It's my blog to keep punk rock elite.

I'm working on the 10 Essential for our issue out in December, and like last year's, it is focused around 10 essential records by bands who broke up this year. One record I wanted to feature was by a very shortlived band who never even had their own website and was put out posthumously on vinyl only very recently. I think the record is quite good, and the band's pedigree was one that I felt like many of our readers would care about, so I chose to make the album one of the 10. I gave Ted, our art associate, the label's e-mail address so he could request album artwork of a high enough resolution for print, and this is what he received in return yesterday morning:

hi ted,

not sure if you're the right person to email about this, but here goes:

i guess you guys can do whatever you want, freedom of the press and all that, but i would really appreciate if you kept [band name withheld] and [record label name withheld] out of your magazine.

i dont feel comfortable being at all associated with whatever AP's version of "punk" is, and frankly your magazine makes me want to puke. you know, cell phone ads, christian businessmen on your covers, no politics - it's just gross and all very career oriented. how do you even have a copy for review? i sure as hell didn't send you one.

sorry,

-[name withheld]

Maybe it was the cold medicine taking effect (I've felt like various stages of ass all week long), but I absolutely lost it and replied with a near-1,000-word essay/dismantling of his paper-thin (and very petty) attacks. I haven't heard back from the guy yet, and I highly doubt I will, because punk-rock bullies are like every other strain of bullies in the world: Once you confront them and call them on their shit, they generally seep back into the swamp where their parents birthed them.

Anyway, since I'm obviously not punk enough to write about that guy's band, this means I have a spot open in next month's 10 Essential; tell me what was the worst band breakup for you this year -- and which one of their albums was your favorite -- in the comments below. In case you forgot just who called it quits over the past 365, you can find pretty up-to-date lists here, here and here, or you can use our search engine to see what's in our news archives (I recommend searching for "break up" -- just a hint).