This record, or, rather, its videos, were everywhere in my final year of high school. Because at least one of them made fun of Boy Bands, I generally laughed along. (Also, I was 18!) I remember thinking they were a harmless jokey band, and at least they had a sense of humour and made fun …
Tag: Pop Punk
Parallel Lines (1978) by Blondie
My dad bought a Blondie compilation sometime in my teens. It was a double disc. So I feel like, to the extent I know Blondie, it is through that compilation. Had he bought it 10 years earlier, I would likely know all their hits very well. Alas, he bought it a few years before my …
Love Bites (1978) by Buzzcocks
I am not a fan of the Buzzcocks. They are way too far on the pop side of the pop punk spectrum for me. (Yes, going by that, it’s safe to assume I don’t like pop punk.) I acknowledge their importance in the evolution of punk and particularly in pop punk, but I would just …
Road to Ruin (1978) by Ramones
Someone on RYM observed that this title is prophetic. They are likely far from the first person as this record is considered by serious Ramones fans to be the beginning of the end, as far as I can tell. Well I’m not a serious fan of the Ramones, but I am a serious fan of …
Can’t Stand the Rezillos (1978)
This is one of those second wave English punk albums that manages to win you over despite the fact that they are quite late to the party at this point.
Another Music in a Different Kitchen (1978) by Buzzcocks
Full disclosure: I don’t like the Buzzcocks. Until hearing this debut, I’d only ever heard A Different Kind of Tension and that record likely biased me towards this one and its importance.
On the Mouth (1993) by Superchunk
By reputation, I always thought No Pocky for Kitty was the Superchunk album to listen to. Then I listened to it and, though I appreciated why people like it, I didn’t love. I see the RYM rating is higher for this one. I think I know why. I mean, maybe I know why.
Milo Goes to College (1982) by Descendents
This is the point where hardcore starts to lose me: where the virtues of the genre are starting to give way to things more common to earlier punk or the later skate punk. It is very clearly the bridge between early hardcore and skate punk/pop punk but I don’t know that this is a thing …
White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean (1992) by NOFX
There was a time in my life that I think I would have really liked the sophomoric humour of NOFX. Unfortunately for them, but probably fortunately for me, I was into Oldies and then into prog rock when I was a teenager, so there is no way I would have listened to a record like …
nimrod. (1997) by Green Day
People tell me this is Green Day’s diverse, experimental record. There’s some humour there in that description but from everything I’ve read, it is relatively diverse compared to their other ’90s albums. (I myself have only ever listened to Dookie.)
Full Circle (1997) by Pennywise
I don’t love ’90s punk, I generally find it too polished and too formulaic for my tastes. I’m not sure what it adds to the legacy of hardcore and frankly it’s all too one-note. You can get away with one-note when you’re doing something brand new, but when you are doing a slightly more polished …
Ramones (1976, GRT)
The Ramones’ debut album begs the question: can we determine greatness without looking at influence? If the Ramones released this album, and it didn’t influence half the rock musicians alive today (maybe a slight exaggeration) would we still consider it great?