Tim Stegall

Contributions

10 alternative artists who were inspired by David Bowie's legacy

Nothing’s been right since David Bowie died, Jan. 10, 2016. The rise of Trumpism? COVID-19? The Big Bang Theory going off the air? Would any of these things have happened if Bowie was still striding the Earth? Well, probably. But his new records would’ve acted as a buffer, even if these shitty elements remained intolerable. […]

15 punk albums that set up 1994 to be a year of major change for the genre

To consider Alternative Press’ list of 1994’s top 15 punk albums, one has to bear in mind two factors: Green Day’s Dookie was released Feb. 1. Kurt Cobain died by his own hand April 5. The alternative nation’s voice was suddenly, shockingly stilled. After three years of the most popular music being an agonized scream […]

10 punk guitarists who took a unique approach to the genre in the '10s

When the ball dropped in New York City’s Times Square at the stroke of midnight Dec. 31, 2009, punk rock had been around 35 years. (Or 33, depending on if you date the subculture from when the Ramones began playing gigs or from the mythic Punk Year Zero of 1977.) It was well into its […]

Richard Hell hated his album ‘Destiny Street,’ so he did it three more times

When we left off in our expansive conversation with Richard Hell, we established his chicken-and-egg credentials in punk’s development. We spoke of his establishing the spiky haircut—which was to early punk as the ducktail was to ’50s rock ’n’ roll or the moptop was to the British Invasion—as well as what fashionistas now call “distressed” […]

10 influential Australian punk bands who defined the nation’s current sounds

“Detroit is the capital of Australia.” That phrase got thrown around a lot in ’80s American fanzines as our underground discovered Australian punk’s loud-and-aggressive charms. The basic sound: U.S. protopunk, especially of the Stooges/MC5 variety, mixed with ’60s garage, played with thermonuclear energy through modern heavy metal amplification. There was also an especial appreciation for […]

15 bands who are crucial to the history of noise music

When it initially blasted into the world from New York’s Lower East Side almost concurrently with punk in 1977, it was dubbed no wave. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau referred to it as “skronk,” an onomatopoeia based around the general guitar sound. He uncharitably dubbed its ’80s practitioners “pigfucker” bands. This writer’s personal name for […]

Jello Biafra knows Americans have the same worries at the end of the day

“It should not take a bush league punk-rock musician to point this shit out,” announces punk icon Jello Biafra, born 62 years ago in Boulder, Colorado, toward the end of our three-hour conversation. And what “shit” would Jello Biafra be talking about? For a start, how about the Interstate Crosscheck program, voter fraud, the rise […]

15 essential post-punk bands who represent the evolution of the genre

Post-punk had to happen. Punk rock opened all this space for people to make exactly the kind of art or culture that the disenfranchised had been imagining in their heads, and maybe had limited means or skills by which to make it. But what if you didn’t want to crank out recharged three-chord rock ’n’ […]

10 guitarists who brought punk rock firmly into the 2000s

As we exited the ’90s and entered the new millennium, pop divas, prefabricated boy bands and rappers bragging about conspicuous consumption and how poorly they treated women ruled the airwaves. Meanwhile, what passed for “rock” was the white guys who beat you up in high school P.E. class who’d discovered hip-hop and figured it’d sound […]
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