Hey guys!
Finally getting there with the uploading. It’s taking me a long time but I should have all the articles up there by the end of tomorrow and who knows, maybe even something new!
Please check out the contact page for details on how to get involved with us.
xoxo – Ripper
Believe it or not, a lot of punk frontmen are ridiculously clever, whether that’s due to their own wits or because they have a PhD in Geology. And because I can’t think of anything else to write about and it made a good topic of conversation between fightclubsandwich and I, let’s find out who are punk’s smartest dudes!
5) Glenn Danzig
Danzig is a pretty decent businessman, owning his own comic book publishing house, Verotik, and he also likes books. And reading them. And discussing them. While shirtless. This video’s bounced around the site many, many times, so instead, have Danzig reciting the first chapter of Paradise Lost:
4) Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is a smart, smart guy. Not content with his spoken word bits on various Black Flag albums? Why not check out his books? Rollins is one of my favourite authors of all time. I can’t count the number of times I’ve read Black Coffee Blues, and it reveals something new every time. He also does stand up and is very, very funny. He’s that revered, that every time he did Download here, he was put on a Sunday morning as ‘an alternative to church’. I can get down with that.
3) Blake Schwarzenbach
Jawbreaker were pretty influential, yeah. But did you know that Blake has a degree in English and Creative Writing (which is made even more awesome because that’s the title of the degree that I am doing)? And… he is also a professor! I would kill to be in his class, if I’m being honest. My favourite comment on that page is “any man who can eat toast like that is a great professor.” His blog is also rad.
2) Milo Aukerman
‘The Descendents?’ you cry. ‘But, they were just some dumb pop-punk band!’. This may be true, but the band went on hiatus for a while in the 80s so that Milo could pursue his education, which eventually ended in a PhD in Biochemistry. That is pretty cool. When he came back, Descendents was still all coffee, girls and fishing though. However, there’s a sweet concept that runs through a lot of Descendents songs called the ‘ALL concept’, based on their fourth album. The quest for ‘ALL’ is the quest for endless self improvement… and well, that’s pretty posi.
1) Greg Graffin
Despite his status as punk’s number one political dude, Greg also has a PhD in zoology. And let’s face it, you gotta be smart for that shit. He writes books about politics. He’s producing a TV show called ‘Punk Professor’. He teaches. Is there anything this man can’t do?! Well… a decent solo album. But anyway, Greg rules.
I just don’t know what it is about punk rock and chart covers, but they fucking love them. Pretty much every punk band has covered some variety of popular song and generally, to good reception. I’m very unsure about how I feel on covers as a whole – the original is there for a reason and often, people don’t do a very good job (Gallows, Nervous Breakdown… don’t fucking do it any more. Ginger lead singer, you are not Keith Morris). However, there are some truly stellar ones out there and they kind of highlight what punk can be these days – fun, carefree and entertaining.
Those delicious ska beats
Ska bands seem to be the number one culprit for pop covers. I think it comes with the territory. Happy, fun, joyful; it’s everything that ska is. If you’re going to dance like a tool to the latest chart hit, why not skank to it? Most of the ska covers are wonderfully kitsch – classic German pop in the case of Goldfinger’s glorious rendition of 99 Red Balloons and an entire album’s worth of Grease hits from Less Than Jake’s ‘Greased’ release are perfect examples of this. Of course they’re songs you know, but they’re songs so ingrained into your social memory that to hear them again but reworked into a bunch of trombone and trumpety joy is refreshing, even exhilarating. They’re the sort of songs you wind down the sunroof for, the sort of songs you take down the park with your iPod speakers on full. More kids know the Reel Big Fish version of ‘Take On Me’ than the original A-Ha version these days. [spunge] did an whole album of popular chart songs and got Bowling For Soup to guest on ‘Centrefold’, making it even more dirty than it was back in the 80s. If you want the best, you head straight for the ska bands.
