The 1984 Draft - Best Friends Forever (2023)

If The Replacements, Hold Steady and Sugar are always on your playlist, you should probably add the latest release from these likeminded Dayton heartland-punk vets.

“Dayton, Ohio’s The 1984 Draft — a band who channel American rock sensibilities through a ‘90s-tinted punk and indie lens — have just released their latest album Best Friends Forever.
For those unfamiliar with The 1984 Draft, or the band’s primary singer/songwriter Joe Anderl: Few Ohio-based musicians have enjoyed the opportunity to support as broad and diverse a list of nationally and internationally recognized musicians as Anderl has with his various solo and band endeavors over a 20-year career. To name just a representative sample, he’s supported everyone from indie-rock heavies like Beach Slang, Maritime, Maps and Atlases, The New Amsterdams, The Wrens, Murder By Death, and Limbeck, to celebrated songwriters like John Vanderslice, Richard Buckner, party rocker Andrew WK, and even punk and hardcore heavies Ink and Dagger, Off With Their Heads, Everytime I Die and H2O. He’s also toured alongside The Gunshy, Adam Torres’ Nostra Nova, Tender Mercy, as bassist for The Kyle Sowashes and vocalist for Waking Kills The Dream.

The 1984 Draft released their Makes Good Choices LP in 2018. It was recorded by Pat Himes, whose credits include Ryan Adams’ legendary Heartbreaker album. It was the follow up to their 2015 Heisman Trophy Winner EP via Gas Daddy Go! (the boutique label of former Guided By Voices drummer Don Thrasher). They were also one of 24 Ohio bands featured on the 10th anniversary Aquabear Legion double vinyl compilation that year.

In 2014, The 1984 Draft released their EP Bo Jackson Up The Middle. The EPs were recorded at Popside Studio with Micah Carli (former guitarist for Hawthorne Heights), who also took up engineering and mastering duties on the Heisman Trophy Winner. Bo Jackson Up The Middle saw the light of day in advance of the release of an NFL Network documentary on the actual 1984 NFL Draft, in which the band is featured. NFL Films captured them live in the band’s hometown in January, 2014.”