I've been meaning to tell you a bunch about this band…

Joker's Republic!​ - go see them, they're on tour!

Joker's Republic 2026 Tour Dates posted conveniently here for you.

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So here's an excellent band I've been meaning to tell you about for like a couple of years now, and a bit of a look at two of their albums …

Yeah, there's a few "band I've been meaning to tell you about", but this one is still intact and they're young(er than the others) and super talented so there should be a lot of long-lasting mileage here (hopefully!). Joker's Republic deserve attention. They're a trio from New Jersey and you should buy their music—all or most of it is on BandCamp. You should see them on the tour they just kicked off last night at Scottish Dave's in Clinton, CT. They're playing This is Not Croyden Fest in Bensalem, PA Saturday 4/25/26.
((ooops, I didn't finish & post in time, so Scottish Dave's was 2 nights ago and they already performed at Croyden earlier today (Saturday). But they're "hanging out all weekend" so maybe you can still see them in some capacity))
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The first time I saw Joker's Republic, I think it was August or September 2023 , at the Agonizer's CD release party. It was at the Cellar on Treadwell. I'd never heard them before, but Danielle—who'd been talking me into every $10 ska / punk / ska-punk show within a 45-minute drive from me but who was also NOT there that particular night—told me they were awesome and that I was going to love them. 

Danielle can say that about a lot of bands when she tells me about shows with bands I'm not familiar with, and sometimes she's more right than others. I mean, I tend to like things. I like liking things. And I really like live music. So she's never wrong. But sometimes she's REALLY right. 

She was really very GDMF right on this.

For that first show, I remember standing there next to Phred, and there was this moment a few songs in when I was thinking, "fuuuuck, this band is fuckin' awesome," and right around then was when Phred said something like, "wow, this band really brought it tonight." 

So, yay, OK, it's not just me, they really are really good. Phred's a musician among other things and somehow his 2¢ helped validate it & seal the deal. Hey, I like what I like and know what I like, but the autism zone of my neurospiciness means I still can't help looking around to see how others are reacting. Sometimes IDGAF by choice, but the awareness is still there.

Their set that night was excellent, but not being familiar with them at that time, I can't name every song they did. I'm 99% certain "Gin and Tonic" was in there (hey, available for free at BandCamp), and "Politics Still Belong in Punk Rock." Two from their album "Necessary Evil" and two of my favorites for sure.

At some point, they let the audience choose for a cover song, "Offspring or NOFX," and it was overwhelmingly NOFX. Phred again expressed being impressed by their choice of a "deep cut" and doing a hell of a job with it. I don't know NOFX well enough to remember what it was, but it did sound fucking excellent. 

I should note that Phred recalls none of this. When we saw them again on 12/27/25 at Spring-Heeled Jack's Holiday Romp & Stomp at Space Ballroom in Hamden, CT, he "wasn't sure" if he'd seen them before. Phred has stated many a time that his memory has always been shit, though. Phred recalls none of a lot of things. I should feel grateful that he remembers me after being friends for ±35 years LOL.

So, after their set I go to their table and ask for Necessary Evil, the name of their newest CD they had at the time. Whoever it was asked me which one, thinking I meant one of a few different t-shirts. And I was like , "oh, no, I mean the CD. I need the music" or something like that.

There are not a lot of albums that I've bought that demand being listened to multiple times a day every day for several weeks. This notably happened in the 90s when I first fell down the Mighty Mighty Bosstones rabbithole. In the following weeks, Necessary Evil claimed a place on that list.

I think if I'd loaned Phred the CD I bought, that night would've stuck in his head better. 

There is something to be said about an album that comes along at just the right time. Necessary Evil came along at just the right time for me. Needing new music, still slogging through the loss of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, needing an album to fall in punk-love with.

Necessary Evil starts with the brilliantly self-aware title track, which puts their talent on full display from the get-go. 

"This song's been written
Four-hundred eighty million two-hundred fifty times before 
By everyone who's ever learned to play guitar. I'm not original
But it feels so fresh to me…It feels so fresh to me"

But it IS original, even with the hat-tip to ska-punk history – a trumpet riff guest played by Buddy from Less Than Jake that evokes Rudie Can't Fail from the Clash (which is possibly my favorite song of all time and absolutely why my orange boy cat is name Rudie). 

