Welcome to Four Records! Each episode, we feature one guest as they discuss the four records that helped shape them at four different times in their life. This week, Forrest speaks with Ben Haberland, singer and songwriter of the band Onesie. Their newest album, Way Thousand Bump To The Sky, is out now on Sell the Heart Records. The band has a record relase show, join them if you are in the area:

July 9th – Main Drag Music – Brooklyn, NY 

Ben Haberland’s Four Records:

0-10: Madonna – True Blue 

Teenage: Lifetime – Hello Bastards

Twenties: Stephen Malkmus- Face The Truth

Recent Record: Lemon Twigs – Go To School

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Email: fourrecordspodcast@gmail.com

www.DyingScene.com

Opening song: Rad Skulls – Loud as Shit

Closing song: Lucas Perea – Underneath Ashes

Here’s some background on the video, courtesy of Moonraker drummer David Green:

“We shot this using the backup cameras in our cars and a truck I borrowed from work. Shoutout to Raine for shooting it and to my coworker Aaron for working the lift gate on the truck while Matt ripped his solo. We all got crazy sun burnt making this. Turns out when you film in a parking lot all day, you should wear sunscreen. There’s a Beastie Boys video where they have famous actors play them (“Make Some Noise”). When asked about the filming of it, Danny McBride said, “Once you’re there, rapping into a fisheye lens, you realize you’ve been training for this your entire life.” He was right.”

This premiere is brought to you in part by Punk Rock Radar. If you’d like your band’s music video to be premiered by Dying Scene and Punk Rock Radar, go here and follow these instructions. You’ll be on your way to previously unimagined levels of fame and fortune in no time.

During our interview about Answer That And Stay Fashionable, Geoff had offered to talk about the record that followed, Very Proud of Ya. I immediately agreed. The story Geoff told was of a young band on the brink of success. As a kind of part two from that previous interview, we see a band keeping up with a scene that’s taking off while adjusting to their newfound success.

How long was there between the release of Answer That and Stay Fashionable and the recording of Very Proud of Ya?

That came out in July of ’95, and it was around November when we started recording some of the songs that later ended up on the album as a separate session. Basically, we just kind of stayed in writing mode for the duration. The recording began, I want to say it was in February of ’96. It would have probably been late February, early March when we started to do the tracking for the actual album. We did the mastering for Very Proud of Ya on April 1, 1996. 

I think we were in the studio, maybe two days of tracking drums. It was maybe a day and a half of bass, a day and a half of guitars, and three days of vocals. We ended up tacking on an extra couple of days to do a couple of other songs in the session. It was pretty quick to have the answer out in July and then be in the studio, making the next album. By today’s standards, I guess it was a pretty quick jump.

Yeah. How long did you guys tour Answer That And Stay Fashionable?

That wasn’t very long. We started off doing a U.S. tour that, I want to say, was at the end of June ’95. We were on the road when Answer That and Stay Fashionable was officially released on July 4th. From there, we stayed on the road through the end of November to mid-December. That was the extent of touring for Answer That and Stay Fashionable. We kind of just stayed in writing mode because we were active, and it was kind of easy to just stay in that groove. We kind of just didn’t pump the brakes for that time.

How long does it take before Nitro Records comes in and starts talking to you guys?

Before Answer That and Stay Fashionable was actually released, we had sent a demo tape to several labels. Nitro was one of the labels that we sent the tape to. I think, a few months prior to recording Answer That, Nitro was kind of maybe a little already interested at that point. I guess we hadn’t really proven ourselves as far as being a touring band or anything like that. So they came into the picture. It would have been October, November of ’95, possibly December. We had just finished the bigger tour that we did that year. I think that maybe somebody put a bug in somebody’s ear to check us out. That’s what kind of sealed it for them.

Was Dexter involved in acquiring the bands and contracts and things like that? Would he go to the shows to check bands out, or was he just the name behind the label?

You know, I don’t remember if he came to see us play before or after we were signed to the label. All of everything that was done at a desk or whenever we were in an office, it was done directly with him. If The Offspring weren’t on the road, he was in the office Monday through Friday. He was reachable; if we needed to contact him for anything, it was fairly easy to get a call back and get whatever we needed taken care of.

Did Wingnut want to put out the next record?

Yes, they did. This recording session that I mentioned was happening in the fall of ’95. The owner of Wingnut Records came to the studio while we were in session and was kind of pressing me, “Are we ready to do a second album with them and all this?” It was a little overwhelming because it wasn’t really something that was intended, to make a second album that quickly. It just kind of happened that way. When Nitro became involved, they were ready for us to go like, now. So it was kind of a surprise, but while I was talking to the owner of Wingnut in the studio, he asked me, “Am I ready to do a second album with them?” My honest answer was that I didn’t know when there was going to be a second album. We were still in the process of writing and recording.

From my perspective, my thought was that we would do a couple of EPs and then maybe another album, say the following summer or whatever. As I said, once Nitro got involved, it really was kind of like getting on a roller coaster because they were ready for us to be in the studio right away and start getting the record out. Wingnut definitely was interested in doing another record with us.

