We're ending 2022 by talking about the one and only Title Fight. To bring us home, we had Kyle and Ellie of the E Word Podcast join us again.

First, a quick year-end wrap-up of records from 2022 we think you should check out: Fuss, Spider God, Squint, and PLOSIVS. There's been so much great stuff this year and hopefully these are things that you'll check out alongside the heavy hitters.

As for Title Fight, you know them and you love them. It's hard to think of a band that has ever been more unifying and important at the intersection of punk, emo, and hardcore. Their legacy is immense, and it's impossible to predict what would happen if they got back together. We try to unpack that here as best we can. Will Jim fake their death in order to get Title Fight back together? Listen to find out!

We're slowing down for 2023. We'll see you when we see you, with some heat. Thanks for being with us this year. We love you. Have a safe and happy new year <3.

If you like heavy hardcore, you likely know Troy-Core by sound, if not by name. This marginal scene in Upstate New York in the 1990s created some of the most unhinged, brutal, and heavy hardcore bands the impacts of which can be felt all the way to the current day – sometimes being referenced pretty directly by acts like Twitching Tongues and God's Hate. Anything this influential is worth exploring a little, especially when it's shrouded in mystery.

We're joined today by former Upstate NY resident and avid Troy-Core enjoyer Eli Enis. Eli is an editor at Revolver Magazine, hosts the Endless Scroll podcast, and has bylines at Rolling Stone, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Vice, MTV News, Stereogum, The Alternative, & more.

As always, we start with current events. Punitive Damage. Candy Apple. Restraining Order and Spaced. Envision. Riot Stares. 185 Miles South. Prize Horse, Taking Meds, and Webbed Wing. Gates To Hell, Snakeout, Sawchuk, and Mutilatred. Citizen, Prince Daddy, and Militarie Gun. Who Decides. Fleshwater.

For more of Eli's lovely voice and opinions, check out Endless Scroll Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/002BZK0oGRZhDfFDjUoqcM?si=3f84f43a509943a6

Troy-Core Essentials playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS6kgPyy16uECM58HZ0npfWABbZBhQsWT

Ohio Death Metal going in on 2000s Emo? Seems like our kind of thing. We've got Ian of Hanging Fortress, Holy Coast, and Settle The Sky here to talk about the 2000s band ever, Further Seems Forever.

First in line is current events: The No Pressure/Enervate/Instill/Big Laugh/Pain Of Truth gig. Regulate/Jon Markson. Meka, Hu-Mid. Sunny Day Real Estate power outages. Furnace Fest: Dying Wish, Sick Of It All, Elliott, Poison The Well, and Strike Anywhere. Escuela Grind. High Vis. Glitterer.

Further Seems Forever navigated a chaotic series of lineup changes over the course of the early 2000s to churn out some really good records and some really solid tracks on the records that weren't as complete. Their adjacency to the Christian Hardcore world gave them an exceptional opportunity to expose big audiences to their unique brand of luxuriously composed Emo-Indie crossover. Their records were backdrops for some of the finest work done by vocalists from some of the more disparate corners of Emo, and while they are very much a Bands' Band, their music is held fondly in the hearts of true heads across the scene. Dive in!

Andrew Sacher BrooklynVegan The Moon Is Down piece:

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/a-look-back-on-further-seems-forevers-the-moon-is-down-for-its-20th-anniversary/

Discography playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1K18Dk9LBsZhRFEYiSzsj8?si=31a7a0f609cf43a2

Today, we're talking about Baltimore's Trapped Under Ice, the most important Hardcore band of the 21st Century this side of Terror.

But first, current events! The Vein, Candy, Regulate, and Living Weapon tour. A Place For Owls. The Arrival Note. Excide. Callous Daoboys world takeover and Mike Patton comps. Camping In Alaska. The road return of Parasitic Twins. Who Decides. The Syracuse Hardcore Revival? Spite House. The Berries. Homework for the Hardlore Disharmony/Rust deep dive.

TUI moved mountains in Hardcore, all but single-handedly shifting the vibe of the culture and genre. Then, in the wake of that, their members went on to shift the culture again via new projects. At the end of the day, TUI and their members are pretty impossible to disentangle from Hardcore as it currently stands, and their entire discography (even and maybe especially Heatwave) should be regarded for contributing massively to the genre in a way that is impossible to erase. Fun times.

The day has come, a silence is broken, a new era dawns.

We’re joined by Very Special Guests Kyle and Ellie, formerly of the E Word Podcast and godparents of Watch Me Pod. We talk about the rise and fall of the E Word, life in the interim, the social currency of being Mad Online, the 5th Wave bonanza, dead website data disasters, and the yet-to-be-named E Word reboot.

We do a deep dive into the Blink-182 discography, 30 years into the band. Other analysis that’s been leveled at Blink has been focused on their trajectory as a commercial and cultural phenomenon at the macro level, and while that is all fine and good and compelling, most if not all of this analysis falls short in one department: Are there tracks? How are the tracks? Do the tracks have riffs and parts? How are the riffs and parts? You know, shit Core kids tend to focus on.

Thanks again to Kyle and Ellie for joining us. This was both a big honor and a sweet hang. Keep your eyes to the skies for whatever’s next from Kyle and Ellie.

Sound And Fury FOMO. Yo Coyote. Bottom Bracket and the Ultra Pedalboard. SUMAC and Aaron Turner supremacy. Life’s Question HC AOTY. Dazy. Xingfoo & Roy. Alien Boy. The tug of war between playing gigs and going to gigs. Two Houses/Grool Brothers/Babe Report. Shitty Neighbors. Stand Still/Bent Blue. Obsolete Man and Beer Riffs. Highway Sniper. SPEED Do America.

