Ever wonder where emo bands get all that angst from? Yeah, me too.

I mean, sure, being a teenager is like totally hard and stuff. And homework is a real drag. And it sucks that little Susie is going to the dance with another boy. But I seriously doubt that the singer from My Chemical Romance has had a single bad day since his band went platinum.

If any band has had some justifiable anxiety to work off through its music over the past year, it’s A Farewell Rescue. Despite the fact that the band has only been together since January 2005, the Williamsport-based five-piece has already been through the emotional wringer a time or two.

Crisis number one happened in early June of this year, when drummer Jordan Rhoads got in a near-fatal car accident.

“He fell asleep at the wheel at 3 o’clock in the morning and flipped his car,” explains guitarist John Peifer. “He didn’t have his seatbelt on and he was thrown from the car, and the car landed on its roof. If he was in the car, he would have been crushed. So he’s really lucky. He was in the hospital for a month. Those first two or three weeks he was in ICU, it was pretty scary.”

Crisis number two happened later that same week, when CI Records owner Jeremy Weiss invited the band to the Chameleon Club to showcase for a possible signing. “Jeremy was like, ‘If you guys do good on this I’ll put out the record.’ So we were like, ‘What the hell are we gonna do?’” Peifer recalls with a nervous laugh. “They let us see Jordan on Sunday morning and he was really out of it, but he was like, ‘Listen, I’m really sorry I did this to you guys. You guys gotta do this. It’s all we’ve ever pushed for. I don’t want you to not do it now.’ He was just like, ‘Do it!’”

If that’s not enough drama to make you put on eyeliner and black nail polish and scream until you throw up onstage, then I don’t know what is.

But sometimes even emo kids have good days. The band hired a stand-in drummer, tore the roof off the Chameleon Club and found itself with a brand-new record deal on one hot, little indie label. Now, as the band waits for Rhoads to recover, the members can begin work on what will be A Farewell Rescue’s national debut.

“We’re just really excited. We’ve been writing new stuff and we’re really excited to record the new album and have CI release it. It’s everything we’ve ever wanted, that all of us have ever strived for,” Peifer exclaims. “It’ll be really cool to finally have the opportunity to get something out there. Because people always ask us, ‘Where’s your CD? Where can I get it?’”

Part of the reason A Farewell Rescue has been able to drum up so much attention in such a short amount of time is the fact that, without really transcending the boundaries of emo, the band is bigger, tougher and more mature than most emo bands. They’re like a heavyweight boxer who can’t watch an episode of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” without bawling.

The music itself is rooted in melodic hardcore, with loads of raw energy and heavy riffage inspired by bands like Kid Dynamite, Lifetime and Strike Anywhere. But once singer Joey Heid puts his thing down, the band’s sound takes a sharp turn towards New Found Glory and Taking Back Sunday. That’s the band’s greatest strength – they’re punk through and through, but they’re not afraid to embrace a straight-up pop hook.

“We could write like a metal riff and Joey would sing over it and it would completely change it. You can headbang to it. It’s pretty brutal, but the way he sings, he can throw a hook in there,” Peifer explains. “Our goal is trying to write stuff that’s catchy that’ll get in your head, and maybe after the first or second time you heard it you would know the chorus.”

It’s classic con-artistry: While the musicians have you distracted at the front door with all kinds of tough-guy riffage, Heid comes creeping in through the window to wallop you on the back of the head with a fistful of pop hooks. Then they steal your silverware.

When the band is at its best, this one-two punch yields the kind of deliciously sing-able pop-rock anthems that a career could be built upon. If A Farewell Rescue can continue to push in this direction on its CI debut (tentatively slated for spring 2007), these boys could start to make a real racket on the scene.

“We just want to be able to do it. We all just want to tour and release albums, the best music we can write,” Peifer says. “It’s all of our passion, it’s all we’ve ever wanted to do.”