Photo by Dan Monick

Nearly getting run over by your dream car. Spending forever in the ER. Losing your job at Little Caesars. It’s always the best day when Joyce Manor can make a really bad day sound like a human highlight reel. Barry Johnson just manages to keep pushing all kinds of boulders up the mountain with the slight of a shrug on the latest preview from the Torrance trio’s newly announced album, I Used To Go To This Bar. What more is how he alongside guitarist Chase Knobbe and bassist Matt Ebert have gotten soooo very good at making bad vibes bounce right off you with the most affecting yet effortlessly-sounding sunny, SoCal pop-rock hooks that bear enough of a harder edge that keeps the tension right at the surface and their perpetual punk darling status firmly in place. Bonus points for getting LA DIY scene lifer Randy Randall of No Age to score its accompany music video.

Directed by: Lance Bangs

Joyce Manor’s I Used To Go To This Bar will be released January 30th on Epitaph Records.