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Essential Punk Albums on...

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20:43 / 23.02.04

What are the top ten essential Punk albums to own on vinyl? Bowie? Pop? The Clash? Who do you like?

22:12 / 23.02.04

Why vinyl in particular?

Anywez: looking beyond the usual suspects: The Skids, SCARED TO DANCE. Straight outta Dunfermline, fourteen songs, thirty-three minutes of mighty guitar roar. Shouty and deeply melodic. If I may quote myself from a blog entry about the indispensible "Into the Valley":

"It's the template for a certain kind of perfect white rock song—bludgeoning rhythm section, keen guitar hooks, full-throated, footie-chant choruses. It's Pavlovian: I'm hard-wired to respond to it, from Tenpole Tudor on down. There's something martial about it, something wonderful and terrible as the scent of blood on the wind."

Now imagine fourteen of those in a row. Yeah.

22:23 / 23.02.04

Why vinyl? Because maybe in my mind I think of it as a lost art form in the digital age. I know that I enjoy crisp clean recordings but there is just something about laying that needle on a record and listening to a slight crackle right before the noise starts. For example I own all of the Doors albums on vinyl even the spoken word spliced in American Prayer and I enjoy them to no end. Plus vinyl is cheaper or priced the same as a new CD.

01:59 / 24.02.04

the ONLY punk record you will ever need is the Germs (GI). it kills everything. including itself.

A

03:22 / 24.02.04

I don't think that the idea of "essential albums" really applies to punk rock very well. The thing about punk rock is that, probably more than any other musical genre or movement, it clearly demonstrates that there is little, if any, correlation between how successful a band is and how good a band is. In other words, your favourite band in the whole world can be one that very few people know of, that made very little impact on the world at large. What's important is the impact they made on you.

Example- I listen to the album Desexed by Lawnsmell at least once a week, usually more. They were just some band from Sydney that were around for a few years nearly a decade ago, and they wouldn't have sold more than a few thousand records. They mean nothing to the world at large, but I fucking love that record and I never get sick of hearing it. On the other hand, I haven't put on a Clash record in years. they just don't mean anywhere near as much to me.

Any "objective" list of the most important punk albums of all time is pretty much useless, because it's just bound to be a list of the most visible/well-known/successful/influential/whatever bands. It might function as a useful historical guide, or something, but that's about all.

I think that rock is about subjectivity. It doesn't need a "required reading" list to be appreciated properly.

16:35 / 24.02.04

1. The Ramones - Ramones

17:05 / 24.02.04

How utterly predictable.
Long live the New Orthodoxy.

07:38 / 25.02.04

Ok, marginally less predictable:
Minutemen - Double Nickles On A Dime
Though for me, pretty much all of their records are indispensalble; this one happens to have the most songs on it.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:28 / 25.02.04

Crass- Best Before. Sheep FArming in the Falklands, Do They Owe Us A LIving?, The Immortal Death, and, of course, the greatest punk single of all time, Bloody Revolutions. Pure righteous anger, with a bunch of ex-hippy experimentation mixed in with the youthful high spirits. All recorded under Thatcher in an atmosphere of nuclear paranoia.

The Clash- London Calling. Genius. You know it. Nuff said.

Dead Kennedys- Bedtime For Democracy. Wicked, three-minute singalong classics. Think Black Flag and the Ramones having babies. With very high-pitched voices and a bug up their collective ass.

Conflict- The Ungovernable Force. White hot. Sheets of guitar draped liberally over the military drumbeat you hear in your head when the cops start charging. Over the top, Colin screams animal/civil/human rights.

Not sure if that's what you meant by punk, having only just now read the topic abstract, but I ain't about to delete all that shit now!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:29 / 25.02.04

Having just re-read the thread, I admit most of mine are fairly predictable too. Sorry.

09:30 / 25.02.04

Sorry, Tommo, that is still too predictable. The correct answer is Abba's Greatest Hits.

The greatest punk albums, the ones I like best and therefore consider essential, were made by The Damned. They are:

Damned Damned Damned

and

Machine Gun Etiquette

The reviews at the end of those links will tell you what makes 'em grate (I'll only add that Machinr Gun Etiquette includes a version of the MC5 track 'Looking at You' which pisses all over the weedy original).

A more recent favourite:

The Buff Medways - 'Steady the Buffs'

Again, the stuff at the end of the link explains it all better than I can.

By the way, if anyone would like to disagree and tell me that those aren't my favourites at all, that my favourit punk album is actually Lovechild by Curved Air, then please write your explanation in green ink on the back of a beer mat and lob it out the window, and I will reply in due course.

lord nuneaton savage

10:57 / 25.02.04

Look to Cleveland! Pere Ubu 'The Modern dance', Electric eels 'God says fuck you!', Rocket from the tombs 'The day the earth met...' all expensive imports!, all obscure!, you will impress friends with these!
Oh and the first Suicide album...

11:40 / 25.02.04

ten albums of 'punk rock' what you need to own:

Bikini Kill - CD of the first two records
The Stooges - self titled
The Replacements - sorry ma, forgot to take out the trash
The Ramones - it's alive
Mclusky - do dallas
The Slits - BBC sessions
The Dead Kennedys - plastic surgery disasters
Husker Du - new day rising
Huggy Bear - taking the rough with the smooch
Minor Threat - first demo tape
Wire - pink flag

make of that what you will.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:00 / 25.02.04

Bikini Kill - CD of the first two records

YES. Riz, you beat me to it.

Math is for suckers!

12:40 / 25.02.04

Stiff Little Fingers-Inflammable Material
Naked Raygun-Jettison

They were some of the first punk i listened to, and still some of my fsvorites today.

