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 was a very big month for comeback tour announcements from bands that are pretty beloved around these In Defense of the Genre parts, including The Blood Brothers, Basement, Prawn, and You Blew It! (playing Keep Doing What You’re Doing). It was also a month that we caught some veterans back in action–check out pics of the Orchid reunion and Sunny Day Real Estate playing Diary. On top of all that, it was a great month for new music from underneath the greater punk umbrella, and I picked some new songs in that realm to highlight below (usually I pick 10, but this one goes to 11). But first, some recent features and reviews:
* 15 Best Emo & Post-Hardcore Albums of 2004
* Saosin reflect on 20+ years in new career-spanning BV interview (podcast)
* One Step Closer list their favorite songs they discovered in skate videos
* From Indian Lakes break down new LP Head Void track by track
* Demersal break down new self-titled LP track by track
* Mannequin Pussy & Soul Glo raged at Brooklyn Steel (pics, review)
* May album reviews: Knocked Loose, The Hope Conspiracy, Hot Water Music, Into It. Over It., Usurp Synapse, Demersal, Shellac, and Lip Critic.
We’ve also got new exclusive vinyl in the BV shop, including two splatter variants of the long-awaited reissue of Bad Brains’ I Against I, The Number Twelve 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 11 best songs of May that fall somewhere under the punk umbrella, in no particular order.
RIP Steve Albini.
Balance and Composure – “Cross to Bear”
After pushing their grungy post-hardcore about as far as it could go on 2013’s The Things We Think We’re Missing, Balance and Composure took their music in a more R&B-infused art rock direction on 2016’s Light We Made, which ended up being their last album before going on hiatus. The confused response to the album from a noticeable amount of fans had at least something to do with the band feeling the need to take a break, but that ahead-of-its-time album has aged really well, and I for one am pleased to hear that “Cross to Bear”–the first single off their first album in eight years–picks up where Balance left off and keeps pushing forward. It’s an airy, brooding, suspenseful song that’s as much Kid A as it is Manchester Orchestra, fused together in the way that only Balance and Composure can. It’s a little bit of everything that Balance have done over the years, and a continuation of the constantly-upwards trajectory this band has been on since day one.
Weatherbox – “Manson Dust”
Weatherbox have long been one of the best indie/emo bands to never fully get their due, and their first song in 10 years finds them at the top of their game. “Manson Dust” began its life before Weatherbox went on hiatus–main member Brian Warren debuted a solo acoustic version back in 2016–and this finished version was worth the wait. It begins in gentle, delicate form, not far removed from the acoustic version, until it finally explodes into an anthemic banger more than halfway through. It would’ve fit perfectly on Weatherbox’s last album, Flies In All Directions (which turns 10 this year), and it sounds as fresh today as it would have then. Weatherbox haven’t said much about their return, but let’s hope more new music is on the way because it sounds like they’ve very much still got it.
SECT – “New Low”
The members of SECT–the vegan straightedge supergroup with members of Cursed, Earth Crisis, Catharsis, Racetraitor, Fall Out Boy, and more–have written plenty of protest songs together and separately over the years, but on their upcoming album Plagues Upon Plagues, they’re starting to wonder if any of this protest music is actually doing anything. Vocalist Chris Colohan (ex-Cursed) calls the album “a funeral rather than a trial,” and he sums up the state of the world we’ve lived in since SECT’s last album with the first three words of lead single “New Low”: “Shit got dark.” It’s a sludgy, crusty hardcore song and it really captures the shitty, helpless feelings that so many of us have felt in the first half of this decade. It’s a depressing song about a depressing world, and it hits really, really hard.
Carly Cosgrove – “You Old Dog”
Some of You Blew It!’s recently-announced Keep Doing What You’re Doing 10th anniversary shows are being opened by Carly Cosgrove, and it’s gonna be a real passing-of-the-torch moment, because Carly Cosgrove are already taking over today’s emo scene the way You Blew It! were 10 years ago. Less than two weeks after I saw them play to a massive crowd on the Wax Bodega Tour with all new-gen emo bands, they announced their sophomore album The Cleanest of Houses Are Empty, and lead single “You Old Dog” is very promising stuff. It’s a driving, catchy, indie/punk/emo hybrid in the vein of bands like Modern Baseball and Joyce Manor, and it’s full of the same energy that Carly Cosgrove bring to their live shows. I’m sure it won’t be long at all before people at the gigs are yelling along to this one.
