the heartbreakers

Gang Of Four on their political roots, new box set '‘77-’81’ and more

When Leeds, U.K. post-punks Gang Of Four first appeared on American shores in 1980, they were simultaneously startling, exciting, fierce, warm, familiar and yet shockingly new. They were clearly unthinkable without punk, yet they didn’t play standard-issue Ramones–isms in a leather jacket. They were as angry and leftist in their politics as the Clash, but […]

11 LGBTQIA+ punk musicians who changed the genre forever

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 […]

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 Though it remains unpublished, I asked in the course of it what he thought of Rancid.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

15 punk albums from 1993 that embraced contrarianism over prefab rebellion

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 […]

These 15 punk albums of 1987 brought more noise and power than ever

Welcome to the best punk albums of 1987. But first, some context. Feb. 20, 1987: An attack by a domestic terrorist called “the Unabomber” plants a bomb in a Salt Lake City computer store. The owner is injured. March 4: President Ronald Reagan owns up to what was swiftly called the Iran-Contra Affair in a […]

QUIZ: How much ’70s punk trivia do you really know?

For many, first-wave punk was the sound of liberation. Chainsaw guitars, locomotive drums and screaming singers delivered brutal street poetry about the times. It saved us from a lifetime of dull progressive rock, snooze-worthy singer-songwriters and six-string heavy metal. For certain die-hards, ’70s punk is the only punk. For them, both the music and the […]