Another Side to Punk

So I got to thinking, there are a lot of good side-projects that come out of punk bands. Punk is such a basic genre that often times members will get bored and explore other mediums to create a message through. Now with this being the heaviest week (assignment wise) I decided to post a bonus disc for you folks full of side projects of punk bands and a few that for whatever reason I just couldn't work into the mixture of bands (cause I sure as heck ain't getting that Christian list out within the next two weeks).

Being as I started off the playlist with Bad Religion I have decided to use Greg Graffin to start off each section of this bonus disc. Greg Graffin will head of Folk/Acoustic, American Lesion will head off bands that have been formed with members of other punk bands and an acoustic version of a Bad Religion song to head off punk bands that didn't make the cut. (And just for the record, I know Mike Park is actually from the Ska scene, but I've given them enough credit in this list to let one of them in)

MLG Punk: Bonus Disc
1. Greg Graffin (Bad Religion) - Little Sadie
2. Dustin Kensrue (Thrice) - I Knew You Before
3. Mike Park (Skankin' Pickle, The Chinkees, The Bruce Lee Band) - I'm Supposed to Be There Too
4. Nikola Sarcevic (Millencolin) - Love Trap
5. Justin Sane (Anti-Flag) - Cassette Deck, Road Trip, Grand Canyon
6. Joey Cape (Lagwagon) - Violins
7. Bad Astronaut (Lagwagon) - The "F" Word
8. American Lesion (Bad Religion) - In The Mirror
9. Matthew Thiessen (Relient K) - The Calendar, The Energy (If This Is You then Woe Is Me)
10. Anthony Green (Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer, Saosin, Circa Survive, The Sounds of Animal Fighting) - I've Been Dying to Reach You
11. Saint Alvia Cartel (Boys Night Out, Jersey) - Don't Wanna Wait Forever
12. Tim Armstrong (Rancid) - Into Action
13. The Network (Green Day) - Transistors Gone Wild
14. Daredevils (Bad Religion) - Hate You
15. Boxcar Racer (Blink 182, Hazen Street) - Watch The World
16. Bad Religion - Sorrow
17. Craig's Brother - epissdumbology
18. Cauterize - My Everything
19. Sherwood - Middle of the Night
20. Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer - Death or Radio
21. The F-Ups - I Don't Know
22. Propagandhi - Cut Into the Earth
23. F*cked Up - Magic Word

Download The Playlist Here ---> Mediafire

Punk... The Genre that Doesn't get Enough Credit (Part 4: Folksy Punk)

Finally We have reached the end of this playlist that has been in the works since summer. I gotta say, I'm looking forward to doing something different and I'm likely not going to be doing any more 4 parters in the future. So without further ad-due, here is the final disc of your Punk Playlist.

This is essentially the bands that tend to draw upon the more acoustic/folk side of music to flavor their punk. Since both early punk and early folk were heavily influenced by protest and revolution, it seems to be quite the fitting union to create. However that being said, there are just a few bands in here that I felt needed mention because they didn't quite fit into the last list of bordering on the edge. So this list is a complex mix of folk influenced punk and bands that are bordering on becoming something else. As with most of the stuff in this playlist it's hard to explain so I'd recommend you download the songs from the link at the end of this post and give them a listen to.

Something Corporate - These guys were marketed wrong, pure and simple. They have a nice and polished sound with quite the talented pianist as the front-man (or at least talented by punk standards... If you don't believe me check out this live video of their song Konstantine, which is noteworthy enough to have been referenced in several punk songs that I know of (generally about the konfusion line)). Lyrically they deal with a lot of the same subject matter as other pop punk bands, however they just have this way of saying things that sets them apart from the rest, it's hard to explain. Essentially, if these guys had ever gotten out of the underground/Warped Tour side stage level of fame they'd have had it set. They have the makings of a great band, unfortunately not enough people have realized it. Even the front-man's stage-presence is surprisingly dynamic considering he's hidden behind an upright piano the whole time (also, he plays an upright piano, that gets him points right there).

