Alternative Press teamed up with Joyce Manor for exclusive vinyl of I Used to Go to This Bar, limited to 500 copies. Head to the AP Shop to grab yours.
On the latest episode of AltPress: In Session, we’re connecting with Joyce Manor for a powerful conversation about growth and memory.
Since emerging with their self-titled album in 2011, Joyce Manor have become experts at bottling apathy, drunken nights, and messy love into songs that rarely exceed two minutes. Their fast, melodic punk swings somewhere between Weezer, Jawbreaker, and Descendents, having its moment in the sun with 2014’s Never Hungover Again. Since then, they’ve hopped on tours with all those major influences and put out four other records, continuing to center themselves through sheer catchiness. This year’s I Used to Go To This Bar — produced by Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz — treads that same thorough line, but it’s unmistakably grown up.
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Following the album’s release, Joyce Manor connected with Editor-in-Chief Anna Zanes in LA, where their discussion ran the gamut — from AFI to Torrance, California showing up in their music to dedicating their latest to Brian Wilson. They also reflect on their creative process, where they approach a project song by song — and avoid the same moment happening twice. “I absolutely have no idea what we’re doing until we start doing it,” frontman Barry Johnson says.
Joyce Manor recently completed a headlining tour with Militarie Gun, Teen Mortgage, and Combat, which included an appearance at Brooklyn Paramount, where we saw the band pull out all the stops. They crammed 23 songs into an hour-long show, launching into “I Know Where Mark Chen Lives” from their recent LP and ending on a nostalgic note with “Five Beer Plan.”
The group had to postpone the final two shows of their run due to Johnson’s torn vocal cord. They pick back up with back-to-back weekends at Coachella in April, kicking off an extensive leg of their tour and rescheduled dates.
Watch the latest installment of In Session with Joyce Manor below, and revisit previous episodes of the podcast here.