Growing up in Rhode Island, we were fortunate to have one of the greatest radio stations in the country, WBRU. Officially the radio station of Brown University, WBRU became one of the most dominant stations in the area after switching to the alternative rock format in 1988, just a few years before the format took American radio by storm. This station taught me everything I know about music, both introducing me to new music and educating me about the 80’s and 70’s with their retro programs. My favorite part of WBRU’s programming was on Friday nights at 7:00 and was called 12 Cuts Above the Rest where they counted down the 12 most requested songs of the week. I would tune in each week to see if my favorite song had topped the chart.
Today, WBRU is no longer the powerhouse it once was, reduced to an Internet only station in 2017. So, in honor of the station that raised me on rock—and being fully aware that the number 12 was chosen because 12 songs fit into an hour programming block on radio—I decided to make my end of year list at TGEFM into 12 Records Above the Rest!
Now, I’ve been calling 2021 “The Year of Ska” which has formed into a sort of joke, but I’m not really kidding. I haven’t seen this many high quality ska albums released in the same year since about 1996-1997 when ska briefly dominated the airwaves. If you count Less Than Jake’s December 2020 release as part of the 2021 crop, it’s been undeniably the best year for ska in a while. Just to give you an idea, keep in mind I’m not known as exclusively a ska-head and there’s one ska album on my top 5 Eps of 2021 list and 5 on my top 12 LPs list. Will one of them make it to number one on my list, or will another genre usurp ska in its own year? Let’s find out.
Julie’s Top 5 EPs of 2021
5. Zebrahead – III
Okay, I’ve talked enough about my love/hate relationship with Zebrahead, so let’s talk about the love side for a second: Zebrahead is proudly entering the third phase of their career and laying out what kind of band they’re looking to become under new lead singer, Adrian Estrella. The hate aspect of this is that I hate the Linkin Park knock off, “Out of Time” almost as much as I hate Linkin Park. But the other four songs here are absolute standouts, particularly “Long Way Down” which combines catchy music with dark lyrical themes and a path forward for a better future. Both smart and clever, “Long Way Down” accomplishes a lot of things that early Zebrahead would not have been capable of.
Favorite Track: “Long Way Down”
4. Lars Fredriksen – To Victory
Not fully an EP of all new material, this EP is a mish-mash of original material, covers, and re-recordings of songs that Frederiksen recorded with his band, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, all of them stripped down to just a few instruments, frequently an acoustic guitar alone. It’s almost magical how the disparate material is all sublimated into Frederiksen’s Billy Bragg-style warm acoustic folk punk. Even the KISS cover, the last thing I was expecting on a folk punk album, fits perfectly with the tone of the rest of the EP. It’s a reminder that Frederiksen is nobody’s sidekick, and one of Rancid’s greatest assets.
Favorite Track: “Army of Zombies”
3. Bruce Lee Band – Division in the Heartland
Bruce Lee Band, is basically just Asian Man Records founder, Mike Park, and whatever backing band he happens to have at the moment. In its current lineup, it includes Jeff Rosenstock in the band, so pretty much anything can happen, as evidenced by the track “BLT” on which Rosenstock sings the entire song in Korean. But, stunt casting aside, Mike Park’s de facto solo project explores a lot of different styles in what could be called ska, demonstrating the often pigeonholed genre’s true range and diversity.
Favorite Track: “Division in the Heartland”
2. Laura Jane Grace – At War With the Silverfish
Laura Jane Grace has expressed no intention so far to disband her band, Against Me!, but she’s definitely learning that, when a song doesn’t fit the band or she doesn’t have access to her band for whatever reason, she can just pick up some instruments and play with whoever she can, or simply by herself. Even though this EP contains what Grace called the worst song she had ever written, “Day Old Coffee,” I strongly disagree. I really enjoy “Day Old Coffee” because it reminds me of Grace’s self-deprecating humor regarding her mildly unhealthy habits. Also, the worst song Grace has ever written is clearly “Bob Dylan Dream” off of Against Me!’s White Crosses. So settling that Grace is wrong about her own worst song, At War With the Silverfish is a hold over until the new Against! Me record, and an exquisite collection of songs that demonstrate how many songs Laura Jane Grace must still have in her.
Favorite Track: “Lolo 13”
1. The Screamers – Demo Hollywood 1977
A bit of a cheat, to be honest, because this EP was released in 2021 but was recorded in 1977. Still, it’s the release date I’m going by, so this collection of lost classics from the legendary punk band with no guitars and no albums stands not only atop my EP list, but also marks the unlikeliest record to be released in 2021 considering how long these recordings have been sat upon. But they thunder to life on this brilliant restoration that captures all the manic fury that Tomata du Plenty and his band of musical anarchists put into this project. In essence, they were the first band to shatter the mold of punk rock and use what was left of the mold anyway.
