Music: Top Ten PUNK Albums (All-Time)

[Eisen]

Honestly I would just list 10 of Bad Religion's albums, personally

Well, they do rock.

 

[Reality Check]

Just wanted to say thanks for making this thread, I've been meaning to get into the genre but I didnt really know where to start

You Tube is your friend.

Back in my day, I had to rely on various acquaintances and compilations at the indie record store.

 

[Eisen]

You Tube is your friend.

Back in my day, I had to rely on various acquaintances and compilations at the indie record store.

Back in my day, all I had was a tape that was a copy of a copy of a copy.

 

[Nocashstyle]

You Tube is your friend.

Back in my day, I had to rely on various acquaintances and compilations at the indie record store.

I relied on the bands listed in the Thank Yous of CDs I already had...or band t-shirts worn by kids in my middle school who (usually) had "cool" older brothers in high school. I would then take a leap of faith and buy CDs without hearing a single song or knowing what what the band like. I honestly discovered some life changing music this way.

 

[Belieber]

This thread got me listening to the clash and I've been listening to train in vain all day so thank you!

 

[Central PA Hawk Fan]

I relied on the bands listed in the Thank Yous of CDs I already had...or band t-shirts worn by kids in my middle school who (usually) had "cool" older brothers in high school. I would then take a leap of faith and buy CDs without hearing a single song or knowing what what the band like. I honestly discovered some life changing music this way.

LOL, glad I wasn't the only one...first thing I did when I started listening to a CD was open it up and look for the name drop section.

 

[Reality Check]

Back in my day, all I had was a tape that was a copy of a copy of a copy.

I relied on the bands listed in the Thank Yous of CDs I already had

I did both of these as well. If I did a spur of the moment purchase of someone I was somewhat unfamiliar with, it was usually a used copy.

I remember doing that specifically with the Promise Ring in '97

 

[Shareefruck]

Back in my day, we used to have to drink tea out of a rolled up newspaper.

Now, you try telling the young people of today that..... and they won't believe you.

 

[Elvis P]

Back in my day, we used to have to drink tea out of a rolled up newspaper. Now, you try telling the young people of today that..... and they won't believe you.

Um...I was alive during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

[Crocoduck]

I was expecting to see some skate punk bands in some of these lists. Out of the first wave, The clash are the only ones I ever cared for. Sex pistols/Ramones etc were all pretty weak, in my opinion. It's too difficult to cut it down to top 10 and in order, but I'd definitely have Strung Outs Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues near the top.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Back in my day, we used to have to drink tea out of a rolled up newspaper.

Now, you try telling the young people of today that..... and they won't believe you.

You were LUCKY!

 

[Central PA Hawk Fan]

I was expecting to see some skate punk bands in some of these lists. Out of the first wave, The clash are the only ones I ever cared for. Sex pistols/Ramones etc were all pretty weak, in my opinion. It's too difficult to cut it down to top 10 and in order, but I'd definitely have Strung Outs Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues near the top.

I have Suicide Machines on my list and Op Ivy too...

 

[Siamese Dream]

I was expecting to see some skate punk bands in some of these lists.

Outside of anything by Bad Religion, Pennybridge Pioneers by Millencolin is my favourite album

But I think when looking at things more objectively, skate punk stuff doesn't really make it into all time lists

 

[Gord]

Honestly, I would have an easier time calling the many post-punk or even new wave bands who are considered too heady and brooding to be considered punk punk than I would a band like Television, who, to my ears, doesn't sound like they have any punky elements to them at all.

Why is Television always lumped with the punk category?

depends on what you consider punk to be.
If it's for a certain style of music, I can agree with your confusion.
If it's for the lifestyle, so to speak, the ethos and attitude, then they are punk.

for example, I consider the dead kennedys to be punk music.
I consider the velvet underground to be punk band in their own way.

don't know if I'm explaining myself well, but I hope you know what I mean.
I think Television is punk, btw.

 

[Gord]

I agree that if you listen to it today w/o historical context it's not that great. If you do that, I don't understand critic's reviews. Damaged is top 10, but no albums by The Cramps, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Violent Femmes, or XTC are? I just don't get it. Second Wave I'll take Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and White Lung.

He and Tom Verlaine were the Co-Founders in New York City in 1973.

glad you mentioned the cramps.

