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 columnist for Off Shelf with the Punk Rock Scouting Report and 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. This list is not meant to be definitive and almost certainly incomplete but here are his top ten albums in no order.
REDD KROSS – Redd Kross (In The Red Records)
Brothers Steve and Jeff McDonald have been Redd Kross since puberty, and despite a few hiatuses, have never really gone away. But this collection of 18 new songs proves that the brothers may only just now be peaking. Catchy, colorful, jubilant, snotty, and psychedelic, Redd Kross is just part of a landmark year for the band, which includes the publication of a memoir and a feature-length documentary.
AMY RIGBY – Hang In There With Me (self-released)
Milestone birthdays hit us all differently. Turning 60 inspired Amy Rigby to pen this beautiful album, much of which deals with aspects of aging. Of course, it’s Amy Rigby, so the songs are tuneful, bright, and clever, even when tinged with sadness. She’s long been one of my favorite singer-songwriters and this has been a huge year for her, with an international tour and a move from the Catskills to England (with her husband, “Wreckless Eric” Goulden).
KAL MARKS – Wasteland Baby (Exploding In Sound Records)
Founding frontman Carl Shane and the Kal Marks 4.0 lineup (bassist John Russell, drummer Adam Berkowitz, and guitarist Christina Puerto – Shane’s life partner) have taken the angry, brittle post-punk they’ve made up to this point and expanded it in ways both musical and philosophical. At times, Wasteland Baby sounds like a transmission received inside a bunker, complete with radio static and other effects. But then the title track explodes like a pop superhit from the MTV era, with a soaring vocal and glorious melody, the way you sing when a war has been won. With an apocalypse seemingly right around the corner, we’ll need songs like this.
CARNAGE ASADA – Head On A Platter (Historial Records)
These East L.A. punk rock lifers bonded as middle school cholos in the early 80’s and have forged indestructible bonds through the years, playing in a bevy of bands that have influenced generations. As Carnage Asada, a band that’s been knocking around since ’93 but only now releasing a full-length, they bring swagger, grit, and humor in heavy doses, with crunching guitars, ear-stabbing bass, and roiling drums, fusing punk, metal, and post-punk. They sing of the streets they grew up on, alleys and slums littered with discarded needles, rusty nails, and broken glass, but their brotherhood in music elevates those hardscrabble memories into something magnificent.
CATHEDRAL CEILINGS – La La La… Whatever (Dromedary Records)
These rock ‘n’ roll lifers from the swamps of Jersey have credits as long as your arm and a seemingly endless array of chunky riffs that they pile into terse, frantic, imaginative three minute miracles, every one on point and memorable. There are melodies here, lots of ‘em, enough for me to make a laundry list of all my favorite bands from the 90s and 00s which these guys unabashedly and unashamedly worship. Cathedral Ceilings blow your mind by how friggin’ good they are at sounding like all your favorite loud, fast records. That is their genius.
J. ROBBINS – Basilisk (Dischord)
J. Robbins has fronted quite a few bands over the decades – Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels, Office of Future Plans, not to mention his early days in Scream and Government Issue. But on his second solo album, besides adding electronic elements not heard in previous work, Robbins brings an immediacy and urgency that’s nothing short of electrifying. Robbins is writing for himself here, not to fit the style of a band, and while he’s always been a keenly intelligent and articulate songwriter, there’s a laser sharp focus to these tracks, whether singing about personal tumult (“Automaticity”) or the existential danger to democracy posed by January 6 (“Last War”).
JESUS LIZARD – Rack (Ipecac)
On their first new music since 1998, Jesus Lizard reclaim their rep as one of the fiercest and most confrontational post-punk bands on the planet. The original lineup remains intact: the electrifying David Yow on vocals, Duane Denison’s acid-drenched riffing and David Wm. Sims’ bass pummeling the listener over Mac McNeily’s explosive drums. When the band does take its collective foot off the gas for a bit – these guys are, after all, sexagenarians – the results remain vital and interesting. And even as these guys bludgeon your ears, they’re tickling your cerebral cortex as well, with a sly wit that swirls under the surface of even the most frantic tracks.
SPRINTS – Letter To Self (City Slang)
Following in the footsteps of Idles, Shame, and Fontaines D.C., Sprints’ Karla Chubb unleashes the vitriol of a new generation of disaffected U.K. youth, speaking/singing/spitting out lyrics and riffs with unbridled passion. Reportedly inspired to start a band after seeing Savages perform in 2016, these Dubliners unleash a barrage of questions, emotions, and pain summed up in Chubb’s wailing cry of “Is anybody happy?” Fuck no. That’s the point, innit?
EARLY RISER – Big Life (Asbestos Records)
With the ubiquitous Mikey Erg on drums and Heidi Vanderlee’s enchanting cello adding an unexpected sound, Early Riser’s third full-length proved to be my favorite pop-punk release of the year. Lots of acoustic guitar and the vocals of Kiri Oliver bring a welcomed light touch and an engaging buoyancy, even when Oliver advocates for female empowerment, brushes off a loser boyfriend, dreams about leaving left alone (her idea of that titular “big life,”) or wonders what to do when “you’re a superstar in a shit town.”
THE ZATOPEKS – Loitering & Sauntering (Stardumb Records)
On their first new album in a decade, The Zatopeks prove they remain one of pop-punk’s great gifts to the world. Will DeNiro’s rapid-fire vocals and the band’s unending supply of melodies meld political fervor, musical verve, and unbridled, infectious enthusiasm into an unstoppable force. The opening track delivers a treatise on the British economy, another reclaims an anti-fascist marching song from the Spanish Civil War and makes it The Zatopeks’ own, and the lyric that begins “it’s a fine sunny day and I’ve got to go” morphs into an indictment of the British justice system. Catchy, smart, and infectious, Loitering & Sauntering is a keeper.