16:07 / 25.02.04

I'd recommend a new punk album:
The thermals: More parts per million

17:46 / 25.02.04

the newtown grunts- day of the jakey

if you can find it, you will have a not-as-good-as-they-really-were album by one of the greatest live bands of all time. the songs are still great, but if they ever turn up in your town in a kinda Brigadoon sorta way, GO AND SEE their buckfast-throwing ghosts! or die trying, obviously.

17:56 / 25.02.04

also available on CD for those of us with smaller bedroom shelves.

18:13 / 25.02.04

Black Flag-damaged..whoever predictable it may be

Talking Heads-pick one

Gang of 4-once again pick one they are all good

I can't belive nobody metioned Richard Hell..hmmm,what else..

Circle Jerks-Golden shower of hits

Husker Du-geez once again any of them because they are all classics

and i know i will get blasted for this but "Bleach" is one of the all time great punk albums of the 90's

19:09 / 25.02.04

I'd recommend a new punk album:
The thermals: More parts per million

Good call.

I freakin' love the Thermals.

19:36 / 25.02.04

i'll blast you if you really want, but i think bleach is one of the best albums of all time.

see, now i'll look silly. takes the heat off you.

20:09 / 25.02.04

i hear you loud and clear....I just love every song on that album...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:43 / 25.02.04

Rizla- Wire - pink flag

(slaps forehead) How the fuck did I forget that?

Locust No longer

00:44 / 26.02.04

- Born Against "9 Patriotic Hymns" LP
- Minor Threat "Out of Step"
- Dicks "Kill from the heart"
- Anti Cimex's first two EPs
- Napalm Death "Scum" (some may argue that this metal, but I think it's still pretty fucking punk.)
- Rorschach "Protestant"
- Hiatus "The Brain" 12"
- Moderat Likvidation "Nitad" EP
- Millions of Dead Cops "Dead Cops"
- Crossed Out "s/t" EP

On another note, some things are obvious because they are good.

at the scarwash

04:00 / 26.02.04

Wire-Chairs Missing
Helen Love-Radio Hits #1
Big Black-The Rich Man's 8-Track (or pay for all of those out of print EPs on vinyl, if you really need to)
The Raincoats-Self-Titled
The Fall-Hex Enduction Hour
PiL-Second Edition/Metal Box
Faust-So Far (it is too punk, youse guys).

Cookie H. Monster

05:17 / 26.02.04

What, no Fugazi?

07:26 / 26.02.04

Anone like Propagndhi at all? Not saying it's the best ever, but I really like their first LP, How to Clean Everything.

11:58 / 26.02.04

I see no X-Ray Spex or Patti Smith mentions, which is wrong, wrong I say! I mean, X-Ray Spex had Polly Styrene, killer sax, and a song about Hitler, tissue paper, and the line 'my mind is like a paper bag!' not to mention some great song titles, clothes, and well... loads of oher things that made/make them great.
And, I mean, Patti Smith. I'm all in love with Iggy Pop, let me leave you no doubt, but can you hear Iggy doing 'Rock n Roll Nigger' or that Horses thing I cannot recall proper track titles for? And if this can be heard, please, in the name of all things two-minutes long with heavy guitars, let me know the album and where to find it!

While much more recent, and in many ways much less impressive, am I alone in feeling that Zombina and the Skeletones has perhaps two of the greatest songs of all time, in 'She Has No Reflection' and 'Let's Get Familiar'? Say it ain't so!

No Patti Smith, John Cale, Polly Styrene, Talking Heads, Cramps... not even a Misfits or Blondie? Okeh, I can live without those last two, but still... or am I just horribly out of synch on this, as per usual?

15:09 / 26.02.04

GG Allin - Hated Sountrack (this album lets you get the full range of his career from pop/punk to nasty punk to country)

Misfits - Plan 9

15:12 / 26.02.04

Round about now is the time I start endorsing Rancid's And Out Come The Wolves... although I'm not entirely sure that it's available on vinyl at anything other than an exorbitant price, because it was only re-released on CD a couple of years ago. And another yes for Helen Love as well (although I've got Radio Hits #2, not that I think it matters that much)

toksik -do you know if the Newtown Grunts are still going? I bought one of their singles ages ago, but have heard less about them since leaving Fife...

20:30 / 26.02.04

"Bikini Kill - CD of the first two records" I've had this recomended before exactly in this manner. but what are the names of the two first Bikini Kill records?

22:07 / 26.02.04

I believe the first one is self-titled and the second one is called "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and is one half of a split LP with Huggy Bear. (NB - all of that could be completely wrong).
They're both long out of print n' shit anyway, so you'd have a far easier time getting the CD.

For what it's worth, as much as I love them, I don't really think of Patti Smith, PiL, The Fall, Television etc. as being punk rock.. in my own idiosyncratic genre classification system, punk is fun, noisy, simple music made by crazy angry kids.. many of the above are/were people with distinctly different creative agendas who just happened to be around at the right place/time to get called 'punk'..

01:35 / 27.02.04

toksik -do you know if the Newtown Grunts are still going?

nah, they broke up after sall sorts of evil shit went down. generally speaking, it finished in a way that ensures a distinct lack of reunion.
i think you can find out more on the self destruct records website. if not, they'll at least sell you a few records.

if that fails, check out the grunts' own webshite.

(the first one is also the home of los destructos, a touring band who definitely dont suck)

01:39 / 27.02.04

oh,and double-plus yay to propaghandi.

01:41 / 27.02.04

and i dont think anyone mentioned fugazi because they are too good; they'd make all the other bands feel like they were in the exploited.

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