Likes: 
Faceplams: Starting with one of my favorites records from Bad Religion.
Throbbing Member
Starting with one of my favorites records from Bad Religion.
Last edited by Soma; 09-02-2014 at 09:30 PM.
Throbbing Member
Some miscellaneous favourites off the top of my head:
Classics:
New stuff:
Active Member
This is the list of what punk is halal & genuine in sutekh-land
and those that are not
total opinionated wankery so scroll on if you aren't interested in my rain man list of which bands truly possess the punk spirit
True
Sex Pistols (yes they were introduced to each other by mcclaren but john means what he says and it's not like their stuff was ghostwritten. I do not slavishly adore the pistols but I am routinely unimpressed by would-be wise asses who feel terribly clever for dismissing them - and yet probably adoring the stooges and dolls. I'd say don't get me started, but I already have!)
Dead Kennedys - probably the best punk rock band, only thing of theirs I didn't like was the hardcore EP
Misfits - punk did get a bit tied up with social issues, nice that the misfits kept that Ramones spirit of dumb fun alive - without being patronising or dumbed down
Ramones - for me they were a classic rock band that sort of segued into the punk era, but many knickers are most likely irretrievably twisted by such a statement so I'll leave it at that
X Ray Spex - she really really meant it, and the music was cool and the twist of lemon they had was just enough so that they stood out
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible LP only (zomg indie/britpop not punk, surely? but for me this album has the spirit. Of Walking Abortion sounds like PiL and the Pistols merged into one band)
PiL (first 2-3 albums, I love the rest but again, early stuff has the spirit)
Leftover Crack - Mediocre Generica absolutely blew me away, I honestly thought there would never be another punk record that I would give a crap about, let alone one that would easily make my top ten
Nirvana - the ethos is punk. They were the heirs to the throne, grunge was just a marketing term. Many will not agree with this assessment! bollocks to them
The Ruts - Babylon's Burning is the song White Riot should have been (thinks it is?)
Ian Dury and The Blockheads
The Refused
Black Flag
Discharge
Bad Brains
Bikini Kill (IMO grunge & riot grrl eras are the final termination point of the changes that punk ushered in)
Untrue
The Clash - I like this band but they don't convince me. They aren't punk, they're a rock band. I find it amazing that people who dismiss the Pistols as phony more or less uniformly cite the clash as the real deal shortly afterwards. Newsflash... they were a pub rock band of middle class kids, their manager was a rival of mcclaren's, make excuses if it keeps your dream alive but I've got their number
More or less all Skate/Ska/US punk. Anything to do with skateboards, waffle sole shoes, a little dribble of brass, sunny day music... it just makes me fucking sick. I love two tone and American Hardcore but this shit is an abomination. I'd name names but I never subject myself to enough of it to take specifics on board. God I love leftover crack
Throbbing Member
I agree with almost all of that. I find most ska music to be mundane but when bands like Leftover Crack dabble in it, I like it a lot. Probably because it feels closer to real reggae.
Speaking of Leftover Crack, I also enjoyed the first Star Fucking Hipsters record a lot. The latest two seem less raw, but they still carries that attitude. I feel like they could have done something much greater with Boots Riley on a track..
Misfits were great with Danzig, but I haven't paid much attention to anything they've done after he was out.
Just off the top of my head, some more favorites
The Descendents
Big Black
Fugazi
The Queers
Television
I'm also a sucker for quite a few of the bands on Fat Wreck Chords, Asian Man Records, and a few on Epitaph. some of which are probably what you were referring to latter in your post. Bands like The Lawrence Arms, NOFX etc. in the last few years there has been a diverse insurgence of bands like Cobra Skulls, Joyce Manor, Spraynard, The Sidekicks, etc.. being active in the midwest house/basement/bar scene, it's surprising how positive the punk community is around here.
Last edited by Soma; 10-15-2012 at 04:35 PM.
Throbbing Member
YES! Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, early Sleater-Kinney (their first album will always be my favourite, as amazing as the rest of their discography is)... Awesome, awesome stuff, and punk to the bone.Originally Posted by Sutekh
Last edited by xmd 5a; 06-23-2012 at 05:50 PM.
Active Member
Yeah when I say Misfits, I mean Danzig era. Not a massive newfits hater but it's a different band. Also cannot believe I forgot Big Black - they certainly would make my list, along with the Butthole Surfers. In fact all those bands you mention are spot on, but there is one glaring omission we have both made - Stiff Little Fingers! Inflammable Material is one of the very best ever. I once heard Jake described as "grisly" - exactly!
I do love Sleater-Kinney... never did a bad album. 1st one and the last one are my favourites! The Woods pretty much brings a tear to my eye
If I might continue wankily discerning narratives, I view "The Woods" as the final (or one of the final) albums to have that 90s alt rock vibe. It almost feels like they know that something has just about run its course - curtain call imagery, lots of reflective lyrics etc. But rather than being a depleted last gasp they went out on a high - the scratchy lo fi production jobs that served them so well in the past went out the window and in came this lush production - and somehow it works! They sound like the fucking who during "what's mine is yours", and it's awesome. It's like the scratty upstarts get serious for final act, I was bowled over.
Active Member
not the biggest punk fan, but Ramones and Minor Threat are awesome!
Administrator
Green Day & Offspring!@
Just kidding. To this list, I submit Crass.
desperately chilled
Ain't it just a rip off, oi oi oi.
Administrator
The Ramones were not a punk band.
Active Member
I don't class them as punk but isn't that a bit controversial? conventional wisdom seems to hold they were (especially in those pointless "did US or UK start punk" debates, which never take stuff like richard hell into account). I see them as a rock band that embodied a lot of what would come to define "punk" (ie stripped down, high energy, no wanky high concept, terrace chant thing going on)
Good shout on Crass... do they owe us a living? of course they fucking do
Administrator
Controversial? Hardly, but then I don't consider the Sex Pistols punk music, either.
Active Member
I'd say it is controversial in that the vast majority of people see/cite them as a punk band. They came out around that time & rode that wave - the first Ramones LP is cited by nearly all the 77 UK bands as a massive influence
again, I wouldn't say they were punk any more than The Stooges or MC5 were, but it does seems to be the accepted thing.
I'd say the pistols were though (just to be a dick!). What do you classify as Punk? I feel I know what it is but can't express it very well
Administrator
Yeeeeaah, I would have to go with "The Ramones are a punk band." As Sutekh said, I've read a number of interviews with members of 70s-era punk bands who very squarely cite the Ramones. And if you're playing a gig in a 'punk' band and things are going kinda slow, the quickest and easiest way to get the kids jumping around and paying attention again is to knock out a Ramones or Misfits cover, ironically enough. (so many kids say they hate cover bands, but sure do go nuts for cover songs)
I mean, let's take a look at Wikipedia (which is punk as fuck!!!!) - on The Ramones:
And from the article on Punk Rock (can you imagine being an editor on that page?)The Ramones recorded their debut album, Ramones, in February 1976. Of the fourteen songs on the album, the longest, "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", barely surpassed two-and-a-half minutes... The now iconic front cover photograph of the band was taken by Roberta Bayley, a photographer for Punk magazine. Punk, which was largely responsible for codifying the term for the scene emerging around CBGB, ran a cover story on the Ramones in its third issue, the same month as the record's release.
I can understand how you might, in 2012, not necessarily put "The Ramones" in a punk playlist, much in the same way most of what I consider "metal" is probably wrongly attributed, but The Ramones are founding fathers of punk.The term punk initially referred to the [New York CBGB] scene in general, rather than a particular sound—the early New York punk bands represented a broad variety of influences. Among them, the Ramones, The Heartbreakers, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, and the Dead Boys were establishing a distinct musical style. Even where they diverged most clearly, in lyrical approach—the Ramones' apparent guilelessness at one extreme, Hell's conscious craft at the other—there was an abrasive attitude in common. Their shared attributes of minimalism and speed, however, had not yet come to define punk rock.
Administrator
Fine, but I think we can both agree that the Sex Pistols are grossly overrated.
Member
The Ramones are punk. What they did back in the mid-70s was brilliant. I would also put the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, X, the Germs, Black Flag, the Buzzcocks, and Bad Brains in that list. Oh, and you forget the pioneers like the Stooges, the MC5, and the New York Dolls.
What's not punk. Anything that says "Punk Rock plays Classic Rock" or any of that emo bullshit like New Found Glory or whatever is called punk on the Warped Tour. Fuck that pussy shit.
Bite me
I still play "Never Mind The Bollocks." Loudly. And I still sing along, also loudly. I love that god damned album.
Last edited by allegro; 06-25-2012 at 01:07 AM.
tempus est umbra in mente
spirit shmirit, nothing about the Manic Street Preachers is punk. Besides, if we're going to start naming any band that has "the spirit of punk music" in their influence, we've opened this up to every post hardcore band out there, and if you take that extension far enough, every rock band that isn't Coldplay or Keane.
Under this same criteria, HOW do you invalidate The Clash?
Last edited by Jinsai; 06-25-2012 at 12:37 AM.
Member
Same here, "Anarchy in the U.K." is among my top five favorite songs ever and if it's playing on a karaoke bar. I'm going to sing the fucking hell out of it and scare the shit out of everyone.
tempus est umbra in mente
Well, Karaoke is the antithesis of punk, but regardless... I cannot understand an argument that says The Sex Pistols weren't a punk band. Call them overrated if you want, but they were a hugely influential punk band.
EDIT: (none of this is directly a response to you void (except for the part about karaoke and how much I think it fucking sucks (for personal reasons)), I guess I just needed to vent)
Also, The Ramones made punk rock music, and it was awesome.
Last edited by Jinsai; 06-25-2012 at 12:59 AM.
Bite me
Aw, man, my favorite to belt out in the shower is "Bodies."
FUCK THIS AND FUCK THAT ...
I wasn't (am still not) sure if that's an anti-abortion song, but I was in high school in 1977 and loved any song that said FUCK that many times. I'd wear safety pins as earrings and it was so much fun getting reactions. I looked like the virgin Mary, but with safety pins in my ears. Good times.
Last edited by allegro; 06-25-2012 at 01:03 AM.
Active Member
Working class guys from the UK decide to put together a guitar pop band with lyrics about social & political issues, with a DIY work ethic... in the early days there was definitely something punk about them. Have you heard their early stuff eg New Art Riot & later on The Holy Bible? It's post punk indie whatever, undeniably, surely?
Also you have to take into account the environment in which they materialised - early 90s UK was all baggy manchester ravey nonsense, the MSP were a punkish trangression with their anti-apathy, intellectual working class stance - and they looked fucking bizarre as well
However I am not arguing that the band they have been since 1995 is punk, because it isn't, it's the same sort of thing as coldplay, keane et al, same as fleetwood mac and jefferson turned into different bands
Assuming you're talking about the pre-95 manics, why do you not consider them to have a punk ethos? I'm interested
And yes I appreciate the massive irony of dismissing The Clash yet bigging up the Manics. But by the same token I find it odd you might consider the Clash punk but not the manics, that's like saying Alice Cooper is Shock rock but Manson isn't
You are correct in that the vast majority of bands these days are indebted to punk, but that's not the same thing as having the spirit - imo
I've already said - they were pub rock bandwagon jumpers, they were part of something that existed before punk rather than being something new. Before The Clash were singing I'm so bored with the USA, the London SS were singing "I'm so bored with you" - they changed the trappings to meet the trend, and punk isn't about aligning yourself with trends for money. They were not of the emergant new attitude that was punk, they just swam with it - like the stranglers
edit -
But this sort of discussion is useless unless you define what you think is punk & I do the same. The Clash might be failing to embody something that I'm looking for & you aren't. I personally have trouble defining what it is which is why I'm citing bands that aren't typically considered (ie marketed as) "Punk", in some effort to provoke discussion about what the essence is
Last edited by Sutekh; 06-25-2012 at 07:58 AM.
Bite me
At that time, the Police were lumped into the "punk" category, mostly because of their HAIR (well, and also because of their ska). Nobody could define it back THEN, either, trust me.
Active Member
It seems appropriate that the term eludes definition
Bite me
Absolutely.
desperately chilled
bodies is a MAJOR favorite, and glad to see a little love for crass and x-ray spex. tremendous! and i do take the position that early manics thru the holy bible are absolutely punk. with richey gone, the band softened their image and they're anything but.
other punk favorites:
Last edited by frankie teardrop; 06-25-2012 at 01:10 PM.
Stubby Member
I've not read this before. It's funny to read an essay on the importance of overcoming racism, etc., from the critic who asked Kraftwerk if they represented the "final solution" to pop music.
Bite me
haaaaahaha, yeah, well, that was Lester. He started getting a lot less sarcastic and a lot more contemplative toward the end of his life. That article ^^ caused a lot of shit, but he did make people go "hmmmmmmm." Of course, Bad Brains blew all that up.
Last edited by allegro; 06-25-2012 at 02:15 PM.
tempus est umbra in mente
...and if you change the setting to the US, this perfectly describes Bruce Springsteen. If you keep it in the UK, it could also perfectly describe The Clash, and you can throw in the fact that one of their first gigs as "The Clash" was opening for The Sex Pistols.
Yes, there's an aesthetic element to every genre tag, sure, but it comes down to the sound, and I could see the argument that the earlier MSP stuff had a greater Stooges influence. It's not what springs to my mind when I think of the genre tag, but in general I don't get too worked up over genre designations anyway.
Doesn't that work both ways? I mean, if that's the case, then aren't you by your own perception here saying "Manson is shock rock but Alice Cooper isn't?"And yes I appreciate the massive irony of dismissing The Clash yet bigging up the Manics. But by the same token I find it odd you might consider the Clash punk but not the manics, that's like saying Alice Cooper is Shock rock but Manson isn't
Last edited by Jinsai; 06-25-2012 at 04:08 PM.
Active Member
As I said, I appreciate the irony in that I'm accrediting the progeny but not the progenitor... my point was also that it can go both ways
I appreciate transposing it onto Springsteen... but I can quickly fault the comparison, it doesn't change my opinion & I want to know how you define punk.
I think punk has many defining features, and you don't have to manifest them all to be punk, and neither does manifesting one thing automatically qualify you as punk. As such while springsteen fits the profile, he is not punk for the same reasons the Clash are not punk in my estimation. The manics are punk because the fit the profile in addition to manifesting other punk qualities. Because as you say, if a slight comparison is all that is needed then why aren't the stooges or Dylan punk
There is a stooges influence (I guess? as much as anything else) but Holy Bible manics is more Magazine, PiL. Give it another listen, it's one of the best albums of the 90s
The Clash were not working class & they did not decide to put together a band that sung about social issues, they already had a band & singing about such things became fashionable, so they started doing it
Why do you think The Clash were working class? They're really middle class... cheeky to suggest I don't know what I'm talking about if you're going to make errors like that
Last edited by Sutekh; 06-25-2012 at 05:36 PM.
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