Bowling For Soup – “Running Away From Your Dad” from the album Drunk Enough To Dance
I have a decent amount of Bowling for Soup in my collection, and I think they can be quite catchy when it comes down to it.  This song though, is not one of those times.

Black Flag – “Rise Above” from the album Damaged
I mean, what can I say about this song that hasn’t already been said; it’s a classic for a reason.  Raw, powerful and pure Black Flag.  Sidenote about this one, I saw the Street Dogs perform this live one time and it was completely awesome.  True story.

Paramore – “Brighter” from the album All We Know Is Falling
I’ll just throw it right out there, I really like Paramore.  They’re a good pop-rock band and that’s all there is to it.  This isn’t their best song, but it still has a decent hook and Hayley’s  voice is still amazingly powerful for being such a little girl (she was around 16/17 when recording this record).

Jack Johnson – “Breakdown” from the album In Between Dreams
I went through a pretty big Jack Johnson phase my senior year of high school while trying to impress this girl who was into him.  He’s a solid listen sometimes, but is far from my favorite — especially in February in the North East.

Strike Anywhere – “Antidote” from the Fat Wrecktrospective
These dudes are great and I love when any of their material comes on at any time.  Sure a lot of their songs sound like a lot of their other songs, but they’re all great so who cares?  On a separate note, the Wrecktrospecive was an absolutely awesome release and was well worth the money.

It’s early in the tour, but there’s no name for the tour, is there?

Yea, it’s a no name tour.  We’ve been calling it the no-name tour.  That doesn’t happen anymore; nobody gives a carp about these tours with 15 bands on it.  We’re Less Than Jake, we’re going on tour, come find us.

You have great bands opening up this whole tour.  Are they just friends who you had to pick and choose for each date or was there a method?

When we sat down and tried to figure out what bands we wanted to take on this tour we had decided Off With Their Heads for sure and The Supervillains, we were going to take them on all the dates.  But then for the rest we didn’t know exactly what we should do, so we decided to choose openers for a couple of shows; have different bands playing.  You know so we could see a bunch of different bands, and it also kind of changes it up for people who go to different shows in different areas.  Sometimes people travel to come see us play.  So it keeps it interesting for the people who are on the tour, it keeps it interesting for the people who come to see the tour, and it gives the opportunity to a lot of bands that wouldn’t get that opportunity otherwise; it spreads the love out a little bit.
Congrats on throwing it together.  I just downloaded the comp you put out and I was impressed by all the bands you rounded up.

It was cool to put the comp out.  It was a good thing for all the bands.  It’s cool to be a part of a comp with a bunch of good bands; a lot of younger bands too.

What was the idea behind that?  Just to give a preview of the tour for everyone?

I think it was just ‘people like free music, so why not?’  Spread the love a little bit.  It puts a group of bands together under a certain thing, and all the bands together try and promote it, and it’s good.  It’s the new way of the music industry a little bit.

On the subject on releasing things, you are re-releasing two records, is it in March?

Yes, March. But we have them on tour right now – for Hello Rockview and Losing Streak.  We have copies on tour with us, so if you come see us on tour, you can purchase them there.

So the question is then, why these records now out of your whole catalogue?

I think it was just the timing of it.  The right time for us to re-release them, the clearances that needed to happen happened and it was good opportunity to rerelease some of our classic records with some new artwork and then give the live DVD of each one of the records being played live. It’s pretty cool.

We’ve always tried to stay away from doing a bunch of re-releases because it just seems so – it’s already been done.  We’ve always liked to think forward, not behind, but we figured because these have become two records that are very difficult to find, so why not make them available again.  We’re just trying to give our fans what they ask for, I guess.

Well, it’s a good idea.  The fans are always chomping at the bit, so it’s good.

Thanks… A lot of bands just go with what they think is the right thing to do, instead of asking their fanbase what they want. This is something we feel our fanbase has wanted for a while, so why not make it available?

I have to ask about something I enjoyed quite a bit as well, which is the TV EP.

