71 Results for "the chain gang of 1974"
These 10 punk singles of the '70s didn't need an LP release to stay great
The seven-inch 45 RPM single was built for punk rock. Pick your two best songs, say your piece in two or three minutes and get out. It was an affordable medium for bands who didn’t have a record deal. The promise of entire albums were lost to time when groups dissolved after maybe one strong […]
10 horror movies so scary, people thought they were real
Fall is officially upon us, and that means it’s time to prepare for the spookiest holiday of the year. With Halloween comes an uptick in horror movie releases and consumption. With so many films on the market, studios have to think outside the box for ways to keep audiences scared. One way to do this […]
How punk and reggae united and went "outernational" to rule the world
This past March 5, the French punk label Guerilla Asso quietly slipped a genius album into the marketplace: Rocket To Kingston, credited to Bobby Ramone. The melding of the isolated vocal tracks from nine of Bob Marley’s most deathless classics to edited Ramones backing tracks, it sounds like a joke on paper. The cover even […]
These 15 punk albums from 1985 are the roots of alternative rock
The year is 1985: Punk’s now 10 years old and changing again. Hardcore was now a formula: 1. Pick a seemingly random number of initials for your name (Say, SRI – Social Reagan Injustice); 2. Play at light speed. 3. Sing about how you hate Reagan and nuclear war. 4. Shave your head. Like rock […]
Was the Sex Pistols' first US tour as destructive as reports say?
[Photo by: Sex Pistols/Facebook] “Ah, ha-ha,” chuckled Johnny Rotten, crouching in front of Paul Cook’s drum kit. “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Goodnight.” Then he stood up, took a final look at the crowd and followed bandmate Sid Vicious into the wings of San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. It was nearly midnight, Jan. 14, 1978. […]
Watch punk rockers SWMRS’ live video for “Figuring It Out” (exclusive)
[Photo credit: Alice Baxley] SWMRS might have written “Figuring It Out” in honor of not having things figured out, but they seem to have their work in order. The Oakland punks released their first album Drive North on Feb. 12, and they’re not slowing down; they’ve embarked on a huge tour across the U.S. and […]
These 15 classic albums made 1996 a crucial year in punk history
1996: President Bill Clinton was squaring off against Kansas Sen. Bob Dole in a successful bid for a second term in the White House. On April 3, former math professor Ted Kaczynski was arrested in his remote Montana cabin, suspected (correctly, it turns out) to be American domestic terrorist the Unabomber. Conservative public policy bulwark […]
These 10 artists made Washington DC into one of the epicenters of punk
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 […]
Killing Joke are better than your favorite band, 40 years later
Today is the first day of the extensive Tool tour, beginning in Denver, Colorado. If you ever wanted that feeling of getting sonically lifted out of your seat by your shirt and thrown through a plate glass window, you should get there early to let proto-industrial, post-punk icons Killing Joke rough you up before Tool take […]
From DEVO to Le Tigre and more, these artists defined synth-punk
One of punk rock’s original goals was “the destruction of rock ‘n’ roll.” While that didn’t happen, most early punk musicians were rock fans, in spite of their espoused rhetoric. Hence why most early pogo soundtracks were basically Chuck Berry with a Marshall amp. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But this is hardly […]
