Some Albums I Liked, Part 2

And now we're back

It's over a month since I've made a post on this blog and it's good to be back. How was your time while I was gone? Crappy? Cool, me too!

Time for our annual passing of albums out to the masses.

The Suicide Machines - Destruction by Definition

A couple of genres that crossbred with punk were reggae and ska, ska-punk music becoming popular during the 1990's. So where do you go to find ska? Reel Big Fish? Heck no, you go to Detroit's own Suicide Machines, with their debut album, Destruction by Definition. This skacore album is filled with funky ska beats and shredding punk riffs. This album has some of their most popular songs like "Hey", "New Girl", and a song featuring their favorite shoes, "Vans Song". This album is great for parties, you'll be skanking the night away.


Listen to this album here

Guttermouth - Musical Monkey

Deciding to put this band up was a little risky for me because of the content of this album, but it's one of my favorites nonetheless. Their style is great; sweet riffs, energetic, and very sarcastic and outrageous.  One time the band played Warped Tour and called out all the crappy emo bands like MCR for worrying more about their looks than the quality of music. They got kicked out, but I think they made a great point. Anyway, this album has some of their main set songs, and some of my favorites like "Do The Hustle", a song about annoying rollerbladers, "Baker's Dozen", a satirical look at the branches and elitism of punk, and their hit "Lipstick", a song about verbally abusing your mom and having her sent to jail. Check out this album!

                                                      Listen to "Baker's Dozen" here

The Germs - GI

The Germs were originally formed in 1976 with Jean Paul Beahm and his friend Georg Rothenberg, who later became known as Darby Crash and Pat Smear. They became on of the most influential bands in the L.A. hardcore scene of the early 80's, all of their shows very chaotic. Whatever they lacked in musical talent they made up in showmanship, or at least tried to, if you can call breaking bottles and starting riots showmanship. This album on the other hand is played pretty decently and has a lot of their wonderful songs. It's definitely an old school album worth checking out. 

RIP Darby Crash

Album here

Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters & In God We Trust Inc.

This was the album that got Jello Biafra in trouble with the PMRC and had him defending himself on Oprah. This album has some of your classics like "Halloween", "Winnebego Warrior", and "Forest Fire". One thing I like about the Dead Kennedys is that despite their music was released in the early 80's, it still talks about a lot of problems we face today. Rednecks, bad politicians, cops. You could take "We've Got A Bigger Problem Now" and replace Reagan's name with any other crappy politician and you'd have a perfect song. I guess we just haven't made a lot of progress.

Album here

F.Y.P. - Dance My Dunce

Another stupid, snotty punk band in my favorites list. F.Y.P.'s Dance My Dunce is sort of like taking you back to your child hood, that is if you hated everything as a child, or you just still do. It's like when you're being sent to bible camp ("Vacation Bible School"), and the dorky kid sits next to you on the bus ("I Don't Want To Sit Next To You") but you discover your first childhood love ("Toss My Cookies"). See what I mean when punk music can match your lifestyle?

Listen to "Toss My Cookies" here

The Stupid Stupid Henchmen - Charmingly Demonic

Now, I love the Stupid Henchmen. Local ska-punk outfit from the slums of New York City, inspired by your other crack rock favorites like No Cash and Leftover Crack. The Henchmen have invented their own style of music with sweet ska riffs, hip hop beats and verses and growling. Listening to it makes you feel pretty gangster. Talking about this more instead of listening to it would just dishonor it, so click the link below and see why.

Listen to them Here

(Also contains link to download the album for free [:)

That brings this week's post to an end. But before I end it, I want to talk about the attitude behind punk, but for that to happen you have to apply it to your own life in some way, so I'll start with mine. It's sort of an anthem for me, not because of the violence or deliberate offensiveness of the music, but the viewpoint behind the sarcasm. If you've met me before you might think I'm kind of a naysayer to most things. I don't like all that popular, top-40 music, I don't like politics, football, corporations, cops, right wing idiots, left wing idiots, and mostly everything about Western civilization. It's not because I'm anti-social or just want to act cool or act unique; it's because I've had my own reasons to not like these things and I find most of the music I listen to is on par with my own thoughts. It taught me that a lot of other people won't agree with what you should say, but you should be able to speak your mind in some way. It becomes a lifestyle, from what you wear to what you want to do in life.

