The Best of the Worst announce new album 'Better Medicine' (stream a track)
NJ ska-core band The Best of the Worst were one of the many great bands on last year’s Ska Against Racism compilation, and when we spoke to them for our feature on the current ska scene, they mentioned they’d be releasing their second-ever full-length album in 2021 (their first was in 2013). Now that album has been officially announced. It’s called Better Medicine, and it comes out February 19 via Bad Time Records and TBOTW drummer Joe Scala’s own Choke Artist label.
Mike Sosinksi from Bad Time Records/Kill Lincoln had this to say about the album:
I grew up in the New Jersey punk scene of the early 2000’s. From my first few local shows one thing became very clear; genre boundaries didn’t mean shit. You could play ska, but could also throw in some speedy skate punk or saccharine emo. You could play metalcore, but could also have a ripping horn section. Bands like Catch 22 made ska kids realize that they also loved and needed the raw energy of hardcore. Bands like Folly made hardcore kids realize ska could be fun as hell and somehow make the hardcore parts seem EVEN HEAVIER. As a young musician in the scene, it seemed imperative to combine styles, smear your heart on your sleeve, embrace the music you love without fear of reproach, and to keep pushing the limits of genre. I don’t think any band more fully embodies this idea than The Best of the Worst.
First single “Counterfeit Smiles” is out now, and if Mike’s description piqued your interest, this song delivers and then some. The “core” in The Best of the Worst’s ska-core is often closer to metalcore than to hardcore, and this song is no exception, with half-stack-shaking chugs and throat-shredding screams that give the ’90s Victory Records roster a run for its money. “Counterfeit Smiles” blend that stuff seamlessly with lighter, poppier ska and bright, punchy horns, and the song’s uncompromising approach to genre is matched by its unflinching lyricism. It’s a very promising first taste of this new LP, as you can hear for yourself by streaming it below.
Tracklist
1. Short Change
2. Wishing Well
3. Counterfeit Smiles
4. This Morbid Life
5. Out Of Mind
6. Sour Spot
7. Catch My Breath
8. Learn to Die Another Day
9. Rotten Dichotomy
10. Glass Hands
11. Fine Print
12. Better Medicine
Read more: Ska is thriving right now. Here’s a look at the DIY scene that’s keeping it alive
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The Year In Ska: Albums Not to Miss From 2020
Ska Against Racism
In 1998, Mike Park put on the Ska Against Racism tour with the goal of bringing back the anti-racist politics of ska at the height of the genre's mainstream success in America. "I felt like [ska] was becoming so manufactured as this fun wacky circus music and the original politics were gone from the 2 tone movement," Mike told us earlier this year. "The whole 2 tone idea is black and white equality. Did kids even know that?" Now, 22 years later and with the help of Bad Time Records and Ska Punk Daily, the Ska Against Racism name was revived for a new 28-song compilation featuring some of the bands from the original tour (Less Than Jake, Mustard Plug, Five Iron Frenzy, and MU330) alongside other veterans (Tim Armstrong/Jesse Michaels, The Suicide Machines, The Chinkees, Hepcat, Buck O' Nine, Left Alone, Big D and the Kids Table, etc) and a slew of newer bands who are keeping ska alive today (Kill Lincoln, We Are The Union, JER, Catbite, The Best of the Worst, Omnigone, The Skints, The Interrupters, Half Past Two, Bite Me Bambi, etc). It not only connects the established veterans with the new guard and functions as a who's who of the current ska scene, it's also a mission statement for today's ska scene and a declaration of the values that these bands stand for. "Mike [Park] wanted to bring [the politics] back for his generation, and I feel like now we need to make that statement again," Mike Sosinski from Bad Time Records/Kill Lincoln told us. "It's almost like a waypoint that people can look to in time and be like, alright, ska in this generation, this is where we're at, and it's no longer just anti-racism, it's anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-sexism, it's just acceptance of everything but hate."
The compilation will benefit The Movement for Black Lives, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The Alpha Institute, The Conscious Kid, and Black Girls Code in perpetuity, and the anti-racist, anti-bigotry message lies not just in the benefit aspect but also in a lot of these songs. From covers of classic anti-racist ska anthems that remain depressingly still relevant today (Kill Lincoln doing Skankin' Pickle's "David Duke Is Running For President," The Doped Up Dollies doing The Specials' "Racist Friend") to newly-written protest songs (JER's "Breaking News! Local Punk Denies Existence of Systematic Racism," The Best of the Worst's "Illusion of Choice," Omnigone's "Swallow Poison," Mustard Plug's "Unite and Fight," etc), the message of Ska Against Racism goes much deeper than just the album title. And with so many genuinely great songs that are exclusive to this comp, Ska Against Racism is just as essential as the albums by all the bands featured. Comps aren't as popular in the streaming era as they were in the CD, cassette, and vinyl eras, but Ska Against Racism is poised to become one of those scene-defining comps like Mike Park curations Misfits of Ska and Plea For Peace were two decades ago.