Words by Jim Testa
Jim Testa founded the highly influential zine, Jersey Beat in 1982 which he continues to edit to this day. Through writing for his own publication and a number of other outlets, including as a staff writer for Hudson County’s Jersey Journal, he has championed local, regional and national up-and-coming bands. Punk has always shunned credentials, but rest assured that Jim won’t lead you astray.
GRAND SLAMS
STATES OF NATURE – Brighter Than Before (Sell The Heart Records)
States Of Nature bring an insane energy to squalling post-punk songs, with three vocalists alternately shouting, singing, and spitting out lyrics. As thrilling as the vocals and screaming guitars can be, it’s the rhythm section that makes this exceptional, bass and drums locking into a massive hypnotic groove that recalls everything from Fugazi to the post-grunge garage-rock of John Reis’ bands. The San Francisco-based group calls its music “danceable,” which is true if dancing means head-bobbing, fist-pumping, body-shaking anarchy set to a killer beat. This is one of my favorite albums of the year and I can’t make out two words of the lyrics. You don’t have to know what it means when rock ‘n’ roll makes you feel like this.
MaDDaM – Maddam (Wild Honey Records)
Damiano Cason and Damiano “Wilson” Negrisoli originally met in an Italian punk band where every member was named Damiano, and how can you not love that? The two Damianos then teamed with Bee Bee Sea and al/paca, and besides having the coolest names in punk band, their band MaDDaM plays some damn catchy garage-punk. The snotty vocals are in English, the guitars suggest Buzzcocks and Eddie & The Hot Rods as produced by Shadow Morton, and while Italian punk-rockers almost always play Ramonescore, these raggazi go for glam punk, doo-wop, “Chairs Missing”-era Wire, moody post-punk, and exuberant pop-punk. Every track on this album surprised and delighted me, and that’s not even mentioning the, um… inventive song titles “Maverick (Can’t Stop Beating,)” “My Black Friday,” “You’re So Dry,” and my favorite, “Real, Fake, Ass, Face, Lies!”
HOME RUNS
RICKY ROCHELLE – “Cannibal Island Resort” EP (self-released)
You can count the number of singing drummers who can also write on one hand: Grant Hart, Bill Stevenson, Mikey Erg… and Ricky Rochelle of the Young Rochelles and New Rochelles. On this EP, Ricky teams with Gregg Gavitt (guitars, bass) and opens a hotel on Cannibal Island, encounters a mechanical monster, refuses to testify against his mom, and spends eternity in Hell. So yeah, the lyrics skew toward the gimmicky but these tunes still rise above novelty songs on the strength of Ricky’s inexhaustible stockpile of super-catchy pop-punk melodies, his eternally boyish vocals, and a knack for clever wordplay. Inspirational verse: “If necessity is the mom of invention/ this killing machine’s probably not worth the mention.”
UNICORN DOGS – “Dumb Stuff” / “You Would Have Known Better” and “Screwed Together” / “Return Policy” (self-released)
Two singles that preview a forthcoming album from these veterans of the old Pop Punk Message Board/Insubordination Fest scene who are now old enough to have one of their kids playing kids. The names Jon Moser and Lucas Carscadden might not mean much to most of you reading this but they were integral parts of a close-knit community of musicians, fans, and friends about 15 years ago and it’s great that they’re still writing hits that no one will hear. Part of being way out of the mainstream was always part of the fun, but there’s a lot more going on here than inside jokes. You get Lucas’ Blake Schwarzenbach-on-two-packs-a-day vocals and wayward whoa-oh-oh’s, a dense cacophony of earwig riffs and trashy percussion, bumptious and infectious singalong melodies, and – what’s new – adorable, heartrending lyrics about raising kids. PPMB forever!
