This is the only REAL punk webpage on the 'net. All the other are just poseurs and freaks. Honest injun.
band webpages:
- Angelic Upstarts [official]
Anti-fascist Oi! band who made a lot of friends on their first US tour (on the east coast they bitched at Iron Cross because they "couldn't afford a fucking driver" or a tour bus, on the west coast they fucked with Youth Brigade and the other opening bands after BYO set up a HUGE show for them in LA, and no doubt they carried on in similiar fashion across the rest of the USA). Musically, they were solid punk rockers who released one great single (Liddle Towers), one great album (Two Million Voices), and a string of okay-ish 7"s and LPs. Very influential nowadays.
- Avengers [semi-official]
- Avengers - Penelope Houston [official]
The Avengers are often hailed as one of the finest (American) punk bands to come out of the 70's. For once, the critics are actually right. Influential San Francisco punks who seemed to spend more of their time in LA than SF...still, no one's perfect.
- Blaggers ITA [semi-official]
Militant anti-fascist Oi! band who weren't afraid to experiment musically. They did some dance/punk/rap crossover stuff that was pretty popular for a while. Like Rage Against the Machine, but for real.
- Bleach Boys [official]
Speedy, insane 77 punk. Tell 'em I sent you.
- Bunchofuckingoofs [official]
The band's name really says it all--a bike gang (that's bicycle, not motorcycle) turned humorous miltant straightedge drunk (don't ask) punk rocker dog-breeding vigilantes.
Whoah, I sounded like pushead for a minute there...
- Clash - London's Burning
The Clash. Period.
- Cock Sparrer [official]
More English Oi! boys, this time a genuine Small Faces influenced pre-punk band who happened to be included on the first two Oi! compilations by Gary Bushell. Check out their earliest (and best) recordings if you don't believe me.
- Crime [semi-official]
San Francisco's first and only rock n roll band. Need I say more?
- Die Kreuzen ['kin official]
weird, spastic, screaming, twisted hardcore from the midwest...
- Effigies [official]
The Effigies were one of Chicago's first (and best) punk bands. They played solid, solid, solid punk rock at a time when most bands were concerned with playing as fast as humanly possible.
- Hudson Falcons [official]
Rock and roll heroes of today. Left-wingers in a scene dominated by right-wing macho posturing and shaved heads.
- Husker Du
The started out as a generic thrash band, but soon slowed down and started writing songs with beginnings, middles and ends. Surely one of the most influential bands of the eighties.
- Iron Cross [official]
America's first Oi! band. There was definitely a bit of the right-wing knuckle-head in them when they started out, but after seeing first hand what the ideology really meant, they recanted (pretty vocally, too). Unfortunately the image of them as boneheads has persisted to this day.
- Killing Joke
Take industrial music as a concept, just a concept. Forget NIN, Ministry, Pig Face, Front 242 and all the rest. Forget lame disco played by pissed off white guys. Now, imagine a guitar-based band playing abrasive, hammering punk rock that you can dance to. That's Killing Joke. That's industrial.
- Macc Lads [official]
I'll pass on describing them. Like a British version of the Meatmen, but with more lawsuits.
- Magnificent [official?]
Really great mid-tempo Oi! from those wacky dutch folks. Someone needs to re-issue their first demo tape, for real.
- maninblack [official]
Andre S. (of the Press) has new band together. The demos are...interesting. I'll wait until there are full-band recordings though.
- MC5
Ach, the Mc5 are the greatest Scotch-American band ever. Mixing Celtic roots with American rock long before the Dropkick Murphys.
- Meatmen
Offensive. Funny, too. But mainly offensive.
- Minor Threat
Urgh. Forget everything you know about the straight edge movement and go listen to Minor Threat. Given their current following, it's kinda fitting that their only album had sheep on the cover...baaa...baaa...alcohol bad...straight edge good...
- Naked Raygun
Started out as unbelievably weird punk(?), but ended up believably normal pop.
- Negative Approach
Rage.
- Newtown Neurotics [official]
Ragged political pop band that's equal parts Clash and Ramones. With a combination like that, how can you lose?
- One Way System [official]
OWS are my personal faves from the whole UK82 scene. Musically and lyrically they were a step above the rest of the crowd (or in the case of the Exploited, several steps above).
- Sex Pistols [as official as it gets]
- Sex Pistols - recording sessions
The root from which the fruit grows.
- Stage Bottles [official]
Anti-fascists again. Great Oi! band from Germany with some very complicated arrangements and a saxophone player. Dig it.
- Stiff Little Fingers [official]
SLF are the fathers of hardcore. Go listen to their first album and tell me otherwise.
- Stooges
If you've ever heard the original version of Raw Power, you probably think the Stooges suck ass. They don't. Go snag a copy of the Iggy remix (NOT Rough Power on Bomp, the Raw Power re-issue on Columbia/Legacy) and witness one of the most unbelievably loud bands in the history of rock.
