Where Are Your Boys Tonight?

with Chris Payne 🎸

Jun 22, 2023

And we’re back!!! In case you’re new, welcome 🤩 SparkNotes: Here’s more about me, the newsletter, and the podcast. This newsletter is jam-packed, so buckle up, baby!!!!

Nicstalgia is back from hiatus! Taking a break was exactly what I needed. I’m excited to continue having deep conversations about superficial things, meeting amazing people, bringing something I'm proud of to life, and unlocking memories that make your day!

A few new things:
• There is now a podcast trivia question on YouTube! Will you be the first to get it correct??
• There is now a poll on Spotify (mobile only) that is open for the first week the podcast episode is live.
• Nicstalgia is coming out with a fun collab soon with one of my guests soon 😇 💖and I’m working on more ways to tie in the community — guests and listeners alike. I’m really value both giving and receiving feedback, so if there’s anything you want to see, I’m all ears.
I’m so so grateful that you are reading this newsletter, and I want it and the podcast to be as fun and delightful as possible — something you want to read, watch, and share with your friends. Here are ways to connect if you’re a fan of the show:
• Social Media: Tag me! Tell me your favorite episode! Tell me your favorite part of your favorite episode! Send me a throwback pic! I love it all. Hearing your stories in connection to what we’ve talked about on the pod fills me with JOY.
• Substack: Subscribe, refer a friend
• YouTube: Subscribe, turn on notifications, answer the trivia question
• Spotify: Follow, rate 5 stars, answer the poll
• Apple Podcasts: Follow, rate, and leave a review
Website makeover!
My coding degree from MySpace University still comes in handy. You will notice on the desktop experience that the cursor is the Green EnV that I had in high school that ceased to operate after I put it in my green and white boucle fake (!!!!) Prada baguette bag and a lemonade-flavored Vitamin Water spilled on it. Yes I tried putting it in a bag of rice, and nothing could revive it.

I also made this fun WordArt GIF of the things that I never stop talking about.
New apartment!
I moved into a new place and I love it! Speaking of WordArt…I couldn’t find wall art that really resonated with me, so I made a poster of paraphrased “Drama Queen (That Girl)” lyrics. It’s exactly the kitschy, post-ironic, chaotic good, unhinged conversation starter that I was looking for.

For my bedroom wall art, I had a DIY day. I went up on my rooftop and painted these canvases. (The green ones are on either side of the beige one.) I call this masterpiece: “Behind These Hazel Eyes” for obvious reasons. Shoutout to my fellow hazel-eyed people!!
I tweeted about this translucent icy blue boombox I actually had in the 2000s, hyper-fixated on it for weeks, then found it on eBay for $25. Miracles Happen.
It’s Allllllll That!
I went to 90s Con in Hartford in March, which is literally a giant 1990s convention with celebrity appearances, panels, autograph signings, and the merch of my dreams. I had actually seen my favorite YM magazine (October 2001 with Britney Spears on the cover that I used to read at the dentist’s office lol), on Etsy the day before. When I got to 90s Con, THERE IT WAS!!! So now it is mine.

Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez look INCREDIBLE. (Fyi so did Mark-Paul Gosselaar.) Who does their skin??? I didn’t sign up for any autograph sessions, but me and my friends Janine and Jade (you may know them as @Retr0Avocado and @ShinyPretties respectively) did a photo op with the cast of All That!! Kenan Thompson even made a surprise appearance.

🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia

Chris Payne is featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about his amazing new book, WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT?, how he got into music journalism, getting an email from Pete Wentz, My Chemical Romance nowstalgia, and finding out about Paramore before they made it big.

Does liking emo music require alienation from, or frustration with, mainstream society? We explore how emo shares outsider themes with punk rock but ultimately detaches from focuses on the self, inner turmoil, and interpersonal relationships.

We chat about being from New Jersey (Chris) and Connecticut (Me and Chris Carrabba), wearing Converse and band tees from Hot Topic with double popped collar polo shirts, picking out the perfect MySpace song, and so much more.

Watch/listen: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World 📲

My fav [emo-coded] things from the internet rn:
Finn Mckenty was interviewed in WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT? and I was like, that guy’s name sounds familiar. I realized it’s because he’s behind The Punk Rock MBA, one of my fav YouTube channels!! He answered the question so many people were asking over the last year or two: Why is Emo popular again? He talks about the role of TikTok in the emo revival, When We Were Young festival, and (one of my very favorite topics) the death of the monoculture.

This week on the pod, I talked to Chris about My Chemical Romance nowstalgia and the Groovival aesthetic, both discussed at length in my Nostalgia vs. Nowstalgia piece.

I’m never not missing MySpace. Enjoyed reading Myspace, the Trailblazer and looking through old celebrity MySpace pages. My favorite is Lily Allen’s page:

I dive down a different pop culture rabbit hole each and every day. Recently, I finally decided to investigate something that has kept me up at night for years: Why is the chorus of Jimmy Eat World’s “Seventeen” different than I remember hearing in Never Been Kissed? So the version in NBK included the original chorus; they realized it sounded too similar to a song by Winger (from 1988), so they changed the lyrics and re-recorded it. What I still don’t understand is why NBK (released in 1999) used the version recorded in 1995. I guess that’s another rabbit hole. Anyway!!! Luckily, someone spliced the two versions together. I love the internet.

💿 Hey Mr. DJ, put a [playlist] on

Playlist of the week:
WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT? is Chris’s book, in song. “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy” by Fall Out Boy is the first track; very apropos. If you’ve never listened to 2000s emo music before, this is really the only place to start. This is the first time I am sharing someone else’s playlist in this newsletter, so that’s how you know it’s a big deal LOL. (To 2005 and Beyond has a lot of emo but is pretty broad, including alt/indie rock, pop punk, and whatever random songs I was listening to on MySpace at the time.)

Also, I’m not sure if anyone else’s brain works like this, but I enjoy listening to music when I am reading (i.e. listening to this playlist while reading WHERE ARE YOUR BOYS TONIGHT? or listening to Japanese Breakfast while reading Crying in H Mart). It’s a multi-sensory experience!

Nicstalgia

Where Are Your Boys Tonight?

with Chris Payne 🎸

🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia

I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World 📲

💿 Hey Mr. DJ, put a [playlist] on

🧨 Spice Up Your Life

Discussion about this post