Favourite bands

[J.W.]

So what are your favourite punk bands?

[J.W.]

I'll start this one off.

Right now, my favourite punk bands would have to be:

The Stooges
The Damned
The Stranglers
The Dead Boys
The Ramones
Dead Kennedys
Buzzcocks
The Adicts
Black Flag
Rudimentary Peni
TSOL

[Nermin]

Well, I started listening punk with The sex pistols, they will always have a special place in my heart but my favorite punk rock band ever is the Ramones.

Besides Ramones, i enjoy listening to bad religion, the clash, patti smith, iggy pop, the misfits, NOXF, the offspring, the exploited, anti flag, against me!. i also listen to some commercial pop punk bands from time to time.

[Zoran]

I enjoyed various bands from Nermin's list at different times. At this moment, I think I would prefer Patti Smith.

Oh, and how about The Birthday Party?

Also, that punk cabaret / dark cabaret thing, stuff like "The Dresden Dolls"... do we count that as punk or as something else?

[J.W.]

I love Patti Smith, but I couldn't really get into her newest disk.

I think of The Birthday Party as post-punk. I think they were more punk when they were The Boys Next Door.

[Raquel]

TSOL is my favorite punk band, Darker My Love is my favorite love song! The Germs and X also have great songs, but don't have much stuff. I also like the Stranglers- even after they changed their style.
Patti Smith has an interesting background; she's a poet. But then again, didn't Sid also write a poem to Nancy?

[Ethan]

Just about everything listed above so I won't repeat any of those. I grew up in Washington, DC and will list some of the home town bands I loved.

Dag Nasty
Scream
Nation Of Ulysses
King Face
Swiz
G.I.
Marginal Man
Ignition
United Mutations
Madhouse
The Reply
Embrace
The Now

Some were better live and other on record.

[Ethan]

Rudimentary Peni?

I will have to look that up.

[Raquel]

Are there any ska punk bands worth listening to?

[Holly]

I got "Nevermind the Bollocks" as a birthday gift in 1979. I had never heard the Sex Pistols before, only read about them in the weird little rock mags I used to buy at the 7-11. The album sounded so different, strange, primal.....from the over-produced crap I heard on the radio.

So, the Sex Pistols, Ramones, the Clash, Bad Religion, Patti Smith Group are my faves. Also post-punk Nirvana, Green Day, the Switches, the Hives. Still love a lot of new-wave pop, B52's Elvis Costello, Go-Go's, stuff like that.

[Nermin]

I haven't listened to the hives or the switches but neither Nirvana nor Green Day is a post-punk band.

[Raquel]

Wow, it's awesome you've been around since the beginnings of punk! I actually like some 70s pop, though.

[Holly]

Raquel wrote: "Wow, it's awesome you've been around since the beginnings of punk! I actually like some 70s pop, though."

Yes, I remember a time before punk......I'm so glad it came along when it did! Shameful how the radio stations ignored it and tried to force feed us with crap like Styx, Foreigner & Journey.....to this day I cannot stand to listen to any of those bands.

[Holly]

Nermin wrote: "I haven't listened to the hives or the switches but neither Nirvana nor Green Day is a post-punk band."

Punk has rules now? Well LOL

[Nermin]

I don't remember saying Punk has rules. I simply said Nirvana and Green Day are not post-punk bands.

[Raquel]

Holly wrote: "Nermin wrote: "I haven't listened to the hives or the switches but neither Nirvana nor Green Day is a post-punk band."

Punk has rules now? Well LOL"

Dude yeah, they aren't. They're perfectly fine bands, but post-punk is more like the transitioning genre from punk of the 70s to the more moody, atmospheric goth rock of the 80s. I know classifying punk bands is kinda counterintuitive to the subculture, but if you don't, it won't be clear what kind of punk band you're talking about, since there is so much variety within punk.

[Holly]

Well, that's okay, I understand where you are coming from. I also hope you will understand that I'm just too old to be bothered with those kinds of details, it's all good stuff as far as I'm concerned.

That reminds me, have you ever listened to a band called Rancid? They have a ska thing going on.

[Nermin]

Oh, it's ok, Holly:) I hope I didn't offend you. I'm just a little too obsessed with classifying music genres:D

[Holly]

Nermin wrote: "Oh, it's ok, Holly:) I hope I didn't offend you. I'm just a little too obsessed with classifying music genres:D"

Not offended, I take it all in stride. I understand that you are seeing it from a different perspective.

[Raquel]

Thank you, Holly! I'll be sure to check them out :)
Well, I am so relieved that got cleared up. In the end, it's the music that matters!

[Hannah]

-Black Flag
-Anti-Flag
-The Adicts
-The Clash
-Agnostic Front
-The Exploited
-Sex Pistols
-Buzzcocks
-999
-Dropkick Murphys
-Sondaschule
-...

[Brian]

Jawbreaker
Face To Face
Embrace
Pennywise
Bad Religion
Descendents
Dag Nasty
Fugazi
Quit
and many, many more...

[Joshua]

Fear
The Queers
Piebald
Spinnerette
Bikini Kill
Bratmobile
Sleater-Kinney
Tribe8
The Pogues
Tsunami Bomb
Boys Night Out
Alkaline Trio
Mindless Self Indulgence
Pixies
The Flys
The Vandals

I know all or most of this isn't punk punk in the traditional sense, but it's still good music.

[Josef]

Ramones, TSOL, Dead Boys, Buzzcocks, UK Subs, Legal Weapon, Adolescents, Kraut, The Kids, Sex Pistols, Razors, The Saints, Los Violadores, Rude Kids, Angelic Upstarts and on and on....

[Paul]

Hi..I'm new to the group. Hello all!! Used to promote punk shows and was involved in the underground scene for a while. There are a lot of bands in the punk genre who are deserving of being termed 'best'. However in terms of being truly 'punk' in both attitude and sound, The Slits take some beating. They really did exactly as they wanted, with no influence of any other artist coming through. They also sounded like no other act...definitely no-one before them, and possibly no-one after. Not everyone's cup of tea for sure. But given a lot of bands do sound similar to each other, they stand out for me.

[DJ]

I gotta agree with Paul. There are tons of great punk bands but for me The Slits embodied the rebelliousness and DIY attitude better than anyone. They gave zero f***s before giving zero f***s was a thing.

Plus they wrote songs about challenging subjects and incorporated dub and reggae into their music, but with their own twist.

The Raincoats were similarly adventurous in terms of themes and musical variations. Also love Delta 5.

[Paul]

Yes to the Raincoats and Delta 5 too.

[Barry]

Hi all,

New member to the group but a very old punk - which may be why it took me so long to find my way here - who saw my first punk gig (The Jam) aged 14 years in 1977. I was already hooked, it had already changed my life, but from that moment on there was no turning back!

Some good lists above. May I just add The Saints (definitely one of my favourites) and Radio Birdman plus the Northern Irish bands like Stiff Little Fingers and all of the wonderful Good Vibrations bands: The Undertones, Protex, Rudi, The Outcasts etc.

Also, if anyone is interested in something a little different, ex Yugoslavia had a wonderfully vibrant (but little known outside the country and Eastern/Central Europe) punk scene which really took off from about 1979. Check out Pankrti, Paraf, KUD Idijoti, KBO! Obojeni Program and Boye. But so many others. There is also a brilliant (current) Serbian band called Repetitor.

I am just finishing writing a book called 'In Search of Tito's Punks' so I hope you wont mind if I share a link here when it is published - it has hyperlinks and an associated (quite eclectic) playlist so you could use it as a 'primer' to the ex Yugo scene if you so wished :-)

Cheers. Step lightly.

B