The 5: New Punk Classics

This Week on the 5:  New Punk Classics

1994 is commonly called the year punk broke. Headlined by Green Day’s “Dookie”, ’94 also saw “Stranger than Fiction” by Bad Religion, NoFX’s “Punk in Drublic”, “Let’s Go” by Rancid, “Smash” by The Offspring, Jawbreaker’s “24 Hour Revenge Therapy” and the first Blink 182 album “Chesire Cat”. Along with these extremely visible punk albums there were a host of other seminal works by punk, alternative and otherwise independent artists including Beck, Weezer, Pavement, Guided by Voices, Shellac, Built to Spill, Liz Phair and Nine Inch Nails. But a climax can only be followed by decline, pop music made a huge come back and it wasn’t long before people were questioning is punk still relevant as a musical style? Contrary to popular belief punk bands kept putting out classic albums albeit with much less fanfare. Don’t know where to start to reacquaint yourself with your old pal? Here are some of the best post 1994 punk records that deserve to be regarded as The New Punk Classics.

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• Avail – Over the James (1998). In the course of four years Richmond, VA’s Avail released three nearly flawless albums, starting with their own 1994 monster ‘Dixie’ and culminating in 1998’s ‘Over the James.’ The first band out of the Richmond scene to gain national attention, Avail benefitted from their remoteness, developing a fresh sound that blended hardcore with Southern Rock, Folk and Country influences, playing off vocalist Tim Barry’s ability to sing big, catchy hooks right up against gruff verses. Avail is most remarkable for the content of their songs, a contemplation of their own Southerness; feeling both alienated and at home in a place, accepted and rejected by a small, conservative city with a fledgling punk scene, surrounded by people struggling with the spectre of Southern Pride and their glory days. On ‘Over the James’ Avail seems ready to accept this dichotomy, and begins to find peace that all roads lead home even though you may not want them to. “Two Snakes are Poison, which one do you call friend? Two Snakes are Poison, got bit by both in the end.” Listen below or on YouTube.
• Dillinger Four – Midwestern Songs of the Americas (1998). Midwestern Songs of the Americas plays like a dispatch from a bar room waiting out the long Minneapolis winter. The album is infused with a stir crazy energy, manic and almost rambling at times then instantly dropping into melancholy. The schizophrenic sound is reinforced by the dueling vocalists and clashing of noise and the vintage recordings that frame the tracks. D4 effortlessly craft boozy, bleary eyed stomp-alongs but so many of the songs on this record reach out for you, grasping at the more grandiose self-image hiding at the corner of buzzed and drunk. Borrowing a heavy dose of Husker Du’s dissonance and The Replacement’s swagger (or stagger), Dillinger Four let you know that anyone who has ever earnestly used the term “Flyover Country” is an asshole. “Come on, Kill the lights with trouble make. Come on, smash the light and celebrate. Let’s tie a yellow ribbon around the necks of the motherfuckers living for the giving in.” Listen below or on YouTube.
• Lifetime – Jersey’s Best Dancers (1997). Born in the great incubator, New Jersey, a state with one of the richest musical pedigrees in the country but who is woefully undervalued as a marquee destination. New Jersey is a suburban state and the third generation of punk is a suburban generation. Ignore the negative connotation there, the suburbs were a rebirth for the DIY ethos. Once again kids starting bands could not find purchase in the established industry so they formed their own labels, venues and aesthetic. Illegal and thus very quietly promoted, the New Brunswick house show scene remains a launching pad and inspiration for completely independent music. On their sophomore release Lifetime finds the sweet spot mixing their disparate inspirations. Sweetly melodic and strained, sludgey breakdowns and blisteringly fast drum fills. The tempo of this album is never what you’d expect but always works, slowed down as deftly as Texas is the Reason or as kinetic as Token Entry. This is the first generation of punk that understood its’ own history, and could fixate on the niches and styles, blending them into something new. It perpetuates the cycle and reinvents the music, and by being genuine and interested in the history of punk Lifetime would greatly inform the future of it. “I chose a life of missed callings and lost hopes of empty trains and railway dreams, Losing fast and gaining steam.” Listen below or on YouTube.
• Bouncing Souls – Maniacal Laughter (1996). One of the hardest touring bands the year punk broke the Bouncing Souls packed up their van with a record cobbled together from EPs, covers and some new tracks and hit the road. Two years later they would release the culmination of what they learned traveling the country and meeting their fans, Maniacal Laughter. Without losing their sense of fun, bass driven melodies, or anthemic sing along qualities the songs take a deeply personal focus, telling stories about people and experiences that were extremely relatable because the band was a product of the scene they were playing to. They still had day jobs, still went to shows, still self released music and in general were still just kids. Maniacal Laughter is at once elevated and achievable, the self-proclaimed Hopeless Romantics finding the value in the characters and events of their daily life. On the whole thematically The Bouncing Souls albums deal with growing up and discovering that your identity is valid despite being nontraditional. The youthful, nomadic, romantic roots of that philosophy are dug deep into Maniacal Laughter. “Growing up we didn’t wanna be like them, it was tought to know who were our friends. Killing time playing basements way back when, in a lot of ways nothings changed from now and then.” Listen below or on YouTube.
• Le Tigre – Le Tigre (1999). The obvious question, is this a punk album? Yes, but not from our timeline. Early punk had a simple formula, to strip down early American rock played faster and sloppier with an updated sensibility. Kathleen Hannah applies the same treatment to early 60’s rock, girl groups and Motown on Le Tigre’s Self Titled debut. It’s a punk record for The Jetsons, delivered on the eve of the new century. The crunchy guitars, repetition and Hannah’s vocal style are all reminiscent of Bikini Kill but the songwriting has transitioned from ferocious anger to intense intellect. The album plays track for track with Bikini Kill’s landmark Pussy Whipped, with startling parallels in composition, pacing and subject matter. As Le Tigre progresses though it phases out the guitar based tracks in favor of the more dance based synth songs, coaxing the listener into the next stage of Hannah’s career, where she is ready to teach the younger generation about her influences, inspirations and trailblazing peers. Le Tigre’s retro futuristic feminism bends reality to its’ own will the way that early punks made the limit of their musical ability the ideal and their shoddy clothes the pinnacle of fashion. In a self determinist act of creation Hannah makes her world real by living in it, removing the boundary between art and artist, and invites you along in this record. “I wanna be there, I wanna take you there.” Listen below or on YouTube.

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