Joyce Manor – Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
Upon hearing the new Joyce Manor release Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired, the first reaction from almost everyone will inevitably be, “That’s it? Where’s the rest of it?” Guaranteed. Every time. It was for me. The “album” clocks in at just a tick over 13 minutes which is almost 6 minutes shorter (Read more…)
Shambles – Shambles EP
I got a tweet from the dudes in Shambles about a week ago pestering me about (probably an email that I deleted) listening to and reviewing their debut EP. Lucky for them (and me, I guess) I actually took the time to listen to 15 seconds of the first song on the EP and liked (Read more…)
The Gooningtons
A few nights ago I was driving around downtown Chicago with Ryan (he was actually driving though) and he said something like, “Have you heard the Gooningtons?” I hadn’t, so he proceed to play Welcome To Goonington Beach! and blow my mind. He also explained verbally what’s documented on this pop punk message board thread. (Read more…)
August Premier – Happy Miserable
With all the high-profile punk reunions of the past few months and years combined with the band’s relative obscurity, it would be easy for most to overlook the reunion of Chicago’s own August Premier. And that, my friends, would be a bad thing. I’m not really sure of the whole story about the reunion, but (Read more…)
The Boogers – Let’s Go! Review & Giveaway
On their website, The Boogers claim to be “the world’s most dangerous kids band.” They don’t play death metal so that might not be 100% accurate, but The Boogers do play some of the finest punk rock for kids I’ve ever heard. The band’s 2nd album Let’s Go! is filled with 13 songs of fast (Read more…)
Pop Punk Junk Vol. 16
Another big blast from the past. My wife originally put “Sappy Song” and a whole bunch of other pop punk songs on a mixtape for me but I have no idea what ever happened to it. I was actually looking through boxes in our garage for it just last week and all I found were (Read more…)
A little band called Boxer
You might not know it but the first band signed by Vagrant Records was Boxer from Boston, Mass. The band’s one and only album, The Hurt Process was produced by none other than Face to Face’s Trever Keith and released by Vagrant on May 5th, 1998. It’s an under-appreciated but masterful slab of post-Lifetime post-hardcore (Read more…)
Kristia Moya & Dead Ringer
Recently I’ve been a little smitten with the music of Kristia Moya. I first heard of her from Kim and well… Kristia fronts the band Dead Ringer, a pop-punk band from New Jersey that doesn’t sound totally dissimilar to Discount. Their 3 song demo (available for free download) is really good and had gotten quite (Read more…)
An incomplete history of Chicago punk rock (vol. 28)
I’m not sure what other “category” to put this post in, so it just sorta haphazardly ends up as part of this series. Just go with it. So on what was the sunny afternoon of December 23, 1997 the three guys in Allister (that’s me on bass, John on guitar, and Tim on drums) went (Read more…)
