I found this old post in the Internet Archives on November 16, 2015. Originally posted March 22, 2009. A lot has changed since then. Grooveshark is no more. Also, after another six years in Japan, I now notice how Western this list is. However, this is not an update to the list – so I won’t be adding any songs by The Stalin, Hi-Standard, GISM or any other worthy Japanese bands. The only change I will make to the old post is adding some YouTube links. And the title of the post.
Three events led to the creation of this list.
Last year, on a hot Tokyo day in September 2009, my laptop screen bid me farewell. It gave up. Our relationship had been a sham for years anyway, almost from the beginning. Anyone who’s had a Toshiba Satellite can probably relate.
I was therefore forced to buy a replacement. But after five tenuous years it really was time to get out there and find something new. Fortunately Toshiba’s hard drive had been insufficient for some time, so I had most of my stuff kept on an external drive. This made the move much easier. And even though my new HP has a lot of space, I still keep most of my stuff on the external drive.
However, one thing I did lose was a large selection of music. Because Toshiba was so weak and pathetic, it preferred to play music off the hard drive. But I still had a lot of that music on my iPhone, so I didn’t worry too much.
I got my new HP and plugged my iPhone into it, planning to sync them up. I then got the pop-up message telling me that Apple hates it customers. In order for me to sync MY iPhone to MY new laptop I would lose all the music on my iPhone. “But my old laptop died,” I told Apple Support. “We don’t care. Fuck you,” was Apple’s response. So, I decided not to sync my iPhone. All my good music was on my iPhone and I had no desire to restock my collection.
Five months later, on a cold Wednesday in February, I lost my iPhone. Somewhere between Koenji Station and Dynamo. The Koban told me 90% of lost items make their way back their owners. I don’t think iPhones are on this list. After 10 days of waiting and hoping, I was once again forced to purchase consumer electronics I already owned. More or less.
I had some music on my external drive by now, and ripped a couple CDs, to get some tunes on the new phone. But the collection was a skeletal shadow of its former self.
Six days later, I got hit with a fever that lasted five days and kept me pretty much bed ridden for the better part of a week. I hadn’t had much time to replenish my digital music collection, so in my more lucid moments I set to downloading all I’d lost. And as I gained strength I gained motivation. I would expand my collection to new levels. I had mostly been searching for old vinyls and CDs I have back in Canada. But days of searching for songs and albums I hadn’t heard in years got me thinking. And as such, a broken laptop, a lost iPhone, and a 39.42C fever resulted in the creation of this list.
This list is obviously not definitive, as no list is. It’s a list of really good songs and that’s about it. Some songs I left off because I didn’t want too many songs from the same band. After all, I could easily make this list with only four bands. But that would be boring, so I decided no band could claim more than two spots. Also, I make no distinction here between punk rock, hardcore, postpunk, protopunk, neopunk, pop punk, or whatever. People who say “that’s not punk” are pretentious douchebags. Who gives a fuck? Although I think anything below falls under the “Punk Umbrella” well enough. I’ve also listed them in chronological order, because #1 is a ridiculous concept, and most of them should come as no surprise.
I’ve added most of these songs to a palylist on Grooveshark. There are still a few I’ve uploaded but am still waiting to get into the system.
- 1969 I Wanna Be Your Dog The Stooges (YouTube)
- 1975 Politicians in My Eyes Death (YouTube)
- 1976 Anarchy in the UK Sex Pistols (YouTube)
- 1976 I’m Stranded The Saints (YouTube)
- 1977 Chinese Rocks The Heartbreakers (YouTube)
- 1977 Orgasm Addict Buzzcocks (YouTube)
- 1977 White Riot The Clash
- 1977 New Rose The Damned
- 1978 I Wanna Be Sedated Ramones
- 1978 Do They Owe Us A Living? Crass
- 1979 Bloodstains Agent Orange
- 1979 London Calling The Clash
- 1979 Where Eagles Dare Misfits
- 1979 Bomb The Boats And Feed The Fish Forgotten Rebels
- 1979 Fuck You Subhumans (Canada)
- 1980 Holiday in Cambodia Dead Kennedys
- 1980 Jesus (Entering From The Rear) The Feederz
- 1980 Police Truck Dead Kennedys
- 1980 World War 3 DOA
- 1980 Warhead UK Subs
- 1981 Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie Black Flag
- 1981 Punks Not Dead The Exploited
- 1981 Minor Threat Minor Threat
- 1982 Pay To Cum Bad Brains
- 1982 Moral Majority Circle Jerks
- 1982 Religious Wars Subhumans (UK)
- 1982 Time Bomb / This is Boston Not LA The Freeze
- 1982 Suburban Home Descendents
- 1982 Moral Threat Social Distortion
- 1982 We’re Only Gonna Die Bad Religion
- 1983 Coup d’Etat Circle Jerks
- 1983 Institutionalized Suicidal Tendencies
- 1984 Cannibal Cafe SNFU
- 1984 New Aryans Reagan Youth
- 1984 When The Bomb Drops Subhumans (UK)
- 1984 Walk Together, Rock Together 7 Seconds
- 1985 Salad Days Minor Threat
- 1986 Argh Fuck Kill Dayglo Abortions
- 1986 I Against I Bad Brains
- 1986 One to Two Dag nasty
- 1986 The Devil’s Voice SNFU
- 1986 Dad Nomeansno
- 1989 Start Today Gorilla Biscuits
- 1991 Bro Hymn Pennywise
- 1992 Welcome To Paradise Green Day
- 1994 Inner Logic Bad Religion
- 1995 Roots Radicals Rancid
- 1996 You’ve Got to Die for the Government Anti-Flag
- 1997 Murder The Government NOFX
- 2001 Fuck Authority Pennywise
Lazysupper 