You guys signed with Nitro, and we kind of talked about how you had to re-record some of the songs.

That’s the extra couple of days they got tacked on to the end of the session. Thirty years later, I still don’t see the point in doing it, but it was something that Mr. Holland insisted we do.

The witty song titles are still there, but the jokey lyrics were left behind. Was that how you guys were trying to make Very Proud of Ya different from Answer That?

It was a conscious effort to get away from that kind of stuff with the sort of cartoonish lyrics. It was something that when I was joining the band in ’92, they were already trying to distance themselves from. I thought it was fun. It was a cool element, but it also seemed like it was time to not do that. As far as the lyrics on Answer That and Stay Fashionable, there was a lot more shared lyric writing happening for that record. Whereas with Very Proud of Ya, it was more of a shift to where I personally took more of the reins of just writing and putting the music together, and allowed the lyrics to be written. Not like giving permission, but allowing everyone to just express their own way of making the songs and contributing in whatever way they wanted to contribute.

Answer That and Stay Fashionable was a little more controlled, but Very Proud of Ya is more of a band record. It was composed of older songs that the band had before I joined. Those were kind of like the more modernized versions of those songs. The songs that I’ve contributed to that album, musically or lyrically, are things that I was writing outside of before I had joined the band for the most part. Very Proud of Ya then sort of became more of a band effort where almost all of the songs were brand new, aside from the ones that were rerecorded. It was more of a band experience for everybody contributing their own part and allowing a producer to tell us how we sounded rather than us telling each other how we sounded.

That kind of contributed to that aspect of it. Anyway, to get back to the more mature lyrics, if you will, that was a conscious decision that was something they were trying to do before I joined the band, and it just kind of fell by the wayside. Everyone was a bit older. Those were the songs we had in our setlist, and we didn’t really consider taking time to rewrite them or write more new songs. We just jumped on it and went with what we had. I think that there was probably a sense of them thinking that it was a bit childish because it was written when they were in high school. They had all been going to college at this point. I think that it was probably less important for me that the lyrics became more serious than for whoever had to sing them.

I think that was probably the biggest part of it, not wanting to sing cartoony songs and be sort of taken more seriously. It was quite a serious effort that was being put into Nitro wanting to work with us. It was a big deal. Everybody kind of took it a lot more seriously than the previous record. It kind of went from there.

Was there any pushback from Nitro as to what kind of record you should make, or were they just like, “Go and do your thing”?

I think part of the reason why we did the demos for Very Proud of Ya was because they wanted to hear the songs. Also, we needed to record demo versions of the songs for the producer to make suggestions, or not make suggestions, or what have you. The only thing that I can say we were pressured to do is just to re-record those two songs. That was really the only pressure, aside from the time constraint, because we didn’t really have enough time. We didn’t manage our time as wisely as we would have had we known how involved the production aspect was of making the record.

Were you guys in a different studio, or did you record at the same place?

We were in a different studio, where all of the recordings we had done since regrouping took place. We had done all of that stuff, including the demo session that went to Nitro, as well as a couple of sessions afterward, all at the Art of Ears. We wanted to record Very Proud of Ya there also, but the producer wanted to record it elsewhere. It was weird for us because it was not really what we were used to. It was a little nerve-wracking because it was kind of tight quarters in there, and some of the gear was very pricey, high-end recording equipment. It was a little intimidating to even be in the same room as some of that stuff at that point.

Was there pushback from Nitro to make the same record or to make a different record?

No, no, there was no pushback whatsoever. All of the material that we submitted, they liked. They didn’t have any issues with anything. Literally, the only pushback at all was from us not wanting to rerecord the two songs that they wanted rerecorded. And that was the only issue with Nitro as far as pushback was involved. They were fans and were excited about the new songs and all that.

Are there any songs that didn’t make it onto Answer That and Stay Fashionable but made it onto Very Proud of Ya?

There were three extra songs on the vinyl that are not available on the CD. Having said that, the vinyl bonus tracks were songs we had also recorded versions of for Answer That And Stay Fashionable, but for whatever reason, we just weren’t feeling the performances or whatever. So we left them off of that record. The song “Charles Atlas,” which is track twelve on Very Proud of Ya, was originally going to be on Answer That And Stay Fashionable, but the chorus and the arrangement were different. We decided to try a little harder on that one to make it a better song.

I saw an interview with Adam and Davey where said there are about twelve to fourteen good songs on the album. Do you feel that’s accurate?

I would agree with that. 

What were the ones played in the set?

Oh, as far as what was played in the set from Very Proud of Ya, we played all of that stuff. At one point or another, all of the songs on both albums had been on the set list at some point between ’92 and ’97, but I definitely would agree there’s some fat that could have been trimmed from what got released. I think it would have been better as a fifteen to sixteen track release, instead. Like I said, I think there were three songs that got added to the vinyl that are not available. So, twenty-three songs were released.

There are three really good songs that didn’t get finished and were supposed to be on the record. That would have definitely made it a more solid record. I think we would have had the time to record those three songs. My guess is that we would have cut four to six songs.

