Songs From Northern Torrance

Pop-punk, emo revival, all-ages indie rock: How one files Southern California’s Joyce Manor depends more on where the listener is coming from than the band, necessarily. Compiled from home recordings circa 2008 to 2010, *Songs From Northern Torrance* is a succinct evolution: acoustic guitar-and-drums duo (“F\*\*k Koalacaust”) to joyful full-band noise (“Constant Nothing”), imagistic fragments (“Dhfp”) to heartbreaking flash fiction (“House Warning Party”), songs that barely last a minute to songs with the nerve to push past two. Lyrically, frontman Barry Johnson was already who he’d become: chronicler of semi-suburban dramas between parties you can’t identify but relationships you can readily feel. “At the driving range/You shouted ‘fire away’/I started feeling strange/Thought of taking my life,” he yells during the climactic “Five Beer Plan,” splurging on an extra three seconds for the essential caveat: “I fucking told you so.”

The Torrance, California band’s new and allegedly improved rarities collection is the punk record they always wanted to make, and a chance to redefine their legacy for newer listeners.

This compilation is proof that Joyce Manor have changed throughout the years, but they're still the same bizarre punks we…

After the refined and wistful power pop of 2018's A Million Dollars to Kill Me, Joyce Manor's Songs from Northern Torrance feels like an archaeological dig into the grimy punk basements of West Coast suburbia.

Joyce Manor are taking fans back to their early days with Songs from Northern Torrance, named after their California hometown and featuring ...