Globally November 29th, 2011
Combining a love for DIY-ethics with the accessibility of the internet, a new scene of kids were learning to play music and share it with their friends in the same way it had been done in the 1980s and 1990s. Bands and fans broke down barriers to form relationships both professional and personal. The goal to just have fun became increasingly attractive to those who were sick of a public that doted on rock stars.
Long-time punk heroes, Small Brown Bike fit nicely next to younger bands like Pessoa, Banquets, Over Stars and Gutters, and Snowing to create music that is both catchy yet challenging. Whether it be Snowing’s jangly guitars, the hooks of Banquets, or even Small Brown Bike’s Travis Dopp playing a punk-infused folk song with dual male-female vocals with his band Leave Let Be, Absolute USA punk always engages the audience looking for something more out of their music.
In today’s underground punk scene, the kids have taken back what was once considered a negative word: emo. Gone are the over-the-top goofy hairstyles and over produced albums of the early aughts; today’s bands have rediscovered the punk attitudes found in many of the mid 1990s emo and post hardcore bands. CSTVT, and Empire! Empire! (I was a Lonely Estate), You Blew It, and Australia’s own Arrows re-invigorate the style while maintaining their own unique punk sound to make it even better.
1. Banquets – Fireplug
2. Rooftops – Raft Easily
3. Snowing – I Think We’re in Minsk
4. Fugue – White Tiger of the West
5. You Blew It! – Hope It’s Not a Deposit Bottle!
6. Small Brown Bike – In Need of Everything
7. Jet Set Sail – The Definitive Guide to Jet Set Sail
8. Arrows – Surely Not? Afraid So
9. Monument – Goddamned Claw Machine
10. Leave Let Be – You Don’t Touch Me
11. Over Stars and Gutters – They Left a Note
12. Dowsing – …And That’s Why You Always Leave a Note
13. Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) – Rally the Troops! Poke Holes In Their Defenses! Line Our Coffers with Their Coffins
14. Pessoa – Wellohwell
15. Duck, Little Brother, Duck! – Steve Jobs (All Is Fun Until Someone Gets Stabbed)
16. Prawn – Wesley’s Pipe Dreams
17. CSTVT – Cities & Memory
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