Pop punk is great and there's NO SHAME in admitting it

[Kankurette]

I will always associate Weezer with my top coming down at Leeds 2002 and my tits being on full display when I was near the front. It wasn't the worst experience I had at that festival but by Christ it was embarrassing. Decent enough band though. Surprisingly vicious pit, likewise Jimmy Eat World.

Ash are hit and miss. They went through a period where they were pretty dull, around the time Shining Light came out. Jesus Says reminds me of the theme from Pugwall for some reason. A Belfast friend hates them because they were EVERYWHERE in the '90s and supported pretty much any band who ever came there (and possibly Therapy?)

[poloniusmonk]

The Ergs! are a band I discovered recently whose 2004 debut album "dorkrockcorkrod" is bloody brilliant, teeming with daft energy, great sense of humour, ridiculously catchy tunes. It's 30 mins long and you can listen to it in full here. I've rinsed it out so many times I know the whole thing pretty much by heart now.

YES! The Ergs! were amazing, and I did the same thing with that album a while back. So stupidly catchy.

[sutin]

Ash 1994-1997 (up to and including A Life Less Ordinary), they were one of the greatest bands ever. 1977 and all the single b sides, just brilliant stuff. Everything, and I mean everything, after that can get in the bin. They were never the same band again.

[The Mollusk]

YES! The Ergs! were amazing, and I did the same thing with that album a while back. So stupidly catchy.

Ah glad to find another fan! That album is seriously brilliant, honestly anyone here who digs the "classics" would do well to check it out. Every comment section on Last.fm and YouTube also hypes it up as the best pop punk stuff they've ever heard, and for good reason.

[idunnosomename]

i like fall out boy

bolt pistol mate

that said i like all the bands in the op. The Offspring did some good stuff imo too, even if they blew up too much for their own good. i also remember liking The Living End.

[Jockice]

Ash 1994-1997 (up to and including A Life Less Ordinary), they were one of the greatest bands ever. 1977 and all the single b sides, just brilliant stuff. Everything, and I mean everything, after that can get in the bin. They were never the same band again.

I thought Burn Baby Burn was the best single by anyone in the year it came out.

[Satchmo Distel]

The Go-Gos

[BeardFaceMan]

bolt pistol mate

that said i like all the bands in the op. The Offspring did some good stuff imo too, even if they blew up too much for their own good. i also remember liking The Living End.

The Offspring singer has a real Marmite voice, sometimes I think it's great, other times it's actually unlistenable. If I listen to a whole album I'll probably go back and forth half a dozen times like that.

I think playing the Tony Hawk games is what got me into this kind of stuff, that was the first time I can remember playing a video game and wanting to find out who the bands were so I could go listen to some more of them.

[The Mollusk]

The Offspring did some good stuff imo too, even if they blew up too much for their own good.

They're a tricky one for me. I grew up listening to "Smash" religiously but as with most music I never paid enough attention to the lyrics. I only really focused on it a few years ago and realised just how lame and conservative their messages are.

Walla Walla: If you do crime, you'll go to jail, so wise up loser!

What in the World Happened to You?: You're a heroin addict? You're pathetic and here's a jaunty ska song where I'm going to deride you for your crippling problem!

Self-Esteem: Check out this guy who's a total simp, he needs to grow some balls!

She's Got Issues: Speaks for itself.

Why Don't You Get a Job?: Speaks for itself.

I can turn a bling eye to one or maybe two drippy or dodgy messages like that in a band's history but with The Offspring there's really quite a lot of it and I can't take them seriously enough to enjoy it any more.

[buttgammon]

The Offspring had contradictions between songs too. Why is it that in Self-Esteem your man is moaning about how badly his girlfriend treats him while in Want You Bad, he's having a go at her for being too nice and begging her to dominate ('mistreat') him?

I still really like pop-punk and thinking about it, this was the soundtrack to much of my youth. My missus got me the remastered Tony Hawk game for Christmas and it spurred us on to make a nostalgic playlist, which is 90% pop-punk and ska-punk from the 90s up to the mid-2000s.

[Smeraldina Rima]

I still really like pop-punk and thinking about it, this was the soundtrack to much of my youth. My missus got me the remastered Tony Hawk game for Christmas and it spurred us on to make a nostalgic playlist, which is 90% pop-punk and ska-punk from the 90s up to the mid-2000s.

What was on your playlist?

[The Mollusk]

The depiction of the person in "Want You Bad" is amusingly tame as well. Dexter mate, if pop punk hasn't taught you that being overtly crass is a big selling point of the genre (Green Day's "Dominated Love Slave", NOFX's "Louise"), what have you been doing all these years?!

They strike me as the type of industry plant "how do you do, fellow teens?" band with a lot of this stuff. I certainly don't doubt that signing to Columbia after "Smash" played a big part in how watered down their already-kinda-lame lyrical content ended up.

[buttgammon]

What was on your playlist?

Green Day, Blink 182, Rancid (probably the three most represented bands), Sum 41, The Offspring, New Found Glory, Alkaline Trio, Yellowcard, Lagwagon, Mad Caddies, Sugarcult, Less Than Jake, Edna's Goldfish, Reel Big Fish, Millencolin, Pennywise, The Distillers, Jimmy Eat World...just typing this list is turning me into a pre-teen again.

[jonbob]

The greatest live show and I always thought of them as pop punk band, but I might be wrong
https://youtu.be/JEv91wD9844

[Kankurette]

Ash 1994-1997 (up to and including A Life Less Ordinary), they were one of the greatest bands ever. 1977 and all the single b sides, just brilliant stuff. Everything, and I mean everything, after that can get in the bin. They were never the same band again.

