Turnstile

One Liner:  One of my favorite recent bands - a little hardcore, a lot awesome

Wikipedia Genre:  Hardcore punk, melodic hardcore, alternative rock

Home: Baltimore, MD

Poster Position: TOP Quarter - Line 2
Both Weekends
Day and Time.

[location]

Thoughts: ABOUT FLIPPING TIME!!!

I have been beating the drum for these guys to be on this poster for years.  I am very glad that C3 stopped being scared after the Astroworld thing and invited a band that will create mosh pits again.

In 2022, I made an entire post about their album GLOW ON.  As I mentioned, in here, I rarely do an entire post about one album, but this one was badass enough to do just that:

It has been a really long time since I've had an album where I wanted to spend the time to just write a post all about that album and that album alone.  Might have been a Sturgill album a few years back.  But this album has wormed its way into my brain in a way that made me want to dive deep.

Turnstile is a hardcore punk band from Baltimore.  Normally, I'd never be a huge fan of a hardcore punk band.  I tried to get in to some of the old classics - Bad Brains or Minor Threat, among others - but it's never stuck.  I liked some Black Flag or Henry Rollins, and found a few things in the periphery of hardcore, like Fugazi, that appealed.  These guys have some of those ultra-hard sounds, but to me they are more catchy and harmonic.  There is a real groove underlying these tunes.  Check "Underwater Boi" and the funk groove at the start that then turns into chunky riffage.

The album kicks off with "Mystery," that first song above, which is a blast of loud and soft parts driven forward by some pounding drums.  Love when the bass pushes to the front and starts working it out.  And then the spaceship takes off at the end before "Blackout" pushes its way in.  These songs feel like they were written solely for me to scream them at the top of my lungs while a bunch of younger people shove their elbows into my ribs to make room for their pogo dance.  The drumming has a cool sound in this one, almost gives an eighties party vibe.  And when the song drops out and then ramps back up into a slow-aggro banger, I definitely feel the need to enter the pit.  "Don't Play" reminds me of early Red Hot Chili Peppers, from the opening freakout to the shrill guitar solo.  The thing about most of these tunes - they're aggressive and loud and fast hardcore songs, and yet they are also tuneful and melodic and catchy as hell.  Somehow, the album keeps building too, because "Holiday" (5th song) is a freaking jam of crunchy riffage and a beat that must be slam danced along with.  It also drops out and disappears for a bit in the middle before roaring back with a vengeance.  The album opener is the top streamer, but "Holiday" is right behind it with 7.8 million streams on Spotify [now up to 49.9 million].

That quiet intro, met with the fist of the riffage, is hard.  But there is still so much musicality and harmony here, it's not just a pure hardcore anger bomb.  And maybe that means these guys aren't as accepted in the hardcore world now, because their tunes can translate to me as a power-pop dance bomb in addition to screaming high-speed freakouts.  Either way, I'm digging it.

What?  A tiny desk!

Ben Folds looking mofo back there behind that mic and organ.  That breakdown at the end of "Endless" is freaking dope!  "TLC"'s call-out to Sly and the Family Stone is also dope.  Great performance, I'd love to see this stuff live.  Feels like it would be totally unhinged fun with a few short moments of sleepy chill like "Alien Love Call."

Also, go watch this freaking thing:

I've got goosebumps up and down my arms.  That freaking dude slays and makes the whole backbone for the band.  I want to scream along to that song in a big crowd immediately.

Cool disc.  Hopefully they'll be tagged in to play a show in Austin sometime soon and I can go severely damage my back while trying to dance with the kids.

Which then happened!  Here is my review of seeing them at Stubb's later in 2022:

I was really looking forward to this show, and for the most part it provided everything I needed from it.  If you don't know Turnstile, I'm not terribly surprised, as they are kind of in a niche right now as rock continues to contract away from the mainstream.  But they are very hot among the rock/punk/hardcore folks, and this show was sold out in a heartbeat.

The key thing here is that their new album is amazing.  Just a perfect blast of anger and catchy guitar riffs and joyous singing.  It's like if Weezer or Fall Out Boy was a lot more angry and loud.  And so I felt exceedingly out of place in the crowd - taller and older and significantly less pierced and tattooed than everyone else there.  But the show freaking jammed.  Just loud and fun and exuberant.  And hot and humid and freaking packed with humans.  The one plus about this being an all ages show though?  There must have been a lot of 11pm curfews because the floor cleared out around 10:30 and gave me more room to not get bounced around.

There were so many pits at first, and then a big ass one opened in the middle of the main section in front of the sound stage.  I was about four people outside of it, and was glad for that buffer because I still had to hold my ground for the first few songs.  Much more violent than you see in that video up above of Lolla Brazil or something.  And while I didn't get fully engulfed there, I was close enough so that my slight pogo-ing and fist pumping looked to be a part of the melee.

Pretty sure they played every song from Glow On, and each one was rad.  "TLC," "Blackout," "Mystery," "Don't Play," or "Holiday," they all jammed.  But then the weird moment of the night was when they came out for their encore, and just fired right back in to "Mystery," as though we had not just heard that same song 30 minutes before.  It ruled, yet again, but it was really odd that they hadn't planned an encore song and held one back for that moment.  Great show though.  Was hoping they'd be coming to ACL.

