bob mould

The hype about punk rock has always been that anyone can do it.

Minneapolis: The state of Minnesota’s most densely populated city. It sits back to back with the state capital, St. Paul, forming what’s known as the Twin Cities. It also gets really freakin’ cold up there. So it naturally produced a huge crop of punk bands at one time, all seemingly falling out of clapped-out Ford […]

Welcome to the conclusion of Alternative Press’ two-part interview with Bob Mould. In the initial installment, the former Hüsker Dü/Sugar leader addressed the harsh American political climate of the past few years and how it inspired the Dü-esque rage of his latest album, last year’s Blue Hearts. He explained he connected the Trump years with […]

“Government authorize education/(Don’t mean a thing)/They’ll teach you what they want you to think/(Don’t mean a thing)/Saturation of stars and stripes/(Don’t mean a thing)/The only freedom worth fighting for is for what you think/Why bother spending time/Reading up on things/Everybody’s an authority/In a free land” Those 11 lines comprise the entire lyric of “In A […]

“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 […]

September 1963: A young R&B combo called the Rolling Stones are rehearsing, preparing for a recording session. Their manager, former Beatles publicist Andrew Loog Oldham, was tearing his hair out. They were about to record their second single, a follow-up to their modestly successful remake of Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” But they had one problem: […]

Kid Congo Powers, one of avant garage punk’s secret weapons, was interviewed March 9 from his Tucson, Arizona, home that he shares with his husband. On the brink of releasing his amazing new EP with his longtime band the Pink Monkey Birds, Swing From The Sean DeLear, he explained to us in part one what […]

It stands to reason LGBTQIA+ culture informed, inspired and enmeshed with punk, down to the crossover with the ’70s glam scene that helped spawn it. After all, both worlds were essentially the Island of Misfit Toys, from the Rankin/Bass 1964 holiday special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: a rebel culture for those whose ideas don’t fit […]

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 […]

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 […]

It’s an election year, the world is in the middle of a pandemic and the importance of fighting for the rights of underserved and marginalized people is bigger than ever. One thing we can be grateful for is punk rock. Be it in sound or spirit, punk is a driving force we need to keep […]

Welcome to the best punk albums of 1987. But first, some context. Feb. 20, 1987: An attack by a domestic terrorist called “the Unabomber” plants a bomb in a Salt Lake City computer store. The owner is injured. March 4: President Ronald Reagan owns up to what was swiftly called the Iran-Contra Affair in a […]

Merge Records will be celebrating their 25th anniversary this summer with Merge 25, a music festival based out of North Carolina from July 23-26. Bands announced include Neutral Milk Hotel, Bob Mould, Wye Oak, The Clientele, Destroyer, Caribou, Lambchop, The Rock*A*Teens, Ex Hex and more to be announced. Although the entirety of the lineup has […]