It's not all about me, it's just my take on everything, which is precisely what punk is - is showing your own individual thoughts, whether it's with a piece of clothing or a song. It's not about self interest, it's about self sufficiency.

Anyway. that's enough of this. Thanks for reading.

Some Albums I Liked, Part 1

   Welcome to the start up of my new DIY collective (angsty blog)! In an Orwellian time like this, it's hard to listen to most music without realizing that it just sounds awful. So I decided to spread the joy of my own music, and the disputably alive culture with it.

Noise Complaint - Parasite

This little ska-core band from Chino, California released its first EP in 2013, and released this full length album this year. Noise Complaint brings you a buzzing guitar, verses between regular hardcore vocals and screeching, and some of the sweetest bass lines you'll ever hear. Switches between the cutting guitars and rage-fueled vocals of "Narcissism" and the smooth ska rhythms of "Self Division". You'd be doing a dis-service to yourself if you didn't listen to this.

Check out the album, and the rest of NC's stuff on Bandcamp: http://noise-complaint.bandcamp.com/


Agent Orange - Living In Darkness

Known as one of the first skate punk albums. Agent Orange's surf influence is obvious, with its covers of "Pipeline", and "Mr. Moto", but also provides some great punk rock songs, "Too Young To Die", "The Last Goodbye" and AG's most popular hit, "Bloodstains". Still a great listen today after about 30 years. You know what's funny? The song "Bored of You" is played on Grand Theft Auto 5. Kind of funny how things come back around.


Listen to the album here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isNJ_lRzav8

Black Flag - Damaged

What's that? Don't like ska or surf punk? Just like hardcore? Don't even know what hardcore even is? Here's an album for you. Black Flag's Damaged was a controversial album in the early So-Cal scene at first, since if was the fourth time the band changed its singer within two years. This is the beginning of the story about a young man from Washington D.C. named Henry joins a band and sees the world for what it truly is. Damaged is brutal, hard and fast, like a mugger's fist in a dark alley. (Fun fact: Black Flag's roadie at the time was named "Mugger") Features all your favorite songs from previous albums, like "Police Story" and "Depression", and some newer ones like "Rise Above" and "TV Party", which turned out to be equally important songs.

Watch an MTV music video on TV Party here, since I'm too lame to upload a full album this time. Don't worry, it's G-Rated mostly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6otjCKg594

Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
This isn't even a punk album, but after listening to all those albums, your ears might start to bleed. In that case, rest your ears with the soothing sounds of Mac DeMarco, in his album Salad Days, featuring his gap-toothed mug right on the cover. Our Canadian five-paneled friend produces laid back indie rock known as "Jangle pop". What the heck is jangle pop exactly? Apparently it has to do with chiming guitars and 60's melodies. But who cares about that, just listen to the music! Mac brings us his classic style in "Salad Days" and "Blue Boy" but also incorporates some more 80's pop-ish sounding melody in "Brother". Nevertheless, another album worth looking at. Good for lazy days.

Listen to this album here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HQqXllXpfQ

Wastoids - Self Titled

Blasting out of Toronto, the Wastoids self-titled album from 2013 is like a burst of gunfire. This only has 5 songs but they go along way, from the building stomp of "Red Meat", the energetic Oi!-fueled attack of "My Toronto" and the slower-than-most-punk, but still attitude-filled "Brown Sugar, Brown Liquor". Like I said before, this album is short but still packs a punch, like a brick through a window. There's a lot of stereotyping about Canadians being passive people, but don't let that fool you. The Wastoids are pissed.


Wastoids in live concert here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlGNwhVD6zQ

Propagandhi - How To Clean Everything

Another Canadian punk hit, Propagandhi's How To Clean Everything is exactly what its first song, "Anti Manifesto" (Which despite being a punk album, is a song about the bad aspects of punk itself) is, a backlash to all government systems, militancy and religion. Featuring melodic guitar riffs and smooth but still powerful vocals, Propagandhi sounds like a skate-punk album about anarchy. "Head? Chest? Or Foot?", a call to action against mass media, and even a backlash to the ska revival, "Ska Sucks". This album is an anti-manifesto indeed.


Listen to the album here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MEuY4ObLU