the kinks

These bands paved the way for pop punk, from Descendents to NOFX

“Teenage dream, so hard to beat…”: 1970s pop-punk roots As long as there’s been punk rock, pop punk — a more tuneful variant — has existed. What’s wrong with washing down your high-speed guitar crunch with some sunny melodies? Many of the earliest punk rockers grew up in the ’60s, their ears glued to transistor […]

Dave Grohl is recording a full-length metal album for 'Studio 666'

Dave Grohl is back in the news with loads more info on the upcoming Foo Fighters horror movie Studio 666. The Foos frontman reveals he’s working on a full-length metal album as the fictional band Dream Widow, who form a key plot point in the film. Grohl also revealed Studio 666 will feature a cameo from […]

10 best '70s London punk bands, from Siouxsie And The Banshees to Sex Pistols

As long as there’s been a punk scene, its denizens have argued as to which city invented it — New York or London? Truth be told, it was neither because history’s first proper punk band was the Stooges from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Which would make Detroit punk’s proper birthplace. But if much of the sound […]

The 10 best punk drummers of the '90s, from Dave Grohl to Tobi Vail

The ‘90s was the moment when the experiments wrestled control of the laboratory away from the scientists. Suddenly, punk rock — the ragged step-sibling of rock and pop — was squarely in the mainstream of culture, after years of ruling the underground. It spawned alternative music and the latter’s most successful subthread, grunge. Grunge was […]

How the White Stripes and the Hives built on the legacy of garage rock

Two U.K. televisual musical moments from the turn of the century, both involving stripped-down young rock ‘n’ roll bands: First up, the White Stripes on long-standing U.K. pop showcase Top Of The Pops, in February 2002. “Fell In Love With A Girl” began its chart-shaking international climb, and Jack and Meg White entered English living […]

These 15 albums from 1997 irrefutably proved that punk was far from dead

1997: All media is declaring the alternative–rock explosion—for which Nirvana lit the fuse—over. This means the commercial pop-punk wave Green Day touched off was over in their eyes, too. That selfsame media could not have been more wrong. Green Day had just issued their fifth album, Nimrod. The Offspring, the band who made the catchphrase […]

10 reasons why Oasis are the most influential Britpop band of all time

Britpop was the sound of England taking back rock ‘n’ roll after American grunge and alt rock had annexed the world’s airwaves and charts for the first half of the ‘90s. Vox amps, Union Jacks, 1964 Paul McCartney haircuts, Ben Sherman shirts and Chelsea boots became all the rage, as bands plundered their British Invasion, […]

10 bands who put the Canadian punk scene on the map

Though all but forgotten by this point—save for documentary films like excellent Vancouver overview Bloodied But Unbowed and recent Teenage Head retrospective Picture My Face—Canada once boasted one of the world’s best punk scenes. The quality/quantity of Great White North pogo-rock acts, plus their music’s sheer ferocity, belied our neighbors’ more mild-mannered and civilized reputation. […]

Richard Hell knew the '70s was the time for more "psychotic" music

Punk has a million precedents—musical, spiritual. The basic sound and attitude can be traced back to the wildest, most primitive rockabilly records of the ’50s and the most fuzzed-out garage bands of the ’60s, plus the racket the New York Dolls and Iggy and the Stooges raised in the early ’70s. You see it in […]

Chrissie Hynde sees protest anthems and love songs as one and the same

Akron, Ohio born and bred Christine Ellen Hynde has led the Pretenders from the top of the charts since the band’s debut single, a 1979 rethink of Ray Davies’ “Stop Your Sobbing” that killed the Kinks’ 1964 Mersey Beat-ish original on contact. Sort of a spiritual big sister to Joan Jett, she led that gang […]

10 bands who still have their original lineup over 20 years later

Many bands take maintaining the same lineup quite seriously, even if it’s one of the most difficult things to pull off. Especially if longevity is also high up on their list of priorities.  Those who have accomplished it wear it as a badge of honor, such as U2. Frontman Bono often says they are who […]

10 Swedish bands who should already be on your playlist

Sweden may be best known for exporting its world-famous meatballs, the band Ghost and the puzzle games known as IKEA furniture, but they have many more treasures that everyone should know about. The seventh happiest country in the world is home to many artists who are redefining what it means to be alternative. These bands […]

These 10 songs sound eerily similar to other famous tracks

The history of recorded sound is just short of 150 years old. One would think that nearly every combination of musical note, chord and key would have been written, recorded and copywritten by now. There are still countless numbers of songs being recorded and released. We’re not mathematicians, but there’s no escaping the fact that […]

10 nostalgic comedy movies with surprisingly good soundtracks

Hollywood doesn’t pump out movies like they used to. The 2000s belonged to Amanda Bynes as the leading lady in hilarious romantic comedies and every punk band who set the mood for an action montage in a funny film. Some movies are made even better by cameos such as Cannibal Corpse (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) […]

8 punk rock heroes who shaped the genre before most of us were born

“People try to put us down,” protest punk artist YUNGBLUD snarls over two viciously downstroked guitar chords. “Just ’cause we get around/The things they do look awfully cold/Hope I die before I get old…” “My Generation,” he spits out further before the rest of his band kick in during a live video filmed in the […]

Watch Frank Turner cover The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset"

Frank Turner recently filmed a cover of The Kinks' classic track “Waterloo Sunset” for SiriusXM. The singer, who also just announced a 2014 UK arena tour, will hit the road in Europe next week, followed by a fall tour of North America, and will release a new EP, Losing Days, later this year. Watch the singer's cover of […]