Because this has already be a long day for some of us, we have decided to do something fun. We know hitting you with long stories in the morning has been pretty much the norm lately, we dont want to overwhelm anyone to much. Read as we really don't care about you but just want to have fun. So we are still looking for a few more writers for our vacation. I think we have six lined up but we still need a few more to keep up the pace of FTTW. Just gmail us at fttw10 and gmail dot com. We aren't being too picky, we just want writers who have a story to tell. No format. Just have fun.

This morning's post is something that will hurt your head. It did mine, but it's only six here so I can get away with that excuse. I think. This was inspired by a post michele saw at Waved Rumor.

This is about great opening verses. The first few lines off a song that drew you in and held you in. Something simple. The first ones that made you think this is a great song because it spoke to you. Or maybe you just thought they were cool words. We limited ourselves to a few lines and there was no limits on what the music would be like. It could be anything. I have no idea what Michele is doing, but I snagged some of the top of my head.

We want you guys in this one to come in and make us smack our heads and think, "Oh crap. We forgot that one?"

So here are ours.

Have fun with this and don't get too much of a headache thinking about it.

Michele's

Continue reading "skip the intro and start the song" »

Posted by Turtle Jones at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (35) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Another reader suggestion day! As we have always said, if you have any ideas, send them to us. We will probably do them. If you want to see your name up in lights as some others have been, type something about it and you might become a FTTW writer. Lucky you. That was sarcasm. No really, impress us. I know we started out asking for a few lines about your ideas, but someone took it all the way and now he is a permanent writer here. So you never know what you are going to get when you submit something to us.

But really, this was a great idea and it couldn't come at a better time. I know that both of us will do one song and the rest will be, um, idunno what she is doing. But there will be one song I know we will both hit. I apologize for our format change today, but I have to do something today that will take up a lot of time so you won't see me again till the end of the night. Hopefully, Michele can pick up the slack, but if not? Meh. It happens.

Today's suggestion comes form Dan. A regular poster on FTTW. Thank you very much for your idea. We appreciate the hell out of the fact that you guys care enough to keep sending in ideas. So thank you for reading this site and sending us ideas.

So what was Dans suggestion?

Best Punk Rock Love Songs

Continue reading "Love punk rock style" »

Posted by Turtle Jones at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (1) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

I talked to Michele today. We needed an idea. We have tons of ideas, but we wanted something light and easy. She said one and I agreed.

26 letters in the alphabet.

OK.

Name 26 song titles that have had an impact on you. Emotionially, physically, sexually or mentally. Or, cause they just rocked.

OK. That's easy.

But, they have to all be different bands.

Oh hell. And I think Chef Ramsay is on tonight. The truth is I got halfway done when she suggested that so some of mine might sound a little weird. Well, two of mine. You will see when you get there.

So we spent an hour doing this and really, this was a hard hour. The 26 thing is cool, but by different bands is hard. See what you can come up with. And feel free to ask for help cause I had to ask for "U" and I pulled Fred Schnider out of my ass.

Wanna play?

Here we go!

Continue reading "aren't you glad we didn't use the japanese alphabet?" »

Posted by Turtle Jones at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Andrew over at Bloggedy Blog has decided he wants to do the 100 albums that changed his life. Good luck with that. It almost killed us here to do it. I have no idea what his format will be but he has asked some of us to throw in ours. Once again, I have no idea what he is going to do. He asked so we sent. So most likely, from what I have seen, I looks like that they are his top 100. So other then sending him a list, which we did, we decided to do our top ten. Agree with us or not. These are albums that we drank to, skated to, broke things to and genrally had fun to. Life defining moments? Maybe not. Don't get all crazy on us. But these were albums we listened to when when we neede a boost. Something that mad made Michele and turtle who they are today. I'm not suggesting you go all out and give us ten, but we would be interested in hearing a few of yours. Ones the changed your life, or had some kind of impact on you personally.

MDC - s/t

Like you guys didn't know I was going to do this first. Every song on here was a little piece of me. Breakneck speed. Blistering lyrics. No hiding behind bullshit political correctness. They didn't like you cause you did this. You piss them off cause you do that. They told you what they hated. Texas style. When they got to San Francisco, they took the town over. Gilman was theirs and they knew it. This was their town now. They played at small gigs, big gigs, fuck, they even played at house parties if you got them drunk. This album was a blueprint for punks. So you're out to kick some ass? You're a brainless goon and got no class! Perfect music for a little turtle to swim too.

MDC - Violent rednecks

Black Flag - Damaged

Crap. How times have I wrote about this album? Great from start to finish. This was something that almost made your cock hard with all the blood racing thru your body. Even the cover was something to behold. Something that hit me hard. Maybe it was teen anger. Maybe frustration with life. Maybe puberty. Fuck, who knows. But it hit me in the face. Fuck "TV Party" . That was fun for about ummmmm....about three minutes.

Black Flag Depression

SNFU - and no one else wanted to play...

You all know this cover freaked you out. Kinda scary. A kid with a hand grenade standing in the park. Not many people remember that cause they were sued for using it, but when it was out, it was something to behold. This was when the turtle learned what a halfpipe was. Learned what a ditch was. This was punk. This was the background music while cops yelled at us for skating some abandoned canal. The hell they find us? This was always the music that after I lit a smoke and watched them write me a ticket would still be playing. Cops. Loser at life, loser at death. Let's find another ditch.

SNFU She's Not on the Menu

Continue reading "this is a post about some albums we really dig
(like you really care about how we got here)" »

Posted by Michele Christopher at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Inspired by a post over at Pril's site, and because I was having so much fun with it, we decided to steal it. Sorry Pril, but this was too much fun. The original is going on at her site but we were bored as fuck today and it is hot. Divorce Court and Cops can only take you so far before your mind starts wandering. So this is what Pril did. She gave a list of questions. Simple questions but the trick is that you have to answer all of them with one artists songs. Just one band. Their song titles. We at FTTW always push ourselves so of course we had to do three bands, but you guys can just do one. Or none. Fuck if I care. I had fun doing this. Hopefully you will too.

So answer the questions with the song titles of one band. If you still don't understand, read ours for examples.

Michele is up first.

Ready?

Here we go!

Artist: Butt Trumpet

Are you male or female?: Pink Gun

Describe yourself: I’m Ugly and I Don’t Know Why

How do some people feel about you?: Classic Asshole

How do you feel about yourself?: Clusterfuck

Describe what you want to be.: Decapitated

Describe your current mood: I’ve Been So Mad Lately

Describe your friends.: Ode to Dickhead

Share a few words of wisdom.: Shutup - M

you guys getting this?

Next up?

Continue reading "8 simple questions to hurt your brain" »

Posted by Turtle Jones at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

It is over.

