One of this month’s most anticipated releases, ‘I Used To Go To This Bar,‘ by Joyce Manor, is weeks away. As a teaser, the trio have shared a new track called ‘I Know Where Mark Chen Lives’.
Coming in at just under two minutes, it’s a pure example of Joyce Manor‘s snappy, melodic punk. Serving as another favourable slice of power-pop-tinged punk, its title sees the Californian band pay tribute to an underground hero, Mark Chen. “He was a singer and songwriter for the bands Summer Vacation and Winter Break, which didn’t get quite as popular as they deserved to. I just love Mark’s songwriting and voice,” shares vocalist/guitarist Barry Johnson.
Lyrically, the track sees Johnson share an imaginative tale with a hint of dark humour. “Lyrically, the song was inspired by Chase (Knobbe – Joyce Manor guitarist) and I hanging out, drinking and smoking weed and laughing about stuff, and we were talking about how when weed clubs first started, they’d give you a free dab, and the budtender would do a dab with you. Dabs are insanely gnarly. I was cracking myself up imagining some 19-year-old girl that just did her third dab of the hour before getting robbed at gunpoint, because they’d always get robbed as cash businesses. That’s the imagery of the song: Those early days when weed was still not super fully legal. It was like the Wild West, a little bit,” Barry explains. “And yeah, that just gave me a chuckle because it’s really dark and brutal.”
‘I Know Where Mark Chen Lives’ is the third track to be released from ‘I Used To Go To This Bar’. It follows ‘Well, Whatever It Was’ and ‘All My Friends Are So Depressed’. The album is due to be released through Epitaph Records on January 30th. Fans can pre-order ‘I Used To Go To This Bar’ here.
