DaVo's Punk N Roll Playlist

When Punk was developing in the dark days of the mid 70s there was a style that defined it. Sure there were many exception and in a way that was what made it then and continues to but there was a simple, stripped down style that gave nods to both the Rock n Roll of the late 50s and early 60s. A time when the music was not only dangerous but often at its most pure and entertaining state. This sound defined many of the first generation of punk including the pre-punk New York Dolls. Bands like The Heartbreakers and the Ramones were clearly punk but still had one foot firmly planted in the Roll part of Rock N Roll.  In the music climate of the time where over produced pop music, they sounded less like a retro act and more like alien noise. Which is hard to understand now because the style became the bases for most rock music that would come after and as punk rock became more and more hardcore, it didn't really fit into what people considered punk rock at the time.

The bands that clearly defined this sound were represented in all the major first wave scenes of Punk. There was the Heartbreakers, Ramones and the Ohio transplants the Dead Boys ruled New York. In Los Angeles/southern California you had the Zeros. San Francisco had the incredible Crime. Slowly the style took a back burner to the more aggressive and faster sound of Hardcore Punk but a few hold outs and oddities pop up here and there in the 80s, including LA's Joneses. The Joneses were one of the bands that filled in the gap between of the split personality that the Dolls left behind. Often bridging the gap between punk and the developing Glam Metal scene of Hollywood that would rule the late 80s. Others would follow later in the 80s but not without take a major change in their musical direction called crossover. The Joneses were different because they were the same band and style throughout. If anything the scene came to them and not the other way around.

One stand out from me in the mid 80s has to be Indianapolis' Sloppy Seconds. My first exposure was a show in the mid to late 80s in Omaha. 80s Hardcore was in it last stand and the bill was Toxic Reason and KGB at a hall and Sloppy Seconds could have not fit in any more. Their songs where not nearly as fast as the other bands, they were dressed more like bikers than punkers and they seemed like a retro act. Little did I understand at the time they were one of the bands that would spearhead a movement they called Junk Rock. It wasn't so much as a retro thing as bringing the fun back to Punk Rock. In a lot of ways they were more punk than the rest of the bill and in a lot of ways they were out wondering alone in the wilderness. 

It must have been around 92 or 93 that I would discover would have to be the Devil Dogs and it would spark a long list of discoveries that would make up a balk of what I would listen to over the next 15 years. The Bands that stand out would be  Teengenerate, The Humpers, Pleasure Fuckers, Electric Frankenstein, The Weaklings, The Supersuckers, D-Generation, Candy Snatchers, New Bomb Turks, The Loudmouths, The Peechees. The Dragons, The Short Fuses and the Murder City Devils.