minor threat

From Bad Brains to Soul Glo, this is the evolution of hardcore. See how the genre has transformed over the years with these 20 influential artists.

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 the...

“People were commenting about this one photo I took of Marginal Man that was in the inner sleeve of their record ,” mused veteran Washington, D.C. punk/alt-rock photographer Jim Saah via telephone. He was reflecting on an exhibit at D.C.’s Lost O...

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 ...

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 ...

Top 15 punk albums of 1998? You’d be forgiven for thinking that there weren’t any in the year the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated the news. A quick perusal of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles of the year sees domination by several R&B (Destiny’s Child, Janet Jackson, Usher, Mariah Carey) or hip-hop (Puff Daddy, Master P, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott) acts. Neo-country artists Shania..

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. Pop ...

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 l...

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...

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 in the mainstream, where your fellow outsiders accept you for

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. to...

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 t...

“Joan Jett doesn’t play rock ’n’ roll,” I wrote two years back, reviewing her SXSW showcase for The Austin Chronicle. “She is rock ’n’ roll.” It’s true. The individual born Joan Marie Larkin in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, embodies the music and spirit better than anyone this side of Keith Richards. As Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong put it in Magnolia Pic...

Getting booked as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live is the perfect way for any artist to become a household name. But with the national spotlight comes the show’s strict standards for guests, leaving some outspoken artists to feel restrained. ...

The genre affectionately known as emo started out as a wave of internalized rage bubbling under the surface of Washington, D.C.’s Revolution Summer in the mid-’80s. Within three decades, it had permeated the mainstream and changed beyond all recognition. Like it or...

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...

Anti-Flag are a sharp and substantive band who will have a legacy that stands the test of time. But don’t just take our word for it. Watch Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, Rise Against frontman/guitarist Tim McIlrath, Brian Baker of both Minor Threat and Bad Religion and many more musicians sing the band’s praises in the new documentary Beyond Barricad

Do you remember what you were doing around this time last year? We do. Prior to their kickass show at Cleveland’s Agora in August 2019, Bad Religion members Jay Bentley and Brian Baker stopped in to blow the breeze on everyone from Minor Threat and the Damned to Sonny Moore and Unwritten Law. N...

If there was a punk-rock hall of fame, Bad Religion would certainly belong in it. The long-running California punk outfit have maintained a positive agenda while creating some classic songs. But if the band drove up to the front door of said punk building, they'd probably look through the glass door, look at each other and then drive away...

Let's cut to the chase: Brian Baker is an American punk-rock treasure. His immortality in punk was sealed forever as a member of Washington, D.C. straightedge hardcore outfit Minor Threat. When that band broke up, Baker kept on keeping on, with stints in various D...