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 2025” 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?
Basti of Melonball’s Best of 2025 is fueled by momentum, gratitude and a deep belief in punk rock as both refuge and family. After a year of festival stages, touring highlights, making new friends and writing and recording what will be their 2026 album Take Care (out February 27), his picks reflect music that inspired, steadied and reignited that spark—whether brand new or decades old. This list is less about ranking and more about connection, tracing the records and songs that continue to shape who he is and why punk still matters.
So, in 2023, That’s Good Enough For Me was kind enough to invite me to participate in its annual “Best Of …” series. In 2025, I’m on it again – how cool is that?!
Even though those two years raced by like a high-speed train, so many great things have happened for me personally and also for my band, MELONBALL. For instance, in 2024 we played almost 50 shows and toured Canada for the first time. In 2025, we wrote and recorded a new album (it’ll be released in 2026, but that’s another story), played amazing festivals, and made new friends while touring with some of the most amazing and lovely people. In the end, punk rock is family!
I’m more than certain that some of the songs and albums I’ve included in my “Best of 2025” list did a thing or two inspiration-wise—whether the music is brand new, or something I re-discovered that feels just as new and intense as when I first heard it. (Spoiler alert … there will be some old-school Bad Religion on this list.)
For me, music—especially punk rock—will always be a place to retreat from stress, a way to express myself, and a way to stay sane (as we all know: “Sanity is a full-time job.”). I don’t know what would have happened in my life without music, and without the friends I found in MELONBALL.
Disclaimer: same as last time, this list doesn’t contain nearly as much great music as I’d love to share with you guys. And again, it’s in completely random order, since I love all the bands and musicians equally.
Anyway … here’s my “Best of 2025”:
● Press Club – To All The Ones That I Love
● Bad Religion – The Gray Race (released in 1996) – Note: it’s been on my list in 2023 too, but let’s face it. It’s a banger record!)
● Bad Religion – Sanity (release in 1989)
● The Iron Roses – AGITPOP (https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/61VxUnKEnVRlztrnvEK8Py?si=4oCL77cQRcOYxV6zAXJ_vQ)
● Hans Roofthooft (form F.O.D.) – Noord
● The Dirty Nil – Gallop of the Hounds
● Propagandhi – Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes (released in 2000) – Note: they started out in 1986, i’m born in 1988. First I’ve heard this record was in 2002, when I just turned 14. It just blew me off my feet. And it still does 25 years later! Safe to say I literally grew up with that band!
● Todeskommando Atomsturm – Hunger der Hyänen (released in 2016, remastered in 2025) ()
● Authority Zero – RBIV Rebel Rhythm
● The Flatliners – Mysanthropy & Me
● The Hellacopters – High Visibility (released in 2000)
● Curbside – Black & Grey – Note: funny enough, this song shares the same intro as one of our MELONBALL songs. But I’ll leave it to the reader to find out which one. I can say this much, though—it’s a completely random happy accident. CURBSIDE, if you’re reading this … not even Bruno and Cynthia noticed. HAHA!
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/