Joyce Manor
‘I Used To Go To This Bar’
Epitaph, 2026
Joyce Manor are California pop-punk legends and I Used To Go To This Bar is this epochal band operating at the top of their game. They continue to deliver relentlessly satisfying rock music in a manner that makes it look simply effortless. The Torrance, California-hailing trio of Barry Johnson, Chase Knobbe, and Matt Ebert are at a point in their career where their position as one of the most beloved rock bands is a foregone conclusion. Their seventh album finds the group continuing to find rich new veins to tap in their short-and-sweet songcraft without losing an ounce of bite that gained them such repute in the first place. I Used To Go To This Bar further situates Joyce Manor in the rich lineage of their influences and inspirations. Think AFI’s rapid-fire burn, Weezer’s indelible power-pop acumen, and the dusky emotionalism of the Smiths while further establishing them as leading lights in the current rock landscape.
This latest blast of a record from Joyce Manor arrives at a moment of internal revitalization for the group. A bustle of activity that followed the release of 2022’s excellent 40 Oz. to Fresno and included an instantly memorable appearance on John Mulaney’s Everybody’s in L.A. and a retrospective assessment of the group’s seminal 2011 self-titled debut as part of Pitchfork’s esteemed Sunday Review series. “Once we toured again, it felt like there was a lot of excitement around our band.” Johnson explains while reflecting on the band’s whirlwind touring schedule over the last few years, which has included an outing with Weezer and multiple sold-out shows at the legendary California venues Hollywood Palladium and Long Beach Arena.
Work on the record began in early 2023, with a creative dream team assembled after Johnson brought an early mix of first single “All My Friends Are So Depressed” to Bad Religion legend and Epitaph owner Brett Gurewitz. “I’ve been extremely proud of Joyce Manor since we signed them, and Barry and I have always had an excellent working relationship together,” Gurewitz says while discussing how he eventually took on the role of I Used To Go To This Bar’s producer. “I loved the song, but I could hear it done in a totally different way. He said, ‘Well, would you ever consider producing a single for us?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, I would love to.’”
“Working with Brett was amazing,” Johnson beams. “When it comes to our musical DNA, he’s one of the architects of everything we grew up on. Having him guide our record helped us make something that we could put next to those classic records that shaped us,” Johnson adds. “I really feel like we were behind the wheel, and I’m really proud of it.” “He likes to keep the excitement up,” Knobbe adds, “and he’s amazing at coaching performances and knowing what not to sweat. Brett legitimized all our early influences in a way that gave us a lot of confidence to execute what we were going for.” “When you’re a musician in the studio, you want to be creative,” Gurewitz explains while discussing his immediacy-first production approach that resulted in the nonstop fireballs on I Used To Go To This Bar. “You don’t want to wait around and feel frustration because people are taking a long time to plug something in. I always try to work fast and keep things creative and fun.”
The result is a Joyce Manor record that retains the band’s penchant for punchy hooks while sounding fuller, more in-your-face, and all-around bigger than ever, with an all-star crew of collaborators along for this wild ride. Along with mixing pro Tony Hoffer (M83, Beck), behind-the-boards legend Tom Lord-Alge lent his Enema of the State engineer magic to several I Used To Go To This Bar cuts, including the first single “All My Friends Are So Depressed.” The album also features a rotating cast of drummers, including touring drummer Jared Shavelson, Social Distortion’s David Hildago, Jr., and Joey Waronker—the latter of whom is currently hitting the skins for Oasis’ reunion tour. “Over the last 16 years, it’s very much felt like the three of us have this chemistry of playing music together,” Ebert explains, “and we have this pattern of drummers not staying around for too long. It made sense to forge forward as the three of us and figure out the drummer situation as we go.”
Sonically, I Used To Go To This Bar is Joyce Manor wielding a wide range of influences that are familiar and surprising. Alongside the West Coast anthems that legendary acts like X and AFI are so known for, there’s hints of spiky new wave on “After All You Put Me Through,” while “Falling Into It” was directly inspired by Johnson’s love for Vampire Weekend’s latest album Only God Was Above Us.
Joyce Manor’s whip-smart conciseness and melodic bite are all over I Used To Go To This Bar. The door-kicking opener “I Know Where Mark Chen Lives” tips its hat to Los Angeles pop-punk outfit Summer Vacation, while also echoing the Television Personalities’ cult favorite “I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives,” a clever nod that situates the track within a larger lineage of underground anthems. The supercharged jangle of “Well Whatever It Was,” is a song that dates back to Johnson’s earliest explorations in songwriting. Their SoCal sense of humor is still very much intact, as evidenced by the reference to seeing God hovering above a Tecate truck on “All My Friends Are So Depressed”. It’s the type of witty, illustrative lyrical aside that Johnson has become revered for.
Indeed, I Used To Go To This Bar feels like a true culmination of everything Joyce Manor’s achieved thus far, further cementing their current legacy as California pop-punk royalty as well as a truly generational punk band at large. “Joyce Manor are a quintessential South Bay punk band,” Gurewitz says while talking about the band’s importance to the landscape as large. “But unlike their peers they’re writing timeless songs for the American Songbook. If Barry was a novelist, he’ be Ernest Hemingway. To me, they’re among the most important bands of the last two decades.” And the fresh burst of inspiration that fuels I Used To Go To This Bar proves that Joyce Manor are far from content to rest on such laurels, moving forward with their sound and style in a way that reminds you of how they got to this point in the first place.
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