DJ Jim Q's Playlist: PUNK

How about this month’s theme, PUNK! Thank you Bolonga chapter of CreativeMornings for such a music focused theme. But on second thought, how should I approach this? While punk music is certainly plentiful, songs actually about punk are a little harder to find.

Given this scarcity and specificity, this playlist skews towards an older catalogue. Most songs about punks are by, well, punks, so expect a tracklist of fast tempo blast beats, poorly tuned distorted guitars and lots of screaming. There are some deviations but just be prepared, this might be a bit raucous for the morning, or maybe it’s the perfect soundtrack to wake you up.

Well, the kids are all hopped up and ready to go

They’re ready to go now

They got their surfboards and they’re going to the discotheque-a-go-go

But she just couldn’t stay

She had to break away

Well, New York City really has it all

That opening verse to The Ramones 1977 anthem Sheena is a Punk Rocker, kinda says it all. Punk was a choice to break away from the crowd and set your own path. The protagonist choosing the gritty streets of New York to a blissful day at the beach with the other kids is pretty punk rock.

Punk grew out of the dark crevices of a New York City that would likely be unrecognizable to the current young professional inhabitants. New York City in the 70s was roooooough. Dire economic decline along with people fleeing the city en masse for the safety and serenity of the suburbs, sent the city into a dark spiral. Crime was an ever present threat and New York was literally decaying from within. It was against this desolate backdrop that punk emerged from the dive clubs and makeshift art spaces, propelled by the residual influences of Andy Wharhol’s Factory scene and the eclectic urban characters that filled the cheap apartments in the east village. I won’t attempt to squeeze that story in here, it is territory so well covered by so many people it’s become cliche and almost formulaic. …well it all started on the lower east side, CBGB, The New York Dolls blah, blah, blah. I scoff, but it is actually a great story, especially when told by those that were there.

The book Please Kill Me is an enthralling oral history of the punk evolution through the earliest proto punk up through the 90s. I highly recommend reading it, it’s one of my favorite music books. A warning though to the thin-skinned, it is not a book for those easily offended, or for those seeking heros, it’s pretty raw and dark and by all accounts true.

Punk was an organic creative movement, a revolutionary rejection of the established music that dominated culture at the time. FM radio ruled, mega rock groups filled arenas, elaborate studio productions stocked the shelves of record stores, polished pop acts performed nightly on prime time television, participation in music seemed out of reach for the average kid.

Alternatively, Punk was a creative outlet for anyone, attitude over aptitude, all you needed was three chords and a sneer. Simplicity and potency were revered and excess was scorned. It was a true counter-culture, aggressively anti-culture even. Born in the 70s, Punk has ebbed and flowed over the decades from the pioneering bands of the East Village scene, to the shores across the Atlantic, infecting the young British kids with the sounds of the underground. 

Punk experienced some diffusion and dilution towards the end of the 70s, it also became a punchline or caricature in pop culture with the liberty spike mohawks and safety pin piercing. Musically, it also became watered down and was co-opted by other genres in less threatening forms. However, before long and in reaction to this softening, punk came stomping back in the 80s in an even more potent and militant form called hardcore.

Hardcore was an extra concentrated form of the art, more punk than punk, faster, louder, more dogmatically independant. Bands from Washington DC of all places were some of the most influential. Bad Brains and Minor Threat were vanguards of this resurgence, but similar bands sprouted up throughout North America. Black Flag, Cromags, Circle Jerks, Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law, Dead Kennedys and countless other small town outfits carved out a place for themselves and their community of outsiders.

This ecosystem evolved into a rich network of amateur booking agents and venues and zines, cheap recording studios, hand made merch and 7"s all under the radar of mainstream music and fueled by D.I.Y. ideology. Also, it's important to note that these kids did all of this coordination without email, social media or cell phones.

As is the way Hardcore eventually outgrew itself evolving into more elaborate more diverse musical forms, emo was an outgrowth of hardcore and also grunge owes more to punk and hardcore than rock and roll. Punk continue to influence culture and music, less shocking or unique as it once was, punk is most authentic when it is more about non conformity and creativity then style. It is an ethos of  independence, inclusivity, equality, ingenuity and creativity; tenants I believe we can all embrace, even if some of us don't like the music. 

Come all rebel rousers, nonconformists and weirdos, this month’s playlist is for the defiant at heart. The theme is Punk, and through this tracklist we will examine all angles of the culture and characters. “Our band could be your life”, The Minute Men open the playlist with that invitation from the first verse of their uncharacteristically sentimental tune, “History Lesson pt II”. The Replacement, examine the loneliness and melancholy of the a traveling independent band with “left of the dial”, X-Ray Spex celebrate the expressive exibitionism of punk with “I am a Poseur” and closing with Neil Young’s assessment of the new wave of rebels in “My My Hey Hey, Out of the Blue”, in true punk fashion he sings “it’s better to burn out than to fade away”, a line Kurt Cobain would later borrow to bid the world a farewell in his final note.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoy these playlists I would love to hear from you. Give a hollar on Bluesky and be sure to follow me on Spotify. See you next month with a new collection of tracks.