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Punk Hybrids, Part One: Back in the Garage

Punk's idea(l)s may have been fostered in Art schools, but its musical foundations were cultivated in garages.

Music

Rebelling Against the Rebellion: British Punk's Second Coming

Louder, faster, angrier, and harder than punk ever sounded, second-wave punk in 1979 Britain kept the core instrumental ingredients but used and produced them in ways that boiled off any subtleties or sophistication.

Music

Darkness Illuminates: Goth Punk's Great Escapism

While goth punk's theatricality dramatizes concerns about depression and suicide amongst young people today, its safe spaces are inviting to the otherwise alienated and ostracized.

Music

Sunny War and Edith Crash Head to "The Place" (premiere)

Featuring Edith Crash, "The Place" is the buoyant, wispy new single from Sunny War that's releasing ahead of her forthcoming album, Shell of a Girl.

Music

Vivien Goldman's 'Revenge of the She-Punks' Doesn't Gloss the Reasons We Still Have to Rage

In her history of women in punk music, Revenge of the She-Punks, Vivien Goldman hefts the scene's virtues and the vices into one heap and concludes that some of it was necessary, some of it was fun, and some of it was evil.

Books

Brits in Hot Weather #15

This time we have shadowy, soulful house with a UK garage twist in the form of Quiet Man X Joy Anonymous, stuttering funk from Skinny Pelembe, downtempo synthpop from CC Honeymoon, fiery punk 'n' roll from Eyesore & the Jinx, and glam-infused psychedelia from Benedict Benjamin.

Music

Post-Punk: The Cerebral Genre

The punk spirit would likely have died but for the theoretical questions post-punk forced bands into answering.

Music

Jessica Hopper's 'Night Moves': Prose Poetry for the Punk Rock Masses

Jessica Hopper's Night Moves is a dozen thorny roses for the city that keeps blowing its windy-ness beneath her darkly comic wings.

Books

New Wave: Turning Rebellion into Money

If 1977 was New Wave's breakout year, by 1979 it had become an industry force, all but replacing punk as a viable vehicle or term of currency.

Music

Three Chords and the Truth: The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash

Ask most punk fans today to name their top ten punk songs and bands and it's likely that the Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Clash will still be there.

Music

Bourgeois Mystics Invite You to the Craziest Party of Your Life on "Jaan Pehechan Ho" (premiere)

Prepare to pop your conscious in a psychedelic tumble dryer and kiss goodbye to any shred of sanity you may have been saving for the weekend.

Music

Wire's 'Pink Flag', 'Chairs Missing', and '154' Resonate Decades Later

The first three albums from groundbreaking punk/post-punk band Wire still serve as a benchmark for what punk rock could be at its best as well as where underground music would go in the decades that followed.

Music

Supersonic Festival 2018 Highlights the Best in Experimental Music

The prominent Birmingham music festival Supersonic returned for three days of experimental goodness, partly curated this year by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe.

Music

Here to Stay? The Neil Young Archives

Combining his punk ethos and tech savvy in this new online archive, Neil Young has to choose what archival releases add new understanding, new angles on the story, new points of emphasis in his own history -- and which do not.

Music

Say It Loud! 100 Great Protest Songs: Part 2 - Steve Reich to the Sex Pistols

PopMatters has scoured the musical spectrum for the best examples of the protest song form, including anthems of great popularity and obscurity alike. Stay tuned all week as we unveil the top 100.

Music

Classic Punk Band the Split Seconds Document Their Time Growing Up in DC on New Album (album stream)

The Split Seconds channel their experiences into a tough, street savvy mix of the crisp, melodic punk power of the Buzzcocks, the working class spirit of Stiff Little Fingers and the activism of the Clash.

Music

Pop Ten

The 25 Best Classic Progressive Rock Albums

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

The 20 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2019

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s - Part 1 (100 - 81)

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 3: 60 - 41

The 20 Best Metal Albums of 2019

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Mixed Media

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PM Picks

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Punk Hybrids, Part One: Back in the Garage

Punk's idea(l)s may have been fostered in Art schools, but its musical foundations were cultivated in garages.

Rebelling Against the Rebellion: British Punk's Second Coming

Louder, faster, angrier, and harder than punk ever sounded, second-wave punk in 1979 Britain kept the core instrumental ingredients but used and produced them in ways that boiled off any subtleties or sophistication.

Darkness Illuminates: Goth Punk's Great Escapism

While goth punk's theatricality dramatizes concerns about depression and suicide amongst young people today, its safe spaces are inviting to the otherwise alienated and ostracized.

Sunny War and Edith Crash Head to "The Place" (premiere)

Featuring Edith Crash, "The Place" is the buoyant, wispy new single from Sunny War that's releasing ahead of her forthcoming album, Shell of a Girl.

Vivien Goldman's 'Revenge of the She-Punks' Doesn't Gloss the Reasons We Still Have to Rage

In her history of women in punk music, Revenge of the She-Punks, Vivien Goldman hefts the scene's virtues and the vices into one heap and concludes that some of it was necessary, some of it was fun, and some of it was evil.

Post-Punk: The Cerebral Genre

The punk spirit would likely have died but for the theoretical questions post-punk forced bands into answering.

Jessica Hopper's 'Night Moves': Prose Poetry for the Punk Rock Masses

Jessica Hopper's Night Moves is a dozen thorny roses for the city that keeps blowing its windy-ness beneath her darkly comic wings.

New Wave: Turning Rebellion into Money

If 1977 was New Wave's breakout year, by 1979 it had become an industry force, all but replacing punk as a viable vehicle or term of currency.

Three Chords and the Truth: The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash

Ask most punk fans today to name their top ten punk songs and bands and it's likely that the Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Clash will still be there.

Bourgeois Mystics Invite You to the Craziest Party of Your Life on "Jaan Pehechan Ho" (premiere)

Prepare to pop your conscious in a psychedelic tumble dryer and kiss goodbye to any shred of sanity you may have been saving for the weekend.

Wire's 'Pink Flag', 'Chairs Missing', and '154' Resonate Decades Later

The first three albums from groundbreaking punk/post-punk band Wire still serve as a benchmark for what punk rock could be at its best as well as where underground music would go in the decades that followed.

Here to Stay? The Neil Young Archives

Combining his punk ethos and tech savvy in this new online archive, Neil Young has to choose what archival releases add new understanding, new angles on the story, new points of emphasis in his own history -- and which do not.

Classic Punk Band the Split Seconds Document Their Time Growing Up in DC on New Album (album stream)

The Split Seconds channel their experiences into a tough, street savvy mix of the crisp, melodic punk power of the Buzzcocks, the working class spirit of Stiff Little Fingers and the activism of the Clash.

Tipping the Swear Jar: How mewithoutYou Used the F-Bomb to Say More Than the F-Word

Electro's Sotomayor Merge House and Merengue on "Menéate pa' mí" (premiere)

Gab De La Vega Turns and Faces the Familiar, Strange on "YYZ" (premiere)

British Soul/Blues Artist Izo Fitzroy Asks for "Blind Faith" (premiere)

Fell Runner Celebrate the Strange Dreams of an Unlikely Hero with "Jeffrey" (premiere)

The James Hunter Six's "Brother or Other" Asks to Spread the Love in a Time of Division (premiere)

Crowhurst + Gavin Bryars Demonstrate the Powers of Collaboration With "Dead Swans of Dreams" (premiere + interview)

Matt Wilson and His Orchestra Consider Memory, Mortality With "When I Was a Writer" (premiere + interview)

Robert Vincent Considers the Human "Conundrum" (premiere)

Electropop's Σtella Shares the Funky Dance Pop of "The Break" (premiere)