We’ve all survived another January ripe with unfulfilled resolutions and horrifyingly sober weekends during semi-successful attempts at making the month ‘dry.’ Now it’s February. Winter is halfway over and you can drink to your heart’s content while enjoying gradually increasing sunlight and undoing all the progress you’ve made the month prior. Before you get too excited, though, please consider that you will also need to start thinking about your spring playlists. Your current roster is just full discographies of bands that broke up during the W. Bush administration. To say it’s depressing would be the understatement of the new year. It’s time to live in the now and we’re here to help. Here are six new jams and a couple of well-aged classics to make your backyard DJ session a mild success.
Dehd “Mood Ring”
Whether you love or hate Chicago’s Dehd – and if you hate them please quit reading this publication immediately – they are one of the most exciting groups to emerge from the indie realm in quite some time. Combining simplistic new wave aesthetic with catchy and endearing lyricism, the trio has shown no signs of slowing their roll since their self-titled debut dropped in 2016. Now they have returned with the new single ‘Mood Ring’ from their forthcoming LP ‘Poetry.’ If the first offering is any indication, we’re set for another classic album from a trio that absolutely can’t miss.
Paramore “Burning Down the House”
A couple of months ago, Paramore canceled a bunch of festival appearances and wiped their digital footprint from the internet. The rumor mill almost immediately started churning speculation of a breakup in the works. We’re not being hyperbolic when we say that moment sent our offices into a full-blown panic with many writers who are still living the in Myspace era proclaiming they would never listen to music again. Thankfully we no longer have to imagine a world in which Paramore ceases to exist, as their rumored cover of the Talking Heads’ classic ‘Burning Down the House’ has finally been released in full to the world.
Militarie Gun “Whoops I OD’d” (NOFX cover)
Seemingly not content with releasing one of favorite albums of 2023 – the highest peak any band can hope to achieve – Militarie Gun have mustered up the gall to release a stripped-down EP featuring mellowed versions of selected tracks from their excellent ‘Life Under the Gun.’ The EP, entitled ‘Life Under The Sun,’ showcases the core songwriting abilities that hide under the band’s intensity. To sweeten the pot, they’ve also included a cover of NOFX’s ‘Whoops I OD’d,’ which should serve as a cautionary tale when your Dry January starts to turn into your Fried February.
Dana “Time Suck(s)”
The aliens have landed and the future is here. DANA are both the path forward and the extraterrestrials beaming a theremin-infused transmission right through your skull. Following two majestically chaotic full-lengths, the quartet has returned with an excellent – albeit disorienting – new single entitled ‘Time Suck(s).’ It’s a track that transcends both space and time as it frantically bounces between all out sonic destruction and blissful groove. Though the run-time is just under four minutes, you’re sure to feel like you’ve traveled through several dimensions by the time the final mangled note rings out.
The Dismemberment Plan “Unrequited” (Circus Lupus cover)
It’s apparently covers season, and we certainly aren’t complaining when the bounty is this epic. The Dismemberment Plan just released a cover of Circus Lupus’ classic ‘Unrequited’ for the upcoming For Love Of Records compilation ‘Yesterday and Today: DC Does Dischord,’ a tribute record honoring the Dischord roster. The track – which is incredible, by the by – marks the first new music the band has released since 2013’s reunion album ‘Uncanney Valley,’ and if our wildest dreams somehow come true, it won’t be the last.
Yesterday & Today: DC Does Dischord by The Dismemberment Plan
Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties “Paying Bills At The End Of The World”
When Dan Campbell isn’t fronting the Wonder Years, he’s moonlighting as the rough and tumble Aaron West – the fearless leader of the Americana infused Roaring Twenties. The meticulously layered and crafted project of Campbell is currently preparing to release their new album ‘In Lieu of Flowers.’ The album continues the fictional Aaron West’s harrowing story right where it left off on 2019’s ‘Routine Maintenance,’ with Campbell promising a new chapter in the character’s so-far devastating life. The latest single ‘Paying Bills At The End Of The World’ is described by Campbell as a ‘blue-collar ballad,’ and is absolutely oozing with the alt-country vibes we’ve come to expect from this project.
