Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

The Ergs! - Hindsight is 20/20, My Friend

2008 is a sad year for fans of pop-punk the whole world over. Beloved New Jersey act, the Ergs!, have announced that, following their previous touring commitments and a trio of hometown shows, they will hang it up at the end of the year. The primary reason is that bassist Jeff would be leaving, and the Ergs! wouldn’t be the same if any member(s) of the Near-Sighted Three were to be replaced.

And so on this dismal note, the band leaves its fans with Hindsight is 20/20, My Friend as a farewell. The album is a 33-song compilation of their contributions to various comp albums and 7″ splits.

Now, few things could make me, a rabid Ergs! fan, as pleased as receiving a disc containing thirty-plus tracks from a band I love. And a lot of these songs I’d never heard before; the original records or CD-Rs had long gone out of print. So for many fans, this is the first time they’ll get to hear tunes like “Every Romance Language” or “Feeling Minneapolis.” Collector nerds probably have all of this stuff, but for the rest of us, this is handy. And it’s coming to vinyl (…at some point), for the vinyl purists remaining out there.

The disc is obviously not as consistent as their studio album, but it does present an excellent example of how high-quality the music they put out consistently was. The songs are not presented in any obvious order, and they really could fit in their catalog just about anywhere. One could take that as saying the band never really progressed its sound, but the Ergs! are the kind of pop-punk revivalists who came out of the game fully-formed and knowing exactly what kind of music they wanted to play (see also: Teenage Bottlerocket). And within that seemingly limited framework, the Ergs! managed to work in their jazz-nerd leanings and other loves outside of punk (see: the single version of “Books About Miles Davis,” and their cover of “Linus & Lucy”). The Ergs! managed to create a diverse and distinctive-sounding catalog, with the b-sides and singles cuts being just as good, if not sometimes better than their album tracks; I would have put “Introducing Morrissey” on an Upstairs/Downstairs, personally.

For fans of the band, buying this album is a no-brainer. The only real choice is whether to get it on CD, or wait for the forthcoming vinyl. For pop-punk fans, or people beginning to explore pop-punk outside of what the mainstream managed to force-feed you, this is a great place to start getting familiar with one of the greats of the genre.

Album Rating: 4.5 stars

Break-up Rating: -5 stars. Don’t do it, Jeff!

Tags: the ergs!