2013 Punk Retrospective (But Mostly Punknews Shit)
While you tend to see plenty of retrospectives on emo from ten years ago on websites, there is definitively less on punk. Though it makes sense to some extent, it is an interesting phenomenon. Once upon a time, these scenes bordered each other. It is only now that the two worlds feel separate in some ways. Someone like Joyce Manor is fully claimed by emo even if their lineage belongs to California punk like Toys That Kill and Shinobu. That’s an aside for a separate article. In the 2010s, punk was going through some changes. There wasn’t some big revival you could peg an article to. It was instead a continuation of what was happening in the 2000s and before. You could see the definition changing with stuff like Lemuria broadening what could be considered punk. It would partially result in the genre name becoming utterly meaningless to some. These changes would still be important, making room for non-cis men. It would result in some more interesting records that I still think relatively hold up. That statement may be indicative of the fact that I was 20 ten years ago.
It may be useful to look at Punknews’ best of 2013 as a starting point. A decade ago was the last bit of relevancy the website would have. It would be bought by Buzz Media in the same year we are talking about. It was such a contentious topic that Razorcake devoted a piece about it. Vice would become a place to premiere bands, giving punk an air of legitimacy. Before that, a mainstream publication giving something like Chumped a chance would have been a little noteworthy, even if Pitchfork ran a review of a Swearin’ record in 2012. That now feels like a lifetime ago, as most punk can be found with a writeup on a small DIY blog and Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan.
Below is a way too long list of records that came out ten years ago that I think are worth your time. I will note that I chose to focus on stuff outside of the big-tent pop-punk, so it will be more oriented toward the fest punk or orgcore stuff, which I was much more familiar with at the time. I will segment them into sub-categories because I think it’s important to recognize the various movements that were happening concurrently. It is by no means the final word. There was a lot happening, and there needed to be a cut-off somewhere. The writing will also be less objective than the typical list you see in a publication, as this is a teeny little blog. Hopefully, you take it in good fun.
Emerging Shit
PUP-S/T
It is hard to consider a time when PUP wasn’t the biggest punk band in northern America. I don’t even know if, in 2013, the band had toured the United States. Most people wouldn’t become aware of the band until 2014, when the self-titled record came out on Side One Dummy. It would top a couple of publications’ best-of lists, setting the table for The Dream is Over in 2016. While I never latched on to PUP like others, a song like” Reservoir” is undeniable. Even in an early form, there is a strong knack for punk songwriting. The gang vocals are placed perfectly; Stefan Babcock’s vocals have that strained feeling where you feel like his voice will break, and there are plenty of riffs to hum along to unintentionally.
Chumped-S/T
On the right day, Chumped-S/T may be my favorite punk release of 2013. A couple of these songs I tugged to a little too tightly in 2013 as I was slowly adjusting to adulthood. I found myself relating to the vignettes Anika Pyle weaves throughout the EP. And I know I wasn’t the only one, as Chumped became a fan and critics darling during their short run. Every now and again, I’ll revisit the Vice premiere of the EP just to be transported back to a decade ago. To me, the EP represents what the beginning of the 2010s felt like for a new generation of punk. It felt vibrant, as if the possibilities were endless, even if there was an expiration date. It was partially indicative of my and others’ age at the time. It was one of the first times that bands I was watching were my age. It wasn’t like when I was going backward listening to punk bands when I was younger. I still find myself every once in a while returning to “Something About Lemons,” a song that unfortunately resonates a bit too much for me as someone who is chronically avoidant (“Every day I grow resentful of the choices I did or didn’t make”).
Radiator Hospital-Something Wild
I know it is a pretty boring opinion to say this is the best Radiator Hospital record. It feels like the synthesis of what Sam Cook-Parrot was trying to do with the project. Initially, he started the project to try his hand at self-recording, and Radiator Hospital quickly became a blender for all his influences, ranging from Jonathan Richman to power pop. The dichotomy is most apparent in the two-song section of “Great Escape” into “Big Cloud.” Uptempo pop-punk sits alongside more subdued songs that sound like homespun recordings. When you describe these two polarities, it sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it all makes sense in the context of a Radiator Hospital record.
Aye Nako-Unleash Yourself
I feel like Aye Nako gets erased to an extent when we talk about punk from this era. During 2013, I don’t know if Aye Nako was even on my radar. It was written about in Pitchfork; I don’t know if I was paying as close attention to that publication as I do now. The review frames the band as a counter to the macho stylings of pop-punk during the 2000s boom, which is a recurring theme of a certain strain of punk in the 2010s. It inadvertently responded to what had happened before, even if that wasn’t the intention when each band was making their records.
If I had listened to Unleash Yourself ten years ago, I might have closely enmeshed myself in it. It has a lot of what I love from what will be called indie punk or what I generally consider post-orgcore. It’s a bit more knotty in its compositions and a little less hamfisted. I don’t feel as embarrassed listening to it as I do with anything that came out on Red Scare during this time. To me, Unleash Yourself should be just as essential as anything else on this list, even if, in my head, they aren’t the first band that pops up when I think of 2013.
