South Bay L.A.’s Joyce Manor have built a reputation for crafting short, spirited blasts of emo-punk, but there’s something different about their latest LP, I Used to Go to This Bar. And producer Brett Gurewitz has as much to do with it as the band themselves, according to frontman Barry Johnson.
For the first time, they didn’t double-track the rhythm guitars, and they also eighty-sixed the high-gain amps. But instead of trashing the band’s energetic sound, the simplified production leveled up their performances and the guitar interplay between Johnson and co-guitarist Chase Knobbe.
