My husband once called himself an “emo man-child” because he continues his active devotion to emo-punk bands of the late 90’s/early 2000s into his adult life. When I asked permission to refer to him as an “emo man-child” in this post, he threw a kooshball at my head. I took that as a YES.

Back in those high school years you wouldn’t find much emo or punk in the 25-pound CD case that I threw around in my car. I was all about hip-hop, r&b, and pop, all lumped together on dozens of mixed CDs, burned for me by a kid in study hall. He had the hook up!

I really didn’t know much about bands like The Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Taco Tuesday, Labor Day, Someone’s Birthday, etc. (ok, those last three aren’t really emo bands…that I’m aware of).

At one point I started drinking coffee in diners and listening to Dashboard Confessional, but that was a brief phase.

One of the things I love most about my husband is how much he loves music in general, whether it’s growling hardcore that I immediately turn off, or epic rock bands like Murder by Death, who he introduced me to and is now a fave.

The Get Up Kids is one of his all-time favorite bands. He has dragged me, err, I have happily joined him at roughly half a dozen TGUK shows, plus a few solo acoustic performances by frontman Matt Pryor. Over time I really developed an appreciation for the genre, just keep your mosh pit away from my vodka soda, okay?!

As it turns out, Matt Pryor has written kids music under the name The Terrible Twos, and we are big fans! One of our favorite songs is called, “We Can All Get Along with Dinosaurs”. This song follows two happy and harmless dinosaurs looking for a home, but people are scared of them. It’s a really sweet and calm song with a great (and relevant) message: we can all live together harmoniously if we stop being judgmental d*cks. This is not a lyric.

It’s a gentle song you can throw on at anytime, unlike another Terrible Twos gem called “Great Big Poop”. “Great Big Poop” is a song that repeats about 5 words, and those 5 words are about poop. When you have kids, and if you have kids AND pets, 65% of your life revolves around poop. Did the kids poop? Did the dog poop? I even have to make sure our fish poop because (fun fact!) fish get constipated.

What is life if you can’t sing a silly song about poop with your kids?

“Jump Jump Jump” is a livelier song that gets the kids moving and (if they’re like my kids) it may resemble a mosh pit.

The Terrible Twos is a solid choice for the family playlist, especially if you are an emo man-child, or if you’re married to one.

Another fun flashback, here’s Saves the Day playing a pledge show in our old Jersey City living room in 2013. Such a cool thing to experience, back when people could stand next to each other! I actually knew a bunch of their songs by this point, but I ended up singing a cover of “Thriller” with them for no apparent reason. They randomly started playing it in between songs and I fake-moonwalked my way to the mic. My husband and I are somewhere in the middle of this group of people. I miss that enormous window.

Thanks for reading!