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 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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvlS4BwTUQw
That might be the one I've watched more than any other.
I would have taken a Bad Brains video from the 1979 live footage, but all right.
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?
Maoist Rebel Girl is the best. Watch that weekly
Ici. Pour les kidz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZxxhxjgnC0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iiOsdsaSW4
No Dillinger Four or Leftover Crack? You dead yuppie.
+ A MILLION.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Gov4tTB7M
Yes.
STRONGLY AGREE.
Oh yes. That and "Suspect Device."
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?
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.
Is it the Fugazi baselines? Too jazzy?
WHY THE FUCK ISN'T OP IVY ON THIS??
Explain Rancid v Op Ivy.
Guessing? "Radio" is is contextually close to redundant with Op Ivy's best stuff (East Bay buy-a-consonant sneer-pop, not the earnest dorkface "Bad Town" dicking about). Fuck, it's just "Sound System" without the upstrokes.
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?
BERKELEY SQUARE IS DOWN THE STREET, POPS.
This hurts me, Bry.
It's an age thing, I think. I hate Rancid, too. Posers.
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.
That there position being taken seems like attempted education or righteous accusation.
@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.
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?)
Butâ€"and I know this will only reserve me a rocking chair on the porch at the old age home next to Matthew*â€"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.")
Dave, re the Replacements, "Customer" surely qualifies as hard enough. Loved that song, as a tyke.
Hell yes on the Operation Ivy. Jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y78IlBpz4yA
Here: the Fluffy video. I didn't mean to be rude.
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.
*HUGS*
See, I wondered if this would've amounted to ladling things on a bit thick, but I take your point.
This was my thought. I was elated to see the Crass, but that would not have been my pick ("Systematic Death," prob). Also -- Poison Girls have the best Brit anarcho-punk feminist anthems. Comme ça: "The Offending Article." Honestly, how can any song that starts off with the exploitation of animals, moves to the exploitation of women, and then ends with an exhortation that all men take up homosexuality in order that they leave women and animals alone not be the best song ever?
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.
*ANTI-HUGS*
(Okay you're kind of right. BUT I LOVE.)
If I'd happened upon a proper video of "Him who despises us we'll destroy," who knows...I might have included it.
Crass is kind of like the punk rock version of backpack hip hop.
I don't know that they ever actually said they weren't influenced by ANY rock and roll. Saying you're influenced by Benjamin Britten or John Cage as a punk band is fine with me, especially if I can hear it and you've given specific examples.
I was getting worried at a lack of Husker Du - then I saw it, and I could exhale.
BUT IT'S THE WRONG ONE!?
"Hare Krsna"
all time low? really?
SCW, you have given me a sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CejeOE1ZZ5o
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
Adding to this:
6. Aus-Rotten -- "Tuesday May 18 1993" and "The System Works For Them"
7. The Gossip -- "Hott Date"
8. Los Crudos -- "No Me Vengan A Salvar" & "Asesinos"
9. Born Against -- "Mary & Child"
10. Bouncing Souls -- "Quik Check Girl"
11. Lifetime -- "Rodeo Clown" & "The Gym Is Neutral Territory"
12. Chokehold -- "Underneath"
13. Ink & Dagger -- "Bloodthirst" & "Full Circle"
Few of these are on YouTube, alas.
0. Screeching Weasel - What We Hate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ra6ok9V04Q&feature=related
14. Jawbreaker -- "Boxcar" & "Chesterfield King" & "Sea Green Foam"
15.Integrity -- "Hollow"
16. Blatz -- "Fuk Shit Up"
17. Screeching Weasel -- "I Wanna Be A Homosexual"
18. Atom & His Package -- "Avenger" & "Punk Rock Academy" ADMIT IT
19. Blanks 77 -- "Search & Destroy"
20. The Casualties -- "For The Punx," especially outside Coney Island High or Trash with Jorge purchasing your 40 for you.
-1. Murder City Devils - 18 Wheels
-2. Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick
(all available on the Tube, yes)
21. Misfits - Halloween
22. T.S.O.L. - Code Blue
23. Social Distortion - Prison Bound
24. Bouncing Souls -Hopeless Romantic
25. Vandals - Urban Struggle
-3. Flea going "Happy Easter, asshole," looped 'til your brain turns to Slurpee.
Oh my god, I love that bit - one of the best lines ever spoken on film. I had no idea that was Flea!
But seriously, is it commonplace in Southern California for corner stores to have a jar of pickled eggs sitting on the counter?
I love the fact that someone calls him "Flea" at some point in that movie and he says "My name is Razzle," and they just left it in.