No Warning. Underrated? Properly rated? Definitely not overrated! We dive into the No Warning discography and talk about how good and interesting it is. We talk about the band’s fast ascendancy and their journey through the Butt Rock Bonanza of 2004, and we give a nod to their immense legacy in the 2000s-2010s hardcore sound which is completely impossible to overlook, and we attempt to give them a sufficient amount of flowers for such an excellent and impactful band.

SPEED on Yeah, But Still: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0oX30lhxRr8ZWmULIZZAFq?si=9f7d129d8714461d

Naturally, the companion playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2OZrbKwA7N6V7VC79fU5oJ?si=d409a54be8024da3

Record Setter. A Knife In The Dark. SPACED. Laura Stevenson. Being old at the gig and what it means. End It. The role of regional lore in Core. Mutilation Barbecue/Maul/Bud Rot/Meth Stain DIY gig in a convent. World Of Pleasure.

We’re joined by Dave from the legendary Chicago Punk band Two Houses to throw a brick through the Overton Window to discuss the legendary “Real Emo” band Sunny Day Real Estate.

Sunny Day are a necessary part of any conversation about the Emo genre. Their debut record Diary (1994) is arguably THE time capsule Emo record; completely essential for anyone looking to explore the genre. What’s great about SDRE, though, is that their entire discography is diverse, interesting, and – most importantly – very good.

We go around the horn and air our respective hot takes on this storied catalog of records, with an emphasis on selling our ideas to each other, and to you.

What’s your favorite Sunny Day record gonna be?

Companion playlist, of course:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5LP366IQ2C8Pt0t0icVnnk?si=3ed8d0e28e224b91

Crazy OH/MI DIY HC gig with Backbiter, Those Hounds, Hu-Mid, and Methstain. The compelling case for Gridiron: The long tail of 2020s hardcore strikes again. Michael Cera Palin, Weatherday, Oolong, and Avery Springer. Ben Quad, New You, Camp Trash, Feels Like Heaven. Hitting a Mets game as NYHC praxis.

This week, we’re looking at the short but massive history of Drive-Thru records, a label that’s completely impossible to disentangle from the conversation about Pop Punk and Emo as we know them today. The label made a huge impact by picking a few exceptional bands and flooding the market with their CDs. Not a strategy to sneeze at.

What we find is that the bands that got huge on Drive-Thru got huge because they were good. Like really good. Unlike some other labels like Trustkill or Victory where the catalogs are bursting at the seams with s-tier releases, the gems on DTR are a little fewer and further between. That being said, the bands that rose to the top on DTR made a Punk/Emo flavored impact on mainstream culture that completely dwarfs anything we’ve talked about so far.

The heavy hitters are undeniable and come as no surprise: New Found Glory, Midtown, Dashboard Confessional, The Starting Line, Finch, The Movielife, Something Corporate, and The Early November. Honorable mention to I Am The Avalanche, who went on to build a world of their own in the 2010s.

Come for these takes, stay for the crazy story of how New Found Glory ended up getting signed to Drive-Thru and the story of how Jim saw dashboard for free in 2005.

Companion playlist, as always:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6YqBtcveJmgA5ZavqrrAgq?si=e997406317da45fc

Tied Down Detroit review(brah(s)). End It as the new tent party HC band. Playing gigs with For Your Health and Purity Among Thieves. Snow Ellet release show. Dowsing reunion show. The Chad never officially breaking up and playing one show a year forever.

Hugo talks Emo so far this year. Highlights include: Oso Oso, Prince Daddy, Record Setter/Home Is Where, Praise, Anxious, and Retirement Party.

Jim talks Hardcore and Hardcore accessories so far this year. Highlights include: Highway Sniper, Envision, Foreign Hands, Undeath, Mutilatred, Anklebiter, and Soul Glo.

We need Two Minutes To Late Night to do a Braid/Madball Splitsville.

Hugo’s playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/60g1ZEpW5l9jHIakMZ3KQD?si=ba92a5e282c84585

Jim’s playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/77q2dO53NU1dD9tmlYSffd?si=cf6d6f824a9540d6

12 - VICTORY RECORDS 1993-2003 FEAT. XTONYBX

It’s impossible to have a complete conversation about the current state of punk, emo, or hardcore without talking at length about Victory Records. There’s arguably no label that’s had a bigger impact on these genres – commercially or culturally – than Victory.

We’re joined by Real 1990s Hardcore Guy Tony B. from Ft. Wayne, IN to discuss Victory’s impact on our respective journeys into punk, emo, hardcore, Vegan Straight Edge, and so on. What’s more, we dive into Victory’s discography during what was roughly the most impactful and ascendant time for the label, 1993-2003.

Highlights and heavy hitters include Earth Crisis, Snapcase, Strife, Integrity, Deadguy, Refused, By The Grace Of God, Hatebreed, Catch 22, Shutdown, Blood For Blood, Skarhead, Grade, Buried Alive, Reach The Sky, Boysetsfire, Thursday, Ringworm, Taking Back Sunday, Atreyu, Dead To Fall, Thursday, Streetlight Manifesto, and Spitalfield.

Are you more of a Strife - One Truth (1994) guy or a Strife - In This Defiance (1997) guy? Do you like Thursday - Full Collapse (2001) or Thursday - War All The Time (2003) better? Is Systems Overload (1995) the best Integrity record? Much to think about. We end on a sincere note talking about the importance of Vegan Straight Edge in our personal lives. Thank you for listening <3.

Companion playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/265R8GkRro1CHfG3RkcTlp?si=f0409b7487324578