TURNPIKE GATES – Not Myself Today (self-released)
Technically the solo project of Jersey City’s Ryan Smith, Turnpike Gates’ first full-length album serves up a mix of soulful singer-songwriter ballads and Bouncing Souls-styled pop-punk. Smith recruited some of the Garden States’ finest for the project, starting with the Souls’ Pete Steinkopf to produce, along with Jared Hart (Mercy Union, The Scandals) on backing vocals, Armand Gersbach on bass, Danny Windas (Beach Rats) on drums, and Jenn Fantaccione (Bouncing Souls, Front Bottoms) on cello and violin. Smith’s sincere, sandpapery voice speaks from the heart, whether on thumping, upbeat rockers (“Shifty Eyes,” “Save Your Regards,” “Allergic”) or slower, more contemplative tracks like “Blackout” and “High Hopes.” Sonically, Smith’s use of electric guitar recalls fellow Jersey native son Ted Leo. As a singer and lyricist, he’s in a class by himself, but the fact that there aren’t mobs of kids singing along to these tunes seems a bit of a sin.
BAD BAD HATS – Bad Bad Hats (Don Giovanni Records)
Does it mean anything that Minneapolis duo Bad Bad Hats decided to self-title its fourth album a dozen years into a low-fi, low-profile career? If Kerry Alexander (guitar/vocals) and Chris Hoge (guitar/bass) are sending a message, it’s anyone’s guess, but one thing we do know: Nobody gets rich on Don Giovanni Records (just ask Screaming Females). Denied tour income by the pandemic, the band turned to Patreon for sustenance, asking fans to contribute not only a couple of bucks to keep the band afloat but also song ideas. Those became prompts for the perky indie-pop ditties on “Bad Bad Hats,” replete with the band’s trademark sense of humor and playful production tics (for the first time, the band recorded and produced this release on their own). The results range from the quirky Devo-meets-disco of “TPA” to the moody electro-pop of “Back to My Body” to the perky party track “Lime Green.” And I swear this is the first record I’ve ever reviewed for this column where Madonna loomed large as an influence. Indie-rockers, the soundtrack to your summer of ’24 has arrived.
F.O.D. – Once A Virgin (SBAM Records)
Belgium pop-punk, ne c’est pas? With a name ripped off from a Philly hardcore band and a sound cobbled together from their American heroes, principally NOFX, Green Day, and Bad Religion. Everything’s sung in tight two-part harmonies, which is nice, and while the songs ring a lot of familiar bells, they’re not flatly derivative and at least it’s not more Euro Ramonescore. I knew F.O.D., these mooks could’ve just Googled the name and seen it had been used, but beyond that, they’ve assembled a catchy, spirited, entertaining collection of songs here.
GROUND RULE DOUBLES
KANAK – “On The Outside” EP (Pop Clique/The Orchard)
These Asbury Park lifers boast impressive credits (David Johnasen, Sylvain Sylvain, Dramarama, Well of Souls) but don’t expect shopworn 1970’s old-guy punk. Kanak, fronted by and presumably named for singer/guitarist Tom Kanach, delivers ebullient power-pop, with swaggering guitar solos, thundering drums, and a hefty bottom. Ed Stasium’s full-bodied but cliché-laden production does tend to make this sound like something disinterred from an 80s time capsule and things can get a bit cheesy at times. But if the recent death of Eric Carmen had you running for your old Raspberries albums, fall back into the warm embrace of Kanak’s harmony vocals and triple-guitar testosterone overdose.
GRADUATION SPEECH – Arcane Feelings (Protagonist Music)
Kevin Day from Jersey emo-rockers Aspiga formed Graduation Speech as an outlet for quieter acoustic projects, but the project has now expanded into a full band. Despite the addition of electric guitars, bass, and drums, the songs remain on the quiet, introspective side, and Day continues to sing and write like New Jersey’s answer to Conor Oberst. “9-12-20” doesn’t seem to be overtly about the pandemic, it’s just sad and lonely (as most of us were that year) but its slow-build crescendo of instrumentation and vocals exemplify Graduation Speech’s musical metamorphosis into something far more substantial and significant than yet another emo kid mumbling into a microphone.