Before we start this, we really want to thank everyone for taking the time to join us in this process. We want to say a big thank you to all the sites who put this out, blogs who linked us, and people who kept coming in and nominating and voting. Without your participation, this would have been two people bitching about some obscure album telling each other which one is better. Sure, none of my choices even came close and for that matter, neither did Michele's, but that's besides the point.

You took the time to come here and vote. And for that, we thank you.

I know what you are thinking. "Shut up turtle. Tell us who won."

Continue reading "the best punk rock record as voted by you" »

Posted by Michele Christopher at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

One of our friends was inspired by our list to do his own list. Reader nominated like ours was. So after you vote for the best punk rock album, head over to Cullen's site and put in some nominations for the BEST METAL SONG. Sure, it's a little different than punk, but hey, different strokes for different folks. In his poll you will be seeing Michele taking a waaayyyy bigger step up then me. Hell, I know like three metal songs, but he helped us out in our poll so we gotta back a brother up. Good luck Cullen.

Go over there and nominate.

This is not our vote or nominations. It is his. So don't bother putting up any here cause, well frankly, i'll just copy them over to him.

Posted by Turtle Jones at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

This is it. Finally. This monster of a poll has reached its end. We asked, you delivered and now we have at least one album from each decade. Today is the day they face off against each other. Steel cage match. Five enter. One leaves. With this poll, its like there are three semi-famous wrestlers and big name wrestlers in the ring and you start out watching this match knowing full well that in the end, it's gonna be Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy battling it out.

Oh, you know what I mean.

So here we have it. Five albums. Which one is, according to the readers of FTTW, the best punk album ever? Get your mouse warmed up and your clicking finger ready. Pick your winner and come out fighting for it. Because I have a feeling this is gonna be good fight.

Poll will stay open through midnight or so tonight (EST), winner announced tomorrow morning. Speaking of polls, Cullen has started his Metal Poll Week. We'll be putting up our nominations later.

Have at it! And remember, these five albums are here because that's what you chose. The time to complain about the choices is long gone. This is what you've got, so pick and album and get behind it.

THIS POLL HAS ENDED. THANKS FOR PLAYING.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

WE'RE ON A MISSION TO DESTROY!! Ride with us! I swear, we had nothing to do with this vote. Really, I gave this one up to Green Day along time ago. When Michele and I started talking about this I kinda decided "American Idiot" would take it. Who am I to say? It was nominated but placed fourth. Don't ask me. See, this is why I don't play the lotto. I am never right.

But these are the final winners of the vote. As cast by you. Not us. Some of you have been mean clickers going at it and some of you have formed treaties to see one band beat another, but the wheel keeps rolling. We just work here and eat chili dogs. Sometimes we watch Little House. Cause we are punk like that.

The voting will start on Monday for the best punk album of all time. Please don't bother to nominate anything when we get there. If you are new here, first welcome. Second, this has been a process, long process, of taking your nominations for the best punk albums of each decade. The next post on the topic was the voting stage. When the voting was over, the record was put away and we moved on to the next decade. The goal of this was to get all of the your input and pit them all against each other to make a FTTW reader defined "Best Punk Album Ever." Kinda like Amercian Idol, cept we don't get to fuck Paula Abdule. Or even spell her name right.

To keep you guys updated, these are the previous winners. AKA the ones who you will be voting for on Monday. Get ready for Monday. And remember if you don't like these, don't kill the messenger.

Continue reading "Best Punk Album of the 00's: Winner" »

Posted by Turtle Jones at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Well, we knew - because we know you guys pretty well - that we wouldn't get a whole lot of nominations for this era. Still, we did it because we had to. We took everything you gave us and put it in the poll and we kinda have a feeling what's gonna win here, but it's really out of our hands now and in yours. Keep clicking for your favorite, you never know what might happen.

Remember, whoever wins this thing goes into the final poll against The Ramones, Black Flag, 7 Seconds and The Dwarves for Best Punk Rock Album Ever (as chosen by readers of FTTW). That will be a fun little contest. For now, let's get the voting on this one out of the way. I think this poll is only going to stay up through the night, so if you're gonna vote, get clicking.

THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED. LOOK FOR THE WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED IN JUST A LITTLE BIT. THANKS FOR VOTING!

Posted by Michele Christopher at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Because I'm bored and turtle isn't around and I like to be random:

Michele’s Top Ten Metal Albums, no particular order, subject to change without notice

1. Meshuggah - Chaosphere
2. Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
3. Anthrax - Among the Living
4. Down - NOLA
5. Fear Factory - Demanufacture
6. Strapping Young Lad - City
7. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
8. Clutch s/t
9. Sepultura - Roots
10. Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love

I didn't say what kind of metal. Don't make me go all classic rock on you. Or Norwegian Viking metal. Cause I will. Or I'll just scrap this and break out the Favorite Songs by Wu Tang Artists list.

And now I just wait for Cullen to come in and ask where the Dream Theater is. (Cullen has his own metal list, look on his sidebar for the links)

Stay tuned. Tonight on FTTW, we present sex and snack cakes. Together at last.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Well here we go. We've reached the end of the line. It's time to nominate the best punk rock album of the 2000's. Yea, we know that this decade is only half over, but for the sake of being all inclusive, we didn't want to leave it out. That's just how we roll.

So check it out. So far, we have four albums entering the steel cage. Turtle and I were talking last night and we realized that those four albums make a pretty good punk rock starter collection. You have the Ramones, who were the originators, really, and the leaders of the New York scene. Black Flag, as an introduction to the harder side of punk rock and the whole LA scene. 7 Seconds for your hardcore/straight edge needs. And the Dwarves? Well, they're the Dwarves. They break stuff. In your face, offensive, fast and punk as fuck.

So who will be next? Listen, I'm not gonna lie. The 2000's, as far as punk goes, doesn't do much for me. But what do I know? I think the best album released in the 2000s so far is by QOTSA, so I'm all messed up on this one because that's not punk by any stretch of the imagination or the rules. And I know there's gonna be stuff nominated that will make me cringe but hey, I'm sure that Dwarves record made some of you cringe and it's one of my favorites. So that's how it goes.

Honestly, I'm just hoping that no one here would have the nerve to nominate something like Good Charlotte or Simple Plan. You're going to be putting yourself out there for getting bagged on if you do. Not by us, but I know at least one or two people who will rip you up in the comments. And we're just gonna stand back on that. And tell you that Simple Plan is just not punk rock.

So who did put out albums in the 2000s? Well, you can do the research, but we'll get you started. I haven't really come up with anything I want to review yet, and I think Turtle's only choice for this decade is The Explosion. But for the rest of you, things you might want to consider: Bad Religion, Social Distortion, NOFX, Guttermouth, Offspring, MTX, Rancid, Bouncing Souls, Anti-Flag, Dropkick Murphys, AFI, US Bombs, Descendents, New Bomb Turks, Sleater-Kinney, Pennywise and....G..g..gr..gree.....n.....gah, I just can't bring myself to write it.

