“Detroit” by Fireworks
For my money, one of the best pop punk songs in years. Fireworks take the gang vocals that they have become known for and make one ridiculously catchy punk song. I love this song.
“I Am The Arsonist” by Silverstein
This is easily one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I’ve never really been a fan of Silverstein, because they always seemed to be playing generic posthardcore that wasn’t terribly interesting. A Shipwreck In The Sand changed my mind about this band, and while there’s a bunch of songs that illustrate this point, “I Am The Arsonist” seems to say it the best. I mean really, this doesn’t sound like a typical Silverstein song and it’s because you can see that, for lack of a better term, they grew a pair and they make one brutal song.
“Artax” by Confide
I will probably end up defending Confide until the day I die. You may recognize this band as the guys who recently covered “Such Great Heights” and they all look creepily alike. Let me be the first to assure you that it was not always this way. Confide originally started as a pretty awesome deathcore band who released 2 EP’s before the original screamer left and they turned into a more post-hardcore sound with Shout The Truth, which is still an awesome record. New vocalist Ross started to do this clean shouting along with his screams, which was great. The problems did not start until they ditched their drummer and guitarist and picked up Josh Paul and the horrible Joel Piper. When you listen to the rerelease of Shout The Truth, you’ll hear some really terrible autotuned vocals. That’s Joel. The rerelease is the exact same record as the original, except all of the clean shouting is overdubbed with Joel’s autotuned singing. Now they sound like a terrible Underoath clone and it’s one of the more disheartening things to happen to a once great band.
The point of all of this is that at one point deathcore Confide made “Artax” and I guarantee it will rock your face off.
“Sweetest Air” by This Time Next Year
This song can join the ranks of “The Best of Me” and “My Friends Over You” as one of the great songs put out by a genre. This is one of the best pop punk songs ever released. No exaggeration whatsoever.
“Sweating at 6 AM” by All or Nothing
I’m liking this whole honest pop punk thing. Birmingham, UK based pop punk band and they’re really freaking good, and this song shows that off really well. This rules.
“Station” by Russian Circles
The best post rock buildup I’ve ever heard. Although they’re more post metal really. I saw these guys in Cleveland and there was a pit when this song hits the 4 minute mark. You’ll notice it.
“88″ by Sum 41
Yes. You read that right. If you’ve listened to Chuck and you know what I’m talking about then skip to the next one, but seriously, I was listening to this once with some friends and at the end of the song my friend just goes, “That was so good I’m going to throw up.” The first two minutes of the song is just, classic Sum 41. Then the next part of the song hits, which consists of a breakdown (really) and three different solos clearly influenced by early Metallica and Slayer. This song is too awesome to articulate it. Try to not headbang to this. Go on. Try.
“‘Is This My Fate,’ He Asked Them” by Story of the Year
We’re getting surprises all over the place. This is the only song that I really care for by SOTY, but holy wow it’s a doozy. This is SOTY’s true potential, and it’s pretty fantastic.
“Bout to get Fruit Punched, Homie” by The Wonder Years
Not the best song on this record, but it’s a fantastic introduction to one of the most fun bands around right now. They sing about zombies, pirates, ninjas, astronauts, the Kool-Aid Man, and Captain Crunch (all different songs), and reference Scrubs and New Found Glory. Those are all good things! The Wonder Years don’t try to reinvent the wheel, but their music is honest is above all else. When they use a synth in a song, you can picture them in high school listening to Motion City Soundtrack for the first time, and when they blend pop punk and hardcore, you know it’s because they freaking love NFG. And if you can’t relate to that, then I don’t know what I can do for you.
“Bite The Dust” by Casey Jones
This song is so friggin gnarly.
http://www.last.fm/music/Casey+Jones/_/Bite+the+Dust?autostart
“Hands In The Sky” by Straylight Run
Hands down the best thing that Straylight Run has ever done (which is really saying something). The slow build with haunting vocals is just perfect and then the end is so dynamic and powerful. They close every show with this, and you can really understand why.
“Yeah I Fight Sharks For Charity” by Jack The Giant Killer
Australian metalcore. They almost broke up after only releasing 3 songs, and changed their style to a more mature sound. I like the immature sound more. This song is so damn fun and the “fuck” breakdown is priceless.
“Non Objective Portrait of Karma” by Circle Takes The Square
This is my all time favorite song. CTTS also happens to be my all time favorite band. As The Roots Undo also happens to be my all time favorite record. Three minute long build where you feel like your’re dying (in a good way), and then just sweeping chaos. Again, this is my all time favorite song. You should check it out.
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I really like you list, especially the Russian Circles song! What a great collection. However I do believe there is one station where these songs are not overlooked….:)