When a TGEFM staffer just doesn’t have the time to write up a full review for an EP or LP, they can do a quick one for the Drive-by Reviews feature. Think of it like a Cliff’s Notes for reviews– You’ll get the gist of it without all of the verbiage.
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100 Gecs – 10,000 gecs
Dog Show/Atlantic Records – 17 Mar
I don’t know man, I just don’t know… but you’ll bop along to the hyper and sophomoric virtuosity
Why you want it: I don’t know man, I just don’t know… I’m not sure if there is a joke here that I’m in on, but I hope I am.
Why you don’t: I don’t know man, I just don’t know… I’m not sure if I’m part of the joke that everyone else is part of.
Top Tracks: “Dumbest Girl Alive,” “I Got My Tooth Removed”
Aly & AJ – With Love From
Self-released – 17 Mar
Disney Channel’s most talented graduates drop indie-pop breezers
Why you want it: 2021’s A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun was a goddamned masterpiece and this album is strong follow-up
Why you don’t: I know plenty of indier-than-thou music snobs who are too hung up on trying to be the coolest prick in the room, if you don’t know that person… the person is you and you won’t allow yourself the enjoyment Aly & AJ bring to the rest of us.
Top Tracks: “Love You This Way,” “Baby Lay Your Head Down”
Black Honey – A Fistful of Peaches
Foxfive Records – 17 Mar
Catchy and soaring indie-rock goodness
Why you want it: The band effortlessly blends shoegaze, noise and pop-punk into a rollicking, great time.
Why you don’t: There’s a decent amount of redundancy and slight filler, making the album 3-4 tracks longer than it needs to be.
Top Tracks: “Up Against It,” “Charlie Bronson”
The Bouncing Souls – Ten Stories High
Pure Noise Records – 24 Mar
The Souls have yet to see a decline in the fun anthemic punk they’ve been releasing for decades.
Why you want it: Another better than most record from the NJ punks, still winning hearts and minds across the country with biting and adrenaline laden hooks.
Why you don’t: I grew up in Jersey, I embrace my Jerseyness, you will never hear me say anything bad about The Bouncing Souls… but this is way better than Comet and nowhere near The Good The Bad and the Argyle.
Top Tracks:“True Believers Radio” “Vin and Casey”
Bridge The Gap – Secret Kombinations
People of Punk Rock Records – 24 Mar
Almost enough to fill the void left by Tony Sly
Why you want it: Absolutely brilliant skate punk with loads NUFAN feels, I fucking love this record. Melodic-punk perfection start to finish.
Why you don’t: I just told you I thought the record was perfect. You want this, I want this, the skate-punk world needs this.
Top Tracks: When I say its perfect start to finish, I don’t mean try 1 or 2 tracks. Listen to the whole, adrenaline-inducing album…then replay it.
Can’t Swim – Thanks but No Thanks
Pure Noise Records – 3 Mar
An excellent record from the future of face of alt-punk.
Why you want it: At once, gritty, melancholic and hopeful, this record exudes optimism and realism.
Why you don’t: This is the epitome of happy, catharsis that made Warped Tour so much damn fun in the mid 00’s… avoid if you’re still stuck in ‘78.
Top Tracks: “i’ve never paid a toll on the garden state parkway,” “Nowhere, Ohio”
Codefendants – This Is Crime Wave
Bottles To The Ground – 24 Mar
Album of the year contender featuring the best music Fat Mike has been a part of in 15 years.
Why you want it: Politically driven, head-bobbin anthems that spit in the face of everything we the news wants us to see.
Why you don’t: If you are one of those dickholes that don’t believe punk, hip-hop or music in general should be political; skip the record and walk in front of a fucking bus.
Top Tracks:“Def Cons,” “Disaster Scenes” “Suicide By Pigs”
Crash Romeo – Ashtrays and Apathy
Broken Graves Records – 24 Mar
NJPP mainstays return from long hiatus with minimal rust.
Why you want it: Throwback pop-punk from the Garden State, no bells, no whistles, just full-speed ahead pop-punk fun.
Why you don’t: Nothing new beyond a few gray hairs; if you are looking for a new chapter, you’ll be left still looking.
Top Tracks: “Gaslight Getaway” “Your Name Here”
Dad Hats – Spill
Mind Over Matter Records, 17 Feb
All the best of pop-punk in 12 delightful parts.
Why you want it: Currently in my album of the year conversations based on its strong hooks and stronger sense of humor.
Why you don’t: Every pop-punk cliche is present on this record… but, to me, thats more than half the charm
Top Tracks:“Pavlov’s Dog, Y’all,” “Fastest Man Alive”
Fake Names – Expendables
Epitaph Records – 3 Mar
Socially conscious post/pop tracks from a veritable Mt Rushmore of the punk scene.
