In a perfect world, this blog would contain far more references to punk rock. The problem I have is condensing my thoughts on the subject. When I start writing about punk rock, I keep going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny. Like right now, I want to tell you about how influential this musical genre and ethos was in my early life and how that still applies today.
Without you having ever visited where I grew up, it’s hard to explain how rural it is. My hometown had less than 200 residents when I lived there, and my entire county, Charlotte, around 11,000, despite, geographically, it being one of the larger counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. To say discovering punk rock changed my life would be an understatement. But I’ll stop there, because if I go any further this post will never see the light of day because I will never finish writing it.
Instead, I want to share a few thoughts on a handful of albums I listened to last week. This isn’t an exhaustive list of my favorite punk rock albums. A few fall into this category. But not all. They are simply albums I listened to in-full, from the first track to the last, over the past seven days along with a few thoughts on what they mean to me now or meant to me years ago when I first heard them as a teenager.
Two of the albums I reference below are not available to stream anywhere (as far as I know) so I linked to a YouTube playlist where you can listen to the album if you feel inclined.
I.
Stick Figure Suicide
Nice, Nice, Totally Bad Ass
Released: 1999
Back in 1999 or 2000, I played a show with New Jersey punk’s finest, Stick Figure Suicide, while they were on an East Coast tour with Split Fifty. Two of my bands opened for them. My main band: Anti-Lou where I was the bassist and occasional lead singer but mostly backing vocals, and my side project: Scab & the Infections, where I played no instruments but was the lead singer. After the show, we ended up hanging out with sFs and from there I struck up a friendship with their lead singer, Paul. For years we were buds on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).
Nice, Nice, Totally Bad Ass was their debut album. To my knowledge it’s not available on any streaming platform which is a shame. Their second album is (Mission. Released: 2002), but it’s a completely different sound. As an aside: if you own a physical copy of Mission, you’ll find me in their liner notes under the ‘Thank You’ section. I don’t recall if I’m listed as “Jeff Pillow,” “Jeffrey Pillow” or “scab the poet.” But I’m next to H2O. That I do remember. NNTBA hit different and I have it on CD. Even though streaming isn’t an option, you can find a playlist for Nice, Nice, Totally Bad Ass on YouTube.
Notable songs: “Dred,” “Open Wounds,” “Sleeping Pills,” “Not Give Up,” and “Anything, Anything” (Dramarama cover).
II.
Social Distortion
White Light, White Heat, White Trash
Released: 1996
Social Distortion is touring right now and will be playing in Virginia in October. Problem is: it’s a three and a half hour drive to the show at the Norva. I don’t trust my crummy back to hold up for the drive there, standing (or eh, dancing, because I will act a fool) at the show, then the drive back home. I know my lower back all too well and it’s gonna be a no for me.
With that said, I love pretty much all things Social D and wish they would grant us aging punk rockers a full-length acoustic album. We are begging you Mike Ness. We are all begging you. Sure, I can find some pieced together playlists on YouTube but I need something for my car and I can’t find that Napster-burned album that included the “Don’t Think Twice” Bob Dylan cover from the early 2000s. No idea where I put it all those years ago.
I remember picking up the White Light, White Heat, White Trash cassette tape while on vacation with my friend Steve. While he was in there buying Missy Elliot, I was scouring the shelves for some Social D. I think I listened to this album on repeat for the seven-plus hour drive home. Personal favorites from the album: “Don’t Drag Me Down,” “Through These Eyes,” and “When the Angels Sing.”
III.
Rancid
Let’s Go
Released: 1994
…And Out Come the Wolves may be the album that put Rancid on the map, and is considered their greatest recording, but if you’ve ever seen them live, as I have (November 3, 1998, at Trax in Charlottesville), you’ll know it’s Let’s Go that gets the place jumping. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite Rancid song, being that they are my all-time favorite band (hands down), but “Radio” from Let’s Go may be the song I’ve listened to the most over the years. A sample of the lyrics is as follows and when you’re a teenager in the 90s, there’s no denying it:
“Never fell in love till I fell in love with you. Never knew what a good time was till I had a good time with you. If you want to get the feeling and you want to get it right then the music’s gotta be loud, for when the music hits, I feel no pain at all.”