They did get a bit better after Charlotte left but yes, let's face it, everyone just wants to hear Girl From Mars, Jack Names The Planets etc.

There's one pop punk song I adore called Swing Swing by the All American Rejects, who were drafted in on the Main Stage at Reading in 2005 after one band dropped out (Sugarcult?) It was one of those songs that was a staple in Room 4 in Jilly's Rockworld in the noughties, along with The Taste of Ink by The Used.

[sutin]

I thought Burn Baby Burn was the best single by anyone in the year it came out.

Nah.

[peanutbutter]

They're a tricky one for me. I grew up listening to "Smash" religiously but as with most music I never paid enough attention to the lyrics. I only really focused on it a few years ago and realised just how lame and conservative their messages are.

The lyrics are doubly cringe when you realise Dexter was like 28 when it came out. Self Esteem's lyrics would be fine from like... a 17 year old or a Daniel Johnston-esque mentally ill person.

[The Mollusk]

Imagine being 28 ad using the word "dweeb" with no irony.

[cosmic-hearse]

Imagine being 60 year's old & calling yourself 'Noodles'

[Smeraldina Rima]

Ta, I was wondering more about the songs but that's too much of an extra burden to put on you now so please don't. Think I can probably guess the hits from there.

One thing that I liked about growing up with this music was hearing a lot of songs for the first time from bands my friends were in playing cover versions: 'Alien' by Pennywise and 'Teenage Riot' by The Ataris I sort of think of as my mates' songs. Another friend who wasn't in any bands and was always bmxing was into gothic punk bands like The Misfits and AFI. He took me to Birmingham to see The Damned around the time of "Grave Disorder" and they still played classic stuff like "New Rose". I liked the Misfits a lot, who you could call pop punk although it's obviously a bit different.

With ska punk, which is the number 1 comedy music - and I regret not realising Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish were touring in the UK together a few years ago - you could still be pretty cool if you listened to Capdown, Leftover Crack and Operation Ivy.

One time I remember going into Fopp and a guy I knew from another band was working there. I went to the counter with The Bay City Rollers because I thought they were the same thing as The Undertones and the look he gave me as he put it through was very disappointed. He said, "Bay City Rollers?" And I said: "Yeah, man", doubt creeping in.

[kngen]

Isn't The Dickies Banana Splits 7 on black vinyl supposed to be much rarer to find than the yellow disc?

Nah, there were thousands of each pressed. It's the weird see-through yellowy-green press that's really hard to find and goes for a fair bit of money. Probably even harder to find than their Nights in White Satin 7in with the KKK sleeve.

[kngen]

They strike me as the type of industry plant "how do you do, fellow teens?" band with a lot of this stuff. I certainly don't doubt that signing to Columbia after "Smash" played a big part in how watered down their already-kinda-lame lyrical content ended up.

Their first LP was about as good an approximation of all the Cali HC that had gone before them as you are likely to hear (to the point that, were Agent Orange or CH3 of the mind to sue them for royalties, it would take some pretty good legal gymnastics to get them out of that mess). Doesn't make them any less calculating though, so I shouldn't have been that surprised how craven they would become (even if I was at the time).

[BeardFaceMan]

It's still pretty incredible that 'Smash' sold as many copies as it did, sounding like it did and not being on a major label, so fair fucks to them for that. Can't say that I paid much attention to them after 'Ixnay on the Hombre' though, I just had a look to see what they're up to and they released a new album a few months ago.

[The Mollusk]

Musically I still think "Smash" is fucking ace, I love how much it sounds influenced by early Metallica.

[idunnosomename]

I mean Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) is basically a novelty song, I mean not terrible, but still, not something I like, would want to actually listen to. But The Kids Aren't Alright is such a perfect pop-punk-rock song. it's basically an Iron Maiden riff with a tasteful lead and solo. in just over three minutes.

oh I'm also thinking of Crazy Taxi where you get them too. although the best song in that is Ten in 2010.

[buttgammon]

I mean Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) is basically a novelty song, I mean not terrible, but still, not something I like, would want to actually listen to. But The Kids Aren't Alright is such a perfect pop-punk-rock song. it's basically an Iron Maiden riff with a tasteful lead and solo. in just over three minutes.

Yes, it's stood up better than a lot of their stuff has. I still enjoy The Offspring, but that song is a particular standout.

[non capisco]

That Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da ripoff The Offspring did moaning at kids not getting off their bikes and finding themselves a bleedin job is one of the most wretched records I've ever heard in my life. This is a better pop punk record than that.

[Avril Lavigne]

The Kids Aren't Alright is such a perfect pop-punk-rock song.

Yes, it's stood up better than a lot of their stuff has. I still enjoy The Offspring, but that song is a particular standout.

Same chord progression as Complicated just FYI

[peanutbutter]

I just had a look to see what they're up to and they released a new album a few months ago.

Most notable thing they done in recent years is be one of the first acts to sell what they owned of their catalogue off in that recent wave of sales. I remember it sounding like a really weird thing to do when they done it, been a fuckton of those sales since.

[Kankurette]

That Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da ripoff The Offspring did moaning at kids not getting off their bikes and finding themselves a bleedin job is one of the most wretched records I've ever heard in my life. This is a better pop punk record than that.

At least Blink-182 are funny sometimes. Like the masterpiece that is Fuck a Dog.

If The Offspring HAD to rip off a Beatles song, why did they choose one of the worst ones ever?