Yea it was an idea we’ve been kicking around for a couple of years – it was incepted three or four years ago – and we finally had time to do it, so we just did it.  It was probably more talking about it than there actually was recording.  We had fun doing it and we put it out and it was fun. And we tried to take an idea we’ve had and stretch it to its full capabilities, and I think we did that.  I think everything came out the way we had all envisioned, and it came out better maybe in some aspects than we’d envisioned. We’re happy with it.

Some people took it for more than it was supposed to be though.  ‘It was just another covers record,’ well, no it’s not another covers record.  It’s a record of TV theme songs and commercials.  And it’s meant to sound like you’re listening to the television.  It’s eleven minutes long, and it’s a collector’s item; it’s just for fun.

And I forgot, I didn’t actually read the Rolling Stone article about you’re not supposed to have fun in music anymore, it’s not allowed, to have fun.  Or maybe it was Spin, I don’t know.  Somebody, somewhere along the lines said you have to be really serious about everything that you did, so, we don’t buy into that pile of bullshit.  We just continue to do what we do.  If you like it, I’m stoked, if you don’t like it that’s cool.  A lot of the people who didn’t like it are the ones who didn’t pay for it anyway, so whatever.

Speaking of downloading, you’re always – at least on Twitter – in pretty constant contact with StrikeGently.  What’s you take on his or her or whoever’s whole deal? [This interview took place days before the site was shut down so we don’t mention that part – ed.]

I think it’s great.  I think it’s great.  It’s the Wild West isn’t it?  Put it up, put it up for download, I think it’s fair.  It’s really the great equalizer, so, what that person did – and just so everyone would know, I don’t have any more information on who runs that particular website than anybody else does.  I wish I did.  Whoever they are has been kind enough to send me some T-shirts and they’ve always said funny things about my band and they’ve always been very cool and supportive of my band which I think is awesome.  I don’t care if they put our whole fucking [collection] up there for download; I don’t give a shit. I just think it’s awesome that the guy cares enough about our band to ever say anything.  Yea I think it’s great; I think it’s revolutionary.  It’s kind of like the Americans fighting the English in the Colonial times.  It’s these little sections of people fighting these big conglomerate corporations, taking all that music that they’ve spent so much money and marketing dollars on and saying ‘fuck you, here it is for free.’  I think it’s great.

Admittedly, I’m at that site every day, so it’s interesting to hear that you support it, at least in a way.

But that’s me, you know what I mean?  Ask other people and they’ll say completely different things, but this is a revolution and there’s no rules in a revolution.  It’s all fucking ‘guns are blazing.’  Things and forces that are out there on the internet are much bigger than the record corporations and companies think they are.  They could shut down the internet in a second and end this all, and that’s true.  So it’s still the Wild West and the government hasn’t put the clamps down on it [prophetic words as it turns out –ed], fuck, enjoy! Enjoy!  It’s like a free pool, ‘pool’s open to the public, enjoy.’

Yea you know, I have mixed feelings.  I like to go there and yes, I download things too, but I still buy music, still buy vinyl, so just very mixed feelings.

And people who buy music will continue to buy music.  I continue to buy music.  People aren’t going to stop buying music or records or T-shirts from bands because they download the music for free, that’s sort of on the contrary.  I still buy things from bands that I like but I think it just makes the entertainment dollar that much more special when people are spending that dollar on certain things, it must be a special item.  Especially when they know they can get it for free on the internet, they must like the physical holding on to it.  It always is an interesting analysis to see why someone buys or doesn’t buy something, I’ve always found that interesting.

I read this interview with you recently where you basically said that you were happy that the band [Less Than Jake] never had a big mainstream single because that would make the music more disposable.

Well, yea that’s also like you peak; we’ve never peaked…  I guess maybe we peaked. It’s that thing, where it’s just like ‘whoa that was the biggest thing ever’ craziness, smash Green Day hit.  And yea that makes some people somewhat disposable, because if it’s a hit single, and it’s just one hit – a one hit wonder – you’re just a disposable artist.  You sell your million copies of your one song and you drift off into nothingness like Leif Garret or the Osmonds or whatever was big in the 70s.  Then you look in the 80s and you have Flock of Seagulls, bands like that, they have one or two songs.  And it’s continued on up until now; it’s rock and roll, popular music: a couple of hit songs here or there.  But there are so many songs now, and they’re so interchangeable and they sound so similar so you can’t tell them apart, but they’re familiar enough that you’re comfortable with it and so immediately your defenses are dropped because they’re so familiar to you.

