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.
HOME RUNS
BORDERLINES – “Repair Kit” EP (Mom’s Basement Records)
Pop-punk comes in all shapes and sizes and flavors and styles – and granted – some of it qualifies as what Tom Lehrer once called rock ‘n’ roll: Children’s music. Portland, ME’s Borderlines pack melody and punch into their music, there’s a definite punk vibe, but these aren’t songs for or by kids. There’s an elegance to their transitions and chord changes, complexity in the arrangements, and an undeniable intelligence and insight in the lyrics. Lead singers Matt Anderson and Andrew Rice (of the great Leftovers) sing (not shout) everything with confidence and conviction, and their guitars not only pack a punch but rip off short, concise solos that really grab your ear. “Okay, Socrates” takes a sad topic – being stuck in a rut as you rapidly approach middle age – but makes it sound buoyant and uplifting, with some reggae-influenced riffage that sets the song apart from most 3-minute punkarama. The same with “Tragedy Waits,” as the band sings “tragedy waits for me” to a hook that’s pure ice cream and bubblegum. Top-notch, fun, and smart.
BAMBERDOST – Songs About Your ‘Girlfriend’ (self-released)
This Jersey punk outfit features members of bands I wrote about in the first issues of my fanzine back in the early 80’s, including Paul Mauled (Undead, Bad Whoremoans), Jack Gibson (US Chaos), and Chris Pingor (Subway Surfers, Death In The Arena). The trio has only been together a year or so, but sound like they’ve been playing for ages. As Chris Pierce once told me, old punks have a huge advantage, they know how to play and they know to get the best sounds from their guitars and amps. Bamberdost’s sound hews toward garage punk with a debt to the Misfits on “Favorite Creature” and the bumptious melodic hardcore of 90s stalwarts like Samiam or Bouncing Souls, or the “Lookout!” style of Screeching Weasel and The Queers. Most of the songs tackle typical rock ‘n’ roll tropes – broken hearts, toxic relationships – but written with much more sophistication and insight than your typical post-adolescent punk band; “no space for you to orbit comfortably/synapses yearn for my next dopamine,” for example, on a terrific track called “Simple Life.” Thirteen songs and there’s not one I’ll skip over the next time I play this.
LINE DRIVES
HUDSON CITY RATS – Just Can’t Get Enough (self-released)
If you’ve ever seen these rock ‘n’ roll lifers live, you wouldn’t hesitate to call them a punk band. But in fact, Jersey City’s Hudson City Rats give a masterclass on the roots of rock on their album, drawing from a rich back catalog of blues, rockabilly, surf-rock instrumentals, boogie-woogie and swing. Fronted by wildman Pat Lally’s howling vocals and bolstered by Robert Boudreau’s chameleonic guitar, “Just Can’t Get Enough” puts the wham back in whammy bar and connects the dots between blues, rhythm & blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. Favorites include the surfy ode to Jersey City’s nightmarish highway, Routes “1 & 9,” the surf-and-spy instrumental “Area 51,” the jump’n jive of “Anthem,” and the Cab Calloway swing of “Balzac Boogie.” The whole album’s a blast, like the best roadhouse jukebox you’ll ever find on Route 66.
THE CAMPBELL APARTMENT – (510) (Mint 400 Records)
The Campbell Apartment – essentially singer/songwriter/musician Ari Vais and a fluid cast of backing musicians – has been turning out catchy, clever indie-rock in the vein of Scott Miller or David Berman (with a nod towards 90s slacker-pop) for a good while. This is his eighth album as The Campbell Apartment (and fifth for New Jersey’s Mint 400 Records). The transplanted New Yorker – you can actually find him getting a makeover on the original run of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy – has finally accepted San Francisco as his adopted home (hence the title, his current area code), although geography seems the last thing on his mind. Instead, Vais considers divorce, falling in love, loneliness, anger, and in “Winter 2028,” wishing the world would just stop for a while, set to mid-tempo indie-rock with flowing melodies (“Ambulen,” “What’s Going On,”) grungy rock riffs (“Biter,” “Grudge,”) and muscular indie-pop (“Talulah Says”). Album closer “30,000 Days” ponders how long we’re likely to live and what we do with the time we have, and to me represents quintessential Campbell Apartment: clever, tuneful, and just a bit too angular to be dismissed as power-pop.