[oh, and I forgot to mention, I saw two of the opening acts.  I don't understand, in the slightest, what the word "hardcore" even means when it comes to musical genre.  Ceremony was kinda awesome, but it also felt like I was watching a disco and new wave band fronted by Henry Rollins.  The other one, Citizen, also vascilated between screaming, breakneck punk and new wave 80's sounds.  Very confusing...but fun!]

Just re-reading that is already getting me psyched up to see them again.  They came back through Austin recently, but were playing the Moody Ampitheater, which sounds like a terrible venue to me because of all of the permanently attached seats in front of the stage.  How you gonna mosh and party in seats?  So, I missed out on that show.

Before I get into the rest of music, let's do some history.  They started out as just straight hardcore punk, sprouting out of Baltimore's scene.  They released an album, got to tour with a bunch of bands I have never heard of, and opened for New Found Glory (which seems funny to me).  But it wasn't until GLOW ON in 2021 that the world noticed - universal acclaim, #8 on Rolling Stone's Best 50 albums of 2021, and two Grammy nominations (no wins).  At the same time, the band kicked out founding guitarist Brady Ebert.  At the time, the drummer had filed something against Ebert, but it was dismissed later.  Which is probably not good, since in April 2026, Ebert was charged with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault after intentionally hitting the lead singer's 79-year old dad with his car.  he is now facing potential life in prison.  NOT THAT HARDCORE, BRADY!!

But, before all of the attempted murderation, they released NEVER ENOUGH, which again was praised by critics, hit #9 on the US charts, and received three Grammy noms.  That made them the first band ever to be nominated in the rock, alternative, and metal categories in the same year (which also shows how freaking stupid the Grammy voters are).  They won Best Metal Performance for "BIRDS" and Best Rock Album for the whole disc.

Here is my review of that newer album, 2025's NEVER ENOUGH, with an intro that again includes a Tiny Desk show (but this time the real Tiny Desk and not the jenky At Home ones from the pandemic:

I know I'm about to talk about them and all, but I just really want for you to watch this Tiny Desk concert and not come away from it affected.  I love them, so maybe I am biased, but when they show the actual crowd moshing and he desk dives into them, I got goosebumps all over my body.

So great.  I am deeply sad that I missed their show last night at Moody Amp, but all I could think about the concert was how I would absolutely need to be in the front little section and not in the boring ass seated area, and I missed out on that section to buy tickets.  Oh well.

Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH.  My personal opinion is that this album is not as strong as the last one, but it is still exceedingly enjoyable.  I am in this thing called Music League, wherein the participants are required to nominate two songs per round that they think match the theme for the round - covers, hip hop, women in country, metal, etc. - with the stated goal (from the guy who set it up) being all about finding new music.  Unfortunately, the old white dudes in this league can't seem to comprehend that, and so, for example, the hip hop week was all 80's/90's classics that are not new to anyone.  But, one week the theme was something like - Best Songs You Have Enjoyed This Week - and I wanted to add a Turnstile song to it because I had been jamming this album.  I chose the title track, and I now think that was a mistake.  I got no (or very few votes), and I think two major things go against the song.  First, there is a long and somewhat uninteresting intro and outro to it that detracts from the fun power of the tune.  Second, there is pretty much just one verse and then he says the title to the song 387 times.  So, while that would be big fun to mosh to, it's not as cool of a song to bring to a pack of music snobs trying to show why it is an excellent new song.  And so then, thinking more about what song I should have used, it dawned on me that these songs jam and make me want to put a fist through the wall, but the lyricism is not going to have them nominated for any Pulitzers.  Like, "Light Design" has four lines and then they just say "Light Design" forty-eight times.  Is he in love with the art director for their stages?  Anyway, top track is that title song, but I'm going to give you "BIRDS" instead, with 12.3 million streams [now up to 30 million]. (this video actually gives you a double shot - "SEEIN' STARS" and "BIRDS"  Lucky you.

Loogit that drummer go to town in the buildup to this song!  I need to go find video of last night's show to see if people stage dove.  I have goose bumps watching these people go crazy during this song.  So rad.  Other odd thing that keeps popping into my head as I listen are some weird throwback items that make me feel like I am hearing things.  "Light Design" and SEEIN STARS both evoke old Police songs to me - not sure if that is a legit feeling, but "SEEIN' STARS" definitely sounds like I've got "When the World is Running Down" vibes.  "LOOK OUT FOR ME" starts like a Rush song from the mid-90's, maybe "Show Don't Tell"?  Maybe I should make "DULL" the theme song of my blog - IM GOING DULL!  IM GOING DULL!  Because there really is a ringing when you talk to me, usually.  My right ear just zings along all the time now.  Wheee!  Love it, and will definitely keep the disc in my playlist!

The thing that I had not done much here was to go back into the catalog.  They have four older albums/EPs - 2011's Pressure to Succeed, 2013's Step to Rhythm, 2016's Nonstop Feeling, and 2018's Time & Space.  They are definitely less tuneful and more hardcore/screamo on those, but Time & Space shows an evolving style.  The "woooh woooh's" on the title track, and then I caught a groove on "Can't Get Away," so that you can hear where they are headed.  And that being said, I am still sitting here at my desk, entering time, and bobbing my head furiously to the thick riffage on the 2016 album.  But the first disc is much grimier.  Like, the title track sounds sort of like Helmet and Metallica met up to try to play a punk song.

100%, this may be the thing I am most excited to see at the whole weekend.  Depending on the schedule, I may go camp out.