The Menzingers have many impressive bullet points on their résumé, including a consistent string of great reviews for their body of work over the past 11 years and the ability to maintain the same lineup for the band’s entire history. The latter clearly speaks to The Menzingers’ band-of-brothers Punk mentality and the unbreakable personal bond that gives their music its emotional impact. It also speaks to the fiercely loyal fan base the group has earned as a result.
The Menzingers lurched to life in 2006 after the demise of two of Scranton, Pa.’s most beloved Punk bands, Kos Mos and Bob and the Sagets. The quartet — vocalists/guitarists Greg Barnett and Tom May, bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino — immediately wrote and recorded a handful of songs and released them as the accurately titledDemo. The release was a harbinger of the acclaim that would follow, as the initial recording made a number of year-end best-of lists. The attention earned The Menzingers a deal with Punk indie label Go-Kart Records, which released 2007’s debut full-length, A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology, to even more positive publicity, particularly for the harrowing rewrite of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Richard Cory” and a scorching cover of The Clash’s “Straight to Hell.” The Menzingers’ sophomore album, 2010’s Chamberlain Waits, was cited by punknews.com as the year’s best.
The group’s big break came in 2011 when The Menzingers signed with Epitaph Records and the label’s founder, Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, hailed the quartet as the best example of passionate old-school Punk and its direction going forward. The group’s Epitaph debut, 2012’s On the Impossible Past, was awarded album-of-the-year honors by several websites and publications. Two years later, the equally incendiary Rented World and its blazing single, “I Don’t Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore,” kept the fire roaring.
After two years of worldwide headlining and support tours and an uncharacteristically long spell between albums, The Menzingers released their fifth and possibly best album, After the Party, earlier this year. Described by Barnett as “a love letter to our 20s,” After the Party has already been tagged as one of the best albums of 2017, even with six more months of releases to come. It’s another example of a huge accomplishment for The Menzingers that’s really no surprise to anyone who knows the band.
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This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 2, 2017.