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta, and I have a soft spot for SNFU.
"...and no one else wanted to play" is on my list of all time faves.

local band called Down Syndrome from about '83-'87 I also liked. (then they became a crappy glam/hard rock band called Big House)

would love for you guys to also list some of your regional punk bands from back in the day that maybe didn't get well known nationwide.

 

[Roo Returns]

Funny how I ruffled so many feathers with the Marquee Moon selection

Gets back to my question; what can be defined as punk?

Do you count Blondie, Meat Puppets, Talking Heads, Green Day (entire catalogue), Refused, Samhain, Rival Schools, Cro Mags, Fugazi, Fishbone, Siouxse and The Banshees, Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, or even F'd Up (Toronto's own)?

Is punk just (mostly) dudes with mohawks playing power chords, or is it about attitude? Gotta remember Bad Religion made a prog rock album, and Genesis made a concept album about a punk. Is it solely political?

Also, a whole generation was introduced to punk via Bad Religion, All, NoFx, Pennywise, MTV circa 94-97 (and I'm not even including the 15 minutes of fame for ska bands like Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Bosstones....who were all on the Warped Tour with punk). Do we hold it against them?

 

[Shareefruck]

depends on what you consider punk to be.
If it's for a certain style of music, I can agree with your confusion.
If it's for the lifestyle, so to speak, the ethos and attitude, then they are punk.

for example, I consider the dead kennedys to be punk music.
I consider the velvet underground to be punk band in their own way.

don't know if I'm explaining myself well, but I hope you know what I mean.
I think Television is punk, btw.

Yeah, I get that some people see it that way. I personally think it should be based on the sound and maybe the attitude communicated by the music, not so much the attitude of the artist outside of the music or the scene that they originated from. Otherwise, tons of artists in clearly unrelated genres can be considered punk, just by virtue of not giving a ****.

I just don't hear the primitive, bare-bones, less is more, animalistic approach to music present in Television, even in short spurts, whereas I do hear it in the actual music of The Velvet Underground.

 

[Habsfunk]

I'm with Sharee on the Television debate.

The only reason Television is lumped in as punk is because they played at CBGB. If they emerged in, say, Boston, no one would consider them punk. I get punk isn't just about the music, but if you're considering lifestyle, ethos and attitude, you could broaden a list to include music from all sorts of genres. You could say Johnny Cash is punk, or NWA is punk.

We're talking about best albums here, so it should be about the band's sound, and Television just doesn't sound punk. I have a pretty lenient definition of what can be punk, but IMO Television doesn't come close to it. I mean, when you see lists of the classic early punk bands like The Ramones, The Stooges, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols, well, it's hard to say how Television fits in with them. Even if you broaden it to include groups like Talking Heads and Blondie, they're an outlier.

 

[Eisen]

Funny how I ruffled so many feathers with the Marquee Moon selection

Gets back to my question; what can be defined as punk?

Do you count Blondie, Meat Puppets, Talking Heads, Green Day (entire catalogue), Refused, Samhain, Rival Schools, Cro Mags, Fugazi, Fishbone, Siouxse and The Banshees, Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, or even F'd Up (Toronto's own)?

Is punk just (mostly) dudes with mohawks playing power chords, or is it about attitude? Gotta remember Bad Religion made a prog rock album, and Genesis made a concept album about a punk. Is it solely political?

Also, a whole generation was introduced to punk via Bad Religion, All, NoFx, Pennywise, MTV circa 94-97 (and I'm not even including the 15 minutes of fame for ska bands like Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Bosstones....who were all on the Warped Tour with punk). Do we hold it against them?

It's all about the music. You need power chords, it needs to be relatively simple, it needs to be rough and/or aggressive. The lyrics are about punky topics (left wing politics, drinking, anti nazi, crap society, hating politics and politicians, or utter nonsense , in the case of funpunk). Skacore, goth and the likes have a tradition being associated with punk, but I don't call it punk.
And I refuse to acknowledge "Into the Unknown " as a Bad Religion album.

 

[Siamese Dream]

And I refuse to acknowledge "Into the Unknown " as a Bad Religion album.

It's not even on their Spotify page

I personally consider it to be an EP, not an album

 

[Loopy0ne]

I really like these lists. Going to queue up a bunch of it.