Rancid, Radio
Other notable songs: Don’t make me pick one. All of ’em. Okay, aside from “Radio,” let’s go (see what I did there) with “As One,” “St. Mary,” and “Dope Sick Girl.” You know what? Add “Salvation.”
IV.
Green Day
1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Recording
Released: 1991
I can almost hear someone say, “Green Day isn’t punk rock. They’re sell-outs” which is why I almost left them off this list. But then I thought of the punk rock spirit and said to myself, “Eat s—t haters.” Give me grief all you want for including Green Day, but keep in mind this: I was listening to Green Day before Dookie. I love this album. It spoke to my young heart thirty odd years ago in a way few albums did.
And while it’s true I abandoned Green Day myself after Warning (Released: 2000), their earlier albums came at a pivotal moment in my young life. Songs that take me back from 1039: “At the Library,” “I Was There,” and “Disappearing Boy.”
V.
Bouncing Souls
Self-Titled
Released: 1997
One of my all-time favorite bands I’ve never seen live. They are old now and so am I but the Souls are still on my bucket list to see one day. “Kate Is Great” was my life’s anthem for years. It got me through many a long drive home.
I could probably sit here and write a 10,000 word gushing essay about my love for the Bouncing Souls’ music, but I’ll spare you my soliliquoy. It’s hard for me to rank my Top 5 Souls’ albums, so in no particular order: Maniacal Laughter; The Good, the Bad, and the Argyle; Hopeless Romantic; How I Spent My Summer Vacation; and this one, their 1997 Self-Titled release.
And if there is a more beautiful cover of a Misfits song, I’m not aware of one outshining “Hybrid Moments” from their Complete Control Sessions EP (2011).
VI.
Bad Brains
Rock for Light
Released: 1983
The first time I heard the music of Bad Brains was from their God of Love (1995) album. My girlfriend gave me the cassette tape as a birthday present. Does “Justice Keepers” not make you want to jump out your seat and destroy some s—t? I’m in my 40s now and I just threw a chair out an upstairs window listening to it again.
I remember unwrapping the God of Love cassette, popping it into my tape player, and sitting in my room with my friends Rick, Ricky, and Brian. We were all like, “Holy s—t, man! Holy s—t!” Pretty sure those were our exact words. That was my introduction to Bad Brains.
Enter: Rock for Light. Released twelve years prior, it goes down as my favorite Bad Brains album. It was a tough call. Their self-titled debut album from 1982 was on its heels as well as their Omega Sessions EP released in 1997. Ask me another day what my favorite Bad Brains album is and I may give you a different answer.
Songs I dig the most: “Big Takeover,” “Right Brigade,” “F.V.K.,” “Sailin’ On,” and “How Low Can a Punk Get?”
VII.
Operation Ivy
Seedy
Released: 1996
Released seven years after their demise, I came across the Seedy album in The Record Exchange one Saturday back when I was fifteen years old. Honestly, I thought it was a bootleg. If you own it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m not saying you have to be a punk rocker to appreciate this compilation of studio outtakes, live tracks, and unreleased demo songs, but it wouldn’t hurt. Personally, I love it. Some of Matt Freeman’s bass riffs are straight bananas on this album. And as a bass player, you gotta love it.
Much like sFs’ Nice, Nice, Totally Bad Ass, I’m not aware of Seedy being available on any streaming platform. I own the CD. But if you don’t, there is a YouTube playlist for Seedy which chunks all the songs together in one video. Notable songs: “Left Behind,” “Old Friendships,” and “Hedgecore.”
There you have it: my ‘Punk Rock Flashback: Vol. 1.’ I may make this a recurring feature on my blog. It gives me the opportunity to talk a little punk rock and forces me to condense my thoughts to a couple of paragraphs per album.
Regardless of your musical taste, if you have a blog or even if you don’t, take some time each week to listen to an album or two in-full from beginning to end — then jot down your thoughts. It’s a different experience, and maybe it’s just me, but I feel like with streaming so prevalent nowadays, listening to an album in-full isn’t something we do as much anymore. Instead: we bounce from a song by this artist to a song by that artist like a mixtape. Am I wrong about that? Could just be me.