2022: Life Won't Love You Back

If you're reading this, then you've made it. You made it through another year where the world and your brain all tried their damnedest to kill you.

To this, I say, congrats. Have a mixtape.

Discogs says I purchased around 600 pieces of music in 2022. Of those, only 33 were actually released in 2022. This is about par for the course for me these days. So much of what I pick up either comes via the thrift store or via a Bandcamp download. The best thing I got this year was Dischord's "First Six Records" box set; it's up there with any of Numero Group's finest reissues in terms of quality, and a Rosetta Stone of American hardcore. The new Björk and Ed Schrader's Music Beat 12"s are top notch; Ted Leo also did a few digital-only releases which warmed my heart by their existence.

I had planned/still plan to share this via Butterboy's My Compilation Series, an outstanding ongoing weekly that, if you're the kind of cat that avoids streaming and still spends time blogwalking, is worth visiting regularly. The downside to sharing there is there's no room for context, no opportunity to say, "this is why you should hear this." So let's go for the double dip. Let's spell it out and tell you why these were some of my favorite songs from 2022.

1. Poison Ruïn, "Not Today, Not Tomorrow" - let's kick this off with an absolute banger that scratches my metal and crust itches.
2. Brux, "La Mierda De Siempre" - I run with a lot of recommendations that come via Terminal Escape; I find that Robert & I share a number of music tastes in common, so if he writes that he's in love with something, I seek it out. He posted up Mendeku Diskak's latest sampler a couple weeks ago, and wrote this about this Brux track: "shit, if this were a one song cassette with the opening track from BRUX on repeat it would make the essential list." He was right.
3. No Future, "Vampiric Ego Fucker" - this one comes from their 3-song flexi on our local Iron Lung. It's some crusty Mad Max core...perfect for those moments when you're luring QAnonists into a punji pit.
4. Nütt - "Attack! (This Is Our Land)" - self-billed as indigenous hardcore punx from Buena Vista, CA. This is from their first of two cassette releases of 2022, both of which are total jean vest rippers.
5. Soul Glo, "Fucked Up If True" - it's been really rad seeing these cats get recognition for their second full-length. This song really spoke to me, with its theme of the disconnect between privilege and personal politics. It's a topic I'm facing every day now in my work and my personal life, and it's not been easy looking myself in the eye and ensuring I live as true as I speak.
6. Roman Candle, "Gaslighting Isn't Real (You're Just Crazy)" - Sophie's Floorboard is another blog on my roll that I check almost daily. Whether it's to sample someone I've heard of or haven't heard, to fill in a hole in my collection, or to learn about a brand new band without making it out into the clubs, Kevin's kinda awesome for keeping me hip to what the kids are up to. Roman Candle just put out their first EP in October, but drawing from that Ebullition hardcore tradition is a sure way to get me to listen to ya. These cats are down in Vegas, which gives me hope that they'll make their way to the Vera Project in the next year.
7. Stress Positions, "Lust For Pleasure" - Chicago's Stress Positions are another band that debuted this year with a phenomenal EP. "Walang Hiya" is exactly what I'd expect to hear come out of the town that gave us Repos, Los Crudos, and Articles of Faith; a top-notch hardcore outfit that you hope sticks together long enough to tour around and play your local.
8. Snorkel, "Half-Life" - the first of several Earth Girl Tapes-related bands on this mix. Their split cassette with Dumb Idea came out in November and, like so many other things coming out of Hattiesburg, has ended up being a constant play on my headphones at work and my stereo in the car. Just the sort of anti-pro basement punk that I'm always going to adore.
9. Chainsaw, "Emergency" - I think I initially snagged this because I was thinking of the crust-adjacent band from Osaka. These dudes are from Boston, played in bands like Brain Killer, and are drawing the best parts from Anti-Cimex. It's on RoachLeg. If you know, then you know.
10. Puffer, "Live N Die In The City" - another RoachLeg joint, although this one's more No Future Records than Sonarize. I think these folks are from Montreal, making streetpunk fun again with a real rock 'n' roll edge.
11. Foodeater, "Loose Fitting Mask" - hawd-core from Athens, GA. I think I threw this into an order for the ConSec flexi released by Futile Force earlier this year, and was quick pleasantly surprised at how quickly I wanted to mosh it up to this one.
12. The Chisel, "Keep It Schtum" - an emeritus award goes to the Chisel's "Retaliation", which I have been playing hard since it came out in 2021. But this one was a recent purchase, coming from their split 7" with Mess (see track #17) on Mendeku Diskak. As possible outtakes from full-length sessions go, this is a good 'un.
13. Sørdïd, "Blankhead" - yet another RoachLeg jam, this one coming out of their homebase of New York City. If you like D-beat and the hopelessness of existence, then this one is up your alley.
14. Warthog, "Four Walls" - it fucks me up to think that Warthog has been around for ten years. It feels like it was only yesterday that they were flying the flag of "new NYHC band that would fit in perfectly on an ABC No Rio benefit". This is their most vital work, well worth tagging billboards out on I-476 for.
15. Truth Cult, "The Bodies That You Keep" - it's getting harder and harder to keep up with what old friends in Baltimore are up to. I'm staying away from Facebook and Instagram has become nearly unusable. That said, every once in a while, something like Truth Cult's tour tape pokes through the morass, and I'm like, "yeah, I should snag one of those". $10 for four songs feels steep, but if it covers some gas costs on that Turnstile tour, then allow me to chip in.
16. End It, "The Comeback" - speaking of Baltimore buds...these dudes are the standard bearers of the through line of tuff-as-fuk street-level hardcore coming from Charm City that runs back through Trapped Under Ice into Stout into Next Step Up into Gut Instinct. This is their third EP and definitely their best.