Green Day “Burnout”
Somehow, someway, 1994 was 30 years ago despite your saddest uncle’s constant declarations of it feeling like ‘yesterday, man.’ This means that Green Day’s breakthrough and genre-defining record ‘Dookie’ is old enough to finally be disillusioned with life and all of its unfulfilled promises. That’s right, the trio’s seminal record just crossed into its third decade of existence late last week, and still somehow sounds as fresh today as it did in its infancy. Give it a spin and try to feel young again. It might not work forever, but for thirty minutes you might forget about your increasing joint point enough to slam dance in your living room.
The Walkmen “The Rat”
Speaking of milestone anniversaries, the Walkmen’s sophomore and arguably most popular album ‘Bows + Arrows’ celebrated its 20th spin around the sun on Friday. You might remember it most fondly for its inclusion of ‘The Rat,’ or better known to you, that song your college roommate played repeatedly after several dramatic breakups. Be sure to give it a spin and be reminded of the days when you had little to no money, were always hungover, and had an inflated sense of how popular you were when you bar hopped.
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First of all, how badass is it that Elliott’s debut studio full-length album “U.S. Songs” has an instrumental song called “Intro,” AND it’s track two on the actual record? Whoa! That’s really heady. Anyway, the band’s sophomore LP “False Cathedrals” gets way more flowers than its predecessor, but without “U.S. Songs” there would be no false cathedrals, true synagogues, calvary songs, or Australian Vegemite Silverchair cover melodies. Louisville, Kentucky is more known for whiskey than emo, but hopefully more emo awareness can change that ever so slightly in Elliott’s emotional favor even though Bourbon is pretty good and tasty even if it isn’t either. Sadly the band split up approximately five years after “U.S. Songs” came out, but happily the band reformed in 2022, and played Birmingham, Alabama’s Furnace Fest that year with acts like Sunny Day Real Estate, Stretch Arm Strong, Poison The Well, and Nancy Sinatra.
What the hell, world? Why does Seattle, Washington’s Engine Kid have only 572 monthly listeners on Spotify as of press time, AND why doesn’t the band have a freaking Wikipedia page, for Christ’s sake? These two stats prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the band is the most underrated of the batch here, and we have you to blame! Yes, you. Want to fix this? Get each of your two friends to listen to “Angel Wings” and tell them to tell their two other friends to do the same. Math is fun. Engine Kid might be one of the harder to define acts here, but their hybrid multigenre sound truly needs your ears, hearts, time, and special goodness. We blame 1995’s incredible hard rock year with acts like Rancid, The Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, and KC and The Sunshine Band for stealing EK’s thunder.
Orange County, California’s melodic hardcore masterminds known as Farside, and not Far (who also kick a ton of ass but weren’t on Revelation Records) formed in 1989, and previously included Rage Against The Machine’s Zach de la Rocha like the aforementioned Inside Out from 1990-1991, just not on vocals, so they’re included here. The band released several EPs, LPs, and even a compilation before their swan song “The Monroe Doctrine,” and said LP closed out the ’90s in style. Fans of non-RR bands Seaweed, Lifetime, Samiam, and early-Debbie Gibson before she sold out will LOVE this record and its predecessors and so will you. The band split up in the year of our lord known as 2000, and we don’t foresee any reunion dates unless Riot Fest ponies up with a large Zelle deposit; there’s a light on in Chicago, so come now. We hope you’re happy.
