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.