Los Angeles-based punk/alternative label SideOneDummy was founded in 1995, the year that Rancid, Alanis Morissette, The Presidents of the United States of America, Foo Fighters, and GG Allin broke, and has released hundreds of records you are likely a fan of or and others that you’ve yet to discover because you’re truly out of touch and time. We listed ten underrated albums from S1D in alphabetical order that demand your attention and bands like The Gaslight Anthem, MxPx, the now-canceled Anti-Flag, Flogging Molly, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are disqualified from entry simply for being too big. You know we’re right; too bad, so sad. This list is a diverse calculated strategic move to recruit you in our corner but we anticipate comments with inquiries and statements in the comments like, “Why did you leave (x shitty band) off of your list? You suck.”
CLIFFDIVER “Exercise Your Demons” (2022)
Let’s get right to business with the newest studio effort to be mentioned here, CLIFFDIVER’s excellent LP, “Exercise Your Demons”: At just nine tracks and under thirty minutes, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s all-caps punk act CLIFFDIVER successfully rock the listener to exhaustion on their debut album and leave said brilliant human clamoring for more. Opening a record in 2022 with a Skatune Network collaboration is quite a statement, but “New Vegas Bomb” succeeds at satisfying even the most bitter of bitter hearts. Formed in the late 2010s, CLIFFDIVER has hit the ground running for a minute, and even played a set at 2022’s Riot Fest that you likely missed due to waiting in line for overpriced PBR at a bitter kiosk. We all know how the story ends, and we hope that CLIFFDIVER sticks around long past its ending. In closing, find a better closing song title than “IKEA Strikes Back”.
The Dan Band “The Dan Band Live!” (2005)
Hold on, we bet that you didn’t think we’d list a live album and/or cover act here, but we also surmise with every stretch of our being that you’re a doofus. Los Angeles, California’s The Dan Band initially warmed our cold/bitter hearts in the movie film “Old School,” and when we got wind that they were playing a show in LA, we had to go, and boy were we impressed. There are few male fronted cover bands that uniquely put a stamp on female performed pop songs as well as TDB. Sadly Spotify doesn’t have the whole “The Dan Band Live!” record in its original form, but it has nearly twenty-four minutes for you to check out instead of an episode of “Velma.” In a unique flex, Dan Finnerty, frontman for The Dan Band, is the husband of Kathy Najimy from “Sister Act” and “Hocus Pocus!”
Gogol Bordello “Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike” (2005)
If you can list a band more unique and genre-blending than the Lower East Side of Manhattan’s Gogol Bordello, you’re lying through your teeth, but please spout your oh-so-cool deception in the comments. Lead singer Eugene Hutz turned heads in “Everything Is Illuminated,” but moved bodies with the Bordello. Like The Dan Band above, Gogol kills it in recordings, but slays many more at each of their live shows. Don’t believe me? YouTube a show right now! Still not sold and more into “quality” recordings? Watch their video for “Start Wearing Purple” and try not to get energized/rock out. The most pedestrian way to describe GB is to imagine if Borat Margaret Sagdiyev sang for an aggressive folk punk act. A much better metaphorical way is to imagine sweat was combined with grit, strings, accordions, and a plethora of percussion.
Jeff Rosenstock “WORRY.” (2016)
Before the indie G-d (intentionally hyphenated) not named Matt Cardona, Long Island’s pride and joy rock and roller, Jeff Rosenstock, started his kickass and prolific solo career, he also moonlit in The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry! While both acts are amazing, Mr. Rosenstock’s second solo effort “WORRY.” is a punk/indie masterpiece that trumps all, and just hits all of the right notes. Even though we still wish that this record was one long track a la NOFX’s single “The Decline,” it still rules, and beggars shouldn’t be choosers. Also, at just under thirty-eight minutes across seventeen, YES, seventeen, songs, the album isn’t too much of an investment of your time, AND more than half of its tracks are under two minutes. We truly worry about you if you don’t enjoy this full-length, and we will hold it against you.
