The Uncut team have dug out their leather jackets and Converse sneakers and compiled a Top 50 of the greatest American punk albums. But what constitutes “American punk” in the first place? After some debate, we decided to avoid the ur-punk groups like The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, or t...
48 MINOR THREAT
Out Of Step
DISCHORD, 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEnttmGjff8
In the form/record single/split life-cycle of DC hardcore bands, by 1983 Minor Threat were already an anomaly. This, their sole studio LP, is almost a break-up record, as Ian MacKaye’s band explores disappointment with a scene it had been pivotal in articulating. Extreme velocity is still a feature, but in its 21-minute playing time, Out Of Step also displays accomplished dynamics, rancorous satire and MacKaye’s enormous voice, which finds anthemic tunes amid the chaos. How hardcore? The LP reveals that “Cashing In” for Minor Threat meant charging $4 on the door. JR
____________________
49 DICKS
Kill From The Heart
SST, 1983
“A guy dressed up like a nurse with chocolate frosting in his pants singing about communism – that’s weird,” smiled singer Gary Floyd as he reflected on the career of Austin’s Dicks. The “Commie faggot band” needed a three-year run-up to make an LP after their unbelievable debut single, “Dicks Hate The Police”, but it was a sun-boiled wonder when it came. Righteous anger predominates (“Bourgeois Fascist Pig”), but there is space to remind butch Marxist zealots that “young boys’ feet are pretty”. Plenty were faster and louder, but none were further out. JW
____________________
50 AVENGERS
Avengers
CD PRESENTS, 1983
In the popular memory San Francisco’s Avengers have largely been sidelined as the answer to a trivia question: the group was the opening act for the Sex Pistols’ last gig at the city’s Winterland in 1978. But with perhaps the definitive buzzsaw guitarist in Greg Ingraham and one of punk’s finest lyricists in Penelope Houston, the Avengers deserve to be more than a footnote in punk history. Avengers showcases the group’s range, from rabble-rousing anthems (the Steve Jones-produced “The Amerikan In Me”) to the reflective and bitter “Corpus Christi”, to the song that set the tone for American punk, “I Believe In Me”. Oh, and they blew the Sex Pistols off the stage. PS
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.