Ok kids. Get nominating. Make us proud. Come up with some good stuff here.

But first, we get our two in that will get shot down as usual. This is a thankless job.

The Explosion - Flash Flash Flash - T

By this part of the game, I know damn well none of my albums are even coming close to winning so I'm just giving up. I hope by the end of this some of you have heard some great new, or old music, and it made you smile. But if not, meh, it happens. This is the end. I had a tough time with this one. Sleater Kinney put out The Woods, but that was a dark album that only really hardcore fans would like. And in my opinion, not the record of the half decade. Boston seemed to be moving the most back then. Go figure. A band from there grabbed my attention at a show. Bunch of off kids pissed about us older punks fucking up.

The Explosion. OK. This moves. Grooves and beats like old style hardcore. Our rock will fuck you. You gotta love that motto. This was punk rock. This whole album is about asking us what happened. Why are we selling out? Good question. Fuck if I know. I quit your race along time ago. When bands like (insert your most hated fake punk rock industry band name here) came out. Why do little kids and teenage girls have punk rock belts on? Why do they wear punk rock shirts from the 70's? Well, I guess that's ok. But, then from the 80's? 14 year old girl wearing a Black Flag shirt? The album just talked to me and asked the simple question. Why is there a store called Hot Topic?

Well, it didn't say that entirely, but the point was we are lost and if we want this to fall, we can let it fall. If we want to pick it up, we can pick it up. This was entirely our call. Look around you. Take a good look. Remember everything it took to get us here. To get us this far. And now you are watching it being destroyed. Right in front of your eyes. There's no revolution anymore. And that's your fault. Kinda grabs you by the poo poo and makes you think. No revolution anymore. We were sold out and were too drunk to care. They just wanted to let us know we suck. And so does Hot Topic.

The Explosion No Revolution

Cro-Mags - Age of Quarrel - M

Ok, some sites say this came out in 2000, some say in 1999. Let it be known the official Cro-Mag's site says 2000 so don't argue with me on this one. Or quarrel, as the case may be. Basically, this album is a reworking of Age of Quarrel, but I don't care because I'm really hard up to find something to review for this decade and this is gonna be it.

This is hardcore punk with a good dose of metal. It's powerful, angry and brutal, like a kick a in the face. But a kick in the face you kind of enjoy. Does that make sense? Who likes getting kicked in the face? Well, you know what I mean. This album is one big snarl. And even though the songs are a mixed up jumble of religion and violence, it works here. It's not even a kick in the face. Before the Quarrel is a head butt. You know when you see a bunch of guys in a pit and they're going at it and suddenly one will just up and head butt another guy, not out of anger or anything, but just out of raw emotion and needing something to do with all the power he's feeling at the moment? And the other guy, even though the head butt hurts like hell is like, fuck yea! Ok, that's this album.

So that's it. This is the last nomination of the decades. The others are done. Remember though that you are facing some stiff competition so what you might think is the greatest album now, might just become a dog chewie next year. Punch them up and let's get this thing going. Cause we want to see what happens in the end.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (23) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

I'm gonna fuck you up and get high!!! It's over. You have voted and you have made a decision. The nominations were yours, the votes cast by you. When this is said and done, we are going to have the five best punk records of all time. Each by decade. Except for the 80's which we had to split. But by now you guys know how this works. We open up nominations and you plug away. We close nomations and open up the polls. Leave it up for a few days to keep moving on to the next decade. The 2000's nominations will start tomorrow morning. Now four time periods have been covered. These are the first four. But forget them for now cause we still have alot to get thru.

Welcome to January 1, 2000.

don't nominate anything here. These are just the results.

The 70's - Ramones - s/t

80-84 - Black Flag - Damaged

85-89 - 7 Seconds -Walk Together Rock Together

Whoa! Here we go! This is punk rock fuck you adrenaline kick ass shove you down I stopped giving a fuck along time ago rock. I don't think this album even tracks at 15 minutes. Jesus christ. Fuck you up and get high? Fuck you in the back seat of my car? Junkie broads hanging around you too much? A nationwide tour with a song about how you fucked every groupie on the road? Whoa! Here we go! This is a lesson in what not giving a fuck any more was all about. Blag and Hewhocannotbenamed would only get bigger with more collaborations, but at this time, the original label knew, they must have known, that they were getting a little more then they wanted. A totally naked guitarist with a Mexican Wrestling mask. A singer who had a habit of of assualting the crowd. A set that stayed up as long as someone in the band wouldn't smash the set. Bored or detoxing. Just wrecking things. Maybe ten minutes. If we were lucky 15 minutes. Total choas. This band wasn't booked in most towns because they were told they weren't worth the damage they brought in. This was a band that wouldn't take final on a set. They wanted second bill. Promoters would put them as second. You can't have a build up to the end and kill it in 10 minutes. You can't have a band that would start in total fury and end so fast. Like an orgasm. Over fast and quick and would leave you wondering why you are covered in sweat and what the hell happened to your beer. That was the Dwarves. This was the album.

Posted by Turtle Jones at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

We almost have this done. We explained to you how this is running. The nominations are done. Welcome to the end game. Keep focused on who you think will take out the others.

Lots of obscure stuff on this poll, but we told you we would take almost anything you threw at us, so here it is. This is yours. Yea, we made a couple of nominations but the rest is all you.

Voting will go about 24 hours and whoever wins this thing will join the Ramones, Black Flag and 7 Seconds on the Best of Punk poll. Only the 2000s remain after this one and I think it will be a couple of days before you see that one. We're kinda polled-out here at the moment.

This is gonna be interesting. In all the other decades, it was pretty clear who was going to be in the running. Not so much here. This could be wide open. We'll see. Get your finger ready to do some clicking because it's up to you to make sure your choice gets the votes it deserves.

UDPDATE
Ok kids, voting is over. We said 24 hours and we meant it. We will have the results up pretty soon, so check back here in a bit. And thanks for voting!

Posted by Michele Christopher at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Update: The nominations are now closed. Tonight we will compile the list. Thank you for all participating in this and get ready to vote cause it will be out here fast. Well, maybe not that fast, but, the nominations are closed and we are moving on the vote soon. Thank you for adding your additions and lets find out who you think was the best punk album of the 90's.

Well, here we go. It's the best of the 90's, punk rock style. We finished off the 70's and the 80's and we are ready to put an album from the 90's into the final battle. One more decade to go after this!

Now, before you think "90's? You mean Blink 182 and Green Day? Meh...," dig a little deeper into your album collection. Work that memory. You think punk branched out in the 80's? It went kinda crazy in this decade. There was death punk, punk revival, alternative punk, garage punk....by this time punk rock had gone way beyond four chords and a snarl. Bands like New Bomb Turks, Turbonegro, NoMeansNo, Hellacopters, Supersuckers were putting out great stuff....yes they are all considered a form a punk.