- Templars [official]
The best and most prolific of today's Oi! bands. I have great respect for their predominant method of recording--a four track in a garage. For some reason it works much better than a "real" studio does.
general reference:
- Break My Face, KBD collector type guy with some cool webpages.
- Chicago No Wave, hasn't been updated in years, and about half the pages don't work, but what's up is interesting.
- Collectorscum.com. Nice discography. Nice gallery of rarities to drool over.
- Contrast Hardcore Archive. Focus is on the late 80's early 90's NYHC scene.
- Flex, punk discography by a nutcase German guy.
- Jam, the Canadian music encyclopedia. Info on just about every band every to come out of the frozen north.
- Marie Kanger Born has an excellent website about Chicago punk and hardcore. It's highly recommended. You can also snag copies of her old zine, Bullshit Detector, there.
- Kill From the Heart, new, huge and EXCELLENT website devoted to hardcore. I plug them every chance I get.
- Killed by Hype, a friendly KBD collector type person.
- Mark Prindle will review anything. ANYTHING.
- NKVD Records/Noise for Heroes, cool zine/record label/distro. Dig the interview with the Members...
- No Cause for Concern, an old Canadian punk zine now online.
- Oi! American Oi!, classic Oi! bands of yesterday and today.
- Oi! It's Streetpunk, politically he's a fence-sitting fool, but his website was one of the best Oi! resources on the net, especially the A-Z of Oi! (which never got past the letter B, for some reason). Let's hope he brings the content back soon. And opens his eyes...
- Oi! the Website. The grand-daddy of all Oi! websites. Still doesn't explain why skins feel the need to prefix everything with "Oi! the". I should print up an "Oi! the T-Shirt" and make a fortune...or maybe form "Oi! the band!"...
- Punk 77, Paul Marko's excellent webpage on the early UK punk scene. Remember, punk died the minute the Clash signed to CBS...
- Punk Fix, kinda cool website, punk articles and interviews from everywhere, every time.
- Punknet 77, been around forever and still growing.
- Twin Cities Punk, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Husker Du, Mansized Action, the Replacements and more. Nuff said.
- UK82, the site name really says it all.
- Windy City Punk, a website devoted to the Chicago scene. Mostly oldtimers.
- Women of 1970's punk, okay website devoted to the female elements of the 70's punk scene.
misc. websites:
- Jockey Club, nice site devoted to one of the thousands of clubs that sprang up, thrived (briefly) and died in the 80's.
commercial links:
I've personally used all of these sites to buy music, and for the most part I've had positive experiences. Just never buy ANYTHING from roundflat on eBay.
- AuGoGo, yup the legendary Aussie record label/store/mailorder folks. You can get some real gems for chicken-feed since Oz money is worth even less than Canadian currency. Very friendly folks, BTW.
- Bomp, ugly website (I should talk...), but a huge catalog, and definitely the primo source for Stooges and MC5 stuff.
- Captain Oi!, reissue label in the vein of link/dojo--except Captain Oi! actually pays royalties. Pricey though, CDs are $15 a pop.
- CDNow, biggest CD seller on the net? In print stuff at retail prices, plus shipping, so why not buy it locally? CDNow have just been bought by Amazon, and I've never been too fond of Amazon's service, interface or prices.
- Dr. Strange, big list of moderately rare records, with updates every week or two. Prices are kinda high, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet...
- eBay, the place to pay big bucks for bad records, and occasionally pennies for a gem. Just don't buy anything from roundflat or "addrecords@hotmail.com"...
- GEMM, big selection, but the prices are worse than ebay, and everyone's incapable of distinguishing between 7"s and 12"s, which can be really fucking annoying. The fact that no one seems to update their catalog (at least half the time, the records I order are already gone) is a frickin' pain as well. And have I mentioned that the prices are astronomical? $50 for the Savage Beliefs 7"? I passed one up for $5 because I thought it was a bit pricey... $80 for Busted at Oz? Howsabout $115 for Strike Under's 12"? Gimme a break...
- half.com, if it's in print and on CD, chances are you can get it here for four or five bucks. Movies and lit-ur-a-chure as well.
- Havoc Records, hardcore's own uber-patriot, Felix Havoc.
- Hot Platters, an old style record/music memorabilia auction house. Not much punk, but there are occasional gems (Young Lions LP for $10! Big Black press kit for $5!).
- Netsounds, big selection of stuff, more reasonable prices than GEMM, but most of their sellers are overseas, and they lack secure credit card processing facilities. I've bought a TON of stuff through these guys, and I've never had any problems.
- Sound Exchange. Expensive, but reasonably fast and friendly service.
- Time Box Records, not much punk stuff. Prices are okay when they have something interesting.
- Vintage Vinyl Mail Order, notoriously over-priced (see the reference to them in High Fidelity) but the mail order service is pretty good, even if the prices aren't.
- Vinyl Ink, RIP.
- Vital Music, very fast service.