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July 10, 2013 10:13 AM   Subscribe

In response to a listicle on pop-punk where "most of the picks were just early 2000s-era crapcore Warped Tour bands" the Jaded Punk Blog has a more 'authentic' list,"36 Pop-Punk Albums You Need To Hear Or Just Go Fucking Die.". A list which seems to beg the question "What is pop-punk? Is this more like this, or more like this? posted by Potomac Avenue (121 comments total) 46 users marked this as a favorite
 
Whether it matter or anyone cares anymore is probably besides the point.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:14 AM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


Seems relevant
posted by roll truck roll at 10:16 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]






h/t Charlemagne in Sweatpants
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:19 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


No Ramones?
posted by hydrophonic at 10:21 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Mitch Clem is responding in a six part series

Well that is neat. Don't think I agree with calling most of those bands "pop-punk" but who cares Crimpshrine! Cub! FYP! Yeehaw!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:21 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I had a Queers hoodie and a Screeching Weasel t-shirt. But I never got a chance to break in the leather jacket my mom bought me for Christmas when I was 15. :(
posted by mullacc at 10:22 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


No Ramones?

This is assuming you have heard every Ramones song 10,000 times. A list of best garage rock bands wouldn't include Howlin Wolf for the same reason.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:22 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


No Ramones?

Why bother? We have the Riverdales!
posted by mullacc at 10:23 AM on July 10, 2013


This is the music I ignored at its popularity's height, when I was a kid, but which I remember fondly for all that. I'll dig into this when I get home from work.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:26 AM on July 10, 2013


Holy shit Greg you like BTS? I just got Norb's annotated lyric book it's amazing. Do you know he podcasts? That is also great.

I've been trying to put together a Norb post for years but he doesn't have enough stuff available online from the old MRR column. Stupid stupid Tim Yo.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:26 AM on July 10, 2013


If you want to listen to 101 (mostly) pop punk bands in less than an hour there's always Short Music For Short People
posted by burnmp3s at 10:26 AM on July 10, 2013 [5 favorites]


How could I forget the the Teen Idols and Tilt? OK list is now complete.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:29 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Shit, Rancid should be on one of those lists.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 10:29 AM on July 10, 2013


Disagree, Rancid is ska-punk.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:31 AM on July 10, 2013


I woulda chosen Percolator over Allroy's Revenge, but to each their own.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:32 AM on July 10, 2013


Hüsker Dü?
posted by DaddyNewt at 10:34 AM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


where is the emo
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 10:34 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


It's not a genre if there's no box set.
posted by Twang at 10:34 AM on July 10, 2013


No Tilt? No Muffs?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:35 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I only own two of the ones listed. I need to reset some priorities in my life.
posted by mathowie at 10:36 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


that buzzfeed piece filled me with irrational rage
posted by capnsue at 10:38 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Disagree, Rancid is ska-punk.

Well, Operation Ivy was definitely ska punk, but Rancid's first three albums have a minimal amount of ska, a lot of pop, and a maximal amount of punk. I mean, Let's Go is pretty much all punk rock. But I'm not in the classification business, and certainly their later output reeks of ska punk.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 10:38 AM on July 10, 2013


Rancid is excellent but not really pop punk. Same with AFI, which at one time was at least close. This whole exercise reminds me of high school. Now I just need that burned album of pop punk 80s covers that I listened to non-stop for about 6 months.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:38 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I only own two of the ones listed. I need to reset some priorities in my life.

Honestly, if you did own any of these albums, you'd have sold them by 2001.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


NOFX? And I know it isn't cool but me and my friends geeked out over this song when it was included in a punk video VHS tape one of us owned.
posted by Bookhouse at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2013


This is a much better list although some of the choices on there are still terrible. Lag Wagon? Blech.
posted by josher71 at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Going to see Masked Intruder next week. PSYCHED CITY!
posted by capnsue at 10:40 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


And -- Buzzcocks? Um, aren't they a bona fide first-generation mod-revival punk band?

