Category: punk

Some of the Most Influential Albums from 1995! Part II

I vividly remember being at church one night in 1995, probably a Wednesday, and seeing a poster on the wall with Christian music artists. The poster was one of those that said, “If you like X then you’ll like Y.” Since, over the previous year, I dove into punk rock with the explosion of Rancid, Green Day, Offspring, and NOFX, I immediately searched for … Read More Some of the Most Influential Albums from 1995! Part II

Some of the Most Influential Albums from 1995! Part I

We all know that nostalgia is a hell of a drug, especially as we get older. In our progression towards succumbing to death, we constantly look backwards, finding comfort and solace in the past. Most of the time, we fail to interrogate that past, choosing instead to look at it through rose colored glasses, hoping to recapture some long lost reality that, in all … Read More Some of the Most Influential Albums from 1995! Part I

The Political Power of Punk: Dead Kennedys’ “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading some books from the 33 1/3 series, specifically Nick Attfield’s on Dinosaur Jr.’s 1987 album You’re Living All Over Me and Michael Stewart Foley’s on Dead Kennedys’ 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. Each has been thoroughly engaging, and Attfield’s writing serves, in a lot ways, as a master class on writing about music while Foley’s does an … Read More The Political Power of Punk: Dead Kennedys’ “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”

“Maybe that’s the real punk rock”: Hope and Humanity in James Gunn’s Superman

Even before James Gunn’s Superman debuted earlier this month, the right-wing, conservative backlash rose up to proclaim that Gunn’s adaptation didn’t adhere Superman’s ideology, calling it “Superwoke.” I do not want to argue about that here because I have written about Superman’s initial appearances before and how he has always pushed back against oppressive systems and championed immigrants. One need only look at Joe … Read More “Maybe that’s the real punk rock”: Hope and Humanity in James Gunn’s Superman

Speaking Truth to Power: Robert Fitzgerald’s “Hardcore Punk in the Age of Reagan”

Shut up, put one in the air’Cause when I get it, I get it out everywhereServing and slinging, I’m not sitting scaredElites don’t fight fair, I got no time to care40 years of Reaganomics, n****, this what we getN****, it is what it is, the world in service and shitDeliver food we spit in, can’t even cook for they kidsYo, my n**** stay flipping … Read More Speaking Truth to Power: Robert Fitzgerald’s “Hardcore Punk in the Age of Reagan”