Got in to punk in late 90s/ early 2000s so forgive the list but I have to go with (in no order):

Big Black: 'Songs about ****ing' or 'Pigpile'
Charged GBH: 'City baby attacked by Rats'
Offspring: 'Ignition'
Social Distortion: Self-titled
Green Day: 'Dookie'
Bad Religion: any
Dead Kennedys: 'Fresh Fruits'
Sex Pistols: 'Nevermind the Bullocks'
Minor Threat: Complete discography
***** Magnet: 'Umber Star and Booty'

 

[third man in]

AFI- Black sails in the sunset
Bad Brains- Rock for Light
Bad Religion- Suffer
Black Train Jack- You're not alone
Civ- Set your goals
The Clash - S/T
**** Sparrer- Shock Troops
Face to Face- S/T
Rancid- Lets Go
Social Distortion- White Light
Stiff Little Fingers- Go for it
Swingin Utters- Juvenile Product of the Working Class

Could only narrow down to top 12

 

[Roo Returns]

And I refuse to acknowledge "Into the Unknown " as a Bad Religion album.

LOL....you know it's funny I heard the album a few times and it wasn't THAT bad.

Honestly, I'm a big fan of when bands I love have one "step child album" where they go in a totally different direction or try something different sonically.

I really found the Chris Cornell/Timbaland thing fascinating. It wasn't a good album by any means of the imagination, but it took guts to release something like that.

 

[Hippasus]

Minor threat? as someone who went through a punk phase that lasted ten years--the musicians in the band had game but there was nothing special about Ian MacKaye

He sort of started the straight-edge thing in punk, even though the bands he influenced are worse overall, musically. His brother was a vocalist for The Faith and is actually bad. Ian MacKaye is passable, but he's too in your face after a while IMO with the lyrics and delivery.

I was expecting to see some skate punk bands in some of these lists. Out of the first wave, The clash are the only ones I ever cared for. Sex pistols/Ramones etc were all pretty weak, in my opinion. It's too difficult to cut it down to top 10 and in order, but I'd definitely have Strung Outs Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues near the top.

Outside of anything by Bad Religion, Pennybridge Pioneers by Millencolin is my favourite album

But I think when looking at things more objectively, skate punk stuff doesn't really make it into all time lists

Do Suicidal Tendencies or 7 Seconds count?

depends on what you consider punk to be.
If it's for a certain style of music, I can agree with your confusion.
If it's for the lifestyle, so to speak, the ethos and attitude, then they are punk.

for example, I consider the dead kennedys to be punk music.
I consider the velvet underground to be punk band in their own way.

don't know if I'm explaining myself well, but I hope you know what I mean.
I think Television is punk, btw.

I think if attitude is the primary criterion it becomes too subjective and indeterminate to say if the term 'punk' applies or not. Besides, weren't Television more nerdy, dorky, preppy in a way? Image-wise, they just seem very un-punk, besides the music, IMO, not being punk.

Funny how I ruffled so many feathers with the Marquee Moon selection

Gets back to my question; what can be defined as punk?

Do you count Blondie, Meat Puppets, Talking Heads, Green Day (entire catalogue), Refused, Samhain, Rival Schools, Cro Mags, Fugazi, Fishbone, Siouxse and The Banshees, Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, or even F'd Up (Toronto's own)?

Is punk just (mostly) dudes with mohawks playing power chords, or is it about attitude? Gotta remember Bad Religion made a prog rock album, and Genesis made a concept album about a punk. Is it solely political?

Also, a whole generation was introduced to punk via Bad Religion, All, NoFx, Pennywise, MTV circa 94-97 (and I'm not even including the 15 minutes of fame for ska bands like Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Bosstones....who were all on the Warped Tour with punk). Do we hold it against them?

Don't worry about it bro, it gives us something to talk about.

By the way, I think Cro-Mags are definitely punk.

 

[Eisen]

He sort of started the straight-edge thing in punk, even though the bands he influenced are worse overall, musically. His brother was a vocalist for The Faith and is actually bad. Ian Mackaye is passable, but he's too in your face after a while IMO with the lyrics and delivery.



Do Suicidal Tendencies or 7 Seconds count?

I think if attitude is the primary criterion it becomes too subjective and indeterminate to say if the term 'punk' applies or not. Besides, weren't Television more nerdy, dorky, preppy in a way. Image-wise, they just seem very un-punk, besides the music, IMO, not being punk.

Paragraph one: In your face is not bad and actually very Punk.

Paragraph 2: I'd count Tendencies as punk even though you could argue they are Thrash. Pretty complex for Punk.

Paragraph 3: Completely agree with that. I see nothing punky in Television. I like them, but they are not Punk.