DAN PAQUIN – Head Case (self-released)
Pop-punk aficionados might remember Dan Paquin from the great Dirt Bike Annie as well as 30-second-song phenoms Short Attention. On his second solo album, mostly written during the COVID pandemic, Paquin muses on topics like loss, death, divorce, mental health issues, and the edginess of his vocals reflect discomfort, anomie, and unease. “At Last I’m Leaving You Behind” and “Barely Afloat” lay out his emotional distress; “Slippin’” includes the existential query, “where do we go from here?” Even a song about coping strategies – “Flowin’ Down The River” – can be disquieting, albeit with some gorgeous vocal harmonies. The somber tone and acoustic instrumentation on “Beach Boys Paradise” evokes scenes of the L.A. fires more than the fun ‘n’ sun pop of those other Beach Boys, and the angsty lyrics of “Destiny Was” read like something an emo teenager might scribble in his notebook during math class. So while Head Case won’t cheer you up, the musicianship, arrangements, and songwriting all impress. A good rainy day record, perhaps?
EATER LIFE – self-titled ep (self-released)
This young NYC combo’s self-titled, debut EP, produced by Richard Barone of The Bongos, reflects the style and concerns of a generation for whom The Strokes were their Ramones. There’s a lot to like here, including well-finessed arrangements with vibrant vocal interplay, a charismatic frontman in lyricist Victor Kariolic, stinging guitar work, and four distinct songs. “BH” kicks off with a sassy shuffle, the lower-case “I should have walked all the way home” spits out a staccato vocal that’s equal parts Speedies and “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” The band slams on the brakes for the evanescent, shoegazey intro to the six-minute “Dream Again,” which in classic grunge fashion utilizes soft/loud and slow/fast dynamics (but goes on just a wee bit too long). That leaves “Pulaski,” three minutes of snarling post-adolescent angst that, well, smells like teen spirit, and leaves a great deal of promise for whatever Eater Life chews off next.
SINGLES
RICKY ROCHELLE – ”Imagine Being Eric” / “Good News, I Love You” (self-released)
Ricky Rochelle starred in several Long Island pop-punk bands as that rara avis, a singing drummer, but as a solo artist, he’s been turning out clever, catchy, and hummable power-pop with aplomb. He’s recently released two new singles in rapid order, “Imagine Being Eric” in late January and now, “Good News, I Love You.”
Poor mailman Eric lives alone with his cat smoking dope. He can’t find a girlfriend and even if he did, “she’d never be good enough.” He’d never be good enough either. Recorded with Gregg Gavitt on electric guitars, bass and keyboards, the song stomps to a martial beat with warm harmony vocals, and while the song has Ricky’s usual sunny disposition aurally, the lyrics are quite something else: “Imagine being Eric for even a single day.” The Kinks’ “David Watts” or The Jam’s “Smither-Jones” come to mind, both character studies on the common man, and the track echoes the sound of those two bands; just the point of view has changed. The Kinks’ narrator wants to escape his humdrum life and be like the successful David Watts; The Jam’s poor Smither-Jones loses his job, the omniscent narrator represent the Corporate State that controls his sodding life. But Eric’s just this loser that Ricky likes but pities. It’s both more personal and, in a way, even sadder than The Kinks or Jam. Like all of Ricky Rochelle’s music, it’s bright and tuneful, but this one’s not so happy. Unlike a lot of disposable power-pop, it sticks with you and leaves you thinking.
”Good News, I Love You,” also recorded with Gavitt and co-written with Rusty Rochelle, has a lot going on for a two minute pop song. There’s a giddy power-pop chorus, a loping reggae-ish bassline through the verses, and a lovely, almost psychedelic bridge. The nightly news is horrific and the guy’s lost his job – that’s the bad news in the verses – but once he’s home with his wife, the “good news, I love you” chorus takes over and it’s all rainbows and lollipops. It’s positively schizophrenic, a terrific single that shows some truly sophisticated songwriting chops that’s also exquisitely recorded. Find these tunes on his Bandcamp along with the highly recommended EP “The First Few Years,” which collects his solo stuff from 2020 to 2023 including the political takedown “Tucker Carlson Sucks” and a Ramonescore masterpiece about a young man moving out of his parents’ house called “So Long And Thanks For All The Laundry.”