All great artists require some form of inspiration, a spark that drives their work. Inspiration can be found everywhere and, of course, a lot of guys find their inspiration in girls. Let’s take a look at a few of rock’s most notable muses, the women who inspired the songs we love.

Friday, February 25th marked the unfortunate passing of Suze Rotolo. Even if you aren’t sure who she was, you should probably be thanking her for some of the best music of the 20th century. If you care at all about folk music or Dylan’s early recordings then you’ve almost certainly seen her. Rotolo is the young woman locking arms with Bob Dylan on the iconic cover of The Freewheelin Bob Dylan. Rotolo was not some cover model or even a little fling for the young Dylan, mind you. Dylan describes his initial attraction and infatuation with Rotolo in colorful terms, with Suze leaving “his head spinning” and her reminding the young Dylan of a, “Rodin sculpture come to life… a libertine heroine.”

During their courtship, Rotolo is credited with introducing Dylan to the Civil Rights movement and is cited as the inspiration for classics such as “Boots of Spanish Leather” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. Rotolo and Dylan stayed together for four years before they eventually split, their relationship both passionate and tempestuous. Rotolo rarely talked about her relationship with Dylan after their split. Instead, she focused her energies on Civil Rights, social activism and her own works as an artist for the remainder of her life.

Pattie Boyd is another notable rock muse but she gets extra points for both quality and quantity—Boyd was married to both George Harrison and Eric Clapton for nearly a decade each. Not at the same time, of course. Boyd and Harrison met on the set of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night when Boyd was cast as a schoolgirl fan in March of 1964. By January of 1966 the pair were married. Not unlike Rotolo, Boyd was an influence on the trajectory her beau’s career. It was her interest in Eastern religions that helped motivate the band to meet with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. However,  Boyd and Harrison’s courtship was quite rocky; Boyd, a model, reportedly attracted the attentions of John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood before her marriage with Harrison crumbled and they divorced in 1974.

Before their marriage ended, George Harrison befriended Eric Clapton and despite the close association they had with one another, Clapton fell in love with and made many advances towards Boyd during this time. Clapton even famously shacked up with Boyd’s younger sister for a time, allegedly using her as a substitute for Pattie. Eventually Clapton and Boyd would wed in 1979 but their relationship was even more rocky due to Clapton’s infidelity and drug addictions. The couple eventually split in 1989 but it’s worth noting that Boyd stayed close with both of her rock star former husbands after their marriages ended. To top it all off, Boyd can also state that she’s the inspiration for songs by both Harrison and Clapton, most notably “Layla” which is regarded as one of the great rock love songs of all time.

Bebe Buell is probably the most prolific of rock and roll muses based on the number of confirmed liaisons she had with prominent rockers, not to mention the speculative hook ups. Buell was in a long-term, open relationship with prog rocker Todd Rundgren through the late ’70s and early ’80s. From her book Rebel Heart: An American Rock ‘n’ Roll Journey, “Todd and I respected each other enough to keep our affairs discreet, and when one was over, we fell back into each other’s arms.”

Around this time period, Bebe can be linked to Elvis Costello (who may or may not have used their relationship for inspiration on Get Happy!! and Blood & Chocolate), Stephen Tyler (Buell is Liv Tyler’s mom) and John Taylor of Duran Duran fame  (we guess because he was in Duran Duran). It’s also alleged that Buell has shacked up with Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and numerous other rock stars. Buell has even made the claim that Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” is about her, despite the inconvenient truth that the two didn’t know each other when the song was written. However, Buell shouldn’t fret as her place in rock muse history had already been well established. In addition to all of her rock star encounters, she’s the inspiration for the character Penny Lane in Almost Famous. Not too shabby.

There are certain countries that are considered to be a cut above the rest in terms of the metal they produce. At the top of the metal food chain are countries like Canada, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, the UK and the US—but who reigns supreme in the metal world? There is a strong case to be made for each of these countries, but in the last two decades it’s hard to argue against Sweden as metal’s capital.

Alternative metal band, Katatonia

Though Sweden might not have the most metal bands out of all these countries (that title probably belongs to the US), they have birthed a few bands in the last few decades that have gone on to pioneer, revolutionize, or create a new sub-genre of metal. Bands such as In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates are the forefathers melodic death metal (and what would be come to known as the “Gothenburg sound”). Meshuggah are often considered one of the most unique metal bands of today, inspiring countless bands to come after them are—they’re also often cited as the main influence for the recent trend of “djent” bands). Opeth is largely considered the pinnacle for progressive death metal bands, with each of their nine full-length albums earning extremely positive critical response. Candlemass is one of the original epic doom metal bands that would carve the modern and current definition of doom metal.