Is that four to six, including the ones rerecorded from Answer That, or on top of those?

Not including those. I would cut at least four more. It would definitely be a better record. Retrospectively, I think that if we had been able to self-edit a little bit more, we probably would have released a shorter, better album, and the recordings would be a little more complete than what they are. There had been a plan to do more with adding other guitar parts and such, but there just wasn’t enough time.

The producer’s work style was very different from what we were used to or what we expected. This is all pre-Pro Tools too, you know? So, everything was on analog tape. If you had to redo a part, it was kind of a tedious and very time-consuming process to do it the way we were doing it. I think that’s also partially a contributor to why some of the songs didn’t get the treatment that they were intended to have. As I say, a few of the songs on the record have guitar solos. 

I think it would have been a better record if we had just not recorded half a dozen of those songs that really didn’t need to be recorded again and focused more on executing the new songs, making them the best they could be in retrospect at the time. I thought that all the songs were good, and some of them not as good as others, but they can’t all be winners, right?

 What do you feel are the highlights of this album for you song-wise?

“He Who Laughs Last,” “File 13,” “Advances in Modern Technology,” “This Secret Ninja.”

This Secret Ninja has always been one of my favorites. When I first got into punk, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I was relying on bootlegs. I think I had the Snow Jam one. That’s the song that actually hooked me on you guys.

Oh, that’s cool. Right on. Thank you. That’s one of my favorite songs on the record. I also liked “Fishbowl” and still like that song quite a lot. I guess that’s my list as far as what I think are highlights, or the ones that I have a little more pride in. I suppose you would say, as far as where we were musically at that time, I think that if you were to take a cross-section of what we sounded like at the time, those songs would probably embody that the most. 

Nice. So you said there were three songs that you guys didn’t really get to do, that were kind of left over. Did you keep any of that music, or did they use those on another record?

They’ve never been released in any form. I have the master reels from the demo session, but as far as any of it having been released or them rerecording any of it or anything like that? No. The music for those songs I had written, and had I continued in the band, those songs would either have become an EP later or they would have made it onto the third album, if there was going to be a third album. Were I still involved in the band, or whatever, those songs would probably have been on that record. They’ve never been released, and I haven’t even heard them for more than 20 years.

I’ve got them on a cassette somewhere. I’ve got the actual reels from the studio recording, the demo recordings of them, but I don’t exactly have the ability to play them back. I think we actually recorded the drums for them and maybe rough guitar and bass only in the Very Proud of Ya sessions, the actual album session. That’s only a maybe, but as far as anything having made it out of the demo phase of those three songs, that’s where they ended.

Was the Very Proud of Ya Tour bigger than the previous one?

There was definitely more of a wave, as far as being put on other tours. Going into Very Proud of Ya, we had a booking agent. Previously, we had been doing the bookings ourselves. That includes some of the touring for Answer That and Stay Fashionable; it was DIY booking. We had a label that had the resources to keep us on the road, help us get a new van and trailer, and to put us on other tours with other Nitro artists. It was a nice kind of push, you know what I mean? It was cool to do these sort of label-mate tours.

We did a couple of those, but the shows were bigger, the tours were longer, in bigger venues, et cetera. Everything just kind of leveled up. When Very Proud of Ya was basically hitting the streets, we already had some momentum behind us as far as continuing to be gigging and touring. We did a bunch of shows with other bands that were on Nitro, and did a tour with The Offspring. It was pretty cool to have those kinds of opportunities, and those only happened because we signed to Nitro. Those wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

I was going to ask you about the album art, you did the art for this album. How long had you been doing art at that point?

I started doing art when I was really young. I know, it probably sounds ridiculous, but I sold my first painting when I was five years old. I did a watercolor painting of a fish and some guy gave me five bucks for it. I’m sure that’s not an indicator of anything to come, but I have been interested in art my whole life. Since I was a little kid, my dad was very into drawing and painting and making things. I had an uncle that was also super creative. It was kind of already ingrained in me. As far as doing artwork for the band, I started doing artwork for the band as I was joining the band. It was kind of like, “Here’s what I got.” Mark, the guitar player, was also a really talented artist.

A couple of his things were used for graphics before I joined the band. We did keep his logo that’s on the CD of Very Proud of Ya. We called it the AFI ball logo. That was designed by Mark, but the majority of the other graphics up until I left the band, that was stuff that I did. There were a few pieces that we had other artists do, but most of it was done by me. The merchandising, the concept for the Fly in the Ointment EP, the art direction for Answer That And Stay Fashionable, I did the actual physical paste-up layouts for the three EPs that I put out on my label. From the beginning of me getting in the band, I was doing the graphics stuff.

You stayed with the band through 1997. Did Nitro re-release Answer That and Stay Fashionable while you were still in the band?

My last show with them was, I think, April 5th, 1997. I don’t remember the exact date of the re-release of Answer That And Stay Fashionable. I want to say that it was maybe May or June. I didn’t get actual copies of it from Nitro, aside from an advanced copy of the cassette version. I didn’t get a test pressing or anything from them. It definitely came out in the period when I had given notice that I was leaving the band at the end of the tour.