Weakerthans - John K. Samson used to play bass for Propoghandi... Now he fronts one of the more successful indie bands in music today. I'd almost go as far as to say that he has far surpassed them in fame where things are today and if you're at all familiar with the two bands and you listen to the album "Less Talk, More Rock" by Propoghandi it is painfully obvious who writes which songs, and both members benefitted greatly by the split. By that I mean they could reach their full potential only once they were no longer trying to both have their way. But that in not way tells you what the Weakerthans sound like, so I'll try to sum it up in a nice little sentence. (Country + Folk + Punk) x The Indie Mindset (which, admittedly, could be the name of an indie band) = The Weakerthans. Their lyrics are by far the most interesting and are quite heavily influenced by Martin Luther and Liturgy. Not so much in subject matter but rather in the idea that you can fit as many words as you want into a stanza regardless what logic would depict, and they really don't have to rhyme if you do it right. Look at the lyrics of any off his songs, it looks like he just took a paragraph of text that was never meant to rhyme or anything and just chopped it up in a way that would allow it to fit into the song at hand. Also, they have some pretty sick music videos... Definitely on my list of bands who have yet to disappoint me with a video.

Against Me - Remember the good old days when folk was pumping out all these great protest songs? Well, Against Me has taken that formulae and applied it to punk to make a very accessible and singable set of songs. Almost anyone can pick up a guitar and pump out these songs, singing along to them in their basement with friends. I think I can safely say that anyone who goes out and buys the CD will likely be singing along by track 4.

Dropkick Murphy's - They sound like a bunch of Boston dockhands from Ireland. Celtic Punk at it's finest (almost)

Flogging Molly - One could make the argument that these guys aren't punk, but just really fast folk... To that I'd say "Go see em' live" Whatever doubts you have of their punk cred will be washed away at any live performance. Even though only about half of their songs (at the most) really sound like punk songs to begin with when you go to see them live even the slow songs take on this air of punk. Basically these guys are like Dropkick if they had never taken that boat over to Boston and just stayed in Ireland making their music.

Gogol Bordello - I don't exactly know how to describe this band, so I'll give them the label they have given themselves of Gypsy Punk. Basically they take the punk attitude and a bit of the genre and applied it to more eastern styles of music. Very interesting stuff.

The World-Inferno Friendship Society - Cirque du Solie on Acid with electric guitars! I know it's a weird visual to think of, but it's probably the best way I can describe this band. Punk+Drugs+The Circus = TWIFS.

Ill Scarlett - Remember all that ska turned punk I'd been praising way back when? Well these guys walk a very thin line in these regards as they have always been ska influenced punk as opposed to ska that became punk. This generally gives their punk a very reggae dub feel that is more prevalent in two-tone ska (i.e. The Specials) than third-wave ska (i.e. The Mgithy Mighty Boss-tones). Especially given that they don't have a horn-section and instead allow the guitar to take what might normally be the horn part. That being said, however, they are in no way two-tone as two-tone had not yet really integrated much punk into their music.

Yellowcard - Pop-Punk with a violin. Everything before they got rid of the violin, and their more recent stuff where the violin has taken a backseat are useless. But those couple of CD's where the violin was a central piece to their music is just spectacular instrumentally (say what you will about their lyrics, but the instrumentation was pretty great in those days... at least for a pop-punk band).

Zebrahead - Punk Rap. Or rather punk with a rapper that raps over all the punk. You really have to listen to them to understand what I'm talking about. Aside from that they really have a traditional pop-punk kind of sound. The addition of a rapper just makes them something else that's genuinely unique.

This is me Smiling - I think they've broken up, so good luck getting a hold of anything new by them, but when they were making music they were all very talented individuals playing a weird mix of indie and punk.

Death from Above 1979 - Call it what you will: Punk, Metal, Rock... It's really hard to label them, so I'm just going to throw them in punk because that's what I hear when I hear them. Essentially they are a bassist who occasionally plays keys with a percussionist. So this band is made up of two guys and yet they sound about as full as any other band out there today. Again, one of those bands you just kind of have to hear for yourself.

Download The Songs Here ---> Mediafire

Punk... The Genre That doesn't Get Enough Credit. (Part 3: Bordering on the Edge)

So just to start off, I've got quite the heavy course-load up ahead of me this semester, so this blog is likely going to become something I do when I'm bored. Which means you're likely only going to be getting about one or two entries per month. So with that let's move onto this weeks playlist.

If you have been getting bored with the playlists up until now, this may be the turning point for you because this is the disc where we start to get into bands that not only draw heavily from punk but also draw from various other genres to give their interpretation of punk that unique little twist. This playlist will essentially look at bands that push punk to the point where it almost becomes something else, but is still noticably rooted in punk.

