up, while Lifetime’s popularity stayed stagnant. As is so often the case with bands ahead of their time, it wasn’t until after they broke up that anyone started paying attention.Since their breakup in 1997, Lifetime have become legends in the punk/hardcore community. They’re credited with pioneering the sound that MTV made famous with Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Saves The Day — just don’t call them the Pixies of emo. What in the ’90s seemed a no-man’s-land has become hardcore's all-access pass to the mainstream — a sound that's reverberating in garages and basements from Long Island to Orange County.
Older, wiser, with real jobs, families, and new bands, the members of Lifetime aren't the same kids they were 10 years ago. There's no pressure to succeed, no worries about selling enough merch to cover gas costs, and the rent will get paid whether or not their new record deal with Fueled By Ramen works out. This time around, all that Lifetime guitarist Dan Yemin — that’s Dr. Yemin to you: when he’s not playing with Paint It Black or Armalite, he’s a practicing child psychologist — wants is to have some fun and take care of some unfinished business.
As Lifetime prepare to embark on a July mini-tour with the Loved Ones and the Bronx, Dr. Dan took some time to talk to thePhoenix.com about what's in store for Lifetime.
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