Buzzcocks' Late for the Train features concert recordings and radio sessions from the second age of punk rock's most resilient romantics.
Cherry Red's new box set finds Iggy Pop and the Stooges on their final death trip, falling apart for audiences between September 1973 and February 1974.
Adulkt Life eschew catchy hooks on Book of Curses, and its brevity works in its favor. At 26 minutes, the band's abrasive punk is quite listenable.
Released on Southern Lord to mark the US election, Dead End America spit fire in the direction of Donald Trump on Crush the Machine.
The Pogues' BBC Sessions 1984-1986 is a welcome chapter in the musical story of these working-class heroes, who reminded listeners of the beauty and dignity of the strong, sooty backs upon which our industrialized world was built.
As punks were looking for some potential pathways out of the cul-de-sacs of their limited soundscapes, they saw in funk a way to expand the punk palette without sacrificing either their ethos or idea(l)s.
Power trio Bad Wires' debut Politics of Attraction is a mix of punk attitude, 1990s New York City noise, and more than a dollop of metal.
Touché Amoré's Lament doesn't push the band's sound in new directions. Instead, it builds on what the Los Angeles post-hardcore band do so well already.
This year looks a lot like 1984 to Bob Mould and he is most definitely, not happy. Not happy at all. His guitar sounds like it's on fire.
Abortion is under threat again, and there's a sex offender in the Oval Office. A fitting time, in short, to crank up the righteously angry vocals of feminist hard rock heavy hitters like L7.
Even as it irritates me, Kevin Mattson's We're Not Here to Entertain is worth reading because it has so much direct relevance to American punks operating today.
PopMatters Picks Playlist features the electropop of Bamboo Smoke, LIA ICES' stunning dream folk, Polish producer SOUNDQ, the indie pop of Pylon Heights, a timely message from Exit Kid, and Natalie McCool's latest alt-pop banger.
On their new album, Ultra Mono, IDLES tackle both the troubling world around them and the dissenters that want to bring them down.
Landowner's Consultant has all the energy of a punk-rock record but none of the distorted power chords.
Marrying heartland rock with a punk ethos, Austin Lucas charts a new course on his upcoming LP, Alive in the Hot Zone! "They may seek to terrorize us into submission, but they can't stop joy, they can't stop love," he says.
TV FACE are a hard-driving post-punk band from Lancaster, UK that channel the genre's jagged edges and kinetic rhythms alongside intense, punk rock energy on "Work Hard, Have Fun".
Barcelona's MOURN release their latest punk rock earworm, "This Feel Is Disgusting", which explores existential anxiety through joyful rocking out.
The good news is that Bully are still loud and noisy on SUGAREGG. That's what makes them such a great live band. Alicia Bognanno explodes with energy.
Many only recognize ska-punk as a fad of 1990s US pop music, but its emanation and roots run much deeper and spread far wider than one may think.
On Hate for Sale, the Pretenders maintain an unapologetic devotion to the sound which defined their success.
Television’s 1977 masterpiece Marquee Moon is the 25th Greatest Album of All Time, but is it too “too too” to put a finger on? Counterbalance sees it all backward.
Cherry Red Records' six-disc Revillos compilation, Stratoplay, successfully charts the convoluted history of Scottish new wave sensations.
Steve McDonald talks about the year that produced the first Redd Kross EP, an early eighth-grade graduation show with a then-unknown Black Flag, and a punk scene that welcomed and defined him.
The Bobby Lees' "Wendy" is a simmering slice of riot 'n' roll that could have come from the garage or the gutter but brims with punk attitude.
The eight songs on WiiRMZ's Faster Cheaper are like a good sock to the jaw, bone-rattling, and disorienting in their potency.
With Welcome to Bobby's Motel, Pottery have crafted songs to cleanse your musical pallet and keep you firmly on the tips of your toes.
The Elephant 6-related, new Nana Grizol album, South Somewhere Else, finds the band attempting to reckon with the racist past and present of the US South.
Outspoken electropunks Sleaford Mods revel in their journey and call for a new humanism while speaking out about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the music business and the body politic.
On 10:20, Wire retain the sound they've been cultivating for the last few albums and use it to reinvigorate and reinterpret tracks from their various periods.
Los Angeles punk rockers the Bronx morph into Mariachi El Bronx for Musica Muerta, which is a whole world of fun and well made too.
When Bob Marley went to London in 1977 he discovered, documented, and reveled in the punky reggae party.
Everyone's favorite noise rock curmudgeon, Steve Albini sounds off as he prepares to release an eerie score to a horror film.
In the conclusion of our survey of the post-reformation career of Buzzcocks, PopMatters looks at the final two discs of Cherry Red Records' comprehensive retrospective box-set.
With a four-decade career under their belt, on the sixth disc in the new box-set Sell You Everything, it's heartening to see Buzzcocks refusing to settle for an album that didn't try something new.
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