bad brains

Welcome to Alternative Press’ 10 best punk vocalists of the ‘10s. As we noted when counting down punk’s greatest guitarists of this period, the genre was 35 years old in 2010. Punk rock had a history and a tradition by now, as well as a rule book it was never supposed to have. Which, of […]

Each month, AP Gallery takes a deep dive into visual culture. We explore music videos and photographs, as well as images that shape the world more broadly. Our discussions go backstage and on set, revealing the vision, the sudden inspiration or the snap decisions that helped to mold iconic images in music, skateboarding, sports and […]

Don’t be fooled: HE Creative are doing exactly what you think they’re doing when you glance over their Instagram feed for the first time—creating a normalized space for punk rock, female empowerment, diversity and more. Designed in various shades of muted hues, HE Creative are using their creative design studio as a means to elevate […]

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 […]

Oftentimes, comedy is the best way to get an important message across. Film director, comedy improviser and Austin, Texas native Ryan Darbonne knows this to be absolutely true, especially when crafting his short film, I AM TX. Starring Audrey Campbell (Pleasure Venom), Jonathan Horstmann (BLXPLTN, Urban Heat) and Greg Williams (Chief And TheDoomsdayDevice), the plot […]

Welcome back to AltPress Weekly. It’s hard to believe we’re already at our fourth installment of our weekly roundup, which gathers up everything we want you to check out. Each week, we showcase longtime favorite tracks and brand-new cuts. We also focus on all the things happening at Alternative Press, as well as the latest […]

The idea of compiling a list of the greatest punk singers of the ‘80s might seem a bit odd. After all, this was when hardcore rose and quickly dominated all things punk. And let’s face it: Hardcore vocalists are more noted for bellowing than actual singing, per se. Not that late ‘70s punk harbored many […]

1979: As far as the American record business was concerned, punk rock was finished. They’d spent a packet on the Sex Pistols, Ramones and Dead Boys, and those albums seemingly shipped straight to the cut-out bins. The Pistols self-destructed at the end of their U.S. tour the previous year, and now that Sid Vicious kid […]

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 […]

Foo Fighters fans—and fans of Dave Grohl in general—know that he’s a big fan of the cover song. Fact is, Nirvana had a thing for covers, too, especially ones that their raucous audience wouldn’t, and couldn’t, see coming from a second stage away, never mind a mile. Hell, once Nirvana even dug deep into the […]

For as long as music has existed, artists have been inspiring other artists. Right here within our own beloved scene, we’ve witnessed many examples of newer-era bands drawing inspiration from the OGs. What’s especially endearing is that not only have bands influenced each other in terms of musical style; they’ve also taken from the lyrics […]

Each year comes with loss and change. 2020, in particular, has been one with an overwhelming amount of grief. It’s hard to know what to say when you lose people you admire, whether you know them personally or were inspired by the art they created. Hold the people you care about close and thank them. […]

Bad Brains, the righteous and ferocious Washington, DC-based rastapunk quartet who arguably invented hardcore, have won back the rights to their back catalog. In the near future, they will undertake an extensive remaster/reissue campaign. The records will be issued on a custom imprint, Bad Brains Records via Org Music. “Hey what’s up Bad Brains family,” […]

In the ’90s, just after the tragic passing of Sublime’s Bradley Nowell, and years before the band reformed with Rome Ramirez as their frontman, it seemed that Long Beach Dub Allstars were everywhere. In fact, it was quite difficult to attend a rock festival date or a third-wave ska show without seeing at least three […]

Welcome to Alternative Press’ list of the 15 greatest punk guitarists of the ’80s. As the timeline shifted from the ’70s into the new decade, the music changed. Punk had morphed from stripped-down, high-speed rock ’n’ roll with a nasty attitude. It was now faster and louder than the already fast and loud sound, with […]

These 10 albums represent SST Records’ greatest achievements. Greg Ginn began Solid State Tuners at age 12 as a mail-order electronics business still thriving in his early adulthood. In 1978, when pioneering California indie label Bomp! Records dragged its heels releasing Nervous Breakdown, the debut EP from his punk band Black Flag, Ginn figured he […]

A long, long time ago, before there was “the scene” and the sonic buffet of Warped Tour there was… division. The punks deemed metal as boring and slow. Metal’s return fire was that the bands couldn’t play and the whole genre was “not music.” Fortunately we live in 2020 and that schism isn’t as entrenched […]

The ’80s are usually looked upon in two different mindsets. The first is usually through the prism of mass-culture nostalgia from those who were there. The other school of thought was that the ’80s were a hotbed for creativity. Forget the songs that you were playing when your mom met your dad. How about the […]

Record collectors of any sort can be a persnickety bunch. But few can be worse than punk-rock record collectors with titles spanning from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and beyond. They can make Simpsons character Jeffrey “Jeff” Albertson (aka “Comic Book Guy”) look positively well-adjusted. Come on: In a world in chaos, much like the lyrics […]

Sid McCray, the original frontman for the Washington D.C. hardcore punk group Bad Brains, has passed away. The band confirmed the news over the weekend. Read more: The internet doesn’t think Matthew Lillard died in ‘Scream’ and he agrees On Saturday, Bad Brains confirmed that McCray passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 9. R.I.P to the […]