Not only is New York, New York’s Judge’s “Bringin’ It Down” the band’s hippest album title with the apostrophe to prove it, it is also the oldest LP referenced here with a late-1980s release date. In addition, the band is also easily the heaviest mentioned. But not in terms of mass, and proved said girth by being openly/militantly straight edge. Such ethos may turn off many a la Minor Threat, but we’re just happy that the band has such strong and literally sobering convictions; you can tell the band that they make no difference but at least they were (expletive deleted) trying. Even the band’s logo, their clobberin’ time “X” that rivals Burger King’s golden arches, is intimidating. The band released one more EP, “There Will Be Quiet…,” via Revelation Records before breaking up in 1991, the year that grunge infected the world, but reunited twenty-two years later.
One of two releases listed here from the 2000s, Long Island, New York’s The Movielife has had their fair share of drama through the years, but with a statement like the nearly thirty minute sophomore one-off full-length studio album “This Time Next Year” for Revelation Records, does it matter? We. Think. Not. The band eventually signed to Drive-Thru Records and rode their storm shortly afterwards with a sick EP and even sicker album, but surprisingly is forever underrated with both fans and mainstream appeal, and certainly got far less love than DTR superstars New Found Glory, The Starting Line, Hellogoodbye, and The Pointer Sisters. Despite what you may think, we don’t hope that you die soon, we do wish that you weren’t ten seconds or more too late, and that you donated more of your precious time to this band’s DSPs and upped their streams/sales.
Another underrated Long Island band that never got mainstream adoration, easily even more so than the aforementioned The Movielife, is forever marred with tragedy in every sense of the word with the way-too-soon loss of vocalist/guitarist Jason Rosenthal just ten years after the release of the newest Revelation Records entry here, “Sirens.” Sadly the band hung their hats just one year after “Sirens” was released, and came back for random shows here/there until Rosenthal passed away. Happily the band reunited late last year with Rachel Rubino of Bridge & Tunnel (a fun Long Island reference) on vocals. Hopefully they will record new music together, but at least we’ll always have “Sirens.” If you have the chance, and we know that you do, check out the remastered version of this LP which also came out in 2023, twenty years after its initial release.
Southern California’s Sense Field’s perfect album “Building” has the distinction of being our favorite LP here, which combined with six dollars and fifty cents can buy you a cup of coffee in Los Angeles, but like On the Might of Princes, forever has a sad asterisk attached to their legacy with the death of vocalist Jon Bunch twenty years after its release. In the light of things, a solid post-hardcore blueprint for kids of all ages, “Building” succeeded at making both sensitivity rock hard and rock more endearingly sensitive. The band would have a minor hit with “Save Yourself” from their non-RR Nettwerk Records 2001 record “Tonight and Forever,” but tragically Bunch’s demons didn’t work in saving himself; perfect dream outlives the man. If you had a chance to go to one of the benefit shows for Bunch’s son Jack, you who witnessed some insane vocal features.
Most certainly one of the better and more underrated punk rock records of the ’90s, Shades Apart’s “Seeing Things” unknowingly overcame their blatant DSP in its album title typo years later with their second Revelation Records LP release. Shades Apart often doesn’t get discussed with the same reverence as others in the oversaturated and many times meh genre, and we’re here to change it for you and everyone that you know. An effective power trio from extremely ineffective New Jersey, SA rode under the radar but did so in a noteworthy fashion, and eventually won the suits over at Universal Records. We’ll never know what could have and would have happened had “Seeing Things” been a major label release, but that’s what makes horse racing. Also, track two, “Fearless,” is a standout song from the already standout aforementioned “In-Flight Program: Revelation Records Collection ‘97” label compilation.
New York, New York’s Texas Is The Reason as an entity and their literal lone full-length studio effort, “Do You Know Who You Are?” which is potentially named after the last words that John Lennon heard after being viciously executed by Mark David Chapman, both may not be underrated to you, the extremely educated and always objectively and subjectively correct reader with impeccable taste, but if you ask an average pedestrian if they’ve heard of this band, you’ll likely hear crickets or some derivative low hanging fruit joke about San Antonio or El Paso. Sadly Texas Is The Reason imploded shortly after they started, and we know that if they stuck around despite internal conflicts, they would’ve had at least 1996 more songs by now, and may have been spoken in the same sentence in terms of impact as peers Jimmy Eat World.
