Curious what notable personalities in the scene think was great this year? So is TGEFM! So we reached out to some of our favorite luminaries ranging from musicians, label personnel, and more for their “Best of 2024” lists. Now, listen: TGEFM is not a taskmistress. Contributors can write these out however they want. So if it doesn’t actually look or read like a list… and sometimes it really is just a list with no other observations! Who cares?
Earlier this year, Long Island’s acoustic punk duo Bitters and Distractions dropped the outstanding The Home That Procrastination Built on Sell The Heart Records. Since then, the two-piece have been picking up steam across the scene and making all who come across their talents take notice… but what have Travis Johnides and Jeremy Quitko taken notice of this year? Well, check out the band’s Best Of lists below!
Travis’ top 5 list of 2024:
Green Day – Saviors
For most of my life, Green Day has been one of my favorite bands. However, to be honest, I couldn’t stomach their “Father of All…” album. Then, when Saviors was released, I was instantly reminded of why I have loved this band for as long as I have. I listened to this album almost daily for the first few months after it’s released and I still love it to this day. I hope I am still rocking this hard in my 50’s!
The Lemon Twigs – A Dream Is All We Know
I am not sure how many others on Long Island are aware of this band, but I think they’re incredible. From the songwriting to the instrumentation, they blow my mind. And this album in particular I find to be their most cohesive. If you dig music with a 70’s rock vibe, you will love both The Lemon Twigs and this album.
Gone Stereo – “Meet Me At Garvies”
This is a single, but had to be included on my list. The drum opening always gets me super pumped! This song is classic Gone Stereo – incredible vocals, musicianship, and pop punk melody. Definitely check this band out if you haven’t yet!
The Avett Brothers – The Avett Brothers
While this is not my favorite album by The Avett Brothers, it contains three songs that are on constant repeat: “Forever Now,” “Country Kid,” and “Orion’s Belt.” The Avett Brothers are in my Top 5 bands of all-time and their music speaks to me in ways no other band’s music does. Their songs always touch my soul in a great way, so I will be a fan for life.
Bitters and Distractions – The Home That Procrastination Built
I felt I had to add our own album here. Releasing this on a label as fantastic as Sell The Heart Records meant the world to us. Therefore, a lot of work and thought went both into writing the songs, and ensuring we recorded them in a way that captured the true nature of our band – which is an energetic acoustic punk duo. I love all songs on this album and was very thankful to collaborate with our talented friends, Matty Lupinacci of Gone Stereo and Will Romeo of Neckscars, on it.
Jeremy’s top 5 list of 2024:
Hot Water Music – VOWS
I’m just never going to get sick of Chuck Ragan‘s voice. This is a band that has not left my rotation for 25 years. One of the standouts about this record is how HWM learned to utilize Chris Creswell to really bring another dimension to the vocals. When this album dropped, it made my commute to and from work tolerable for months. I’d also like to draw attention to the “After The Impossible” music video. This pure 80’s, nostalgia checks every box of my favorite things. Hell, this video could be all 10 of my favorite things about 2024!
The Chisel – What a Fucking Nightmare
I’m not gonna pretend like I knew/know anything about this band. My Spotify suggested this album to me and I can’t stop listening. Some kind of cross between trying to figure out what the lyrics are saying and the raw power of how they are being sung has me sitting on the end of my seat.
Victory Garden – On the Good Side of Bad Times EP
All my favorite things about growing up on Long Island and into a Hardcore scene are encapsulated in this release. This is what happens when you take so many Long Island hardcore veterans and put them together to create new music, it sounds familiar but unexpected. This is a story I could not guess the ending to.
Mike Herrera – “Linoleum”
This is just a single I ran into this year that deserves the credit. Getting to see NOFX play their last show in NYC this year, had me diving back into their catalog and reminding me how much I love this song. When I saw that the dude from MXPX covering it, I figured it was worth a listen. I have never been a huge MXPX fan, but this is not Mike singing, it’s his daughter. This cover is great, and as a girl dad (3 daughters) this is some serious Dad Goals!
Days and Days – Chris MacDonald
Not an album…a book. To be honest, I’m not even a huge reader. I never have time these days, but this book reads like a record. This is about the band Leatherface from Sunderland, England. Much like the author of this book, I found Leatherface on a mixtape when I was in High School. I continued to share “I Want the Moon” with others until I moved to Baltimore and finally found the full album on CD. This was 1997, before the internet that we know now, and I couldn’t find any other information about this band, but I continued to listen to what I had like it was brand new. This book combines the missing history of the band with a tale of 2 friends in search of many of the same answers.
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/