The legendary Dark Tranquillity

Even if you take out the list of heavily influential metal bands that shaped the current lay of the metal land, you’re still left with a list of massively talented bands: Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Katatonia, Bathory, Hypocrisy, Bloodbath, Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, Cult of Luna, and the list goes on. One of the biggest deciding factors, in addition to the quality of these bands, is their longevity. Even pioneering bands like Dark Tranquillity, Opeth and Meshuggah are still putting out landmark releases. That’s what it’s all about: sustained, high quality, albums year after year.

Of course, there can be strong arguments made for any of the aforementioned countries—the UK produced Motörhead, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest and creating the entire genre of metal. The US can be credited for producing the “big four” of thrash, among countless other great bands. Still, even considering all of the arguments for other countries to reign supreme, it’s hard to argue against Sweden.

Fame is seldom more of a double-edged sword than when you’re trying to sneak your way around it. Such is the dilemma faced by Beady Eye, the band that was created when the chronically fractious relationship between Oasis’s battling siblings Liam and Noel Gallagher finally imploded for good in 2009. Beady Eye is basically Oasis minus frontman Liam, and try as they might, it seems highly unlikely that they’ll be viewed otherwise. On some level, that’s fair. Noel was, after all, the main songwriter in Oasis, and beyond coming up with a different name—which was probably a legal necessity—he hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to distance himself from that legacy, continuing on with the same musicians and remaining in the same general Britpop bag. He’s even abandoned the guitar so he can stand out front, bent over at the waist, with his hands behind his back a la Liam.

On the other hand— the one that’s held out in a futile attempt to stop the British press’s ludicrous comparisons between Beady Eye’s debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding, and early Oasis—this is not Oasis, anymore than, say, New Order was Joy Division after Ian Curtis departed this mortal vale. The one thing both Gallagher brothers might conceivably agree on is the fact that Oasis can’t exist without both of them. And while few new indie bands—Different Gear is out on the band’s own label in the UK and the small Dangerbird imprint stateside—without Beady Eye’s pedigree would get as much attention, even fewer would face as many lofty expectations and harsh comparisons.

Whichever side of the question you come down on, in the end there’s really only one salient question to be asked: What does the album sound like? Well, it should surprise no one on either side to learn that it’s no Definitely Maybe or (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, but it’s also considerably more fun than Oasis’s swan song, Dig Out Your Soul, and on its own merits it’s not half bad. Without the Oasis name hanging over his head—in theory, at least—it’s possible for Noel to leave some of the baggage behind. He no longer sounds like he’s trying to maintain the title of England’s Greatest Band; when he sings “I just wanna rock & roll” on “Beatles & Stones” (ironically one of the album’s least Beatlesque tracks), it’s easy to believe him. While there are plenty of undeniable Oasis touches here and there, Different Gear feels lighter, capable of achieving higher velocity with less fuel intake; in other words, the rockers have some roll to them for a change, and it seems like Noel and company are actually having fun.

The pop hooks that have always been a mainstay of Gallagher’s trickbag get more breathing room as well. Steve Lilywhite’s work here serves as a reminder that the super-producer was at the helm of The La’s legendary debut album, widely regarded as one of the greatest power-pop records of the ‘90s, not to mention later releases by similarly sparkling popsters such as Crowded House and Guster. “For Anyone” is a perfect, breezy, two-minute pop gem that would have been right at home on The La’s lone album, while “Kill For a Dream” could have found it’s own room in a Crowded House. That said, Different Gear is no slamdunk; the Beatles reference points that pop up throughout the album seem almost obligatory at this point, while the glam-rock side of Noel’s influences bears less fruit than his poppier inspirations. And while a fair amount of Oasis-esque fat has been trimmed away, the tendency to repeat the chorus ad infinitum at the end of a song remains an annoying habit.

All in all, though, there’s more to be said for the album than many are likely to admit. In terms of Different Gear’s eventual reception, the US never really got the Gallaghers to begin with, so it’s unlikely that they’ll start now, and the three singles released in advance of the album in the UK didn’t exactly set the charts aflame. If England’s uncertain response thus far is an honest reaction to the music itself, that’s one thing; if it’s born of an insistence upon Beady Eye living up to past glories that even Oasis itself could no longer manage, then Noel—for perhaps the first time in his high-flying career— is being shortchanged.

