Dying Scene

Since its inception in 1976, punk rock was kind of this thing, that even if you hadn’t seen it before, you kinda knew what it was when you did. It was a response to the mainstream. A way to differentiate from the flock, but most importantly it wasn’t just one thing. Punk rock manifested in many ways, but it was mostly expressed through music. While there is a mostly universal line up of bands that we consider the first wave of punk rock bands, what if it could be argued that that list was far mo

Welcome to Cleaning Out The Inbox! Happy Halloween! While there aren’t a lot of tricks, there are plenty of treats from the bands below. Let’s dig in. Monk – Without Words b/w Get Lost (Dine Alone Records) There’s a holiday for everything, now. October 16th was Edge Day and Los Angeles based hardcore band Monk celebrated by releasing a couple of covers by Boston, MA’s very own Stop and Think. Lead singer Frank Bach explains: “We did these Stop and Think cov

Chuck Klosterman is a writer known for his strong and sometimes out-there opinions. While he writes on a multitude of topics, he mostly deals with music. His essays have appeared in numerous magazines and have been collected in his books like Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, or Eating the Dinosaur. While Klosterman has dabbled in fiction to varying results over the years, his newest book Rock*: A Mainstream Alternative History Of Alternative Mainstream Music, combines these into one of the most inte

Author Jim Ruland has an interesting body of work. From his (punk) rock collaborative biographies about Keith Morris (My Damage), Evan Dando (Rumors of My Demise), and Bad Religion (Do What You Want) to his fiction novels Forest of Fortune and Make It Stop, his books are always interesting and well done. For his latest novel, Ruland went back to a specific time in his life: his time as a grad student in Flagstaff, Arizona. Mightier Than the Sword is the story of four English professors at dif

Welcome to Four Records! Each episode, we feature one guest as they discuss the four records that helped shape them at four different times in their life. This week, we have Molly Tie on the show. Molly is a UK-based writer who runs the website Punk Rock Philosophy. Recently, she released her book, Rebel Grrrls: The Story of Women and Punk, on Omnibus Press. You can purchase it here (UK)or (US). Molly has a couple of appearances before the end of the year: 11/14/2026 – Louder than W

In punk rock’s history, a lot of albums haven’t hit as hard as Rancid’s … And Out Come The Wolves. Its effects are still being felt today. A lot of bands took inspiration from Rancid’s ska punk sound, but filmmaker Danny Peykoff used the record as the basis of his directorial debut. The aptly titled …And Out Comes The Wolf. Z2 Comics has taken the reins on the official comic adaptation of the film. The story follows Willy, a young punk rocker and drug dealer, who is co

On, 1 October, 2026 Post-Punk Pioneers Public Image Ltd. (PiL) brought their “This Is Not…The Last PiL Tour” roadshow to a packed house at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC along with opener Plague Vendor.  My husband (…And We All Die) and I have seen PiL in Dublin and Montreal, so I was excited to see them again in DC, finally seeing them close to home.  It was our first time seeing Plague Vendor and they didn’t disappoint. The crowd began lining up some time before 2:00 pm eag

The Effigies have been flying the flag for Chicago punk rock since 1980. Their fuzzy, dissonant brand of rock n roll may not have gotten the same press and fame as some of their peers, but that’s no judgement on the quality of their work. They made a name for themselves early on, cutting their teeth alongside musical legends like X, The Plasmatics, PIL and Black Flag. Their DIY drive and sharp, dark and aggressive songwriting led them to every corner of the punk universe, leaving their mark on t

The noise-punk duo Lambrini Girls from Brighton, UK played their highly anticipated show at Chicago’s Vic Theatre on Tuesday, September 29th after rescheduling their original North American tour from April after vocalist and guitarist Phoebe Lunny suffered a neck fracture and acute brain injury. This comes just in time as the band recently announced their new album, No Refunds, is set to drop on January 15, 2027, via City Slang. Following their acclaimed 2025 debut Who Let The Dogs Out,

Photos by Mary SundeReview by Brian Nielsen Day one left me feeling every bit of my age. I woke up drained and devoid of spoons, lacking the will to leave the house. Inertia was my enemy; I was unsure I had the fuel to complete another day of the festival, let alone two. The fear of failure became somewhat self-fulfilling. I missed several bands because of task paralysis induced by anxiety that I would crap out and be unable to cover the end of the fest. A younger me would have had enough

