Punk

Attempts to encapsulate the vastness of Punk Rock (capitalized throughout this piece, because let's face it, it's a proper noun) throughout its now lengthy history have all fallen well short of the mark. Is it a musical genre or a cultural movement? A hairstyle or the very essence of DIY? Don Letts, original punk biographer, DJ and musician, in his film, Punk: Attitude sums it up just perfectly with that film's very title. Punk is an attitude and, as he puts it himself, "part of an ongoing movement of counterculture." After airing on the Independent Film Channel as part of "Punk Month", Letts' film claws its way, gasping for air, out of a packed house at CBGB's or the Roxy and onto DVD for home consumption.

This extra-special two-hour demented punk extravaganza is an audio oddity unlike anything else! An eclectic mix of artists from the world of classic and contemporary punk/indie/alt-rock have assembled, along with special guest stars from film, TV and more, to pay homage to radio icon Dr. Demento (a world-renowned institution who has championed novelty music and its creators since the 1970s), for this mind-blowing compilation.

Soul Jazz Records’ long-lasting Punk 45 series are high-quality editions of early punk 45s. While previous editions have focussed on the early days of punk in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Akron, France, and proto-punk, this new edition focusses on mainly do-it-yourself, or self-released 45s, all made in the UK in the early days of punk.

From Bad Time Records comes THE SHAPE OF SKA PUNK TO COME: VOLUME 1, featuring 12 brand new / unreleased tracks from some of ska punk's boldest and brightest.

The brilliance of this collection is that it combines the standard Brit-punk anthems by the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Buzzcocks, and Stiff Little Fingers with other great songs that typify the variety and range of punk-era independent music from both sides of the Atlantic. The songs are so well chosen that the punk aesthetic is further revealed by the inclusion of songs that characterize pub rock, new wave, and other related genres. The usual punk suspects ("New Rose," "Anarchy in the UK") are all here, along with many other treasures: Dr. Feelgood's "Milk and Alcohol", Devo's "Mongoloid," Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner," Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer," and Television's "Marquee Moon." The less commonly anthologized punk selections are inspired, too: the Ruts' "Babylon Is Burning," Generation X's "Ready Steady Go," and X-Ray Spex's "Identity," along with the seminal "Sheena is a Punk Rocker." The conception of the genre is expanded further to include Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, XTC, Joe Jackson, the Pretenders, the Tubes, and Blondie, and their presence overcomes the tendency for boring repetition on a very long collection.