Top 5: Punk Albums
I recently rewatched a film I haven’t seen in a long time, High Fidelity. I really enjoyed how the record store characters would always ask each other for their ‘Top 5’. For them it was Top 5 Break Up Songs, Top 5 albums of all time…Top 5 this & that, you get the gist. Here at Upper Left Records we are going to adopt the #HighFidelity & #Top5 and would encourage you to use them too for similar reasons. Feel free to share with us your favorite Top 5s.
This had us thinking and we are going to be posting periodic blog updates on our own certain types of Top 5’s. If you ever want to ask us what our Top 5’s are to a particular list, shoot us an email, or make a social post with #UpperLeftRecords #Top5 #HighFidelity. With that said, I’m going to lead off with my Top 5 Punk Albums.
Punk resonated with me beginning somewhere in early Middle School and in pre-adolescent it all just clicked and made sense to me. As I got older, the genre began to make even more sense as I was becoming more aware of the world that surrounded me, outside of self. These are the punk albums, that I have been consistently listening to for well over the last 30 years:
Descendents - Liveage
This is the first punk album I ever owned. Being an awkward tweenager their songs were stories that ran parallel to how I was feeling. Their songs like I don’t Wanna Grow Up, Silly Girl, All-o-gistics were anthems for my youth and to this day when I spin this record, it now reminds me of that youth. The first time I ever saw them live I was already in my 40s as the band broke up before I got to see them live. I’ve been fortunate to see them twice (2016 & 2018) as they came through Seattle — Both shows were incredible.
Minor Threat - First Two Seven Inches
DC punk is an institution in the history of punk and the influence of Ian MacKaye runs deep and wide. While this band was really only active for three years their lyrics still ring deep with me. The song Minor Threat is a great anthem to living youthful and giving a middle finger to growing up. Now that I’ve crested middle age and have some wisdom behind me, it is still a tune that is that not so gentle reminder to not take everything so seriously and be childish. To this day, I still actively spin this record, turn it up and I deeply appreciate what their music brings to my life.
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
The first time I heard this album, it was like nothing I had ever heard before in my life. If you are old enough to remember the Maxell commercial of the guy sitting in the chair, that defines this listening experience to me. The whole just not giving a shit attitude just spews from the the lyrics that Johnny Rotten sings and with the way Sid Vicious plays his bass and carried himself.
Bad Religion - Recipe for Hate
It always blew my mind that two of my favorite punk bands both of the frontman/singers both have their PhD. (Bad Religion & The Descendents) Greg Graffin the singer and only constant member of Bad Religion shows that punk as a genre can have depth in their lyrics and in the structures of their music. It’s not just an out of tune band in a garage somewhere. This album shows incredible depth, to me, for how the album is put together and in order. This is not an album I play on shuffle. It deserves to unfold as it was pressed.
Pennywise - Self Titled
The songs on this album are of personal nature to me and they remind me of a very distinctive time in my life. I was a freshman/sophomore in college and experiencing that first true freedom that comes with those early days of adulthood. This album just kick ass from start to finish, but ending with Bro’s Hymn just puts a damn mic drop at the end of an already great album. To all my friends present, past and beyond with a ripping bass line to kick this song off, it puts in perspective for me what matter’s most in this life. If I’m ever needing a reminder Pennywise is there and has my back.
