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This will be broken down into two parts: First we’ll have my “best of…” list and then, underneath, some stats on TGEFM’s performance for 2023, and general thoughts and commentary. Let’s start!

Jeff’s best of…

Those who read my Best of 2022 may recall that we were to relocate from the east coast to California right before the end of the year, only to discover my wife needed urgent spine surgery or literal paralysis could happen. We had to shut the whole thing down three days before the movers were to come (thankfully we hadn’t sold our house yet). Well, she had the surgery right before Christmas, and she is still recovering a year later, but is upward, mobile and, importantly not paralyzed. We finally got to move to the SF/Bay Area in March. You may also recall that our daughter was having some health issues but, thankfully, those seem to have resolved as well.

Once again, I wish I could make this list more robust than it actually is, there has been so much great music throughout the year. But, to be honest, so much music tends to make my mind blend it all together. That, coupled with IRL stuff, means this won’t be a long list. I’ll keep better track next year. I promise.

Now we are in the Bay Area and the change is odd, to say the least. This place has the least variation in weather that any of us have lived in, with the closest being Oxford, UK. Both my wife and I are from the midwest, so we’re used to having four actual seasons. Not so much here. Though, but what this place does have is…

Concerts

Since moving here in March I have been to five shows, which is five times more than the past three years, and as many as I saw altogether in the two years living in New Jersey before the pandemic started. There’s no shortage of music venues between SF and the East Bay (I haven’t made it down to San Jose yet, although they also get their fair share). Live music is such a singularly great experience and I forgot how much I missed it all.

Sadly I missed NOFX‘s only Punk In Drublic stop here in SF (PR firm handling press credentials dropped the ball), and Austin Lucas + Middle-Aged Queers (my wife was at a work dinner and dropped the ball, forgetting to come home to relieve me of parenting duties, but it looks like I’ll get to make that up in February). Still not a bad start to my time in the Bay Area.

This year I attended, reviewed, and photographed the following gigs:

Guilty Party and friends live at The Golden Bull
Jon Snodgrass and friends at the Ivy Room
The Dollyrots, Dog Party, and Stay Out live at Bottom of the Hill
Devon Kay & the Solutions, Eichlers at Thee Parkside
Chris Farren and guests live at Bottom of the Hill

Ear worm of the year: Upchuck – “Crashing”

While I wasn’t blown away by the new album by Georgia’s Upchuck (the songs are fun in small doses, it maybe runs too long, is too repetitive), to say that I fell in love with their single “Crashing” is an understatement. What starts out sounding like a Pixies “Gigantic” knock off quickly goes its own way and into fabulous territory. Everything about this song is firing on all cylinders. Plus the video is a messed up masterpiece of low-budget film-making.

Best charity/tribute (and album cover): Various Artists – Godspeed: A Tribute to Pierre Kezdy

Team TGEFM did a track-by-track discussion, which you can check out here.

Naked Raygun holds a special place in the hearts of aging Chicago punks and beyond. When Pierre Kezdy passed away, we lost one of the giants of the scene. Awesome acts such as Face to Face, Hot Water Music, and $wingin’ Utter$ all contribute to this tribute comp, with all proceeds going to Pierre’s family. Also, as Asplenia Studios, I was tapped to do the artwork and layout for the album, which I am very proud to have been a part of.

Notable entries are J Robbins‘ heart pounding rendition of “Got Hurt,” Josh Caterer‘s reimagining of “Knock Me Down,” and The Brokedowns with their punked-up version of “Walk in Cold.”

Bandcamp (digital DL)
Big Cartel (vinyl and merch)

Notable albums of 2023 that I can think of off the top of my head:

TGEFM posted release announcements for more than 1,200 new LPs, EPs, 7″s, comps and more throughout 2023. That’s a lot! So if you or your band is not on this list below, that isn’t a commentary on the quality of your music, it is a testament to how little storage space I have in my brain’s personal RAM chips to recall all of them. And, so… in alphabetical order…

American Television – Scars

Don’t assume I’m obligated to list American Television because TGEFM’s Jerred Lazar was in the band (he had to step down on good terms due to moving away). I’ve been a fan of the band well before I met these assho great bunch of guys. Scars is an enjoyable and energetic album full of catchy tunes.

Avem – Nerdin About Birdin

Another catchy album, this time an EP, from Canadian bird enthusiasts Avem. Every song is about, or written from the perspective of, our avian friends.

Billy Batts & The Made Men – My Empire is Crumbling

A lot of punks tend to bash on The Linda Lindas as if it is a smart idea to alienate and put down the up-and-coming youth of our scene. Fine, be that way. You look like a bunch of old men telling a group of musicians to get off of your lawn. If that’s the case, then Billy Batts & The Made Men are the salve for these surly types, allowing them to enjoy some of the best young punk out there without throwing a fit. BB&TMM know what they are doing, and they are doing it well.

The Brokedowns – Maximum Khaki

The Brokedowns are especially noisy and fun. It’s like if Dillinger Four and Off With Their Heads had a baby.

Hike The Peak – Only The True Fly Free

Launched by Lee Byatt, Hike The Peak is a unique project that releases a series of digital 7″s, all tied together by their melodic punk roots, and that each and every song features a different vocalist (and sometimes more guests) from notable punk acts around the world. Only The True Fly Free (each word was the title of a specific release) is the second series in this project and, somehow, is even better than 2022’s first iteration of the project. You really need to go to Bandcamp or Spotify to experience this.

