Category: Punk
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The Suicide Machines ‘Destruction By Definition’ (1996)
Today we have somewhat of a deep cut with The Suicide Machines 1996 debut album Destruction by Definition, one of those mid-90’s records that perfectly nails the mix of piss and vinegar punk rock and sing-a-long hooks. It’s a damn hard line to walk consistently but this album has always stood out to me as…
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Voodoo Glow Skulls ‘Firme’ (1995)
Voodoo Glow Skulls mix the high energy of punk rock with the bounce and brass of ska, creating a sound that’s fast, loud, and full of attitude. Their music leans hard on driving guitar riffs, tight horn lines, and rapid-fire vocals, all coming together with the rawness that mid-90’s punk rock ska is known for.…
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Propagandhi ‘How To Clean Everything’ (1993)
How to Clean Everything introduced Propagandhi as one of the sharpest and most self-aware voices in the early wave of skate punk. The band was signed to Fat Mike’s record label Fat Wreck Chords after playing a show with NOFX in the early 90’s. As dutiful readers know, that record label would soon define the…
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The Story So Far ‘I Want To Disappear In The USA’ (2025)
Along with having a great band name (seriously what a great goddamn band name) The Story So Far is one of my favorite pop punk bands operating today. So when I saw that they’d be on tour with fellow modern pop punk titan Neck Deep and a hotshot upstart Origami Angel I was pretty excited.…
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MxPx ‘Pokinatcha’ (1994)
I’ll be seeing MxPx live in a few months alongside The Ataris, which is basically gonna be me living out my 13-year old self’s dream show at the age of 38 years old. I’ve talked about my love for MxPx a few times in past (especially my personal history with their 1995 album Life In…
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+44 ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ (2006)
After the highly publicized breakup of Blink-182 in 2005 Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker found themselves navigating both personal and creative fallout from their strained relationship with guitarist Tom DeLonge. While DeLonge went on to form Angels & Airwaves, Hoppus and Barker decided to channel their energy into a new project that retained the urgency…
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Useless ID ‘Redemption’ (2003)
Useless ID caught my eye last week when I was reading up on some lore about The Ataris in preparation to see them live alongside MxPx in a few months (I’m pumped!). I was kind of going down the rabbit hole of albums that lead singer Kris Roe produced over the years and read a…
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Between You & Me ‘Armageddon’ (2021)
I don’t need to describe my love for pop punk (the last 2 1/2 years of writing about music has made that clear) and I’m always in the mood for hearing some new bands in the scene. Between You & Me heralds from Australia and their 2021 album Armageddon channels the raw energy of early…
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Big D and the Kids Table ‘Good Luck’ (1999)
There was a record label in my hometown of Cupertino, CA called Springman Records that for the longest time was one my favorite record labels ever. There’s a few reasons for that– I was in middle school when I was first getting into punk rock, and Springman Records was a punk label so the synergy…
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Save Ferris ‘It Means Everything’ (1997)
Orange County’s ska punk scene was a damn fertile oasis in the mid-’90s (it’s seriously insane how many bands came out of that scene) and Save Ferris was one of those bands who brought a burst of brass-driven energy and sharp pop hooks to genre that was hitting the mainstream consciousness. Fronted by the charismatic…
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KNIVES FL ‘One Cut Away From Love’ (2024)
Every once in awhile (or if we’re being honest, a lot of while) I’ll get served ads on Instagram for young up-and-coming bands. The vast majority of these are in the pop punk vein. At any rate KNIVES FL was one of those bands who got delivered into my algorithm and I enjoyed this album.…
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Sincere Engineer ‘Cheap Grills’ (2023)
Sincere Engineer has that sharp Chicago punk rock sound down pat, complete with brilliantly depressed storytelling that sprints through tales of heartbreak and shoddy self-repair. Frontwoman Deanna Belos’ earnest vocal approach makes her sound like she’s right at the top of her range on every song. And she filters her diary-like lyrics through punchy, hook-laden…
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Bowling for Soup ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ (2002)
Bowling for Soup carved out a pretty cool niche as a band who could make comedy rock songs that had element of truth to them. There was their iconic “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” single off this album that made them super popular and regaled a story that pretty much every dorky high schooler…
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Rancid ‘Rancid’ (1993)
Rancid is one of the best piss-and-vinegar pure punk rock bands still operating out there today, which is pretty incredible considering it has been over 30 years since their debut LP from 1993. I’ve waxed poetic about the band’s 1995 magnum opus …And Out Come The Wolves (still one of my favorite all-time albums hard…
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Dead Boys ‘Young, Loud, and Snotty’ (1977)
Young, Loud and Snotty encapsulates the raw, no‑holds‑barred ethos that defined early American punk rock. Channeling the ferocious energy of Iggy Pop and the Stooges with the swagger of Keith Richards, their sound was an untamed, furious blend of taut precision and primal impulse. From the feral opening of “Sonic Reducer” (which has been covered…
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MxPx ‘The Ever Passing Moment’ (2000)
I’ve previously waxed poetic about MxPx and how they were one of “gateway” bands into the magical world of punk rock music during my middle school years. I’ll always hold Life In General a notch above everything else in their discography for the simple fact that it was the first album of theirs I listened…
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Good Charlotte ‘The Young and The Hopeless’ (2002)
I was never a huge Good Charlotte fan (they always struck me as sort of synthetic) but there’s no denying the massive cultural impact the band had on the early-2000’s MTV era of punk rock music. The Madden brothers were all over the celebrity circuit, ended up marrying Nicole Richie and Cameron Diaz, and cut…
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Social Distortion ‘Social Distortion’ (1990)
Social Distortion carved out a sound as raw and restless as the Southern California streets they came from, fusing the sneer of punk with the swagger of rockabilly into a sound that sounds like the flick of switchblade in some biker bar in Nowhereville, USA. When lead singer (and primary songwriter) Mike Ness howls through…
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The Lookouts ‘Spy Rock Road’ (1989)
