Bikini Kill — Reject All-American. Black Flag’s Damaged. Gang of Four’s Entertainment. With so much music, it’s impossible to listen to every great punk record in one short lifetime (for you especially). That’s why we’ve combed through hundreds of nanogenres, from psychobilly to goth rock, post-industrial to deconstructed shoegaze, avant-garde metal to queercore, and distilled a kick-ass playlist of LPs you HAVE to listen to before you die tomorrow.
Jeff Rosenstock – SKA DREAM: Hearing Jeff Rosenstock recontextualize his sound from power pop to ska punk in less than a year is a triumphant reminder of what can be achieved in a short span of time. It’s like you’re being rushed into the pit to skank until you die of heart failure in a matter of minutes. The kitschy horns on “Ohio Porkpie” play like a memento mori to the listener.
…What do you mean, metaphor?
Bad Brains — Black Dots: Some critics argue the self-titled release of this reggae-fusion titan is their best work, but we think this demo tape is a better fit for you, given what your urologist said. There’s a surprising optimism to H.R’s rattling growls that reminds us there’s a spectral, exhilarating beauty when a project, or life, feels unfinished.
Discharge – Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing: Forty-four years later, Garry Maloney still has some of the most delicious snares in thrash metal history. The sheer brutality of tracks like “The Blood Runs Red” and “Drunk With Power” lingers in the eardrums long after “The End.” And the sampled documentary before “The Possibility of Life’s Destruction” is seconded only by the text we received from your mom about a similar concept earlier this afternoon. Hey what are you waiting for? Start listening, dude! Start listening now.
Dystopia – The Aftermath: This record will remind you how lucky you are. While your peers will perish in three decades due to the mass extinction from overconsumption and greed-fueled ecological ruin this LP prophesies, you get the privilege of bowing out early. This album is so crust punk, it’s like the actin and myosin filaments are forming a rigid film around your corpse during rigor mortis, right? Right? That question wasn’t rhetorical.
Sleater-Kinney – Dig Me Out: Carrie Brownstein is just a treasure.
