This is the Scene – Jersey Interchange’s Christian Lesperance’s Top 10 of 2020

Christian Lesperance is the mastermind behind Jersey Interchange, a collective of Garden State musicians coming together to cover classic songs from the local punk, ska and hardcore scenes. Christian kindly agreed to provide guest column of his Top 10 of 2020 for TGEFM.

Check out the Jersey Interchange’s Stolen Ideas EP compilation to benefit The Elizabeth Coalition to House The Homeless.

#10 – Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man

Let’s be honest, Ozzy hasn’t made too many solid records since the 90’s, but Ordinary Man found him back in pretty damn good shape, even if he wasn’t in the best health, which I assume contributed to the theme of the album. Most of the lyrics seem to deal with confronting mortality and preparing for his eventual passing. This album was a big part of the soundtrack for my family’s summer camping trip, and had my 5-year old repeatedly singing the chorus to the epic “Under The Graveyard” as we hiked through the wilderness. I was also happy to hear Duff McKagan and Chad Smith playing on most of this record, and even the Post Malone guest track for all the kiddies wasn’t too bad! Other highlights for me were the blazing opener “Straight To Hell” featuring Slash on geets, a beautiful ballad reminiscent of the Blizzard-era, “Holy For Tonight”, and of course his amazing duet with Elton John on the title track, which still makes me verklempt when I listen.

#9 – Bouncing Souls – Volume 2

A lot of “reimagined” songs and albums don’t work usually (ahem), but the Souls went soft rock on this one and really gave me some chills. I listened to it for the first time without looking at the track listing, and it was hard to recognize some of the songs because they are so different, and seem to all stand on their own two new feet. The first three Souls albums are like musical canon for me, so my standouts were “Argyle” and “Say Anything”, but I really dug the new take on “Kids And Heroes” and the completely new track “World On Fire”, which seems distinctly appropriate for the time period.

#8 – Attic Salt – Get Wise

I love this fresh new release from PA’s Jump Start Records, a label who has been tirelessly putting out punk rock gems for the last twenty-five years. The infectious punk rock on this record is made interesting by the trade-off vocal tandem of Alyssa Currie and Andy Harmon, reminding me at times of bands like The Gamits or Jersey’s pop-punk saviors, The Ergs!. Check out the chorus of “Washington St.” for a great hook that will keep you singing all day. 

#7 – Strike Anywhere – Nightmares of the West

Admittedly I didn’t check out this album when it first came out, and that was a huge mistake. These dudes have not lost a step since the days of Exit English and Change Is A Sound. I’m blown away by the energy and relevance that this band still has, and demonstrates on this record only 20 minutes in length. The epic singalong chorus of “Imperium of Waste” seems as though it was written for the sole purpose of getting our neck hairs standing at attention, and the opener “Documentary” is a fitting inflammatory piece to start off this whopper of melodic hardcore goodness. I only wish it would have been 20 minutes longer!

#6 – PEARS – S/T

I’m not sure anything this band does is ever less than stellar. If Green Star is the bar, then this album’s scalp is rubbing on the underside of it with mad friction. “Pepaw” is a crazy ride through spasmic hardcore, “Comfortably Dumb” is the hooky and melodic hit single, and “Traveling Time” is the feel-good alt-rock piece that could also fit well on Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” right after “Jesus, Etc.” We’ll call it Tweedy-core.

#5 – Kvelertak – Splid

“Daudingkvit, marinert i sprit

Ein evige runddans, trå over lik

Gå i krig i rein eufori

Heller dø i blod enn å leva i drit”

I don’t have a clue what it means, but the chorus to “Tevling” is so full of raw metal angst and Norwegian darkness that begs you raise your horns north to the Vinterlands. The epicness of this album is summed up in the vision of myself standing high above a Norweigian fjord Cusack-style with a boombox blasting as Thor himself accompanies me with blast beats on a drumkit with Mjolnir as his sticks. Punk rockers will love the Turbonegro-esque cocky strut backed by snarling metal riffs and lyrics which you won’t understand because “MERICUH!” Other standout tracks include “Bråtebrann”, “Necrosoft” and “Stevnemøte med Satan”, which presumably has something to do with the devil, as all good metal records should. Oh, and there’s even a song in English (for all you boot-lickers) called “Crack of Doom” featuring Troy Sanders of Mastodon. But listen to that one only if you’re into American exceptionalism.  

#4 – Shades Apart – Eternal Echo

Seeing Things is one of my favorite punk/hardcore records ever, so I was excited to get my hands on this new Shades banger, which is their first studio release in almost twenty years, on NJ’s coolest younger label, HellMinded Records. This whole album takes me back to the Revelation years, with great melodies and hard riffing on “So What Now”, “95” and “Thread”. “Teach Me How To Live” is that power-pop punk ballad only Shades Apart delivers, and it’s straight-up fire ready for primetime! Proud to have these guys involved on upcoming tracks for Jersey Interchange – look for those songs in the very near future!

#3- Elder – Omens

I pre-ordered the vinyl for this record as soon as I got the email from Armageddon Shop way before all this COVID business. I’ve been a huge fan of Elder for about five years now, and with every record, they’ve progressed into a new sound territory, to my delight. If you like groovy, yet face-melting, yet reflective, yet psychedelic, yet doomy and depressive jams that average somewhere around 11 minutes long, then Omens is your jam. When the band released the single “Embers”, the most common criticism I saw on message boards was “WTF! They’ve gone emo!” To this, I smiled and enjoyed the greatness that I was listening to. This Elder album is definitely a divisive step forward for Nick DiSalvo & Co., but packed still with the same proggy-stoner metal that hooked me in the first place. “In Procession” has a soothing prog interlude that builds much like “Dead Roots Stirring” does and kicks you in the teeth once it comes back for the final two minutes. Fuck what the haters say on the internet, Elder reigns supreme.

#2 – Be Well – The Weight & The Cost

This is seemingly on everyone’s Top 10, so there’s not much else I can say about this amazing feat of an album. Wasn’t much of a fan of Battery back in the day, but definitely dug Brian McTernan’s producing work on awesome records for Cave In, Snapcase, and The Loved Ones, as well as the aforementioned Nightmares Of The West by Strike Anywhere – so I didn’t know what to expect from this. Fuckin’ A man, it’s so raw and honest. Hot take: that song “Confessional” is possibly the best song of the 21st century. Sorry, Adele. 

#1 – Pallbearer – Forgotten Days

Pallbearer is the current best doom metal band in the world right now, if you didn’t know. So now that you know that, take what you thought you knew about doom metal and throw it away. This band transcends genres and continues to blaze a path into heavy music history with this monolithic work. Brett Campbell’s somber yet melodic vocals hover in the ether over Devin Holt and Joe Rowland’s crushing riffage and Mark Lierly’s trudging beats, as we wind up taken somewhere into our unconscious that resembles the gates of Mordor with pig balloons flying above and Matt Pike and Tony Iommi riding in to save the day on a Vespa. I can’t say enough about this band. All the songs are my favorites, but if I had to choose one to be my dark lord and savior, it would have to be “Riverbed”. So, yeah. That one.

Honorable Mentions

Teenage Halloween – S/T

Katatonia – City Burials

Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny

The Suicide Machines – Revolution Spring