Garage punk
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Garage punk is a subgenre of punk rock that is closely related to garage rock. However, as with many terms applied to popular culture, the precise meaning can be hard to define. Garage punk is often used to refer to garage bands that are on small independent record labels or that aren't on labels at all (unsigned) and that happen to play some variety of primitive, trashy punk/rock'n'roll. In that sense, garage punk can be seen as both a descendant of 1960s garage as well as the punk and new wave movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s, as a counter-culture movement opposed to mainstream corporate rock.
In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, a new breed of revivalist punk began to fester in the indie rock underground that became known as “garage punk.” Garage punk is obviously closely related to garage rock revival, although most of these modern garage punk bands took their influences from some of the proto punk bands of the 1960s garage rock genre, such as The Sonics, The Monks, through the early 1970s (The Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls) as well as raw, simplistic "Killed By Death"-era punk rock, British pub rock, power pop and early, hard-edged new wave, rather than the British Invasion bands and their imitators. Most garage punk bands also drew heavy influences from 1950s and early '60s R&B and primitive rock'n'roll, which further helped to separate this genre from other, more common styles of punk music. Some of the first garage punk bands to appear on the scene included DMZ, The Dwarves, The Stomachmouths, Thee Mighty Caesars, Poison 13, Pussy Galore, The Gories, The Devil Dogs, Satan's Cheerleaders, Supercharger, The Mummies, The Makers, Teengenerate, The New Bomb Turks, and The Oblivians. Attitude and primitive, lo-fi, "budget rock" aesthetics were far more important to the development of garage punk than catchy melodies and fancy ’60s mod-style clothes, and that attitude was reflected in the sound of the music: primitive, dirty, raw, sleazy, sexy, trashy, noisy, and just flat-out ugly. The garage punk movement is not as interested in copying the sounds and looks of the ’60s so much as just trying to bash out some unpretentious, wild and wooly three-chord punk/rock’n’roll with a strong back beat. Some of these bands (like The Mummies, Phantom Surfers, Man or Astro-man?, and The Finks) also dabbled in instrumental surf rock.
Garage punk is still alive and well today, with bands popping up in almost every major city. Some of the prevailing record labels that specialize in modern garage punk are Goner Records, In The Red Records, Bomp Records, Swami Records, and Rip Off Records, amongst many many others.
During the 2000s a set of bands started appearing in the mainstream who were playing a much more watered-down and radio-friendly offshoot of garage punk. As part of the new indie scene, these bands are somewhat similar to (and somehow put together with) garage rock revivalists (such as The Greenhornes or White Stripes), post-punk revivalists (such as We Are Scientists) and Power Rock bands (such as The Raconteurs). The genre is bigger in the European and especially British markets, as many of these bands come from there, however several of the bands of the type are American. These bands keep the strong back beat from their predecessors, combining it with melodic bass lines, edgy guitar rhythms and powerful solos to create a unique sound. They often have intangible (and unintelligible) lead vocals and their lyrics incorporate ideological, political or even philosophical reflections. Major examples of the genre include the bands: The Strokes, Living Things, Kings of Leon and Dirty Pretty Things. However, all of these bands record and perform in a way that is vastly removed from the traditional lo-fi trashiness of garage punk, with very slickly produced recordings with a clean sound which is more characteristic of generic modern rock. However, as all of these bands are indie rock bands, they belong to the same wave which could be called "garage punk indie rock". Due to the big musical, lyrical and aesthetical differences, this form of garage punk must be understood as a new mixture of the garage and punk genres, not as a revival or descendant of previous garage punk.
[edit] Primary garage punk artists of this era
- Black Lips
- Boss Hog
- Cheater Slicks
- Billy Childish
- The Devil Dogs
- The Drags
- The Flaming Stars
- The Gories
- Guitar Wolf
- Thee Headcoats
- The Hives
- The Hunches
- Lost Sounds
- The Makers
- Mando Diao
- Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
- The Mummies
- New Bomb Turks
- Oblivians
- Reatards
- The Reigning Sound
- The Rip Offs
- Les Sexareenos
- The Horrors
- Supercharger
- The Supersuckers
- Teengenerate
- The Trashwomen
- The Woggles
- The Young Werewolves
[edit] Related Genres
- Garage Rock
- Hardcore Punk
- Indie Rock
- One-Man Bands
- Psychobilly
- Punk blues
- Punk Rock
- Stoner Rock
- Surf Rock
- Swamp rock
- Trash rock
[edit] External links
- Criminal IQ Records
- Crypt Records
- Die Slaughterhaus Records
- Estrus Records - One of the first labels to release garage punk records.
- GaragePunk.com - Website that is home to the GaragePunk Forums message board and the GaragePunk Podcast network.
- Grunnen Rocks - Modern garage punk resource site.
- Goner Records - Memphis-based record label, store, and garage punk message board.
- Horizontal Action - Garage punk fanzine.
- In The Red Records
- Rip Off Records - Classic garage punk label.
- Sympathy for the Record Industry
- Terminal Boredom - Garage punk webzine and message board.
- Now Wave - a web-zine that covers a wide variety of modern punk rock including the garage punk scene.
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