Ohgod. Can't imagine what the 'born in 1990s' list would look like. '2000s'?
26. Chisel -- "What About Blighty?"
27. Against Me! -- "Walking Is Still Honest" & "Baby I'm An Anarchist"
28. Discount -- "Malarie's Mission" & "Clap & Cough" (pre-street legal Allison Mosshart rowr. Although in a post-Jersey Shore world, my girlfriend suggests renaming her NoWOWWW)
29. Refused -- "Summerholidays vs Punk Routine" & "New Noise"
30. Charles Bronson -- "Punching A Gift Horse In The Mouth"
31. Cave-In -- "Crossbearer"
32. Converge -- "The Saddest Day"
33. Piebald - Grace Kelly with Wings
34. Burning Airlines - Three Sisters, Deluxe War Baby
35. Grade - Stolen Bikes Ride Faster
36. Strike Anywhere - Chorus of One
26. Face to Face - Disconnected
27. Bouncing Souls - Kate is Great
28. Bouncing Souls - East Side Mags
29. Fugazi - And the Same
30. Goldfinger - Here in Your Bedroom (YOU KNOW IT.)
I LOVE YOU. I LOVE THE BOUNCING SOULS, those fucking New Jersey mooches.
Goldfinger's album was sooo enjoyable beginning to end. "You know, JUST DOING THE SCENE"
I was in a grind metal band? Called Gripping Hammer? It was pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6uGXAMITRU
Needs more Butthole Surfers.
NOT PUNK (?)
NOT PUNK(?)?
You're too young for that gesture, hon.
Not on the SLC PUNK SOUNDTRACK
The Best Punk Songs From the 'SLC Punk' Soundtrack, in Order:
1. Sex and Violence - Exploited
2. Matthew Lillard ordering a pound of Chilean sea bass last month at the Glendale Whole Foods while wearing Crocs.
+ a thrillion
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.
This list is wrong. Wrong.
WRONG WRONG WRONG. Ugh. Bloggers. Bloggers!
^ IAWTC
sorry, no propagandhi?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5YZ7FELtCI
Propghandhi was the American-Spirits-smoker-jam-of-choice
Right fucking on, and credit using the best song on the best record.
Although I have a soft spot for that moment on the second track where they didactically go "You cannot de-ny... that... [furious galloping speed metal part] meeeeeat is still murder, dairy still rape."
HONEY IS SLAVERY
they performed it live last time i saw them!
ps. also crimpshrine/fifteen...
Oh Fifteen! That band was soooo earnest!
"YOUR DADDY BEAT YOU UP... (he broke your <3)"
But with soul! "Baby you're the crackerjacks/ And I-I-I j-u-u-ust w-a-a-nt the pri-i-i-ayayayayay-ize..."
Like that this list has taken a relatively strong stance in the age-old "Does CBGB really count?" debate.
Putting Total Chaos on there is like adding Al Jolson to a list of black music legends.
L7 was that grunge band that did that thing with a tampon once, right?
This was stuff of legend! Don't know if it's true or not, but SO LEGENDARY.
True! at the 92 Reading Festival. I was just being...cheeky/obnoxious!
I WAS AT THAT SHOW!
HAHAHAH EVERY ONE SAYS THAT!
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.
I can't use the words "punk" and "after 1979" in any context an not vomit. Fucking bitch-ass poser bitch fucks.
Fookin hell right.
They sstarted moving away from punk pretty soon, though, didn't they? I credit them for not sticking to a formula, but they eventually lost me with the folk-music angle.
For my money, this is a much-more-fun way to do the back-to basics thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC4LqiRoIE8&feature=related
Yes, Fucking X. Damn. We need a new list for the old folks. And pretty much any other band (including the Go-Gos) who were in URGH A MUSIC WAR!
Is it not going to be fun attending the opera with you tonight?
Matt/Meth fan fiction! <3
No, it'll be fun! I think we can all agree that Richard Strauss wrote some sweet 20th-century punk rock circa 1911?
Greg Graffin was punk's Marcel Proust, yall.
Sam McPheeters was its Jean Genet.
I will overlook the Fugazi omission since you included Heatmiser(!), Team Dresch, Bikini Kill, and S-K. Nice one.
This reads much like Newsweek's editorial. Presenting all sides of the story in order to not show bias, making it quite flawed.
Yup, got me: inclusion of Boredoms on this list is meant to satify the MSM-chip in my brain that regulates he-said/she-said narratives.
Still, some other experts say....
What? No Avril Lavigne?
