Brand new 5-song cassette from the almighty Judy & the Jerks! FFO of fast hardcore and fun.

Our take: Latest cassette from this band out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. With a pile of cassette releases (no vinyl to date!) and hailing from a town few people have ever heard of, Judy & the Jerks aren’t on the path to worldwide fame, but you should check them out because they are so fucking great. That’s particularly true if you’re a fan of Warm Bodies, because Judy & the Jerks remind me of them in a few different respects: 1. they’re great players 2. their frontpeople have similar vocal styles and ranges and 3. they’re a hardcore band that plays with the flexibility and inventiveness of a seasoned jazz group… or maybe vice versa? Actually, Judy & the Jerks are definitely a hardcore band, a fact they signal both in their own songs (even the least straightforward track here, “Goblin Reprise,” has some blistering Angry Samoans-style fast parts) and their choice of covers (Gorilla Biscuits on this one, but they’ve also covered Negative Approach and Floorpunch (!!!) on past releases). I love the energy and power of hardcore, but I get frustrated by bands that let the genre’s unwritten rules paint them into a corner. I have shelves full of hardcore records and I don’t need another one that sounds just like a bunch of records I’ve already heard. Judy & the Jerks don’t sound like anyone, and it’s exciting to listen to them because they sound free… even if you know there will be plenty of ripping fast punk on their releases, you have no idea what the next track will sound like. If you’re in a similar position, i.e. you love classic punk and hardcore but you expect new bands to add something to the conversation rather than just reciting the same script, check this band out.