The Necessary

Known for their highly introspective and confessional lyrics, the Necessary is an aggressive and hard-rocking yet consistently melodic alternative pop/rock-emo band from North Carolina. As loudly as they rock, the Necessary is anything but a happy-go-lucky party band; many of their lyrics are on the melancholy side. That combination of introspective, serious-minded lyrics and punk-pop aggression is exactly what one expects from emo artists; while the boisterous, in-your-face punk-pop bands of the late '70s and early '80s generally wrote about politics, social problems or sex (or a combination of those three things), the Necessary and similar bands that popped up in the '90s or early 2000s are all about introspection and more introspection. The Necessary's primary influences have included Sunny Day Real Estate,Green Day, the Juliana Theory and Texas Is the Reason — all of those well-known emo-alternative pop/rock-punk-pop bands have been frequent comparisons, and listeners in North Carolina have also compared the five-member Necessary to Jimmy Eat World, Good Charlotte, and Copeland.

The Necessary was formed in the early 2000s in Greensboro, NC, where lead singer/frontman Josh King was joined by David McLaughlin on rhythm guitar and background vocals, Joel Kiser on lead guitar, Jeff Linn on electric bass, and Todd Turner on drums. With that lineup in place, the group acquired a small regional following in the Carolinas after a few months. In 2003, the Necessary signed with Forsaken Recordings, a small, independent, Greensboro-based label owned by Joel Collins of the band Bloodjinn. Forsaken released This Is Us, the Necessary's debut album, in June 2004; the title track of that CD (which Collins co-produced with members of the Necessary) was chosen as the lead single.