I’m working on Viet Nam by Minutemen right now and besides the fact that I’m nowhere near good enough to pull off Mike Watt basslines yet, it is an absolute blast to play. Cashout by Fugazi is right up there too (although that might be more post hardcore than punk).
Its early and the coffee is still soaking in. I’m sure I’ll be all over this one this afternoon. I’m totally stoked to go through this lesson though. I still struggle playing at punk rock pace.
I’m no good with a pick yet but this gave me the idea to use Blitzkrieg Bop as a chugging exercise. Feel like a marathon! Right now I can do it (finger style) at about 142bpm down from 177.
One of these days I should learn to use the picks I bought…
Oh man. You got Descendents, Misfits, Fugazi and Dead Kennedys in there, awesome.
Missing Hüsker Dü though but hey you got plenty of greats and Greg Norton’s got some tricky lines sometimes.
My two favorites I have played are punk on the borderline of other genres… Hüsker Dü’s “Don’t Wanna Know if You Are Lonely” (punk/post-hardcore) and Public Image Limited’s “Public Image” (punk/post-punk).
I dunno.
They’re top tier on everyone’s list that is into the genre.
I mean, I think I know what you’re saying, but it’s also kind of a staple that whatever band is popular will point you to the underrated band that is more badass and formative?
I see that in heaps of places.
NOFX gets lots of love in punk land, but I see your point that Green Day and Blink 182 were out in front, obscuring the lights for all the bands that put them where they were.
But Op Ivy, Rancid, NOFX, Bad Religion, all those other bands that set up those dominoes are definitely the ones that have the bone fides.
The Decline is one of the greatest feats of music I’ve heard in my life. Like, I really believe that. The vid that Josh links to in the YT thing is so powerful and glorious.
Those lyrics with that repeating theme with the non-stop punk riff assault is just the best.
So, in conclusion, totally agree, but just digging into what it means to be underrated, and who is doing the rating.
I mean, pop culture can’t rate things.
They still think Steely Dan is good!
This is exactly what I was getting at and a great example was the Green Day/Gilman banning and controversy. Back in the '90s there was a kind of ugly undercurrent that bands like that weren’t “real punk”. And I think NoFX was lumped in at the time, simply because they got play on Live 105.
Yep yep yep.
And, like all cool musical movements, the good stuff gets copied, and then there’s copies of copies as the rush to hit the cool thing happens… and you get Lit and Fallout Boy (I know they’re huge, but they still fall into the camp of after-the-after-wave for me) and all the other ones that I remember from my local scene here in Northern California.
Hell.
I was in a band called Bollux with my brother, and we just did Green Day covers or originals that sounded like Green Day covers.
Also, we wanted to be cool and punk and british, thus the cool band name.
I don’t know any basslines yet, lol, but this is awesome. Playing punk is actually my ultimate goal with this. I’m looking forward to learning some Violent Femmes and Slaughter & The Dogs.
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