Punk rock was and is in-your-face music, but at the same time there’s a speaking of truth to power and for many songs, with intelligence in the lyrics.
This Saturday, AXS TV rolls out a “day of plaid, Doc Martens, and attitude” with a “Saturday Stack lineup” jam-packed with killer punk rock performances featuring the greats.
Whether songs focused on boredom and mundane lifestyles or lashed out at the tyranny of wealth and politics and power, punk rock was undeniably an awakening of a style of music that reveled in extreme fashion, which infused an energetic shift in the groups who churned out power ballads, Southern rock or hair-band rock-and-roll numbers.
For those unaware, you can thank the godfathers of punk, like Iggy Pop and his 1968 creation The Stooges in Detroit, Michigan, or the New York Dolls. Or Detroit’s MC5, or Massachusetts based icon Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, all precursors to the UK invasion of The Sex Pistols and The Clash who kicked the door in for so many other new bands.
In the 1970s, we had Richard Hell and the Voidoids until the New York sound was defined by 1975s breakout power quartet, the Ramones and then Blondie.
The London punk scene consisted of big acts like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, U.K. Subs, Generation X, The Buzzcocks and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Lene Lovich, The Detroit import living in the ’70s UK, ushered a pop-tinged punk style of sound, as Teutonic punkers like Nina Hagen and then artsy punkers like American Laurie Anderson and Los Angeles band X, later on, became popular.
As Punk Rock matured, we got Green Day and Social Distortion but there were always hardcore bands simmering — Black Flag, Butthole Surfers, Pennywise, and even the punk-metal extremists like G.W.A.R. and Insane Clown Posse.
AXS TV’s stellar Punk lineup begins at 1pE/10aP with a “Rock Legends” two-pack, focusing on The Clash and then California punk trio Green Day at 1:30pE.
Then The New York Dolls are shown doing Jet Boy, Personality Crisis, and Blondie will perform Call Me, One Way Or Another, and “Rapture” at 3pE. Encore broadcasts of Rock Legends will follow at 4:30pE and 5pE, with Blondie re-airing at 5:30pE.
Jane’s Addiction owns the night at 7pE, with iconic Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro reliving a true crime nightmare in his 2015 documentary Mourning Son, as he recalls the night his mother was murdered.
The closer at 9pE features Green Day in the 2015 documentary Heart Like A Hand Grenade.
Saturday Stack The Best of Punk Music airs Saturday April 21, 2018 beginning at 1 PM E/10 PST on AXS TV.