blue oyster cult

1997: All media is declaring the alternative–rock explosion—for which Nirvana lit the fuse—over. This means the commercial pop-punk wave Green Day touched off was over in their eyes, too. That selfsame media could not have been more wrong. Green Day had just issued their fifth album, Nimrod. The Offspring, the band who made the catchphrase […]

Since the world first became aware that there is such a thing as punk, there’s been a nonstop argument about its birthplace. The clueless mainstream media reported for years that it began in England, simply because the Sex Pistols’ snarl was more extreme. Which royally pissed off New York City, the first place to essentially […]

Though all but forgotten by this point—save for documentary films like excellent Vancouver overview Bloodied But Unbowed and recent Teenage Head retrospective Picture My Face—Canada once boasted one of the world’s best punk scenes. The quality/quantity of Great White North pogo-rock acts, plus their music’s sheer ferocity, belied our neighbors’ more mild-mannered and civilized reputation. […]

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 […]

“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 […]

Is there anything more distinctly indicative of late-2000s culture than living room setlists? Transcending the confines of genre, the Rock Band series allowed us to connect with our favorite songs in the most intimate way possible—by performing them. Read more: Billie Eilish heard about her 2020 Grammy noms in an unusual way—watch Barring the pre-generated sets within the […]

Punk was, by design, meant to be small and regional. True, bands might break out and become national or even international. But the overarching idea was keeping things small and accessible. You wanted to be able to reach out and touch your favorite band in a small sweaty club, maybe have a beer with the […]

Welcome to Alternative Press’ 15 best punk albums of 1989. It’s easy to look at the final year of the decade and see it as transitional. But there are portents of the future all over this list. Yet, truth be told, haven’t we seen that with all these lists? As we’ve worked on this series, […]

Let’s think about this for a second. Why do we love horror movies? What makes the medium (and its attendant subgenres) so attractive? It’s doubtful anyone reading this would actually enjoy violent disfigurement or death at the hands of a deranged human or mythical monster. Perhaps it’s the idea of psychic release, the search for […]

Beginning with their 1979 single “Night Of The Living Dead,” the Misfits have made a career of mining classic, cult and B-grade movies for fodder for their hard-driving, melodic brand of patented horror punk. With results ranging from the sublime fury of the classic Glenn Danzig-fronted lineup’s “Astro Zombies” to the unabashedly ridiculous “The Devil’s […]