This week’s post is bittersweet. Not only will I be writing about how my favorite member left one of my favorite bands, but this post will be the last installment of Punk On The Rocks. In a way, this is very fitting. My first real foray into blogging was a MySpace post about why I should have Scott Klopfenstein’s children (Yes, really). Scott was always my favorite member of Reel Big Fish. I can’t say for certain whether it was his sense of humor, his voice, his glasses and shaggy hair or his way with a horn, but for some reason he was the band member I felt connected with. Now that he has had an actual child (Not with me, sadly) and with Reel Big Fish is celebrating twenty years as a band, he has decided that it is time to leave behind the life of a touring musician. As a way to say thank you to him for his many years of service in the two-tone army, I have written the following tribute: The Top 5 Reasons I’ll Miss Scott Klopfenstein.

So long Scott, and thanks for all the Reel Big Fish

5. The Dashing Good Looks – Give me a man with glasses, boyish good looks and a trumpet and watch me melt like a stick of butter in a microwave.

4. The Sense Of Humor -  Scott and RBF frontman Aaron Barrett are the ska equivalent of Blink 182′s Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge. Their stage banter isn’t just filler, it is part of why you came to see the show in the first place. Scott even manages to steal the show with his hilarious commentary track on Reel Big Fish’s 2003 live DVD Reel Big Fish Live At The House Of Blues – The Show Must Go Off!

3. The Harmonies -  As someone who has played in a few bands, I know how hard it is to find a person whose voice meshes perfectly with yours when you sing in harmony. Scott’s voice is a perfect foil to Aaron’s, and for me at least, their tight vocal harmonies largely define what I consider to be the Reel Big Fish sound. Sure, they’ll find someone else to sing Scott’s parts— but it just won’t be the same.

2.  “Scott’s A Dork” -Classic Reel Big Fish track “Scott’s A Dork” just won’t be the same with out Scott singing along about how he’s a dork. Will they even PLAY “Scott’s A Dork” without Scott? Will I never get to hear ” Dork Dork Dork Dork Dork Dork Dork Dork Dork” again? Oh, the humanity!

1. The Lead Vocals – While Scott sang mostly backup vocals, the few instances where he would sing lead were always highlights for me. Knowing that I’ll never hear him belt “Drunk Again” live is the number one reason that I will miss Scott Klopfenstein.

What do you think about Scott Klopfenstein leaving Reel Big Fish? Let us know in the comments section!

I hope that you all enjoyed reading Punk On the Rocks as much as I enjoyed writing it. Keep your music fast and loud—Gabba Gabba Hey!

Those whose hearts palpitate in time to the songs of Robbie Robertson—both his Band-era milestones and solo hits such as “Broken Arrow” and “Somewhere Down The Crazy River”— have had to endure a long period of silence from the legendary singer/songwriter/guitarist. Robertson’s last album was Contact From the Underworld of Redboy, a 1998 release informed by the electronic sensibilities of producer Howie B. But just a couple of weeks ago, the thirteen-year silence was broken by “He Don’t Live Here No More,” the first single from Robertson’s fifth solo album, How To Become Clairvoyant, which is scheduled for an April 5 release. The single, like much of the album itself, bears a deep, swampy, blues-rock groove and a natural-sounding, lived-in feel that has more in common with Robertson’s early solo outings than his last couple of releases, which boasted a more modernized approach. The production style proves to be the perfect complement to the tunes, which share a retrospective, even nostalgic purview. “I can’t think of one song on the record that doesn’t have that quality,” affirms Robertson, during our conversation about Clairvoyant.

Robertson’s got some old friends helping out on the record too, including Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood. “Eric and I first started talking about doing something like 10 years ago or more,” Robertson recalls, “and we got together, but we didn’t have anything specific in mind. We’re old friends, so we were hanging out and playing a little music and telling stories…but it was just kind of dipping our toe in the water. Him and I did a few things probably over a three-week period when he was in Los Angeles. Some time later…I came across the project that him and I had started, and I thought ‘Wow, there’s much more here than what I remembered.’ So I called him and I said ‘We’ve got some interesting stuff that we started,’ and he said ‘I always thought so.’” The next thing he knew, Robertson was on a plane to London at Clapton’s behest, to record a full-blown album. “He was just a great friend in all of it,” Robertson says of the British guitar hero, “just being so supportive. He said ‘I just want you to make a record. If I can be part of it and be supportive in it, I’m just glad to do it.’ So that was nice inspiration too.” Another old compatriot on hand for the sessions was Steve Winwood. “I met Steve when I was 20-years-old and I was playing with Bob Dylan, and we were touring England,” recalls Robertson. “That was in 1966 I think, so I’ve known him that long.”

