HUB CITY STOMPERS TO RELEASE DRINKING RAGE ON JUMP START

Long mainstays in the American ska/punk scenes, the Hub City Stompers return with their long awaited forthcoming LP, Drinking Rage, out December 6th on Jump Start Records. The band is excited to bring you the first single from Drinking Rage that shows the band delivering with a renewed sense of energy and urgency.

“Bloodstream” is an unrelenting burst of over two decades of Dirty Jersey ska, driving and infectious while lyrically delivering with the band’s patented in your face and pull no punches attitude.

Long known for blending ska with punk attitude and socially conscious lyrics that reflect their working-class roots, the band has built a reputation for their high-energy live shows garnering them a loyal fanbase and reputation. With a discography that includes albums such as Dirty Jersey, Haters Dozen, and Life After Death, Hub City Stompers continue to push the boundaries of ska and punk while staying true to their New Jersey roots.


A limited pressing of custom 7” lathe cuts featuring “Bloodstream” and an unreleased live version of the Stomper’s classic, “Skinhead Boi.” Both the single and seven-inch lathe cuts will be available Friday, September 6th through the label’s on our Bandcamp page and the band.

THE BAD UPS DEBUT LP ‘LIFE OF SIN’ OUT SEPTEMBER 27TH

It’s been a little sleepy around these parts, but we’ve got some exciting releases slated for the remainder of 2024, so grab some popcorn because we’re about to drop some shit on you real quick.

The Bad Ups are a four-piece outfit from the Philly burbs, but don’t let that fool you because their debut LP, Life of Sin, is anything but suburban. Life of Sin is chock full of EpiFat and Lookout! goodness that’s rarely done well these days, but Travis and the guys have been able to harness the energy and passion from that era and make it all their own. Driving and melodic, Life of Sin is also driven by the storytelling, which truly makes it not just a personal record, but one that’s more than relatable.

Life of Sin drops September 27th on your favorite streaming service, but you can check out the first single from the LP, “Ego Trip”, over on our Bandcamp page right now. While you’re there, do yourself a favor and pick up some of the super slick vinyl that’s up for Pre-Order now. The first pressing is available on Yellow/Black splatter and standard Black variants.

TWENTYTWO. RELEASE SURROUNDED SINGLE

Formed in 2019, Twentytwo. is a dynamic melodic punk band hailing from the Philadelphia area that has quickly made a name for themselves delivering more than a throwback sound. With Tony Conner on vocals, Bryan Fischer on bass, Jason Mack on guitar, Justin Mondschein on drums, and Mike Wrigley on guitar each member brings their own unique style and energy to the band. Drawing inspiration from everyday life experiences, Twentytwo.’s songwriting is both raw and authentic with lyrics reflecting on personal struggles, triumphs and a sincere sense of community they hope to continue building through releases and live shows.

With the release of the single “Surrounded” the band has teamed up with Jump Start Records for the upcoming release of their debut LP that the band will begin tracking in late 2024. The band joins labelmates Bad Planning, You Vandal, and Wes Hoffman & Friends who continue to fly the modern melodic punk flag that is reminiscent at times of late 90s and early 2000’s Fat Wreck and Epitaph’s ‘golden years’ without being derivative and unoriginal.

When asked about the creative process behind some of the band’s songwriting, Tony is quick to point out that “I mostly try to write from others perspectives and minimally of my own,” showing an extrospective world view that has had a lasting impression on the band’s output.

Having recorded their debut EP with Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls, 2020’s 505 Palomar Place was followed up with a series of post-Covid released singles in 2023 recorded with Matt Brasch of The Wonder Year that has proven the band as adept in the studio as they are on stage. With the band delivering passionate and engaging performances, their energetic live shows are not to be missed.

Twentytwo. hopes to contribute to the resurgence of the local scene by bringing a sense of fun, excitement, and community to their music while feeling part of something special, bigger than the sum of their parts.

THRU IT ALL’S FOUR SONG EP NOW AVAILABLE DIGITALLY

There’s a lot more for me to say about this release, but the proper words to give this release any justice are proving hard to find. Through the years the guys from Thru It All have been good friends, but not without our ups and downs, which is typical of any relationship when you’ve known someone for as long as we have. I’ve missed these songs, especially their youthful energy and the times spent with three wide-eyed near twenty-something year old ‘kids’ living life on the road for the first time. At nearly 50 I think of these days often… time spent seeing the Milky Way in South Dakota brighter than I’ve ever seen before or since, the Northern Lights from the rooftop of a garage in Fort McMurray, Canada, and almost being arrested by local cops in Midland, Texas for playing lazer tag in a large shopping center parking lot. Those are but just a few of many that I’ll never forget (especially breaking my ankle jumping off a boat onto hard concrete at a DIY Storage Lot/Unit show outside Tampa, Florida). I’m happy these songs are seeing the light of day again. It helps the faded memories burn a little brighter again.