Also, Canada says more gob please.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:41 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I heard Rancid's Fall Back Down playing on the TV in another room recently. I swear I thought it was the Friends theme song.
posted by mullacc at 10:42 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


To be fair, "so no one told you life was gonna be this way" would be a perfect suburban punk anthem.
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:43 AM on July 10, 2013


In terms of Mr. T. Experience, I prefer Making Things With Light and the rest of their earlier Jon Von stuff, but YMMV.
posted by josher71 at 10:44 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Avoid any Screeching Weasel after How To Make Enemies and Irritate People.
posted by josher71 at 10:45 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


Wow - great list, this is a trip down memory lane. And please forgive my pop punk naivety, but no Jawbreaker?
posted by antonymous at 10:48 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh man this is great. Although seeing MTX on there reminds me how disappointed I was when Doktor Frank turned into a warblogger. Looking at his blog now, I see a) he's still going (although now he's apparently posting a lot about swords) and b) man, it's like going back 10 years.
posted by asterix at 10:48 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I love Jawbreaker, but it's really more proto-emo than essential pop-punk. Everyone they influenced were straight up emo bands. On the edge though.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:50 AM on July 10, 2013


Real Life Story of Teenage Rebellion is BY FAR the superior Weston album, IMO.
posted by capnsue at 10:50 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


No Fastbacks? No Stiff Little Fingers?
posted by jonmc at 10:50 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'd throw Nerf Herder's How to Meet Girls in there; I always assume everyone has already heard that album, and I'm always wrong. Otherwise, there's some good stuff in that list and a lot more I've never heard of, so yay.
posted by byanyothername at 10:51 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Real Life Story of Teenage Rebellion is BY FAR the superior Weston album, IMO.

This.
posted by josher71 at 10:52 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


No Fastbacks?

How would someone even begin to pick the best Fastbacks album?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:53 AM on July 10, 2013 [4 favorites]


Also, my favorite Millencolin song because why not.
posted by byanyothername at 10:53 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'd throw Nerf Herder's How to Meet Girls in there

Weren't they just sort of Weezer Lite though?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:54 AM on July 10, 2013


Actually the best pop-punk band of all time might be Parry Gripp.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:55 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


No Fastbacks?

Oh man, I saw Chixdiggit and the Fastbacks play Noise Pop in... '97? No, Wikipedia says '98. What a great show.
posted by asterix at 10:56 AM on July 10, 2013


What's up large chunk of my record collection? I miss you, all packed up in boxes and shit and most of you I don't have digital copies of.
posted by padraigin at 10:57 AM on July 10, 2013


I love Jawbreaker, but it's really more proto-emo than essential pop-punk.

One, two, three, four
Who's punk? What's the score?
posted by burnmp3s at 10:57 AM on July 10, 2013 [7 favorites]


I love Jawbreaker, but it's really more proto-emo than essential pop-punk.

You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone
Save your breath, I never was one
posted by General Malaise at 10:58 AM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


HA, burnmp3s and I had the same exact idea. I was late.
posted by General Malaise at 10:58 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Also, I know how it's just my midwestern sensibilities talking here, but that Dillinger 4 album is awesome. Before that first major album came out, I used to see those guys play at punk houses around Minneapolis. The details are fuzzy (I was young and probably drinking Black Label) but I remember they were supposed to go on tour in support of that album, and just a couple of days beforehand, one of the members broke his arm or leg or something and I think they ended up canceling the tour(?). Anyway, it sucked because that album is really great and you should listen to it.
posted by antonymous at 11:00 AM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


In my brain, 'pop-punk' did not really exist as 'a thing' until the 1990s (even though there's been 'poppy' punk since punk existed). But if you're gonna reach back in time and claim the Buzzcocks, you also have to include Billy Idol's first band, Generation X.
posted by fikri at 11:01 AM on July 10, 2013


This is giving me flashbacks to going to Warped Tour in '97 and '98. I distinctly remember falling asleep during Lagwagon's set.. and that's about it.
posted by zempf at 11:03 AM on July 10, 2013


Excuse me. Excuse me. I no speaka dee Eengleesh. What means theese "S/T"?
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:05 AM on July 10, 2013


(Self-titled)
posted by General Malaise at 11:07 AM on July 10, 2013


I went to all 3 days of Insubordination Fest a couple weeks ago and by 6pm on Saturday my was physically rebelling. "NO. MORE. POWER. CHORDS." it said. (actually it may have been my liver complaining about all the natty boh come to think of it.)