17. Mess, "I Don't Like You" - Mexican Oi!, coming from their split with the Chisel. It's a wonderful feeling discovering a band you've never heard of via their side of a split 7" or tape. The mix on their two songs on this split is a little askew...like maybe you could have mixed it slightly more conventionally, but I think that's part of the charm in this recording. It gives it all more of a glammy, British edge that really does it for me.
18. Dumb Idea, "D.H.Y." - from the other side of that Snorkel split. I can't believe I have to write 16 more of these entries.
19. Klonns, "Crow" - there's something in the way that Jensen Ward writes copy for the bands he puts out that immediately grabs me. Case in point: this four song 7" from Klonns, a Japanese hardcore/noise band likened to Death Side, Bastard, and Lip Cream. Shhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeiiiiiittttt, cousin...that's all you had to say.
20. Kalashnikov, "Zuicide Machine" - I'm not sure I've actually seen a physical copy of this, and I'll also admit that I might be misremembering this whole thing, but apparently this is an Earth Girl release, so I asked Hampton for a copy, and it reminds me of I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook.
21. The Real Distractions, "FOSTA/SESTA" - the bonus, digital-only track from R.D.'s 7" on K Records. Tobi Vail made this in between Bikini Kill reunion tours and it fukkin' rules.
22. METZ, "Demolition Row" - one of the few new 7"s I bought this year, and one of two tracks from said 7" appearing in this mix. I've never been a big fan of METZ, but there's something about this song that I keep coming back to. Maybe I was wrong about METZ. Maybe I was wrong about a lot of things...
23. Big Screen, "Count" - eventually I'll run out of songs from Earth Girl releases that I've been obsessing over. But not yet.
24. GEL, "Vibe Fucker" - fukkin' GEL, man. "Violent Closure" was one of my favorites last year, a brutal seven-track banger of a hardcore record that I keep slotted right in between "Age of Quarrel" and "Systems Overload" on my list of "Records That Make Me Want To Run Through A Wall". "Shock Therapy", a split with Bucharest's Cold Brats, hasn't yet hit that level for me, but I've only been listening to it for the past few weeks. And "Vibe Fucker" is such a rad title for a song.
25. Black Dog, "Life Is A Lock" - the last of the RoachLeg releases on my list. This is Discharge worship, with a healthy respect for NWOBHM and early black metal. It's gunslingers sweating in black leather riding a bony stead under an unrelenting sun, like Motörhead scoring a Cormac McCarthy novel. Or if Venom was really good, and they wrote the soundtrack to "Red Dead Redemption III".
26. Daddy's Boy, "Work Won't Love U Back" - Daddy's Boy isn't just a killer outfit from Chicago, and the inspiration to this blog post's title. "Great News" is probably the best record in a lineup of fantastic releases from Drunken Sailor this year, And Jes remains one of the best dudes I've ever had the pleasure to know, a true gem amongst punx.
27. Girlsperm, "Return To Girlsperm" - Olympia keeps on bringing the amazing, but what do you expect when Marissa from the Punks, Layla from Skinned Teen, and Tobi from Frumpies put out a record together, their first in five years? If this is one of the final releases on Thrilling Living, then it's a hell of a climax (more of this in a minute).
28. Judy And The Jerks, "Buford" - you've probably noticed commonalities develop throughout this post. ApeMummy: he loves the Hattiesburg scene, he likes 'em short-fast-loud, he likes to mix the serious and the goofy. And if you've read my blog more than once, you know that I've been beating the drum for Judy And The Jerks for years now. These dudes play like I would want my band to sound. I'm not going to hold them up as some paragon of DIY, but...shit, man...lookit the places they come from, the places they play, the way they present their art. It's what I'm looking for; to be able to deliver meaningful art in an authentic way, with a vitality that can't be faked. This one's a bit of a cheat, since it's been out for a couple of years via the "Bone Spur" tape, but it's allowed; "Music To Go Nuts" came out in August.
29. Adulkt Life, "Book Of Curses" - the title track that didn't make it onto their 2020 full-length. C'mon, like I'm going to pass up a chance to put a new A.L. song on a mixtape.
30. Jawbox, "Grip" - it's a re-recording of a song originally released 31 years ago, with Zach and Brooks replacing Adam and Bill on the track. This is the musical equivalent of when you finally get that Camaro you've been working on for years back on the road. There's a new purr to the engine, a new hum as the frame hugs the curves and you rev it back up to full speed in the straightaway. I'm still thrilled to have heard new life breathed into a song that I've been listening to almost since the day I got into punk.
31. Envy, "Seimei" - like Adulkt Life, I'm going to grant Envy a slot on any best of mix that I make, because I know, even without hearing it, I'm going to fall in love. One of the most powerful bands to ever do it, back with new songs. It's amazing.
32. ConSec, "You're Not Going Anywhere" - you start to run out of interesting things to say in spaces like this, things that aren't just "this punk/HC/oi! band is worth checking out". And that's tough, because a band like ConSec, a band whose discovery led me to other bands and a new scene to explore, deserves better than that. I'll fully admit; I don't have it right this second, tho I'll reserve the right to come back to it at a later date and write more. This song gets right to the fukkin' point in 0:58, a nihilistic napalm attack of a song.
33. Botch, "One Twenty Two" - I cannot even believe this recording exists. A new Botch song in 2022. I guess it was worth sticking around.
34. Fat Jock, "Line Up Eat Shit" - well, if you want to sum up things, I can think of no better song. It's negative as hell and offers not a single thing for the future, but we sing it anyway, because to live with an unbowed back is the finest revenge.

Holy shit, we made it. 34 songs. 77 minutes. This blog is over!

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