Punk Tag

I discovered PWR BTTM only a month ago, and they probably wouldn’t have crossed my radar without a little stoking from Apple Music. One Friday in early May, a raw punk thrasher called “Big Beautiful Day” from their new release “Pageant” found its way onto my New Music playlist. I was immediately enamored. As I began to read about their image of queer advocacy, the hook sunk deeper. Here were a pair of gender non-conforming musicians rocking drag, while howling out songs about bodily autonomy. I dug it in aRead More

While Taking Back Sunday finishes up their VIP acoustic set and meet-and-greet at the Summit Music Hall in Denver, Colorado, Greg Barnett, wearing a plaid shirt and jeans, hangs around by the merchandise table. The twentysomethings who have come to relive their high school years and the eyeliner-clad tweens who have come to meet their idols gather around John Nolan and Adam Lazzara. Meanwhile, Greg and the rest of the Menzingers, a four-piece punk band from Pennsylvania, chat and laugh, fairly anonymous figures to the fawning group that has gathered. But whatRead More

I truly believe that the hallmark of any great artist, of any great musical outfit, is the ability to evolve musically, to grow personally, and to have every new album serve as a showcase for that latest great step forward. There is little more impressive than progress. Against Me!‘s latest album, the deeply personal Transgender Dysphoria Blues, not only represents a bold new step for the band and frontwoman Laura Jane Grace – it represents a colossal step forward for the LGBT society, and hell, the American public at large. If TransgenderRead More