My love for The Dodges is no secret. Their infectious brand of mid-tempo SoCal punk'n'roll is entirely my jam. They've done a wonderful job in nearly perfecting the fist-pumping, sing-along chorus. Throw in a big dash of political outrage and you've got an EP I've listened to like three dozen times since its release. The band has big changes incoming and I hope whatever form they show up in next keeps the intensity and sincerity intact.

It's John Darnielle singing about wizards and dragons and other legends. Do you really need to know anything more? He never disappoints.

Russia has a crazy good melodic punk scene, and Тени Свободы is one of my favorites. They're another band that could've easily found a home in the late 90's EpiFat era. Unfortunately the album isn't on Bandcamp so I can't really get easily-translatable lyrics but they sure as hell sound good. If you're a fan of bands like Guerilla Poubelle, Useless ID, or I Against I you should give these Russians a try.

Nightmarathons are so damn impossible to pigeonhole into a genre that isn't just "good fucking punk rock". At times they'll be blaring through with that fuzzy, wave-of-sound, gang vocal intensity of a band like Iron Chic or Penske File ("Waiting Room", "Comeback", and "Reset"), other times they'll slow it down and sound like Beach Slang if Beach Slang wasn't boring ("Cull Your Heart", "Simple"), then they'll ratchet it back into a straight-up Hot Water Music song ("Honor System"). "Closer" is one of those songs that'd be on a year-end list if I actually made one. Every time it comes on I've gotta stop what I'm doing and shout along with it. Another undeniable hit from A-F Records. They also Facetime'd their cat into their Weakerthans cover set at Fest. So, yeah. Great dudes.

Another band who has been around awhile that I haven't discovered until now, Witching Waves' Persistence is dancy, chaotic, UK post-punk brilliance. The production is appropriately fuzzy, the bass lines thump, the drumming never lets the pace slow, the dual vocals trade back and forth and collide together in fist-pumping sing-alongs. There's a whole hell of a lot to love here if you're a fan of post-punk. (And hopefully everyone is paying attention to ALL the bands Specialist Subject Records puts out... because damn, y'all. They're all excellent.)

This is my first time hearing Bad Luck and it's making me wonder where my head was before their hiatus. They have very strong early 2000's Jimmy Eat World / Taking Back Sunday energy, expertly straddling that line between indie rock and pop punk, with powerful melodic vocals that aren't afraid to hit fever pitch and plenty of hooky choruses that'll have you bopping your head and singing along within a couple of listens. "Wish We Still Talked" and "Impressive Depressive" are killer tracks that I'm pretty sure any band in the genre wishes they would've written first.

I was a big fan of Bear vs Shark and have certainly enjoyed Bars of Gold since BvS disbanded but they never quite clicked with me in the same way as BvS's frenetic post-hardcore did. For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, Shelters changes all of that. It's still not quite BvS, it's still very jazzy and jammy, but the crushing crescendo that every song inevitably reaches never fails to get me out of my chair on my feet to shout along. I really like this album, y'all!

There are very few bands left from this era of melodic hardcore (and for good reason; most of them are poop) but I couldn't be happier that Silverstein continues to be the torchbearers for the genre. I have a major soft spot for bands re-recording their old music and with how much Shane Told's vocals have improved over the life of the band, it's a hell of a treat to hear all of these seminal tracks with a fresh coat of paint. I know a lot of bands try to get really twisty (Face to Face) or go acoustic (Bayside) or something else when they get all retrospective, and I don't hate it by any stretch, but I'm completely happy with Silverstein just doing the same shit but way better (well, okay, one acoustic song). And they put this whole thing together on their own without any labels or anything! Just a pure labor of love. Hell yeah.

(They don't allow Bandcamp embeds for some reason but you can find it on Bandcamp here!)

