Bubblegum fuzz-punks Jerkoff Diary release debut full-length with Tarantula Tapes
If you’ve ever had a bad relationship, gotten pics you didn’t ask for, or been mansplained to, this album will make for a highly relatable sing-along. Jerkoff Diary is a modern-day riot grrl force-to-be-reckoned-with. Opinionated, feminist lyrical content, softened with sweet wails of a girl-power front, they turn the Spice World bus into 90’s Seattle grunge-on-wheels. With fuzzy guitars in contrast to Disney-level catchy hooks, listen closely and you can practically hear the eye-rolls.
Jerkoff Diary has two EPs under their skirts, both recorded, mixed, and mastered by Mark Forrest of ForrestSound. This self-titled debut full-length was recorded and mixed by Core Bee (Tarantula Tapes) and mastered by Laura DeRocchis (Hysterics). A true family affair!
Listen to Jerkoff Diary below and learn more about the band via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi! We’re a four-piece poppy punk band from Toronto/Hamilton. We like to write semi-screamy, angry songs that are super catchy and you can, and should, sing along to. We’ve been called the Spice Girls of punk, which is, of course, the highest compliment we could ask for. Bubble-Grunge is another name for our genre that we kinda like.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
Well, we couldn’t decide on an album title in time so we just went with self-titled. We’re super organized like that. This is our first full-length release. We went hard on writing and learning all the new songs on this album, jammed like crazy, recorded it all in (almost) one weekend, took a little break, and missed each other, and now we’re ready to unleash it upon the world and play our new songs live. We’re really proud of what we made and every song on there is a banger; we personally guarantee it (no refunds).
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
People think that all of our songs are about bad relationships and ok fine, some of them are, but we also pull inspiration from lots of different places. Workplace drama, graffiti in bathroom stalls, video games. For example, “What Do I Get” is inspired by a documentary about Betty Broderick whose husband left her for a younger woman and she snapped and murdered them both (obviously do not condone but… kinda get it?) Also, while we do scream a lot of angry stuff on stage, we like to think we are all quite nice and friendly – come say hi at a show or, even better, buy us some shots hint hint.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
We have an upcoming show on September 23 with our pals The Readys, at a super cool venue that has
supported the music scene up in Barrie called Infinity Zero (message a punk for the location). They take nothing for holding these kickass shows and we want to be a part of helping them continue to do what they do. And of course, we’re going to be having an album release party in the fall. Because we are super organized we’re still working on that, but details will be released soon.
What’s your goal for 2023?
The same as our goal for every year – have fun. Our band philosophy is if it’s not fun, we don’t do it. Being in a band is all about the good times for us, and we do it because we love it. That ethos extends to our fans. We’re going to continue having fun, playing as many shows as we can, and supporting our super-talented musical friends and the local scene.