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[5-5-5] of 2024 Part 2: Old Releases

The year 2024 was, like all other years by definition, one for the history books. In the world: Steamboat Willy hit the public domain; Boeing had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year; the Nicest Man in the Country was arrested for no good reason; Tr*mp was found guilty of defamation (costing him $83.3 mil); Shithead Alex Jones lost in a very big way; Tr*mp was found guilty of falsifying business records, thereby becoming the first felon president (34 counts!); Giuliani was disbarred; someone tried to kill a fascist; Diddy had the worst year ever; Hurricane Helene really fucked things up for us. 

We said goodbye to Tony Todd, Maggie Smith, Phil Donahue, Ruth Westheimer, Richard Simmons, Carl Weathers, James Earl Jones, Sid Vicious (the wrestler), Kevin Sullivan, Shelley Duvall and American Democracy.

On a personal level: I was still way into folk punk this year but also listened to more pop than I have in years; I was able to successfully turn 40; went to Disney World; ran my first 5k in years; went to Orvieto, Massa, Cinque Terre, Montepulciano, Florence, Assisi and Rome; I wrote a book; I did my first convention as a vendor; built a very nice garden bed; celebrated two years of getting to be Katie’s husband.

Despite the turbulence and the poor forecast ahead, it was still a good year and I’ll be doing what I can to rock out the next one. This year’s posts are in loving memory of Quincy Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Tito Jackson, Jack Russell, Dave Loggins, Shifty Shellshock, Dennis Thompson, John Barbata, Steve Albini, Mojo Nixon, Fatman Scoop and Brother Wayne Kramer I present to you …

Part 2 of 3

Top 5 Old Releases of 2024

In no particular order, of course.

Olivia Rodrigo – GUTS Release Date: September 8, 2023

My Favorite Tracks: bad idea right?; vampire; obsessed

I have absolutely no shame in announcing how much I love Olivia Rodrigo. At the time of this writing, my Spotify Wrapped has yet to be released, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was my top-streamed artist of the year (**UPDATE** While she was not my top-streamed artist of the year — Green Day was — Olivia made up four of my top five songs). Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have even given her much of a chance, but this year I started “raw dogging” the gym a little more often, which is to say not using headphones. This subjects me to the streaming music the gym plays. Most of the time, I’m either indifferent or unimpressed … and then I heard and saw the music video for Olivia Rodrigo’s “bad idea right?”

I was immediately hooked on the bassline and impressed with the punk rock attitude throughout the song despite it being perfectly pop. I needed to know more about this artist, so I hit Spotify and immediately played GUTS from start to finish. Rodrigo’s absolute beauty combined with her somewhat-scratchy vocals, the occasional four-letter word and unapologetic promiscuity despite heartbreak come together to create a creative combination that I find irresistible.

Content-wise, this record will give you rowdy punk-adjacent pop that delivers the same attitude you’d get from Joan Jett with the soulful, crooning pop vocal that earns her a spot in the realm of Gagas and Eilishes. Of course, I love the song that got me hooked (“bad idea right?”) but “all-american bitch” is a fun, confident and attitude-driven anthem to kick off the record and “obsessed” (available on the extended version GUTS (spilled)) is a hard-rocking, cringy, yet hilarious, take on the girlfriend-jealous-of-the-ex scenario.

Finally, I think “vampire” is one of the most well-written songs I have heard in a very long time. At its core, “vampire” is a pouty piano ballad-turned rock opera that contains a beautifully crescendoed chorus, well-placed profanity and enough emotion to make you feel every word even if you’ve never been a heartbroken young lady before.

I’m a big fan of Olivia and can’t wait to hear what else she has in store for us.

Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess Release Date: September 22, 2023

My Favorite Tracks: Casual; Pink Pony Club; Hot to Go!

I kinda feel like this is on everyone’s year-end list, but how could it not be? I was introduced to Chappell Roan early this year when she was the guest on my favorite podcast, NPR’s Wait Wait  … Don’t Tell Me! I loved hearing her story about how she grew up in a nice conservative Christian household knowing only contemporary Christian music and hymns … until she was introduced to Kesha. Embracing her femininity and growing increasingly fond of drag queens, Chappell Roan grew up to become the performer the entire world loves today. I was a fan without even hearing her music!

Fortunately her record The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is hit after hit after hit. Every song on this record is major and I have no idea how she does it. Fourteen songs and not a single throw-away track? I’d later hear her perform many of these songs on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and after that, I was a tried-and-true fan.

I love how Chappell Roan boasts of bisexual promiscuity, takes on erotic topics with hilarious commentary and can have even your conservative protestant grandmother dancing in the aisles as long as she doesn’t listen to the lyrics too closely. Tracks like “Femininomenon,” “Red Wine Supernova,” “HOT TO GO!” and “Pink Pony Club” will be permanently etched in the top tracks of the era handbook … but even those aren’t my favorite.

Slow-poke ballad “Casual” takes the cake for me. Giving Rodrigo’s “Vampire” a run for its money when it comes to my top song of the year. I love everything about it, from how it’s written, the melody, the content, the deeper meaning … All the things. I’m hoping to focus more on learning piano this year and I have a goal of being able to play this one all the way through.