But Robertson’s other musical endeavors elongated the production process of Clairvoyant. The London tracks turned out well, but “Right after we cut them, Martin Scorsese asked me if I would help him figure out the music for Shutter Island,” says Robertson. “So I went off and did that. It was a more lengthy process than I thought, because for that soundtrack I wanted to use modern classical music, and although I knew something about what that was, I wanted to do more research. So the work on that…it took a while. Then I came back to the record, and I finished it up by myself and with the other people that I brought in to work on it, like Trent Reznor and [ex-Rage Against The Machine guitarist] Tom Morello and Robert Randolph.” So how did industrial-music icon Trent “Nine Inch Nails” Reznor end up in the mix? “In this last little while, he’s been leaning in a cinematic direction,” explains Robertson, “and he did the music for Social Network. This song that Eric and I had written, “Madame X,” we had laid down a basic track, but what I was really looking for was…something that had a timeless quality to it, but I wanted to put a new, modern kind of spin on it as well. I thought those two worlds would fit together really nice, so I asked Trent if he would do a treatment on this.”

But despite the occasional presence of more contemporary-minded contributors like Reznor and Morello, How To Become Clairvoyant remains a rootsy, earthy piece of work, and the songs seem to touch on earlier phases of Robertson’s life. “This Is Where I Get Off,” for instance, deals with his split from his buddies in The Band, while “Straight Down The Line” celebrates pre-rock & roll-era artists’ insistence on standing their stylistic ground, regardless of changing trends. Robertson says the seed of the idea had to do with Mahalia Jackson. “I had suggested a few years ago that she be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence,” he says, “because she was a complete inspiration, and she’s one of the greatest female singers of all time. And the answer back from her family was ‘That’s okay, we’d rather not.’ Because she always said ‘I do not play no rock and roll.’ [a key line in Robertson’s song] And Frank Sinatra, when rock and roll first came out, he was like, ‘Well this shit’s only gonna be around for six months anyway.’ I just like that attitude, some people were just bold enough to say ‘Nah, I don’t buy it.’”

“When The Night Was Young” looks back wistfully on the idealism of the ‘60s counterculture that 67-year-old Robertson was part of. “The youth of the nation, and the youth of the world, ultimately felt like ‘We’re not just gonna stand here and watch wrong things happen, we’re gonna stand up and we’re gonna make a difference.’ That war [in Vietnam] was called to a halt, because everybody said ‘We don’t want this,’ and it really was the voice of a generation telling the governments and the world ‘You’re gonna have to stop this.’ And they did. When we played at Woodstock, people were getting up saying ‘There’s a half a million of us here, and we’re all here today for peace, and we want this war to go away.’ And at that point people were saying ‘You know what, we’re gonna have to listen to some of this shit, we just can’t ignore it anymore.’ It was a powerful feeling, and we don’t have that now, we don’t really feel that in the air.”

On How To Become Clairvoyant, the listeners who grew up with Robertson’s music will recognize pieces of their own past, but younger generations can still get a feeling for the sense of history that pervades the album. The tunes themselves, of course, come with no age requirements for their enjoyment, and Robertson’s followers can exhale at last, content in the knowledge that their pied piper is back at work. “I choose to make records when I feel inspired to do so,” he says, “otherwise I’d rather not,” and inspiration appears to have been a key ingredient in Robertson’s latest sonic statement.

LCD Soundsystem announced their last show of their final tour a few weeks ago, as though you hadn’t already heard. On April 2nd, the band will grace the stage at Madison Square Garden for their sold out farewell show, capping off a valediction of both shocking and well deserved amounts of hype. They will play their swan song, they will leave the stage and that will be the end of one of the great dance-punk bands of our generation. We’re still bummed that we couldn’t get tickets to that show, or to any of  the ever increasing number of gigs leading up to the MSG date (Side note: kudos to James Murphy for blasting the scalpers! Seriously, that guy is a class act).