It came out sometime between that and when their next tour began. I don’t think they had a long period of time to work in a new bass player. It might’ve been a month or something like that. I think it was when they were on that tour. I had gone back to Art of Ears and remixed the record with Andy Ernst before release on Nitro.

It’s mixed differently, and we ended up cutting some parts out or adding other parts in. It is slightly different. It was in the process of being released while I was still in the band. I was still art directing. The artwork had to be redone because the files were lost. I oversaw that and approved all the layouts. The only physical thing that I got from Nitro regarding the actual releases is the advanced copy of the cassette with no artwork.

Oh, weird.

It just has the song titles printed in white on the tape, but there’s no J-card. It’s just a clear shell with clear tape with white print. That summer, I ended up buying a copy of it on vinyl that was reissued. I found it in the record store where I was living and bought it. So that’s the copy of it that I have.

Had you worked on any songs with the band before you quit that were going to be on a third album, or did you?

There were three that I previously mentioned that were left off Very Proud of Ya. There was one for which everything was worked out regarding how the song was written, and we had worked it out musically. We made a live soundcheck demo recording of it. I had lyrics for it and have a recording of the instrumental version. I don’t have a recording of the vocal version. That song definitely would have been on the third album.

Which is more of a shift towards what they ended up doing as the third album, anyway. I don’t know if you would say hardcore, but you could probably tell me musically how it shifted between Very Proud of Ya and the third album more than I could probably tell you. That particular song was more in line with that kind of a shift. I had somewhere between fourteen and eighteen songs already written for a third album. I did actually have a conversation with Mark during my last tour and said, “You know, I’ve got all these songs if you want to use them.”

He said, “No, thanks.” It was much more of a band record. It was kind of trusting that everybody was doing the right thing and what’s the best thing for the band. It’s cool that he declined. There were plenty of songs that were ready to be recorded for a third album. It would have definitely been a different record. It definitely would have been a different record. There’s definitely a pivot. 

I was contributing two-thirds plus music that was being brought into the band. Then I was contributing zero percent, and Mark was doing one hundred percent. His writing style was very different from mine. I think that everybody’s tastes had changed from what we had tried to accomplish with Very Proud of Ya. Everybody was wanting something different for the third album, and one of the songs that would have ended up on the third album actually ended up on The Force’s record, the band that Hunter was in before.

“Star Destroyer” was a song for which I had written the music. We were going to do it with AFI, but when I decided to leave the band, I offered it to The Force, and they recorded it. That was another one of the songs that would have made it to the third record.

Did you guys play Star Destroyer in Viva Hate at some point?

Yeah, we actually did “Star Destroyer” in all of our live shows, just to kind of carry that over since Wedge (the Force singer) and I were actually in a band together. It was cool to get to play that together.

So in 1997 you quit AFI. What did you end up doing?

My plan was to be a full-time graphic designer. The second half of the tour, which started off with us opening for The Offspring, was with Sick Of It All. Pete Koller and I became friendly. We got to know each other a little bit on that tour, and he was telling me about how he had gone to school to be a graphic designer. I expressed to him that my plan was not to play music, but to do graphic design. He commissioned me to do three designs for Sick Of It All merchandise. That really jump-started me into doing that full-time, as well as screen printing and printmaking.

I joined Tiger Army in 1999, shortly before the album came out. The record wasn’t even finished being recorded yet, but I was already learning the songs for the first tour. I didn’t go directly to Tiger Army; I was in two bands between AFI and Tiger Army. Those weren’t really serious in terms of touring or anything, just a handful of shows here and there. I did some recording with one of those two bands. That’s when the Tiger Army opportunity happened, and I moved to LA.

Geoff has been putting up a lot of old artwork and flyers from this era. He also does tattoo work. For more info check out his Instagram.

The book starts with chapters on Lou Reed and John Cale, in relation to the page count they don’t spend long in their pre-Velvet Underground lives. It details Reed and Cale’s meeting at a party in NYC. While we don’t get a lot of info about their childhoods, we get an idea of their defiant views from their time in college and how it informed their music. There’s even a chapter on the pre-Velvet Underground band The Primitives that Reed and Cale played in after they met, but also proto-Velvet Underground collaborations, The Falling Spikes (also known as the Warlocks), and the additions of Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker to form the Velvet Underground.

Unterberger mostly sticks to the band members’ professional lives unless it applies to something in the band. The author is very meticulous about the info, even if the citation is decades after the event takes place. Some of the descriptions jump around in time a bit, as it allows connecting the earlier experiences and germinations of the songs to the versions of them we already know. Teases are sprinkled throughout the book about the band’s eventual releases and even the collaborations with Andy Warhol and their hesitant acceptance of taking Nico into the band. There’s this dichotomy that tethers the band to these people, almost making them the supporting cast in their own story. Unterberger can keep these grating moments bittersweet, but recognizes them as tentpoles.