I tried a bit of it from video I took at a show, but YouTube wants to make it a "short" because it's vertical, and weebly doesn't want to embed that like it usually would something from YouTube. So, anyway, they played Scottish Dave's in August 2024 and their bassist couldn't make it and so they opted for an acoustic set, complete with kazoo because taking yourself too seriously doesn't help and they still, IMO, "brought it."

Here's a link to view it from google photos (I feel so technologically defeated, I used to be able to beat all these stupid things at their little games and find a way (without having to pay more at my webhost for moar features & shit), but I've been away from it too long…).
(Or hey, I embedded it from Insta, just use the right arrow to get past the photo to the videos (two of them, I split it in half for some reason).

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The next song, Gin and Tonic, is also just brilliant lyrically and musically, exhibiting expert songcraft. 

"Songcraft" isn't a word that occurs to me unless some really exceptional songs / music pulls it out of my brain-drawer. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, consistently across decades exhibited some mind-blowingly amazingly songcraft. Another recent example would be the Kilograms. Some might call it "production" but I think it's more than that. Anyway, before I tangent into some other rabbithole, here's some clever-as-fuck lyrics:

"Cause she was sour like gin, and I'm bitter like tonic; we mixed so well but that don't mean we weren't toxic; You know it was bad when all our friends learned to stay away
She was sour like gin, and I'm bitter like tonic; at least she had the guts to say she didn't want this
And it took some time to see that she was right, there's got to be a better life"

Video from their "first band of the day" set at Supernova International Ska Festival in 2025, which I did not make it to:

Does it help that the gin and tonic is one of my favorite drinks? Maybe a little. Does it detract that I find neither gin sour nor tonic bitter?  Not one single bit. It's fucking brilliant. I just get swept away in the musical layers and harmonies.

Go give this song a listen on BandCamp (free download!?), and know that when they played this live that night, it sounded just as super tight as the studio version.  

For the sake of not turning this into a novella, I'll skip* to my favorite favorite of theirs, "Politics Still Belong in Punk Rock," which has a perfect shouty punk moment of "Fuck all the racists fascists homophobes transphobes and sexists! We don't want you here we never did! Get fucked!"  There may be more details to the story, but it appears to be a follow-up to a previous song of theirs, "Politics Belong in Punk Rock," which speaks to getting along despite differences of opinions. This concept has been abused and poisoned by many, particularly in this increasingly toxic political landscape. Which is probably why this sequel song clarifies, "I have an open mind, but not a hateful heart, And I will never side with anyone who can't tell those things apart…… Human beings have human rights. And if we can't agree on that, then I'm afraid that we are done here."

In-fucking-deed. I can weather differences of opinion like whether pineapple is OK on pizza, or by exactly how much billionaire taxes should be raised.  But NOT whether some humans should have less (fewer?) rights than others. 

*NOTE: Do NOT skip the songs in-between when you check out the album, they are all fuckin' excellent. Take advantage of BandCamp's handy posting of the lyrics, too.

I really could go through each song and say a thing, but I want to finally post this TODAY after meaning to for like yearz. :/ And I don't want to end up with a "before midnight" technicality. So I'll hit upon a couple of points on their newest album, The Hand You've been Dealt and then try to summarize and then spend another few hours finding my videos from shows and searching for good links on YouTube and then getting them to show up OK here.

Like the Necessary Evil, The Hand You've Been Dealt is full of top-notch musicianship and songs to cheer and shout righteously along to. Some songs hit hard and make me cry. A bunch, wishing I didn't relate so much. And in more ways than I might actually get into here (disclaimer: making me cry is not hard at all these days, and never was particularly difficult). 

Like its predecessor, this album grabs me right from the start. Its opening line, "Welcome back, everything's worse now isn't it?" begins the rollercoaster that, while Necessary Evil remains my favorite album of theirs (kinda splitting hairs, tho'), pulls me on a wild and amazing and gutting emotional ride of exceptional lyrics and extraordinary songcraft.