Ice Nine Kills – The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood Release Date: October 15, 2021

My Favorite Tracks: Assault and Batteries; Hip to Be Scared; The Shower Scene

I gave Ice Nine Kills a shot a few years back when I first heard of them. I remember thinking they were good, but everything I heard sounded like the script to a horror film. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since I’m a mega-fan of the Misfits and I love Wednesday 13, both of which more-or-less do the same thing … But that’s just it. It’s been done. “What else you got?”

A few weeks ago, I bought Katie and I tickets to see Metallica in Nashville. It’s a two-night event with dual Metallica headlining sets (no repeats) and a variety of top-notch opening acts including Suicidal Tendencies, Pantera, Limp Bizkit and, you guessed it, Ice Nine Kills. I’m already a fan of all the other bands so I wanted to take a deeper dive into Ice Nine Kills, hopefully this time with fresh ears. I started by watching the music video for “Hip to Be Scared” and immediately changed my tone on the band.

Sure, they aren’t covering much new ground content-wise, but the delivery is uniquely theirs. I normally make fun of the “good cop/bad cop” vocal style made popular by 2000s emo bands, but Ice Nine Kills lead singer Spencer Charnas does a dynamite job of screaming, growling and crooning all on his own. Oftentimes the music does get a little generic “scene” for my taste but there are too many heavy elements outside of this to ignore. 

And lyrically, they’re beautiful homages to classic horror films but are creatively hilarious. In the Chucky-inspired “Assault and Batteries,” Spencer belts out “You won’t ever grow old, you won’t make it past six, because this two-foot tall demonic doll will make you his bitch!” I also love the Huey Lewis-inspired breakdown in “Hip to Be Scared” paired with their take on the famous “HEY PAUL!” scene in American Psycho. It’s gorey and violent and brutal but it’s also hilarious and very well done.

I am now very, VERY excited to see these guys next year.

Otoboke Beaver – Super Champon Release Date: May 6, 2022

My Favorite Tracks: Pardon?; Yakitori; I Checked Your Cellphone

As I covered in my birthday post, Otoboke Beaver was new to me this year and they’re officially my favorite “new” band of the year. Since I’m a fan of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, I was notified when the four-piece Japanese punk band took the stage (er .. desk?) with their blazing, attitude-driven set. I love everything about this band – their brand of punk rock is top-notch, their harmonies are always well-placed, the songs are simple in the spirit of the Ramones … and this is all not even mentioning that they’re gorgeous women playing very rowdy music wearing classy dresses? What’s not to love?

In addition to their musical chops, they’re also just a blast to watch play. Guitarist Yoyoyoshi and drummer Kahokiss seem to be having so much fun at all times, which is something I love to see (Ben Kohler, drummer of Mutoid Man, is one of my favorite musicians because of this … see also bassist Eloise Wong from the Linda Lindas).

The album’s second track (and Tiny Desk opener), “Yakitori” comes right out the gate with all the elements I’ve just mentioned. The repeated line “I am sorry one day, you are post box, throw you into yakitori, it’s me” builds and builds as more vocals are added. The first time I heard Yoyoyoshi’s very short squeal after singer Accorinrin commands, “DESTROY!,” I was permanently hooked.

Other tracks like “I Am Not Maternal” reflect a raging feminism that I love so, so much (not to mention the desire to give birth to a dog because you like dogs more than human children). They say what they need to say, they say it with venom, then it’s on to the next one. Super Champon has 18 tracks, 15 of which clock in at under 2:00, seven of those come in at under 1:00 and five of those are less than 0:30. How punk rock can you be? 

You’ll never be as punk rock as Otoboke Beaver, that’s for sure.

Green Day – American Idiot Release Date: September 21, 2004

My Favorite Tracks: St. Jimmy; Whatsername; Give Me Novacaine

Green Day has been in my life for 30 years but never as much as they have been for the last 12 months. They finally took over my coveted “favorite band” position that was held by the Misfits since I was in high school. Getting to see the guys in Cincinnati for the first time was one of the highlights of my year and I’ve only grown more and more fond of Billie Joe Armstrong. I’ve been all over the place with them this year, continuing to study Dookie and Insomniac (my favorite GD record still), Nimrod and Warning … then diving into the later work of ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre!, 21st Century Breakdown and Revolution Radio … then onto this year’s new release Saviors.

Knowing the guys were going to be playing American Idiot in full during this tour, I decided to revisit that record and study it much deeper, then fell in love with it in a way I never had before. When it was released, there was a commercial aspect to it that put a bad taste in my mouth, but in retrospect, I was just young and stupid. American Idiot is a punk rock masterpiece with no flaws. I earned an even greater respect for it while learning many of the songs on guitar this year.

Rock opera banger “Jesus of Suburbia” has long been one of my favorite songs to play on guitar, but I’ve had so much fun playing the second rock opera track “Homecoming” and belting out the lyrics to ballads “Are We the Waiting?” and “Whatsername?” I also gave up and feel strongly in favor of overplayed radio anthems “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Finally, “Holiday” has long been one of my favorite Green Day songs and it’s only gotten more loved this year.

I remember when the guys released a live album following the release of American Idiot called Bullet in a Bible that featured many of the tracks from the new album. Many of the songs had longer breakdowns where Billie Joe would lead the audience in a chant of “Heyyyyy-oooooooh” and I always thought it would be so fun to get to take part in that.

And I did in August, shortly after Billie Joe declared “I’m not a part of a M*GA agenda” in the title track “American Idiot.” It made me feel like my life was somehow more complete.

Honorable Mentions:

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