But that’s beside the point. It got us thinking, LCD Soundsystem made a big deal out of this being their farewell tour but they hadn’t really earned their bonafides a live band du jour, as a touring entity, up until that point. Unlike LCD, there are some bands that have always made a big deal out of their live show, that seem to exist only to tour. Not that that’s a bad thing. Let’s take a look at some of the artists we hope never stop touring:

Bob Dylan

A rolling stone gathers no moss, and even though Dylan is old enough to have moss grow on him, there’s no stopping this man’s touring regimen. His tour schedule since June of 1988 has been dubbed the “Never Ending Tour“; this globe-trotting tour has Dylan performing around 100 days out of the year, and he’s kept up this pace in spite of the fact that he’s almost a septuagenarian. You’d think the man might want a break or a nap or something after so many years. Still, he’s already got April dates lined up in Australia. We should count ourselves lucky that we’ve heard so much from him, and we’ll probably be hearing more from Bob in years to come.

Reel Big Fish

These ska-punk workhorses have been at it longer than most of their ilk from the mid ’90s. You could’ve gone to see them at some festival in middle school, you caught them in the club when they headlined in high school and you went to their show again in college when you were feeling a wee bit nostalgic. They just wrapped up a tour with fellow goof-punk road warriors The Aquabats in January. So what do they have on their plate for the upcoming year? A European tour, you say? Suprise suprise.

Phish

This spot could have easily gone to Dave Matthews Band if they weren’t planning on taking 2011 off, kinda. And sure, some may cry foul as there was a long stretch when Phish didn’t tour, but we won’t count periods of band hiatuses/ breakups.

Phish’s reputation as a band is based off of their live show. Not only in how technically good it is or how “communal” (read: chemically altered) the atmosphere at one of their gigs is but also in how Phish fosters the live experience with their fans. For those who don’t follow the band, Phish’s fandom is reminiscent of the Grateful Dead’s and a lot of other prominent jam bands of yore. And a big aspect of that culture is bootlegging. I won’t go into the number of Phish phan phorums (I’m sorry) on the Internet; suffice it to say, they’re numerous. The online dedication to Phish is also unique in the number of ways fans can get their hands on live material from the band. You can find high quality audio recordings from nearly every live set the band has done on their Web site and the fan bootlegs and set lists for Phish shows spanning their entire career can be found all over the web.

Frank Turner

The man has been in the solo game for about 5 years now and has taken to touring with a workmanlike approach. There’s no need to count his time in hardcore band Million Dead in his total number of shows played because his solo schedule is so impressive that it speaks for itself. Since Turner started flying solo, he’s played over 1000 shows at a rate of a little over 200 shows a year. And he’s still had time to record three LPs, a handful of EPs and demos on top of all that. I wonder if he’ll go out on the road behind his next album?

What artist would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments.

Look, this is 2011 after all—you’d think it would be safe to assume that every ’80s band with an inclination to reunite would have done so by now. After all, over the last year we’ve had brand new albums from such happily reconvened ’80s icons as Duran Duran, Devo, OMD and Modern English, to name just a few, and that’s not even counting the number of New Wave era bands currently out there on the oldies trail (Missing Persons, anyone?). For the most part, the major acts of the ’80s who remain dormant are either dead, alienated from each other or simply dead-set against revisiting old glories. But then along come The Cars to throw a monkey wrench into our carefully crafted presumptions.

For those who don’t recall, the Bostonians who brought the skinny-tie sound to the masses called it quits after 1987′s Door To Door, and the closest they came to a reunion was in 2005, when founding Cars guitarist Elliott Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes worked briefly with Todd Rundgren under the name The New Cars. Frontman Ric Ocasek and drummer David Robinson were seemingly uninterested in getting back behind the wheel at the time, and singer/bassist Ben Orr had unfortunately passed away in 2000. Still, this short-lived semi-revival was all the band’s fans had to hang onto…until now.

Last July, seemingly out of nowhere, Cars aficionados visiting the band’s Facebook fan page suddenly had their hopes raised for the first time, by a photo posted without comment or explanation, featuring all four surviving Cars playing together in a rehearsal space. Before long, the expectations that ran rampant were soon stoked by the posting of tantalizing clips from new Cars songs (as opposed to New Cars songs) “Blue Tip,” “Free,” and “Sad Song,” each of which sounded remarkably like, well, The Cars. And now, the final veil of mystery has been pulled away, and the full details of the Cars reunion have been revealed. Ocasek, Easton, Hawkes and Robinson will give the world the first Cars album in 24 years on May 10th, when they release Move Like This on Concord Records.