Let’s end this piece with a more than welcome female spin in a typically overly male dominated rock genre: Southern California’s Whirlpool, formed as a rock and roll side project from the previously mentioned Sense Field’s Rodney Sellars, is easily the second most underappreciated band listed here next to Engine Kid, and “Liquid Glass,” the band’s second and final full-length, has cool cover art and even radder songs. Anyway, how this act didn’t rise to the fellow femme heights of contemporaries The Breeders, that dog., The Juliana Hatfield Three, and Robert Johnson is a question that we will forever ask ourselves. Please don’t confuse the band for Chicago, Illinois’ Whirlpool, a jazz trio that is cool in their own right, but way less post-hardcore, pre-hardcore, or nardcore. Trouble!
Nobody knows how to make a scene quite like Mr. Scarface himself, Tony Montana. So whether you’re watching your empire crumble from behind an absurdly large mountain of coke, or just watching your dreams slip away from behind a moderately sized mountain of Kraft Mac and Cheese, yelling this line will help folks remember that all you have in this world are your balls and your word! And that word is “Help!”
Watching a coworker have a breakdown at work? Witnessing a family member drink themself to death? Just see footage of an international atrocity? Let everyone around know that you’re also not doing great by pointing to whatever awful thing just happened and reciting the classic “When Harry Met Sally” line about orgasms. Inappropriate and concerning!
While half of Jim Carrey’s daring performance gave a nuanced look into the life of what nowadays would be called an incel, everyone mostly remembers his flashy and charismatic lines as The Mask, a violent pervert who was really stoked about the ’90s swing revival. Is your family paying attention yet? Just repeat it over and over, with more desperation. They’ll get the message.
Are you dealing with a mental health crisis akin to a space shuttle disaster? Then blast off into the arms of our broken healthcare system with this classic ’90s film reference to let everyone know that all systems are not go in that little Apollo 13 you call a brain.
Yeah, there’s pretty much no way that won’t sound creepy. Honestly, just the word “delicious” is right on the edge for me. But “deliciously”? Get the fuck outta here. Actually this line from the 2015 horror masterpiece “The Witch” might genuinely be too much. I mean… people will definitely pay attention. But while it was a cult hit, I’m not sure they will get the reference. So you might just end up in jail. Slay!
Sure technically this line from Die Hard is written on a shirt of a dead man and not spoken, but we’ve got a feeling that whoever you say this to will get the message. Or certainly a message. Like the Scarface line, there’s a hint of violence here, mostly due to the part about the machine gun. But don’t worry, because the great thing about a cry for help is that while you might be thought of as a threat to yourself and those around you, at least you will be thought of. And that’s a great start! Yippee ki-yay Mr Falcon indeed!
Have the time of your life by letting your family know you like dancing or something? I don’t know, it’s been years since I saw that movie. Is it the one with Kevin Bacon? No. The “She’s a Maniac” one? No? Shit. Well, whatever. Scream this line and hopefully, someone will care.
We may “live in a cynical world”, but not every cry for help is due to the weight of existence crushing your insides like an existential hydraulic press. Sometimes you’re just trapped in a never-ending, wage-slave capitalist nightmare. So let your boss know they didn’t have you at hello by screaming this beloved “Jerry Maguire” line before quitting and starting your whole self-destructive cycle over again!
Lost that loving feeling? Have you been letting “Iceman” be your wingman a bit too much? Not understanding any of these classic movie references because you do a lot of meth? Let everyone know about your addiction issues by being a real Maverick and quoting this classic “Top Gun” line.
Yeah, quoting any line from “Joker” is in and of itself a cry for help. Honestly, you can just tell people this is your favorite movie, and that might be enough.
