In Defense of the Genre is a column on BrooklynVegan about punk, pop punk, emo, hardcore, post-hardcore, ska-punk, and more, including and often especially the bands and albums and subgenres that weren’t always taken so seriously.
July was another great month for music in the punk world, and because we hit the halfway point of 2024 early in the month, we also took the time to make some punk-themed midyear lists. Here are those lists and few other recent features, followed by 10 songs not to miss from July:
* 10 Best Punk & Hardcore Albums of 2024 So Far
* 10 Best Emo & Post-Hardcore Albums of 2024 So Far
* The Get Up Kids talk Something To Write Home About at 25 on the BV podcast
* Taylor Madison talks new Webbed Wing LP, Superheaven‘s resurgence & future, and more
* Have Heart triumphantly returned to NY, brought current hardcore heroes Speed & more
* blink-182 brought every era, dumb jokes, and choked-up emotions to Citi Field
* Macseal on 10 things that influenced Permanent Repeat
* Annabel on 9 albums that influenced Worldviews
* July album reviews: State Faults, Respire, Speed, Omnigone, Macseal, toe, Doubt, bacchae, Blind Girls, Webbed Wing (Superheaven), and Los Campesinos!.
We’ve also got some new exclusive vinyl in the BV shop, including a violet/silver variant of The Get Up Kids’ 25th anniversary edition of Something To Write Home About, a neon violet variant of the new Drug Church album, a new Have Heart reissue, a Movements reissue, an etched white 12″ of the new Thursday single, the upcoming Destroy Boys LP (red & gold), The Number 12 Looks Like You’s Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear. (opaque mix cream), the new Speed LP (quad black & white), the new Gel EP (violet), the new SeeYouSpaceCowboy LP (neon pink), the upcoming Story So Far LP (orange crush & black butterfly), the new Carpool LP (clear), and more. If you haven’t done so yet, you can also pick up our exclusive Alexisonfire box set, reissues & magazine and our Glassjaw box set & book.
Head below for my picks of the 10 best songs of July that fall somewhere under the punk umbrella, in no particular order.
Japandroids – “Chicago”
Nothing but respect to Japandroids for getting a little more musically ambitious on 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life, an album that was merely very good rather than a heart-racing adrenaline rush, but “Chicago” is the Japandroids we know and love. It’s the first single off Fate & Alcohol, which Japandroids are saying will be their final album, and for a band who famously approached their first album assuming it would be their last, it’s only right that this is a return to form. It’s a raw, no-frills, explosive Japandroids song, and when Brian King belts “Goddamn, ma’am, I’m sweating through my shirt!” you can just about feel the equally-sweaty crowd yelling it back in his face. To get way too earnest for a second (this is a Japandroids track review, after all), I’ll never forget the rush of joy I felt when I first heard Celebration Rock‘s lead single “The House That Heaven Built” and then proceeded to sit at my desk and play it on repeat, and that same feeling came back to me the day “Chicago” first landed in my inbox.
Touché Amoré – “Nobody’s”
It’s been over a decade since Touché Amoré wrote an album about struggling to write the album, and since then, they’ve released two of their most beloved records and remained on a steady, upwards trajectory. At this point, they’re true lifers of post-hardcore, and the first taste of album six finds them sounding as urgent as ever. Existing in a similar orbit as the more melodic Lament songs like “Reminders” and “Limelight,” “Nobody’s” is pretty much Touché Amoré’s version of a pop song. It’s a concise two minutes and 15 seconds, and it’s one of the brightest, punchiest, catchiest songs in the band’s catalog. Jeremy Bolm tones down his usual scream in favor of a gravelly-yet-tuneful shout, and he still sounds like no one else in the world.
Noun – “Wanted”
This past December brought the unexpected news that Screaming Females broke up after 18 years as one of the busiest, hardest-working, DIY rock bands in the game, and after releasing one of the most fiery records of their career with Desire Pathway. I miss them a lot, but fortunately, Marissa Paternoster has found a new way to keep her rock-god flames dancing. She’s turned her long-running solo project Noun into a duo with drummer/multi-instrumentalist Phillip Price (of Kayo Dot and Moor Jewelry), and their new two-song single is some of the heaviest music Marissa has ever released. It’s not totally out of left field or anything–Screaming Females have toured with metal bands, Philip also has a metal background, and Marissa’s shredding and riffage has flirted with metal plenty of times, but the full-blown sludge (and little bits of screaming) fueling “Wanted” feels like thrilling new territory.
