The BrooklynVegan Show: A Podcast About Music

It's been a huge year for hardcore, with more eyes on the genre than ever, so much creativity happening without the genre, and a slew of amazing new records. To go along with our list of 20 great hardcore releases from 2022, I teamed with two of my current favorite music critics that have been covering the hell out of hardcore all year, Eli Enis (Revolver, Endless Scroll) and Hugo Reyes (who writes the hardcore column Step 2 Rhythm over at The Alternative and whose writing can also be found on his Medium), to discuss and debate the best hardcore releases of 2022 on the latest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. Each of us ran down our lists of our personal top five hardcore releases of the year, and we discussed a few other faves after that. We also dove into some "hardcore-adjacent" faves and debated a bit about what truly counts as hardcore. There were a few releases that all three of us had on our lists, but a good amount of differences between the lists too. Between the three of us, we touched on everything from the more melodic alt-rock-leaning stuff to different varieties of straightedge to thrashy NYHC to heavy rapcore and plenty of other stuff in between.

Music featured: Speed - "Not That Nice" End It - "New Wage Slavery"

Today's episode is an interview with Kevin Devine, who's in the midst of celebrating the 20th anniversary of his career and will continue to do so with two career-spanning Brooklyn shows in January 2023, both presented by BrooklynVegan. Throughout this conversation, Kevin reflected on the first two decades of his career, from his early days up through his new album 'Nothing's Real, So Nothing's Wrong,' and in the process, he touched on everything from being called emo at a time when the genre was very stigmatized, to nostalgia festivals like When We Were Young, to some of his favorite late-career albums by other artists, and more.

Music: "Liar, Liar" by Kevin Devine

The newest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast is an interview with Rich Balling, founder of the experimental post-hardcore supergroup The Sound of Animals Fighting, former RX Bandits member, and the person behind Pyramids, Sailors With Wax Wings, White Moth, the Handmade Birds record label, and the new hyperpop project Hospital Gown. Hospital Gown's debut album Diamond Life 2 came out earlier this month on Born Losers Records, and TSOAF are gearing up to release their first EP in 14 years, Apeshit, on December 8 via the same label, followed by a tour in January. Rich and I discussed TSOAF's comeback; the multi-genre, multi-generational collaborations on the Hospital Gown album that range from screamo to hyperpop to rap and beyond; some TSOAF history, like the time Equal Vision had to destroy copies of their 2006 sophomore album Lover, the Lord Have Left Us because of an uncleared Neurosis sample; how playing Taylor Swift's Red in the car for his daughters led to a love of pop music; dealing with negative comments on the internet; and much more.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

The latest episode of The BrooklynVegan Show is an interview with Walter Schreifels, who's busy as ever. His beloved early 2000s-era band Rival Schools just gave their classic debut LP United by Fate an expanded 20th anniversary reissue, and the band is reuniting for some shows in 2023. On top of that, Quicksand continue to tour and put out new music, Youth of Today just wrapped up some shows, and Gorilla Biscuits just announced some upcoming dates.

I recorded the conversation with Walter before the YOT shows happened and before the GB announcement, which he sort of teased during the episode, and we spoke about just about everything he's got going on lately. We focused a lot on United by Fate; Walter reflected on making the album, working on it with Bon Jovi producer Luke Ebbin, and the impact the album's left over time. We talked about how, with Rival Schools coming at the start of the emo boom and taking bands like Thursday and Taking Back Sunday on tour, Walter was simultaneously a "not-so-elder statesman" of that world and also a contemporary/peer and kindred spirit. He also talked about meeting and being won over by Cave In in those days, and how now Cave In's Stephen Brodsky and Candiria's John LaMacchia have both played as Quicksand's touring guitarists this year.

The conversation also spiraled into other topics, like the parallels between the rising tides of Nirvana in the early '90s and Turnstile today, comparisons between hardcore in the '80s and hardcore now, and much more.

