Current

In the Metro Detroit region, Current operated only briefly during the first half of the 1990s, yet the quartet helped shape emo’s second wave by turning away from hardcore’s rapid tempos and confrontational stance in favor of measured playing, collective interplay, and the shaping of introspective, poetry-tinged soundscapes. Their output remained modest—just several 7-inch singles and the lone album Coliseum—while they were together, but the recordings exerted a clear influence on later emo and post-hardcore acts, leading the Numero Group to gather the complete catalog into the 2022 box set Yesterday’s Tomorrow Is Not Today.

Current formed in 1992 when vocalist Matthias Weeks, bassist Andrew Albus, drummer Derek Brosch, and guitarist Justin LaBo came together, with Scott Ray sometimes appearing as a second vocalist in the group’s earliest days. Seeking an independent outlet for their work, the musicians started Council Records as their own label. Before the band ended in 1994, they issued the Could I EP in 1992, a split 7" with Indian Summer in 1993, the album Coliseum in 1993, and a split 7" with Chino Horde in 1994. A final 7", Is 4, appeared the following year. During those same years the group stayed constantly on the move, completing two cross-country tours while also performing regularly throughout the Detroit area. At the same time all four members joined the crustpunk band Ottawa, which added vocalist Jeff Rice, and they released the widely circulated and influential Ottawa/Jihad split LP in 1994.

Once Current disbanded, its former members remained active in music for decades, forming a succession of new projects that appeared and shifted across the years. Council Records compiled every track from the band’s singles and compilation appearances into a discography collection released in 1998. In 2022 the Numero Group returned to the same body of work with Yesterday’s Tomorrow Is Not Today, a box set that remastered the recordings directly from the original tapes.