That being said, are all songs like that disposable? Yes, to a point.  But for our band, it made sense that, looking back on it now, we didn’t have the big hit.  It was maybe a mistake of the label, maybe our management, but it was probably a mistake of our own; not letting something happen that we didn’t feel was the right thing.  We could have had that single, we’ve had enough chances that’s for sure.  It’s not that we haven’t had the chance, it just never happened for us in that way.  And that’s all right.  I’m not bummed by it at all.

Well yea, you’re still around.  Unlike other bands you mentioned, what are they doing?

There are a lot of bands that we started touring with that don’t exist anymore.   There’s a lot of bands that have come up, and I’ve said this a couple times, we’ve had bands that we have taken on their first tour, that then become huge pop acts, broken up, gotten back together and have done tours, and we’ve still been a band.  We just kind of hang out, watch what happens – we’re not trying to be anything more than we are –we are entertaining [people], and that’s why I would hope people still come back and see us play.  It’s definitely about the music, but like I said man, we’ve never had that big massive radio or MTV hit and I think some would find that a curse, but it may be more of a blessing.

So looking back like you’ve said, not as a retrospective, but just looking back, what’s it like being in music in general, but especially being in the punk community, today?  Is it like a close-knit circle of you and your friends hanging out or are you still trying new things, to make new things happen?

Well in life, you’re always trying to make new friends, I don’t think you ever get tired of meeting new people.  We have our friends that we’ve had forever, our closest friends, and we have friends that we’ve made that are newer friends.  As far as friendship goes, yea we’re trying to make new friends, but as far as the music goes, you know, I have friends in bands who I don’t like their bands at all.  They’re still my friends, it doesn’t mean I don’t like them any less as people; I just don’t like their bands.  It’s not weird but punk rock has become more bastardized than it was when we started and I heard it was bastardized then.  So like I said, punk rock is more of a mindset, I think, than a musical style these days.  People who will claim they’re punk rock, to me, aren’t punk rock.  And then when I say things to people about what I think is punk rock they say ‘what are you crazy?’  Like I personally think Justin Bieber is more punk rock than most of these fucking kids that claim to punk rock…

I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to elaborate on that one.

Well, you look at what he has.  He’s been very lucky in the opportunities that he’s had, but prior to him get signed to Usher’s label and him and Justin Timberlake hanging out, that kid as doing mall shows and created his own thing.  All from doing little videos on YouTube and posting little fucking songs that he wrote on YouTube; he did his own thing and created his own fan hysteria.  And really, what’s more fucking punk than that?

Well… That’s true.

Try arguing me.  That’s pretty fucking punk rock.  And now he’s obviously got this whole thing: he’s a little kid and he’s trying to figure out who he is and where he stands in this whole thing, and has become a whole pop-cultural phenomenon, but what it was, was an idea.  And it was a revolutionary tactic that he took in order to build his fanbase.  And who would have thought that just putting little videos on YouTube would create a pop sensation, you know what I mean?  Not how it was done, how it was marketed, how he was involved with his fans, you know.  When I was a little kid Michael Jackson was the biggest thing in the world, and there was no computers and it wasn’t so one-on-one, so [Bieber] has redefined what a pop star is, what’s expected of a pop star.  To me, where you re-define something, you’re a creator, you’re an innovator, and that’s punk.  Punk is innovation and doing something that’s different, Joe Strummer said that to me.

Well it’s an interesting way to look at him, but you’re very right, in that way.  It’s very DIY.   It’s pretty punk to just go out and do that.

