Ten Raddest Records of 2022

This is not a year-end list*

They say the job of the music writer is to have opinions. These are mine. That said, “rad” isn’t a superlative but a state of being in the world. Some people will go their whole lives without ever coming close to being radical. We are the lucky ones who have been touched by the fury of punk rock and proudly show off the damage. 

Some caveats: I’m middle aged, the only instrument I can play is a penny whistle, and I’ve only been in a band once and that was for a couple weeks. That said I’ve been writing for punk rock zines since the mid-90s and these are the records released in 2022 that made the deepest impression on me in 2022. 

Because I’m old and slow, I typically spend the first few months of the year listening to records I missed out on previous years. This year that was Amyl & the Sniffers Comfort to Me and CIVIC’s Future Forecast. I didn’t do a list last year because I was stuck in a haunted house in Belfast with COVID-19 and the highlight of my day was watching Turnstile videos. (If you want to read my thoughts about 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011 go right ahead.)

2022 was different in that I actually had time to seek out new music so this is one of the rare years I didn’t cheat by slipping in an EP or a reissue. What were your favorite records of 2022? Let me know in the comments…

10. Meat Wave Malign Hex (Swami Records)

I’m old enough to remember when Meatwave was a punch line in a bit in The Onion and now twenty years later it’s a band from Chicago (of course). For a dark period this fall I was low-key obsessed with the track “Jim’s Teeth” for reasons I won’t go into but should be obvious. I tend not to trust bands who are sonically all over the map but Meat Wave more than held my ear. 

9. Dead Years S/T (Dirt Cult) 

One of the first albums I latched onto this year was this record—raw, angular guitar punk with riffs for days. Dead Years plays with a touch of desperation that comes through on two-minute rippers like “Wading” and “Breath of Clarity” but reaches peak intensity with the last song “A Dead Truth.” I don’t know how they do it but every year Dirt Cult finds these absolute gems.

8. Soul Glo Diaspora Problems (Epitaph)

Abrasive, discordant, intoxicating. Soul Glo’s first full-length with Epitaph is a powerhouse of a record. This track with either make you want to run out of the room or run through walls. If it’s the former, you should probably stop reading now.

7. Cave In Heavy Pendulum (Relapse Records)

2022 was a great year for heavy records and Cave In’s long-awaited return was one of the heaviest. Cave In isn’t so much writing songs here but colliding sonic elements together that spin off into new worlds. Put some metal majesty here, some 90s riffage there, top it off with some obsessively clean-sounding production and you’ve got a track like “New Reality.”

6. Straw Man Amy SOS (D4MT Labs)

This may sound strange coming from a writer but I tend not to be a lyrics guy. Guitars played loud and fast usually get me to where I need to go. The more extreme the music, the less essential the vocals becomes. That said, the songs on SOS are like occult texts begging to be unraveled.

5. Woodstock ‘99 Super Gremlin (Sorry State)

Sorry State liked Woodstock ‘99’s self-released 7” debut so much it put out the band’s first LP. It’s a hardcore record with a sense of humor without being overly jokey. The band’s name is a brilliant piss take that works on so many levels: the corruptibility of the music industry’s most cherished institutions, willingness to name yourself after the lesser version of something, etc. The first song, “La Casa De Fuck You,” ends with the clanging of a gong, which can land as either pretentious or the exact opposite of that emotion in a gong show, get-the-fuck-off-the-stage kind of way. But the same gong follows the second song, and the third song, and so on, all the way through the album, and it just gets funnier and funnier each time. You gotta respect the commitment to the bit. 

4. Soulside A Brief Moment in the Sun (Dischord)

I’ve talked about this band and this record so much recently that it’s probably not a shock to see them here but’s kind of a surprise to me. I’m still getting to know this release and it fills me with strange feelings. One of the joys of listening to music you loved when you were younger is it brings you back to that time and place. Photos stir nostalgia but music animates it. Trying to reproduce that feeling is a fool’s errand, which is why musical reunions are so fraught. So what do you call it when an old band making new music adds to those dormant feelings long after you’ve given up hope of such a thing ever happening? Is it joy? I think it might be joy.

3. The Monsters Du Hesch Cläss, Ig Bi Träsch (Slovenly)

If you had harpsichord in your bingo card of instruments to make my top ten raise your hand. Anyone? Didn’t think so. In 2021 Swedish trash masters The Monsters released You’re Class, I’m Trash. This year the band released the same record with the lyrics in their native Swedish and I absolutely love it. There’s another strange doubling at work here. On both albums there’s two versions of the same song: a low-down psychedelic freak-out called “Dead”/”Tod” and an even slower take where the harpsichord takes center stage in “Tod II,” which absolutely rules. What’s even cooler is that the videos tell a very disturbing story when watched back to back. (For the second one, click on the album title in the Bandcamp link.)

2. Bothers II (Dirt Cult)

If you’ve been reading Message from the Underworld for a while you might remember I really liked Bothers’ self-titled debut back in 2019. Apparently, the band recorded another album right afterwards but it took two years for it to come out. II is a little darker, a little nastier. It’s a heavy record but it’s got a rocking, low-end groove that keeps things moving. The fucked-up teeth theme continues but for Bothers it’s nothing new. The first album had a song called “Loose Teeth” and the new record ups the ante with “Black Teeth Sadness.” Lots of great tracks to choose from but “Ain’t Nobody Like You” is a hell of a song. 

