{"id":240395,"date":"2026-07-10T17:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/240395\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:59:08","slug":"scranton-punk-band-the-menzingers-perceive-personal-changes-on-8th-album-everything-i-ever-saw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/240395\/","title":{"rendered":"Scranton punk band The Menzingers perceive personal changes on 8th album ‘Everything I Ever Saw’"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Arriving Friday, July 17 via Epitaph Records, \u201cEverything I Ever Saw\u201d<\/a> finds The Menzingers<\/a> entering a new era in what\u2019s already been a storied career. The Scranton natives\u2019 eighth album chronicles moments of significant change \u2013 the personal, the political, and the universal \u2013 while returning to the core creative principles that first put them on the map with listeners the world over.<\/p>\n

Two decades in, the Philadelphia-based punk band has discovered that the wisdom gained with time\u2019s passing is even stronger than the emotional armor they once wore in their youth, so these 11 tracks capture the quartet embracing the here and now while strengthening the bonds that have held them together.<\/p>\n

In support, they will embark on an extensive North American headlining tour with Hot Water Music<\/a> and Weakened Friends<\/a> on Sept. 24 through Nov. 22, including a record release show at The Stone Pony<\/a> (913 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park, NJ) on July 17 and a stop at The Fillmore<\/a> (29 E. Allen St., Philadelphia) on Friday, Nov. 20 that includes additional local opening acts Spraynard<\/a> (performing \u201cFuntitled\u201d<\/a> in full), Mercy Union<\/a>, and Five Hundred Bucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For hometown fans, they\u2019ll also play a free show at Gallery of Sound<\/a> (186 Mundy St., Wilkes-Barre) on Saturday, July 18 at 6 p.m., with a meet and greet and autograph signing afterward. Space is limited; pre-ordering the album in-store on online at galleryofsound.com<\/a> guarantees entry.<\/p>\n

Work on \u201cEverything I Ever Saw\u201d started in earnest after touring behind 2023\u2019s \u201cSome of It Was True,\u201d<\/a> as the group felt a re-energized urgency while their worlds changed around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that we initially set out to do,\u201d vocalist\/guitarist Greg Barnett began. \u201cWe started writing immediately after our last record in a very fun, casual way, but we were going through really special moments that we wanted to document.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this for so long that it\u2019s routine,\u201d vocalist\/guitarist Tom May added. \u201cBetween this record and the last record, however, so much happened in our lives, and we always write about what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the last three years have been plenty busy in The Menzingers\u2019 world. While Barnett got married and welcomed his first child, May got divorced and navigated new emotional territory both in and outside of the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re no strangers to writing about breakups, but divorce is different,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a weirdness to it that cuts so much deeper and hurts much more. The most devastating part is that you had a vision for your life that\u2019s gone now, and you have to figure out how to navigate that while growing as a person. But through that suffering, I definitely became a better person than I was before. When you\u2019re broken, you can put yourself back together in a way where you are who you truly want to become.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sad for him, but he became the person that he always wanted to be, and he found so much happiness in this way his life changed,\u201d Barnett continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always look back on this record as living in the moment of these massive changes in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

While working on the album in the band\u2019s new studio space in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, the quartet \u2013 rounded out by bassist Eric Keen and drummer Joe Godino \u2013 engaged in some group camaraderie (and, yes, a couple of frosty beverages) to help their bandmate and lifelong friend navigate this particular era of growing pains in his personal life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys took care of me,\u201d May recalled, \u201cand I can\u2019t even put it into words how powerful that was. It solidified our creative relationship, because they\u2019re some of the few people that I can talk about these things with.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that sense of coming together that inspired Barnett\u2019s lyrics on the charging \u201cNobody\u2019s Heroes,\u201d which opens with the glowing tick-tock of a drum machine before launching into the type of passionate burn the band has long been known for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like the story of The Menzingers to me,\u201d he said while talking about the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to write about my experiences of trying to be there for him through everything he was going through. Then, the approach became the whole band rallying around each other, and an anthem for everything that we\u2019ve been through, while shining a light on the connection that we have together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Menzingers have always created as a four-headed unit, with all members throwing in their respective talents as part of the craft, but for \u201cEverything I Ever Saw,\u201d the group worked in creative symbiosis more than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we made this record feels the most like how the band was in the very beginning \u2013 me and Tom coming to the band with the most basic element of a song, and the four of us shaping that,\u201d Barnett explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had these really bare skeletons, and we\u2019d all get excited and envision what the song could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d huddle in a circle and try to inspire each other,\u201d May noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s listening to different music and bringing those influences over. We were trying to build songs that got us excited from an instrumentation point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instrumental in building that excitement was locally centered and nationally renowned production legend Will Yip, who threw in with The Menzingers on 2017\u2019s \u201cAfter the Party\u201d<\/a> and their sonically expansive 2019 record \u201cHello Exile.\u201d<\/a> This time around, Yip once again became an unofficial Menzinger while the band crafted these songs in their South Philly space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Will was like a homecoming,\u201d May beamed while talking about Yip\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve grown up together over these years, and we\u2019re still incredibly close friends. He\u2019s the best at gassing you up and making sure everybody\u2019s on the right page, but he\u2019s also so good at pointing out stuff that might not fit the vision without being a fucking prick. He\u2019s the hardest-working person that we\u2019ve come across in the music industry, and he\u2019s incredibly inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

