This song makes you want to do donuts in your mom’s minivan.

This song makes you wanna huck yourself on your bmx bike into a low earth orbit off the biggest jump you can find.

You wanna know how I know? Because that’s PRECISELY what I did while cranking this bad boy on my Sony Discman sophomore year. And I’d do it all over again, because I had the perfect soundtrack.

This song is pure energy. If you can’t get hyped on this jam, check your pulse pal, because you are D-E-D; dead.

We’re hitting a whole mess of punk hardcore bullet points on this one:

• Perseverance – check
• Overcoming adversity – check
• Believing in yourself – double check

It’s like hearing the sun rise on your soul. It’s the musical embodiment of a Richard Simmons Cardio PUMP.

There is also zero fat on this bone. Crisp song structure, gang chants, speed and a breakdown that will have you bedroom moshing until your buddy stomps a hole in your Nintendo 64.

As a bonus you can rock this sucker from at least three separate releases:

• Original split with 88 Fingers Louie
• 2003 Rarities and B Sides collection
• Sub City Records Foundation for Fighting Blindness comp WHAT A BONUS

I get so fired up just thinking about it, I might juice the Apple Music and circle pit this whole gazebo waiting for my son’s swimming lessons to end. My friends, “Heart A Tact” is an absolute classic.

I must have been in my sophomore year of high school, and Phil was a year older than me, so he could drive. I remember him putting on Hot Water Music’s album Fuel for the Hate Game and immediately thinking, “Whoa, this dude’s voice is crazy.” I’d never heard someone sing like that before. I was more used to the polished, melodic punk rock vocals of the early 2000s pop-punk era.

The first song played was “220 Years,” and it was good, but then the next track was “Turnstile.” The shit was the jammmmmmm! I remember thinking how amazing that song was.

It still brings me right back to high school, driving around with Phil in his sister’s car with “TUFF GIRL” license plates, shouting, “I must always remember, there’s no point to surrender.”

That song and band also helped shape a lot of my music going forward. It helped expose me to Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard’s acoustic project, Rumbleseat. It also got me into bands like Gunmoll, Army of Ponch, and even Samiam. A lot of the Gainesville sound from the late ’90s and early 2000s.

It was a great time to be in a band and to see all that beautiful music being made.

My friends and I had this game where we would buy random cd’s based on whatever thing caught our eye. Maybe it was an album cover, maybe it was a song title, maybe it was the band’s name. The reason didn’t matter. We had disposable income, time to kill, and no responsibilities.

Wandering, probably annoyingly, through our music store I stopped on an album. The cover was a tank driving down a village road, the album was called “A Place Called Home” by Ignite, and there was a song called “Bullets Included, No Thought Required”. Good enough for my money and a spin of music roulette.

I press play, the guitars ring out, some guy screams “CHECK 1, 2” and then the band takes off. 17 year old Andy’s mind was blown. I didn’t know what hardcore was, but I knew I loved this. “Who Sold Out Now?” is 2:23 of circle pitting, gang vocaling, and pile on-ing greatness.

I still get a chill whenever this album starts.

Growing up in a Chicago suburb, I was mostly exposed to classic rock, radio pop, and metal. When I was about 17 or 18, I got a job at a local used record store and started my first real band, which exposed me to punk and other genres. Through Metallica covers, I found Motörhead, which led to the Ramones, the Misfits, etc.

It wasn’t until several years later that I found 88 Fingers Louie and the song “100 Proof” by accident. The driving bass intro hooked me instantly. As the song progressed, I was drawn in by the lyrics, which felt like they could have been written by me or any one of my alcohol loving friends. Imagine my surprise when I found out they were also a local band that I had missed by only a few years.

While the whole album is hit after hit, I feel the song “100 Proof” belongs in the punk canon.

I must have been either a freshman or sophomore in high school. But I distinctly remember driving down to a show at a place called the House Café in Dekalb, Illinois. What band we were driving there to see? I could not tell you. But in the back seat of my buddies’ broken down Volkswagen Jetta, a song comes on that little did I know would stick with me for the rest of my life. I just remember sitting in the back of that car with 4 other dudes reeking of cigarettes. Then an unfamiliar punk song plays in the mix. My only reaction is… “WHO IS THIS!?”

That song was “No Good” by Knuckle Puck. A Chicago-based band that I strongly support to this day at the age of 28.

Hearing that song in the back of that car itched something in my brain that I didn’t even know existed at the time. Which was some good straight forward Midwest PUNK. Joe Taylor from Knuckle Puck has been an incredible vocal influence for me ever since and it’s all due to this silly road trip in a beaten down Volkswagen Jetta.

Since then Knuckle Puck has taken the Midwest scene by storm and made its mark in Chicago forever. That song deserves a spot in the Punk Rock canon.