#political-punk

#political-punk

Anna Holmes defines 'hype aversion' as a reflex against being told what to like, suggesting that popularity can create pressure rather than signal quality. This feeling can lead to a deliberate choice to resist mainstream culture.

It's time for 2026 California to wake up to the fact that Sib, Joe Sib, is a contender for the Best of Us Award. It's wildly rare to have an artist like Sib who crosses over from being in the early punk rock scene to co-founding SideOneDummy Records and discovering talent like Flogging Molly.

Before the availability of the tape recorder and during the 1950s, when vinyl was scarce, ingenious Russians began recording banned bootleg jazz, boogie woogie and rock 'n' roll on exposed X-ray film salvaged from hospital waste bins and archives.

Riot Queens, takes that real act - which sparked San Franciso's 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riot, the first known full-scale riot asserting transgender and gay rights in the U.S. - and explores the emotional boiling point that led to it.

A special 50th anniversary Punk Rock history event at The New Farm featuring bands and musicians from the dawn of the punk rock revolution of San Francisco. NO ALTERNATIVE, SLEEPERS AD, SOCIETY DOG plus AVENGERS guitar player GREG INGRAHAM performing with JEAN CAFFEINE, THE DEAD SAILOR GIRLS & INSECT LOUNGE.

My driving belief is that we need to be able to communicate, to touch humanity, to try to connect to each other in some way, but I'm also not trying to forgive or underplay the extremities. There was fighting either between different factions or just for fun. Initially, what I saw was deeply shocking. When you're in those environments, it's so venomous and hateful.

The category's been going around social media for a bit, but there's even a domain exclusively for Cigarette Mom Rock. There, the meaning of the genre is described as a "feminine counterpart to 'divorced dad rock,'" but is also meant to conjure up images of your own hard-working '90s mom, driving you to baseball practice with the windows down and a cigarette in one hand.

The new album Everything Must Go arrives on April 24 via Bad Time Records and Community Records, and first single 'Free Dom' is out now. It finds Bad Operation doing what they do best, fusing 2 Tone's influence with fresh, urgent new ideas and coming out with something danceable, catchy, and powerful.

I have written before that while women are gloriously surging in academic, social, and career achievement, many young men are flailing. Pop culture pieces as well as academic dissertations are replete with accounts of male aimlessness and resultant disaffection and disengagement. They point out that the growing achievement gap and resultant maturational/responsibility gap between men and women are making young men progressively less and desirable to modern young women.

burdened by loneliness, depression, and the incessant needs of others, pours herself a stiff drink and steps up to the noose she's hung from the rafters of her airy farmhouse. Then the phone rings: her ungrateful brother, making demands. She tries again-another ring, another request, this time from a friend. She plays the piano, doesn't she? Will she join a group of fellow-amateurs for a charity gig? Twice thwarted, Beth sighs, says yes, and gets on with the business of living.

There's a lot of stuff these days I don't understand about punk myself. It became a very broad church, a long way from the Sex Pistols to the Talking Heads and from The Slits to the Dolly Mixture or something like that, musically. But also a lot of punks got the wrong end of the stick, and maybe some progenitors of it did as well.

To all the ICE agents out there, wherever you are, Armstrong said. Quit your sh*tty-ass job. Quit that sh*tty job you have. The 53-year-old pop-punker continued, Because when this is over and it will be over at some point in time Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Donald Trump, they're gonna drop you like a bad f*cking habit. Come on [over to] this side of the line.

But mainly, it's the result of the New Orleans duo's unique stamp on the sound of underground punk: Honeywell, often in a leather vest, howls with a pack-a-day voice over racing, lo-fi guitar, while RJ Santos, always sporting a dapper suit and tie, plays pedal steel. It's garage punk with an old-school country twang; as their personality seeps through the sound like dye, it takes on the color of music's sepia-toned past and technicolor present.

For years, Thee Parkside has served a cross section of San Francisco's subcultures, hosting punk shows, motorcycle meetups and karaoke nights. It's one of a handful of the city's small, independent venues, and cherished by the local music scene. On a typical night, a mix of young and older patrons gather in the bar's patio area, downing beers and chatting over bar food.

It only takes 33 seconds for Jason Williamson to drop an F-bomb on "The Good Life," the first track from The Demise of Planet X, Sleaford Mods' first record in three years. This latest record, released January 16, isn't much of a departure from the duo's signature sound: Williamson furiously yelping and rapping over Andrew Fearn's driving electronic beats. For a group that has always trafficked in anger, a world unraveling into chaos is perfect fodder for a Sleaford Mods record.

Artists like Billy Bragg and Bruce Springsteen have been releasing protest songs against ICE this week, and now NOFX joins them with "Minnesota Nazis." This is an updated version of their song "Huntington Beach Nazis," which was previously available via the 7″ Of The Month club and on their NOFXxX box set. It has some different lyrics than the original, including these lines that directly touch on Renee Good's murder by an ICE agent: "If those Minnesota nazis / Are so sure they're part of a master race / Why do they cover their white faces when they're shooting / Friendly white, unarmed lesbians in the face." Hear it below.

There isn't one songwriter, and so the flavour of the band is always going to change, says Dave Vanian, reflecting on 50 years of the group of which he has been the sole constant member, the Damned. Captain Sensible is a great fan of syrupy pop music and prog and glam rock. So his writing is very poppy, melodic and quite wonderful.

Michigan screamo band Youth Novel returned from hiatus with their excellent self-titled album in 2021, but then members turned their focus towards Heavenly Blue (now known as Heaven's Blinding Hue), who released their debut album We Have the Answer in 2024. But now, Youth Novel are back once again with their new album I Went Through This Experience Smiling. Picking right up where the band left off, it's an intense listen, as pulverizingly heavy as it is deeply beautiful.

War on Women have officially announced their fifth album, Time Under Tension, out May 8th via Smartpunk Records, while also unleashing the single "Messages Unsent." The album news comes after the Baltimore band announced a March US tour with Oceanator. The jaunt kicks off on March 18th in Pittsburgh, and you can get tickets here. Get War on Women Tickets Here

"When I read the fine print, it was 'an experience with REO Speedwagon's music.' It's none of the original members," Fletcher recalls. "I don't want to promote the show unless it's the real thing. I don't know why you would want to see that. It's just a cover band. To me, that's a little bit strange." He adds, with a sigh, "If there are no original members, who cares?"

Saturday, July 18 is headlined by Iggy Pop, with Otoboke Beaver, Scowl, The Spits, The Fadeaways, and Primitive Ring rounding out the bill. Sunday, July 19 is headlined by Bikini Kill and also has The Return of Jackie and Judy (aka Sleater-Kinney & Fred Armisen's Ramones tribute band), The Dead Milkmen, Frankie & The Witch Fingers, Frightwig, and Las Nubes.

On Sunday our band won 2 Grammys for Best Rock Album & Best Metal Performance. We never thought we'd be in these rooms, but we are very grateful to be here. This band has never been about the individual, but rather about a collective searching for a common thread in a world where those threads are being hidden from us.