The Rocky Fortune - So to kick things off here is a band that clearly draws heavily from the classic rock scene. From their short licks in between chorus and verse to their blues esque solos classic rock can be heard beneath almost all of what they do. Their skill is also superb for a punk band (not saying all punk bands are mediocre instrumentalists, but I've been in a number of punk bands and have had friends in punk bands... 9 times out of 10 people play punk because they can't play enything else.) If you don't believe me just listen to the song "Tonight we Pray for Rain". They way in which they make the guitar sound like rain drops and the drums sound like thunder all while they are constantly building towards this climax that is makes you feel like you have been dropped into the middle of a raging thunder storm. It's simply stunning.

A.F.I. (a.k.a. A Fire Inside) - These guys started out pretty punk and now are... I don't even know where they stand in the punk spectrum anymore... but "Sing The Sorrow" was a spectacular album that gave so much to punk. Lyrically and instrumentally this album had lots going for it (but this is not a site where I review albums so I'm going to leave it at that. If you like the two songs from Sing the Sorrow I put on the playlist you can go judge the album for yourself). Also, again, I'm a sucker for a unique voice which A.F.I. has in abundance.

The Matches - There are two reasons I really like these guys. 1) their guitar work is beautiful for punk. They actually try to not pump their songs full of power chords (not saying they aren't there, but these guys actually know enough about music to know how to use actual chords within their punk style.) The second reason is because these guys truly care about the end product, to the point where they match their songs to procuders that they feel can do the song justice. On their album Decomposer they had; Matt Radosevich, Mike Green, John Feldmann, Miles Hurwitz, Mark Hoppus, Divine Genius, Nick Hexum, Tim Armstrong and Brett Gurewitz all producing songs on the album. When you consider that most bands just get one or two procuders per album that is a pretty big number.

Tsunami Bomb - So this band isn't really pushing the envelope as far as some of the other bands on the list, I just thought I should have a punk band with a chick vocalist on the list so here you go... Enjoy.

Pulley - These guys are really only on this list because he doesn not have a traditional punk voice... his voice sounds like it would be more at home in a hard rock or metal band... which is pretty much why I like them.

The Epoxies - Synth-pop + Punk + Chick Vocalist = Pure Awesome

Vandals - Fun Fast Punk. That's all you need to know about these guys... They love punk and they love having fun and it really comes out in their music. They are probably one of the more enjoyable punk bands out there today in my mind. While they may not be pushing the boundaries of punk musically, their attitude towards playing music for ones self as appose to playing music in an attempt to change the world is quite refreshing in the punk genre.

Social Code - these guys are hard to describe, it's as it these guys are having this internal battle as to whether they want to be screamo or punk... and punk always comes out just slightly ahead because none of them really know how to be screamo even though they kind of want to be.

Monty Are I/Monty's Fan Club/Monty/Whatever kind of Monty they're going to call themselves next album - Here's another band that got their start as a ska band, but you can't really hear that influence anymore. They have taken to calling their genre action rock, but really It's just energetic punk with a horn section and heavy rock influences. Hard to explain... just listen.

Crowned King - Sorry if you're not as big of a fan as Ska gone punk but here we have yet another band that started ska but became something else. Just like "Monty Are I" you probably wouldn't know they used to be ska just by listening to them. These guys essentially dropped the ska but kept the horn section making them essentially a punk band with horns. The only thing with these guys is they have since lost their trumpet saxophonist and lead guitarist and really aren't the same band they once were (Which is why they have changed their name to "The Envy" because they too have come to realize this)... but for this one CD (Break the silence) they really had an excellent brand of punk going for them. I highly recommend you check out the album if you like the songs on this playlist.

Hot Live Guys - Imagine, if you will, a dingy old bar on the outskirts of town. The lighting is dim and there's virtually nothing on tap. Rock has been getting sauced up since 2 in the afternoon when Punk walks into the bar and sits right next to Rock. The two begin to talk and get onto a topic of clear importance to one of them. Punk says something that rock clearly doesn't like so with a quick crack he smashes his bottle on the counter and demands Punk take back what he had just said. The soundtrack you have in your head for this ensueing bar fight is the best way I can explain Hot Live Guys.


If you're wondering what you have to look forward to next playlist, It's primarily Folk-Punk and bands drawing on various acoustic genres to flavor their punk. Although there will be the odd band that I just have to mention even though it draws off something slightly different being my last Disc in the Punk Series and all.

Download the Playlist Here ---> Mediafire

Punk... The Genre That Doesn't Get Enough Credit. (Part 1: Torch Holders)

The Torch Holders...

Ok, so here's what I'm thinking as far as the topic for the next little while... Punk. Not the old school punk of the clash and all them old guys, but more so the ones who have been putting out music within the past 10 years (give or take). Now if you're thinking of punk and you're not to enthused about this idea it's probably because you find punk too repetitive... And fair enough, I mean let's not try and pretend it's something it's not. But that is not where punk fails. In fact the strong point of punk is the basic formula and basic nature of the punk genre. The place where punk fails is when your songs are made up of the guitarist playing nothing but power chords, the bassist laying on the same 4 notes for the entire song and the drummer doing the most basic of 4/4 beats thinking "Fast and Hard, Fast and Hard..." Now where punk succeeds is when it takes the basic formula of punk and plays around with it, drawing from other genres and incorporating elements of jazz and country and all other sorts of influences into the punk. You see there's a reason why we don't have too many covers of Buddy Rich's "Space Shuttle" but a multitude of Dylan and Beatles tribute albums. The reason is that it's easier to play around with the basic than it is to take something super complex and do something with it. (it also may have a little something to do with popularity, but that doesn't really help my point. So we'll just pretend that's not an issue for arguments sake.)

So anyways, for this first playlist I decided to break down the main pentagon of punk bands that all the punk rockers seem to be drawn to as well as look at a few bands that I think the torch should be passed to (or that I think the torch has already been passed to).

- Torch Holders -

Bad Religion: OK, so if you follow punk even a little bit then you probably already know a little bit about Bad Religion. But if you don't know much about Bad Religion I'll let you in on what to look for.

1) Greg Graffin uses religion as a metaphor for a lot of things, but remember there is often much more to the song than what he is saying about religion (He has said that he treats Christians the same way he treats atheists, that if they don't understand how the world works, even if they're atheists he doesn't think too highly of their beliefs.)

2) He is actually a very brilliant man. First of all he did a double major for his undergrad in anthropology and geology (which is no cakewalk) and he has a PHD in zoology and currently teaches at Cornell (which is not a push-over university, you need pretty good marks to get in there.) So listen to his lyrics they often have very interesting things to say once you learn how to look at the religion metaphor to see what else he's talking about.

3) They are pretty heavily influenced by the Beatles in that they love harmonies. If you couldn't care less about content and I had to give you one reason about why you should listen to bad religion it's because all the harmonies they get going makes it actually sound quite pleasant and is very pleasing to the ears.

Anti-Flag: So Anti-Flag draws from a more aggressive tradition of punk and is probably the goto band for anarchist punks. They are incredibly concerned with politics and have essays by people they respect in their CD Booklets and their music always has this tinge of "We know exactly what you (the gov't) should be doing and you're not doing it!" Which I can understand, I mean I'm pretty sure we've all thought to ourselves what we would be doing better were we in power, but most of their music is about all the travesties the gov't is committing and everything their doing wrong as oppose to what we should be doing different. That being said there's something really interesting about people truly interested in starting a movement. So really the reason to listen to Anti-Flag is just for this Calling for Action, Anarchist, Communist, whatever else you feel like throwing in there attitude.

Pennywise: These guys took the hard and fast attitude and did it in such a way that made people enjoy listening to it. Pennywise basically seems like what you'd get if you took the Anti-Flag and Bad Religion and let them duke it out (stylistically) in a recording studio. They have this attitude about them that is distinctively punk. They aren't quite as gung ho as anti-flag is about it, and they draw from a less aggressive place (vocally than anti-flag) it seems like they go for the harmonies that Bad Religion achieve so beautifully but they can't quite emulate it. Now that I think about it's actually more like what Anti-Flag would sound like if they were trying to be more like Bad Religion (if that made any sense at all) Anyways if you think Punk is too repetitive you're probably thinking about Pennywise or a band very similar, but I still enjoy them none the less (possibly for nostalgic reasons).

Rancid: What happens when you take a ska guitarist and have him tour around with a bunch of punk bands throughout his career? You get a punk band with very ska influenced guitar work, and It sounds awesome. I'm also pretty confident this is not the last time in this venture that I'm going to praise ska turned punk, I think it is a wonderful thing that happens to punk bands, but if your on the other side of the fence it really sucks wondering where your favorite ska bands went. Also their lyrics tend to be a lot less serious than the bands I have mentioned up until now and because of this they can create an environment that feels far more welcoming and fun than bands like Anti-Flag and Pennywise. They also have excellent Bass work for a punk band.

