Mikey Erg performing & chatting about NJ punk on The BrooklynVegan Show this week

Gina Alexander

The BrooklynVegan Show on Vans.com/Channel66 returns this Thursday (4/1) from 11 AM to 1 PM ET and this week's guest is Mikey Erg and his band, who will be performing a 25-minute live set and coming on the show to talk about the massively influential, always-thriving NJ punk scene that they've been part of for decades.

For the uninitiated, Mikey Erg has been one of the most prolific punk musicians of the past few decades. He made his breakthrough as drummer/lead vocalist of The Ergs!, whose 2004 debut album dorkrockcorkrod is one of the best pop punk albums of the 21st century and one that only gets better and more influential with age. Outside of The Ergs!, Mikey's drummed in zillions of bands, including Worriers, The Measure [sa], Early Riser, The Unlovables, Star Fucking Hipsters, The Slow Death, Dirt Bike Annie, House Boat, The Chris Gethard Show's house band, and more, and he's also been leading a solo career for the past few years. His latest album, which is self-titled, came out on Rad Girlfriend Records this past February. Previous albums were released on Don Giovanni.

Mikey recorded the new album with his current live band, bassist Fid and drummer Chris Pierce, both of whom are also long-running, prolific fixtures of the punk scene in and around NJ. Fid plays with Mikey in Hatrabbits and was also in The Measure [sa] among other bands, and Chris is/was in Doc Hopper, The Groucho Marxists, Deadguy, and more, and he runs the studio Volume IV (fka Technical Ecstasy) and did sound at New Brunswick venue Court Tavern. That's the same power trio that will be performing on our show, and all three members will be sitting down with me to chat about the NJ scene.

The BrooklynVegan Show tapes live in Brooklyn and -- just like the live music coverage on our website -- there's always a local angle worked in. For all of us at BrooklynVegan and many others in the tristate area, the NJ scene has been just as crucial to bands in our area as the Lower East Side and Williamsburg. From much-missed venues like City Gardens and Maxwell's, to iconic spaces like Court Tavern, The Stone Pony, Wonder Bar, Asbury Lanes, Starland Ballroom (fka Hunka Bunka Ballroom), and more, to the storied New Brunswick basement scene, to music festivals like Skate & Surf and Bamboozle (which is coming back), NJ has been home to some of the most crucial moments in our lives and in music history. BrooklynVegan has proudly put on some of our shows at places like The Stone Pony and Court Tavern, and many of our favorite local bands over the years came from that side of the river. The impact of NJ punk on national and international music cannot be overstated, and it's endless. From the Misfits to The Bouncing Souls and Lifetime to Thursday and My Chemical Romance to The Gaslight Anthem -- just to name a few -- NJ has consistently produced some of the world's most prominent punk bands. The Ergs! are one of the greats as well, and it's safe to say the NJ scene would be a very different place without Mikey Erg's impact.

The show airs live Thursday (4/1) at 11 AM ET and it won't be archived or re-broadcast, so this is your one chance to catch our chat with Mikey and his band and watch their entirely new live set. Tune in Thursday at Vans.com/Channel66.