Discograffiti: The Menzingers
Here’s a new thing I am going to start doing on here. This is half a reboot of a thing that I used to do on my Otter Limits Wordpress site and half an idea stolen from Oklahoma Lefty’s new Discography Deep Dive series. On this series, I will pick a different band or artist and talk about their discography.
For this first one, I’d going to jump into the discography of Scranton, Pennsylvania’s The Menzingers.
The Menzingers are a punk rock band that formed in 2006 in, as I said, Scranton, Pennsylvania. The band’s membership has not changed since its inception. Its membership includes Gregor Barnett on guitar and vocals, Tom May on guitar and vocals, Eric Keen on bass, and Joe Godino on drums. Tom, Joe, and Eric were previously in a ska-punk band together called Bob and the Sagets. As of this writing the band has released 7 LPs and a good batch of EPs and singles, as well as a 2006 demo which got the attention of the punk industry. Over time, this band has become one of my favorites. I’ve seen the band 3 1/2 times. The 1/2 is when I stopped to watch a few songs of their set during Riot Fest 2022 in Chicago when I was crossing the park from one band to see another on the other side of the park.
For the purposes of this discography dive, I am going to focus almost entirely on their LPs (I did include one EP). So let’s get this thing going!
A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology
This debut LP was released in July 2007 by Go-Kart Records. It was recorded in 2007 at Cannon Found Soundation in Union City, New Jersey and produced by Jesse Cannon. According to the band, the album was recorded in about 10 days.
The band was signed to Go-Kart based on a write up about them in Punknews.org. After releasing the album, the band appeared at that years punk rock music festival, The Fest. The album was ranked #14 on the aforementioned PunkNews.org’s 20 best releases of the year. ALITBOIT featured 13 tracks, including a cover of The Clash song “Straight to Hell.”
Some of my favorite tracks from the album include the title track, “Ave Maria,” “Coal City Blues,” “Richard Coury,” and “Cold Weather Gear.”
Hold On, Dodge
This EP was released in May 2009 by Red Scare Industries. Like their debut, it was produced by Jesse Cannon and recorded at Cannon Found Soundation. It originally included 4 tracks but was later re-released with a bonus track that was originally only included on iTunes.
My favorite tracks from the album are “Sunday Morning,” “Lilith Avi,” and “Red, White and Blue.”
Chamberlain Waits
This album was released in April 2010 by Red Scare Industries. It was recorded at Atlas studio in Chicago, Illinois and recorded by Matt Allison. Prior to its physical release, it was made available on MySpace.
This one was #1 on PunkNews.org’s albums of the year. Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms provided additional vocals on the song “So It Goes.”
Strangely, when I first heard this album it was one of my least favorites from the band but as time goes on, I increasingly enjoy it more.
There are 12 tracks on this album. Some of my favorite tracks from this one include “Who’s Your Partner?,” “I Was Born,” “Deep Sleep,” “Time Tables,” “So It Goes,” and “Rivalries.”
On The Impossible Past
The 3rd album from The Menzingers, this one was released by Epitaph Records in February 2012. Like its predecessor, it was produced by Matt Allison and recorded in Chicago at Atlas studio.
This record, not surprisingly, ranked high on many lists from punk magazines and website such as Kerrang!, Alternative Press, AbsolutePunk, Pitchfork, and Metacritic, among others.
OTIP has 13 tracks on it. My favorite tunes from it include “Good Things,” “Burn After Writing,” “The Obituaries,” “Mexican Guitars,” “Nice Things,” and a song that is quite possibly my absolute favorite song by the band “Casey.”
Rented World
This LP was recorded at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia, PA in October 2013 and produced by Jonathan Low. It was released by Epitaph in April 2014. The first 2 singles, “In Remission” and “I Don’t Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore” were released to radio in March of that year.
This was the band’s first full length album to show up on national charts by hitting #1 on the US Billboard Vinyl Albums chart. If I remember correctly, this was the first album released after I initially took notice of this band and became a fan.
There are 12 tracks on this album. My favorite songs from Rented World include the 2 aforementioned singles, “Transient Love,” “Nothing Feels Good Anymore,” “My Friend Kyle,” and another one of their songs that is one of my absolute favorites, “Where Your Heartache Exists.”
After The Party
The band’s 5th album was released in February 2017 by Epitaph. It was produced by Will Yip and recorded between April and May 2016 at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA. The band considers the album “a love letter to our twenties.”
The album was featured on several national and international charts, reaching #67 on the US Billboard 200, #2 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart, and #24 on the UK Vinyl Albums chart. It was also featured on several best of lists of the year including Stereogum, Kerrang!, and Alternative Press.
After the Party contains 13 tracks. Here are some of my favorites from the album: “Tellin’ Lies,” “Thick as Thieves,” “Lookers,” “Midwestern States,” “Bad Catholics,” and “After the Party.”
Hello Exile
Hello Exile was released in October 2019 by Epitaph Records. It was recorded, like the previous album, at Studio 4 and was also produced by Will Yip. While After the Party was about their twenties, this one wrote about “…how to age gracefully…”
This album was a bit of a departure stylistically in that it drew from different influences such as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, leaning toward a more Americana or heartland rock sound than previous albums. The first single, “Anna,” was released in July of 2019. The album also took inspiration from America’s political climate with the song “America (You’re Freaking Me Out)” and the Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina with the song “Strangers Forever.” It showed up on several charts, showing up at #89 on the US Billboard 200, #4 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart, #15 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart, and #12 on the UK Vinyl Albums chart.
There are 1w tracks on this album. Some of my favorite tunes include the aforementioned songs “Anna,” “America…,” and “Strangers Forever” as well as the closing track “Farewell Youth.” If I’m being completely honest, while I do like this album, it is probably my least favorite of the band’s catalog.
Some Of It Was True
The band’s most recent and 7th LP, Some Of It Was True was released in October 2023 by Epitaph. It was recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Texas and produced by Brad Cook.
This album hasn’t ranked or has been as critically acclaimed as some of their previous albums and I have no idea why. This album is absolutely phenomenal.
Some Of It Was True originally included 13 tracks but there were 2 extra tunes that came on an iTunes deluxe version. That deluxe version can now be found on all formats. My favorite tunes from it include “Hope Is a Dangerous Little Thing,” “There’s No Place in This World for Me,” “Gone West,” and “Come On Heartache.”
I would also recommend that you listen to the song “Toy Soldier,” a single that never appeared on an album that was released in May 2018.
To close this thing out, I thought I’d do a ranking of their albums, based on my own personal preference. So here, they are in descending order…
7. Hello Exile
6. Rented World
5. After the Party
4. Chamberlain Waits
3. A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology
2. Some Of It Was True
1. On The Impossible Past
Well, that’s it for this first edition of Discograffiti. I’d love to hear your feedback about this new thing. Let me know what you like, what you don’t like, what other tidbits I could include in future editions and what not. Either way, I hope you enjoyed it and tell your friends.