Pick up the new United by Fate reissue on red vinyl in our store, and also browse our collection of Quicksand, Youth of Today, and Gorilla Biscuits records and merch.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

One of the most exciting voices in hardcore right now, Ian Shelton, joins us for a chat about Militarie Gun's recently-released 'All Roads Lead to the Gun' and their upcoming, as-yet-unannounced new album, signing to multi-genre label Loma Vista, learning to love The Baetles and Nirvana after growing up as a punk kid who was taught to hate mainstream music, and why this current moment for hardcore is so interesting and rewarding. Ian talked about feeling a kinship with likeminded artists and friends such as Justice Tripp (Angel Du$t, Trapped Under Ice), Pat Flynn (Fiddlehead, Have Heart), and Patrick Kindlon (Drug Church, Self Defense Family), all of whom share Ian's undying love for hardcore, music in general, finding exciting new bands, pushing the envelope, and bringing influence from outside of hardcore into the genre. Ian also talked about Turnstile's success, and why this moment in hardcore is actually a time in which success is being celebrated and bands who truly deserve it are winning.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

We recently ran a list of the best emo & post-hardcore albums of 2002 on BrooklynVegan in honor of the 20th anniversary of that landmark year for these genres, and now BV editor Andrew Sacher and guest Owen Morawitz dive even deeper into that list on this episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. We discuss what went into choosing the albums for the list, the process behind ranking them all, some albums that were left off the list, and more, and the episode ends with an album-by-album discussion of the top 10.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

On the heels of releasing their new Wavebreaker #3 split on Bad Time Records, Folly and The Best of the Worst join us on the BrooklynVegan podcast for an interview about their mutual admiration for one another, how they came to meet and do a split, the music on the split (including Folly's first song in 14 years), and both existing as bands who mix ska with heavy metallic post-hardcore -- an unusual combination that both of these bands pull off expertly. We also dug into the recent all-star Folly cover, some Folly history, some ska history, why ska got a bad reputation and why there's renewed interest in it now, and much more.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Keith Morris joins us for a chat about the new OFF! album & film 'Free LSD,' the recent Circle Jerks reissues, and everything from CIA conspiracy theories to punks vs hippies to why his definition of "first wave punk" may differ from yours to Fleetwood Mac to the Grateful Dead to The Doors to Metallica to the one show Circle Jerks played with Danzig-era Misfits back in the day, and much more.

Pick up our exclusive orange vinyl variant of the new OFF! album, plus cool vinyl variants of the recent OFF! and Circle Jerks reissues, in our store.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Today's episode is an interview with Dan Campbell, vocalist of The Wonder Years. Dan joins us to discuss the band's first album in over four years and first since Dan became a father, 'The Hum Goes On Forever,' and he discusses how the album's themes were inspired by the anxieties surrounding fatherhood, dealing with his own mental health while needing to provide for his kids, and why he doesn't wanna write songs about death anymore. He also discusses collaborating with blink-182's Mark Hoppus on the album, and how the album's genre is just: The Wonder Years.

Elsewhere in the chat, Dan reflects on the band's early days and their breakthrough albums 'The Upsides' and 'Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing,' which they recently celebrated the 10th anniversaries of, he talks about the upcoming When We Were Young Fest, some of his favorite late-career albums, favorite new bands, favorite albums of 2022 so far, the back-in-action Fireworks (who The Wonder Years are touring with soon), and much more.

Pick up 'The Hum Goes On Forever' on blue vinyl.

--

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

David Knudson's been having a busy year. He put out his first solo album, The Only Thing You Have to Change is Everything (including a song with his former Minus the Bear bandmate Jake Snider on vocals), his beloved '90s mathcore band Botch put out their first new song in over 20 years alongside Sargent House's new reissue of We Are The Romans, he's been posting tons of guitar playthrough videos of old Minus The Bear and Botch songs, and he's got another new solo EP that'll be out before the end of the year (which will feature Cursive's Tim Kasher). With all of that, plus the upcoming 20th anniversary of Minus The Bear's classic debut album Highly Refined Pirates, we decided to catch up with Dave for the latest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast.

Music featured in episode - "Varv" by David Knudson