Music Lesson: Punk

Erin has already given everyone a previous music lesson, so now I guess it's my turn.

I started listening to punk music when I was a freshman in high school ('94 or so) starting off with some of the pop-punk stuff that made it to the radio (like Green Day, The Offspring, etc) and then branching out into some other varieties. I still like a lot of pop-punk stuff (more recently bands like Alkaline Trio, Motion City Soundtrack, Bayside, etc) but I generally prefer some of the more complex punk derivatives like math-punk, post-punk and post-hardcore stuff (like Fugazi, Jawbox, Thursday, etc).

Punk often gets a bad rap because of some of it's meaner participants, but there's a lot of friendly, thoughtful and intelligent punk bands out there. So in the spirit of introducing people to some of my favorite current punk bands, here goes:

Hot Water Music
Not totally current since they broke up in 2006. But they have since gotten back together and are starting to record a new album, so I still think it counts. Nice jarring rythms, gravelly voice and some harmonies.


Four Year Strong
Duelling vocals, nice rhythm changes, keyboards, Orange amps and EPIC beards :)


Pilot to Gunner

Out of Brooklyn with some clever rhymes and lyrics. Interesting rhythms to the music and vocals. (This song probably isn't their best example but it's their only video I saw on youtube).