operation ivy

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: […]

Don’t be fooled: HE Creative are doing exactly what you think they’re doing when you glance over their Instagram feed for the first time—creating a normalized space for punk rock, female empowerment, diversity and more. Designed in various shades of muted hues, HE Creative are using their creative design studio as a means to elevate […]

This past March 5, the French punk label Guerilla Asso quietly slipped a genius album into the marketplace: Rocket To Kingston, credited to Bobby Ramone. The melding of the isolated vocal tracks from nine of Bob Marley’s most deathless classics to edited Ramones backing tracks, it sounds like a joke on paper. The cover even […]

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 Though it remains unpublished, I asked in the course of it what he thought of Rancid.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 […]

Alternative rock still dominated popular music in 1993. This obviously begged the question of just how “alternative” something was if it was now on a major label and on the radio. Not necessarily a bad thing. After all, we’d never have to hear Whitesnake again. Bottom end and distortion returned to rock record-making in a […]

Southern California gets a lot of credit for being the birthplace of many bands that you know and love such as Black Flag and Bad Religion, but Northern California’s discography, which includes both Green Day and Metallica, isn’t exactly that shabby either. The area may get a little less public affirmation, but hopefully we can […]

Whether you’re curating your own wish list or getting ideas for your closest friends and family, it’s never too early to start sorting out your holiday shopping plans. Department stores might have the classics, but what about shopping for the punk in your life? Maybe you need a quick list to share with your own […]

Welcome to Alternative Press’ 15 best punk albums of 1989. It’s easy to look at the final year of the decade and see it as transitional. But there are portents of the future all over this list. Yet, truth be told, haven’t we seen that with all these lists? As we’ve worked on this series, […]

From sea to shining sea, the U.S. is teeming with talented bands and musicians. Every state and region of the country has its own scene, with its own unique flavor, filled with undiscovered and unsigned artists worthy of a listen. In a time when most of us are stuck inside, take a virtual road trip […]

The 1990s started out with DS-1 distortion pedal grunge bands viciously stomping on the global spandex-wearing hair-metal movement from the decade before and ceremoniously ended with the rise of the baggy-pant rockers of nü metal and bleached-blond boy bands with chiseled faces, courtesy of TRL. However, some incredible acts and songs fell under the radar […]

Yeah, we’ve got problems: Paxil ’scripts are rising faster than Dr. Phil’s ratings, and the positive-thinking selections on the shelves at Barnes & Noble are almost crushing the YA section. But when you’ve blown your rent check on Lexapro and depression’s still got you wishing you could go to sleep forever, music’s the one cure […]

Teen angst emerged, and it seemed like the world was suddenly falling apart in all directions for Mark Kiessling. In times of unspeakable distress, fear and despair, Kiessling found his getaway in Chicago’s drug culture and fell into a rut of addiction and depression. In need of a fresh start, he abandoned his vices and […]

Have you ever discovered an artist who you really loved and proceeded to jam their entire discography into your earholes for a week straight? Sadly, the groups in this list are only responsible for producing one studio album as a group. Don’t worry though: There are plenty of familiar faces who went on to produce […]

[Photo by: Operation Ivy] Thirty years ago, the Bay Area wasn’t synonymous with tech, astronomical rents or even pop punk. The summer of ’69 still loomed in cartoonish homage and the promise of the first wave of American hardcore punk was reduced to the embers being stoked by Maximumrocknroll fanzine. Centered around a non-profit space in […]

Going out on top is an art mastered by a wise few artists who leave in their wake not 10 years of novelty albums, but explosions and the ashes of their contemporaries. Here are seven artists who knew that giving up a great thing is sometimes the best thing to do to keep it great […]

Classics Of Love recently performed at Death By Audio in Brooklyn, New York and Asian Man Records has posted a few videos from the show. Check them out below. COL, which features Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy on vocals, released their debut full-length earlier this year via Asian Man.

Hellcat Records will be reissuing legendary ska-punk outfit Operation Ivy's debut EP Hectic on vinyl Apr. 17. A pre-order has been launched here. THe EP was originally released in 1988 by the now officially defunct Lookout Records. Hellcat reissued the band's lone full-length, Energy, in 2007. Op Ivy frontman Jesse Michaels has since resurfaced in […]

CLASSICS OF LOVE released their debut full-length earlier this week via Asian Man Records and AP chatted with frontman Jesse Michaels about the new album, the chances of an Operation Ivy reunion and more. Interview: Scott Heisel It seems like you haven’t been this aggressive vocally in nearly 20 years. Has your voice gotten its […]

Classics Of Love Classics Of Love This review originally ran in AP 284. It’s been more than nine years since Jesse Michaels last put out a full-length (This Is Unity Music, from his easygoing reggae act Common Rider), and more than 20 since he helped pen the record that more or less invented ska-punk, Operation […]