The Lookouts were known for a couple of things in their brief history as a band. For starters, the band was based in Laytonville which is basically a remote mountain community on the outskirts of Mendocino County in California. To give you some context, the 2020 census was 1,200 people which certainly doesn’t scream “punk…
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Mission Of Burma ‘Signals, Calls and Marches’ (1981)
In the early 80’s Mission of Burma was known for their intense, angular sound that blended punk energy with experimental noise and art-rock sensibilities. This combination played no small part in crystallizing the American post-punk movement. They stood out from a lot of their contemporaries in the space by using atypical sounds like tape loops…
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Spanish Love Songs ‘Brave Faces Everyone’ (2020)
Spanish Love Songs isn’t for everyone. But they certainly are for me. I love their Americana-tinged pop punk, the raw vocals from lead singer Dylan Slocum, and the honesty in which they approach their songwriting. Every song is a story that comes from a place of honesty. While Slocum’s harsh “yell-sing” vocals may be grating…
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WSTR ‘Red, Green Or Inbetween’ (2017)
Pop punk has historically been by and large dominated by American bands for it’s entire lifespan. That’s starting to change a bit, with British acts (like WSTR) beginning to gain more and more prominence. Their debut full-length album Red, Green Or Inbetween is a fun romp through all of the tropes that make pop punk…
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Knuckle Puck ‘Copacetic’ (2015)
Sometimes you want to listen to a record that doesn’t overthink things, especially in the pop punk genre. No frills. No gimmicks. Just heart-on-your-sleeve hooks delivered with conviction until your voice is completely shredded by the time you hit track four. Knuckle Puck’s debut album Copacetic is just that. The Chicago quintet carved out their…
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The Vandals ‘Look What I Almost Stepped In’ (2000)
The Vandals are one of those bands I loved before I had any idea of their significance in the punk rock genre. I first stumbled upon this album during middle school when I was basically mainlining punk records directly into my veins and it stood out for a couple of reasons. The first was how…
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The Offspring ‘Smash’ (1994)
From the road rage glorifying “Bad Habit” to the sloppy vocal intro and self depreciation of “Self Esteem”, The Offspring always had a great sense of bringing dark humor to the seedier parts of life and turning them into massive anthems. I’ll always appreciate them for that.
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Patti Smith ‘Horses’ (1975)
Patti Smith’s Horses was a pivotal punk album that blended poetry, garage rock, and performance art. Recognized for its raw energy and influence on punk, it echoes The Velvet Underground’s artistic expression. Today we explore its impact.
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Leatherface ‘Mush’ (1991)
One of my favorite part of writing about an album every single day for the past two and a half years (this is #844 for the record) is when you stumble upon a band that you’ve never heard of before but one that still sounds so incredibly familiar. And about halfway into the second song…
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Bodyjar ‘How It Works’ (2000)
Hearing How It Works first song “Not The Same” always manages to bring me back to the glory days of middle school. I was a pretty religious video game player back in the day and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was an absolute go-to. That series was a defining part of my childhood and digging back…
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Jawbreaker ’24 Hour Revenge Therapy’ (1994)
24 Hour Revenge Therapy is one of those records that echoes far louder than its initial release might suggest. Dropping in 1994, it helped shape what punk would become over the next decade, offering a version of hardcore that was emotional without being soft, smart without being smug. Blake Schwarzenbach’s lyrics read like scuffed-up poetry,…
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Millencolin ‘Home Sweet Home’ (2002)
Home From Home found Millencolin stretching out and showing just how much range lives inside their high-speed, melodic punk DNA. While rooted in the band’s Swedish skate punk core, this album isn’t afraid to take detours across a wide variety of punk genres. There’s a garage rock looseness to tracks like “Man or Mouse,” a…
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State Champs ‘The Finer Things’ (2013)
The Finer Things, State Champs’ 2013 debut, is a sugar-rush of pop punk energy—tight, fast, and full of heart. It’s the sound of youth at full sprint what with its crashing drums, soaring hooks, and massive guitar hooks. There’s very much a mid-2000’s vibe to State Champs (think in the vein of New Found Glory…
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Operation Ivy ‘Energy’ (1989)
Founded by future Rancid members Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, the Berkeley-based Operation Ivy had the distinction of being an incredibly influential band in the ska punk scene despite the short-lived nature of their existence. They only released one full length album during the course of their two-year career (Energy) and buoyed by their raucous…
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D Generation ‘No Lunch’ (1996)
Imagine if Ramones and The New York Dolls got together to form a supergroup that was fronted by a garage rock version of Billy Corgan and you have a good understanding of what D Generation sounds like. With a mix of glam, punk, and garage rock, it’s pretty clear from the jump that No Lunch‘s…
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The Exploited ‘Punks Not Dead’ (1981)
The Exploited are one of the definitive Oi! punk rock bands, a movement that emerged in the UK during the early 1980s as a raw, working-class response to the more art-school direction punk had taken. Punks Not Dead by The Exploited is largely considered one of the defining albums of the sub-genre. By combining aggressive,…
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Panic! at the Disco ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ (2005)
Hearing A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out as a teenager felt like stepping into a neon-lit circus where every song was bursting with drama, angst, and theatrical flair. Brendon Urie’s vocals soared effortlessly from smooth crooning to high-flying belts. It’s rare that you can ever describe a pop punk album as being operatic but this…
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Blink-182 ‘California’ (2016)
Blink-182’s California marked a major turning point for the band as it was their first album without founding guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge, who departed in 2015 to focus on other projects amidst a strained relationship with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker. In his place they added Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio, whose addition added…
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