Punk goes… not even punk any more
If you’ve ever listened to the wave of late 90s-early 2000s American pop-punk, featuring favourites such as Sugarcult, New Found Glory, Saves The Day, then you’ll have heard a Punk Goes… compilation. The very title of these albums is a misnomer – none of the bands were ever punk in the first place. But they were fun. The first ‘Punk Goes Pop’ had the Yellowcard cover of ‘Everywhere’ by Michelle Branch, and that is the only Yellowcard song I have ever liked. ‘Punk Goes 80s’ had even more Rufio and ‘Punk Goes 90s’ started to branch out to what was really popular by sticking the quite frankly excellent cover of ‘Under The Bridge’ by Gym Class Heroes on it. All of these had a certain charm to them – they were the bands you knew and loved just messing around. But then everything changed. Fearless decided to release ‘Punk Goes Crunk’ in 2008. Who the fuck were all these people? Maybe I just got older but I only recognised about four bands on the list, and I hated All Time Low (in fact, I deleted their cover of Umbrella because it mentally scarred me so much with its mediocrity). However, I was hooked. I enjoy my hip-hop, and I most definitely enjoy my 90s hip-hop over the lot, so New Found Glory’s cover of ‘Tennessee’ by Arrested Development filled me with joy. Say Anything’s cover of ODB’s ‘Got Your Money’ had me in fits of laughter and well… some of the other ones were just kind of cool. I would never be caught dead listening to Forever The Sickest Kids otherwise, but I just can’t say no to their rocked up version of ‘Men In Black’. Another band with kids in the title did quite a good rendition of ‘Notorious Thugs’. It’s all good. Not quite as good as New Found Glory’s first ‘From Your Screen To Your Stereo’, but hey, nothing’s perfect.
All praise aside, I know I won’t be listening to ‘Punk Goes Classic Rock’. Listening to Pierce The Veil do ‘Don’t Fear (The Reaper)’ would be the equivalent of tearing out my heart, stamping on it and then taking a piss on it, just to be sure it knew its place.
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes only DO covers. A veritable supergroup of punk rock heroes, each album has a different theme. And they know exactly what they’re doing. And the costumes, oh my the costumes. There is a sea of mediocrity surrounding most punk covers and the Gimmes are surfing out of there on a tidal wave of sheer hilarity and awesome. The Gimmes certainly know how to do their mashups too, mixing various punk riffs and references into their standard covers. They cater well to their audience and look fantastic in Hawaiian shirts. The first Gimmes cover I ever heard was their version of ‘Science Fiction/Double Feature’ and I didn’t think it was sacrilege. I think that’s evidence enough to prove how awesome this band is. But if you want some more, they also recorded an album at a boy’s bar mitzvah and let him play drums on a song. Now, that’s cool.
I also thought it was them who covered ‘Enter Sandman’ when I was younger but it was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who are similarly awesome and are yet another ska band. Like I said, covers come with the territory.
What next?
I feel that our covers are safe in the hands of such veterans as the Gimmes and punk bands everywhere will indulge in a few gems live. The ‘Punk Goes…’ series should die fairly soon, as it needs putting out of its misery. But the golden era for this kind of thing was the early 2000s, and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to claim it back. Hell, it was the golden era for a lot of things, but maybe that’s because I’ve got a kind of hazy romanticism for the time when I first discovered punk rock. Either way, to get to the good stuff, you have to dig deep. And here are a few classics which you should probably check out, partly recommended to me by the fine people at Punksoc:
6.45pm, 30/3/09
I am staring at my computer screen, eyes wide in anticipation. I’ve got butterflies in my stomach, the ambient I put on is not helping me to calm down and my mouse finger is just itching to click the refresh button. In fact, I do that several times on each site I have open. MSN is closed down; unnecessary distractions need to be gone. Facebook remains, purely for outside assistance. My sister is doing exactly the same in the other room. I have my mum’s credit card on standby, mobile phone at my side… just waiting. I am trying to be zen. It’s not working.
