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15 artists influenced by the Sex Pistols, from Joy Division to Oasis
“Rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to be fun,” Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten told British rock journalist Charles Shaar Murray in 1977. “You’re supposed to enjoy it. It’s not about taking a million fucking years to learn a million fucking chords on the guitar.” That clarion call — sounded as their anti-royalist diatribe “God Save […]
15 artists who show that the Velvet Underground’s influence is eternal
Lester Bangs, the greatest rock journalist ever, felt eternal Lower East Side musical royals the Velvet Underground were “our Beatles and Bob Dylan combined” and that “modern music begins” with them. He wasn’t wrong. They existed only for a handful of years—1965 to 1970. But five years was enough for them to create virtually everything […]
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 […]
15 essential post-punk bands who represent the evolution of the genre
Post-punk had to happen. Punk rock opened all this space for people to make exactly the kind of art or culture that the disenfranchised had been imagining in their heads, and maybe had limited means or skills by which to make it. But what if you didn’t want to crank out recharged three-chord rock ’n’ […]
Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde learned that the best plan is none at all
Simon Raymonde is a man of many talents. His artistic range spans from the ’80s with the prolific dream-pop/shoegaze band Cocteau Twins to the founding of Bella Union, an independent record label that’s seen the likes of Beach House, Father John Misty and Explosions In The Sky. His recent project, Lost Horizons, are also signed […]
25 most influential emo bands who made the genre what it is today
Emo (noun): a hotly contested music genre where bands and fans alike refuse to agree on who qualifies for a place in the rankings for all eternity, where no band admits to falling into the criteria of emo, and no fans admit to listening to it either. Of course, the one precursor to belonging to […]
50 new artists you need to hear in November
Everyone loves to jam out to their favorite artists and classic hits, but let’s not forget about all the fresh talent constantly popping up around the world. From pop and indie to punk and post-hardcore, there’s always a new name in music waiting to be heard. We know there’s a lot of faces to sift […]
These 10 noise-rock tracks were built to defy your volume settings
Oftentimes, there simply isn’t a guitar chord ugly enough to convey what you want to say. And that’s why we have noise-rock glory. Sometimes torturing a guitar just sounds better than happily strumming it. This fact has been proven time and time again. And in 2020, these 10 noise-rock tracks were built to defy your […]
These 15 punk albums from 1985 are the roots of alternative rock
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. Shave your head. Like rock […]
Everything you need to know about the impending shoegaze revival
Shoegaze is back. Or, depending on the critic you ask, it never left, and now we call it nü-gaze, cuz we’re clever like that. Music writers have been predicting the shoegaze resurgence since the mid-00s, tapping A Place to Bury Strangers, the Silversun Pickups and Deerhunter as members of the new school. Now, buzz bands […]
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