I didn't review any albums last year, but if I had, Thrice's LP Palms would've been near or at the very top of that list. Deeper Wells was an EP intentionally crafted as a companion piece for Palms and it contains all the things that made me fall in love with its big brother. The title track is perhaps the angriest and most aggressive track Thrice has written since Vheissu's "Hold Fast Hope" and contains that raw sociopolitical anger that was has been much more prevalent on their two post-hiatus albums. "A Better Bridge" is a song that easily could have made it onto Major/Minor and let them cut some of the dead weight from that album. "In This Storm" showcases Dustin's talent for crafting sincere and introspective lyrics that anyone could apply to any number of situations in their lives. The closer, "Stumbling West" features everything that Thrice does best by weaving intricate and intense emotional melodies from several seemingly simple pieces. I hope these dudes never stop creating music.

Martha is the perfect summer band: Their music is light, upbeat, catchy, sincere, and flat-out fun. If you're not bopping your head or feet along 15 seconds into the opening track, I'm not quite sure we should be friends??? Perhaps the best track, however, is when they eschew the poppiness for a bit more of a post-punk vibe on "The Void", a song that's full of wonderful vocal harmonies, a fist-pumping chorus, and an outro that will have you jumping out off your couch to dance around shouting demonic metaphors at your cat. If you're into bands like Great Cynics, Muncie Girls, or any kinda melodic indie rock with some punk sensibilities, you should be listening to Martha.

I guess I'm kinda weird in that I could never get into their first LP outside of a few songs, but The Dream Is Over hooked me start to finish and Morbid Stuff certainly continues along those lines. Every song's a glorious anthemic wreck that'll get stuck in your brain after a single spin. I don't think there's a band that plays this frantic, semi-discordant, hook-filled, anxiety-ridden, hardcore-adjacent pop-punk as well as PUP does. Even more impressive are the times where they experiment a bit and really nail it, like "Scorpion Hill" that a has a slow, hymn-like, choir-sung intro and outro, or the pure breakdown-riddled hardcore tune "Full Blown Meltdown", or the closing track "City" that meanders slowly and hauntingly through half its runtime before crescendoing with a blast of post-hardcore.

I find I typically have something halfway interesting to say about almost all of the couple hundred albums I listen to every year. There are so many bands making so many good albums every year that instead of making futile attempt at creating a "best of" list, I’m just gonna talk a little bit about every damn album I like. I'll be using the never tried and absolute untrue Chaotic Neutral sorting method of "the order I actually listened to them". Hooray?

PLEASE SUPPORT MUSICIANS. Every album I can find on Bandcamp will include a Bandcamp embed you can click through to buy the album from the band or label. Please buy music or merch or go to shows and sing along! Without our support, these wonderful musicians can't continue to exist, y'all. Your dozen or two plays on Spotify unfortunately don't mean shit when ends need to meet.

(I know we don't all have the means to do it, so if you like something here and can't afford it, message me and I'll buy it for you! Seriously!)

I was so happy when I first heard Brutus after their first LP dropped a couple years back because they combined two of my favorite genres of music: White Lung and post-hardcore. And as an added bonus, I'm pretty confident none of them are right-wing shills like White Lung's Mish Way, so you can listen guilt-free! Not only that but they feature the most unicorn of all band members: the lead vocalist woman drummer. Hell yeah! How on earth does Stefanie drum like a speeding cheetah while singing haunting melodic vocals? I have no fuckin' clue. She's a damn treasure. Point is: Brutus absolutely shreds. The music is atmospheric and powerful and melodic and I love everything about what they do and how they execute it. Playing Nest along with La Dispute's Panorama back-to-back is a really good recipe for a great winter day. It first dropped in late March when I was out in San Francisco for work and it was cold as hell and it was a perfect album to be able to listen to while walking around in that kind of weather.

I feel bad for not listening to this album as much as I should have when it was released. But on the flip side it's a PERFECT winter album, so the fact that I didn't really dive into it until recently has made it a lot better. La Dispute will always be amazing post-hardcore pioneers no matter what they do. Some of the old aggression is gone, sure, but much like their contemporaries in Thrice, they've replaced it with far more interesting song structures and instrumentations and melodies. The album flows seamlessly from one song to the next and it's really easy to get lost while listening to it, which is a hell of a feat given it's like a million hours long. (Okay, apparently it's only 41 minutes long, but that just shows how easy it is to get lost in it, right?) Really damn good stuff.