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.
May is a wrap, summer is unofficially here, and it’s time to recap the past 31 days of punk. May brought Atlantic City’s new emo/punk-friendly beach festival Adjacent Festival, with blink-182, Paramore, Turnstile, and more, and you can check out pics and my review of the fest here. I’ve also picked a handful of favorite new songs from May that I highlight below, but first, some punk-related features we ran this past month:
* blink-182‘s reunion tour is a beautiful, irreverent thing
* 13 great songs from the current hardcore / alt-rock crossover
* Drain talk new LP Living Proof, Grateful Dead homages & more
* Hot Mulligan break down every track on new LP Why Would I Watch
* Heart Attack Man break down every track on new LP Freak of Nature
* Never Ending Game: one of hardcore’s toughest bands just wanna have fun
* The Dirty Nil discuss influences behind their new LP
* AJJ discuss influences behind their new LP
May album reviews: Hot Mulligan, Drain, Heart Attack Man, Fishbone, Jeromes Dream, Gumm, Death Goals, J. Navarro & the Traitors, Kerosene Heights, Incendiary, Anklebiter, The Acacia Strain, Never Ending Game, and The Bollweevils.
We’ve also got some new exclusive punk vinyl in the BV shop, including the new Koyo LP (tri-color stripe), the new Origami Angel (clear/green), a couple Number 12 Looks Like You color represses, a couple Converge color represses, the new Movements (half black/half custard), Modern Baseball’s Sports (clear/black splatter), Saves The Day’s Can’t Slow Down (tangerine), the 10th anniversary edition of Citizen’s Youth (tri-color), the upcoming Militarie Gun album (pink marble), the new Scowl EP (red/clear/cloudy), and much more.
Read on for my picks of the best songs of May that fall somewhere under the punk umbrella, in no particular order…
Angel Du$t – “Very Aggressive”
You can’t talk about what’s happening in hardcore right now without talking about the impact of the Trapped Under Ice/Turnstile-related Angel Du$t, whose first two records and debut EP helped push modern hardcore in both creative and melodic directions, and whose last two records found Angel Du$t toning down and exploring a lighter jangle pop and classic rock-inspired sound. From afar, it’s almost hard to picture a ballad like “Love Is The Greatest” and a rager like “Toxic Boombox” coming from the same band, but Angel Du$t made it work perfectly when they opened some recent shows by playing those exact two songs back to back. It all makes sense in the Angel Du$t universe, and elements of both of those extremes come together on new single “Very Aggressive,” which sounds like the culmination of everything Angel Du$t have ever done. It captures multiple sides of Angel Du$t at once, and it has me very excited to find out what this band will do next.
Koyo – “You’re On The List (Minus One)”
Koyo once seemed like a way for members of Hangman, Typecaste, Rain of Salvation, and other hardcore bands to explore their love of classic Long Island emo like Silent Majority, The Movielife, and early Taking Back Sunday, but they’ve turned into something that goes far beyond idol worship. The lead single from their upcoming debut album Would You Miss It? is one of their best songs yet; the influence of that same scene and era remains, but Koyo have come up with their own version of it, one that stands tall next to their heroes and sounds incredibly modern in 2023. “You’re On The List (Minus One)” is the kind of song that can transcend the Long Island emo scene today just like so many LI bands did 20 years ago.
Pre-order our exclusive tri-color stripe vinyl variant of Koyo’s new LP.
Jeff Rosenstock – “Liked U Better”
Jeff Rosenstock released “Liked U Better,” his first proper new single since 2020’s beloved No Dream, and it’s such an instant-classic that just one day later he played it at a surprise Brooklyn show at Baby’s All Right and whipped the crowd up into a singalong. (The same thing happened a few days later at Adjacent Fest.)
Gouge Away – “Idealized”
Gouge Away–whose drummer also plays in the aforementioned Angel Du$t–returned with their first single in three years, an atmospheric, melodic song that tones down the band’s hardcore side but still has plenty of aggression and discordance in its own way. It’s a little post-rocky, a little post-hardcore, but really not easy to pin down into any subgenre. And it’s just as impactful as their faster, louder material.