Instead of bringing a stranger into the fold to replace the late Orr, Hawkes will expand his duties to covering the band’s bass lines. Beyond that, all things relating to Move Like This seem to be in classic Cars mode, from Ocasek’s trademark chunka-chunka rhythm guitar to Hawkes’ video-game-soundtrack synth lines. While it hasn’t been officially confirmed so far, the producer is widely reported to be Jacknife Lee, the Irishman who has helped new artists bring an ’8os sensibility to their sound (Bloc Party, Editors) as well as aiding ’80s bands in making the shift to the 21st century (R.E.M., U2). There’s been no word so far about the boys taking their reunion to the stage, but come the summer, after the new songs have had a couple of months to work their way into the world’s ears, the idea of a Cars tour is sure to start looking good to all concerned. Until then, we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed and our wraparound shades firmly secured in anticipation.

Tomorrow, the surviving members of The Ramones will receive a special Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY award from The Recording Academy at a special event before the 53rd annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday night.While they are not this years only recipients of this honor (Dolly Parton and Julie Andrews are also being honored, among others), they are the only recipients this year who have never won a GRAMMY award. To honor this belated but deserved recognition of one of America’s greatest bands, I have decided to compile a list of the Top 10 Ramones Songs. But what does “Top 10″ mean? Are these MY favorite songs? Are they the best selling songs? For the purposes of this post, I decided that “Top 10″ would indicate the ten songs that best represent the incomparable punk rock pop culture weirdness that is The Ramones. If your best friend asked you the question “Who are The Ramones?,” these are the ten songs you would put on a mixtape for them. Now that we are all on the same page….on with the countdown!

One of us: The Ramones

10. Spiderman - Cover songs are a big part of the Ramones’ repertoire. From “Let’s Dance,” to “Surfin’ Bird” to their psychedelic ’60s and ’70s cover album Acid Eaters. My personal favorite is their cover of the “Spiderman” cartoon theme song from the 1995 compilation CD Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits.

9. Chain Saw – Horror movies and cult films played a big part in inspiring The Ramones. This song makes reference to the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. “Chain Saw” also contains one of the most mind-boggling rhyme schemes ever put to music by rhyming “massacre” with “me.” Although I have no proof to support this theory, I like to think that this was the inspiration for R Kelly to rhyme “Beretta” with “dresser.

8. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World - Fascism and war were popular lyrical themes with early punk bands, and The Ramones were no exception. While there has been a lot of speculation as to whether Johnny and Dee Dee’s facination with Nazi Germany was shock value or something a little more sinister, having goofy, New York Jew Joey Ramone singing comically about how he’s “A Nazi, schatze” is definitely a kiss off to the anti-Semites of the world.

7. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow – Sad and almost somber, this tearjerker of a song is the opposite of lighthearted and cutesy fare like “She’s The One.” Despite what some may think, “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” is proof that The Ramones are no one trick pony.

6. Questioningly - Written largely by Dee Dee, “Questioningly” is a touching and heartfelt song about running into an ex-lover. This sort of quiet introspection is unexpected in the middle of a Ramones album, but the element of surprise just adds to the song’s impact. In both music and lyrics, there is no other Ramones song quite like it.

5. The KKK Took My Baby Away – Allegedly written by Joey after Johnny stole his girlfriend, this track is full of the offbeat imagery and killer hooks that the Ramones are known for.

4. Pinhead - The song that gave the world “Gabba Gabba Hey!,” The Ramones’ second most famous lyric!

3. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend – The Ramones are more than just cretins and pinheads. I have already explained my feelings on this song in last year’s “Punk Rock Love” post, but I think it bears repeating that “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?” has nothing on the simple romance of “Hey little girl / I wanna be your boyfriend.” Cretins, after all, need love, too.

2. I Wanna Be Sedated – Minimal chords, simple lyrics and a whole lot of power. This song is instantly recognizable as a Ramones composition.

1. Blitzkrieg Bop - “Hey, Ho – Let’s Go!” Even people who have never heard of the Ramones know this song. “Blitzkrieg Bop” isn’t just the song that has come to define The Ramones, it is the song that, for many music lovers, has come to define punk rock.

What are YOUR favorite Ramones songs? Let us know in the comments!

