joan jett

This star-studded pro-choice album remains unreleased, but is more relevant than ever

In the 1990s, a pro-choice benefit album Choice: The Freedom Remix was set to feature an all-star cast. Years later, the album still hasn’t been fully released, but is as relevant as ever.

Demi Lovato’s hard-won journey back to their rock roots

Putting to rest their pop image, Demi Lovato has entered their rock era. In conversation with AP, Lovato breaks down HOLY FVCK — the return to their roots.

How the Interrupters are championing the new wave of ska

Ska has a rich history, and the Interrupters are leading the charge for the new gen. The band open up about their most personal album yet, In The Wild.

15 artists influenced by the Sex Pistols, from Joy Division to Oasis

“Rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to be fun,” Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten told British rock journalist Charles Shaar Murray in 1977. “You’re supposed to enjoy it. It’s not about taking a million fucking years to learn a million fucking chords on the guitar.”  That clarion call — sounded as their anti-royalist diatribe “God Save […]

20 greatest punk-rock guitarists of all time

The hype about punk rock has always been that anyone can do it. This has resulted in misguided notions that musicianship is absent from punk. Truth be told, you only stand out in this scene if you can really play. Nothing grates eardrums harder than a punk band with no chops. Guitarists are especially under […]

Ceci Bastida's new podcast explores the Latinx roots of punk rock

Fresh Produce Media and Audible have launched the Punk in Translation: Latinx Origins podcast. The project “tells the stories of Latinx artists and Latin music’s overlooked role in the origins and evolution of punk,” according to a press release. Additionally, Punk in Translation: Latinx Origins is Audible’s first production to be published in both English […]

A history of riot grrrl, from “Rebel Girl” to “Racist, Sexist Boy”

In 1991, Anita Hill testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about being the target of sexual harassment from African-American judge Clarence Thomas at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. The hearings were televised, and Hill’s lurid testimony sent bolts of shock and disgust across an America yet to become completely tabloidized. When this all-white, all-male committee […]

20 music documentaries you need to watch this weekend, from 'Summer of Soul' to 'Get Back'

It’s often difficult to figure out an artist’s true identity at face value. Press interviews and social media offer a more transparent lens into the worlds of our favorite artists. Even so, the bigger — and more complicated — picture can often remain out of view. Because these intimate yet truthful depictions of our favorite […]

The 15 best punk albums of 2002, from Sleater-Kinney to the Used

The most notable aspect of punk rock in 2002 was the mainstream ascension of garage for the first time since the ‘60s. But all those albums by the Strokes, the White Stripes and the Hives that went mega this year were all recorded and released in 2002. Which explains their inclusion on this list, rather […]

20 songs that transformed punk, from "Raw Power" to "Rebel Girl"

There are a lot of people out there who know what punk rock is but have no idea how to explain it to a novice or an outsider. It would seem simple enough to define it as “three-chord teenage rebel music,” but what about all those songs that have four or more chords? Or all […]

Amyl And The Sniffers on the artistic growth that led to their new album

“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 […]

These 10 bands prove that Cleveland was one of punk’s earliest capitals

Alternative Press’ native home of Cleveland, Ohio, stands alongside New York City and London as one of punk’s birthplaces. Yet, few outside of U.K. music journalist Jon Savage, in his crucial ‘70s punk history England’s Dreaming, acknowledge this. But how could Cleveland—a torched-and-trashed post-industrial landscape by the ‘70s, famed for the Cuyahoga River being so […]

10 rockers from the ‘50s who influenced rock 'n' roll, punk and more

Elvis Presley portrayed by actor Michael St. Gerard performing “Baby Let’s Play House” in 1955 in the 1990 ABC TV series “Elvis”: Rockabilly is the original punk rock, from back in the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s. Nothing is more rebellious and life-affirming than some greasy hillbilly gittin’ real, real gone on […]

These 15 albums from 1997 irrefutably proved that punk was far from dead

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 […]

11 singers who helped define the vocal style of punk rock in the ‘90s

The ‘90s: the decade punk went mainstream. First, SoundScan made radio safe for Nirvana and the grunge-ified hordes. Then Green Day and other pop-punk acts moved in and squatted at the top of the Billboard charts. True, it seemed to be finished two years later, only to be reinvigorated at the turn of the century. […]

These 10 bands made Boston one of America’s greatest punk-rock towns

A greasy R&B riff rips from the speakers, coated in more fuzz than a peach orchard wearing a 50-year-old wool sweater. A singer with a sneer that could wilt Elvis’ upper lip indicates he’s gonna tell you a story about his town. He snarls about hanging out by the notoriously polluted Charles River, “along with […]

10 music industry pros fueling the pop-punk revival behind the scenes

Important people in music aren’t just behind the microphone, drums or keyboard. They’re also slaving away on Pro Tools, tweaking audio and making the band sound better.  The late Jerry Finn produced Sum 41, blink-182, MxPx and dozens of others in the early 2000s. Tom Lord-Alge mixed scene-defining tracks. Popular musicians often join in, using […]

15 artists who show that the Velvet Underground’s influence is eternal

Lester Bangs, the greatest rock journalist ever, felt eternal Lower East Side musical royals the Velvet Underground were “our Beatles and Bob Dylan combined” and that “modern music begins” with them. He wasn’t wrong. They existed only for a handful of years—1965 to 1970. But five years was enough for them to create virtually everything […]

These 11 singers steered the course of punk and hardcore in the ’80s

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 […]

Hot Milk are expanding their musical family with each new performance

Han Mee and Jim Shaw took a big risk when they quit their jobs in the music industry to start Hot Milk. But soon enough, the Manchester-based band, rounded out by bassist Tom Paton and drummer Harry Deller, were supporting bands such as Foo Fighters and You Me At Six. In May 2019, they released […]
<< >>