Danny Ryan
Fresh Fridays – New Releases from Basement, Drake, and Social Distortion
Danny Ryan
May 15, 2026
Happy Fresh Friday- May 15th, 2026! This week we feature the UK alternative emo group Basement with their first new release in 8 years. Fresh off of playing a free show at Los Angeles’s brand new DIY venue Milky’s, Basement just announced a massive tour featuring the modern “who’s who” in the alternative side of hardcore music. This newest release aims to reinvent their sound in a noticeable way, expanding into new territories of rock music that were far less common to explore in 2018. Considering how much of a pinnacle role that Basement’s influence had on the recent explosions of alternative rock in the hardcore scene, they’re finally receiving their deserved roses on this newest release – a must-listen for fans of really any genre of rock, something very rare to find in the fragmented streaming era. related: Fresh Fridays – Newest Releases by Lip Critic, Broken Social Scene, Frozen Soul, Koyo This week also has Drake surprising us with 3 new releases (too many) and the hype from Social Distortion’s newest album is still riding high. Let’s jump into it! Basement- WIRED (May 8th 2026) Run For Cover Records Although Basement is a band almost exclusively associated with
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Let The Zoomers Rage, Millennials: 2Slimey at Echoplex
Danny Ryan
May 5, 2026
Rage Rap promoter Echoe brought viral rapper 2Slimey to the Echoplex for his first Los Angeles concert on April 26th, 2026. Janky Smooth was in attendance for this vital moment in hip-hop history, and we have some thoughts on why you should give Gen Z a chance to rage in their own way, free of oldhead criticism. Gen Z really can’t catch a break in cultural analysis. From their affinity for early 00’s JNKO jeans and tacky jewelery to their gravitation towards nu-metal and emo music through TikTok. I ALWAYS see millennials complaining about how zoomers don’t have their own culture and just rip off the nostalgia from past generations, but we also have the nerve to shit on every attempt they DO make at creating their own culture. Their AI Italian brainrot memes, the “Chicken Jockey” Minecraft movie phenomenon, their parasocial obsession with pop stars and Twitch streamers – all of these contributions they have made towards the social zeitgeist often get dismissed as creations by dumb rowdy kids who were tragically warped by the internet. This sort of boomer-mentality of yelling at the clouds over the world changing is nothing new, but it’s incredibly disheartening to see peers
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Fresh Fridays New Feleases: Nine Inch Noize, M.I.A., Magdalena Bay
Danny Ryan
April 17, 2026
Happy Fresh Friday! Today we have been blessed with the highly anticipated Nine Inch Noize collaborative album between 90’s industrial god Nine Inch Nails and indie-sleaze EDM legends Boys Noize. If you are a fan of industrial music or electronic dance in any sort of way, don’t let the jarring juxtaposition of these two worlds fool you – this is a must listen album for fans of either artist. M.I.A also brings us an unexpected gospel album fresh off of her recent appearance during Diplo’s Coachella set, and Magdalena Bay has officially released the scattered singles they’ve been teasing us with in a cohesive collection. Happy Friday, and let’s jump into these fresh new releases! Nine Inch Noize- Nine Inch Nails & Boys Noize (Released April 17th 2026)- Interscope Records While seeing the collaborative name “Nine Inch Noize” on the 2026 Coachella lineup may have confused and struck many by surprise, Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize have a deeper history together than one may expect. The duo did embark on a massive tour recently in 2025 and both artists did collaborate for many songs on the recent Tron: Ares soundtrack, as bizarre as it is for Disney to enlist Nine Inch Nails
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Arroyo Secodelic Fest Is Re-vibing The L.A. Music Community- Preview and Giveaway
Danny Ryan
April 16, 2026
Arroyo Secodelic is on a mission to re-vibe LA as a festival capitol, bringing us an off-the-wall lineup no one would expect in one of the most unique festival set-ups that we have seen in a long time. The inaugural event will take place May 22nd- May 25th across seven different venues in Highland Park including The Lodge Room, Oblivion, Cheerio Collective, De Playa Records, and The Highland Park Ebell Club; Arroyo Secodelic is going to turn your Memorial Day Weekend into a psychedelic punk-rock dream. If you’re embedded in the L.A.music scene, there is no way you can miss this event. You can buy tickets now or enter our social media ticket giveaway for a chance to win 3 pairs of tickets @jankysmooth – read to the end for details. related: The 4th Wave Of Garage Rock in Los Angeles – A Retrospective With all of the hype surrounding Coachella over the past week, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the absence of multi bill lineups missing from Los Angeles’ festival scene; especially with the fall of our local events like FYF Fest and Burgerama within the past decade. Even when diverse and promising festivals do arrive like This
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Fresh Fridays: Melvins/Napalm Death Collab, Snail Mail and Immolation