Back in 2006 three Philly hardcore kids recorded a four song EP with a, at the time, relatively unknown producer named Will Yip, then piled into a van and hit the road with Giving Chase for a 50 day tour across US and Canada. After seven weeks on the road filled with broken down vans, killer shows and random garage and basement shows, THRU IT ALL returned to Philly with zero in the gas tank and bank accounts. Luckily they had this gem of an EP under their belts that sounds as fresh today as it did when the band worked with Will before he became a Grammy nominated Producer and Engineer.

Four songs of youthful hardcore that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to fans of bands like Comeback Kid, With Honor, and fellow Philly standouts Kid Dynamite. Sing-alongs, pile-ons, and all the mosh you could ask for now available on your favorite streaming service or ‘Name Your Price’ (zero dollars if you feel inclined) on our Bandcamp page right now.

Time to two-step it into the weekend.

WES HOFFMAN & FRIENDS ‘PAPER HEARTS’ SINGLE/LYRIC VIDEO & VINYL PRE-ORDER

Winter blues got you down? Welp, we’ve got a cure for that, right here with How It Should Be, the new LP from Wes Hoffman & Friends. Ten tracks of melodic pop/skate-punk that will warm your frozen heart and get you out of that mid-winter funk. How It Should be drops February 23rd, but you can get your hands on a copy now! Check out the sweet limited vinyl variants we have including the Baby Blue/White A/B split color vinyl, Neon Coral with Smoke, and the always classic Black available now through our Limited Run store and Bandcamp page.

To help celebrate the occasion New Noise magazine is premiering a lyric video for the latest single “Paper Hearts”. Here’s what Wes had to say about the new single..

“Paper Hearts is one of my favorite songs on the album and is about getting closure on a relationship or friendship that has ended. It’s somewhat of a letter to the person, telling them your thoughts on how things went south. You’re cutting up paper hearts, and putting them in the letter to finally end that chapter of the story. The song’s opening line ‘This is how it should be,’ is the inspiration for the album title.”

Wes and the boys are hitting the road this and next month with some select dates as well.

Upcoming Wes Hoffman & Friends Tour Dates

February 16th – Memphis, TN at Hi Tone
February 17th – Nashville, TN at The Cobra with Rough Dreams
February 18th – Louisville, KY at Mag Bar with Rough Dreams
April 27th – New York, NY – Music Fests Here 2 with The Jukebox Romantics, Oh The Humanity, Tired Radio, Bad Planning, Eaten By Snakes & more!

DIVIDE BY ZERO’S ANSWER TO NO ONE AVAILABLE ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME

I know we’ve been quiet of late, but 2024 looks to be a pretty busy year for the label. Right now we’ve got at least 5 releases lined up and we’re excited for all the shows coming up through our sister promotion company, FW Shows. To get get things rolling we’ve got, for the first time ever, the classic Jump Start release from DIVIDE BY ZERO, Answer to No One, available on vinyl and now available outside our Subscription Club!

I’ve made no secret that Divide By Zero’s 2005 release, Answer to No One, is one of my Top 5 Jump Start releases. Over the past 28 years and 130 plus releases, I always come back to this record. It’s one that holds a special place in my head that always reminds me of a time and place that’s truly important to me and I make it a thing to call my dear friend, Tom, guitarist for Divide By Zero, each and every year to let him know that I’m listening to the record and how much I love it and how much it means to me. How’s it going, Tommy!?! Hope you and the DBZ boys are doing well.

Originally pressed as part of the first (and to date, only Jump Start subscription club), this limited pressing of 100 was done on solid, opaque yellow vinyl with random black swirl and pressed at Sun Pressing in South Florida on some of the original presses used to press the original records from Bob Marley on Studio One. With the original Subscription Club over and done (for now), we’re making the remaining copies of this record available to the public. There are less than 50 copies remaining, so if you want to own a copy of some ‘Jump Start history’, here’s your chance.

“So why should I care about Divide By Zero?” you ask. Give this record a listen and you’ll know why.

Divide by Zero was a four piece outfit from Chicago formed in 2002 heavily influenced by contemporary bands like Hot Water Music, Dillinger 4, and Small Brown Bike. Their power and emotion was drenched from head to toe and born from their hometown and everything that a city like Chicago does to a person. During their time they did what every band before SoundCloud and Bandcamp did, they hit the road playing with the likes of The Lawrence Arms, Rise Against (Dan Precision from 88 Fingers Louie/Rise Against recorded and mixed Answer to No One), Mae, Glasseater, Northstar, Spitalfield (whom TJ from DBZ later played bass), and The Ghost just to name a few. While their time was short lived, their output wasn’t and will forever be an imporant part of this label’s history.