All Dogs-S/T
Though sticklers may quibble, All Dogs represents a larger trend in punk. You had artists from a punk background interpolating more indie influences to make something that felt distinct. There is no clear starting point for when it started to happen, but places like Salinas Records became a home of this sort of “left of center” punk. The writeups for the debut EP of All Dogs make a note of this, connecting it to 90s indie rock. But something at the core of it still feels punk to me. There is only one that makes that connection clear (Basement), which stands as an outlier because of its faster tempo. The rest of the EP is relatively mid-tempo, making for the type of music to bob your head along to gently. But I still find it engaging, letting you sink into the words a bit more. The pop inclination for songwriting is also still apparent, which is essential whether you’re playing fast punk songs or lo-fi indie.
Orgcore Shit
Iron Chic-Constant One
Iron Chic is partially indicative of what was happening with orgcore in 2013. Many of the important records by bands had come out a few years before, and this year would give us the follow-ups. Iron Chic, by 2013, had carved out every crevice of its sound. There were going to be euphoric singalongs that had a “sad bastard” quality to it. They were not going to expand beyond the boundaries of pop-punk. Guitarist Phil Douglas writes his anthemic pop-punk in a specific way, and singer Jason Lubrano has similar themes he likes to explore. All the members had already been playing a flavor of pop-punk dating back to their stints in Small Arms Dealer and Latterman. It is also impossible to overstate how important Not Like This is for the band and Dead Broke Rekerds. Some of those songs would become unavoidable when I started going to punk bars in the mid-2010s. That context makes Constant One solidly a B record, giving me one of my favorite songs in “Bogus Journey.” If I have to go with a later record, I prefer the one that came after in 2017.
Off With Their Heads-Home
As someone from the Midwest, I had a relatively strong relationship with Off With Their Heads. Their lineage belongs to Minneapolis punk and specifically Dillinger Four. Compared to other punk that would play FEST at this time, I could connect to much of what Ryan Young sang about. Most of the songs on Home are more about mental health struggles rather than just being drinking songs. The lyrics on “Shirts” have always stuck out to me in particular (“The only retreat is falling asleep”). It’s the kind of punk that made sense to me at twenty, and the way it deals with mental health is unvarnished. Young doesn’t claim to have any answers, as evidenced by any episode of his podcast Anxious and Angry that you listen to. I don’t know where Home stands for the heads, but people seem to like it enough that the band played some full album shows, including two sold-out gigs at Beat Kitchen in Chicago.
RVIVR-The Beauty Between
RVIVR is representative of punk in the 2010s, namely trying to make the space more than just a place for cis-men to write about their own neurosis. Matty Jo Cannino was already aware of some of the issues of punk and wrote about them with Latterman. RVIVR continued those themes and sometimes rubbed people the wrong way with their girls-to-the-front approach. The small peanut gallery did not matter; RVIVR’s self-titled record in 2010 could not be denied. “Cut The Cord,” and other songs on those would become highlights of 2010s punk. The Beauty Between is what came after, and to me, suffers for that reason. There is nothing wrong with it when I listen to it. The songs are workman-like, efficiently moving from verse to chorus. It just doesn’t move me the same way as the self-titled record. But my evaluation is partially irrational. There was a time in college when I would play “Edge of Living” repeatedly. It’s part of the issue with punk bands that come fully formed. How do you move beyond and still make the following records feel novel? Cannino showed a path with Latterman, but I cannot compare the two. Latterman has produced some of my favorite records of all time. Maybe someone is out there reading this who believes The Beauty Between is the superior RVIVR record. All I have to say is I respect it.
Uncategorizable But Still Important
Radioactivity-S/T
I cannot claim that Radioactivity speaks to some larger trend of what was happening in punk. But you can fan feel the tendrils of something like Swearin’ or stuff on Salinas Records on the Radioactivity record. It partially has to do with the fact that this features Jeff Burk of Marked Men on vocals. It feels like the natural progression of what he did on Fix My Brain, which is crafting a compact three-minute pop song. It is pop-punk derived from The Ramones as compared to Blink-182.
Donovan Wolfington-Stop Breathing
There is a lot more variation to Donovan Wolfington than I remember upon revisiting them for the article. I mostly thought of them as the kind of raucous punk shown on “Die Alone.” It’s the kind of music I’d attach to at 19 before life hit me in the ass. Someone like Prince Daddy and The Hyena wouldn’t sound too dissimilar a few years later, showing the lines between punk and emo begin to blur. But then you have a song like “Coca-Cola” that shows off more of 90s indie influence, with reviewers pointing towards Pavement and Built To Spill as influences. Even if I don’t totally hear it, it would presage what Neil Berthier would do later with Phony. In that way, Stop Breathing is an embryonic version of Donovan Wolfington, with some notable highlights but not fully formed yet. That would be a few years away.
Captain, We’re Sinking-The Future Is Cancelled
The people who love Captain We’re Sinking love them hard. A punknews review connects them to the punk of the 2000s that the reviewer loved, giving the album a five-star review. Other bands from Northern Pennsylvania felt the same way. Tom May of The Menzingers, in a recent article celebrating the anniversary of the record, called them “one of the greatest punk bands of the 21st century.” You can feel its influence on other artists today, like James Barret. I discounted the record for many years as a name my older friends liked but one I could never latch on to. There were just other bands from Scranton and Philly that I found more immediate then. Captain We’re Sinking was close to a lot of what I love; I just never gave it the chance it deserved. But as evidenced by some recent anniversary shows for the record, it still endures to a certain extent.