Favorite Track: “Magazine Love”
Julie River’s 12 Records Above the Rest 2021
12. Voodoo Glow Skulls – Livin’ the Apocalypse
Conventional wisdom has always been that Voodoo Glow Skulls are very skilled musicians, but vocalist Frank Casillas was hardly a great lyricist. But now Casillas is retired and Efrem Schulz, frontman of Death by Stereo and Manic Hispanic, has taken his place as the Glow Skulls’ new frontman. The lyrics problem has improved a bit, although Schulz is a long way from Shakespeare. But, while Casillas’ version of the band was hardly apolitical, Schulz’s version of VGS focuses on politics more directly like he does in some of his other bands. The result is an amazing blend of punk, ska, Latin, and metal with proficient musicians and a focused lyrical direction they never had before.
Favorite Track: “Livin’ the Apocalypse”
11. Descendents – 9th and Walnut
The Descendents bring us a lost classic with 9th and Walnut, a recording of songs written by the band between 1977-1980, meaning it even predates Milo Goes to College, and has the classic Milo-era lineup. With such a blast from the past, how could it not make my list? That being said, my love/hate relationship with The Descendents continues as every album they put out manages to have something in it that I find problematic, ranging from the sexism, racism, homophobia, and outright toxic masculinity of Milo Goes to College to the ableist anti-psychiatric medicine rhetoric of their more recent albums. This album isn’t as bad as most, leading me to believe some of the lyrics were rewritten in the modern era, but it still contains the line in “Lullaby” where Milo calls a woman a whore. And did we need a re-recording of the slut shame-y “Ride the Wild” when a recording of it already exists with a different vocalist? Still, it’s hard to not forgive The Descendents their faults when they remain one of the most important punk bands in history, and the glimpse into this long-lost album is too tempting to ignore.
Favorite Track: “Grudge”
10. Turnstile – Glow On
Turnstile continues to be the best thing going on in hardcore right now, constantly reinventing the genre, combining it with other genres, introducing new instrumentations, and basically giving a middle finger to hardcore orthodoxy. GLOW ON manages to rock as hard as Turnstile ever has while still doing all of these things.
Favorite Track: “HOLIDAY”
9. Garbage – No Gods No Masters
As popular as Garbage’s pop-goth singles got on 90’s alternative radio, I don’t remember them garnering a huge following. People liked the songs, but I didn’t know anyone growing up who would call Garbage their favorite band. And yet here we are in 2021 and Garbage has made themselves legends by literally refusing to quit. Well, okay, they’ve quit a few times, but never for long. I can’t think of any other band that still has every original member, and that’s helped them grow and evolve as artists in a consistent way. No Gods No Masters is a brave, sprawling, complex album that completely dwarfs the work they became known for in the 90’s. While I don’t usually care much for bonus tracks, the deluxe edition features such gems as a cover of David Bowie’s “Starman,” collaborations with the likes of The Distillers’ Brody Dale and X’s John Doe and Exene Cervenka, and a collaboration with Screaming Females where they cover Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith’s “Because the Night,” making it a near double album that’s all worthwhile.
Favorite Track: “Godhead”
8. The Copyrights – Alone in a Dome
I admit that I’ve been sleeping on The Copyrights for all this time so I couldn’t tell you, honestly, where this stands in the context of their larger discography. But, as an uninitiated listener, it’s a cracklingly beautiful album laden with an abundance of power chords, and what more could anyone ask for from a pop-punk album? The lyrics drip with emotion but just enough irony to keep them from getting pretentious. I guess it’s time to learn their discography because this is one of the best pop-punk albums I’ve ever heard.
Favorite Track: “Tell Molly”
7. The Last Gang – Noise Noise Noise
Moving so quickly from a skate punk album with few ska elements to an album that’s heavily based in ska and reggae with punk serving as almost an afterthought, demonstrates a versatility that few bands possess. Too many bands cling desperately to their trademark sound and have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into some sort of evolution. The ability to switch to something different and do that equally well is a rare talent that needs to be celebrated instead of feared, and it is that particular rare talent mixed with an astonishing bravery that allowed Last Gang to reinvent themselves for their second album on a label. And that’s precisely why this album is a standout and the band’s stock is quickly rising.