He did what he wanted, he wasn’t doing what everybody told him to do; he did what he thought was the right thing for what he was doing.  Love him or hate him, you don’t have to change your thought on Justin Bieber, I would never say that, I don’t really give a shit about the kid to be honest with you, but a lot of times you have to kind of step back and look at it and see what it is.  And I think a lot of people have had a hard time doing that because we’re so judgmental right off the bat.  But when it comes to something like punk rock, something that has grown, like a band like All Time Low.   You can claim to be punk rock, you can play fast punk, pop-punk songs but you’re not punk rockers.  You might like pop-punk but, dude, Jack or Alex would never, Ryan or Zac, would never sit and go ‘Oh, we’re punk-rockers,’ they’re pop-punk kids.  And they’re going to have fun with it.  But those dudes are pretty punk rock.  Fall Out Boy is pretty punk rock to me; we took them out on those tours before they were  “that band,” before they were the greatest things on the planet.  It’s cool when you see bands like that grow up and earn what they get and create something, they earn it.

So to speak of punk, in the traditional sense, in the musical sense, the style, it’s good; it’s still strong.  Kids still go to punk shows.  They still go see bands like The Dopamines and fucking The Menzingers.  They still go to see the legends like The Bouncing Souls and NOFX, bands like that.  But as far as the ideology of it, what punk rock is, it’s as alive as it has ever been, it really is.  The creativity is there, and maybe sometimes it’s not the packaging that you’d want a punk rocker to be, maybe not like Sid Vicious, but that’s my thought on punk rock, you know.

Totally man, I see it.

And maybe I’m wrong.  And I’m sure there will be a lot of dudes who will tell you I’m totally off because they’re more punk than me, but whatever.  They have a Punknews.org screen name and I don’t.

No, I agree.  And I was reading an article on, I think NME, that said 2010 was the worst year for rock ‘n’ roll, ever, and I was thinking ‘man it was a great year for punk rock though.’  You named Menzingers but everyone was coming out with great records last year.

Yea but they fly under the radar, like it’s right under the radar.  The magazines don’t see it, the print media doesn’t see it.  It’s there and it’s rare even on the internet that you’ll see it.  Like nowadays, its not that hard to find it, but there are only so many major labels and the majors are only putting so many acts in to get reviewed by magazines and MTV and everything else.  So of course NME is going to say that because everything they got to review was shit.  It was all crap, it was just like everything else.   Or it sounds like a bad version of The Klaxons or something [laughs].

Well this has been great.  And I have to admit that your band is one of my favorite bands, and has been for years, so it’s good that you have a vigor, and I appreciate it.

Well I just want to thank you and for still wanting to speak to us after two decades as a band [laughs].

Over the past year or so, clearly, pop-punk has made a comeback.  Not in a huge way, mind you, but it still has.  I’m going to have a full article on this soon, but I’m listening to one of Fuck Yea Pop Punk’s awesome mixtapes right now and I just felt I had to share that.  Seriously, though long rant coming soon, along with a very fun new interview which should be up later tonight/tomorrow morning.

Also, I started a Tumblr, check it out if you’re bored. Into This Ashtray Life

Sorry it’s been sparse around here lately, but I’ve had a lot of turmoil in my personal life that is finally resolved, so we’re good to go now.

Which brings me to Larry And His Flask.  I saw these dudes perform about a year and a half ago (roughly) before Dropkick Murphys and Strung Out, ad I have to say, they are just a BLAST.  They’re big dudes, who play big instruments and are just packed with energy.  They’re a folk-punk-bluegrass hybrid who I like waaaaaaaaaaay more than new Fat signees Old Man Markley, which is why I’m stoked that Larry has signed to a real label, Silver Sprocket.
Now I don’t know a thing about that label, but Punknews says that they will release Larry’s old EP and this is a very good thing.  When I saw them on the aforementioned tour, they had no recorded material and were asking people to buy shirts to fund them buying studio time.  Well now they have a home and hopefully we’ll get much more out of these guys very soon.  Until a release date is settled on however, they will be hitting the road on the awesome-sounding Streetlight Manifesto/A Loss For Words Tour.  Check the dates for that, as well as the original Punknews story here.

