Recommended Listening
Recommended Listening: Emo
Now, wait a minute. Before you start haphazardly dogpiling me with scorn, give me a chance to make my case. Let me assure you, this will not be about bands like Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, My Chemical Romance, The Get Up Kids, etc. These bands are a perversion of what Emo was at its origin, and are not at all representative of its glorious roots. Did that get your attention? Are you now a...[Read More]
Recommended Listening: Raffi
If you recognize who Raffi is, but think that I must surely be talking about a different Raffi, well, you’re wrong. And don’t call me Shirley (nyuk nyuk nyuk). I am indeed talking about the children’s entertainer Raffi, best known for one particular song (at least, best known by me).
Recommended Listening: Voodoo Glow Skulls
It’s almost 5:00am now, and I started running out of different ways to start talking about bands hours ago. With this in mind, I decided to just skip the yakety-yak crap and get straight to the point: Voodoo Glow Skulls. Bam.
Recommended Listening: The Suicide Machines
Did I mention I like ska-core? I’m especially a huge fan of 90s-era ska-core and third-wave ska. I remember listening to The Suicide Machines debut album, Destruction by Definition, when it came out in 1996. It was quite an experience.
Recommended Listening: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Punk rock is not a financially lucrative genre, compared to more mainstream genres like pop, rock, rap, etc. This makes it hard to have a true “supergroup” collaboration, such as Them Crooked Vultures (Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, and Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age), or Velvet Revolver (Scott Weiland from STP and the rest of the guys from t...[Read More]
Recommended Listening: Ignite
I don’t remember if it was my friend Casey or my friend Dustin who first recommended the band Ignite to me, but when they said it was melodic hardcore with almost operatic vocals, I knew I had to give it a shot. I’m glad I did.
Recommended Listening: Descendents
Started in 1979, but finding their signature sound in 1980, the Descendents became a staple of the southern California hardcore punk rock scene, mixing humor in to their fast paced style of musical ass-kicking. By which I mean to say they rocked.
Recommended Listening: Subhumans
I love old British punk rock. From Angelic Upstarts to the U.K. Subs, British punk, especially Oi! Punk and British hardcore punk, has a very unique and engaging sound. Of the punk bands that the UK produced in the 80s, one of my absolute favorites (along with Cock Sparrer) is easily Subhumans.
Recommended Listening: Bad Religion
Bad Religion is one of my favorite bands. I remember seeing them live years ago in large club venue. While the local opener was on stage, I was sitting at the back of the club, relaxing and waiting for the main acts to appear. A man came and sat at my table to watch the opener, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed it was Greg Hetson. That was a good day.
Recommended Listening: The Bouncing Souls
The Bouncing Souls are, perhaps, one of the most aptly named bands that I’ve done a Recommended Listening for all day. When I listen to The Bouncing Souls, I get this exuberant feeling. I just want to move, and smile, and laugh. It’s pretty awesome.
Recommended Listening: The (International) Noise Conspiracy
After the demise of Refused, Dennis Lyxzén created the politically-charged garage-punk band The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Personally, I have them on my iPhone as “dance punk” because of the groove of their older albums, but that’s just personal taste I suppose.
Recommended Listening: Refused
Hear me now, believe me later: The fucking Swedes know how to fucking rock. I know, the first thing a person thinks of when they think “Sweden” isn’t necessarily unbelievable hardcore music, but maybe something more along the lines of epic boobs. Well, Refused is the former, and in Sweden, I’m sure they got lots of the latter.
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