6.58pm, 30/3/09
In two minutes, tickets for Reading Festival will be released. I am ready for the bloodbath. I refresh my four ticket sites and the official page, waiting for the lineup and praying that Blink-182 and The Cure are somehow miraculously in there. I have everything I need except an open ticket site. I think.
6.59pm, 30/3/09
Ticketline.com has released tickets prematurely by one minute. I click and I click, but my connection keeps timing out. Too many fucking people trying this. In about 30 seconds, I find that Ticketline either a) isn’t offering weekend tickets or b) just can’t display them any more. Either way, I cut my losses. I’ve got three more shots.
7.00pm, 30/3/09
Lineup is released, and I am both excited and disappointed. No Blink, no Cure. However, there is Radiohead, AFI and Brand New, and the idea that AFI might be playing new songs from Crash Love makes me an excessively happy girl. Seetickets.com and Ticketmaster are now open for sale and I am clicking my ass off to get these tickets. I’m still feeling relatively okay, but my nerves are already starting to become frayed.
7.10pm, 30/3/09
I am through to the order form on Seetickets! I feel like how Ash Ketchum must have felt when he became a Pokemon master – triumphant, yet disbelieving. I enter in all the details, but there is a crisis; we don’t know the license plate for the campervan. I scream down at my father, the only logical choice, but he doesn’t know it either. He runs upstairs and finds the folder with the MOT certificate. I frantically type it in. My hands are shaking like mad. It’s in, and I click the ‘order tickets’ button…
…and then it times out. I scream out at the computer in anguish. This is not going well.
7.30pm, 30/3/09
Lastminute.com have sold out, and Ticketmaster is being sporadic in its release of tickets. At this point, my parents are trying as well, both on the phone and on the other computer. My boyfriend calls and has to listen to me ranting about my state of mind. I go on Facebook and growl in envy at the people who already have theirs. Lucky bastards. My sister reveals that the friends we’re meant to be meeting there got theirs in the first ten minutes. My blood starts to boil.
7.50pm, 30/3/09
Still no luck. I can’t even get onto the home page for Seetickets because there’s that much traffic. ninthandash texts me, revealing that she’s got hers for Leeds. I’m a bit jealous. At this point, I could cry. My sister tells me to give up. I reply, ‘never’.
8.15pm, 30/3/09
My friend Tom comments me, asking if I’ve got my tickets yet, because he has his. I reply no, sadly. I don’t believe what happens next. He gives me a link to the order form he had open for his. It’s completely legit. I almost cry with happiness. I book three tickets and a campervan permit successfully. I scream with joy. Life is good.
8.25pm, 30/3/09
After thanking Tom and collapsing with relief, my mum reminds me that we haven’t had the confirmation email. I’m fraught with worry again. Thanks, mum. I check the page we printed off after we successfully ordered. Five hours before a confirmation email could come through. Shit.
8.20am, 31/3/09
After lack of sleep through worrying about whether we actually did get the tickets or not, I turn my computer on and what do I find? A motherfucking confirmation email. I sit back and smirk. I’m going to Reading Festival this summer.
I’ve done a list of my top ten favourite summer anthems before, so this isn’t another one of those. But instead, I want to talk to you about potentially the greatest subgenre of punk. Posicore, or positive hardcore, is awesome. And with my carefully written guide, some of which will most likely be from Wikipedia, you’ll come to appreciate it too. Posicore, as the title of this article suggests, is the best summer music ever. Even better than 90s pop punk and that’s hard to beat. So, first of all…
…A Brief History
Posicore, as a separate subgenre of hardcore, came into play in the 80s with the formation of the Youth Crew movement; a bunch of bands who wanted to play a little differently to their contemporaries. In time, this then became posicore, but first up, who were these Youth Crew bands? Youth Of Today were the forerunners, and their music was optimistic, moralistic but still heavy as fuck. Others included Gorilla Biscuits, Cro-Mags and 7 Seconds. Even today, there isn’t that much difference musically – while you may be expecting something a little more melodic, that’s not necessarily the case, considering Comeback Kid can be counted as a posicore band. And Gorilla Biscuits, one of the first purported bands of the subgenre, were not quite atonal but definitely not as slick and poppy as the latest Descendents offering. This is still all about raw power – but not aggression.