Every Friday I’ll simply hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and post the first 5 songs that play up here with a little commentary on each song.  Just something extra for the waning hours before the weekend.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – “One Tin Soldier” from the album Have A Ball
It’s always fun to put on a Gimmes record and have a quick listen so I love getting them in my shuffle.  Although, Have A Ball is probably my least favorite of their records, after Blow In The Wind, but still this is a solid track and again, there’s really never a bad time to listen to the Gimmes.

Flogging Molly – “The Wrong Company” from the album Within A Mile of Home
This is a bad example of a Flogging Molly song as it’s only 37 seconds long.  It showcases his voice nicely, and reaffirms the notion that Molly, like their counterparts in Dropkick Murphys (my personal choice), can dip into traditional waters as well as original punk tunes.

We Are The Union – “What We Have Here is A Failure To Communicate” from the album Great Leaps Forward
I absolutely love WATU, and you’ll find that out very quickly by either listening to the show or poking around this site.  Just a great combination of ska, punk and hardcore, these guys have a huge potential to break out soon.  Great Leaps is also a phenomenal record that should be picked up by any fan of ska or punk.

The Casualties – “Under Attack” from the Warped Tour 2006 Compilation
When I was in my super “punk” phase (i.e. wearing studs and judging the shit out of other genres) I was really into these guys.  Now, I take them for what they are: a nice throwback to simpler hardcore punk bands and records.  They never make any mindblowing music, but are good for a scream or two on a long drive.  They’re also super-intense live.

The Soviettes – “¡Paranoia! Cha-Cha-Cha” from the compilation Rock Against Bush Vol. 1
There was a time, right around the early 00′s where I really thought The Soviettes were going to be pretty big after the release ofLPIII on Fat, yet nothing came of it.  This song appears on LPIII, as well as this comp and that’s why I mentioned it.  They’re a band that should have gained popularity, but never really took off; a shame really.

The ever-ready-to-party/District Kills records act Like Waves will be heading out on a short tour of the East Coast beginning  today. The band is notable to the radio show, and me, not only for being signed to District Kills, but two of the members on this tour are Maryland alums and it’s cool to see them out on the road.  Check them out if you’re in the area.

1/11 – Philadelphia, PA – The Nail
1/14 – College Park, MD – Vito’s Pizzeria
1/15 – Pennington Gap, VA – Ground Zero
1/16 – Wilmington, DE – Mojo 13
1/17 – Wilmington, NC – Jugglin Gypsy
1/18 – Wilmington, NC – Bottega Art Bar
1/19 – Gainesville, FL – Backstage Lounge
1/20 – Columbus, GA – Soho Bar and Grill
1/21 – Bluefield, WV – Rock it club
1/22 – Pittsburgh, Pa – The Rock Room

Firstly, you can’t embed the video and it’s only available at MTV.com so click HERE to see it if you haven’t already.

But here’s the important part: it’s a really good video.  I look at music videos now as mostly useless.  No one really watches them and they really aren’t shown on TV anymore, and punk bands are never shown on TV so it matters even less to me because of that.  But honestly, I bet I’ve seen this video  six or seven times in the past three days.  It’s good, it’s creative, and has an amazingly impressive list of cameos. After some digging around on the interwebs, and watching the video, I’m pretty sure this is a complete list of the cameos, in order of their appearance:

Kristian Hallbert (Crime In Stereo), Tom Denney (A Day To Remember’s former guitarist), Veara, Bring Me The Horizon, Shane Told (Silverstein), Winston McCall (Parkway Drive), Mike Hranica (The Devil Wears Prada), Andrew WK, Pete Wentz, Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Färm (Millencolin), Tim Lambesis (As I Lay Dying), Guy Kozowyk (The Red Chord), August Burns Red, Andrew Neufeld (Comeback Kid), Johnny Intravaia (Seventh Star), Dallas Taylor (Maylene & The Sons of Disaster), Sam Carter (Architects), Mike Herrera (MXPX), Ed McRae (Your Demise), Matt Heafy (Trivium), Vic Fuentes (Pierce the Veil), Vincent Bennett (The Acacia Strain), Travis Reilly and Rick Jimenez (This Is Hell), Matt Wilson and Jordan Brown (Set Your Goals)