THAT SAID. Mikey Erg! House Boat! The Steinways! Night Birds! Jetty Boys! Lipstick Homicide! somuchfun
posted by capnsue at 11:08 AM on July 10, 2013


Thank god they chose I Don't Want To Grow Up. LA Weekly just did a similar round-up and they chose Milo Goes To College, which boo.

No J Church though? Fuck that.
posted by mykescipark at 11:14 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I mostly agree with this list (fuck yes, The Lillingtons!), but suggest replacing "I Don't Want To Grow up" with "Milo Goes To College", "The Quickening" with "Hitler Bad, Vandals Good", and replace Screeching Weasel with Tsunami Bomb.

(on preview, come on, mykescipark, can we at least agree they should not have chosen "Cool To Be You"?)
posted by namewithoutwords at 11:21 AM on July 10, 2013


What about Agent Orange?
posted by snofoam at 11:22 AM on July 10, 2013


Glaringly obvious
posted by humboldt32 at 11:25 AM on July 10, 2013


I couldn't read very much of the Buzzfeed list because I could feel grey hairs sprouting out of my head as I read it and haven't even heard of probably 80% of the bands on it, but I can wholeheartedly embrace every single record listed in the FPP because together, they provided all of the background noise for the duration of my late teens and early 20s. I have an Alkaline Trio tattoo that is almost old enough to vote. I still live with a dude whose band is mentioned on Mitch Clem's list (which I can also wholeheartedly embrace, at least so far, minus The Dwarves because ugh). The records on this list still ring out in local bars and alleys and several of them soundtracked some of the most formative experiences of my life.

The upper Midwest was a fucking phenomenal place to live if you liked pop-punk in the mid-to-late 1990s. Everyone was in a band! Music everywhere non-stop! Something to do and somewhere to go every single night! I swear, I spent most of the 1990s seeing MTX/Groovie Ghoulies play ten times a year. So many D4 shows, too. I've probably seen Screeching Weasel at least a dozen times and I don't even really care for their music. It was just there, all the time, all around me.

Fireside Bowl, The Globe East, Club 770/Union South, Concert Cafe/Rock 'n' Roll High School, Turf Club, Extreme Noise, all the basements and living rooms and impromptu shows in backyards and under bridges -- oh, man. Those times were the best times. Thanks for the reminder!

Bonus: Rev. Nørb on Jenny Jones.
posted by divined by radio at 11:37 AM on July 10, 2013 [4 favorites]


Potomac Avenue: "Holy shit Greg you like BTS? I just got Norb's annotated lyric book it's amazing. Do you know he podcasts? That is also great.

I've been trying to put together a Norb post for years but he doesn't have enough stuff available online from the old MRR column. Stupid stupid Tim Yo.
"

:) I was so lucky to have grown up in NE Wisconsin in the 90s and see them live while I was in High School. They would come out to podunk rural Wisconsin (I mean literally, it was called Cow Pie High) and all these Green Bay and Appleton bands would come put on shows, along with our one really good local band.

Rev Norb is the fuckin' bomb! Last I heard he's involved in working on making games...
posted by symbioid at 11:40 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Circa 2002 the schwing-est punkster I ever seen (and the only one I ever dated) turned me from a CountingCrowsHead to a huge Queers fan in about 3 minutes.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 11:43 AM on July 10, 2013


Gosh I love Dillinger Four.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 11:43 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was just looking through my collection, and realizing that I have no real idea what distinguishes Pop Punk from Punk or Power Pop.

