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?
Have you checked out Obscene Daydreams, yet? The fantastic new record from Fat Wreck Chords’ The Last Gang is so damn good! TGEFM highly recommends you click this link to download, press play on the record and then listen again and again and again and again. The band’s Ken Aquino has joined us to help you enhance your listening experience by sharing his 10 favorite tracks from the record, along with a bit of info for each one.
Honorable Mention – “Madness”
1st single and a fun one to play! This one keeps it simple and gave us a chance to make a fun video with Vicente, who we worked with before on “Noise Noise Noise” and “Gimme Action”.
10 – “Deadhorse”
I love the hip hop feel that Brenna did on this song with her verses. We did it for a bridge in “Gimme Action” so it was cool to step it up on a song and make that feel more present.
9- “Vacant Eyes”
I have a picture of our producer, Cameron, Sam, Brenna, and Sean playing the organ that you hear in the second verse of this song. That was a fun day in the studio. There is a not so subtle gunshot sample in this song that was removed and put back in the mixing stages.
8- “Berlin To Rome”
The intro to this one was pure accident. The only reason why it happened was because Cameron had an MPC on the console in his studio and was messing with it and made a random pattern and happened to hit record at the right time. Add a little incoherent bass noodling and boom! Intro to the second single.
7- “Years From Now”
Up until Brenna had the lyrics for this song, it was called “Too Many Chords”. This was a hard one to finish in the writing stages but ended up rad! My favorite is the subject matter in Brenna’s lyrics of mortality and leaving a legacy behind.
6- “The Others”
Rad song about inclusion. Be inclusive or GTFOH.
5- “Rumors”
Originally had this demo recorded around the 150 BPM mark. Cameron made the call to up it to 160 ish and I immediately/internally went “fuck”. I had a solo section in the bridge and had been practicing it at 150. Whenever we have our songs ready and we’re about to hit the studio I practice them over and over to the point of (literally) developing carpal tunnel. Anyway… I think we got it and this song rules.
4- “NRA Back 2 School”
This is the last song I recorded on guitar and one of my favorites on the record. Probably one of my favorite endings to a song on the record going from fast punk to quiet and litlle instrumentation with vocals.
3- “Electric Avenue”
I’m stoked that this ended up being the opener to Obscene Daydreams. To me this song was a perfect opener to the record. Didn’t realize until I listened to Sam’s sequence. Most of the elements of the entire record are found in this song and to me thats what made it work.
2- “Dogmatic Capitalizer”
This song had my favorite moment in the studio. Tell Sean to get in the vocal booth, be pissed off, and yell something into the microphone. Mission accomplished. More of my favorite lyrics on the record about the current state of capitalism in the US coming to a head. Fun.
1- “Hide The Antagonist”
This was my personal favorite song to record in the studio. We got to use the steel drum in the choruses and record chants. Evil sounding guitars, lyrics about fighting nazis, disco drum beat, and a major bop in the chorus. Dope.
Ok here are some random things of 2024 that were a part of my “top”. NoFX Final Tour, Wicked, Deadpool And Wolverine, “Counting Back From 13” – Codefendants, Saviors – Green Day, Blood, Hair, & Eyeballs – Alkaline Trio, There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive – Bayside, and the reopening of Haunted Mansion. See you in 2025!
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/
