Joyce Manor announce their anticipated new album, I Used To Go To This Bar, due January 30, 2026 via Epitaph Records. Alongside the announcement the band shares a Lance Bangs-directed video for lead single ‘Well, Whatever It Was‘ that parodies The Great British Bake Off featuring a cast of comedians and musicians playing UK rockstars.
“‘Well, Whatever It Was’ has got to be one of the most Southern California sounding songs ever recorded. I hear Jane’s Addiction in the verses, Beach Boys / Weezer in the chorus, and RHCP in the outro. It was LITERALLY produced by the guy from Bad Religion FFS. Everyone was just firing on all cylinders for this one. Joey Warnoker’s drumming, TLA’s mix, and Lenny Castro’s percussion all just sent it to the end-zone. This song would go insanely hard in a Shrek film,” says Barry Johnson.
I Used To Go To This Bar, produced by SoCal punk legend Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion, Epitaph Records CEO), finds the epochal band operating at the top of their game. The Torrance, CA trio of Barry Johnson, Chase Knobbe, and Matt Ebert continue to find rich new veins to tap in their short-and-sweet songcraft without losing an ounce of bite that gained them such repute in the first place. I Used To Go To This Bar further situates Joyce Manor in the lineage of their influences and inspirations. Think AFI’s rapid-fire burn, Weezer’s indelible power-pop acumen, and the dusky emotionalism of the Smiths while further establishing them as leading lights in the current rock landscape.
I Used To Go To This Bar follows the release of 2023’s 40 oz. to Fresno, a record that the New York Times praised as “a relentlessly tuneful 17-minute collection of all-killer, no-filler power-pop,” and Pitchfork called “a loving, uncynical refinement of the band’s best.” The band has been staying busy since its release, touring and collaborating with Weezer, making their television debut on Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney with their classic ‘Constant Headache,’ a song that was also featured in Season 3 of FX’s The Bear, and celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Never Hungover Again, which Stereogum recently said “masterfully achieves what most artists spend their lives trying to accomplish.”
Joyce Manor – ‘Well, Whatever It Was’
Work on the record began in early 2023, with a creative dream team assembled after Johnson brought an early mix of first single ‘All My Friends Are So Depressed‘ to Bad Religion legend and Epitaph owner Brett Gurewitz. “I’ve been extremely proud of Joyce Manor since we signed them, and Barry and I have always had an excellent working relationship together,” Gurewitz says while discussing how he eventually took on the role of I Used To Go To This Bar’s producer. “I loved the song, but I could hear it done in a totally different way. He said, ‘Well, would you ever consider producing a single for us?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, I would love to.’”
“Working with Brett was amazing,” Johnson beams. “When it comes to our musical DNA, he’s one of the architects of everything we grew up on. Having him guide our record helped us make something that we could put next to those classic records that shaped us,” Johnson adds. “I really feel like we were behind the wheel, and I’m really proud of it.” “He likes to keep the excitement up,” Knobbe adds, “and he’s amazing at coaching performances and knowing what not to sweat. Brett legitimized all our early influences in a way that gave us a lot of confidence to execute what we were going for.” “When you’re a musician in the studio, you want to be creative,” Gurewitz explains while discussing his immediacy-first production approach that resulted in the nonstop fireballs on I Used To Go To This Bar. “You don’t want to wait around and feel frustration because people are taking a long time to plug something in. I always try to work fast and keep things creative and fun.”
I Used To Go To This Bar feels like a true culmination of everything Joyce Manor’s achieved thus far, further cementing their current legacy as California pop-punk royalty as well as a truly generational punk band at large. “Joyce Manor are a quintessential South Bay punk band,” Gurewitz says while talking about the band’s importance to the landscape as large. “But unlike their peers they’re writing timeless songs for the American Songbook. If Barry was a novelist, he’d be Ernest Hemingway. To me, they’re among the most important bands of the last two decades.” And the fresh burst of inspiration that fuels I Used To Go To This Bar proves that Joyce Manor are far from content to rest on such laurels, moving forward with their sound and style in a way that reminds you of how they got to this point in the first place.
Joyce Manor
I Used To Go To This Bar
Tracklisting
1. I Know Where Mark Chen Lives
2. Falling Into It
3. All My Friends Are So Depressed
4. Well, Whatever It Was
5. I Used To Go To This Bar
6. After All You Put Me Through
7. The Opossum
8. Well, Don’t It Seem Like You’ve Been Here Before?
9. Grey Guitar
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