Remo Drive Tickets

Remo Drive In Concert

It takes a fair bit of moxie to name your first album Greatest Hits, but Minneapolis trio Remo Drive's 2017 debut rises to the challenge with a lean 10-song collection of emo-spiked indie rock anthems. While the suburban Minneapolis band seemed to arrive fully formed, the record was actually the culmination of a four-year gestation period. 

Remo Drive was founded by brothers Erik (vocals, guitar) and Stephen Paulson (bass) when they were still in high school, inspired equally by new-school emo acts like Title Fight and Joyce Manor and timeless genre touchstones like Weezer's 1996 classic, Pinkerton. 

But unlike many fledgling emo outfits, the Paulsons weren't ones to take themselves too seriously. Where peers like The World Is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die used their band name to broadcast their ideological intent, Remo Drive is by their own admission "very meaningless." 

As Erik explained to Minneapolis' City Pages site, "Stephen was going to buy drumheads for our drum set, and the company that makes the drumheads is Remo. So he was driving to get Remo drumheads: Remo Drive." 

That irreverent spirit has infused all aspects of the band's presentation, from the raw, mosh-worthy demos they started dropping on Bandcamp in 2014 (sample title: "My Good Friend Is a Pro Sk8er") to their family portrait-style press photos to their low budget videos. The winsome clip for 2017 single "Yer Killin' Me" — featuring the brothers and drummer Sam Mathys performing the song while running through their suburban neighborhood — received an endorsement from noted online music critic Anthony Fantano (aka The Needle Drop), increasing anticipation for Greatest Hits. 

Recorded in the Paulsons' family home and initially self-released by the band, the album was picked up for wider distribution through legendary punk imprint Epitaph. But Remo Drive's 2018 EP, the un-ironically titled Pop Music, already finds the Paulsons outgrowing their emo roots, incorporating the polyrhythmic finesse of bands like Vampire Weekend on lead single "Blue Ribbon."