BUT: Underground Railroad to Candyland's Bird Roughs is one of my favorite albums of the last five years, and is probably punk pop or pop punk or whatever.
posted by klangklangston at 11:44 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, and everything Jay Reatard did.
posted by klangklangston at 11:45 AM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


The upper Midwest was a fucking phenomenal place to live if you liked pop-punk in the mid-to-late 1990s

AFAIK I'm still the only person (aside from my bandmates) that moved from the East Coast to Wisconsin to make it as a a rock and roll band. #AlumniHouse4Ever
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:07 PM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


I'd second disbelief at the omission of the Muffs ( saw them open for Southern Culture on the Skids back in the day) and add that the Flamin' Groovies, the Gizmos, Blondie, and my beloved Dictators all deserve credit as pioneers of the form.
posted by jonmc at 12:28 PM on July 10, 2013


Personally I think Stiff Little Fingers and the Muffs are definitely pop-punk but I think of the Fastbacks as a bit more than that somehow – pop-punk isn't just "punk bands with catchy pop songs", it's a very narrow thing, and for example the doo-wop/ girl-group influences you hear in the Ramones are enough to exclude them from the category.
posted by furiousthought at 12:40 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


#AlumniHouse4Ever

I bet I saw your band!

Here's what Norb is up to these days -- fronting a band from Manitowoc called The Onions. It appears that everything is precisely as it should be. There's also The Annotated Boris.

Totally gonna kick back and listen to some marbled 7" splits tonight. I'll ask my roommate if he has any especially awesome stories from the good old days.
posted by divined by radio at 12:44 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]




I own three of those CDs. That's right, CDs, and I play them out of a real stereo and not out of my phone or some other little toy! Feh! Any list that includes The Smoking Popes is an OK list with me.
posted by 1adam12 at 1:25 PM on July 10, 2013


Totally gonna kick back and listen to some marbled 7" splits tonight.

If you run into anything bright blue it may be me singing the WHOA OH OH OH backups.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:30 PM on July 10, 2013


Glad to see The Thermals included, but it's nuts that More Parts per Million was chosen over The Body, the Blood, the Machine.

The former might be closer to the roots of oldschool punk, but the latter was an absolute masterpiece, and was easily punk's best reaction to the Bush years.
posted by schmod at 1:34 PM on July 10, 2013


These pop-punk lists are always interesting to me because my misspent youth was at pop-punk shows in Sacramento and the Bay Area, but it was pretty much the Lookout Records flavor of pop-punk and I wasn't actually a big pop-punk fan. Basically, I really liked the Mr. T Experience, couldn't help but like the Groovie Ghoulies, enjoyed the Queers a bit... but saw too many Screeching Weasel or Ramones bands to keep track. Lots of those bands had one good song - I'm looking at you Parasites - but were largely forgettable. I couldn't (and still can't) stand the EpiFAT sound.

I was trying to explain this to a friend who's super into pop-punk, but just turned 20 and missed it when it was in that weird mid-late 90s state of OMG IT'S BLOWING UP but also OMG MALL PUNK IS TERRIBLE. To her it's all the same to some degree (with a lot of romanticization of the Gilman/Lookout minus the context). As I was giving her a bunch of my pop-punk records I didn't want anymore (Parasites, Teen Idols, Mopes, Squirtgun, Chixdigit come to mind), she kept asking me why I was getting rid of them. Did I hate pop-punk? No. I won't say I outgrew it either, but the vinyl I bought because I wanted to "support the scene" was taking up valuable space.

And it all comes back to why I never felt totally at ease ... my two favourite Lookout bands, and the reason I went to all those pop-punk shows, were some of the least punk bands (or most depending on your definition) of that scene - The Hi-Fives and the Smugglers. They were the closest things to 60s garage I had at the time. They weren't a novelty to me... they were a door to greater things.

That said... I am still pretty loyal to Lookout Records up to 1997. Hell, I still wear my Pailey hoodie out and about even though lots of people hate that fucking bucket.

