Tag: "Dead Kennedys"

There’s nothing like a little old fashioned punk-rock to really get the blood flowing, am I right? It inspires raw emotion, feelings of pure chaos and undeniable passion. It harkens to the days when CBGB’s was an iconic rock club and not a high-end retailer. When the Chelsea Hotel housed artists of all kinds from Bob Dylan to Charles Bukowski, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, and of course Sid Vicious.

I’ll tell you one thing. The Buzzcocks got it right when they sang “And although this may sound strange, my future and my past are presently disarranged” (a song coincidentally is on this playlist). Because right now, we’re taking you back to the ’70s, with a little dose of the ’80s, and present day for good measure. Rock on.

More like this:

• Punk On The Rocks: The Top 10 Ramones Songs
• SoundTrax: Ladies Who Rock…Hard

Things could have been much easier for Shelton Hank Williams, better known as Hank Williams III, if only he was willing to play ball and give Nashville what it wanted from him. Just imagine the extent to which Hank III—who is the spitting image of his iconic grandfather —could have cleaned up in the country market if he had offered up some polite, modern variation on grandpa’s pioneering honky-tonk sound, or even a contemporary recasting of his father’s ‘70s outlaw stylings, as Shooter Jennings has done with Waylon’s legacy. But it was probably that very same maverick spirit Hank III inherited that kept him from pursuing the easy path to Cadillacs and caviar in Music City.

You see, while Hank III does indeed have a deep love of—and aptitude for—country music, and a healthy respect for his family tradition, he’s just as heavily inspired by metal and punk, and he’s never stopped trying to honor all of his inspirations, sometimes simultaneously. That’s what has now led him to release no less than four different album projects simultaneously, each one representing a different side of his fearlessly fragmented musical personality.

According to the thirty-eight-year-old singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, rock & roll grabbed him at an early age. “I got my first drum kit when I was seven or eightyears old,” he remembers, “and I would get excited when I would hear Heart or Ted Nugent or ZZ Top or Elvis, and run around the room. I always felt connected to that kind of music because of being a drummer and feeling the beat.” As he got older, he went on to develop a passion for hardcore punk and heavy metal, and Hank eventually wound up playing bass with Superjoint Ritual, Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo’s punk-metal side project. “When you’re on stage with Anselmo, there’s wild stuff happening,” he says. “I was working with one of my heroes, man. That’s always an honor and a trip. But every time I would take the stage with Superjoint my job was to bang my neck as hard as I could every show and take it to the next level, and that’s what I tried to do for them.”

Continue reading ‘Riffs, Rants & Rumors: Hank Williams III’s Hankering For Metal’

The cover art for "Let Them Know"

On Tuesday, seminal Southern California punk label BYO (Better Youth Organization) Records celebrated their 25^th anniversary by releasing the box set Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records. The set includes the full-length documentary Let Them Know, directed by Jeff Alulis (Do You Remember? 15 Years of The Bouncing Souls and NOFX’s Backstage Passport), a full color hardcover coffee table book and, most interestingly, a 31-track double LP. While the documentary and book are well-put together, it’s the LP— a who’s who of punk covering songs from the BYO catalog—that has fans excited. Since BYO released music from Bouncing Souls, Alkaline Trio, 7 Seconds and Bad Religion in addition to label founders Youth Brigade, there were a lot of great tracks for the bands involved to choose from.  Some of the highlights include Pennywise covering “We’re Gonna Fight” by 7 Seconds, Dropkick Murphys playing “Fight To Unite” by Youth Brigade and Anti-Flag’s take on Unseen’s “1000 Miles.” This form of tribute seems more fitting than issuing a simple greatest hits album. Covers have played a prominent role in punk since the beginning of the genre.

Covers are about more than just cashing in on a popular song. They are a tribute to influential artists, not to mention a great way to expose songs to a new audience. It is widely known that Joey Ramone was hugely influenced by 60s pop and the girl group sound. The Ramones payed tribute to these influences by covering songs like The Ronettes’ “Baby, I Love You,” Chris Montez’ “Let’s Dance,” and The Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird.” Sid Vicious covered “I Wanna Be Your Dog” both live and on record, introducing the youth of Great Britain aware to the music of Iggy Pop and The Stooges. The Dead Kennedys included a deranged cover of the Elvis hit “Viva Las Vegas” on their album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, seemingly just for the fun of it. While covers had always been a part of punk, punk versions of non-punk songs became popular in a major way in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Vagrant Records’ popular Before You Were Punk series featured punk bands covering 80s new wave favorites, while the Fearless records Punk Goes… series of albums had modern day punk and pop-punk bands put their spin on the hits of metal, pop, crunk and more. This same time period saw the formation of the punk super group Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, whose entire repertoire consists of punk covers of their favorite songs across all genres. The punk cover trend is still going strong, with Weezer covering Lady Gaga and MGMT on their tour this past summer and MxPx releasing their second cover album. As long as there are garages, basements and VFW halls, there will be punk bands playing their favorite songs.

To see the preview for Let Them Know, click here.

For Let Them Know screenings and Youth Brigade live dates, click here.

For more information about the Let them Know box set, click here.

Check out some punk covers by OurStage artists in the playlist below!

Halo (Beyonce cover)

by:

Billy Boner

Now We're Getting Somewhere

by:

The Resignators

Super Mario Brothers Theme

by:

Gifted But Twisted

Maoz Tzur

by:

The Schleps