However you lean, there’s no denying that Joyce Manor like to say it loud, fast and quick. Compared to some of their previous outings I Used To Go To This Bar is almost prog at seventeen-ish minutes long, but their all killer no filler approach SoCal punk is one which doesn’t leave much room for deep contemplation anyway.
Produced by their Epitath label boss Brett Gurewitz and featuring a trio of stand in drummers in addition to band stalwarts Barry Johnson, Chase Knobbe, and Matt Ebert, the former has been fulsome in his appreciation of their legacy, opining “They’re writing timeless songs for the American Songbook. If Barry was a novelist, he’d be Ernest Hemingway. To me, they’re among the most important bands of the last two decades.”
Getting it done in less than twenty suits them. The title track looks back nostalgically but keeps the accelerator down, while I Know Where Mark Chen Lives (Spoiler: they do) also goes long on rubbery rifferama. Finding time and room for solace on Well, Don’t It Seem Like You’ve Been Here Before?, The Opossum and All My Friends Are So Depressed, I Used to Go To This Bar is another brief and enjoyable chapter of a book which you can pick or put down whenever you feel the need.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 