The book is super detailed, but the prose moves fast. There has been so much written about the Velvet Underground that a lot of words are spent on particular subjects, such as recording sessions and gigs. There are numerous accounts of the song recordings, their differences, and what they evolved into, and where they would end up being released whether while the band was active or on a special edition. At such a high page count, it’s clear that there wasn’t much of a limit on how much Unterberger was able to pile on. The book gets a little too meta as it talks about the numerous sources it pulls from in the prose, but this is understandable with a book this massive. If you are a stickler for details, this book has it: shows, demo recordings, relationships, tension, and eventual disbandment.

Before the internet, many stories coming out of the scene seemed like myths. People could only get interviews and stories with bands from magazines or books, but there wasn’t nearly as much documentation as there is now. That’s not including whether the subject was willing to be interviewed or not and how cooperative they would be. Eventually, the internet made it easier to find and catalog these interviews, leading to where we are now. We get these giant books on the things we love, no matter how undesirable they may have been to the general public during their time. Unterberger’s undertaking and choice of the Velvet Underground as his subject reflect this shift and show how far the acceptance of this genre has come.

Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground. is the most comprehensive book covering the Velvet Underground, compiling almost every resource into one compendium. While the band’s trials and tribulations are on display, the book mostly focuses on the minutiae. While minutiae sometimes get a negative connotation, here it should be celebrated as much as the band itself. Unterberger’s research and Omnibus Press’s release of this book are proof that the Velvet Underground is still relevant in conversations about genre-defying music and its history. 

You can pick up Do What You Fear Most: The History of the Velvet Underground by Richie Unterberger at you local bookstore or through Omnibus Press.

Hot Stove Jimmy celebrated the 30th Anniversary of its album Salute. The Chicago Ska Revival band was formed in 1994. On this evening, the headliners brought sizzling bombast and a cacophony of sounds in the very best way. Three decades plus on, the band, through numerous line-up changes, the band was also able to bring out the fun, with each member displaying their own kind of energy.

Jamming through the songs from Salute, it was obvious the fans in this crowd had long been thirsting for the band’s return.

The Crombies is a beloved Windy City crew that plays regularly around the city, with occasional forays across this continent and others.

Tight as always, the band is a blast to watch, with members spinning, jumping, and getting down onto the rock club’s floor with the mic, inviting fans and the many close friends in the crowd to join in the singing.

Get to one of the band’s next shows stat!

Run and Punch punched through tune after tune. The band’s self-description of “Our songs feel like a house party with your favorite people: loud, loose, and sometimes a little too honest” is spot on. Run and Punch’s joy is infectious, but in this case alone, you don’t want a vaccination against it.

Burn Rebuild blazed through its set list as the kick-off band. They grabbed the crowd from the first note and did not let go. That is not always easy work to do for an opening band. But as with its fellow Chicagoans on the bill, a substantial history assured Burn Rebuild would have no issue builfding the tempo for the evening.

More images of Hot Stove Jimmy; The Crombies; Run and Punch; and Burn Rebuild on Instagram.

Once again. Reggies hosted a terrific evening of ska, two-tone, and punk with some of Chicago’s hometown favorites. Good job guys!

“EIDISA” starts with Mike Park’s early life, from childhood to high school, progressing to his first high school band Yellow Jam.  It becomes apparent pretty early on, most noticeably with the actual name of the record label, that this narrative addresses racial issues that effected Park’s early life as a Korean American, which would influence a ton of his own writing and projects.  It’s important to include a lot of Mike Park’s personal narratives when discussing the Asian Man Records and I think Huguenor does very well in dedicating the first quarter of this book to Park, Skankin Pickle and Dill Records, and to the start of Asian Man before getting into many of the bands that signed with the label.

The biggest staples of Asian Man have an entire chapter dedicated to themselves, from The Plea for Peace Tour, Misfits of Ska, even Asian Man Japan. Slow Gherkin, Bomb the Music Industry!, and Park’s other projects The Chinkees and The Bruce Lee Band are just a few of the other Asian Man collectives that have a few incredible stories packed into their own chapters.

While Asian Man Records was first linked closely with ska bands in the midst of the third wave era, its transition to indie rock and emo talent also sheds a light on the tediousness of it in terms of sales, however gaining a cult following years later with bands like Korea Girl and AJJ.  

“EIDISA”  also looks upon the controversial era of The Queers’ time at Asian Man. While the incident around a certain tweet didn’t exactly tarnish the label, but forcibly dragged into unnecessary drama, this chapter was meant to make the reader consider the amount of power social media now has over the music industry, more specifically how much power a person can have whilst hiding behind their screen.

On top of being a touring guitarist, Mike Huguenor shows he is also an incredible raconteur, that sets up stories well enough to make you keep reading.  While I found information to be sometimes repetitive, it doesn’t distract from the witty and sometimes emotional passages sprinkled throughout “EIDISA”.  Is this the greatest book ever about Asian Man? Seeing as it’s the only, I would say yes.

I was lucky to meet with both author Mike Huguenor and Jeff Rosenstock upon the book’s release, and it’s apparent on the amount of research and interviews that Mike had gone through for this book. I found the advice he gave me as a writer is quite the same as how he describes bands from Asian Man getting their start into popularity.  Overall, this is a super entertaining read packed with information that will hopefully inspire its readers to get out and do something for their community. 