Like almost everything else Mike Watt does, even his way of answering the phone is full of endearingly offbeat humor and quirky charisma; the first ring is barely over when the alt-rock icon picks up and heartily shouts “Watt!” Anyone who has seen Watt interviewed in We Jam Econo, the trenchant documentary about his groundbreaking ‘80s band, The Minutemen, or heard the music the prolific Watt has made with them, his subsequent band fIREHOSE or his many solo projects, knows that the San Pedro punk pioneer’s got a lot to say and a unique way of saying it. His latest solo outing, Hyphenated-Man (due out March 1), is no exception; nor is the outpouring of ideas Watt expresses in our conversation, as he weighs in on his most recent rock & roll ruckus.

Hyphenated-Man is a conceptual piece, consisting of 30 tracks that offer meditations on Watt’s current time of life – he’s 53 – through a variety of odd characters. “I tried to confront myself with the middle-aged thing,” says Watt. “It just seemed like I couldn’t get it all in one tune like [late Minutemen frontman] D. Boon, or Hank Williams. It’s one big song in a bunch of little parts.” Watt also admits the influence of rock’s original conceptualists, The Who. “I guess the Who called their thing [Tommy] opera,” he says, “That’s probably where I got the idea. I remember when we heard it, me and D. Boon as boys, we thought it was recorded kinda small, but actually there’s ‘A Quick One,’ that they did before that… we thought it was kinda trippy, where you could hook ‘em all together like chapters in a book. We never thought about music in that way, we come from AM radio, where everything was way more song-oriented.”

“It’s not so much a story with a beginning, middle and end,” says Watt of his own humble “opera.” “It’s supposed to be Watt in the moment,” he explains, “thinking about himself. So the characters are kind of manifestations for me to trip on this place I am in my life now…feelings I have at this point, little meditations.” And where does Watt draw the lyrical inspiration for these fractal narratives? “I’m influenced a lot by writers,” he says, “and a lot of them are surreal kind of guys like Joyce or Faulkner or Pynchon, and the Beat people like Burroughs and Kerouac—there’s a musical thing to it that I feel affinity for.”

While Watt departed from his usual bass-centric songwriting method this time around, composing the entire album on a guitar that once belonged to Boon, that forceful, angular bass playing still seems to be very much at the core of each track. He attributes the impetus for his up-front bass style to his late Minutemen pal. “A lot of that’s from D. Boon,” reckons Watt. “When we started the Minutemen, he was way into this idea of getting rid of the guitar-dominated hierarchy, and he really wanted to bring the bass and the drums up just as equal, so he played very trebly and wouldn’t use power chords, and we wrote the songs so there’s a big dialogue between the guitar, drums and bass. When I was young…I tried to figure it out from records—Jack Bruce and John Entwistle, and R&B guys like James Jamerson, where I could actually hear the bass, and these guys were kind of outrageous players.”

So does the old Minuteman ever wonder what his music would be like today if he were still working with his departed buddy Boon? “I ask myself all the time,” reveals Watt. “’What would he think, what would he do?’ Every time I do something I’m always thinking about him, it’s trippy. He’d probably be a motherfucker on guitar… I think it’d be intense and very interesting.”

But even without Boon by his side, the tireless Watt’s got a lot on his plate. Besides his solo work, he also happens to be the bass man behind Iggy Pop, having been a member of The Stooges for the last eight years, and he’s got recording projects in the hopper with everyone from ex-wife/former Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler—with whom he’s had the duo Dos since 1985—to Wilco guitarist Nels Cline. “I’ve got so many projects in the pipeline now I had to start my own label called Clenchedwrench.” Watt says, connecting the dots by adding “Thirty years ago, me and D. Boon started [Minutemen label] New Alliance; in a way, it’s gone full circle.”

PS – Watt’s typically hectic tour schedule in support of Hyphenated-Man is too extensive to fit comfortably in our little corner of cyberspace, but can be viewed in all its glory on his Web site.

For Henry Rollins, 2.13.61 is a loaded number. Being his birthdate, it means he’s about to hit the half-century mark. It’s also the name of the indie operation he started back when he was fronting Black Flag to release his writings and recordings. Since then, he’s reinvented himself many times over, as the leader of the Rollins Band, and as a multi-media madman adept at everything from acting to helming talk shows and documentaries. Leading up to 2.13.11, the punishingly prolific Rollins will be (what else) working—unleashing his manic monologues in a series of one-man performances.

