The San Diego via Boston alt trio that disappeared before most folks caught on. Jejune, formed at Berklee College of Music in 1996 and relocating to San Diego, spent years building a sound that owed as much to dream pop as it did to the emo scene they were part of. Male-female dual vocals, guitars that shifted from jangly to blown-out, songs that hit harder than anything around them at the time. Putting out two genre-defining records on Big Wheel Recreation, Junk and This Afternoon’s Malady, a split with Jimmy Eat World, and then abruptly breaking up in the year 2000, leaving the world to catch up.
The world did. The records lived on in record collections and passed between fans like a secret worth keeping — and a younger generation found them just as hungry for it as anyone who was there the first time around. Now, after a successful run through Japan on the Sakura Nights tour and some excellent record reissues courtesy of The Numero Group, the emo indie rockers are back and touring the U.S. for the first time in over twenty-five years.
All three original members. All the songs. No excuses to miss it.
When your eyes have finally adjusted to total darkness, the hot summer breeze no longer sticks to your skin and the passing headlights of cars are your guiding light, the Shyness Clinic is a moving force back to your stuffy room forcing you to call it a night. “Sea of Redlights” plays like the end of summer slowly rolling towards a close, as the days get shorter and the air gets crisper. “It’s just rock music, no big deal” is how the Shyness Clinic described themselves over twenty years ago, but their album is centered with as much sincerity as it is boyish charm.
The influences of the Shyness Clinic are hard to pin down. Emerging in Boston in 1995, they were surrounded by a thriving DIY scene and an inflated self-sustaining ecosystem. Unlike many other major cities at the time, there was no unifying indie label directing the culture and scene like there was in D.C. with Dischord Records or in Washington with K Records, Sup Pop or Kill Rock Stars. Boston’s indie scene was scattered, many bands sounded nothing alike yet they shared bills, practice spaces, and supported each other at shows. Coming out of an explosive college scene in the late 80s and early 90s and an experimental scene in the mid 90s, the Shyness Clinic is as catchy as some of those bands as they are emo and mathy.
As a result, lots of different sounds were generated and emerged, and things happened a few blocks apart that never overlapped. Bands that sounded nothing alike often shared bills and practice spaces, and attended each other’s shows.
In 1996 The Shyness Clinic put out their first single, “the pleasures of beginning,” featuring “A Certain Disease” and “The Mirror Phase,” a midwest emo 7” that was poppier than some of their peers, but still carried that lonely open space.
They weren’t around long, only active until about 2000, but they left behind a killer LP, a split with Everyone Asked About You and some compilation tracks.
Ethel Meserve shared stages with bands as diverse as The Crownhate Ruin, Hurl, Bluetip, Regulator Watts, The Most Secret Method, Boston’s Karate and Piebald, and mid-west emo stalwarts like Boys Life and Rainer Maria. Their consistent summer touring took them across the country, including a legendary 1997 run with Braid and The Get Up Kids. Additional tours with Franklin, Goodbye Blue Monday, Mid Carson July, and Cerberus Shoal further established them as one of the most revered bands of the era. Their final show took place in 1998 alongside At The Drive-In and Lazarus Plot at Chicago’s iconic Fireside Bowl.