The Chisel – “Cry Your Eyes Out”
Like their Pure Noise labelmates Koyo, The Chisel started out wearing their influences on their sleeves but they’re really starting to transcend that. It feels safe to say that their 2021 debut LP Retaliation is one of the most widely-loved Oi! revival albums in recent memory, but new single “Cry Your Eyes Out” is something bigger and fresher. In addition to the more modern production, it’s fueled by earnest songcraft and it puts substance over style. The Chisel still clearly love classic UK street punk, but they also cite The Replacements, the Ramones, and Leatherface as influences on this song and you can hear all of that coming together. It’s gritty, ragged, and ridiculously catchy.
Origami Angel – “My PG County Summer”
For the past few years, DC duo Origami Angel have been on a creative hot streak that’s included everything from Midwest emo to indie pop to metallic hardcore to bossa nova. With their latest single “My PG County Summer,” they’ve churned out a big, crunchy power pop anthem that finds them singing for the people in the cheap seats. It’s as fun and catchy as Origami Angel get, but with serious subject matter inspired by the hateful protests they’ve grown up around in DC, like a politically conscious Weezer Blue Album.
Pre-order our exclusive clear/green vinyl variant of Origami Angel’s upcoming mixtape.
Record Setter – “Outdated Wallpaper”
There are already six great songs out from Balladeers, Redefined, the 31-band screamo compilation that’s coming out on Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm’s label Secret Voice, and really all of them deserve a spot on this list, but I’ve decided to settle on just one and I’m going with Record Setter’s “Outdated Wallpaper.” 2020’s fantastic I Owe You Nothing found Record Setter emerging as true torch-carriers for the type of impassioned screamo/post-hardcore that bands like Touché Amoré themselves helped bring to prominence a decade earlier, and since then they’ve only released two songs on a split with Home Is Where and now this. Anticipation for a followup album was already high, and this great song only makes it higher. It’s towering, unpredictable, painfully sincere, and really sticks with you.
Spanish Love Songs – “Haunted”
A lot of bands do “heartland punk,” but you rarely hear it like this. The Wonder Years meets The War On Drugs? Leave it to an LA band to come up with the most Philly concoction ever.
Stateside – “Crash Course (Nosedive to Nowhere)”
If you like the Koyo song above and want more where that came from, don’t miss out on Stateside (who are named after a song by Long Island melodic hardcore vets Crime In Stereo). They’ve got an upcoming EP for New Morality Zine/Extinction Burst, and lead single “Crash Course (Nosedive to Nowhere)” will bring you back to the era when Saves The Day and New Found Glory were still in the hardcore scene. (It also features guest vocals from Rachael Braverman of hardcore band Anklebiter.) It’s super catchy emo/pop punk with an aggressive backbone, and it’s a blast to listen to.
Clearbody – “New Essence”
If you’re into the whole emo/shoegaze thing and you haven’t checked out Clearbody yet, change that now. The North Carolina band have been one of the subgenre’s best kept secrets since they dropped off their awesome debut LP One More Day at the tail-end of 2020, and “New Essence” off upcoming EP Bend Into A Blur is yet another gem. It’s got great production (it was recorded, produced, and mixed by frequent Drug Church collaborator Jon Markson and mastered by Will Yip), and the band’s songwriting is as top-notch as ever. They’ve mastered the atmospherics of shoegaze and they also really know how to work in a huge, heavy, catchy chorus. “New Essence” reminds you that you don’t have to settle for one or the other.
Bad Operation – “What Keeps Us Moving”
New Orleans ska band Bad Operation emerged in 2020 with members who had previously played in Fatter Than Albert, The Flaming Tsunamis, PEARS, and more, and their self-titled debut LP became a new benchmark for the genre so quickly that we included it in our list of all-time essential ska albums less than a year later. They’re now back with their first new song since that album, which is off an upcoming split EP with one of Bad Op’s musical heroes, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones/Avoid One Thing’s Joe Gittleman, and it’s another great example of what makes this band so special. It kicks off with the announcement “THIS… IS… NEW… TONE!”, referencing the nickname for the current ska movement that Bad Op themselves coined, and the name of Bad Time Records’ upcoming concert film/documentary, and then it turns into a groovy, soulful ska song that feels timeless and addictive on the first listen.
Pre-order our exclusive white vinyl variant of the Bad Operation/Joe Gittleman split.
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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 2023.
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Browse our selection of hand-picked punk vinyl.
Read past and future editions of ‘In Defense of the Genre’ here.
Check out pics from Adjacent Fest:
