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.
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.
Buzzcocks, the band's fourth album since their return to touring in 1989, changed their sound but retained what made them great in the first place
Presented as part of the new Buzzcocks' box-set, Sell You Everything, Modern showed a band that wasn't interested in just repeating itself or playing to nostalgia.
After the straightforward and workmanlike Trade Test Transmissions, Buzzcocks continued to hone their fresh identity in the studio, as exhibited on the All Set reissue contained on the new box-set Sell You Everything.
PopMatters' appraisal of Buzzcocks continues with the band's proper comeback LP, Trade Test Transmissions, now reissued on Cherry Red Records' new box-set, Sell You Everything.
Cherry Red Records' new box-set issued in memory of Pete Shelley gathers together the entire post-reunion output of the legendary Buzzcocks. Across the next week, PopMatters explores the set album-by-album. First up is The 1991 Demo LP.
In times of quarantine we listen and we write, so here are 20 extreme (and some experimental) records to spin during these times.
Punk rock gives voice to the hardest of times. As punk is a wide-ranging umbrella genre saturated with numerous subcultures, styles, aesthetics, and attitudes, making a list is more like trying to super-glue together a ripped and torn fanzine. But try, we must.
"Porcelain World" sees the Violent Hearts distilling their classic punk influences to stunning effect.
Worlds collided when punk and metal realized they were opposite sides of the same coin.
Ghost Work features former/current members of Seaweed, Minus the Bear, Snapcase, and the group offer up a delicious blend of punk rock/post-punk goodness on "Go Stat".
The Waco Brothers' Jon Langford talks about politics, the social climate, and being a musician in the wake of COVID-19. "It's the political equivalent of prog rock!"
Los Angeles punk rockers, Flat Worms succeed in transforming the urgency to escape into a musical experience on Antarctica.
Fast and funny, the Chats' "dumb" punk record, High Risk Behavior, is smarter and more interesting than anything Muse has ever done.
VickiKristinaBarcelona celebrate the singular world of Tom Waits their upcoming debut, Pawn Shop Radio. Hear "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" ahead of tomorrow's single release.
The Spirit of ’77 abounds as Sex Pistols round out the Top Ten on the Big List. Counterbalance take a cheap holiday in other people’s misery. Right. Now.
The '80s were a wild and crazy time also filled with troubles, heartbreak and disappointment for Go-Go's bass player-guitarist Kathy Valentine, who covers many of those moments in her intriguing dual project that she discusses in this freewheeling interview.
Phuc Tran's smart, tough memoir, Sigh, Gone, might launch a broken down kid to read 150 great books—for free, at the local library.
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