[personal aside: Anybody who knows me more than a little knows I've had a really hard time of it for nearly 10 years now. Car accident brain injury, the world all fucked up, horrible post-concussion syndrome and meds making the mTBI experience WAY worse, grieving the loss of family & some friends & a much beloved cat, the world moar fucked up and closing due to COVID just as the post-concussion syndrome finally started retreating and I was ready to reconnect with the world, menopause, toxic work situation, loooong overdue AuDHD diagnosis on top of the existing depression/anxiety/cPTSD diagnoses, the fucked up world holy fucking crap how much moar fucked up can this all get no please don't answer that, feeling the loss of having any shot at my creative career(s) (either of them, art or writing), massive never-ending and worsening autistic burnout and, at 56, having way too much hard evidence that personally things will never be stable enough again to want to even keep trying. I have needed to be reminded more than a few times to let people help, and ask for help, and that I'm not alone, and this album speaks to community and reminds me of my found family that's gotten me through so far … but EVERYONE is struggling now, and I wonder if their resources might be better spent on someone with a better chance.]

The anger of "Stop Killing Our Friends" is a timely and gut-wrenching plea, "I choose to fight for her equality and the LGBTQIA Will you stand with me?"  I didn't need to be invited, I was already in. The violence that continues to be inflicted upon the LGBTQIA (and other vulnerable populations) feels like a huge step backwards for human civilization and I can only hope we can reverse that trend before it gets even worse. 

"Dead Inside" - oof. Anyone whose seen one of my zillions of shares & personal posts about autistic burnout can guess how this hits me. 

I don't think I can pick a particular favorite off of this album, but "Long Road Ahead" is a top contender. One of the ones that makes me cry, but with a dash of dark humor mixed in with the humanity. 

"Don’t despair…just kidding please despair
It’s only four more years, did we break beyond repair?
Are we fucked? I’m pretty sure we’re fucked
I’ve never felt more scared that I can’t do enough"

"No Safe Harbor" says what women have been asking the "good guys" to do & say to the countless sexist misogynistic abusive harasser assholes out there - calls them out in no uncertain terms and shows them the fucking door. Please, guys, more of this kind of message and less "not all men."  

I will skip gushing about the impact of "Sonic Intervention" and "Cold Hard Truth" and how heavily I relate to the themes here, but, I did say I'd try to summarize. 

The lyrics throughout The Hand You've Been Dealt are thoughtful, insightful, honest, and personal. Meaningful. Relevant, for both the big picture of navigating a seriously fucked-up world and the experience of living through it, plus those tricky inter-personal human relationships. And, something that really speaks to me, the purpose of creativity from within and to the audience. Go listen to them and let it all hit you however it's going to hit you.

Any songs that didn't grab me immediately on first listen still hit hard later when I sat down to *listen* to them - Any delay on that is a by-product of my audio processing issues / needing to multi-task, and NOT anything on the part of the songs. Because holy shit, there is not a bad or weak track on either album. 

One of the reasons I always liked the Bosstones more than other bands is the overall quality of the lyrics. The poetry and subject matter. An originality. Even maturity, for lack of a better term - maybe more accurately a creative maturity, as much or more than "adult" maturity, which is hard to refer to without sounding patronizing AF. 

To clarify: I don't have much use** for the "ooh baby" objectification and "let's sex and party and goof around" that pervades so much music out there [hey, if that's your thing, enjoy it (but with respect for boundaries and safety, pls)…  it's just not my thing and even if it's good music backing it can only hold my attention for so long]. Some scenes & subgenres do better in general, and some specific bands do SO MUCH BETTER. 
 (** anymore, as admittedly in high school was a different story… but that was 40 years ago and there were still limits.)

For me, the Bosstones were one band that did so much better. I could really get taken in by the poetry of so many songs, on top of the brilliant layers of music.

And Joker's Republic is another band that does so much better. I want to hear what this band has to say. I want to hear more of it. SO MUCH MOAR. I want to see them succeed. I want to see them headline and have more than a 30-minute set. PLEASE.

So, please go buy their music and check them out if they come to a venue near you. Here's links to their website & Insta. Have a blast if you're at Croyden. Danielle is there, but I am too broke and burned out and broken, with too many complications, including securing cat-sitting for two 18-year-old cats, for a roadtrip at that level.

In a perfect world, I would be there, and this would have been 2 or 3 posts spanning from shortly after I first saw them at the Cellar.   :/