True’s account of the original four, Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy, doesn’t spend too much time on their lives as kids, but we do get some info on the members’ pre-Ramones lives. It’s interesting to hear about the band’s early formation and hilarious stories about the band and their beginnings, things like Joey falling over multiple times during their first show and Dee Dee stepping on and snapping the neck of his bass right before they had to go on.

The chapters move fast despite the amount of info given and how slow time moves in the narrative of the Ramones story. Everett True’s writing feels relaxed despite this. He lets us bask in what it was like to be a Ramone even when the relationships deteriorate and the band splinters off. While we all know where the band’s story ends as a group and individually, it’s still a tough ending. We lost the three core Ramones within less than five years of each other and way too early in this lifetime.

There’s a really cool, but short, chapter that has blurbs of the definition of punk, something that usually ends up horribly, but these are given by architects of the genre. People who know what they are talking about because they were there speak about how much that definition is wrapped in the Ramones’ legacy. Quotes from Rodney Bingenheimer, John Holstrom, and some of the Ramones themselves give meaning and feeling to a genre that prides itself on acknowledging neither. It’s one of the charming aspects of this book, of which there are many.

If you’re looking for a warts and all book about the Ramones, this is it. Separating punk rock fact from fiction: the music, the infighting, and lineup changes are all there. The book jumps between the recount of the band’s history from people in the scene to Everett True’s experiences and thoughts with the band’s music, but also addresses every rumor and myth about the band including Dee Dee’s time as a prostitute and the disintegration of Johnny and Joey’s relationship by giving perspective from the people directly involved.

True’s meticulous work and research do not go unnoticed. This is hands down the best book about the Ramones’ story. Conveniently re-released as an Omnibus Press Remaster for the 50th Anniversary of the Ramones’ first album, Hey! Ho! Let’s Go! The Story of the Ramones is the book every Ramones fan should read. Not only does it help give a picture of the band’s musical career, it tells the story of the band that defined a genre. Pick up Hey! Ho! Let’s Go! The Story of the Ramones from Omnibus Press.

Coming home from work, I stumbled upon a $1 house show that was preparing for their final band of the night.  While the immense crowd of teens and young college kids had already listened to indie and pop punk collectives, it was time for ska punk to close out the show.  The band to send people home happy: Skidwizard, an Inland Empire band that has gained much respect in a quick amount of time in the ska scene.

Almost immediately you could feel the energy as the horn line consisting of a trumpet and trombone player blasted their first note, followed immediately by groovy bass lines, clean guitar upstrokes, and hard-hitting rhythms from the drums.  I was impressed not only by the band’s instrumental talents, but by the response of the crowd as well.

Palm trees were shaking and people were skanking as the band played through some of the most original ska punk sounds I’ve heard this year. They played songs off their recent debut EP “Lyin’ Hawaiian”, as well as covers from bands like Skankin’ Pickle and Reel Big Fish. 

Rising from the ashes of former band The London System, Skidwizard amps up the punk in their already mastered ska sound.  Heavily inspired by bands like Skankin Pickle, Rx Bandits, and The Hippos, the group shares that same moving horn lines and witty lyricism.

As the band turns 1 year old his month, they have managed to blow up at such a fast pace since their start. The younger generation is quick to understand how to market themselves on social media, as Skidwizard is already becoming well established not just in the Inland Empire, but in SoCal as a whole.

The reality is that there’s a ska punk drought.  It may not look like it, but when you look at the age range of these bands, most people are in their 30s or older.  Only a handful of bands like Chudson, Inpost, and 2-Step Chicks are still fueled by frenetic, youthful energy. Skidwizard joins the small collection of teens/college kids saving the ska punk scene and has the potential to become future underground legends.

Not only does Skidwizard have a new album in the works, but they will be going on their first summer tour as well. If you live in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, or Colorado, get ready for some IE ska punk coming your way! 

A lot has changed since Slam Dunk’s first edition in 2006, at Leeds Millennium Square. The stages are bigger, the crowds are bigger, and the lineup now stretches across almost every corner of alternative music. What hasn’t changed is the feeling of arriving and immediately seeing thousands of people who clearly wouldn’t want to spend their Saturday anywhere else.

The first thing I noticed after arriving by train wasn’t the stages or which band was about to play. It was the people. Friends reuniting with one another outside the gates, groups comparing schedules and talking about where they should meet up since our telephone signal was lost upon entrance, I hope they fix that next year, and despite the heatwave and the sizes of the different crowd sizes, the atmosphere felt warm, welcoming, and excited. For all the growth Slam Dunk has experienced over the past two decades, it still feels like a festival built by and for the community that helped it survive.

OF COURSE, some parts of the experience were impossible to ignore. The heat was relentless. Bar queues became a running joke throughout the day. Every patch of shade was occupied by somebody trying to recover before the next set, by chugging water like there was no tomorrow. And as someone bouncing between stages, interviews, and the press area, I quickly learned that seeing everything on my schedule was never going to happen. Somewhere between standing in a queue for a drink and racing across the site, I even managed to miss half of State Champs’ set. Sorry!!!

