Tim Stegall

Berkeley’s Rancid, history’s most commercially successful street punk band, also have deep-running ska/rock steady/reggae roots. After all, both singer/guitarist Tim Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman got their start in 924 Gilman Street heroes Operation Ivy, who almost single-handedly invented ska-core. Don’t buy it? Listen to “Sound System” and you tell us. With such a pedigree, […]

Two U.K. televisual musical moments from the turn of the century, both involving stripped-down young rock ‘n’ roll bands: First up, the White Stripes on long-standing U.K. pop showcase Top Of The Pops, in February 2002. “Fell In Love With A Girl” began its chart-shaking international climb, and Jack and Meg White entered English living […]

It’s been said in various ways that Washington, D.C. is the least punk town in the world, which perhaps makes it the perfect place for a punk scene. Certainly, the national capital’s first stabs at three-chord ‘70s teenage rebel music might challenge Johnny Ramone or Joe Strummer’s idea of the same. Among the earliest local […]

2000: The year Texas Gov. George W. Bush vanquished Bill Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore under what many contend was less-than-honest circumstances. Bush would assume the following January the seat in the Oval Office that his father George H.W. Bush occupied a decade before. The 43rd U.S. president soon blazed through Clinton’s budget surplus in […]

In 1994, Green Day skyrocketed from DIY van tours with itineraries loaded with club dates and house parties to international superstardom on the back of Dookie, the album that permanently nailed punk rock to the mainstream musical floor. As it started breaking in Britain, the band—Billie Joe Armstrong on lead vocals and guitar, Mike Dirnt […]

“You’re only as good as your drummer,” Clash singer/rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer lamented in their documentary Westway To The World, as he recounted Nicky “Topper” Headon’s firing ahead of 1982 breakthrough LP Combat Rock’s tour. “Drumming…like nailing a nail into the floor,” he continued. “It’s so precise—the beat has to be there!” Mind you, the […]

With the first of our two-part conversation with John Doe, singer/bassist for long-running L.A. punk standard-bearers X, he spoke of keeping the band going in the face of COVID-19. He also mused on ALPHABETLAND, the amazing new LP that was the first studio full-length from the classic X lineup—Doe, singer/co-songwriter Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom […]

“We’re the Interrupters! We’re from Los Angeles, California!” the young guitarist announces over a fanfare, as the camera pulls back and reveals a four-piece band, plus a singer, and a crush of throbbing humanity in a tiny space. “And this first song is a protest song, but it’s also a unity song. Because there’s no […]

“Energy, good energy and bad energy/I’ve got plenty of energy,” Amy Taylor wails seconds into Melbourne, Australia aggro-punks Amyl And The Sniffers’ freshly released second LP, Comfort To Me. “It’s my currency,” she sings on that opening track, “Guided By Angels.” Indeed, the band—Taylor, drummer Bryce Wilson, bassist Gus Romer and guitarist Dec Martens—seem to […]