livefreediyhard.com

Tag: Ska

  • Death of the Heart By JER

    Death of the Heart By JER

    Album: Death of the Heart 

    Artist: JER

    Released: August 15, 2025; Bad Time Records 

    If you are a casual ska enjoyer you might know Jeremy Hunter as the person behind the wildly popular ska cover themed YouTube channel, Skatune Network. Or perhaps you know them as the Trombonist from the band, We are the Union. However, if you are a serious ska enthusiast, you know them from their first solo album released under the band name of JER. It was called, “Bothered/Unbothered” and it was exceptionally good, so much so that I have waited ever since for a new JER record to be released so that I could do a proper and timely review. 

    “I’M STILL BOTHERED” starts the album out with what I like to call a call back song. It’s a little self referential Easter Egg for the fans that were along for the ride since the first album. Which is something I greatly enjoy. The song is about the emotions you feel, fighting just to feel ‘ok’ in a world that is tearing itself apart and the alienation that it breeds when the majority of everyone else is blind to that fact. It makes you doubt yourself. The track is a rollercoaster ride that captures what it’s like to be awake today. All while being set to an incredibly energetic arrangement of horns and guitar.  

    While I am not at all surprised, I can’t say that I was personally expecting for JER to deliver a deep meditation on toxic masculinity, but with “Claim Yr True Feelings, Wounded Child” that is exactly what you get. The horn and melody really do work to saturate the track with a soulful sadness that seeps into you. The lyrics honestly melt my heart. It’s a great reminder to any father/parent that the best thing you can be is softer to your kids. Sometimes, I know I need to be reminded of that. I am sure everyone else does as well. 

    I think that one of the best things that this album brings to the table is the strength of the featured artists. While I would listen to a JER album endlessly without them, making the world a better place is a group activity. Making the world better, being a theme of the album. It’s great to see JER put their money where their mouth is. I think the best example of this is “Capitalism Breeds Devastation”. The blending of Hip-hop and Ska brings two genres historically known for speaking truth to power together for a team up that rips into the system and those that perpetuate it. Chanting greed through the last half song all the way to screaming it as the song fades out at the end is just inspired. 

      “Death of the Heart” much like their first album wears it’s politics not only on it’s sleeve but as a badge of honor and challenges you to want better, not just for yourself, but for everyone around you. JER has done it once more, and I, for one, can’t wait for them to do it again on their next album.  

    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 Death of the Heart by JER digitally via Amazon Music

  • A Love Letter to Collecting Vinyl

    A Love Letter to Collecting Vinyl

    This year August 12th was National Vinyl Records Day. This little fact has inspired me to share, not only why I like collecting these incredible, impractical, plastic sound disks, but also a few of my favorite records from my collection.

    The best thing about vinyl to me, will always be the experience. It is almost visceral the way you have to, after deciding what you want to listen to, flip through your collection to find the album. Slide it out of the jacket, getting hit with the smell of cardboard as you do so. The feel of the paper inner sleeve crinkle as you pull the record out. The way you have to carefully hold the record (only by the edges, you don’t want your greasy prints on the grooves) as you put it on the turn table. Spinning up the platter, setting the needle, and at least in my rickety old house the way you have to ensure everyone in the room walks softer to not skip the record, takes on a reverence as you sit there listening or dancing only to have to flip the record and do it all again. You simply don’t get that type of experience in the world of digital music streaming. 

    The next best thing about vinyl is the hunt. I don’t know about you, but I know that I could buy any type of music digitally off the internet but that doesn’t scratch the primal hunter gatherer part of my brain the way going to a record store and flipping through their stock only to find or not find the exact album I wanted does. Then you have what my wife likes to call: Pokémon syndrome. When you have to have the coolest, most rare, or unique version of a record. In the DIY music space, this really just translates to getting your favorite artists album pressing because it’s hard to know if they will ever press another. However, when it comes to other, more mainstream artists, the sky really is the limit on the unique pressings they do. I tend to pick the color I like the best and roll with it. Again the experience of the hunt and collecting the shiny thing is what matters.     

    As expensive hobbies go, vinyl collection is not the most egregious and can provide a lot of joy to anyone who practices it. I really enjoy it and definitely wish I had more opportunities to collect. As every vinyl collector feels, I am sure. If you have ever thought you might like to give it a try, now is just as good a time as any to give it a shot. 

    Before I let you go, here are a few pieces from my collection that I am rather fond of:

    This is a Less Than Jake/Megadeath 7 inch split. It has the song “Some of my Best Friends Are Metalhead on one side and The Disintegrators. It is a record I bought in the early 2000s at a concert. At the time,  I didn’t collect vinyl and had absolutely no intention of starting. I bought it as a keepsake and by the end of the night even managed to get Roger of Less Than Jake to sign it. It’s a cool memory from my youth, but what I think really makes it special is that—as I would come to find out many years later after starting to actually collect. This record is somewhat unique. It’s a color that was pressed from a release exclusive to the US. However, the gatefold jacket that came with was printed specifically for the European release. I spent some time asking around the Less than Jake internet community and learned that at some point several record jackets became water damaged. Those jackets were than replaced with some printed for the European release. So there is an amount of records (I have no clue exactly how many) that have this missed matched US/Europe record/jacket combo. I doubt it makes the record worth more, but to me I think it’s a neat little happenstance.   

    The other record I want to share is “Ordinary Life” by We are the Union. My copy is a repressing probably second or third if I remember correctly, but it’s olive green which is a really cool color especially with the contrast it provides against the pink cover art of the jacket. This was the first album I purchased (literally over 20 years after my first) once I decided I wanted to start collecting vinyl. It is also one of my all time favorite albums. Quite honestly, it is amazing. Y’all should at the very least give it a listen.