Twenty years on, Slam Dunk still feels like a festival where everyone is trying to do the same thing: fit an entire weekend’s worth of bands into a single day.

Angel Du$t – Main Stage East Left

While there were a few anniversary shows, the focus wasn’t quite there. Angel Du$t felt like a reminder that the festival wasn’t built on nostalgia. But on new innovations.

By the time the band took the stage, the crowd was more than ready to jump into a pit. The heat wasn’t exactly merciful, but the crowd worked with what they got as the band went through their set.

But what made Angel Du$t interesting is that they don’t just fit into the hardcore genre. There’s so much more to them, soundwise, something weirder and more fun happening underneath it all. And everyone was there for it!

Boston Manor – Monster Energy Stage Right

Boston Manor could have easily spent their Slam Dunk set leaning into nostalgia. A lot of bands were doing that, and rightfully so. But instead, the Blackpool band used their time on stage to showcase just how they’ve evolved over the last decade.

Boston Manor’s set felt a bit like a tour through their entire career. One minute they were playing newer songs like “Floodlights on the Square” and “Passenger,” the next they were throwing the crowd back to tracks like “Laika” and “Stop Trying, Be Nothing.”

That balance paid off throughout the set. Older songs sparked memories that flooded back, while the newer material drew some of the loudest sing-alongs. Rather than looking backward, the band used their set as a celebration of everything they have become since they first started appearing.

Dashboard Confessional – Main Stage West

I only caught part of Dashboard Confessional’s set. Like most people at Slam Dunk, I was already checking the time and trying to figure out how long I could stay before needing to head somewhere else.

Even so, it didn’t take long to understand why so many people had made them a priority. Within minutes, the crowd had largely taken over singing duties. Chris Carrabba would start a line, and thousands of people would happily finish it for him.

Sadly, like many people at Slam Dunk, I found myself watching one band while keeping an eye on the time for the next, with The Menzingers waiting across the site. I eventually had to make a run for it before Dashboard’s set was over.

But from what I did catch, it was enough to understand why so many people had made them a priority. Even after all these years, the songs still connect in a way that few bands can catch.

The Menzingers – Monster Energy Stage Right

Twenty minutes before The Menzingers took the stage, I was sitting with Greg Barnett and Eric Keen talking about growing older.

Not in the dramatic, rock-and-roll sense. Just life. Families. Kids. The strange reality of somehow being twenty years into a career that started because a group of friends wanted to play punk rock.

Twenty years in, The Menzingers still don’t seem entirely convinced they’re supposed to be here. When I asked what had kept the band together for so long, Greg’s first response was a joke about fame and fortune before both he and Eric settled on a much simpler answer: people kept showing up.

An hour later, standing in front of the stage, it was hard not to see exactly what they meant.

Opening with “I Don’t Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore,” The Menzingers were greeted by a crowd that barely needed warming up. If anything, it felt like people had been waiting for this set all day. Everywhere you looked, someone was singing. Not just the big choruses either. Entire verses disappeared beneath the audience as songs like “The Obituaries,” “Good Things,” and “After the Party” rolled through the set.

Earlier in the day, Barnett had told me that one of the best parts about The Menzingers is that their fans have grown alongside the band. “They’re seeing their stories in the same way that we are existing,” he explained.

Looking around the crowd, it felt less like an interview answer and more like a statement of fact.

The people who first connected with these songs aren’t the same people anymore. Some have children. Some have gone through divorces. Some have moved countries, changed careers, lost people, found people, and somehow ended up here on a Saturday afternoon in Hatfield singing along to a band that has soundtracked a large part of their lives.

That’s what made The Menzingers’ set feel different from many of the anniversary celebrations happening elsewhere across the festival. There was no need to revisit a classic album or recreate a specific moment in time. The connection was already there.

That same mindset has shaped the band’s upcoming album. Rather than looking backward, Barnett described the new record as an attempt to document the present. “It felt like we don’t really need to be looking towards the future or the past,” he told me. “It just feels like we need to kind of document what’s happening right now.”

In many ways, that idea also explains why The Menzingers continue to matter.

While plenty of bands spend years chasing the version of themselves that people fell in love with, The Menzingers have allowed themselves to grow up in public. The songs have changed. The people listening have changed. Yet somehow the connection remains exactly the same.

Earlier in the day, Greg had told me that The Menzingers’ fans had grown alongside the band. By the time “After the Party” rolled around, I didn’t really need the explanation anymore.

Taking Back Sunday – Main Stage West

Taking Back Sunday should have been one of the highlights of the day.

Celebrating twenty years of Louder Now at Slam Dunk feels like a perfect match on paper. Few records are as closely tied to the festival’s audience, and judging by the number of people packed in front of the stage, plenty of fans agreed.

Unfortunately, the sound had other ideas.

Whether it was where I was standing, issues with the mix, or just Adam himself, I spent more time trying to figure out what was happening than actually enjoying the set. Vocals regularly felt buried, and instead of being pulled into the performance, I found myself growing increasingly distracted by the technical side.