So this is all to say pop-punk turns out to be way more regional than I ever gave it credit for. Thankfully I just happened to be close enough to an awesome region. I also know without the Hi-Fives, Smugglers, and the Mr. T Experience I wouldn't be the person I am today.
posted by kendrak at 2:02 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm not a fan of pop punk, generally speaking. And every time I was at a house show they were playing at, I tended to sit on the front porch and listen to Blind Guardian with my other metalhead friends while drinking an Olde English 800 40oz with my ridiculously overpowered iPod speakers. But I am surprised Exploding Hearts aren't on more lists like this, they were really above and beyond other pop punk acts on every concievable level.
posted by mediocre at 2:14 PM on July 10, 2013


Aw, I just randomly quoted a Chixdiggit song the other day to a friend who totally didn't get the reference. This was exactly the kind of music I listened to in high school.

Also, Canada says more gob please.

Yes! That is the "scene" I grew up in and a bunch of my friends ended up in a gob music video B-Flat - a friend's dad was that newspaper stand guy... I can remember like two of the people's names from that video, but I remember the rest of their faces from shows.

My boyfriend grew up listening to "proper" punk and totally scoffs at me if I bring up anything I listened to, but it was all of this, plus MxPx, Less Than Jake, NOFX, etc. Awesommmmmme.
posted by urbanlenny at 2:22 PM on July 10, 2013


This is such an awesome post. Definitely missing J Church on the lists, though. I miss the days when there was a new J Church split single released every week.

It's a shame that Ben Weasel seems to have turned into a grumpy asshole, but I totally ride for Anthem For A New Tomorrow to this day. That's probably my favorite pop punk record ever.
posted by ndfine at 2:26 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I still fucking love The Queers. To an annoying and irrational degree.

Just today I was humming "See You Later Fuckface" for no apparent reason.

"See you in the funny pages! Fuck you!"

They're obnoxious and stupid and predictable and they make me deeply, deeply happy.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:40 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I still fucking love The Queers. To an annoying and irrational degree.

Yeah, same here, although the last time I saw them it seemed like they played forever, and I was staring to think that Joe Queer and whatever two guys he convinced to put up with him for a tour were just making up some of the songs on the spot.
posted by ndfine at 2:47 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


No Dead Milkmen?
posted by goo at 3:10 PM on July 10, 2013


I kind of avoided pop punk when it was big, because many of those bands seemed kind of contrived. It was either My Chemical Romance, Blink 182, and Fall Out Boy, or it was the bands that labels signed because they couldn't get My Chemical Romance, Blink 182, or Fall Out Boy. Since Ted Leo was on Lookout at the time I lumped him in with the guyliner-sporting jocks who wrote songs with really long titles. Smash-cut to 2013: I bought all the Ted Leo albums in a post-birthday binge and have been listening to them when I'm not listening to stuff to review.

And now I'm wondering what other bands I missed because I was callow and dismissive.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:13 PM on July 10, 2013


There's a whole lot of really great punk bands around right now that are reminiscent of those great melodic punk bands from the late 90s and early 2000s.

Iron Chic
RVIVR
Neon Piss

pretty much everything on DeadBrokeRekerds.
like Iron Chic and Sister Kisser!
posted by anoirmarie at 3:24 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


And now I'm wondering what other bands I missed because I was callow and dismissive.

You should really go back and listen to pre-2000 Blink-182...
posted by asterix at 4:29 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


The Jaded Punk list introduced me to Weston, who are amazing. At its best pop-punk is the purest musical form - quick songs about girls and love and partying. Love the Ramones, love Buzzcocks, love Masked Intruder who are really funny, love the whiny Wonder Years, even like the friend-zone-core pop-punk of Man Overboard who are playing Warped Tour Australia.



Wow - great list, this is a trip down memory lane. And please forgive my pop punk naivety, but no Jawbreaker?


there was another list of top 5 pop punk bands from some website a friend linked yesterday that had Jawbreaker
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:45 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


You know, I'm much more comfortable with hardcore and post-punk than pop-punk (i do love me some vandals, tho), but I'll read anything Mitch Clem writes. And listen to what he says to listen to while I do it.

