Could Punk Really Be Dead?

They say that Punk Rock isn't dead, just sleeping.

Well if that is true, then it had better wake the hell up, because I don't think I could take any more of the dross that is being shown on the television I am watching. As I sit here and type, I am watching Kerrang's 'Top 50 Vein Pumpin' Punk Anthems!'. It started off ok. Bit of Green Day, a dash of The Offspring and, thankfully, a pinch of Alkaline Trio was even thrown in, playing 'Stupid Kid' from thier third full-length studio album 'From Here To Infirmary.' But then they started playing songs that didn't even SOUND Punk! Every member of some of the so called 'Punk' bands had fringes down to thier vaginas! Elliot Minor? Forever The Sicket Kids? Boys & Girls? The current artist playing, Cobra Starship, sounds like some Capital. FM bullshit!

I like a bit of new blood in the Punk Rock scene. For example, Broadway Calls are a band I would sincerely suggest. Their single 'Back to Oregon' is sligtly reminiscent of the good old 90's Chicago based Punk bands such as The Lawrence Arms and, again chucking in my biased fanatic fandom, Alklaine Trio.

However, these bands aren't Punk Rock. Well, not in my opinion anyway. Any band whose every member consists of a fringe swept over one eye or the other and wearing inches thick of make up don't scream fans of bands such as Bad Religion or The Casualties.

The only time I would excuse such hairstyles and make up in a Punk Rock labelled band would be in bands such as Aiden or AFI (the latter of whom I myself am not a personal fan of), whose influences at least came from bands like The Misfits and The Damned and other such horror-punk bands.

When I saw this 'Top 50 Vein Pumpin' Punk Anthems!', I obviously set my standards up too high. I may have got one Alkaline Trio song, but is it too much to ask for a couple songs from Against Me!? Hot Water Music? The Gaslight Anthem? Anti-Flag? Rancid? NOFX? Heck even some old skool stuff would be great. The Damned, The Misfits, The Ramones, maybe even The Sex Pistols. Is that too much to ask for, from a Punk Rock fan, to actually have a programme stick to it's title and deliver?

If bands like Elliot Minor are beginning to be called Punk Rock, then I will truly start to lose all hope of ever being in a band myself, because I'd need to color my hair about a thousand times, wear fourty inches of foundation and wear shirts and jeans that are too small and so skinny they may as well be skin! Don't get me wrong, I have a pair of skinny black jeans. I occasionlly don the black nail varnish and eye-liner. But some of these guys are practically Drag Queens!

Must dash. But I will leave you with this song, that explains what I feel has happened to Punk Rock, and what Punk Rock should be!