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.
June is a wrap, summer is here, and the 10th anniversary album celebrations of the peak “emo revival” era are in full swing lately. Citizen did a Youth tour (read my review of NYC) and put out a 10th anniversary edition of the album, and Danielle Chelosky penned a retrospective essay on the album for BV. Also this month, The Hotelier and Foxing announced that they’ll do a joint 10th anniversary tour for Home, Like Noplace Is There and The Albatross, and The Wonder Years announced one for The Greatest Generation.
20th anniversary celebrations have been going strong too; Thrice brought their The Artist In the Ambulance 20th anniversary tour to NYC this past month (read my review), and both The Movielife and The Bled announced some shows for their ’03 records.
And on that note, we also looked back on 10 classic hardcore albums turning 20 this year.
—
As for newer stuff, I highlight some new songs from the punk world that came out in June below, but first, a few more features:
* Militarie Gun made one of 2023’s best rock records by not caring if you think they’re cool
* Wicca Phase talks new LP, Tigers Jaw, Lil Peep & more (podcast)
* Chris Payne discusses his new book on the 2000s emo explosion, Where Are Your Boys Tonight? (podcast)
* Bad Operation talk split EP with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Joe Gittleman & more in new Q&A
* Punk Island 2023 in pictures
June album reviews: Home Is Where, Militarie Gun, Origami Angel, Pupil Slicer, Loma Prieta, Rancid, Buggin, Spy, Sunami, Ostraca, Øjne, Millington, and Clearbody.
We’ve also got some new exclusive punk vinyl the BV shop. We just launched a tri-color variant of one of the year’s best albums, Fireworks’ Higher Lonely Power, and we’ve also got limited color variants of new LPs from Jeff Rosenstock, Fiddlehead, Koyo, Origami Angel, Pain of Truth, Sunami, Restraining Order, and more. Browse our punk section for even more.
Read on for my picks of the best songs of June that fall somewhere under the punk umbrella, in no particular order…
Fiddlehead – “Sullenboy”
Fiddlehead have said that their upcoming album Death Is Nothing To Us completes an unintended thematic trilogy that began with their first two LPs, and judging by lead single “Sullenboy,” this might be their best one yet. I saw them play the song when they opened Citizen’s Youth show, and it immediately felt like one of their established fan faves. As if the “I feel the fear…” chorus isn’t already one of their catchiest refrains yet, the “So face it all…” bridge might hit even harder.
Pick up our exclusive pinwheel vinyl variant of the new album.
Pool Kids – “No Stranger”
Pool Kids’ 2022 self-titled LP remains one of the best emo-pop albums in recent memory, and it turns out those album sessions are the gift that keeps on giving. “No Stranger” is a newly-released outtake from the album and it’s just as good as anything that did make the album. It’s also pretty different than most of the songs on the album; its slow, clean, climactic instrumental could fit on Clarity, and Christine Goodwyne’s soaring delivery is full of tangible emotion and suspense.
Knocked Loose – “Everything Is Quiet Now”
The more Knocked Loose go on, the more they remain in a lane of their own. A new song from Knocked Loose will likely spark the interest of anyone talking about the current hardcore boom, the 2000s-style metalcore revival, or the hardcore/death metal crossover, but Knocked Loose are too unique to fit into any of those trends. On “Everything Is Quiet Now”–one of two new songs they released this past month–they’re as brutally heavy, tuneful, and singular as ever. The back-and-forth between Bryan Garris’ high-pitched hardcore bark and Isaac Hale’s lower death metal growls keeps you on the edge of your seat as the onslaught of breakdowns keeps your body convulsing, and the clear, crisp production only makes Knocked Loose sound even more massive.
Filth Is Eternal – “Crawl Space”
In press materials for their new album Find Out, Seattle’s Filth Is Eternal cite both The Distillers and Cursed as influences, and lead single “Crawl Space” kind of sounds like an exact cross between both of them. Vocalist Lis Di Angelo says it’s “about that small window of time when everything feels like it’s working […] but something still feels off,” and these 91 seconds of fury make a great soundtrack for those moments.
Circuit Circuit – “Deleted Skin”
Nashville chaotic hardcore band Circuit Circuit have been big-upped by The Callous Daoboys, whose vocalist Carson Pace has been hyping them for a while, and who now mastered their upcoming EP Body Songs. The EP also features artwork by Daoboys bassist Jackie Buckalew, and it was mixed by Corey Bautista, who engineered the Daoboys’ debut LP Die On Mars. Its lead single “Deleted Skin” is pure discordant chaos that reminds me at various points of cultishly loved 2000s bands like An Albatross and Circle Takes the Square. They’ve only been around for a bit, but I could easily see this band amassing some cult fandom of their own.
Blind Equation – “Never Getting Better”
Blind Equation is the self-described “emotional cybergrind” project of James McHenry (though, judging by new press photos, it appears to be a trio now), and they’ve signed to Prosthetic Records for their upcoming sophomore LP Death Awaits. Of the signing, James says, “It is absolutely surreal to be releasing a ‘pop cybergrind’ album on the same label that helped grow my taste as a metalhead growing up,” and you can tell from lead single “Never Getting Better” that “pop” is indeed a big element here. The song’s got elements of synthpop, hyperpop, metalcore, digital grind, emo, trap, and more, and it’s as sweet and catchy as it is harsh and antagonizing.
Bent Blue – “Shades of Strength” / Sunstroke – “Salvation”
Two for one songs in this blurb because they’re on the same split 7″, they’re too good to pick one or the other, and they scratch a very similar itch. Bent Blue and Sunstroke are two of the brightest newer voices in emotive melodic hardcore–the type that fans of anything from Revolution Summer to Turning Point to Title Fight to Fiddlehead should feast their ears on–and they both deliver top-teir songs on this split (plus one cover each). “Shades of Strength” and “Nineteen” both have the perfect balance of melody, aggression, and meaning, and they’ve both got me excited to hear more from these bands.
—
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 2023.
—
Browse our selection of hand-picked punk vinyl.
Read past and future editions of ‘In Defense of the Genre’ here.
Check out pics from Punk Island:
