December 15, 2009

Listicle Without Commentary: The 30 Best Punk Songs Since 1979 Available on YouTube, In Order

30. Increase The Pressure, Conflict

29. Umbrella, All Time Low

28. Suck My Left One, Bikini Kill

27. Do What You Want, Bad Religion

26. Bad Penny, Big Black

25. Frustration Rock, Tyvek

24. The Scratch, 7 Year Bitch

23. Flame!, Heatmiser

22. All Gone Dead, Subhumans

21. Ashtray Dirt, Subhumans

20. Shove, L7

19. Boys In The Brigade, Youth Brigade

18. Sleeper Hold, No Age

17. The World Looks Red, Sonic Youth

16. McCarthy, Avail

15. State Violence, State Control, Discharge

14. No Survivors, Charged G.B.H.

13. Holiday In Cambodia, Dead Kennedys

12. Riot City, Total Chaos

11. Super Are, Boredoms

10. Fagetarian and Dyke, Team Dresch

9. Where Next Columbus?, CRASS

8. Rise Above, Black Flag

7. Betray, Minor Threat

6. Boilermaker, The Jesus Lizard

5. Pink Turns to Blue, Husker Du

4. Modern Kicks, The Exploding Hearts

3. Radio, Rancid

2. Pay To Cum, Bad Brains

1. Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney



Previously:

The 50 States, In Order

The 94 Best Philip Larkin Poems, In Order

The 85 Best Morrissey Solo Songs, In Order


Seth Colter Walls is a culture reporter at Newsweek. Previously, he wrote about U.S. and Middle East politics for a variety of outlets.

 
Share
DiggThis
 

164 Comments / Post a new comment

  1. ContainsHotLiquid [#559]

    I would have taken a Bad Brains video from the 1979 live footage, but all right.

  2. KarenUhOh [#19]

    Okay, you redeemed yourself at the end there.

    But? Fluffy, "Black Eye"; and, I'm fond of the Maoist version of "Rebel Girl."

    P.S. What the hell is punk, anyway?

  3. Dr. Spaceman [#1211]

    No Dillinger Four or Leftover Crack? You dead yuppie.

  4. Natasha Vargas-Cooper [#664]

    YES! Meth Molter Walls even for your pre-1997 spree, this a thoughtful and true list.

    RANCID.

    Yet, no 'Waiting room'?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJFWirQ3ks

    And I feel your neglect of Operation Ivy is both intentional and hurtful. Please explain.

    p.s. Does Generator mean nothing to you?

    • sethcolterwalls [#937]

      Op-Ivy non-inclusion: Yes, intentional. Not meant to be hurtful, however. Generator: yeah, it's good. Maybe I'm not in luv with it cuz I was only barely born in the 80's, though. Thoughts?

      Fugazi claims a part of my heart that is slightly discrete from the vascular quadrant that pumps punk, if that makes any sense.

    • Dave Bry [#422]

      I don't get Rancid either. So derivative. What have they ever been other than B-rate Clash rip-off? (I mention this tentatively, at the risk of opening myself up to further pummeling on yesterday's topic. But still.) I know some folks swear by them. But I've just never understood. It's not even just in style and tone. But the songs even sound the same. I am missing something?

      • Multiphasic [#411]

        BERKELEY SQUARE IS DOWN THE STREET, POPS.

      • MatthewGallaway [#1239]

        It's an age thing, I think. I hate Rancid, too. Posers.

      • Natasha Vargas-Cooper [#664]

        Ok. I was going to send this to Slate but Bry's respect means more to me.

        In Defense of Operation Ivy
        -By Natasha Vargas-Cooper

        A lot of popular punk bands tried to sound like Operation Ivy post 1993. But the combination of Jesse's super sincere/ angry singing style, lyrics, up tempo drums, and Armstrongs rock n' roll licks were this perfect alchemy that could not be imitated.

        Additionally, outside of California's East Bay punk rock scene, Operation Ivy was little known. By the time they broke up, it seemed as though a good thing ended before it began. Their popularity hit as poppier punk would name them as an influence. This awarded new-er punk fans with a short, underproduced, mythic catalogue by an untainted band.

        There are themes found in every one of their songs: all political, all with a thumping base and Ska-style drums (but those would pick up and get very fast/hard) but the anger, fun, 'hard life story' was modulated by song. Also, their songs were rooted in authentic 90's aggression:

        Back in school you ever get busted for tryin to walk
        and have some administrator tell you
        Son, you can construct your obligations, and try to be different from you peers
        But responsibility is your future

        IS GONNA FIND YOU.

        Operation Ivy never numbed you with noise or posturing. It was like, HERE IS THIS SOUND THAT MOVES YOU. They just seemed to mean it more than any one else and had the talent to back it up.

      • Multiphasic [#411]

        That there position being taken seems like attempted education or righteous accusation.

      • TerseNursePornstein [#58]

        @MG: it's a quality thing. Which they stopped handing out, it seems, around the time Sleater Kinney came to the fore.

        Also? This list blows. In all the wrong ways.

      • Dave Bry [#422]

        Okay. Thanks, Natasha. Your passion convinces me of the need to check out Operation Ivy. (I'm hoping this will absolve me of responsibility to listening to more Rancid?)

        But—and I know this will only reserve me a rocking chair on the porch at the old age home next to Matthew*—what about the Replacements? Shouldn't there be a "We're Coming Out" on this list? Or a "Kids Don't Follow?" "Go?" "Color Me Impressed?" Do they not count as punk rock? Not hard enough? The long hair? If this is the reasoning, I'm fine with it. I'll opt out of the genre distinction discussion. But it should be said: no one wrote, no one has written, better rock songs after 1979 than Paul Westerberg.

        *(Which sounds very nice, actually. We can drink hot cider and watch leaves fall and listen to "Astral Weeks.")

      • Kakapo [#2312]

        Dave, re the Replacements, "Customer" surely qualifies as hard enough. Loved that song, as a tyke.

    • Sackin [#2393]

      Hell yes on the Operation Ivy. Jesus.

  5. attackerman [#1193]

    You are awarded 10 Punk Points for using a Crass song off of Penis Envy, but miss the full 15 for not using one of the record's feminist anthems.

  6. SemperBufo [#1849]

    Something about Crass I could never go with. Such joyless snobs. Maybe it was them sniffing that they "weren't influenced by rock n roll," but rather by the works of Benjamin Britten. Just rubbed me the wrong way, and still does.

  7. HiredGoons [#603]

    I was getting worried at a lack of Husker Du – then I saw it, and I could exhale.

  8. iwantyrskull [#1706]

    all time low? really?

    SCW, you have given me a sad.

  9. Natasha Vargas-Cooper [#664]

    Important Punk Songs for those born in 1980's

    5. Operation Ivy – Unity
    4. Bad Religion – Generator
    3. Minor Threat – Minor Threat
    2. Descendants – I'm the One
    1. NoFx – Linoleum

  10. BookishLookish [#384]

    Needs more Butthole Surfers.

  11. djfreshie [#875]

    EXPLODING HEARTS! Great list. If a list includes Exploding hearts, then it's a good list, that's science fact you can take to the bank.

  12. lempha [#581]

    Like that this list has taken a relatively strong stance in the age-old "Does CBGB really count?" debate.

  13. Multiphasic [#411]

    Putting Total Chaos on there is like adding Al Jolson to a list of black music legends.

  14. hman [#53]

    L7 was that grunge band that did that thing with a tampon once, right?

  15. KarenUhOh [#19]

    Ashamed I didn't think before of X.

    You can't use the words "punk" and "after 1979" in any context and omit X. You just cannot.

    Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GduEv1JWdnA

    God bless you, Exene Cervenka.

  16. Natasha Vargas-Cooper [#664]

    Greg Graffin was punk's Marcel Proust, yall.

  17. tiny dancer [#1774]

    I will overlook the Fugazi omission since you included Heatmiser(!), Team Dresch, Bikini Kill, and S-K. Nice one.

