Every Noise at Once

Midwestern emo catches its second wind | Music Feature At the end of June, underground Connecticut emo band the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die landed on several Billboard charts with its debut full-length, Whenever, If Ever: number three on the Heatseekers and vinyl charts, eight on the Internet chart, 66 on the rock chart, and 196 on the Billboard 200. The album, which came out on tiny independent label Topshelf, might have done even better had it not leaked a month earlier via torrent site What.CD, undercutting potential sales before they could happen. These days, with record sales down across the industry and major-label budgets a ghost of their former selves, the playing field has been leveled a bit—it's easier for artists outside the major-label ecosystem to land on the Billboard charts. When the eight-piece band came through Chicago in July, they played an alcohol- and drug-free Humboldt Park loft called Swerp Mansion, which shares its name with a DIY punk label. Joie de Vivre at Swerp Mansion J.

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