Why you want it: Somehow better than the sum of its roster’s parts, redefining the post-hardcore genre with pop sensibilities.
Why you don’t: You won’t find a Bad Religion, Refused, Dag Nasty, Embrace or Girls Against Boys knock-off, so look at the back catalogue of the members if you aren’t ready to see how versatile this crew is.
Top Tracks:“Too Little Too Late,” “Expendables”
Fall Out Boy – So Much (For) Stardust
Fueled By Ramen/Elektra Records – 24 Mar
Mall-punk vets embrace the most poppy parts of their tastes.
Why you want it: There aren’t many things as defiantly punk quite like putting some disco and r&b flare onto a punk album.
Why you don’t: There also aren’t many things as grossly non-punk quite like putting some disco and r&b flare onto a punk album.
Top Tracks: “I am My Own Muse,” “Heartbreak Feels So Good”
Leanna Firestone – Public Displays of Affection
FRTYFVE – 20 Jan
Bedroom-pop in the quirky vain of Kimya Dawson.
Why you want it: Delectable slices of melodramatic loves gone wrong and cynicism gone right.
Why you don’t: Avoid this record like the plague if you don’t want a fun little romp through lovelorn eccentricities.
Top Tracks: “God and the Government,” “You Just Didn’t Like Me That Much”
I Call Fives – Not For Everyone
Smartpunk Records – 3 Mar
Returning from a seven-year hiatus, the band continues on the path its always been on.
Why you want it: The Jersey outfit was chosen for the Warped Tour because of their ability to craft killer pop-punk bangers.
Why you don’t: The familiarity of the track on the EP may or may not signal a lack of growth.
Top Tracks: “Precious,” “Not For Everyone”
Manchester Orchestra – The Valley of Vision
Loma Vista Records – 10 Mar
Introspective EP confronting faith and self. (Important note: there is an accompanying VR film that I have not watched)
Why you want it: Ya know how Manchester Orchestra is typically brilliant and really relatable and awesome? That hasn’t changed.
Why you don’t: It is hard to look inward and face your own sense of spirituality and, if we’re being honest, MO is too fucking good at forcing you to writing songs that force listeners to do so.
Top Tracks: “Capital Karma”
Playing Dead – Something From Nothing
Self-released – 20 Feb
Fantastic and fun pop-punk romp full of mixed gender vocals and soaring melodies.
Why you want it: Long Island pop-punk continues to evolve on the back of these upsatrts.
Why you don’t: If you never fell in love with the early 00’s Long Island sound, you probably won’t enjoy this fantastic update to it.
Top Tracks: “Take Me Back”
Scarlet Street – Scarlet Street
We’re Trying Records – 24 Feb
Like listening to the first Brand New record but without the enabling whole piece of shit pedophile thing (I hope).
Why you want it: There’s a seventy times 7 percent chance this will be your new favorite weapon against musical boredom.
Why you don’t: Jesus H Christ is this fucking immaculate! Listen to it immediately and tell me it isn’t a flipping blast.
Top Tracks: “Let’s Just Say AA Was a Waste of Time,” “Dealey Plaza”
Story of the Year – Tear Me To Pieces
Sharptone Records – 10 Mar
I really wish this was the follow up to Page Avenue, it would have been perfect
Why you want it: The debut album from SOTY is an absolute classic, this fits that bill so much better than the mostly bad albums they’ve released over the last 20 years.
Why you don’t: Page Avenue really got under the skin of the sanctimonious butt-trumpets keeping gates in the scene… this will probably give them the same cry-baby agita… plus the dude does incorporate “psych” as a lyrical pivot point, and that doesn’t sit well.
Top Tracks: “2005,” “Use Me”
T-Pain – On Top Of The Covers
Nappy Boy Entertainment/EMPIRE Records – 17 Mar)
It’s T-Pain without the autotune covering John Legend, Journey and Black Sabbath… I expected it to be laughably bad… it wasn’t.
Why you want it: Nothing like what it should be, this is a goddamned delight, charming and fantastic.
Why you don’t: If you don’t hate happiness, you will find at least moderate joy in this record.
Top Tracks: “War Pigs,” “Stay With Me”
Waiver – Eyes Wide Open
Self-released – 24 Mar
Melodic pop and emo banger after banger show Waiver is poised for a breakout 2023.
Why you want it: This record will prove to even the most cynical that the pop-punk scene in the Northeast is in great hands.
Why you don’t: This is a young band at the parlance of their breakout, if you want to wait until everyone else is already a fan, give it six months.
Top Tracks: “College Try,” “Right Here”
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
