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?
As a member of THIEV, Lesser Minds, Hundreds of AU and Died Out, Paul Alan has kept himself quite busy performing, writing and is set to soon start recording the latest of the THIEV EP saga at the legendary Nada Studios. With such a full schedule, its hard to imagine time for much else… but Paul has also agreed to check in with TGEFM for his Top 5 movies to watch for free on Tubi without making an account.
If you interacted with me in the past year, I offered my unsolicited praise for Tubi. I guess I’m sorry, actually not really. Tubi has a lot to offer and definitely has the most punk rock adjacent selection than the others….and it’s free! Here’s my top five from the year.
1) Dinner in America: The punk version of Buffalo ’66. Punk singer (PSYOPS) gets out of prison and meets a fan who wrote to him while in there and they embark on adventures and crimes together. The movie’s title track rips and can be seen performed “live” at a DIY garage show in the movie.
2) Uncle Peckerhead: Lots of NJ references. A band on tour with a monster. Josh Jurk (School Drugs) cameo. Check it out!
3) River’s Edge: Before SPEED, Keanu Reeves and Dennis Hopper collaborated for this movie…Hopper’s character was missing a leg this time, not a thumb. It’s loosely based on a true story and draws similarities to the documentary “The Acid King” (also on tubi) which tells the true story of Ricky Kasso, a teenager who murdered his friend for satanic sacrifice in 1984 and took his classmates up to see the body.
4) Manic: The first movie Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt made together. It takes place in a psych ward where Levitt’s character was placed for beating another kid with a baseball bat. It explores the relationship arc of each character in the facility.
5) The Acid King: see above.
Honorable Mention:
6) I Shouldn’t be Alive (series): Older show that’s great to have on to half pay attention to while scrolling your phone but has some truly incredible stories of survival.
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/