punk

“Let’s have a war ⁠— blame it on the Middle Class!” The guitar emerges in a blur. The outburst only lasts a second or two before the rest of the band kicks in as abruptly. Someone calls “Out of vogue” repeatedly, as lead singer Jeff Atta responds, “We don't need no magazines/We don’t need no pictures/We don’t need no TV/We don’t wanna know!” It’s over in a minute. The other three songs on the seve

The most important member of any rock ‘n’ roll band is the drummer. Seriously, you can have Jimi Hendrix on lead guitar in your band. But if Mitch Mitchell isn't in the back, holding it all together on drums? You just have noise.  Rhythm...

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 mixed scent of Mar...

2005 began with a sick hangover, otherwise known as facing four more years of President George W. Bush’s administration, compounded by the erroneous war in Iraq. And that queasy stomach and headache never subsided. Is it any wonder the year’s best punk music was overwhelmingly bright and cheerful, even if it pounded like a jackhammer? It was as ...

The screen fades in from black to a grainy, high-speed chase through an urban landscape, all jerky camerawork and streaky lights, flickering between night and day. The lens finally settles on a water plant or oil refinery rushing by, cutting to details of a speeding motorcycle carrying a pair of riders who resemble Mad Max extras...

Fousheé has been writing music since childhood, but her path to stardom has been unexpected. After appearing on The Voice in 2018, she made 250 song samples for the online music platform Splice, which allows musicians to purchase and use samples royalty-free. One o...

Punk rock would never escape society’s accusations of ineptitude. To mainstream ears, the music was ugly — tuneless, arhythmic, untalented. Worst of all, the vocalists couldn't sing. How could that garbage be called music? We all know the naysayers were wrong. But a degr...

Each month, Alternative Press Gallery explores the work of photographers, directors and other creatives who help shape the music world from behind the scenes. With each issue, we explore the stories behind the shoots and take deep dives into the most compelling media, asking about the vision as well as the happy accidents that create some of the most powerful moments in music...

On a spring day in London, Amy Love and Georgia South sat listening as the rain danced its desultory rhythms on the pavement outside the South family home. Seeing that the two young women, then teenagers, were succumbing to listlessness and boredom, South’s father issued a stern injunction. “Sto...

The seven-inch 45 RPM single was the perfect punk-rock medium, insofar as anything about a musical genre and culture as fly-by-the-seat-of-your-bondage-pants as punk can be designed. This is because it was originally rock ‘n’ roll’s perfect medium, and punk’s initial goal was reducing rock to its fundamentals. And if you restrict yo...

EKKSTACY is among a crop of young artists driving the ongoing punk revival. He is unique in the crowd for the version of punk history he tells. Stripped of pop-punk hooks and bright, crispy guitars, EKKSTACY leans toward the darkest corners of the genre...

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...

The Linda Lindas walked out of quarantine in a very different position from where they were when COVID-19 forced them and the rest of the world inside. Before, they had played only around 15 shows, meeting up to rock out simply because they loved it...

“It’s been an all right year,” DE’WAYNE says. The genre-bending artist released his debut record, STAINS, an explosive combination of punk, hip-hop and pop, in June. For DE’WAYNE, it wasn’t just the powerful start of a new era but also a chance for him to cross a childhood goal — releasing an album by the age of 25 — off his list. “That was really huge for me, and I got to wor...

Burnaby city councilman Joe Keithley (aka “Joey Shithead”) has led Vancouver, B.C. punk pioneers D.O.A. since 1978, the band’s sole mainstay. In part one of our conversation, he was interviewed one hour before going onstage. The trio — these...

Detroit in the 1950s and ‘60s was a “boomtown,” according to MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. “It was the manufacturing center of the world,” he wrote in the October 2003 issue of Mojo magazine. “If you wanted it built, we could build it in Detroit. Jobs were there for anyone willing...

Within minutes of speaking to Pink Siifu, it’s clear that he’s a student of music who’s bursting with ideas. He mentions Pink Floyd in the same breath as Alice Coltrane, rattling off several more names that delight and inspire him. Like those artis...

Misfits are the very model of an influential punk band. Which was most likely not Glenn Danzig’s goal when he formed them in 1977 in his native Lodi, New Jersey, naming them for Marilyn Monroe’s final film from 1961. After initially being driven by Danzig’s distorted electric piano, Misfits became known for sludgy power chords pitched in the key of Black Sabbath set to Ramones-oid tempos and song

Turnstile are the most recent band to be featured on NPR's Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series. Surrounded by what looks to be hundreds of little stuffed animals (an art installation by John Scharbach), Turnstile burn through seven songs over 17 minutes. Des...

You could argue that blink-182 are one of the major reasons why pop punk exploded into the mainstream in the 2000s. Following Green Day’s release of Dookie in ‘94 and Weezer’s nerd-positive brand of rock, blink were the reason a lot of kids wanted to pick up guitars. It was through T... Read More ... Read More ...