He seems to be having a tough time right now and he's an American treasure in the rough, so everybody go buy his stuff, okay?
posted by lumpenprole at 4:45 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]



Mitch Clem is responding in a six part series, and it's better and baller.


huh? Against Me! are folk-punk, i think, not pop punk, which i guess only matters if you listen to so much catchy punk style guitar music that you need to subdivide it so that your playlists don't break spotify
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:53 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Just a personal opinion, as two of the bands up there are pretty much favorites of mine, and there's a couple that might be more representative/rockin':

Alkaline Trio - Cooking Wine

Lawrence Arms - 100 Resolutions and The Redness in the West (although Kevin Costner's Casino is also good, it's not on YouTube)

Millencolin - Bullion
posted by Ghidorah at 5:01 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


What prevents me from getting into pop punk is all of the singers seem to do this poor imitation of billie joe armstrong's voice, an imitation that has morphed over the years into this whiney, nasal, high-pitched croon. Why do they all have to sing like that?
posted by timsneezed at 5:40 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I don't know much about pop-punk, and I've only heard of a few of these groups. Are there any female musicians on that list?
posted by box at 6:17 PM on July 10, 2013


I have no recollection of where my Boris the Sprinkler tapes reside today, but after gah, after over 15 years, the intro monologe of Drugs and Masturbation is still seared deep into my brain.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 6:24 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


Awesome post. I was introduced to a lot of this music through skate videos in the early 90's. the first H Street video featured all Lookout bands if I remember and it was the first time I heard Green Day's Disapearing Boy. That song blew my mind and I've been a fan ever since.

Also, I'd nominate Snuff for the list even though they're definitely EpiFat.
posted by photoslob at 7:45 PM on July 10, 2013


There's a new 8-bit Masked Intruder video that just came out.. these guys are fantastic. They wear masks and write catchy songs!
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:50 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Welcome to my mind
posted by josher71 at 8:07 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


Hmm... so I guess that tumblr is run by someone +/- 3 years my age. So much focus on 90s Epitaph/Kung Fu Records/Fat Wreck Chords/Lookout, which is as it should be, but I can tell they've got an axe to grind about all the singalong emocore stuff from the last decade. I meam yeah flat-ironed-swoop-bangs and Pete Wentz and ADTR are all horrible but ive heard some good poppy punky shit out of Brand New and A Simple Plan, usually while kicking-and-screaming relinquishing control of the car stereo.

I was surprised there was no AFI or NOFX. I was less surprised there was no Lunachicks, but that's a band I would've included. Commercial as fuck and their output got increasingly embarassing soon after but I probably would've had Offspring's "Smash" on there.

And it may have just been because everyone and their Mom owned DOOKIE but I caught a whiff of elitism/hipsterdom that they chose KERPLUNK as the Green Day album they used.
posted by elr at 8:32 PM on July 10, 2013


Welcome to my mind

One of the best title tracks and opening songs to an album hands down. Definitely underrated. The whole album is worth several listens. Love you better is just a great love song. Sincere without being too cloying or goofy.

(Seriously, if you want to talk about the Hi-Fives... I can go on for days. I guess I'm considered "thee expert". Crowning achievement that.)

I think the goofiness of pop-punk is sort of a feature and a bug. Not everybody can be as wry and witty as Dr. Frank, but lord knows people keep trying. Sometime's endearingly dumb like the Queers, but often it's in that sort of sad zone of trying to be clever, but really not. Very teenager in that regard, but it's something that didn't age well in my mind. It's like all the guys kept trying to date jerky girls. (I'm having flashbacks to failed romance with pop-punk boys who were so clueless it hurt, and it's why we never dated.) Most of the pop-punk song writers who were guys who wrote songs about girls had seriously messed up ideas of dating and women, and no wonder they were alone.

And it may have just been because everyone and their Mom owned DOOKIE but I caught a whiff of elitism/hipsterdom that they chose KERPLUNK as the Green Day album they used.

Kerplunk is a damn fine album. Yeah it might be slightly cooler to cite it over Dookie because of Lookout vs. Warner, but I'd say it's been long enough (20 years) that really citing anything pre-American Idiot is fine.