Macseal – “Golden Harbor”
You could tell on Macseal’s 2019 debut album Super Enthusiast that the Long Island emo band had a love of pop rock, but they really embrace that side of themselves on their upcoming sophomore LP Permanent Repeat (due 7/12 via Counter Intuitive Records). They cite Fountains of Wayne, Michelle Branch, and Goo Goo Dolls as core influences on the album, and lead single “Golden Harbor” is a warm, breezy song that sounds like it could’ve been on the radio in the era that all of those artists were, but with a DIY emo twist. That hook is just so infectious.
Respire – “Distant Light of Belonging”
Toronto’s Respire are one of those bands that can’t be pinned down to a specific subgenre, and “Distant Light of Belonging” is a great example of all that they’re capable of. There’s harsh screamo, melodic emo, orchestral post-rock, sludge metal, and more in the mix, and the whole thing is just towering, overwhelming, emotionally powerful music. If you made a venn diagram with Pianos Become the Teeth, The World Is A Beautiful Place, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, this song would be right in the middle.
State Faults – “Palo Santo”
State Faults are developing a reputation for long gaps between albums (first because of a hiatus, then because of a pandemic), but that doesn’t matter, because no matter what happens, the world never passes them by. Every time they drop, they sound like a fresh new band, and “Palo Santo” is no exception. It finds guitarist/vocalist Jonny Andrew embracing his clean singing voice more than usual, along with plenty of harsh screams, and the result is just a great post-hardcore song that’s as heavy as it is beautiful. The best emo/post-hc songs are the ones that cross that intangible, nearly-impossible-to-describe threshold of catharsis inside of you, and this one does that.
Speed – “Real Life Love”
Speed’s “Real Life Love” is an ass-beating heavy hardcore song about the bonds you form as a lifelong member of the hardcore community. Nothing lyrically or musically that you haven’t heard before, but that’s sort of the point. It’s an ode to a time-tested formula and a timeless feeling that makes generation after generation feel like they’re part of something real, and Speed inject fresh new blood into it. They’re well on their way to being for the next generation what so many bands have been for them, and with songs as irresistibly primal as “Real Life Love,” it’s easy to see why.
We’ve got an exclusive quad black & white vinyl variant of the upcoming Speed album up for pre-order.
Origami Angel – “Fruit Wine”
Origami Angel have toyed with like three million different styles of music since debuting in 2017, and new single “Fruit Wine” makes yet another pivot. It was produced by Will Yip, and it finds them channelling the grungy ’90s revival vibes that Will has so often excelled at, but doing it in their own quirky, catchy, uniquely-Gami way. There’s also a pretty brutal metallic post-hardcore breakdown in there, which shouldn’t work in this context but Gami makes it work.
Love Letter – “Misanthropic Holiday or Vacation”
Verse were one of the best bands of the 2000s New England hardcore scene that also included Have Heart, Shipwreck, etc, so it’s exciting that Verse vocalist Quinn Murphy is now fronting a newer band, Love Letter. The lineup also includes two original members of Defeater (guitarist/backing vocalistJay Maas and drummer Andrew Reitz), and their new single “Misanthropic Holiday or Vacation” is an impassioned, climactic, emotive hardcore song that should feel right at home for any Verse or Defeater fan. Their debut LP Everyone Wants Something Beautiful arrives 6/28 via Iodine, so stay tuned for more where this came from.
Hard Chiller – “Clouds”
Hard Chiller is a new band with some familiar faces: singer Joe Vann (From Indian Lakes), guitarist Steve Choi (RX Bandits, The Sound of Animals Fighting, The Chinkees), bassist Roger Camero (No Motiv), and drummer Casey Deitz (The Velvet Teen). (So it’s basically Peace’d Out with Joe singing instead of The Movielife/I Am the Avalanche’s Vinnie Caruana.) They’ve all made a lot of different types of music over the years, and “Clouds” has them bringing their own flavors to the heavy, spacey vibes of bands like Deftones, Hum, Failure, The Smashing Pumpkins, etc, which they do really well.
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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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Browse our selection of hand-picked punk vinyl.
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Read past and future editions of ‘In Defense of the Genre’ here.
Top photo: Balance and Composure at Knockdown Center in 2023. More by Nick Karp here.