Way back in fall 2024, most of the Stereogum staff convened in Las Vegas for the first Best Friends Forever festival, where some of the best emo bands of the late '90s shared stages with the newer bands who carry that spirit forward. Before that fest, I'd never heard of vs self, a California DIY band who played early in the day, but I was impressed. They play raw, wild-eyed, from-the-gut first-wave screamo, and they make it sound less like a genre exercise and more like it's the only way that they know how to tell you what's going on in their heads.
vs self have been around for a few years, and their full-length Everything Seems Better Now came out in 2020. Today, they've released a split with soccer., a Tokyo band with a similarly all-out approach. The vs self song "Maim" is short, bruising, and off-kilter, with lyrics that seem positively aspirational right now: "We fill our flasks with kerosene/ Help hooded heads meet guillotines." soccer.'s contribution "V" is just as brief and apocalyptic. The whole split lasts for less than three minutes, and it'll take you on a ride. Listen below.
The vs self/soccer. split is out now on BSDJ/Gizzmoix.