This was the 90's. Places like Portland, Seattle, mid-western towns,Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Nevada, Florida for god's sake, Mexico and Canada were all coming in. Punk wasn't Anarchy in the UK anymore. This was when everyone got tired of everything and decided there must be something to do. I'm so bored. Let's fuck this shit up. Songs about empty pools were a thing of the past. We had moved on. Now it was about empty govenments, lies, decite, empty gas tanks, drinking to much, how my dad sucks, doing so much methampetamine you can't breath, why Texas sucks, and about, gah, love. Who would of thought?

Plus you had all these bands putting albums out in the 90's: the Vandals, NOFX, Descendents,Offspring, Down by Law, Pennywise, Lagwagon, Social Distortion, Poison Idea, AFI, Rancid, Refused.. and the Dwarves! And Fugazi! See where we're going with this? So untwist those panties and stop thinking about how much you've grown to hate Green Day. The 90's weren't as bad as you think.

So it's up to you. Have at it. Start your nominations.
Remember, this more about having fun than being right.

This is not the voting stage. This is the stage you toss anything at us, well except things that are way outside the boundaries of punk, please don't do that. And then we put up another post later where you vote! You all remember how this works.

There were some questions in the comments of the earlier post today if some bands were punk or not. Fuck, we don't know. I certainly considered one or two of them punk. One not. But a question was asked if they are. The real answer? We don't know. By this time in our lives, we listened to anything. Turtle was on the road and only listened to what seemed to be like garage punk and hardcore, Michele was listening to speed metal and thrash punk and hmmm...Stabbing Westward. Don't ask.

So basically the rules are, well, really none. If you think an album was punk, go ahead and nominate it. Fuck, who are we to say. So you will notice that we will put our nominations up first in the post cause I, turtle, forgot about a lot of this great music. All of the nominations in the lower post will be used, but really, we aren't perfect.

If you put nominations in the other comments, post them all again here so we won't miss them. Above all have fun. And after that, we can have some real fun and vote on these. This is when the voting is going to get sticky cause we are gonna have a whole new generation with all new music coming in. But really. Remember, Green Day kinda sucked and so did Blink 182. If you think they inspired anyone, just think of Good Charolette. Gah! But, that's just our opinion.

Wanna play?

Here we go!

This is the nomination for best punk album of the 90's. This is your list.

But as usual. We get to go first.

turtle's pick

New Bomb Turks - Destroy? Oh Boy!

Hands down the greatest record ever put out. This is the number one album on my list for all time. This is it folks. This is the one. It's has a close runner up called Turbonegro, but even that doesn't beat this one. This was a record I heard while drinking beer at a record station one night. No, I didn't work there. Me and the DJ got drunk and went in. We were bored and had a punk rock playlist from the station which we promptly tossed into the trash. He didn't work there much longer after that. Open the mail. NEW CDS! That whats cool about that kinda gig. Free stuff in the mail everyday. But really there was nothing good this week. So we went about doing a fake interview with him asking me questions, and me being the bass player of L7. I dropped my voice as low as it could go and talked about feminine hygiene products for about a half hour before the door was opened and some guy told us to knock it off. Meh. We got some cool phone calls though. Anyways, the record. He put it on later in the night. Turned around and told me that we are listening to this whole thing. From the opening kick...."I had a friend he said he was an artist knew more then the average schmuck". What was this? Welcome to Crypt records! Garage rock. Gritty. Out of control. EVERY SONG ON HERE KICKS ASS. Weird titles. Songs about dragstrip riots, hating your girl friend. Bluesy, fast, loud, out of control, one mic for the whole riser. This was a style. This was garage punk. Sure they could have cleaned it up, but the sound needed to be this way. When you hear the bass rattle the hi-hat cause the bass players amp is right next to the drums, you know this is garage. We spent hours getting that sound out of recordings when we were in the studio. They didn't give a fuck about it. They just left the sound in. Welcome to garage punk. Welcome to more branching off of punk. Hands down the best album ever. This was power. That was raw.

Micheles Pick

Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes (1998)

Yea, I've already reviewed this album before. So I'll just keep this short. This album will blow you away. It's punk, it's rock, it's who knows what the hell else. Glam rock. Power rock. Trash punk. Kind of undefinable. I mean, they sing about pizza. PIZZA! And the rest of the album is kind of a homoerotic tribute to anal sex. I think. Maybe not. Maybe that's just me. Rock Against Ass? Rendezvous With Anus? Maybe I'm onto something. This album is all kinds of vulgar and trashy and totally over the top. But it's got grooves. It's got hooks. It makes you want to throw a party where stuff will be broken and people will end up in a coma. Listen, if you can listen to this and sing about the Prince of the Rodeo and throw out lines like "sperminator of the asshole" without feeling the least bit self aware or umm..gay, then you get it. Turbo makes you do that. Sing about asses and sexy denim and buns of steel and make you still feel like you are totally punk rock. That's an accomplishment.

So these are our picks for the best of the 90's. What are yours? Nomination starts now.

Update: The nominations are now closed. Tonight we will compile the list. Thank you for all participating in this and get ready to vote cause it will be out here fast. Well, maybe not that fast, but, the nominations are closed and we are moving on the vote soon. Thank you for adding your additions and lets find out who you think was the best punk album of the 90's.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (36) | TrackBacks (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Listen to my Story!! It's over. You have voted and you have made a decision. The nominations were yours, the votes cast by you. When this is said and done, we are going to have the five best punk records of all time. Each by decade. Except for the 80's which we had to split. But by now you guys know how this works. We open up nominations and you plug away. We close nomations and open up the polls. Leave it up for a few days to keep moving on to the next decade. The 90's nominations will start tomorrow morning. Now three time periods have been covered. These are the first two. But forget them for now cause we still have alot to get thru.

The 70's - Ramones - s/t

80-84 - Black Flag - Damaged

Let's get something out of the way quick. For any of you who bitched about Minor Threat not getting this, you can take some small condolences that he produced it. You can hear him in the back..I think. But anyways, a band that lived on positive energy that wouldn't stop their message about how we are all one. All this crap has to stop or we are never coming back. Take it as anything you want, but I always took it as them asking us some simple questions. Why do these bullshit fights happen? Once again, I'm using "bullshit fights" in a very general term. I have no idea what the hell they were thinking when they wrote this and the last I heard Kevin was opening a new True Love Coffee and hosting a punk rock radio show on Friday nights. You can ask him. But most of these songs were really about unity and compassion and that 99 red ballons song that they fucking played at every god damn show for years as the encore. God, I got sick of that song. But, other than that, it's a kickass album with a kickass message. If I got the message right. I might not have. I did alot of drugs back then, ok? - T

7 Seconds - Spread
7 Seconds - Walk Together, Rock Together
7 Seconds Remains to be Seen
7 Seconds Regress No Way

The 90's nominations will open tomorrow morning. Stop in and tell us who you think should be up.