Now you’re going to have to take a few of those on the word of others around the internet because I haven’t even heard of some of these bands (The Red Chord is a band apparently) and even some of those that I have heard of I have no idea if the name matches who appears in the video.  Yes, I could look them all up, but this is a music blog not the goddamn BBC.
But honestly, it’s a really cool video from a band that deserves the attention they’re getting and are about to get.  They’ve written two very quality records in a row and are poised to really break out soon, and here’s wishing them the best.  They’ve clearly made quite a few friends along the way (and by the way, how in the hell did they get Erik and Mathias to be in this?  I don’t even know if those dudes tour anymore) and they’re sure to make a few more soon.

So this is a new feature I’m going to try out.  Every Friday I’ll simply hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and post the first 5 songs that play up here with a little commentary on each song.  Just something extra for the waning hours before the weekend.

New Found Glory – “Singled Out” from the album Sticks And Stones
This is actually one of my favorite songs off of my favorite NFG album.  I really like the electronic intro and find the hook to be above-average for the always catchy New Found.  This was also an early example of Chad screaming in a NFG song, which appealed to me when it came out, and still does.

The Loved Ones – “Distracted” from the EP Distractions
I love the Loved Ones and this is an excellent little EP.  As for the song itself, it’s pretty solid and would be the highlight of the release if it weren’t for the Strummer cover that was thrown in there.  But “Distracted” is a pretty average Loved Ones song, which also means it’s very good.  I’m not sure how popular the EP is so head out and pick it up if you don’t already own it.

Agnostic Front – “Traitor” from the Fat Wreck compilation Short Music for Short People
The Short Music comp is, for those who don’t know, a little compilation thrown together by Fat Mike where each song is supposed to be 30 seconds long, or less. Some are a bit longer, some shorter.  As such, it’s a nice novelty but you can’t get into any of the songs too much.  This Agnostic Front song is a good one, but again, at 31 seconds long, there’s not much there.

No Roses – “Snapshots” from the State of Mind Recordings Hectic Thinking Sampler
One of the things about this feature is that there will be bands coming up who I have no information about, and have never heard before.  This is one of them.  It’s a pretty good melodic-hardcore song, but I don’t even know where I got this sampler from. Punknews, maybe?

Backstreet Boys – “I Want It That Way”
I was considering skipping this for the next song (which was a Gaslight track, by the way) but part of this is to show an honest picture of the mess that is my iTunes, so here it is.  Don’t know when I downloaded it, but it is one of (*cringe*) three BSB songs I have.  Why, I’m not sure, but I have a soft spot for 90′s and early 00′s pop so this will happen.

So my friends over at District Kills Records are gearing up for the new release by Wolves, and Paul (Wolves’ architect of sorts/above left) is keeping a blog about the recording of the record.  As a good friend of mine, I’m doing all I can to help the dude out, so check out his latest update, in which he goes into extreme detail about each of the album’s planned tracks HERE .

10.  The National – High Violet [4AD]

It’s a record that I came upon very late in the year –only about a month ago did I listen the whole way through — but it turns out everyone was right about it.  The National are a band that I am painfully unfamiliar with, so I really can’t write much about them as a band, but I can say that this little melancholy record hit home for me.  It’s simple, elegant and uplifting all at the same time, and it was a terrific find for me personally.


9.  Taylor Swift – Speak Now [Big Machine]

Shut up.  I love her music and I love this record.  Nothing much else to say, really.  Moving on.

8.  Four Year Strong – Enemy of the World [Universal Motown/Decaydance]

What appeals to me about this record is that it hits most of my favorite elements of punk music all at the same time.  There are catchy choruses, quality musicianship, and every now and then, a quality scream.  The record showed maturity from their previous Rise or Die Trying and when it boils down to it, Enemy is just a catchy record.

7.  Motion City Soundtrack – My Dinosaur Life [Columbia]

This is unfortunately a record that I feel got lost in the shuffle for a lot of people because of how early in the year it was released (Jan. 19), but it is still a great one.  I think this is the best record that the long-running band have ever written, a record that unlike some of its predecessors, doesn’t really have a drop off in quality.  Not only that, but frontman Justin Pierre is back in fine songwriting form here, dropping his quit-wit and pop culture references in almost all of the songs, instead of just a few like was lost on Even If It Kills Me.