Maybe that’s unfair. Maybe somebody standing fifty meters away had an entirely different experience. That’s the reality of festival sets.

What I can say is that after spending most of the day running between stages, sitting through interviews, and standing in queues, Taking Back Sunday became one of the few bands I chose to walk away from.

Judging by the crowd that stayed behind, plenty of people were still having a great time. I just wasn’t one of them.

Motion City Soundtrack – Monster Energy Stage

Slam Dunk’s twentieth anniversary wasn’t the only anniversary I was celebrating that day.

Slam Dunk’s twentieth anniversary happened to coincide with my twentieth as a Motion City Soundtrack fan.

I wish I could tell you I handled that fact normally.

Earlier in the day, I had been standing with Jesse Johnson and Tony Thaxton. A few hours later, I was standing in a crowd watching Motion City Soundtrack tear through a setlist that felt suspiciously designed to target my teenage years.

Fortunately, they made it very easy to remember why.

From the opening notes of “Some Wear a Dark Heart,” the crowd was locked in. What followed felt less like a festival set and more like a greatest hits collection for everyone who had ever found comfort in Motion City Soundtrack’s particular brand of anxiety, self-deprecation, and perfectly written hooks.

“Capital H,” “L.G. FUAD,” “My Favorite Accident,” and “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” arrived one after another, and judging by the reaction around me, I wasn’t the only person having a moment.

What I noticed most wasn’t even the songs. It was the people. Everywhere I looked, somebody was dancing, screaming lyrics at their friends, or throwing an arm around the person next to them. For forty-five minutes, it felt like everyone had collectively decided to stop worrying about being cool.

At the center of it all was Justin Pierre, who somehow remains one of the most relatable frontmen in alternative music. Twenty years on, he still performs with the same nervous energy and sincerity that made so many people connect with these songs in the first place. Nothing about it felt forced. Nothing felt like a band trying to recreate a moment from the past.

That’s what surprised me most.

For a set built around songs that have been with many of us for decades, Motion City Soundtrack never felt stuck there. “Attractive Today,” “Everything Is Alright,” and “The Future Freaks Me Out” got some of the biggest reactions of the afternoon, but they didn’t feel like museum pieces being wheeled out for applause. They still felt alive.

Maybe that’s because the songs have aged alongside the people listening to them.

Or maybe it’s because Motion City Soundtrack has always understood something that many bands don’t: growing older doesn’t mean leaving those feelings behind. It just means understanding them a little better.

Whatever the reason, twenty years after discovering Motion City Soundtrack, I finally got to interview them and then watch them play one of the highlights of Slam Dunk.

Some things really are worth waiting for.

Good Charlotte – Main Stage West

Some bands remind you of where you’ve been. Good Charlotte reminds me of where I wanted to go.

Growing up, I always liked how open the Madden brothers were about their background. They never pretended they’d had an easy ride. As another poverty kid, that meant something. Maybe that’s why Good Charlotte always felt a little more personal than some of the other bands I grew up listening to.

Their first UK appearance since 2019 was always going to be one of the biggest moments of the weekend, and the crowd in front of the stage reflected that long before the band even appeared. People weren’t casually wandering over to see what was happening. They were already there, waiting.

And once the set started, they didn’t stop moving.

What I noticed most wasn’t necessarily the songs. It was the people. Friends with their arms around each other. Grown adults screaming lyrics they probably first heard as teenagers. People are climbing onto shoulders to get a better view. For an hour, it felt like everyone in front of that stage had somewhere else they’d rather be than adulthood.

Maybe that’s the real reason Good Charlotte still works.

The songs came from a very specific place, but they never stayed there. Twenty years later, people continue finding pieces of themselves in them. Some came because they grew up with the band. Others came later because they discovered them. Standing in that crowd, the difference didn’t really matter.

For a band that once sang about wanting more from life, it was hard not to smile watching thousands of people sing those songs back at them all these years later.

And that was how Slam Dunk 2026 ended. Did I get to see all the bands I wanted to? NO. But does that give me an excuse to do two days next year?

The Good

• Motion City Soundtrack
• The Menzingers
• Good Charlotte
• The atmosphere
• Improved toilets
• Friendly crowd
• Easy entry
  

The Bad

• Bar queues
• Missing bands because of queues
• Heat
• Schedule clashes
• Constant running between stages

The Ugly

• Taking Back Sunday’s sound

Their debut album Stay Sharp is a 10-song collection that commands you to move for every tune. With strong keyboard chords, a reliable saxophone, and powerful drum fills, Stay Sharp is musically pleasant to the ear, near impossible to not dance around to, and has politically conscious lyrics that appropriately fits its 2-tone grooves.

Standout tracks for me include “Friend to a Memory”, “Ska Boy//Ska Girl”, “True Drug Lords” and “Coming of Age”.

While Ska in itself is a hard genre to master, 2-Tone is a different beast; and Steppin Razor Blades are quick to tame it. This is a great example of how to blend ska and punk to near perfection.  I can’t recommend this album enough to punks of all ages.

Stay Sharp by Steppin Razor Blades is available now on Bandcamp.