Final results here

Posted by Turtle Jones at 8:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

This was a weird time in music. Hardcore was moving everywhere and anywhere. People felt the "No More! No More!" attitude that was dripping thru the hands of the older generation. They wanted it too. If they can say life is fucked, why can't we? The race was on and the styles were mixed. Fishbone was going out of control, Operation Ivy was going out of control. Bands that you wouldn't typically consider punk were coming out. As I said, this time everything was taking over. We said we would take all nominations. We did. Cause that was punk.Punk is an attitude not defined by one style of music. We don't care where you come from or what you did. You want to be with us, we will take you. End of the story.

This is the vote from 85-89

Vote early and vote often. The results form the previous votes can be read below as well as what the hell we are doing here.

UPDATE: THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED

Results will be posted later tonight (7/9)

Posted by Michele Christopher at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (3) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Update The nominations are now closed. The vote is on. That post. Up there. No not that one, that one is about food. That one way up at the top. Not in this post. That one up there.

Well, we have another winner. We have two contenders for the punk rock record already. The 70's are done. 80-85 ended last night. Today is 85-89. We realized we made a little mistake last night after all of this was said and done. We will not put up our own list because we felt that let you guys look at our and use that instead of nominating your own. So one this one we will just be doing our four and let you guys fill the rest of the blanks in.

The two first winners are below.

But forget them for now. Just remember that you will see them again at the end.

If any of you don't know what we have been doing here, and I use "we" in the sense of all of you have been reading this site and contributing, is taking the reading contributions for nominations of the best punk album of the decade. 70's thru the 2000's. We had to split up the 80's into two categories because we just got bombed on names. We might have to do that in the 90's also, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. In the end we will have five albums. Six at the most, depending ont the 90's thing. Then we will take those albums and let guys go at it. Rank the albums. Top five, or maybe six, albums of all time. This is what album was the best to you. And in the end, we really don't wanna hear anything about. We didn't make the choices. You did.

Don't you wish Rolling Stone worked this way?

Anyways, welcome to the late 80's. A time of confusion, anger, branches of punk rock bleeding into everything. Were they punk? Were they hardcore? Is ska punk? Well some of thier songs are hardcore, some punk and some ska.......so I don't fucking know. These were the years bands like GWAR, SNFU, and Operation Ivy came out. Gilman was blowing up and you had to drive 8 hours to get to any show in LA. Hardcore was forming in New York when a small band called Gorilla Biscuits released an EP. Things were changing fast. This was a time to hold on and just listen.

Go ahead and nominate anything that you consider punk rock. And most of all, have fun. This is the nomination stage, not the voting stage. Ready? Here we go! Nominate!

As usual, we get our say first. So these are our favorites. As usual, they we will lose terribly, but meh, that's what happens. Have fun guys.

Remember this is 85-89.

Here we go!

NoMeansnNo- Wrong

Anyone who plays a bass here knows this album. Put the guitarist in back and let’s see how fast we can go. No, not that kind of fast. See how fast you can move your fingers. Figure out how many riffs you could jam into one song while still telling us of your hatred of your life, your friends, and that last sandwich you just ate. I never really got why they just were so dark. They moved fast, maybe cause they could. If you have ever been in a situation where you have two brothers growing up in a house with nothing else but two instruments to play to relieve their boredom, you might get why this is so technical. I'm not saying I did it, but I've seen two brothers together challenging each other to go farther in a back room. To keep pushing. I won't say this is their pinnacle, but I have my own reasons for that. Sure, they are Canadian, but I can forgive them on that.

NoMeansNo Oh No, Bruno! -T

SNFU - Better Then A Stick In The Eye

Jeez. Canadian again. Seems like the rest of the world was starting to feel the blood of hardcore. It's sticky. It moves fast. Hold on and grab a napkin cause this is when it goes out. Stand or fall. SNFU was always a playful band and this was the end. The pinnacle of everything they did. Hardcore touring. Covered in sweat and toys by the end of the night. Songs not making sense. A big Chinese guy with a huge mohawk telling me how his back hurts when he has sex. Fuck the sofa. He needs a futon. A pure album that, really guys, asks you about everything you thought about before. That mall eats people. Why go in? These Holloywood stars all o.d. Why worship them? Mailmen are always gonna step on your dog’s shit. Why not pick it up? I'm depressed. Why don't I do something about it? Don't ask me about the G.I Joe sex song cause I really have no idea about that one. Just wait till the 90's when Mexico comes in.

SNFU Happy Switch -T

Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in My Backyard

I promised someone I’d do this album, so here goes.
Like most people, the first song I heard off this album was Bitchin’ Camaro. I dug that song so much I figured I’d give the rest of the album a try and see if these guys were anything more than a novelty act. Still not sure about that one, but hey, I discovered there’s really nothing wrong with novelty acts. Not if they make you laugh and nod your head to the music at the same time. When you sing about taking retards to the zoo without being too self aware about it, that’s pretty cool. And the lyrics here aren’t all irreverent and haphazard, like in Camaro or Swordfish. They get some pretty good lines off and manage to make some sense in tunes like Spit Sink and V.F.W. A pretty well rounded album for a “novelty act.”

Dead Milkmen Takin' Retards to the Zoo -M

Husker Du - New Day Rising

Most Husker Du fans will point to Zen Arcade or Flip Your Wig as their favorite. In my eyes, New Day Rising was their absolute pinnacle. This album is pure brilliance from beginning to end. The songwriting, the music, the way its all put together in such a tight, perfectly crafted package is beyond anything else they ever did. While the music may seem to be more melodic, more pop-influenced in comparison to Zen Arcade before it, what they give you here is about 40 minutes of catharsis. It’s a whole bunch of emotions and memories and fury and power packed into one perfect package. If you listen to this album right and feel what you are supposed to feel, the first three songs alone should wear you out emotionally and physically. And that’s before you even get to Celebrated Summer of 59 Times the Pain. If I had to make a personal top ten albums of all time list, New Day Rising would be right there.

Husker Du New Day Rising -M

Ok, start nominating. And I just want to remind you to check your years. Anything not 85-89 will be thrown out.

Update The nominations are now closed. The vote is on. That post. Up there. No not that one, that one is about food. That one way up at the top. Now go vote! In that post. Not this one.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (37) | TrackBacks (3) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Yes, I am posting this at 3am. Why am I up? Long story. Involves a turtle and some house keys and a brain that loves worst-case scenarios. But here I am. Might as well get this done now.

The winner of the poll for first half of the 80's is:

Black Flag, Damaged.

Turtle and I reviewed this album a while back and as tribute to this worthy winner, here is that review again.

All these frat boys I knew bought this album on the basis of TV Party Tonight and, to a lesser extent, Six Pack. “Party band! Party music!” That god damn song. It was like I had to constantly grab them by the shoulders and shake them and say “Did you not listen to the rest of the album??” But it was like talking to a tree stump. A drunk, horny tree stump who only cared about partying.