Danny Ryan
April 10, 2026
Happy Janky Fresh Friday! This week we had a surpring new release of Melvins’ and Napalm Death’s collaborative album “Savage Imperial Death March”, blessing the world with a psychedelic freeform experience that is not at all what most would expect from either of these bands until you hear it- and then it all makes sense in an odd way. It’s an absolute beast of a record and near impossible to explain, but we are going to try our best to break it down anyways. We were also blessed recently with new releases by Immolation and Snail Mail. Diverse and unexpected sounds are on the menu this Fresh Friday. Let’s get into it. related: Fresh Friday’s – Thundercat, Sun O))) and Arlo Parks Melvins & Napalm Death: Savage Imperial Death March (released April 10, 2026)- Ipecac Recordings related: The Smell Of Napalm Death at Belasco The Melvins and Napalm Death are both metal bands that transcended their genres completely, both being associated more with alternative music and punk rock in modern times for how experimental they are rather than how heavy they are. The most ironic part about this being that both bands are objectively more heavy than most anyone else in
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Janky Fresh Friday: New Dropkick Murphys/Haywire split ep and more
Danny Ryan
March 20, 2026
Happy Janky Fresh Friday! This week we had an incredibly festive St. Patrick’s Day release of Dropkick Murphys and Haywire’s split EP, bringing two different generations of the Boston hardcore punk scene together for an experience that really exposes how many of the struggles and core ethics of the 90’s scene are still present today. Similarly, we have the debut release of SoCal DIY darlings Start Today’s first album and the anticipated reunion album of Poison The Well’s first release in 16 years. Whether you’re an oldhead from the 90’s hardcore punk scene or a Gen Z crowd-killer who just got into the genre during its recent post-Covid explosion, we have you covered with new releases that will have you more hopeful than ever for the state of the scene. related: Janky Fresh Friday – Kim Gordon, HEALTH, Lamb Of God, and James Blake Dropkick Murphys & Haywire: New England Forever split (released March 17, 2026)- Dummy Luck Music related: Saint Patrick’s Day w/ Flogging Molly at The Hollywood Palladium Dropkick Murphys are no strangers to releasing surprise split EP’s that rival their full-length studio albums, with their 2006 “Mob Mentality” split featuring The Business (RIP Micky Fitz) being one
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Janky Fresh Friday: Kim Gordon, Health, Lamb Of God, and James Blake
Danny Ryan
March 13, 2026
Happy Janky Fresh Friday! Today we have impactful new releases from Kim Gordon, Health, Lamb Of God and James Blake- four incredibly experimental albums that represent a shift in sound and soul for these artists. In a constantly changing world that becomes more and more confusing to understand sometimes, it’s only appropriate that legendary artists such as these are constantly changing as well. The future landscape of music in an algorithm run world may look bleak, so it’s more important than ever that we have artists pushing boundaries and fighting for art to once again belong to humanity. related: Janky Fresh Friday – Peaches, Gorillaz, Rob Zombie, and Nothing Kim Gordon: PLAY ME (released March 13, 2026): Matador Records related: Tonic Trouble And Collective Consciousness – Kim Gordon at Ventura Music Hall Kim Gordon is easily one of the most influential figures in all of alternative music in the past 50 years, with her previous works in Sonic Youth marking a clear shift in the way that audiences engaged with experimental music. Rather than being a part of the more drug-addled psychedelic avant-garde of the past like The Velvet Underground or Patti Smith, Sonic Youth took a more punk rock
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Reunions You Never Expected-The Spirit Of Versailles at Teragram
Danny Ryan
February 16, 2026
After over 20 years and against all odds; both The Spirit of Versailles and In Loving Memory played The Teragram Ballroom on February 8, 2026- These once obscure midwestern emo bands played to an audience that, ironically enough, consisted mostly of attendees that weren’t even born yet when both bands were active. All in attendance were witness to the live show birth of a cult resurgence. With how popular Midwestern Emotional Hardcore (Emo) and Screamo/Skramz have become in online music circles in recent years, it’s almost unfathomable to imagine just how niche the genre was up until not too long ago. Especially in the late 1990’s and early 00’s, history about these smaller scenes within emotional hardcore were not very well documented, and many of these bands have been lost to time or may not even be aware of their newfound success amongst younger generations finding their music later on. The Spirit of Versailles and In Loving Memory are two late 90’s bands that could not fit this description more accurately, with very little footage even existing of either band performing in their short-term original runs. Southern California promoter Your Renaissance specializes in the more emotional sides of the hardcore
