When high school friends Blair Shehan and Colby Mancasola formed the band Knapsack in 1993 while studying at the University of California at Davis, little did they know that they would help to create a movement that would be so big that their band would get buried beneath it; never getting the attention or credit they were due.

Shortly after forming Knapsack, vocalist/guitarist Shehan, drummer Mancasola, guitarist Jason Bokros and bassist Rod Meyer released a 7” on the San Diego label Goldenrod Records and took to the road. The band would later become known for their relentless touring schedule, which only helped the foursome build a fan base beyond California. By May of 1994, the band had signed with Alias Records to begin on their debut full-length.

Released in April of 1995, Silver Sweepstakes had a sound that very few bands were making at the time. Combining elements of rock and punk like they did was nothing new, but it was the manner in which the sound was executed that stood Knapsack and Silver Sweepstakes apart from the music of the time. With the brilliant use of dynamics and Shehan’s vocal range that would go from nearly speaking out lyrics to the shouting of choruses like on “Cellophane” and “Trainwrecker”, Knapsack’s music was drenched with something that was unheard of: emotion.

During this same time period, bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Jimmy Eat World, Jawbreaker and others were all creating their own types of music that when combined with bands like Knapsack, built the foundation of what was then called emo-core. While much, way too much, has been written about emo-core and emo, without these bands, this extremely popular and influential sub-genre of music would never had never had seen the light of day. Interestingly, Knapsack brushed aside being a part of the emo-core movement. “I don’t like to call what we do emo-core,” said Shehan. “I think we make dark, hard-rocking music with a hook and varied dynamics.”

After releasing Silver Sweepstakes, the quartet toured with the likes of Rocket From The Crypt, Pavement, Jawbox and Drive Like Jehu, which further perpetuated the band’s rigorous touring reputation and brought their music to newer audiences across the country. During this time period, Bokros left Knapsack and was replaced by Sergie Loobkoff, who played in the very influential Samiam, after Knapsack recorded their follow up to Silver Sweepstakes.

Early in 1997, Knapsack released their second album, Day Three of My New Life, again on Alias. With this new record, Knapsack proved that they could consistently write solid tunes with lyrics that can rip your heart out. Anchored by Shehan’s distinctive vocals, Day Three of My New Life features some more hard-charging songs like “Decorate the Spine”, “Thursday Side of the Street” and “Heart Carved Tree”. While it could be said that the band fails to cover any new ground on this record, I would counter that they didn’t get caught up in trying to get too clever and avoided the sophomore slump, and would even go further to say that they build on the foundation from Silver Sweepstakes and creates a record that takes a good step forward.

The following year brought a new Knapsack record, which was their most ambitious. Sadly, it would also be their last. This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now, released again by Alias in September of 1998, documents the band’s bold step in a new direction without abandoning the songwriting style of their previous two efforts. When asked about the record, Shehan said, “We’re a lot older. The first record is like ‘wow, we can make records.’ We starved to make the second one better. With the third, we just wanted to finally take some chances.” With This Conversation, Knapsack definitely took chances on instrumentation, adding cello, organ and piano on certain tracks of the record. This Conversation is also the only record featuring Loobkoff on guitar. While they may have experimented with the instrumentation on the record, the band sticks with their tried and true formula of writing dynamic, emotional songs with a driving edge. Songs like “Shape of the Fear”, “Arrows to the Action” and “Hummingbirds”, exemplify this and are standouts on the album. I would be remiss to not point out the irony that the last song on the record is titled “Please Shut off the Lights”.

The band would stay together until 2000, when they called it quits and Shehan and joined The Jealous Sound. Although only producing one full-length and two EPs, The Jealous Sound were able to gain much more notoriety than Knapsack could, even to the point where Spin magazine named their album Kill Them With Kindness one of their Top 40 albums of 2003.

When it was all said and done, Knapsack was overshadowed not only by The Jealous Sound, but the emo-core sub-genre that they were a part of creating. While Sunny Day Real Estate grew to attain a cult-like status and Jimmy Eat World exploded to selling millions of records, Knapsack faded into obscurity, rarely to be mentioned for their achievements and for what they were a part of building.

(Editor’s note – Interestingly enough, The Jealous Sound was the opening band on Sunny Day Real Estate’s recent reunion tour.)