The only way I listened to this album was by myself, in my room, those gigantic early 80's era headphones on, lights out, joint smoked. I wanted no one else around as I contemplated life as an aimless 19 year old. This album made me itchy. Restless. Angsty. And then it would take a wide turn on my emotions and make me feel apathetic, despondent, hopeless. I might as well just stay here in bed and get stoned and sleep and not care about anything to jesus christ, I gotta get out of this room, out of this house and do something, anything, like go light myself on fire in front of the White House or maybe just go kick a cat or something, but I gotta move. And then I’d close my eyes and sink back into the music again. And it went on like that. I’d get all the way up to No More and wait for the build up of the drum, that slow steady beat that got faster and faster and I’d think that whole 40 seconds or so from the first beat right up until Rollins kicks in is a microcosm of the album, of my life up until that point and I’d suddenly be yelling I need action, won't take no more, no more, no more, no more and I’d be ready to get up and buy some kerosene or find a stray cat but then Padded Cell and Life of Pain would come and I’d pull the covers over my head and think, fuck, man. Maybe listening to TV Party Tonight in a room full of drunk frat boys isn’t such a bad thing after all.

And then I’d move the needle back to Rise Above and put that thought out of my head real quick.

-M

"I wanna get fucked!" What the fuck did he just say? In the back. Did you hear that? Put that on again. What? I wanna get get fucked?

Remember I was a kid back then. Listening to this on wax on an old stereo. But did he say that? You have to remember, this is when I was spray painting "Sex Pistons" on the streets. Wondering what the fuck a Sex Piston was anyways. But I still painted it. On the street. Its what we did. Dumb pre-punk who didn't have the balls to do anything rough and couldn't even spell Sex Pistols right cause I had only heard them a few times and really never liked them. But its what we did then. Meh. It happens.

Hey guys. We are all young and dumb at one point in our life. Gimmie a break, ok?

But Damaged, this was different. This was something that almost made your cock hard with all the blood racing thru your body. Even the cover was something to behold. Something that hit me hard. Maybe it was teen anger. Maybe frustration with life. Maybe puberty. Fuck, who knows. But it hit me in the face. Fuck "TV Party" . That was fun for about ummmmm....about three minutes.

But the rest of it. Kinda fucking brought me into California hardcore. Say what you want about Greg Ginn And Rollins. They might have ruined the band but they also brought the band up. It was their scene and the could break it if wanted. I won't deny this album had a huge impact on me. Just the kick on "Police Story" ran thru my head for years. Something about it. When shows, parties or clubs were shut down by the cops. Fuck this city! Run by pigs! That's an "I'm tired of this shit" song and they brought the words to life. You can say what you want about Black Flag but I'm probably not gonna listen if you bag them. Hell, my first tattoo when i was a kid was the bars, so you can kinda figure I like them and this album was my first exposure to them and hardcore. And it rocks.
-T

Rise Above
Depression
No More
Police Story

Tomorrow (today, really) we will get to the nominations for the second half of the 80s.

Thanks to everyone who nominated and/or voted. This was a good poll.

On the subject of Damaged, read this.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 2:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

We have moved on. We have passed the 70's and now we are in the early 80's. Reagan is shot. Lennon is shot. The Pope is shot. A space shuttle blows up. Hardcore takes hold in surburbia. We dropped the London stuff and the New York stuff. We hit suburbia. We branched out and this took hold. Punk wasn't in the big cities anymore. Well, it was, but it wasn't focused anywhere. Punk was now from everywhere. Although it was still small, it was growing. Fast. It was back. This was when it broke into garage sets, backyard parties and basements. This is when it all changed. Forget the past cause nothing lasts. See some die. See shallow lies. No going back. No going home. Let's find what happens next. Ride with us.

Welcome to the poll of the Best Punk Album of the early 80's. We (well, you) are compiling a list of punk records from every decade. The 70's are done. This is 80-84. We will keep going on each decade. When this is over we will have five records. We will put these five in a poll. And you will decide who and which album was the best of all time. Why did we break the 80's up? Cause we have over 60 in just the first few years. So we had to. This is when punk rock exploded. This is the time when everything came alive. So many different types, so little time. This was the era that took everything into all you see now. So, well, we kinda got bombed here with nominations. Have fun on the vote and remember, if your favorite record isn't here, it's your fault. We gave up a long time ago and sat back to eat chili dogs and smoke cheap cigars.

Have fun and vote as much as you like. The Ramones took the 70's. What will take the early 80's? You decide. Remember what we said the last time. When we quoted Spongebob or something. Fun. Something about fun. And something about not letting your album lose out just because someone had more passion for clicking a mouse in the name of their favorite band than you did. It's all about the click. And fun.

Best Punk Album - 80's (First Half)

Every Vote Counts! Black Flag - Damaged Adolescents - s/t Fear - The Record Descendents - Milo Goes to College Misfits - Walk Among Us GBH - City Baby Attacked by Rats Circle Jerks - Group Sex 7 Seconds - The Crew Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables MDC - MDC Minor Threat - Out of Step X - LA Bad Brains - Rock for Light Subhumans - The Day the Country Died Suicidal Tendencies - s/t GBH - City Baby’s Revenge Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime DRI - Dirty Rotten Avengers - s/t Angry Samoans - Back From Samoa Youth Brigade - Sound and Fury SNFU - And No One Else Wanted to Play Fang - Landshark/Where the Wild Things Are Agent Orange - Living in Darkness Vandals - When In Rome Do As the Vandals Vandals - Peace Through Vandalism TSOL - Dance With Me JFA - s/t D.I. - Team Goon The Faction - No Hidden Messages Meatmen - We’re The Meatmen and You Suck Husker Du - Zen Arcade The Misfits: Earth A.D. The Replacements - Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash The Replacements - Let It Be Pretenders - Pretenders Faith/Void – Split 4 Skins - The Good, the Bad and the 4 Skins Agnostic Front – Victim in Pain Scream – Still Screaming Infa-Riot- Still out of Order Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster Black Flag - Slip It In The Business - Suburban Rebels Dead Kennedy's - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables Bad Brains - Rock for Light The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taugh Us Joy Division - Closer The Pogues - Red Roses for Me Mission of Burma - Vs. Black Flag- First Four Years Teen Idles - Minor Disturbance State of Alert - No Policy Exploited - Punk's Not Dead (UK) Germs - What We Do is Secret UK Subs - Live Kicks Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Heros The Jam - Sound Effects Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace with God Sonic Youth - Confusion Is Sex Current Results

Check it out. We'll be back later in the morning to open the nominations for the second half of the 80's. Meanwhile, rock the vote here.