Which will bring me to the most elitist thing I can say in this thread (other than touting my favourite band ever)... all of these lists are meaningless without Sweet Baby. We just had an argument over dinner about whether or not they are pop-punk. They were on the early edge of East Bay pop-punk and definitely influenced early Green Day. I contend they were one of the best, and more bands should rip them off. My partner wasn't convinced, but by the end of the album he agreed. So yeah... impress your friends and talk about how rad Sweet Baby (Jesus) are.
posted by kendrak at 9:20 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]



I think the goofiness of pop-punk is sort of a feature and a bug. Not everybody can be as wry and witty as Dr. Frank, but lord knows people keep trying. Sometime's endearingly dumb like the Queers, but often it's in that sort of sad zone of trying to be clever, but really not. Very teenager in that regard, but it's something that didn't age well in my mind. It's like all the guys kept trying to date jerky girls. (I'm having flashbacks to failed romance with pop-punk boys who were so clueless it hurt, and it's why we never dated.) Most of the pop-punk song writers who were guys who wrote songs about girls had seriously messed up ideas of dating and women, and no wonder they were alone.


That's a pretty mean thing to say.

Jaded Punk has an article where he talks about that and it makes me feel really bad, since I can still relate to lots of pop punk and I really enjoy its simplicity and straight up heart on the sleeveness. Especially stuff like Masked Intruder.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:40 PM on July 10, 2013


Fifteen. They played a show in the theatre in Petaluma like 2 years ago (Nostalgiafest?). It was weird being in that venue with a bunch of 40 year olds and their kids.

Also, I lurves me some Dillinger 4. I saw them a few times in Chicago. My favorite incident: Song ends, short dude (can't remember his name, but he wasn't the glasses giant - so he may have only been short by comparison) "I'd rather stick my head in the toilet of the Fireside Bowl than sleep on another floor in California". Then he gets off stage, goes into the bathroom and sticks his head in the toilet. Comes back on stage, starts next song.

The late '90's punk scene in the midwest was fucking brilliant, any genre.

Also Fuck this list if there's no J Church. RIP Lance.
posted by WASP-12b at 10:57 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


D4 is for the lovers.
I like them, and I only know them 'cause the Hold Steady reference them constantly.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 11:06 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Also, I must say I was heartened to see that the Legion of Doom in Columbus, OH still exists. Carrageenan will always have a spot in my heart for their classics "Dude, please watch my gramma while we practice" and the otter song, which I remember nothing about other than the intro, "Here's a song about otters. I wrote a paper about them. I got a D. I know about 'em".
posted by WASP-12b at 11:11 PM on July 10, 2013


God. I can't stop posting. I was in a casual carpool car with Danny Panic from Screeching Weasel 2-3 years back, I nearly wet myself.
posted by WASP-12b at 11:22 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


I gotta be patrotic and put in a vote for the Hard-Ons. And Capital City, a Perth band that nobody cared about and who wrote one perfect song.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 12:28 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


But if you're gonna reach back in time and claim the Buzzcocks, you also have to include Billy Idol's first band, Generation X.

Yeah, their first album (released in 1978) is very pop/commercial. The band has always seemed to me like it was “punk” in a manufactured way (both in sound and appearance) to cash-in on the latest teen craze. Nevertheless, that album has some good pop songs on it.

For example: “Ready, Steady Go”
posted by D.C. at 12:38 AM on July 11, 2013


I don't know much about pop-punk, and I've only heard of a few of these groups. Are there any female musicians on that list?

A lot of people don’t know that the Go-Go’s were originally a punk band (albeit on the poppy side), hanging out with and playing in the same clubs as other L.A.-area punk bands at the end of the 1970s.

This was before their major-label contract that led them to pop stardom, but there are recordings like the original Stiff Records single version of “How Much More” from 1980. They later re-recorded this song in their commercially-successful pop style for their first album in 1981.
posted by D.C. at 1:03 AM on July 11, 2013


There's a new guy at my school this year. He's about eight years younger than I am, and as often happens, an early getting-to-know-you conversation turned to music. I mentioned some of the bands I liked and had grown up with, mentioning a lot of ska-punk. He looked at me for a second and said, "you're 36, aren't you?"