6.  Sundowner – We Chase The Waves [Asian Man]

Yes, there may be a bit of an overcrowded scene for punk-frontmen who make acoustic records nowadays, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t a beautiful record.  Here, McCaughan crafts a thoughtful record that can be soft one second and then upbeat immediately after.  ”In The Flicker” is a great leadoff track and from there, there simply are no trip-ups.  And on a side note, while it was cool of him to include some Larry Arms tracks on his first release, to hear just solo songs on this one is even better.

5.  The Menzingers – Chamberlain Waits [Red Scare Industries]

Loud, angry, yet melodic.  These guys are poised to break out any second now, and this record is the reason why.  Brimming not only with potential, but also with amazing raw energy in each song, Chamberlain Waits is a record a million other bands in the genre wished they would have put out first.  My only complaint: could have used a Clash cover.

4.  Man Overboard – Real Talk [Run For Cover]

If this is the defense of pop-punk, then the genre is in safe hands.  Catchy, fast, and did I mention catchy?  These Jersey boys would have the pop-punk record of the year if weren’t for another area band (who we’ll get to later), but that doesn’t mean this album should be forgotten.  Songs like “Al Sharpton” are just what the genre has been lacking in the few past years, “Fantasy Girl” is an absolutely perfect pop song, and on a more personal note, “World Favorite” hit home perfectly.

3.  Fake Problems - Real Ghosts Caught On Tape [SideOne Dummy]

Another group that keeps shifting their sound, Fake Problems just kills this record to the best of their abilities.  It’s tighter than their previous releases and instead of a record of random songs collected together, Ghosts is a fully cohesive album.  They keep the random instruments to a minimum and, for the most part, keep the tone down for the record.  But that’s a good thing because, as it turns out, Fake Problems are at their best when in full-on indie rock mode a la “Songs For Teenagers.”  ”Soulless” also gets my vote as song of the year.

2.  The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang [SideOne Dummy]

Who would have thought that one of the most soulful records of the year would have come from a bunch of white guys from New Jersey?  But that’s the thing about the Brian Fallon & Co., they just keep surprising us.  Again, like on each previous record, The Gaslight Anthem came with a revamped sound, but still killed it.  Technically, this is the best record on this list, with Fallon’s songwriting is years ahead of where it should be, and each member of the band knocking their respective instrumentation out of the park.  The reason this doesn’t top the list is simple though, I had higher expectations.  Maybe I expected more songs, or maybe I expected a different pace.  This isn’t a bad record, it’s a actually a great one, but it’s not tops for me.

1.  The Wonder Years – The Upsides [No Sleep]

Which, of course, leaves us with the number 1 record, The Upsides.  Not a bad song on the album.  At all.  And unlike some other people in the blogosphere, it did not take any time for me to connect with this record.  The first time I gave it a spin, that was it; done.  Not only is the album catchy, well-done and thought-provoking, but it hits home perfectly on almost every track.  Not too get too personal, but it’s like Soupy was living my life while writing this record.  From critiquing the lows of college life on “My Last Semester,” or hating the shit out of Fred Phelps on “Dynamite Shovel,” or letting people know what they probably already did on “Hey Thanks,” everything was like it was coming out of my mouth.  Not to mention that “This Party Sucks” perfectly encapsulates my entire month of May.
This is the record that got these guys signed to Hopeless Records, and then they go and re-release the record with the scarily similar to my life “I Was Scared And I’m Sorry,” but this ranking is not counting the re-release tracks.  Musically, the band made huge strides on the record,toned down the overbearing keyboard and figured out that they don’t need to scream.  Connections aside, Soupy is miles away from where he was in songwriting ability on Get Stoked On It! and, of course, the album benefits from it.  This is what pop-punk should be.  Relatable, catchy, and something you can move around to.  The Wonder Years will be headlining tours soon enough, and this will be the reason why.