Whether it’s the driving lead off track “Grave” or the haunting and driving “Hold On”, Answer to No One is a complete record from start to finish. The raw emotion, driving and at times manic and thundering drums balanced by soaring guitars and insightful and introspective lyrics make this a Midwest gem that certainly never got it’s due.

Additionally, if you grab a copy of Answer to No One from our Bandcamp page there are three additional Bonus Tracks that come with your vinyl purchase. The original/first released version of the track “Timber”, along with the tracks “Anywhere But Here”, and “Accusations” from the three song Timber EP released in 2003 on Waste of Time Records.

Here’s the obligatory, For Fans of – Cave In, The Cure, Dillinger 4, Hot Water Music, Jawbreaker, The Lawrence Arms, Rise Against, Small Brown.

Get into it.

30 MINUTE FEST

Saturday, December 2nd, 2023
Broken Goblet Brewing
Bensalem, PA 19020
18+ to Enter / 21+ to Party

Sets by A Wilhelm Scream, No Trigger, Bitter Branches, You Vandal, Broadcaster, All Eyes West, Metroplex, Title Holder, Bad Planning, American Thrills, Wes Hoffman & Friends, Worried Sick and Last Century.

It only makes sense that Jump Start Records would celebrate 25 years of putting out records in the middle of a global pandemic, right? So yeah, the 25th Anniversary didn’t go down in 2021 like we had hoped, but here we are at 25 plus two and what originally was planned as a label anniversary show has now morphed into 30 MINUTE FEST.

Honestly, the name and idea came about because when you throw a bigger show with more than 4 or 5 bands most of the bands are playing 30 minute sets anyway. Plus, I’m nearly 50 and my surgically repaired right knee isn’t fond of standing on hard concrete floors for all that long without being reminded of my place in the hierarchy of this world, not to mention when word got out that I was putting this on a few ‘friends of friends’ reached out and asked if they could play and I’m a sucker and can never say no.

So, here we are, 13 bands all playing 30 minute sets between two stages except for the last two on the Main Stage. I hope to make this a regular thing because I think this is going to be a ton of fun. Fast, loud, and fun. Let’s do this!

Head on over to the Broken Goblet website and grab some tickets now and let’s party!

TITLE HOLDER’S WHAT BETTER TIME DROPS JUNE 2ND

It’s been a hot minute…

We’re excited to finally get moving forward on the new Title Holder LP What Better Time that drops digitlally this Friday, June 2nd on your favorite music services. You can check out the first two new singles from What Better Time over on our Bandamp page along with some killer videos the band has done for not only these two tracks but the tracks from their Story of My Life EP that make up the A-Side of this killer release.

We’re also launching a vinyl pre-order for What Better Time along with Friday’s digital release so be sure to snag a limited copy of the Cotton Candy Pink, Lime Green Swirl, or classic Black vinyl.

What Better Time, Title Holder’s first vinyl release, includes for the first time a physical release of The Story of My Life EP along with seven new tracks recorded with Nik Bruzzese at The Gradwell House and mastered at Sun Room Audio by Dan Coutant. Chris DeMakes and Buddy Schaub from Less Than Jake also contributed in production and collaboration to help bring Title Holder’s first recordings and release to life.

Mark your calendars for this week’s digital drop and vinyl pre-order!

FAINTEST IDEA PRE-ORDER NOW AVAILABLE

Fresh off the heals of an appearance at Random Hand’s 20th Anniversary bash, Hand Fest, Jump Start and TNS Records are excited to launch the pre-order for Faintest Idea’s upcoming March 31st release The Road to Sedition. To celebrate we’ve got four killer vinyl variants to choose from. Exclusive to the States we have 100 copies each available in Orange Ghostly and Transparent Orange Crush. Both Jump Start and TNS have copies available on Randomly Mixed Color vinyl as well.


UK and European fans can grab the exclusive Half Orange/Half Green split color vinyl from our good friends from TNS Records. Head on over to TNS Records and pick up a copy!

Don’t miss Faintest Idea on their first US Tour with The Slackers this April including dates with The Pietasters and Fishbone as well!

Mon, Apr 17th – Atlanta, GA at The Masquerade
Tue, Apr 18th – Charleston, SC at Tin Roof Alley
Wed, Apr 19th – Charlotte, NC at Neighborhood Theatre
Thu, Apr 20th – Blacksburg, VA at The Lyric w/The Pietasters
Fri, Apr 21st – Baltimore, MD at Soundstage w/Fishbone
Sat, Apr 22nd – Bensalem, PA at Broken Goblet Brewing/This Is Not Croydon Fest 4
Sun, Apr 23rd – Pittsburgh, PA at The Crafthouse