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Good non mainstream punk bands?

#143
hrodbert696 said:
I would say go back to the first wave - Velvet Underground, Ramones, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Richard Hell and the Voidoids on the US side, and Sex Pistols, the Clash on the Brit side.
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I can't agree with this more. Start with these proto-punks and work your way up by era. You may find new appreciation for bands that get discounted for not being "punk" enough or even punk at all like early Blondie and early Talking Heads and check out what they now call post-punk bands like Joy Division and PiL.

Still, to stay in the "punk" genre, I'd say grab some of the British punk like Pistols and Clash and maybe the first power pop punk poser groups like Generation X and see if that stuff wakes anything up for you. Then grab some New York stuff like Ramones and Misfits. Then there is LA/skater/surf stuff which I think kind of set the mold in the late 70s and early 80s. Bands like Fear, Dead Kennedys, and JFA. And that is pretty much where this old fart peters out. By the mid-80s I was done with punk and all the bands that came after like Bad Religion and TSOL were not my thing. I was into more of the metal/punk hybrids like Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity, and Napalm Death and I really got into Industrial. I saw Skinny Puppy at the Hub Ballroom at UW in 1985 with about 200 people present and was pretty much a convert to industrial from then on. Which honestly, a lot of the energy that punk lost after the early 80s can be found in early industrial/noise acts like Einstürzende Neubauten and SPK or in "goth" bands like Christian Death and 45 Grave.

I kind of jumped around here, but I think this covers a lot of different stuff that shared a lot of the same spirit. I embedded some videos below of stuff I listened to back in the day. I know there are guys here waaaay more punk than I was, but I was always the guy listening to different stuff even if the "label" wasn't cool.











 
#145
Many good ones already mentioned, but I would add RKL, Iron Cross, Cro-Mags, Warzone, Youth of Today, Adolescents, Uniform Choice, Corrosion of Conformity, Regan Youth, Angry Samoans, Avail, Swiz.

DC was a weird scene. It was groovy for a while then it became really, really preachy. You had proto SHARPs, eating disorder-Vegan-Krishna cult types, Straight Edge types, all getting in your face and preaching their lifestyle.
 
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#147
image.jpeg

image.jpeg


DRI's bass player wearing our shirt :D
 
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#153
I looked over the suggestions, many of them awesome, and I thought I'd add some bands that got missed. Even thought there maybe some overlap. The earlier the album the better.

The Who (old school)
MC5 (old school)
Eddie and the Hot Rods (old school)
The Clash
The Damned
The Stranglers
The Jam
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Sham 69
Generation X
Wire
X-Ray Spex
The Fall
The Slits
999
U.K. Subs
The Mekons
The Undertones
The Killjoys
Gang of Four
Subway Sect
The Pogues
The Tossers
Television
Bikini Kill
Rocket fro the Tombs
Pere Ubu
Suicide
Big Black
Rapeman
Shellac
The Effigies
Killdozer
Violent Femmes
The Saints
Radio Birdman
The Birthday Party
Grinderman
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
 
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#154
So what you would be referring to would be like the 90 east bay pop punk scene. Screeching Weasel and green day started on the same label, lookout records, and most of the bands had a more poppy flare, and a basis in the Ramones style, love songs, songs about girls, not entirely, but they weren't afraid to let their pop sensibilities shine. They were all pretty well influenced by the Ramones in that most of the song structure was real simple, 3 and 4 chord progressions. I wouldn't really classify weasel and the Ramones as hard core stuff, weasel would be more obscure and less pop punk than say blink 182 or green day for sure but not hard core persay. Mike Durnt actually played bass on a Screeching Weasel album, shortly after green day was signed to a major label, the only payment he asked for was a Screeching Weasel tshirt haha. Well anyways, here's a list of bands in that vein and lookout records scene-
The Queers, The Mr. T-Experience, Teenage Bottle Rocket, The Lillingtons, The Huntingtons, (Riverdales, Methadones, The Mopes, Even In Blackouts, all of which are made up of Screeching Weasel members), The Copyrights, The Parasites, The Dopamines, I could go on for days....
Heres a list of punk bands that I would recommend just as good punk bands, not all can be pigeon holed, but these are just good punk bands of the last 20 years or so, a lot are more recent too-
Dillinger Four, Banner Pilot, Dear Landlord, Tiltwheel, Off With Their Heads, Dan Padilla, Bangers, Dead Mechanical, Chinese Telephones, Monikers, O Pioneers!!!, Against Me!, Hot Water Music, Lattermen, RVIVR, get bent, Iron Chic... That's just to name a few....
I have been heavily entrenched in punk, to the most obscure bands for the last 10 years, so I could give a more comprehensive list if you want. Really, a lot of what you want has to do with labels, the two biggest punk labels have a lot of good bands, Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph, some other labels include No Idea Records, Kiss Of Death, It's Alive! Records....
At any rate, here's a starting point haha
 
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#156
Great post with enthousiastic replies :D

Rancid (... And out come the wolves)
Bad Religion (a lot, like: How can hell be any worse and Suffer)
Pennywise (Full circle)
NOFX (Heavy petting zoo and so long and thanks for all the shoes)
Ensign - Direction of things to come
 

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