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Tag: Ska

  • The Hand You’ve Been Dealt by Joker’s Republic

    The Hand You’ve Been Dealt by Joker’s Republic

    Artist: Joker’s Republic 

    Album: The Hand You’ve Been Dealt

    Release: October 10, 2025; Punkerton Records

    Joker’s Republic hails from northern New Jersey. They have been in the Ska game for many years and have released 3 previous albums. This time, they have teamed up with the legendary Roger from Less Then Jake to produce “The Hand You’ve Been Dealt”. As a dude that has liked LTJ for over 3+ decades now, I can honestly say this move makes total sense to me. Joker’s Republic definitely mines the same vein of Ska Punk that Roger has been excavating since the early 90s. 

    Hands down the best song on this album is “Long Road ahead”. Everything about it is great. From the very first line, “Don’t Despair… just kidding please despair” you know it’s going to be a banger. Seriously, that line is hilarious and really does a great job of easing the listener into what is all things considered, kind of heavy subject matter. It’s about the current state of *motions at everything*. However, despite telling you to despair, that overall message of the song is that we need each other to get through this. I am sure you know me. I am a huge sucker of a solidarity song, so of course this is going to make it high on my list. The thing that really makes the song for me is the vocals, especially at the start of the verse. They are amazing and a little reminiscent LTJ. If I were a betting man, I would wage that perhaps this might be a little bit of Roger at work. On the album in general, the vocals all have a certain Je ne c’est quoi that clearly demonstrates an overall level up. I very much enjoyed them for real.  

    “Sonic Intervention” is another really good song on the album. It benefits from the vocal stuff I mentioned earlier. It also happens to be a flavor of song I really enjoy. You see, I find music incredibly meaningful. So it follows that, I also enjoy songs that are about how other people find meaning in music and its power to shape us all. It’s a real bop that everyone should listen to. It’s got a great ska riff and the overall guitar just goes hard.  

    Finally, I think it would be an absolute travesty, if I didn’t talk about “No Safe Harbor”. This is a song met to vocalize expectations for the scene, much in the same ilk as “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”. We need more of these kinds of songs and it is great the Joker’s Republic put one out on this record. I really enjoyed the sing talky bit that starts in the last 50 seconds of the the song as well as the guitar that accompanies it. No safe harbor for bigots in the ska/punk scene. 

    I was down for this release as soon as it was announced. When I found out about Roger’s involvement, it was just like the butter on the movie theater popcorn I was going to get anyways. 2022 “Necessary Evil” was a fantastic album but The Hand You’ve Been Dealt really changes the game on what a peak Joker’s Republic album can be. It’s got crisp ska riffs, stellar vocals, political critique that is just salty enough that you become thirsty for more with a little Roger drizzled on top to make it all come to together. If you are a general ska enjoyer, this album is for you. If you are a fan of Less Than Jake and are on the fence about Joker’s Republic for some reason, I think this is the album that will sell them to you. 

  • New Dead Ends by The Best of the Worst

    New Dead Ends by The Best of the Worst

    Artist: The Best of the Worst

    Album: New Dead Ends 

    Released: September 19, 2025; Bad Time Records

    Best of the Worst, I think at this point can be considered veterans of the New Jersey music scene. “New Dead Ends” is their second release on Bad Time Records, but they’ve been making stellar Skacore jams since 2008. Personally, I have been a big fan since the last release “Better Medicine.” Their propensity to present social commentary flung at you with hard and fast instrumentals is endearing. This new release is no different. 

    Musically, “Curtain Call” is absolutely fantastic. Hands down my favorite song on the album. The synthy little bit at the intro of the song that melds seamlessly into the horns as they come in, is perfection. It tickles the part of my brain that runs solely on 90’s Nintendo nostalgia. Liz Facklemen’s vocal performance here is amazing and powerful. The contrast it provides against the angry screamy bits is definitely a pleasure. It also happens to be best example of aforementioned social commentary, as well. The song deals with the the experiences of women in the music scene that are horrifyingly all too common. It’s unfortunate when very small men get a minute amount of power; they use it to become predators. The song calls out this behavior and talks about how in the aftermath, the individual victims rarely have the power to dole out consequences. A sad reality. However, in vocalizing these experiences, what this song really does is give us, the music community, a choice to do something about it, moving forward. We don’t have to support known abusers. We don’t have to book them for shows or buy their tickets. And perhaps, if late at night these types of guys run into trouble in a parking lot, we can look the other way and pretend we didn’t see anything. That is after all the kind of culture abusers prefer and rely on. We can in fact choose to watch the legacy of abusers decompose. We just have chose to do it together. 

    Another song that really stuck with me is “Running Out of Time”. It is a slower paced reggae jam about how we often get so caught up in the monotony of life that it passes us by. I think the song heavily implies the question:  “Is it worth putting off the truly important things (whatever that means to you) to continue to grind though life’s busy work “crossing t s and dotting i s?”. In my mind, the thing that is truly great about the song is that the smooth tempo and chill beat serves up this Socratic wisdom with a matter of fact vibe. Rather than being a anxiety inducing hyper-fast ‘you better get off your ass and live before you die’ type hardcore song. Which I suppose would have also gotten the message across, albeit in a way that I believe would have been less impactful.   

    Last is the song “Misogyny”. At the risk of perhaps alienating some people; I am not a big hardcore fan. Let me explain before you get the pitchforks out. I don’t consider myself a hardcore fan because telling me something is hardcore will never inspire me to check it out solely for that reason. Now that being said, this is the kind of hardcore song I like. It’s got that social commentary that I am a fan of. The guitars are ripping and the cadence of the vocal performance right before it transitions to the second half of the song is absolutely sublime.  

    With “New Dead Ends”, The Best of the Worst have provided listeners with a robust and varied experience featuring an engineered blend of genres and sounds that only the veterans they are could have delivered. If you are a fan of Ska, Hardcore, or anything that sits between those two genres I think you should definitely give this album a listen. 

    If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—>Purchase New Dead Ends by The Best of the Worst digitally via Amazon Music