His input played a crucial role in constructing the thick riffs of opening track \u201cChance Encounters,\u201d which charges forward like a thousand rhinos from the very first second.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t figure out exactly where it lived, and when we got into the studio, Will was like, \u2018Just rock it,\u2019\u201d May remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ended up being one of the heaviest songs that we\u2019ve put out in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyrically Barnett draws from the chance encounters he\u2019s experienced in his own life amidst \u201cTruman Show\u201d namechecks: \u201cI met my wife when I was 15. We were in line for a show in Wilkes-Barre, and now we have a child together. It\u2019s those chance moments that set your life on such an insane course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the infectious pop punk gait of \u201cBetter Angels,\u201d its title taken from Abraham Lincoln\u2019s first inaugural address, and its lyrical content set squarely on the various calamities occurring in the world, with an urgent message to better understand those around us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to make \u2018Better Angels\u2019 the song version of those late-night conversations with an old friend, the kind where you sit around a kitchen table and solve all of the world\u2019s problems. It feels like we\u2019re being torn apart. The country is run by monsters and money, and there are plenty of people who benefit from keeping us at each other\u2019s throats.\u2028\u2019Better Angels\u2019 is a message about what we\u2019re doing, what responsibility we have to become better versions of ourselves, and that we\u2019re not alone or powerless. It\u2019s a push against the cynicism that\u2019s so easy to embrace and a reminder that the world we want starts with how we treat ourselves and each other,\u201d May shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeaven\u2019s not coming for us. You have to create it on Earth. The world feels unstable, there\u2019s noise everywhere, and we live in a world that\u2019s teetering on post-truth. The song is about trying to stay human when the worst parts of humanity are showing its face. This oligarchical, blatantly corrupt, and self-serving administration is costing people their lives and livelihoods, and there\u2019s a division that exists. If we\u2019re going to get through all this, we have to bring people in and see the humanity in someone else. Appealing to the part of yourself \u2013 that\u2019s the better angel.\u201d<\/p>\n

And tending to those around you while drawing from the well of experience that lies within is a central theme that brought about \u201cEverything I Ever Saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis record is a turning point for us,\u201d May reflected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to utilize and accept the wisdom that we\u2019ve gained from all these years. We\u2019re extremely conscious of what we want to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a huge portion of my life, and everybody has dedicated so much to this band,\u201d Barnett added before reflecting on his grandmother\u2019s recent passing and how watching family videos after her death drove home the importance of capturing the truly transformative moments in one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be able to appreciate, understand, and love everything that we\u2019ve done, as well as where we\u2019re going,\u201d he left off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to define who we are for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suitably, \u201cEverything I Ever Saw\u201d is the work of a band that\u2019s never taken their foot off the gas, finding a new fount of energy in their collective growth \u2013 the latest full-throated work from a band that keeps creating memories to last an entire lifetime and then some.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much changed in our lives and in the world while we were making this record and, somehow, it all pulled us deeper into the band and deeper into our friendship. 20 years in and this is the most connected we\u2019ve felt to what we\u2019re doing,\u201d May concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d always heard \u2018bigger kids, bigger problems,\u2019 and there\u2019s truth in that, but there\u2019s also bigger answers and deeper meaning. There\u2019s a kind of hard-won hope you can only find on the other side of real change. In all the uncertainty of life and the world, it\u2019s easy to go straight to cynical. Easy to say fuck it all. With \u2018Everything I Ever Saw,\u2019 we wanted to lean into all of it, head on \u2013 the whole damn thing.\u201d<\/p>\n