motorhead

A history of punk and metal fusion, from Motörhead to Metallica

Nov. 20, 1980, after-dinner hour: England’s eyes were focused on Top Of The Pops, BBC’s long-running pop program, as they had every Thursday evening since the first day of 1964. In the middle of the rundown of the U.K.’s 30 best-selling singles appeared this apparition, resembling black leather Visigoths from a Hell’s Angels fever dream. […]

The best punk drummers of the 2000s, from Travis Barker to Meg White

As the new century’s first decade unwound, things evolved or deteriorated rapidly, depending on your perspective. The entire world was changing in every aspect. So of course, punk rock was gonna change with it. The fundamentalists would scream and moan about how these changes weren’t punk at all, that we needed to go back to […]

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 […]

These 11 punk-rock drummers defined the 1980s

Welcome to Alternative Press’ selection of the 1980s’ 11 best punk drummers. One key factor happened that changed it, and the character of its musicianship: hardcore. ‘70s punk posited that Anyone Could Do It. While this was true on paper, some degree of basic musicianship was required to make truly great punk rock. This was […]

The Darkness reveal how AI influenced the making of 'Motorheart'

The Darkness may have predicted the future on their last album, but they’ve returned to spread some joy with their new one. “After this last year-and-a-half, who wants to hear a British cock-rock band whining?” frontman/guitarist Justin Hawkins stresses, laughing. “Nobody wants to hear that. Even we don’t want to hear it. With a bit […]

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 […]

1998’s top 15 punk albums simultaneously changed and preserved the form

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, […]

These 10 vocalists were punk-rock standard-bearers during the ‘00s

Welcome to Alternative Press’ 10 best punk vocalists of the ‘00s. When we counted down that decade’s finest punk guitarists, we noted that the beginning of the new century was a turning point. The ‘90s began with Nirvana breaking down the door for punk-influenced alternative acts to become the mainstream music of the decade, peaked […]

These 15 classic albums made 1996 a crucial year in punk history

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. Conservative public policy bulwark […]

15 albums from 1995 that are a perfect gateway into the world of punk

In 1996, Your Punk Professor interviewed the Clash’s distinguished lead guitarist Mick Jones for a proposed Alternative Press piece on punk’s original guitar heroes. Though it remains unpublished, I asked in the course of it what he thought of Rancid. Jones waxed effusive, noting he’d met the Berkeley punk traditionalists in the course of a […]

10 old-school punk bands who created the blueprint for the hardcore scene

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 […]

10 modern punk bands who are channeling acts from the first wave

Despite what some TikTok troll in his aunt’s basement is incoherently ranting about in 2021, punk rock isn’t dead by any means. It never has been, and a sea of incredible bands in its aggressive world get overlooked all too often. We’re here to remedy this. Whether you’re a punk-rock purist who thinks that Sex […]

15 bands who are crucial to the history of noise music

When it initially blasted into the world from New York’s Lower East Side almost concurrently with punk in 1977, it was dubbed no wave. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau referred to it as “skronk,” an onomatopoeia based around the general guitar sound. He uncharitably dubbed its ’80s practitioners “pigfucker” bands. This writer’s personal name for […]

10 guitarists who brought punk rock firmly into the 2000s

As we exited the ’90s and entered the new millennium, pop divas, prefabricated boy bands and rappers bragging about conspicuous consumption and how poorly they treated women ruled the airwaves. Meanwhile, what passed for “rock” was the white guys who beat you up in high school P.E. class who’d discovered hip-hop and figured it’d sound […]

10 Manchester bands who cranked up the punk in the late '70s

In the ’70s, England had two great punk cities. Most across the planet thought London was the world’s only punk capital, completely ignoring the music and culture’s beginnings in New York City, mostly due to the Sex Pistols’ outsized reputation and influence. But if London was English Punk City No. 1, Manchester definitely came in […]

These 15 albums from 1991 laid the foundation for punk as we know it

Welcome to Alternative Press’ pick of the 15 best punk albums of 1991. It was a momentous year, one in which underground culture burst into the mainstream, taking punk and all its offshoots with it. Blame it on one album: Nirvana’s Nevermind.  Many punkier-than-thou types will moan when seeing this album’s inclusion. They’d be denying […]

2020 in memoriam: Remembering the ones we lost

Each year comes with loss and change. 2020, in particular, has been one with an overwhelming amount of grief. It’s hard to know what to say when you lose people you admire, whether you know them personally or were inspired by the art they created. Hold the people you care about close and thank them. […]

15 punk guitarists of the ’90s who paved the way for the genre’s future

Welcome to Alternative Press’ pick of the 15 best punk guitarists of the ’90s. One notable difference between this list and the other two we’ve compiled is the inclusion of several women. Punk did much to democratize rock ’n’ roll in the ’70s, with many pioneering all-female (the Runaways, the Slits) or mixed-gender lineups (X-Ray […]

Record Store Day's Black Friday clearly saved the best releases for last

We hope you saved some money because Black Friday is Record Store Day’s final shopping event of 2020. If your toes don’t curl at the breadth of this month’s selections, well, do you even like music? There are plenty of great titles being reissued on the vinyl format for all of your post-Thanksgiving wonderment. Here […]
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