I think about the phrase “Dudes rock” a lot. If you’re as chronically online as me, you’ve seen the phrase pop up on social media memes, or you’ve heard it come out of the mouths of your just-as-online friends. According to Know Your Meme, the saying either ironically or sincerely celebrates men doing juvenile yet wholesome activities. It also cites WIRED writer Miles Klee, who claims that the saying “became a shorthand for owning up to activities that, while not explicitly bad, feel intrinsically or even embarrassingly dude-like.”
That’s the vibe I get while listening to wash. rinse. repeat., the third album from Nashville emo band Dad Hats. The name of the group alone screams “Dudes rock”, and when you look at its members – five guys with a little grey in the beards who you might find yelling at the umpires of a little-league baseball game – you can’t help but think, “Hell yeah, dudes rock.” (By the way, that description of the band was not meant as an insult. I am also going grey and I am owning it, as we all should.)
Dad Hats have been rocking the Nashville scene for almost a decade, but wash. rinse. repeat. comes hot off of some increased notoriety for the band. Between releasing their cover of Wheatus’s “Teenage Dirtbag” and its associated video, putting out hilarious and viral Internet content, and playing to sold-out soccer arenas, 2026 has been a fruitful year for Dad Hats. Putting out the new album – with its eleven new tracks – is the cherry on top of it all.
Fans of The Menzingers, The Wonder Years, and PUP will immediately get immersed into the music on wash. rinse. repeat. Craig Turner’s vocals are similar to the Menzingers’ Greg Barnett in their power; they blend with the band who offer up solid and passionate soundscapes full of fun little emo riffs from guitarists Nate Sorg and Tyler Coleman. Bassist Zak Klaine and drummer Joe Halby hold up the rhythm section, providing the beat that will make your head involuntarily bang or bop, depending on the song’s vibe.
This is a step ahead for the band in terms of musical polish, having already put out a handful of recordings. Each song – especially the single “hope ur down” and its follow-up track “goth boy scout” – sounds tight and fit for live performance. But the band hasn’t lost the songwriting mastery that got them to this point in their existence: Each song still drips with sarcastic wit and wisps of depression, creating relatable stories with which fans can scream along. “fast times at the macmillan toy company” channels a panic attack on the clock; tracks like “never better” and “i tried” cite feelings of self-loathing and wondering what matters most in a world that feels like it’s on fire.
The biggest feeling throughout wash. rinse. repeat. is grappling with adulthood after coming up through the scene: Dealing with jobs, relationships, families, and health problems, as well as all the everyday minutia that comes with them. If the guys in Dad Hats grew up like me, they were living life with a devil-may-care attitude and making the same mistakes over and over again, regardless of the physical, mental, and social toll it would have on them. Now, our backs hurt if we sleep wrong. We’ve got bills to pay. We scowl at random neighborhood kids who get too close to our lawns. Now we’re coming to terms with the consequences of our actions, and like our knees when we get up from the couch too fast, it doesn’t feel great.
On the title track, one of the choruses channels this feeling quite poetically:
Every time I try to change
It’s easier to stay the same
Spike my coffee
A boy can dream
That’s how come
I wanna rip my head off
Like a scary movie
So I’ll talk shit in my sleep
Wash, rinse, repeat
If living life dangerously – as we might have as children – is what we know, having to grow out of it is going to be hard. But growing up doesn’t mean becoming boring: It means balancing the immature and the mature and truly learning from our mistakes, because it’s much harder to bounce back from them as we get older. Does it take work? Of course. Do we backslide? Definitely. But does that mean real growth is impossible? Of course not. It just takes a lot of work, time, and focus.
On wash. rinse. repeat., Dad Hats sound like they’re working through that process of self-reflection, but not without having a whole lot of fun in the process. Between the subject matter and the album’s sound, wash. rinse. repeat. is a solid emo rock work: It might make you want to scream along, or scream into a pillow, or both. No matter what you do, Dad Hats will be there to offer you a cold one and leave you a spot on the couch. Dudes rock.
Take a listen to “goth boy scout” from wash. rinse. repeat. below.
Written by Will Sisskind