1. OFF! Free LSD (Fat Possum)

When Free LSD entered my Greet the Reaper playlist—the short list of albums I play when taking off in an airplane—I knew that OFF! had accomplished something special. (The other two records are Lucifer Rising and St. Vitus.) Not only is Free LSD the best OFF! record, it’s the second best record that Keith Morris has been a part of. (Circle Jerks Group Sex is still untouchable.) 

The story of the making of Free LSD will make a fascinating chapter in a book some day. The album was recorded three times and led to the break-up of OFF!’s original line-up and a completely new rhythm section: Autry Fulbright formerly of And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead on bass and jazz wunderkind Justin Brown on drums.

A long time ago Keith told me that what made Black Flag different from all the other Southern California punk rock bands was Robo’s drumming. He believed Robo’s Colombian roots and knowledge of Afro-Colombian percussion gave Black Flag a swing that transcended punk rock. I think something similar is happening on Free LSD. This is not a record of some hardcore guys rocking out. This record is an impeccable amalgamation of style that creates something ferocious and new.

I saw OFF! play last weekend at The Lodge Room in Highland Park, right around the corner from where I used to do Vermin on the Mount at Book Show. Pulling up to the spot brought back a lot of memories. All of them good. I’ve seen OFF! play on three other occasions and was curious to see how they’d handle the new material. It’s so different from the older stuff. I hoped they wouldn’t play the fastest songs on the record as part of OFF!’s established set. That’s what most bands would do, but OFF! isn’t most bands and Keith isn’t most people.

OFF! took the stage and were joined by Jon Wahl of Clawhammer. You may recall that Wahl was also a bandmate of Keith’s in Midget Handjob. Wahl played the frenetic saxophone riffs that make the interstitial moments of Free LSD sound like a bad acid trip. OFF! ripped into “Slice Up the Pie” and followed with “Time Will Come” and “War Above Los Angeles”—the three opening songs on Free LSD. OFF! played the whole fucking record and I was absolutely ecstatic. They didn’t play the album in sequence, Keith told me later, because of different tunings, but what a treat it was to hear the entire album.

The most shocking thing about the performance? No banter. If you know Keith you know he can be loquacious on stage and when he gets going he’s not exactly worried about holding the audience. He has opinions and he isn’t afraid to share them. But not last weekend. For the entirety of Free LSD he didn’t say a word. He was in the zone. After finishing the set with the title track, the band briefly left the stage. Keith thanked the audience and they played an encore of older OFF! tracks and that was it. An epic finish to an epic year for Mr. Morris.

It was a curious year for seeing live music. I agree with much of what Steven Hyden wrote about the brokenness of the live music experience. He talks about the cost of touring, soaring ticket prices, overbooked venues, phones at shows, and even bad fan behavior. What he doesn’t talk about is masks. 

At the OFF! show I had an unpleasant encounter with a friend of a friend who became angry at me when we were introduced. He stuck out his hand and I offered my fist. He said something to the effect, “Give me your fucking hand,” which I refused to do. It didn’t occur to me to match his anger. He was a foot shorter than me and didn’t pose a threat, and it was a longtime friend who’d introduced us, but his outburst embarrassed my friend and closed a door between us. 

When I made the decision to resume traveling and attending concerts, I pledged to wear a mask on public transportation and at shows—regardless of what restrictions were in place. Masks are an effective tool for slowing the transmission of COVID-19, influenza, and the common cold. I’m probably going to be wearing masks on airplanes for the rest of my life. 

I know a lot of people have eased up on mask-wearing at gigs. I get it. I have succumbed to the temptation when I’m at a sparsely attended show and there’s no one around me for fifteen feet in any direction. I don’t judge people for not wanting to wear a mask at a show and it doesn't make me uncomfortable to be one of a handful of people wearing a mask. That kind of peer pressure stopped working on me decades ago. 

But if you’re triggered because I’m wearing a mask and offering a fist bump instead of a handshake, that tells me some things about you. That tells me you likely hold a host of grievances about masks, vaccines, the pandemic, and the vaccine. That tells me something about your politics. That tells me all I need to know about you and blessings on your way. 

More love for Corporate Rock Sucks

I’m very pleased to report that Corporate Rock Sucks was named to Vanity Fair’s best books of 2022. Here’s what Michael Calderone, editor of The Hive, had to say: 

“Ruland digs into the drama, from SST’s clashes with police, the media, and the music business, to Ginn’s spats with everyone from bandmates like Henry Rollins to his brother, the artist Raymond Pettibon, who came up with Black Flag’s name and iconic four-bar logo. That symbol, still a go-to tattoo for punks four decades later, speaks to the label’s imprint on underground culture.”

Thank you for reading! I was going to end with a YouTube link to Midget Handjob and went searching for a video, a decision I now deeply regret. Next week: A Year in Books. Happy holidays to you and yours. 

*I lied.