Favorite Track: “Gimme Action”
6. Angel Du$t – YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs
The contrast between 2016’s Rock the Fuck On Forever and 2019’s Pretty Buff was flabbergasting. I literally can’t think of another time I saw a hardcore band—admittedly a very unorthodox and whimsical hardcore band, but a hardcore band nonetheless—switch to folk punk. I figure with the band consisting of members of two hardcore bands (Turnstile and Trapped Under Ice), they started out trying to see what happened when combining the two bands’ different hardcore styles, and over time they decided it might be more interesting to create music in Angel Du$t that sounds like nothing they would ever dream of doing in their two parent bands. Moving from Pretty Buff to Yak: A Collection of Truck Songs is much less of a leap, as now the band is transforming from folk punk into indie pop. But, in doing so, Angel Du$t finds themselves adept at their new genre, creating the most haunting melodies I’ve heard all year. Oh, and Tim Armstrong makes a cameo on the album just to add to the album’s overall WTF-ness. But, for what few generic similarities Angel Du$t shares with its two parent bands, it still shares their talent for great music and innovation.
Favorite Track: “YAK”
5. Catbite – Nice One
It’s hard not to fall in love with Brittany Luna the second you hear her voice. Of course the band’s charm doesn’t begin and end with her by any means; this band is a well-oiled machine churning out one finely polished ska tune after another. But Luna is not afraid to wear her bisexuality on her sleeve on this record, and I really appreciate that representation on a ska album. But even without that representation, this would still be one of the most phenomenal ska albums I’ve ever heard.
Favorite Track: “Excuse Me Miss”
4. The Muslims – Fuck These Fucking Fascists
There was literally no way that an album called Fuck These Fucking Fascists with an album cover featuring John Lydon getting his eye punched out wasn’t going to end up on my list. While Lydon represents an older, unnuanced, tear-it-all-down style of punk rock politics, The Muslims represent a much more modern conception of punk politics that is smarter and more grounded in reality. Very few political punk bands are this brazen while still knowing exactly what they’re talking about. So, at the risk of repeating an old joke, nevermind The Sex Pistols, here’s The Muslims.
Favorite Track: “IDGAF”
3. Lil Nas X – Montero
As punk rock as your favorite punk band is, did they spark a moral outrage across all of conservative media? Did South Dakota’s governor tweet about your favorite band, citing a “fight for the soul of our nation”? Now I’m sure that Lil Nas X knew that intentionally sparking controversy would sell albums and I’m sure that was part of his motivation. But I think he also put these queer and sacrilegious themes in his music and the infamous video for the lead single in an attempt to start a conversation, make queerness more visible, and demonstrate the hypocrisy of the religious right. And, in doing so, he’s giving us all a master class in being punk rock. This is the true punk rock: creating controversy, not just for the sake of pissing people off, but for the sake of forcing society to have an important conversation. G.G. Allin wasn’t half the punk that Lil Nas X is, and that’s why I had to add him to the very small list of mainstream rappers that I listen to.
Favorite Track: “THAT’S WHAT I WANT”
2. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – When God Was Great
What more can I say about this ska opus? A double album on vinyl, this epic ska album incorporates gospel, country, and more to create the most unique and diverse sound in their already storied career of nearly 40 years. I never thought I’d see myself naming a band’s 11th studio album as their best of their career, but When God Was Great just fires on all cylinders and succeeds at a lot of things the Bosstones attempted on previous albums but didn’t quite pull off.
Favorite Track: “The Final Parade” (feat. Like literally everyone in ska-punk, go look it up because I’m not listing them all)
1. We Are the Union – Ordinary Life
It’s ska! It’s punk! It’s indie! It’s emo! It’s queercore! It’s literally someone’s coming out story! It’s a lot of amazing things at once, which is what lands it at number one on my list. Sure you can say that I have a bias as I’m also a trans woman, but it’s not just the fact that I relate to Reade Wolcott’s story. It’s also how brave, frank, honest, and articulate she is about her journey to get here. The band is wearing their queer hearts on their sleeves, with at least two openly trans members, as trombone player Jer, also of Skatune Network, identifies as non-binary, which is reflected in metaphors in two of their music videos from this album. In fact the videos for “Morbid Obsessions” and “Boys Will Be Girls” are some of the most creative commentaries on gender I’ve ever seen. In the one music video from this album that isn’t trans themed, the love song “Make it Easy,” the video is a love story between two women in some sort of queer-friendly version of a 90’s high school sitcom. And when I wrote my review of this album I hadn’t heard the rest of the band’s catalogue. Now that I have I can say that it’s not just a great album, but the band’s best album and a standout for using a different style. I really feel like this album marks a significant turning point in the history of third-wave ska, if not the beginning of a fourth wave itself.
Favorite Track: “December”
That’s it for my end of the year list. Here’s hoping that 2022 sucks just a little bit less. Fuck you; get pumped.
Julie is punk rock, lesbian time lady from the future. The greatest things in the world are punk rock and science fiction. Check out her website JulieRiver.com!
