Tag: Beta Voids

Top 25 albums of 2025: #’s 25 – 21

It’s time for my annual review of my favorite albums of the previous year. Who made the top 25 (or 40+) albums I reviewed? Read on!

#25: GoGo Penguin – Necessary Fictions

This is a solid jazz / prog album full of great beats and slick piano work. It was a pleasant surprise to discover it and this band last year.

#24: Beta Voids – Scrape It Off EP

This is a wonderfully nuts punk EP with songs about women kicking ass, people named Alan, and how much toxic masculinity sucks. A full LP from Beta Voids is in the works, so watch out before they run you over and laugh on the way out of town.

#23: Ric Wilson – America Runs on Disco EP

Speaking of good EPs that came out last year, here’s another. Ric Wilson is still somehow a secret force despite being a top-notch producer, songwriter, rapper, and cheerleader for the overly maligned city Chicago (Don’t believe what you hear. Go spend a couple days there, especially in the summer.). This EP is funky and joyful, which was exactly what we needed when it was released and still need right now.

#22: Bonnie Trash – Mourning You

On the opposite side of the spectrum, here’s an album about grief that’s one of the heaviest records of the year. The lyrics cut deep if you’ve lost a loved one, or even witnessed someone’s grief from afar.

#21: Dusty Rose Gang – A-One from Day One

Just when you thought rock might be taking a vacation for a little while, along comes this quartet to deliver one of the best straight-up rock records of 2025.

Who makes the top twenty? Tune in tomorrow, gang!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Beta Voids – Scrape It Off

Congratulations. You just found one of your new favorite punk bands.

Hailing from Astoria, Oregon, Beta Voids have unleashed (a far better description than “released”) their debut EP, Scrape It Off, and given us a much-needed adrenaline shot and kick in the ass.

The first thing you notice about them on the opening track, “Nothing to Me,” is the great interplay between the two lead vocalists – Carrie Beveridge and Mandy Grant. They sing / yell / chant about stuff that you can care about, but they really don’t give a damn. Next you notice Alpha Rasmussen‘s wild, frenetic saxophone running around the studio and your speakers.

On “Meat Head Look” (a song, I think, about guys trying and failing to impress women), you notice Mike Vasquez‘s thudding bass that somehow is able to lock in all this chaos happening across the whole EP and give it free reign at the same time. “Palpitations” roars like Bleach-era Nirvana (thanks much to Dan McClure‘s buzzsaw guitar) if Nirvana dove further down the post-punk rabbit hole instead of the metal one in their early days.

“Alan” is a twenty-three-second tribute to famous people with that name. That’s it. That’s all you need to know, really. “Brain Malfunction” is as bonkers as its title. “Baby’s in Detox” is even crazier and seems to be about being sad about being sober.

The closer, “M-O-T-H-E-R,” is a solid rock track, reminding me of The Stooges and grounded by Seth Howard‘s straight-up garage rock beats. Ms. Beveridge and Ms. Grant either pay tribute to or complain about their moms. I’m not sure. It works either way.

The whole thing works. Beta Voids are here to stomp down doors and on faces. Get in the pit or get out of the way.

Keep your mind open.

[You’ll be everything to me if you subscribe.]

[Thanks to Chad at No Rules PR!]