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Cavalera’s Elusive ‘Nailbomb’ Comes to 1720 For A Rare U.S. Performance
Danny Ryan
February 12, 2026
While Nailbomb may be a heavy metal associated band due to vocalist Max Cavalera also being the original frontman of legendary Brazilian extreme metal band Sepultura, their unique signature blend of industrial, groove metal, and hardcore punk makes them an absolute anomaly in the genre; being equally as popular within industrial and hardcore punk circles as they are with the metalheads. Considering how widespread Nailbomb’s influence is across these different scenes, they couldn’t have picked a more appropriate lineup for their 1720 Warehouse performance on January 20, 2026; consisting of the Inland Empire’s biggest hardcore band Big Ass Truck I.E., the gruesome sounding death metal of San Fernando Valley’s Greenwitch, Arizona darkwave act Meldamor, and OC industrial punk group Purest Form. The selection of openers not only felt like a curation of artists that Nailbomb themselves are fond of, but a celebration of all of the different scenes that played a part in creating the band’s distinct sound. related: Cold As Life Play First SoCal Show – Death Or Glory at 1720 This was an exclusive one-off Los Angeles performance and only Nailbomb’s third US performance, which only made the night that much more unforgettable for anybody who was lucky enough
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Punk Rock Should Be Weird: Snõõper at The Regent
Danny Ryan
February 9, 2026
On January 30, 2026, The Regent Theater in Los Angeles was packed with sweaty, young punks ready to take part in this historical new movement of experimental punk music; and they were as big of a part in creating the atmosphere as Snõõper- the Nashville based headliners making their Los Angeles tour stop. Worldwide by Snõõper was one of the most talked about albums in 2025 alternative music for very good reason; it’s futuristic, bizarre brand of punk rock with laser-pointed quirky synthesizers is a huge breath of fresh air in the modern world where trends reign supreme. Hardcore legends Ceremony certainly agreed with this, hosting Snõõper at their Home Sick festivals in San Francisco and San Luis Obispo. In anticipation for the festival, Home Sick also hosted a mini tour for Snõõper and friends: Diode, Happy Death Men, and Ezcodylee. related: Janky Fresh Friday – New Albums from AFI and Snõõper Diode was actually my favorite act of the evening by far. They seemed to have had the most genuine approach to taking on this Devo-influenced freak-punk sound that many online are referring to as “egg punk”. While both Snõõper and Happy Death Men were too gratuitous with using noise and
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Janky Fresh Friday: New Releases From Joyce Manor and (Young) GUV
Danny Ryan
January 30, 2026
Today’s Janky Fresh Friday for January 30, 2026 brings us two of the most anticipated returns in alternative punk music: The undisputed kings of garage emo, Joyce Manor, and the return of Ben Cook from No Warning’s ambitious rebranding of his jangle-pop folk project Young Guv into simply GUV (very Prince-esque on its surface, but actually makes a lot more sense upon hearing his new album). Both artists delivered us ambitious explorations into new terrains while also being tested in how to stay authentic to their original sounds. Joyce Manor: I Used To Go To This Bar (released January 30, 2026): Epitaph Records Joyce Manor has one of the most signature pop-punk sounds out of any band of the post 2010’s, and that aspect alone made them one of the most significant alternative bands that were active throughout my high school years. Sure, Barry Johnson’s strained vocals can sound a bit whiny as he belts about depression and awkward hook-ups during their verses – and I even felt that they had their moments of cringe when I was at the age they were catering to. However Joyce Manor have always been raw and vulnerable at their core, and even these more
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Cold As Life Play First SoCal Show-Death Or Glory at 1720
Danny Ryan
January 29, 2026
Death Or Glory Fest has one of the most interesting histories out of any festival in it’s first year- having history is not necessarily the best thing to start off with. Being moved from San Diego to 1720 Warehouse and losing half of the lineup was quite the drastic change-up. Regardless all of the artists who performed gave it their all, and it’s important to the scene that Death Or Glory stayed committed to hosting Detroit’s legendary Cold As Life for their first SoCal performance ever while maintaining a solid enough lineup to justify carrying on. The lineup featured a hodgepodge of fanbases with LA legends Strife, Orange County’s much more melodic Ignite, Los Angeles’ Section H8 performing their first show in over a year, and the brutal OC powerviolence of Scalp. related: Earth’s Crust- CY Fest 2024 at The Belasco While many bands who played fit in with the tough-as-nails final bill for the fest, there were definitely outliers who probably would have had better crowds at the original San Diego iteration. The original SD lineup had more classic punk and Oi artists with a much brighter sound like TSOL and Rixe, so some variety was definitely lost when
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