That’s where the posi comes in. Posicore bands don’t want to sing about how they hate everything from your mother to your mohawk. Posi in itself is a slight misnomer; not every posicore song is happy and upbeat. But it’s all about change and getting off your ass and doing something, which is something I’m more than happy to listen to. Youth Crew and posicore aren’t quite the same thing; Youth Crew was the movement, posicore is the result. But both are/were progressive and exceedingly rad. You just have to look at the lyrics of bands like Crime In Stereo and well… even H2O, no matter how much they suck. You can’t deny that they’re either celebrating or denouncing something, and generally for the right reasons. A lot of posicore bands are straight edge, and the majority of the Youth Crew movement was. I suppose that’s one more reason for me to love it, but we’ll come to that in a bit.
The key thing to remember is that posicore is all about change, optimism and pretty much keeping your shit together. But how does this have anything to do with summer? Well…
…Summer’s about positivity, right?
Summer’s the best time to be getting into stuff. Whether that’s papercrafting, starting up the band again or starting up kick ass punk zines on the internet (that’s what I chose two summers ago), you’ve got all this sudden energy and enthusiasm for new stuff! That probably has a lot to do with the fact that the majority of people that read this are still in education, or thanks to my mother, work in the education business. Even if you’re not, you probably still remember summer as the time when you had all the time in the world to do anything you wanted. Posicore has that same spirit, and there is nothing more inspiring than driving around, singing along to songs that make you feel awesome about the world. Feeling lazy? Why not stick on some Stretch Arm Strong (I swear I am the only person in the world who still likes this band) and get inspired!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but when it gets to summer, I just feel so much better about the world. As a result, I want to listen to stuff that gets me pumped, gets me inspired. That’s why every time I go running, I stick on Set Your Goals (well, that and the fact that their cover of Put Yo’ Hood Up makes me giggle inside every time) and think of what I’ve got to do to change. For the better. In fact, in a summer a long time ago, I started thinking about…
…That whole straight edge angle
I became straight edge when I was 13. We’ve had the story before, several times. I’m not going to carry on about it. It can’t be ignored that a lot of posicore comes from straight edge bands though, and bands that aren’t afraid to talk about their edge. Good Clean Fun even have it in their name. While I don’t listen exclusively to straight edge bands – hell, one of my favourite bands is Steel Panther and they’re all about the sex and drugs – I always feel a certain affinity with them and I tend to stray more towards straight edge bands when I’m picking out my hardcore. Partly because I can identify with them and their lyrics a lot more, but mostly because it makes me think about why I’m straight edge. Even if you’re not, posicore isn’t exactly pushy about the subject in a lot of places and generally picks up on it subtly. Unless you are in fact Good Clean Fun and then comedy angles on straight edge can be found a plenty off the starboard bow. That said, I always associate straight edge with summer and that whole previous section about positivity, making posicore my soundtrack of choice in these months. And, I guess not all of it’s that heavy…
…It’s kinda fun as well!
While the older Youth Crew stuff was hardcore to the max, the majority of posicore coming out these days is in fact reasonably melodic. At least, to the point that hardcore punk can be. A lot of posicore bands have noticeable pop-punk influences, best seen in bands like Four Year Strong and Set Your Goals. And let’s face if, if you completely reject my argument that posicore is the best summer music, you can’t deny that pop-punk is where it’s at – let’s see you have a summer where you completely ignore Millencolin. But posicore is so much more than pop-punk, because while pop-punk is fun and probably better for parties, it just lacks that passion that posicore does. It has less drive, probably because it’s wanting to get laid at the party but is throwing up on the way to the bedroom and posicore’s trying to make sure everyone else is having a good (and responsible) time. Pop-punk is easy, posicore is less so because it requires a bit of thought. It’s possible to enjoy both at face value, but if you care about music and you care about the true worth and messages that music can bring, then posicore is where it’s at.