Sitting on the edge of the wall between mainstream and independent music, The Promise Ring survived an amazing year.

“Very Emergency” was named one of SPIN magazine’s best records of 1999, the band’s videos got some play on MTV’s “120 Minutes,” and rock critics at top magazines like Rolling Stone christened The Promise Ring as the flagship band for the emotional hardcore (or emo) movement.

But what’s emo?

Promise Ring guitarist Jason Gnewikow can’t even explain it.

“People will talk about you however they can. It seems to sort of trivialize your music, but at the same time it’s like if SPIN and big magazines like that are gonna write about it, and that’s what they’re gonna call it, that just means more people are gonna come out and see you play,” he says. “If they’re gonna trivialize it, we may as well reap the benefits.”

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in Chicago as Gnewikow is resting up before the next night’s show at the Metro. He reflects on some of the milestones The Promise Ring passed in 1999.

“We’ve had a lot of crazy things happen that don’t happen for a lot of independent bands,” Gnewikow says. “Like getting videos played on MTV and being on ‘120 [Minutes],’ but it’s good. It feels like a total accomplishment.”

Having “Very Emergency” picked as a year highlight in major music magazines shocked the band even more.

“Ultimately, it’s probably one person’s opinion but it’s definitely cool,” he says. “It’s crazy to be among some other really great records.”

The Milwaukee-based band has been known to create music laced with introspective lyrics, musical intricacies and brilliant songwriting, but on “Emergency,” the sound is a bit more on the songs-about-girls side.

Either way, it’s music that gets inside you, and for the lucky ones who have latched on to The Promise Ring’s music, nothing could be more satisfying.

“Very Emergency” has already far outsold 1997’s epic “Nothing Feels Good,” and with the noise it has made among critics and music insiders, it’s amazing the record hasn’t completely exploded into the mainstream.

Much of the band’s audience has been generated from college radio, which has provided The Promise Ring with a home since the early days.

“There definitely just seems to be bands that always do really well on college radio, and I honestly don’t know what it is,” Gnewikow explains. “I think college radio is a lot more open than commercial radio, which is strict programming; they only turn on bands that other stations are playing. That’s the great thing about college radio; it’s people doing shows. They can play whatever they want.”

In the grand tradition of other college-launched indie bands like R.E.M., the Promise Ring tried to squeeze in touring between college breaks, and when that wasn’t easy to do anymore, they decided to quit school.

Lucky for the band, their music took off and now they don’t have to worry about some of the hardships of a struggling indie band.

“It’s become a lot easier to do,” Gnewikow says. “Financially, especially. We can go out and pay all the bills. It makes it a lot more fun.”

Sometimes, though, Gnewikow gets nostalgic for the early days of the band, when they played in basements and bowling alleys to only a handful of kids.

“There are certain moments it’d be great to relive, but then in the great scheme of things you usually don’t think of the bad stuff,” he says. “Like I’d rather not be in some really shitty van with no heat driving around on tour.”

On top of that, Gnewikow doesn’t have to return from touring and feel guilty about still living in his parents’ house. Now he’s got his own Chicago apartment to return to.

“There’s definitely a period where you question ‘Wow, is this totally the wrong decision?’ but it’s something that you’re so passionate about, you just can’t give it up,” he explains. “But it does pay off and it feels great. What’s better than making a living doing something you love?”

As the band heads into 2000, it’s unclear whether it will live up to the huge expectations and genre-establishing tags the critics have created.

“If we’re an emo band, and that’s what categorizes us with all these other bands, most of them are bands that we play with all the time and are our friends and that’s great,” Gnewikow says. “I have the most respect for all of them so if that’s what we’re gonna be categorized as, that’s fine.

“Once you do something for the first time, you can never get that back,” he adds. “It’s like the first night you play a really good show, or the first night you play in a little bit bigger club. You can never recapture that, you just have to keep going up and up and up and up.”