So how did 2.13.61 go from a day on the calendar to a symbol of indie entrepreneurism? “I was going to make a fold-and-staple chapbook,” explains Rollins. “This was 1983, and I was advised by someone that I needed to make a DBA [business name]. I just figured ‘That’s kind of funny. It’s gonna be one book, so it might as well be me, and that’s kind of a cool way not to say your name but to kind of give some information of yourself.’ And that was it. And then one book let do another and to another…an old girlfriend actually made a rubber stamp, which is to this day the logo of the label. I said ‘Well I’ll just do my own thing, like Black Flag makes their own records. I was on tour with a band and I could put my two-dollar chapbook out there next to the T-shirts. I managed to make enough money from the first run to make a second, and I took that money and made my first little paperback…as soon as you see your stuff in typeset in a small paperback, you really think you’re something. And then it’s off to the races.”

Even beyond his output via 2.13.61, Rollins keeps up a death-defying pace, between his work onstage and in movies, television, and more. “I don’t take myself seriously,” he explains. “I take the work with overwhelming seriousness. I actually say no to stuff, which is against everything I know, but I’m only one guy, I can only do so much. I’m working with National Geographic; last year I was in a big, crazy TV show, Sons of Anarchy. I do speaking dates all over the world, and I’ve written 27 books that actually sell all over the place, [and done] voice-overs for a bunch of different people.”

Rollins’ new National Geographic duties include playing host in a couple of documentaries made for the Nat Geo channel, one about snakes and the people who love them, and another about the violence-inducing “Warrior Gene,” which Rollins says “gives more fuel to the fire of the nature-versus-nurture argument, but this time it’s saying that there’s more nature involved in human behavior than previously thought. Personally, I would like to think that the way I am is derived from where I come from…that I’m a product of all those tours and all those hard knocks that I survived, and that which didn’t kill me made me stronger, smarter, and hopefully with a good sense of humor. I’d rather that than ‘Well the way you are is because of that “crazy” gene.’ I don’t want any excuses for the way I am. ‘Oh he’s an asshole, it’s that gene.’ I don’t want that, I want ‘Well he’s a dick, that’s that.’”

At the center of the “birthday” shows that Rollins dubbed his 50 tour, he’ll be playing his native Washington, DC on the big day. “That’s where I come from,” he says, “and I thought it would be a nice way to kind of close the circle on five decades. The theater’s a few blocks away from one of the first apartments my mom and I lived in, and the National Geographic building was there when I was a kid, so I think it’s pretty cool. I couldn’t think of anywhere else to be for my 5oth birthday show but my hometown. It made sense.” And how does the man who’s already been self-deprecatingly describing himself as an “aging alternative icon” for a few years now feel he’s changed with age? “[I’m] horribly more mature,” he assesses, “and due to lots of travel and the perspective derived, perhaps a bit more sensible, less judgmental…a bit more careful as far as ‘Well, let’s look at this, before we leap into it and see that we’ve made an awful mistake that’ll cost two fingers to extract oneself from.’”

At this point in his life, Rollins is also definitively retired from music-making. “I don’t want to be 50 onstage playing 30-year-old music,” he explains. “So I took a step that was fairly terrifying to me, I walked away from music. And I miss it all the time…it sounds like I’m putting down people in their 50s who play music—I wouldn’t dare. I just don’t want to. There’s not a lot you could tell me about writing, touring, recording or performing that I can’t say ‘Yeah, I know.’ And life is short, I don’t want to have that ‘I know’ experience for two months every summer.” Between writing regular columns for the L.A. Weekly and VanityFair.com, and his work for Nat Geo, Rollins is keeping his calendar full of fresh experiences, even without any rock & roll on the agenda. “I feel like I’m just kind of starting out on things,” he confirms, “and that’s a good feeling.”

Check out Rollins’ 50 tour dates:

2/8                    New York, NY                            Joe’s Pub

2/9                    New York, NY                            Joe’s Pub

2/10                  New York, NY                            Joe’s Pub

2/11                  New York, NY                            Joe’s Pub

2/12                  New York, NY                            Joe’s Pub

2/13                  Washington, DC                       National Geographic Live (2 shows)

2/16                  Los Angeles, CA                       Largo at the Coronet

2/17                  Los Angeles, CA                       Largo at the Coronet

2/18                  Los Angeles, CA                       Largo at the Coronet

2/19                  Los Angeles, CA                       Largo at the Coronet

2/20                  Los Angeles, CA                       Largo at the Coronet

3/17                  Harrisburg, PA                          Whitaker Center

3/18                  Philadelphia, PA                        World Café Live

3/19                  Pawtucket, RI                            The Met

View the full list of dates here.