I'M A FREAK BLINK (182) BITCH, BABY
Oh and here I am purely being a bastard, except also totally not:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzZ1N9IuzJM
(I'll stop now.)
Wow, not a single thing from the 1970s? OK.
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.
Wow, it's all high school up in here.
You said which?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5vh0QHUA1w
Yes.
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.
Oh My God YES to the Beasties on public access.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-oRGkaotl8&feature=related
Holy hell.
Hey, The Awl. Your demographic's showing.
Yes! Never trust anyone over 30..they might actually know their music! And
some other shit, you shit!
My comment was a compliment! And I'm 32 and haven't ever trusted myself!
And I played drums with two of the bands mentioned in the comments. So leave me alone, Sister!
Apologies to both you and the brilliant Seth Colter Walls for the ridiculous statements herein!
I'd certainly replace a Subhumans song with a Rudimentary Peni song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsuOeFiKoXo
Also, Seth, don't think we didn't notice your Sub/Hum/Ans tracks are the first two tracks off of Day The Country Died -- in order. Mixtape foul.
I LOVE THE TRANSITION BETWEEN THESE TWO SONGS AND NO ONE CAN TALK ME OUT OF IT.
I almost did another back to back two'fer with "It's Quite Alright" and "Let Me Go."
Yes, but "Firing Squad" is super great (I had it on repeat from 200-2008) and with Subhumz must come DOA, too.
Yes, from 200 CE. I am that old.
And the album this cover comes from is a must-buy for anyone interested in this list:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9dGrt8Jxbk&feature=related
It really is a shame The Homosexual's "My Night Out" isn't available on YouTube.
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
God that Team Dresch song is so great. Yay.
But if you have to go with one TD song, doesn't it have to be "Hate The Christian Right"?
Oh no I put in too many URLs and my comment is awaiting moderation! Help!
Free Maura's comment!
Consider it liberated.
Jesus. I am totally hitting Ian up for his Elixir of Never Aging a Second Ever the next time I see him, which should be Friday.
I also must recommend CWA's "Only Straight Girls Wear Dresses," but am way too lazy (after 2 aviations) to check YouTube.
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.)
OH FUCK YES!
Even if this post was about music after whatever blahblah date-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppt0mVjOk9w
Hey did you see them last year, when they played Signals Calls & Marches straight through?
Oh, oh! I guess my fave has to be "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate." For the scream.
OH MAN is that "Bad Penny" the Pigpile show? There's a GODDAM VIDOE??
Exuberant typos! Whoop!
You can buy it! From Touch and Go, I think.
It's been OOP for over a decade, I think. Spent some time trying to track it down back in high school.
"In 1992, Touch and Go released a Big Black live album and video, titled Pig Pile, that were recorded (mostly) in 1987 during Big Black’s final tour. Someday, we might release the video on DVD. Until then, please don’t ask us about it."
I own it! On VHS. If I dupe it on to DVD I will let you know.
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
Indeed.
Oh, the Minutemen! Yes, you are correct. I think my hip just shattered along with yours.
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.
Are you an MxPx man, Ken?
wahahahahaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKtB1Oij-Eg
You win the thread.
*call me
Wait -- Nothing from Sorry Ma, I Forgot to Take Out the Trash! Let's see, I guess I'd pick "I'm in Trouble."
Ooh. That linked video segues into "Don't Ask Why."
The Who killed punk
In nineteen sixty-five
(Moments after it came alive)
--P.L.
This list doesn't exist until now.
1. We love the Mekons.
2. I think there is a faux-dangerous quotient required to make this list, and they don't have it.
Hey! Agent Orange's Living in Darkness came out in 1981. Bloodstains merits inclusion.
Oh and by the by, "Boilermaker" is actually a hard rock song. The New Yorker told me so, you racist.
Total Chaos, really?
Also with that said...
The Misfits - Last CaressThe Jam - Down in the Tube Station at MidnightJawbreaker - BoxcarRudimentary Peni - Radio Schizo
Miss u, Ryan Adams Punk Rock Awl Song. :(
YOUR FORGOT THE WEIRDOES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGaeaFTB6A
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
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
WAIT NO ANGRY SAMOANS?!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsX2Q3M8vMo
I have been holding this back all day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuOmsGXznHU
"I'm sitting in my room..."
"I went to YOUR INSTITUTIONALIZED LEARNING FACILITIES"
You know, I really did NOT recognize irony in punk as Actual Irony a little too often. YOUTH! I have fallen back in love with this song.
It really is a lovely song. I was very confused when their second album came out, though. God, I am an old.
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
Radio Birdman