What can I say? 2025 was a cursed roller-coaster ride and a peyote-fueled nightmare wrapped into one, with rampant political corruption and human rights violations playing out at every level across the world. And yet, for all the absurdity, alarm, and despair of the past 12 months, punk refuses to die; the musical rebellion marches onward, waged by bands who leverage their brave hearts, sharp minds, and brilliant talents in the name of righteous fury. Case in point: Sims Hardin’s top 10 punk releases of 2025.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Shapes and Forms
7" Vinyl, T-Shirt/Shirt
Melbourne legends Eddy Current Suppression Ring broke their six-year silence with a brief, yet powerfully infectious offering titled Shapes and Forms. This EP delivers three raw, organically crafted, endlessly catchy, linear tracks that are instantly seared into your fleshy pink brain matter. This group cannot write a bad song, and this bunch is no exception. ECSR muscle through their arrangements, the angular, memorable guitar work moving and grooving effortlessly over the dialed rhythm section. The pièce de résistance is artist Brendan Huntley’s tuneful vocals spouting his magical prose, building imagery like a sculptor molds a bust from clay. While Shapes and Forms is a welcome contribution to ECSR’s body of work, we can only hope and dream that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe 2026 will bring a long-awaited LP. Until then I will be doing full-freak interpretive dances to this in the parking lot of my office as this incredible music surges through headphones.
Cruelster
Make Them Wonder Why
Vinyl LP
Less a collection of songs than a prolonged DMT trip, Make Them Wonder Why captures Cleveland’s strangest punks at their most focused and entertaining—not to mention accessible, thanks to hyper-infectious cuts like “Jerks” and “Nuclear Word,” all pogoing backbeats and rabid vocals. They might want to tweak the last word in the title, though: Make Them Wonder How is a far more fitting name, as I have no idea how the hell these guys do it.
Artificial Go
Musical Chairs
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Conjuring a warm, magical, rock ‘n’ roll paradise reminiscent of DIY darlings like Kleenex and Guided By Voices, Artificial Go achieved breakout status this year with their second record, Musical Chairs. The big, buoyant hooks, complemented by radiant, cozy tape saturation, are obvious selling points, but it’s the memorable, picturesque songwriting that really makes the record shine. Album highlight “Circles” is the musical equivalent of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s “Dogs Playing Poker”—a fun-spirited, and incredibly funny, escape from the mundane realities of life.
Fugitive Bubble
What Will Happen if We Stop?
Vinyl LP
The current landscape of punk is largely dominated by strains that bear little resemblance to the genre’s original shape, namely modern hardcore and egg punk. The change of pace is refreshing, but the original blueprint is far from obsolete, as illustrated by Fugitive Bubble’s excellent What Will Happen if We Stop?—primordial punk devoid of extra frills or cartoonish pit calls, just catchy hooks and insane performances. (The drums, which sound like Penny Rimbaud on government-grade amphetamines, are a particular highlight.) What we’re left with is one of 2025’s best albums, a must-hear for fans of X or Buzzcocks.
Eraser
Hideout
Vinyl LP
A skronky, post-punk debut from one of Philly’s hottest bands; shrouded in mysticism, yet bursting with personality and charm, Hideout is one of 2025’s biggest standouts. Every song is a warm, catchy jaunt that assimilates the strength of its individual players into some of the headiest, most alluring no wave fusion I’ve heard all year. Just be warned: Once this LP finds its way onto your turntable, you’ll have a very hard time peeling it off.
Kaleidoscope
Cities of Fear
Vinyl LP
Bottling up the feral atmosphere and aggressive attitude of ’80s NYC hardcore—complete with gnarled, punchy recording quality—Kaleidoscope‘s latest album bridges the rugged sounds of bands like United Mutation with the tuneful, colorful arrangements of UK peace-punkers such as Crass. By broadening their influences and doubling down on their capabilities as a band, Kaleidoscope deliver a modern classic that could pass for a lost rock ‘n’ roll relic from the Big Apple underbelly.
GUNN
G*U*N*N*
Vinyl LP
Following a handful of EP releases and several years of silence, these California crushers roared back—locked, loaded, and newly evolved—with their eponymous-ish debut album G*U*N*N*. This is ’80s SoCal hardcore to a T: fast and untethered, reinforced by production that makes their intensity, technique, and talent pop across 14 songs peppered with hilarious soundbites and samples. The end result is a cohesive, hyper-fun LP for the miscreants—rippers that stoners, skaters, and moshers can all get behind.
Jeanines
How Long Can It Last
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
To label Jeanine‘s music as punk is a bit of a stretch—but a warranted one, I promise. By “punk,” I mean music that’s fast and energetic, yet tuneful and magnetic—think Dolly Mixture, The Particles, the C86 catalogue, and most importantly, the New Zealand and Australian indie undergrounds. Jeanine, who hails from Western Massachusetts, offer a similarly concise, driving, arrestingly beautiful sound on How Long Can it Last, a jangly delight with endless replayability. You’ll be singing along in silly ecstasy as their tangled, bright guitar lines intertwine ad infinitum, singer Alicia Hyman’s searing vocals piercing your heart over and over. It’s hard not to fall deep for this record; you might as well take the plunge.
Puppet Wipes
Live Inside
Vinyl LP
Is your ventriloquist dummy filthy from abuse and overuse? Calgary’s oddball punk outfit Puppet Wipes have the answer: Live Inside. Expanding on the ultra-degraded, tastefully fuzzy art-rock of 2022’s debut LP, The Stones Are Watching & They Can Be a Handful, the band’s second album puts a stronger emphasis on songwriting and atmosphere, their warm, ultra-hooky tunes simultaneously sunny and deranged. The result is something that can only be explained as The Raincoats on acid lost in the Canadian wilderness.
Silo Kids
II
Cassette
When the Wyoming-based label Deluxe Bias went under, I feared the pipeline to the burgeoning street punk movement coming out of the Southeastern and Midwestern U.S. would be shut off forever, or at the bare minimum, harder to access. You can imagine, then, how relieved I was when I heard this release by Silo Kids, who hail from Hattiesburg, Mississippi—the same oasis where Bad Anxiety and Judy and The Jerks hang their hats, which continues to thrive. II is a tasty, lo-fi offering from this zany punk crew; seven catchy, pulverizing tracks finished off with crackling tape saturation. Fans can rest easy knowing the Mississippi underground is alive and well, even with the lowered profile.