The Lees of Memory “Sisyphus Says” (2014)
If you wished that the glorious, glorious four-piece known as Superdrag listened to a hell of a lot more shoegaze and even more My Bloody Valentine, then The Lees of Memory’s LP “Sisyphus Says” is right up your alley and then some. Featuring two members of, you guessed it, Superdrag, and the drummer for Epic Ditch, which also featured Superdrag frontman John Davis, The Lees of Memory fuzz and buzz through eleven tracks of grandeur that will even please the most hipstery of hipster hipsters by more than a landslide. Open your arms, hearts, stars, and seas to this gem of a record, which may be the most underrated/underappreciated effort in this sterling piece, and possibly the entire history of SideOneDummy.
Microwave “Much Love” (2016)
Grunge may have died a cold-hearted death in the mid-’90s but Atlanta, Georgia’s Microwave’s blend of pop rock resurrected said genre in some form in 2016, for sure! Featuring a throwback-esque surprisingly happy photo album cover, the band showcased personality and spunk over the course of its ten all killer no filler tracks with one word titles that all lean unsurprisingly negative. Much love to you if you bumped this in the mid-2010s and even more so if you do it now! In addition, SO many of your favorite bands have shown, err, love to the band in support slots like Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, The Wonder Years, and Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, so the band is officially stamped with the seal of approval by all or none of you. The band’s Pure Noise Records follow-up “Death is a Warm Blanket” rules as well, leather daddies/mommies.
PUP “The Dream Is Over” (2016)
One of the hardest working bands in rock, and if you need proof, Google their tour history since inception, Toronto, Ontario’s PUP released their breakout LP “The Dream Is Over” to critical acclaim in inferior publications worldwide. Although the band has been on several labels, this effort is their most superior and their prior, PUP’s self-titled debut studio effort is their second best, and was re-released on SideOneDummy in 2014 after initially coming out the year prior on Canadian indie label Royal Mountain Records, former home to White Reaper, Black Angel, Orville Peck, and Orville “Punk AF” Redenbacher. Fun opinion that doubles as a fact, depending upon who is reading: This particular album’s cover is a strong and badass statement. Also, PUP is a better name than Topanga, even if her “Boy Meets World” character is a saint.
Rozwell Kid “Precious Art” (2017)
You may have caught this underrated band, Rozwell Kid, on tour with the aforementioned PUP, or you might have discovered them because of their song with the best title ever, “UHF On DVD.” Regardless of which two of those sterling ways, or a completely different one altogether, brought Martinsburg, West Virginia’s smart grungy power pop band Rozwell Kid into your minds and hearts, one can easily say that the four-piece is WV’s best band, and your older brother Samuel’s favorite. Art can be precious for anyone with eyes, but for Rozwell Kid, Wendy’s, their trash cans, their videos on cold drinks, and, of course, their Frosty Dairy Desserts showcase an exquisite outlook/attitude/lot on life/musical effort. As of press time, it’s been six years since this, their latest full-length studio album, so we are pining for more with bated breath and MadTV YouTube clips featuring Alex “Lois Griffin” Borstein.
The Smooths “No Brakes” (1998)
We here unironically love our third wave ska like a milkshake, and if you’re lactose intolerant, a Tofutti “ice cream” bar, and Baltimore, Maryland’s The Smooths executed a very solid take on the genre seemingly effortlessly, but never actually rose to the lofty heights of peers in the previously mentioned ska-punk juggernaut acts The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, and two-tone superstars Cradle of Filth. This is the only ’90s release here, and thus is the oldest mentioned, but sadly the band split last century, shortly after this, their second particular LP, hit stores, unintentionally making this album title turn from its original name “No Brakes” into “Long Break.” Take a look, ladies and gentlemen, like we said about Rozwell Kid above, we long for big decisions like making at least one more, so our hearts can return to the smooth dragon. Look out!
Title Fight “Floral Green” (2012)
Formed in 2003, Kingston, Pennsylvania’s Title Fight, took their sweet time to make their debut LP “Shed” eight years later, which is the combined amount of time a smart doctor takes to go through undergrad and med school, and released their polarizing sophomore full-length studio effort “Floral Green.” : YouTube says “This video may be inappropriate for some viewers” and the conglomerate is right, but it could have said what “South Park” said as well in that “The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.” Watch at your own risk, especially around small and/or dumb children. Although the band alienated some and impressed many with their shoegaze dream pop ANTI- Records follow-up “Hyperview,” “Floral Green” remains their most superior release. Fun closing fact: Will Yip killed it here/captured the band’s raw sound expertly.