minutemen

As long as there’s been a punk scene, its denizens have argued as to which city invented it — New York or London? Truth be told, it was neither because history’s first proper punk band was the Stooges from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Which would make...

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...

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...

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! Reco...

Maybe you’re a grizzled punk lifer who hates the kids. Perhaps you came of a certain age where you use the term ”melodic hardcore” more than “pop punk.” You may be a new listener doing a deep immersion into punk history. If you identify with any of ...

The Sex Pistols may have cheerfully sang "No future for you" back in 1977. But in the '80s, an entire generation lived in fear that America and Russia would lob nuclear warheads at each other, making for a really MAD time. It's only fitting that as American politics got more conservative, the underground would dig in its heels in protest...

The year is 1985: Punk's now 10 years old and changing again. Hardcore was now a formula: 1. Pick a seemingly random number of initials for your name (Say, SRI – Social Reagan Injustice); 2. Play at light speed. 3. Sing about how you hate Reagan and nuclear war. 4. S...

In the '80s, many a cloth-eared critic and social dullard thought punk was just a mindless fad. Here in 2020, we know better than our parents ever did. But there's still time for them to catch up. Because these punk albums of 1983 haven't lost any of their potency...

In recent years, massive gatherings and festivals such as Burning Man, Lollapalooza and Coachella have become destination events that draw thousands. However, the roots of these cultural juggernauts are far humbler. That honor goes to Desolation Center, an early-'80s DIY venture that booked concerts in off-the-grid locations...

Welcome to our look-back video at some of the best 1981 punk albums. While the foundation of punk rock was already in place by the late Seventies, there were still possibilities to be explored. We're still thanking all the deities for that. Historically speaking, the Eighties have been frequently referred to as "the Me decade...

First, some background about the motives of punk albums of 1984. Jello Biafra, in the Dead Kennedys' masterly 1979 debut single “California Über Alles,” predicted 1984 as the year presidential hopeful Jerry Brown's “suede/denim secret police” would be “knock-knock(ing) at your front door” to haul “your uncool niece” to a reeducation camp because “Zen fascists (would) control you.” He couldn't have

1981 was the year hardcore engulfed everything punk. Skanking pit warriors swarmed a stage at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. England had its own equivalent—the Exploited, GBH, Discharge. But none of the mile-high Mohican British bands could touch what was coming out of America. And ...

Anywhere Anywhere Apparently it's a race within the ranks of the Mars Volta to see how many side projects the members of the prog-rock group can release before Ragnarok kills us all. The latest salvo from within this camp is Anywhere, a supergroup featuring TMV singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala on drums, Triclops! gu ...