NOTE: POLL IS NOW CLOSED

Posted by Michele Christopher at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Now that we got the 70's out of the way, let’s move on to the era that your hosts at FTTW have been looking forward to: The 80's. For me (and this is Michele speaking), even though I was around for the punk explosion of the late 70's, it wasn’t until the early to mid 80's that I really got into it.

Those who cut their teeth on the Ramones and The Clash tend to be insular about their ideas of punk; they have no idea (or they are willfully ignorant of the fact) that whole movements and sub genres of punk existed outside of the more well known bands. They also think that punk died right about 1982 or so. In my mind, punk rock didn’t even reach its pinnacle til the mid 80's. 'Maybe their scene died and they believe that punk died with that scene, but it didn’t. It was picked up, dusted off and brought back to life by bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat, GBH, Adolescents, Angry Samoans, TSOL, Descendents, Agent Orange, Fang, Youth Brigade (I could go on here, but I won't)...they all contributed to keeping the punk scene alive and moving. And, in my opinion, gave it a lot more life than it had before they came along.

Yea, punk was about attitude as well as about the music; but there were as many different "attitudes" to go around as there were styles of punk. I just don't think punk music can be clearly defined as "that music the Clash played." Nor do I think (and yea, just my opinion) that the late 70's were the heyday of punk.

Anyway, after talking about this decade together and coming up with a list of our own favorite albums, we realized that trying to cram all of the 80's into one poll would be too big a task. Too many good bands, too many awesome albums. So what we are going to do here is split the decade in half. Today, we will take nominations for the first half of the 80's: 1980-1984.

Here’s a few of our favorite albums of the first half of the 80's to get you started. Remember, the nomination process is yours, not ours. This is just our personal list. Feel free to nominate any of these, because the final poll will be taken from the comments, not us.

Black Flag - Damaged 1981
Adolescents - s/t 1981
Fear - The Record 1982
Descendents - Milo Goes to College 1982
Misfits - Walk Among Us 1982
GBH - City Baby Attacked by Rats 1982
Circle Jerks - Group Sex 1980
7 Seconds - The Crew 1984
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables 1980
MDC - MDC 1982
Minor Threat - Out of Step 1983
X - LA 1980
Bad Brains - Rock for Light 1983
Subhumans - The Day the Country Died 1983
Suicidal Tendencies - s/t 1983
GBH - City Baby’s Revenge 1984
DRI - Dirty Rotten 1983
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime 1984
Avengers - s/t 1983
Angry Samoans - Back From Samoa 1982
Youth Brigade - Sound and Fury 1983
SNFU - And No One Else Wanted to Play 1984
Fang - Landshark/Where the Wild Things Are 1982
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness 1981
Vandals - When In Rome Do As the Vandals 1984
Vandals - Peace Through Vandalism 1982
TSOL - Dance With Me 1981
JFA - s/t 1984
D.I. - Team Goon 1984
The Faction - No Hidden Messages 1983
Meatmen - We’re The Meatmen and You Suck 1983
Husker Du - Zen Arcade 1984

Remember to check the dates on the LP or EP. We are not perfect and we don't hold the answers like some kind of god. So check those issue years before you nominate (allmusic.com frequently gets years wrong; try using wikipedia if you aren’t sure of a release date). Also, length of album doesn’t matter. EP s are as good as full length albums.

Here's our take on a couple of these albums and why we like them. Don't forget, we also reviewed some 80's punk albums here, if you want to check that out.

MDC - s/t (1982)

This album is brutal. That’s the best way to describe it. High speed, blistering music with lyrics full of rage and anger. This shit makes Rage Against the Machine sound like pussies. Dave Dictor and company pull no punches. They say what they mean. They take on everything that angers them - police brutality, corporations, homophobia, rednecks, John Wayne, capitalism - and pound their ideas into your head and gut in such a straightforward way. Where other bands with this kind of stance rely on irony and subtle innuendos and clever wordplay to get their point across, MDC just puts their middle finger up right in your face and spits in your eye. Brutal. But awesome. -M

Misfits - Walk Among Us (1982)

This was a band made for someone like me. I love horror movies. I love punk rock. What could be better than a band that meshes both things together? That’s like the peanut butter and chocolate of music!

What you have here is 13 songs in 25 minutes. This album is like viewing every B-movie ever made while tweaking on speed. You hit play on this thing and before you can even catch your breath, you feel like you’ve seen your life flash before your eyes, if your life consists of death, mayhem, zombies, devils, vampires and Martians, and the soundtrack to that is howled by Glenn Danzig. Seriously, Danzig was born to sing this stuff. His voice here is part campiness, part howling at the moon and all deep-throated, gothic posturing. All that, plus the 50's-inspired riffs played in punk rock fashion make this one of the best punk albums EVER, let alone the 80's. -M

Vandals - When In Rome Do As The Vandals

Ok. It didn't have Pat Brown on it. It was longer. It was a little different. But hell man. Stevo had a scratch box on his chest when he played Ladykiller. And it had a beer holder! A record player on his chest miced up to a case and a beer holder! With a straw! Jeez. That's kinda cool. Most of the songs were about fun and breaking things. A few were a little evil. I'm still not sure why they chose to write a song about little boys in vikings suits or somewhere called Mohawk Town. Times like this, I always feel it is better to not say anything and just listen. It happens that way with me. But, they were fun songs! Except for the beating a girl song, but we will forget that one. But the others. Fighting a giant robot. Being a fly on a piece of shit called this world. Driving in a shitty Airstream from town to town. And the pinnacle. Rico. Coming back home after a tour. The feelings of seeing your home town. A great ending to a great album. -T

DI - Team Goon

Oh hell. Here we go. You all know you can sing all the words to this album. The executioner's curtain call. When I woke one day kids going out to play if they only knew. Oh you know know you are remembering Nuclear Funeral right now. The only stupid song on here was the cover of that "hey" song they do at baseball games. Even the slow songs kinda kick ass. Pre goth? Maybe. You might have thought that till they put out the next album about how the hate HB, but for now, it was all kinda like life sucks, so lets party!. And in the second part of the 80's, you know damn well that "Horse Bites Dog Cries" will be on there. -T

So, this is just the nomination process. Don't bother voting here. Just nominate either albums we suggested or add to the list albums that we forgot. Cause we do that. We forget. A lot. Welcome to FTTW. Also, remember this is about fun and these are only our opinions and opinions vary. Fun, damn it. FUN! Don't get all pedantic and condescending on us. Cause the last person that did that kind of got an earful from us.

Have fun and let's get this thing complete. Nominate, then chili dogs. Always the chili dogs.

FIRST HALF. 1980-1984.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

The 70's have ended. You have made your feelings known. The poll has ended and the cards are on the ground. We picked up the pieces and looked at what you wanted. If any of you don't know, this is a deathmatch for the greatest punk album of all time. What we are doing is taking your suggestions, putting them on a list, and letting you vote. The votes are split up by decades. This was the 70's. They have been closed.

