Bright Eyes is not a real emo band. Even trying to fir them in with the post-hardcore indie bands doesn't totally work. The Beatles talked about their emotions, does that make them an "emo" band? Not really. 
 If you want to call them emotionally driven, depressing, whiny, etc. etc., ok. But speaking under musical genres, they're not emo. 

 And I do tell my friends I listen to emo bands, since that's the technical classification. You're just jumping on the emo dissing bandwagon.