I was taken aback. At the time, yes, i was 36, but age hadn't even come up. I asked, and he said it just sort of matched the music I liked. It's still sort of eerie.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:05 AM on July 11, 2013


I am actually shocked at how many of those I haven't heard of, let alone heard.
posted by Decani at 2:13 AM on July 11, 2013


all of these lists are meaningless without Sweet Baby

Yes. "It's A Girl" is a masterpiece.
posted by josher71 at 6:06 AM on July 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


I don't know much about pop-punk, and I've only heard of a few of these groups. Are there any female musicians on that list?

Mitch Clem's list has Discount's Half Fiction, who were a heavily Jawbreaker influenced punk band with vocals by Alison Mosshart who is now much more famous for being half of The Kills.
posted by ndfine at 8:13 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


That Discount album is uneven but has some good tracks.
posted by josher71 at 8:22 AM on July 11, 2013


Other female fronted bands you might want to check out: The Muffs, Tilt, The Dollyrots, and The Mixtapes.

Some people might throw bands like Cub into the mix, but I'd say they're more pop than punk. Sort of like Ted Leo. (Seriously, after 1998 I'd say Lookout stopped being a pop-punk label. See Ted Leo, Bis, Mary Timony, and the Oranges Band for proof.)
posted by kendrak at 8:33 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh man this takes me back to my years in San Diego. I practically lived at the Casbah.

Some suggestions,

Down By Law, Punkrockacademyfightsong
Unwritten Law, Blue Room
Bad Religion, Recipe for Hate

I know the Bad religion is a bit of a stretch but every punk list needs them on it and Recipe was IMO there most pop like album.

I am still in love with Chixdiggit to this day. I wonder how KJ's knees are holding up?
posted by The Violet Cypher at 8:34 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm late to this party, threadwise, but grew up heavily immersed in the midwest scene. (Cattle Club in Sioux CIty, anyone? The Daily Grind in KCMO? Cog Factory?)

Just thought it would be good to illuminate this thread with the presence of RVIVR, who I only recently accidentally found out about, and who have recorded just now one of the loveliest fucking records I've heard in a good long while. Contemporary pop punk rock out of Olymplia.

Mixed genders, great attitude, catchy licks, badass musicians across the board, carrying the ethical tradition forward.

Their new album, The Beauty Between.
posted by eyesontheroad at 9:27 AM on July 11, 2013 [4 favorites]


Right now Larry Livermore is hawking his new book and talking about pop-punk on WFMU.
posted by kendrak at 10:36 AM on July 11, 2013


Another amazing female act: The Need.
posted by WASP-12b at 11:31 AM on July 11, 2013


Sorry: the link to the newest RVIVR record I referenced is here.
posted by eyesontheroad at 11:44 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


(Self-titled)
posted by General Malaise at 11:07 AM on July 10 [+] [!]


Tanks you berry mooch.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:55 AM on July 11, 2013


The new RVIVR record is friggin' amazing. One of the best punk albums I've heard in probably a decade.

Part three of Mitch Clem's list has two female-fronted bands: The Epoxies and Go Sailor. Considering his love for female musicians (see part one), I bet parts 4-6/7 will feature more.
posted by General Malaise at 11:59 AM on July 11, 2013



I don't know much about pop-punk, and I've only heard of a few of these groups. Are there any female musicians on that list?


Against Me! are on Mitch Clem's list, and they're female-fronted now. The Thermals are kinda pop punk, kinda indie rock, and they count.

Spotify just told me to listen to Small Brown Bike, who are more on the Off With Their Heads side of orgcore than pop punk. I wanna plug some Australian bands: Milhouse, Suburban and Coke and The Smith Street Band.

If i posted images I'd post a Man Overboard 'Defend True Pop Punk' meme.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:49 PM on July 11, 2013


Great pop punk FPP's should not go up while I'm away at the lake. That said, the comments here were a fine read, even after the fact!
posted by jeffen at 8:04 AM on July 12, 2013


I just discovered Hostage Calm, and they're fantastic too.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:02 PM on July 15, 2013


Modern Baseball - The Weekend is also sweet
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 11:11 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


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