#10 DOLLHOUSE I Hate You Dont Leave Me
NYC punks DOLLHOUSE have returned with their second EP I Hate You Don’t Leave Me, out on Toxic State Records. Featuring four tracks that are catchy as hell and painfully introspective, each song is filled to the brim with attitude, hooks, and a grimy deathrock veneer. Opener “Be Nice To Me (Pt II)” and the self-titled second track are both instant earworms, while the latter two go in a spikier direction, making for a well-rounded listen that demands a second spin. If you were a fan of their first EP, it’s time to fall in love with DOLLHOUSE all over again.
Written by ERIC.
#9 LAZER BULLET SPIRIT SUCK SHIT
Do you like your punk fast and filthy? Then hit play on our video premiere from LAZER BULLET for their track “Demon Semen”! It’s a hot, wet geyser of punk rock rage that will drown you in vicious vocals, furious riffs, and drums of wrath! It’s off their SPIRIT SUCK SHIT EP and it showcases a band that couldn’t give less fucks if they tried.
#8 THE LOSERS Land of Opportunity
You know that feeling you get from some punk music where you’re just like, fuck the world, don’t ask me for shit! Well that’s exactly how I felt the second I hit play on THE LOSERS record Land of Opportunity! Something about this record transports me back to a Goldenvoice show at the Olympic Auditorium (but also I would have been a toddler so this is just my imagination), but also speaks to my adult sense of being tired of weaponized incompetence and the internet-induced victim mentality of today. Like let’s all just put on our big girl pants and take care of changing the shit we don’t like in our lives, but also be ready to lose ourselves in the pit at a THE LOSERS show while their unhinged melodies and rabid percussion help us get our frustration out.
#7 THE CHISEL What A Fucking Nightmare
I love this THE CHISEL record What A Fucking Nightmare!! Any record that has me chanting “Fuck em, Fuck em, Fuck em, Fuck em, Fuck em!” is a fucking winner in my books. Addictive rocking riffs and rallying vocals and drums that are pounding my skull! This is a record that makes it really hard for me to sit at a laptop typing about how greta it sounds because I’d rather be jumping around my living room swinging my fists and singing along with their gang gang hooks! This one from “Lying Little Rat (Propaganda)” especially resonates:
TELL ME WHAT TO THINK WITH NO EXPLANATION
WHO DO I LOVE? WHO DO I HATE?
The older I get the more the psy ops stand out to me and especially in recent years I’ve seen how little people really want to think for themselves, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum. So listen to THE CHISEL and think your own thoughts and if anyone has anything to say about them, Fuck Em!!!!
#6 Pura Manía Extraños Casos De La Vida Real
After the watershed year that was 2023, 2024 is already shaping up to be another great year for good punk records. Less than a month in and we’ve already received a handful of contenders for best of the year, with Extraños Casos De La Vida Real by Vancouver/Mexico City’s PURA MANIA being my favorite so far. On their first release since 2017s “Cerebros Punk,” Pura Mania tear it up, channeling the energy and eccentricity of late 70’s west coast punk (included here is an excellent Spanish cover of the criminally underrated and under-recorded Screamers song “122 Hours of Fear”) and fusing it with Blitz-style guitar work, leaning into it hard on second track “El Mundo Al Reves.” A three way split release by Discos Peligrosos (Japan), Roachleg Records (NYC) and CV Recs (Mexico), expect to see this one on some best of year end lists.
Written by ERIC.
#5 CHUBBY AND THE GANG And Then There Was...
The time is always right for a new CHUBBY AND THE GANG record! We’ve been waiting since we gave The Mutts Nuts #1 in 2021, and now we’re stoked to have And Then There Was… via Flatspot Records. Right off the bat, Chubby is taking no prisoners with razor-sharp riffs aimed at any posh ponce in the pub! I’m not British but I’m trying to get into the UK street punk spirit, so bear with me. This is the kind of music that makes me want to dance until I’ve destroyed everything around me! And Then There Was… is the devilish offspring of ’77 punk and 50’s rock n’ roll that somehow feels wholesome but also like it wants to punch me in the face.
I want all my friends to memorize this album so we can sing along to it together. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be “Anticop” because I love the sentiment and I can also belt out the “wooh oh ohhhh, la la la lala!” But the opener, “Neither The Day, Nor The Hour,” also rules and as soon as the wild riffs and thrashing percussion smashed in my eardrums I was instantly hooked on this record. “Company I Want to Keep” has a sick organ intro and IDGAF attitude that’s addictive, and “Since You Said Goodbye” shows a more melodic side to the band and it’s probably my favorite sing-along song on the record with its The Boss vibes. But those are just highlights, the whole record is awesome.
#4 Traumatizer S/T
From the stellar Vancouver-based Neon Taste, the label that brought you scorchers from BOOTLICKER, HEADCHEESE, and COTÄRD comes TRAUMATIZER’s self-titled debut. Hailing from Haarlem in the Netherlands, TRAUMATIZER are sure to make a splash with their gnarly, blown-out take on the style which features some of the coolest vocals I’ve heard in a minute. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned bands, you’re in for a treat here.
Written by ERIC.
#3 S.O.H. Cost To Live
WTF Intense Urgent Stellar Gnarly AF Raging In Your Face Chaotic and Melodic AF are some of the words that come to my mind as I blast L.A.’s S.O.H. This punk band is next-level rad and I I’m a fan of all of their songs, Real Talk. I know for a fact they would have killed it in the SoCal 80’s punks scene. That’s why it’s not hard for me to imagine them sharing the bill with the Stains, Tex and Horseheads, Sin 34, and Circle One. They don’t write songs, they create punk anthems that jump into your reality in 3D only to take over your mind with underground bliss! Their soon-to-be-released album Cost to Live is coming out via Break the Records (Japan), Shitkicker Records, and NO NORMS Records is going to set the underground on FIRE. S.O.H.’s vocalist brings their A-Game on every track and the band can play the fuck out of their instruments! This is a band that should be heard by all because they are that fucking AWESOME!
#2 WHITE COLLAR S/T
“You’re such a good one, who’s it really for?” I didn’t know I needed WHITE COLLAR’s song “Compassion Fatigue” in my life until I heard these lines screamed down my ear canals with ferocity and irony! And literally every song on their self-titled record that eviscerates the new wave of virtue signalling that’s been dominating the internet for the last several years with self-righteous, home-baked, empathic, gentrifying, petitioning, lecturing snapshots of a better curated existence. It’s a raging punk weapon aimed at the throats of our progressive egos and it’s exactly what the culture needs right now! I’m laughing and headbanging at the same time and I’m also wondering if this record might be too punk for the punks who don’t want to self-reflect…lol who gives a fuck! I love this fucking record.
#1 FENTANYL S/T
San Fransisco’s FENTANYL have been turning heads and making a splash in the hardcore punk scene for years now thanks to their loud band name and louder guitar tones. Today they drop their highly anticipated self-titled debut LP on Convulse Records and it’s just as angry fast and loud as you’d expect. We spoke with vocalist and songwriter Kenny Turner about the bands sound, their upcoming tour, and why being mad at a punk band’s name is some soft shit. Read the full interview HERE.
Written by ERIC.