Militarie Gun – “Thought You Were Waving”
With the hardcore-to-alt-rock pipeline that Militarie Gun followed with their 2023 LP Life Under the Gun, parallels were easily drawn to Hüsker Dü, who MG also covered a bunch of times on tour. But with “Thought You Were Waiving,” it looks like Militarie Gun might be jumping straight to their Copper Blue. It’s a chunky, power-poppy alt-rock anthem that’s closer to Weezer than hardcore, and Militarie Gun are increasingly good at this kinda thing. Lots of current bands (too many) imitate the style of ’90s alt-rock bands, but Militarie Gun remember to maintain the hooks, the personality, and the substance.
Drug Church – “Demolition Man”
Moving right along from Militarie Gun to Drug Church (who both share guitarist Nick Cogan), who just announced their fifth album PRUDE. As vocalist Patrick Kindlon puts it, “The goal is to put out good records that sound like we do. We’re not trying to do an OK Computer.” And on “Demolition Man,” mission accomplished. It’s an instant-classic Drug Church banger that you can already tell is gonna sound great next to all the other great Drug Church bangers on their upcoming tour.
We’ve also got an exclusive neon violet vinyl variant of this album up for pre-order in the BV shop.
Public Opinion – “Drawn From Memory”
While we’re in Militarie Gun-related hardcore/alt-rock territory, one more song I’d like to point out is the first single from Public Opinion’s debut album, which was co-produced by Ian Shelton (of Militarie Gun) and Taylor Young (of Twitching Tongues and God’s Hate and producer for tons of bands, including Militarie Gun). This one scratches a very similar itch as those new MG and Drug Church songs without sounding like just another hardcore-goes-alt-rock band. By the looks of it, Public Opinion are continuing to carve out their own lane in this world.
Death Goals – “Knife Bouquet”
UK queercore duo Death Goals made a big leap on last year’s A Garden of Dead Flowers, and they’re already signaling a new era. “‘Knife Bouquet’ is a statement of intent for us as a band and one of the first tracks that came out of post-Garden writing sessions,” the band says, and you can tell that they’re clearly not content to stay in the same place for long. It’s an angular mathcore song with a soaring Deftones-y chorus, and it’s got me very excited to hear where they go next.
Skullpresser – “Positions of Power”
Skullpresser is a new-ish hardcore band with some familiar faces–Mannequin Pussy’s Colins “Bear” Regisford (bass), The Wonder Years’ Mike Kennedy (drums), Burdens members Jared Birdseye (lead vocals) and Dan Zimmerman (guitar), and One Dead Three Wounded‘s Sam Tropio (guitar)–and the title track of their upcoming sophomore EP Positions of Power is one of their most ferocious songs yet. It’s dark, heavy, political hardcore that brings to mind stuff like From Ashes Rise and The Hope Conspiracy, and it’s got a timely message for this election year. ““This song is about the farce of the two party political system in the US,” the band says. “It’s clear both sides are in it for themselves and not the people. Our political leaders and the media purposely sew division to enrich themselves.”
Ogbert the Nerd – “Don’t Quit, Get Fired”
When it comes to scrappy, noodly Midwest-style emo descended from the likes of Braid and Cap’n Jazz, the best bands are the ones with the most energy, and Ogbert the Nerd’s energy levels are through the roof. Their new album What You Want was made in a studio, but I’d believe you if you told me they recorded it in an overcrowded basement with kids stepping on their pedals and knocking over their mic stands. It sounds like what those moments feel like, and it was hard to pick just one song for this list to represent it with, but I was won over from the minute I heard track one so I’ll start there.
Like Roses – “Broken Things (Lie To Me)”
Berkeley, California emo-pop punks Like Roses had a surprise breakthrough last year with their “Easy” and “Splenetic” singles, and we still haven’t gotten word of a full-length album, but we did just get a third new single. It was produced by former Taking Back Sunday guitarist/vocalist and Breaking Pangaea leader Fred Mascherino, and like Fred often did in the TBS days, it finds Like Roses leaning into the poppy, hook-fueled side of emo and putting a darker, heavier spin on it.
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In an effort to cover as many bands as possible, I try to just do one single per album cycle in these monthly roundups, so catch up on previous months’ lists for even more:
For even more new songs, listen below or subscribe to our playlist of punk/emo/hardcore/etc songs of 2024.
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