The Karens –The Karens

Another theme act, this time most songs are from the perspective of that white, entitled, suburban woman we all know and love. What I really like about this is while the song lyrics and concepts keep the theme, The Karens still play an unapologetically great version of 80s style skate punk, with a bit of thrash.

Let’s Go – Smile

Canadian melodic/thrash punks Let’s Go (featuring former TGEFM contributor Tyler), are always a treat. Even though Tyler no longer writes for us, I guess I still like his band (haha!).

The Pomps– Bottom of the Pomps

The music is good, don’t get me wrong, but the driving force behind what makes The Pomps special is Alex Stern’s vocals. There’s a singular charm about the cadence and delivery.

Shit Present – What Still Gets Me

What still gets me about What Still Gets Me is how damn good and catchy this album is.

Shitty Halfpipe – No Comply

Is Shitty Halfpipe really shitty? Yes and no? They play a bombastic, slightly sloppy kind of 80’s style skatepunk that will put a smile on your face, especially if you’re from a time when nose and tail guards on your deck were still a sensible thing.

Sincere Engineer – Cheap Grills

Sincere Engineer is Deanna Belos, whether as acoustic or with a backing band. And who is writing songs like Deanna has been? Not many. Cheap Grills is the third LP from the band, and continues to highlight some of the best in songwriting, lyrics, and composition.

Superchunk – Misfits & Mistakes: B-sides and Strays 2007-2023

Few groups have the output that Superchunk has had, and fewer bands can put together albums of b-sides, rarities, and more than Superchunk has. Their newest collection is absolutely massive (50 songs, the LP set is FOUR vinyls), and is just as great and fun as any of their studio LPs.

Tightwire – Head Full of Snakes

This melodic/pop-punk quartet out of Minneapolis simply slay it on their new album. Tightwire craft each and every song to perfection.

Tripsun – Kill the Dream

Tripsun (formerly Triple Sundae) are still flying in under the radar of a lot of folk. They’re a great, and fun to see live, band that you should be checking out.

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TGEFM stats and more

TGEFM stats on the year

While TGEFM works to become more independent of social media for viewership, especially Meta, we still understand that social media accounts for about 45% of our incoming viewership. Search engines take up the other 45% and the final 10% are from other sources.

2023 was our best year yet for individual page views. Our roughly 3,500 news posts, interviews, premiers and have garnered almost 129,000 views.

Most-viewed post of the year: Julie’s editorial on Dicky Barrett

Earlier this year the shocking news came out that the long-running act The Might Might Bosstones were breaking up. This seemed completely out of the blue and from left field. Further rumor mills and actual reporting came out that a big part of this was the anti-vaxxer attitude of frontman Dicky Barrett.

Julie River had thoughts on this, and wrote a nice little editorial on the subject, which became our most-viewed post by a very large margin (more than triple what the next post reached in views).

Scandal of the year

Here we thought that the whole Dicky Barrett thing was gonna be the most salacious story of 2023. But it turns out that Anti-Flag‘s Justin Sane started asking us all to hold his beer a few decades ago. Right after an episode of the Enough podcast (a series which highlights patterns of sexual assaults and similar mistreatment perpetrated by members of the scene, mostly musicians) spelled out accusations against Sane (real name Justin Greener), the band disbanded and their social media channels went dark. Further reporting would lead to over a dozen women accusing the lead vocalist of sexual assault going back to the 90s.

For many fans, this hit especially hard as Anti-Flag were perceived to be the standard bearers for progressive punk and “dong the right thing.” The remaining band members have distanced themselves from Sane and released statements against him.

The fallout of this left several bands with pending releases on the associated A-F Records (including American Television above) to scramble and find a new home for their upcoming albums.

Funniest social media interaction

When right-wing trolls come out of the woodwork, TGEFM likes to have a bit of fun! And, no, the names have not been changed to protect the guilty. When Facebook user Dave Jae had some polite commentary on our post about the Dream Nails single “Ballpit,” we responded. Actually, the community did, too. This is just a sampling below:

Biggest TGEFM loss of the year: Ryan

When I left Punknews in March 2020 and then launched TGEFM in May 2020, Punknews reviewer Ryan Zero came along and, for the next three years, was a driving force behind the site as a news editor and reviewer. In August Ryan left TGEFM to return to higher education and obtain his masters degree. This loss is keenly felt and, although we wish the best in his academia adventures, we also want him back, haha! Give up on your dreams, Ryan!

Dice roller extraordinaire: Bad Dad

It took a while for our Roll of the Dice interview series to pick up after being introduced in early 2022, but it didn’t take long for news editor Bad Dad to become the master behind this project. Of the 200+ ROTD interviews so far, Bad Dad has coordinated and performed a vast majority of them, all on top of his regular duties. A regular powerhouse, with more to come!

TGEFM contributors

Although I give thanks to Ryan and Bad Dad, all of our contributors are great! A team of music lovers and fans who love to see our community grow!

TGEFM readers

Lastly, TGEFM wouldn’t exist without you, dear reader, stopping by to see what’s up in the world of punk, punk adjacent, and everything else. We look forward to bringing more news and great content to you in 2024. We look to streamline and improve the site’s responsiveness to make this a better experience for all users across all devices, as well as just, you know… music! Thank you!!!