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 Fumes the new EP from synthy and dark dance duo Vempire, yet? What about their full-length from this Summer; Your Steps? These fantastic new records are so damn good! TGEFM highly recommends you click this link to download the LP, press play on the record and repeat those steps here for the EP. Once you’ve done that, check out the Vempire’s Top 10 Things to do to Make 2025 Suck A Little Less (Even Though It Is Still Going To Suck).
Vempire’s Top 10 Things to do to Make 2025 Suck A Little Less (Even Though It Is Still Going To Suck)”
Whether you’re here for it or not, 2025 has arrived, and for three hundred and sixty-five days it will shape the fate of the most deplorable US government to date, further validate the ignorant and despicable, and ultimately coffin-nail the global environmental disasters that will literally end the human race. Vempire has compiled a cheat-sheet on falling along, ever-so gracefully. Photos by Audrey Hertel.
10. Bring Back Obsolete Technology
If carefully tailored racism and restrictions on women’s rights are going to roll-back a handful of decades, so can your tech! Pop your Heathers tape into the VCR while enjoying some vodka-cranberry. Cut your friends some mix-tapes on physical cassette with YouTube ripped audio that Spotify wouldn’t dare to touch. Clean your local Goodwill Electronics store of their loose disks. Once you’re done snooping on everyone’s documents from 1992, the plastic floppys will complement any rad art project.
9. Volunteer At Your Local Animal Shelter
It really sucks that your dad and his neighbor buddies are all truck-owning fucking dickheads now, but the dogs, cats, rabbits, and other critters at the shelter share all of the same like-minded political and social beliefs that you do. You can give them a great break from the kennel life, and in return you don’t have to think about the transphobic sticker on your co-worker’s lunch box.
8. Draw The Blinds
Use a vacation day. Do nothing. Download this free white noise app and place your iPhone across the room. Fuck your week-long project at work, cocktails with your friends can wait until next time. [Insert any solo casual drug-use here.]
7. Revive The Zine
(As if you weren’t already thinking about publishing the contents of those used floppy disks.) Trade out the Facebook status or TikTok short with some real, intellectual thoughts. Contribute these thoughts to actual websites publications like TGEFM. Type your opinions out on your word processor and print with a printer you found at Goodwill Electronics. Eat an edible and grab a handful of trash magazines on your way to Kinkos. Or Fed-Ex… Whatever it is called these days. They are open late enough for you to craft “Issue 1” and beyond.
6. Don’t Listen To Any Music That Came Out After 1989
This one, though a no-brainer, will benefit you greatly. Lauper, Idol, Smith, Ocasek, Oakey, and Madonna made sure all twelve tunes on each album were all bangers, too. So you won’t need to touch the rewind button on your tape-deck. Set a cheat day so you can enjoy the new GLOW album on Bandcamp. (Fine… some Vempire too, if you fancy it.)
5. Fit-Check
If the world is going to fucking burn, make sure you look hot amongst the flames. Scour the net for vintage lewks that no one around you has the stones to pull off. Half of the continent is only worried about themselves anyways. Always. Wear. Sunglasses.
4. Slay
Own said look. Work. It. Bitch. You are sexy and they are so beneath you, its pathetic.
3. Overindulge
Whether it is Jameson, vape-hits, horror movie posters, light jackets, pills, Atari 2600 carts, Cheez Its Party Mix, or Kraftwerk 7”s… Maximize your obsession. Organize your hoarding, front-and-center. Admire it while abusing other substances or vices.
2. Dance
Shake your ass off, like no one is watching. Because they aren’t, and if they are, they are jealous. Trade your hardcore pit for some nu-disco. Dancing is good for you, and an infectious activity as we bleed into the void. You can (and should) sleep on your staycation day, but not tonight. Tonight is for dancing until the sun comes up, tomorrow likely is too.
1. Be Cvnty
Put yourself first. In a year where Earth kind-of sucks because of a large number of people around you? Ignorance is bliss. Share love with the wonderful people around you, of course, but if someone is a bad sack of shit? They are dead to us, and they should be to you too. Keep those sunglasses on and your rocks glasses icy, sluts. xoxo
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/