Welcome to Cleaning Out The Inbox! This week, we have releases from Lady Susan, Doom Scroll, LeafGreen, and Pressure Wheel. Let’s dig in! Lady Susan – Teenage Revenge (self-released) Montreal-based alt-rockers Lady Susan released their debut six-song EP on 9/25/2026. The band self-produced the record and released a video for their latest single, “Romeo.” Check it out below: Keep an eye on their socials for any upcoming shows. Doom Scroll – Exhausted Dialog

Good news, comrades…Counterpunch are back! The Chicago punks have announced a brand new track…their first since their 2022 full-length, Rewire. The new track is called “Dig” and it’s a raw, fast-paced look at the world around us. Here’s what the band had to say about the track: “‘Dig’ is a blistering, fast-paced song that hits like a raw emotional outburst. Written as an emotional release in response to the troubling things we continue to ignore and/or t

Nate Powell is the epitome of a creative. On top of making comics as a teen since the early ’90s, Nate was also a part of the punk rock band Soophie Nun Squad from 1992 to 2007. Shows accented with costumes, puppets, and crowd participation were par for the course for the Little Rock, AR collective, taking his love for making art in different directions. After years of plugging away at comics, Powell’s projects grew in size; working with names like Cecil Castellucci and Jeff Lemire l

The Sex Pistols (Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Glen Matlock) featuring Frank Carter brought their “Anarchy in the U.K./ 50 Years of Punk” tour to a sold-out show at Washington, DC’s 9:30 Club on Tuesday, 29 September 2026. For support, they brought Essex, U.K.’s Bad Nerves as the opener. My husband (…And We All Die) is a huge Sex Pistols fan and some of their songs, particularly “Pretty Vacant” and “Bodies,” are regulars around the house. So, it was fun for both of us to experience seeing th

The indie scene in the UK exploded in the early 2000s; bands like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, and Bloc Party made their mark using some of the same DIY methods the punks had used before. Dubbed the era of “indie sleaze,” the bands and their peers tried to take the world by storm. Author Janine Warren helps tell their story in her book, The World Was a Mess, but His Hair Was Perfect: The Last Indie Music Scene. Following an introduction by Franz Ferdinand vocalist Alex Kapranos

It’s been great to see Social Distortion return since Mike Ness’s bout with tonsil cancer. The band’s notorious reputation for taking long breaks between records and tours left a lot of us with our tails between our legs after learning what Ness was dealing with. The results of that wait have been spectacular. Their latest record, Born to Kill, is their strongest in years, and this tour is nothing short of great. Mike Ness and crew have been on the road with the Descendents

Welcome to Four Records! Each episode, we feature one guest as they discuss the four records that helped shape them at four different times in their life. This week we are guestless as Forrest and Karina celebrate one year of the podcast. They talk about some of their favorite guests and moments from the first year. Keeping with the theme, they share an album and a single they are enjoying at the moment. Karina’s record – Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad for a girl so in

There is something special about an album like this being released in the fall. There’s a chill in the air and many of us start to spend more time at home after a busy summer, looking inwards and really feeling our feelings (for better or for worse). Well, enter Me and the Bells from Moonraker, there to remind us about what it’s like to live in this world. For fans of the Lawrence Arms, this one is for you. A west coast, so-cal dipped version of the melodic punk that I know and love. If yo

Photos by Mary SundeReview by Brian Nielsen One day in 2005 I went to see the Groodies at the Congress Theater. In and of itself that was nothing special for that time in my life, I had become pretty chummy with the band and regularly saw them once or twice a month. This show sticks out in my memory though, because it was a festival show and they were opening for the Misfits. Sure, the current incarnation of the Misfits at the time didn’t draw the attention and respect they reached in their p

Cabaret Voltaire was kind enough to select Washington, DC as one of the few North American cities on their Final USA + Canada Tour. Founding members of the England-based band Stephen Mallinder (vocals, bass, keyboards, and sampling) and Chris Watson (keyboards and tapes) reprised Cabaret Voltaire to celebrate the group’s 50th anniversary and say farewell to their fans across the pond. And, while Watson is only appearing on a few, select European dates, Mallinder assembled a team to celebrate the