We really need your input on these as we start the 80's in the morning. Those nominations will be up for a bit. Anything you say will make it up there. When this is all over we will have four albums. We all pit them against each other and let you fight it out to find who is the best while Michele and I eat chili dogs. We are sadistic like that. When the final vote is over, we can all sit back and laugh at who won.

But for now, the 70's winner.

They move on to the next round.

Vote results here

Thanks to everyone who nominated/voted and had fun with us on this.

Beat on the Brat
Blitzkreig Bop
I Don't Wanna Go in the Basement
53rd and 3rd

Check back tomorrow morning for the start of the Best Punk Album of the 80's poll!

Posted by Michele Christopher at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

We're ready to roll out the voting on the 70's portion of Best Punk Albums.

If any of you don't know what is going on, a few days ago we asked you your opinion on the best punk albums of the 70's. We took all of the names you gave us. Everything. We formed a list and now it is time for you to vote. Attitudes and bullshit mean nothing to us here unless you give us a name. This stopped being our list the second we typed up the idea. This is the readers list. That means you. You made this. You decide.

The idea we had was to do decade by decade. Asking for your input. Have a vote. Then at the end, put the four winners of each decade against each other to find the best punk album of all time picked by you.

This is the 70's.

When this is over, you can god damn well tell us we suck for the winners or the losers, but in the end, the responsibility of the outcome is solely on you.

Just few a few notes before we begin:

This being a holiday weekend, things are a bit slow around here. Depending on the number of votes we get over the next day or so, we might just leave this thing up until after the holiday. Either way, we will not resume the list making until then. So look for the 80's nominations thing to begin on Wednesday.

So here's the 70's poll. Vote early, vote often, jam the phone lines, stuff the ballot box, form alliances, lie, cheat, steal...basically all the same things you did with the punk songs ballot apply here as well. The only steadfast rule we have here at FTTW is that you always keep in mind this is supposed to be fun. If the album you think should win doesn't, it's not a travesty of justice. It's that someone had more passion for clicking a mouse than you did. In the immortal words of Spongebob (the most punk rock sea creature ever), "It's not about winning, it's about fun!"

Now vote!

Best Punk Album - 70's

Name Your Poison Stooges - Raw Power Sham 69 - Tell Us The Truth Ramones - Ramones Ramones - Rocket To Russia Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks The Clash - The Clash The Clash - London Calling The Clash - Give Em Enough Rope Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True Elvis Costello - Armed Forces Elvis - This Year's Model The Jam - Setting Sons The Jam - In The City Talking Heads - 77 Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady Dead Boys - Young, Loud and Snotty Devo - Are We Not Men ? The Cramps. Lucky 13 Stooges - Fun House Specials - Specials Velvet Underground - Loaded New York Dolls - New York Dolls The Dickies - The Incredible Shrinking Dickies Dictators -- Go Girl Crazy Dictators - Blood Brothers Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning Generation X - Generation X X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material Germs - GI Damned - Damned Damned Damned Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette Gang of Four - Entertainment 1979 Television - Marquee Moon The Cure - Imaginary Boys Public Image Ltd. - First Issue Cockney Rejects - I'm Not A Fool Vibrators - Pure Mania Saints - (I’m) Stranded Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea Undertones - S/T The Fall - Live At The Witch Trials Radio Birdman - Radios Appear The Tubes - The Tubes The Tubes - Young and Rich The Tubes - Remote Control Blondie - Blondie Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust Dave Edmunds - Rockpile Wire - Pink Flag Current Results

Posted by Michele Christopher at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Here's the list thus far, compiled from the comments and including our two picks. You have until tomorrow to add more to this list and then we'll put it up for a vote. List has been updated to include comments from this post (well more like a conversation between turtle and COOP) Also, see note below the list. (We will update the list as necessary)

Stooges - Raw Power
Sham 69 - Tell Us The Truth
Ramones - Ramones
Ramones - Rocket To Russia
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
The Clash - The Clash
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Give Em Enough Rope
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
Elvis Costello's Armed Forces
Elvis - This Year's Model
The Jam - Setting Sons
The Jam - In The City
Talking Heads - 77
Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Dead Boys - Young, Loud and Snotty
Devo - Are We Not Men ?
The Cramps. Lucky 13.
Stooges - Fun House
Specials - Specials
Velvet Underground - Loaded
New York Dolls - New York Dolls
The Dickies - The Incredible Shrinking Dickies
Dictators -- Go Girl Crazy
Dictators - Blood Brothers
Angelic Upstarts - Teenage Warning
Generation X - Generation X
X Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents
Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material
Germs - GI
Damned - Damned Damned Damned
Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Gang of Four - Entertainment 1979
Television - Marquee Moon
The Cure - Imaginary Boys
Public Image Ltd. - First Issue
Cockney Rejects - I'm Not A Fool EP
Vibrators - Pure Mania
Saints - (I’m) Stranded
Adverts - Crossing the Red Sea
Undertones - S/T
The Fall - Live At The Witch Trials.
Radio Birdman - Radios Appear
The Tubes - The Tubes
The Tubes - Young and Rich
The Tubes - Remote Control
Blondie - Blondie
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People
Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust (Hey if Elvis Costello's on the list, then Nick Lowe needs to be here.)
Dave Edmunds - Rockpile (See Nick Lowe)

Side note: Keep in mind this is all for fun. If you want to email us and get all pissy about how we aren't "honoring" the real pioneers or talking enough about the history of punk or genuflecting to your idols and you want to school us on what the scene was like back then and make us feel like we are doing a disservice to punk rock lore by not including this band or that band and how we are forgetting that you singlehandedly saved the world from the bourgeios status quo because you were immersed in the 70's punk rock scene or whatever and how it is our responsibility to preserve your history and your ideals, well, as the most punk rock robot in the world would say:

Remember: we aren't making this list. You are. If you have any comments about how we forgot something, don't get all fucked up about it and point fingers at us. We gave you the oppurtuntity to chime in. If you just didn't bother, not our problem. And if you have the time to send an email complaining to us, you had the time to leave a comment with your albums. Pretty simple.

Posted by Michele Christopher at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (44) | TrackBacks (2) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

We had such fun with our Best Punk Songs poll that we decided it's time to do some more polling. This time around, we're doing albums. I know we've done the best punk albums of the 80s before, but that was just by us, for us. Now we want you. Well, we want your input. And your votes. This time, we are doing Best Punk Albums and we are going by decade.

We aren't going to start in the 60's or any kind of pre-punk stuff. We both talked about even not including the 70's in here and decided that we have to include them. You toss your favorites in here. Just for the decade we are doing. Then we will have a poll on that decade the next day. The winner will advance to the next round. The next day (or so) we will do the next decade. The same thing. You toss anything in you want. What you like, liked or just want to fuck with us with. The next day we will have a poll. When we are done, we will have four winners of each decade. Then we will pit them all against each other in a free for al