NoFX: These guys are important simply because they own all their music and started a predominant punk recording label and gave a lot of good bands their start. As a band however their strengths are pretty minimal. They're fun to listen to, that's about as far as they go (unless you have an overly critical mind like mine, then listening to them becomes an activity of critical analysis due to their lyrics having so many holes in them.) One of my favorite things to do when listening to them is just try and figure out exactly what they were thinking when they wrote the song. One of my favorite things to contemplate in this regard is how they can have a song so clearly anti-stereotype (Don't Call Me White) and then go on to write an entire album based around a stereotype (Wolves in Wolves Clothing). Basically picture people who want to be smart and read the same authors that people they respect read but they unfortunately can't actually comprehend what they are reading. Then they go on to write songs about these concepts anyways even though they can barely understand the concepts and probably have bastardized it in their heads. (Just listen to Franco Un-American. If you've done any sort of reading, even the reading they claim to have done in the song, it sounds like a jr. high punkster trying to re-hash his college siblings new and interesting world view to his fellow pre-teen punksters). That being said however, they are still fun to listen to. Their lead guitarists adds a little something to the whole basic punk formulae. But given how much punksters say that they care about what they believe and wish to be educated on the matter I'm really surprised how popular NoFX still is.

- Torch Receivers -

Rise Against: I think they are this generations Bad Religion; they are smart, they use harmonies to enhance their music and they use dynamics to keep the punk interesting... It took them time to find this formula but now that they have found it they are going to be amazing from now on (the winning formula basically being the lead guitarist from Siren Songs of the Counter Culture and the producer from Revolutions per Minute.) When I think about it I actually think the torch has already been passed. It was passed when Greg Graffin had lead vocalist Tim McIlrath do the rap portion of Let Them Eat War on Bad Religions DVD "Live at the Palladium." You can check the clip out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHRTI8dnjp4. But long story short, Rise Against is the new Bad Religion.

Flashlight Brown: These guys are like the new Rancid, they used to be ska (but without a horn section which is the same type of ska bands Tim Armstrong used to play in). Which means they are essentially another fun and easy to enjoy punk band. But unfortunately they are a Canadian punk band from Guelph that had a creative difference with the only record label that likely could have broken them into the mainstream (Hollywood Records). So while I'd like to see that torch passed onto them I don't think they'll ever become big enough to be able to reach the Torch.

Millencolin: I think these guys are probably like the new Pennywise, simply because they're trying to take the best of all the punk bands they look up to and bring it all together. So while they delve into the serious they aren't afraid to take themselves lightly, they use the harmonies that make us love bands like Bad Religion and Rise Against while still being something slightly more basic then they are. They essentially did what I feel Pennywise was trying to do but actually succeeding at it where as when Pennywise attempted to emulate things like harmonies they failed but came out of it sounding like Pennywise so no one cared. Random Note: Millencolin also started out as a ska band the only difference is that if you heard them know and haven't heard any of their ska stuff you wouldn't have a clue that there was ever a moment in their career when they weren't punk.

The Loved Ones: I don't know whose going to pass the torch onto these guys, I feel very similarly about these guys as I do about Millencolin except I like Millencolin better. So if Millencolin screws up miserably and somehow brings out the worst in my musical tollerance than I think The Loved Ones should be the runner up to take the torch from Pennywise.

Anti-Flag's Torch... I unfortunately couldn't find anyone I deemed to be worthy of carrying Anti-Flag's torch. Actually that's not entirely true, I could have given it to "Whatever it Takes" but (a) they broke up and (b) they were a side-project of Anti-Flag member Chris #2 so it's kind of like a father passing the torch onto his twin brother. It may seem like something new but logically they can both only run about the same distance with it. Which is why you gotta pass it onto the next generation. It is for this reason that Anti-Flag has no torch bearer at this time. Maybe in the future they will find one but at the moment bands just look up to them for their political views without being quite as intense as Anti-Flag in their delivery. And I've found the same phenomena occurs musically as well... If the Unseen didn't scream so much I guess I could have also given it to them. Maybe I'll let The Loved Ones Keep it warm for now, since they deserve a torch... Just not Anti-Flag's Torch

NoFX's Torch... They don't deserve a torch bearer. The only thing they have really given the punk community was Fat Wreck Chords. Musically they really haven't offered a whole lot to the bettering of punk. Their lyrics are crap and they often they don't entirely understand the subject mater they are singing about. The only thing they have going for them is that their music is fun to mosh to and cover on a guitar... But there are plenty of bands doing that good enough these days already... so not torch from NoFX.

Download the Playlist Here ---> Mediafire