  18. Musformation [#2590]

    This reads much like Newsweek's editorial. Presenting all sides of the story in order to not show bias, making it quite flawed.

  19. Matt [#26]

    Oh and here I am purely being a bastard, except also totally not:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzZ1N9IuzJM

    (I'll stop now.)

  20. Peteykins [#1916]

    Wow, not a single thing from the 1970s? OK.

    • sethcolterwalls [#937]

      Look at entire headline! This list was inspired by the comments on Bry's Monday post re: London Calling's 30-yr anny. Some said this represented the death of punk, or some such.

      This list–and the comments you see–beg to differ, is all.

  21. petejayhawk [#1249]

    Wow, it's all high school up in here.

  22. fek [#93]

    This is the game you're never going to win, so I'll play along: nothing from the Talking Heads' performances at CBGB when David Byrne still liked to call himself punk? WRONG. Nothing from the Beastie Boys' NYC public access TV debut, when the chick from Luscious Jackson was their drummer? WRONG. No Misfits? WRONG. Holiday in Cambodia? WRONG. Etc, etc, etc. 7 – 2 minus 6 are perfect, however.

  23. Sweetie [#519]

    Hey, The Awl. Your demographic's showing.

  24. Kakapo [#2312]

    I'd certainly replace a Subhumans song with a Rudimentary Peni song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsuOeFiKoXo

  25. semiserious [#2430]

    It really is a shame The Homosexual's "My Night Out" isn't available on YouTube.

  26. maura [#18]

    Important punk/punk-related bands of my extended adolescence that do not have a YouTube presence:

    Raooul
    CWA

    ALSO HEY WHAT ABOUT
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTEAgWdDn78&feature=related

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wv3Nwse-g8

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ykcxY7jus

    and

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zug8C4KcGfQ

    haha, my age is showing

  27. MatthewGallaway [#1239]

    Feel sad that there's no Mission of Burma here. They have at least 10 songs that could have gone in the top ten. (I'm so old now, sigh.)

  28. Multiphasic [#411]

    OH MAN is that "Bad Penny" the Pigpile show? There's a GODDAM VIDOE??

  29. MatthewGallaway [#1239]

    Ok, this is the last thing I'll write before I crawl off and die in the old-age home. Minutemen. 'This Ain't No Picnic.' Nobody was more punk that D.Boon and Mike Watt.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMFHT6BGO0

  30. kenlayne [#262]

    Wow I guess I don't like whatever people call Punk Songs. There are about three bands on this list I can even tolerate, and two of them are Husker Du.

  31. oudemia [#177]

    Wait — Nothing from Sorry Ma, I Forgot to Take Out the Trash! Let's see, I guess I'd pick "I'm in Trouble."

  32. poisonville [#776]

    The Who killed punk
    In nineteen sixty-five
    (Moments after it came alive)

    –P.L.

  33. oudemia [#177]

    Hey! Agent Orange's Living in Darkness came out in 1981. Bloodstains merits inclusion.

  34. Multiphasic [#411]

    Oh and by the by, "Boilermaker" is actually a hard rock song. The New Yorker told me so, you racist.

  35. Natasha Vargas-Cooper [#664]

    Miss u, Ryan Adams Punk Rock Awl Song. :(

  36. kpants [#719]

    The Wipers – Over the Edge -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ykQhxMssg

    [Performance (sans interviews) begins around the 1:40 mark.]

    And since I can't find a video of them performing Youth of America, here's the Melvins' live version of it (who was also forgotten!) doing it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mREgqOVnnY

  37. kpants [#719]

    GAH! My Wipers related comment is awaiting moderation.

    But since I'm on a Portland punk theme –

    Calamity Jane's Mean Song

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw4Qkr7GlNQ

  38. CapnWolfLarson [#2602]

    Totally late to the party, but what about the perfect storm of 'Janelle' from the Born Against/Screeching Weasel split 7"? It's got something for everybody!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lci1eu9kKs

 

Leave a Comment

Login Using:

Login to your account:

E-mail:
Password:

Register | Lost password?