Punk / Oi! / Hardcore...

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Skunks wrote:Busting out of Austin’s country and blues mold in the late ’70s, The Skunks were Austin’s first genuine punk band, playing everything so fast and loud that it cut through the city’s “cosmic cowboy” crap like a rusty straight razor. Led by Jesse Sublett and Eddie Muñoz (also of The Plimsouls), later replaced by acclaimed singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham, The Skunks regularly opened for the likes of Elvis Costello and The Police before splintering in 1983, leaving behind a legacy that can still be heard in every slash-and-burn Austin group since.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Ex wrote:The Ex is anadventurous, innovative band from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. They formed in 1979 at the height of the original punk explosion and have released over twenty full-length albums since, making them one of the longest-lived and most influential underground bands (along with The Fall) still in existence. The Ex just celebrated its 33⅓ year anniversary with a series of festivals. Not merely retrospective but primarily forward-looking and adventurous.

The Ex have defied categorization ever since they started playing in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have still managed to retain both curiosity and passion for their music. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as ther starting point The Ex have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day: the early 1980s saw collaborations with jazz musicians and an Iraqi-Kurdish band. In the 90s the group found a myriad of partners from varied musical and non-musical backgrounds including Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder, Shellac and Wolter Wierbos. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia, which eventually led to two CD recordings and hundreds of concerts with the legendary saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria.

After 33⅓ years, more than 25 albums and around 1800 performances the band continues to work as they did in when they began, completely independent of record companies, managers or roadies.

http://www.last.fm/music/Dead+Boys wrote:The Dead Boys were an American punk rock band that formed in Cleveland, Ohio around 1975. They evolved out of the band Rocket From The Tombs (whose remaining members eventually became the avant-garde band Pere Ubu).

Moving to New York City in 1976, they quickly gained notoriety for their outrageous live performances – lewd gestures and profanity was the norm, and on more than one occasion, lead singer Stiv Bators slashed his stomach with his mic stand. They frequently played at the legendary rock club CBGBs and in 1977 they released their debut album, Young, Loud and Snotty, produced by Genya Ravan. Their song “Sonic Reducer” is often regarded as one of the classics of the punk genre, with the All Music Guide calling it “one of punk’s great anthems.”

Sire Records pressured the group to change their look and sound to appeal more to the US mainstream (which had yet to embrace punk on the level seen in the UK) and this contributed to Dead Boys breaking up in 1979. A few months after the breakup the band had to reunite to record a live album and thus fulfill their contractual obligations. To exact revenge on the label, Bators purposely sang off mic and the resulting recording was unusable. When the material eventually surfaced on Bomp! Records, Bators had re-recorded the vocals in a studio.

Bators later formed Lords of the New Church with Brian James from The Damned and Dave Tregunna from Sham 69.

The band reformed for several gigs in the 1980’s. They released Younger, Louder and Snottier in 1989, which included demos and rough mixes of their debut album.

In 1990, Bators died in France due to injuries sustained in a car accident.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/minor_threat wrote:A sadly short-lived band, though one which had a huge emphasis on emotion. While you couldn't often understand a word of what Ian MacKaye was screaming, it didn't matter - he and the boys were obviously pissed. Minor Threat were what it would sound like if a few angry guys with no direction and a lot of alienation were let loose in a studio."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_(band) wrote:Cigar was an American punk rock band from Eugene, Oregon, and, later, San Diego, California. Cigar was formed in 1996, discovered by Fletcher Dragge of the band Pennywise and signed to Theologian Records in 1997. Its first album, Speed is Relative, was released in 1999 and produced by Fletcher Dragge.[1][2] The band also appeared on several punk compilations and surf and skate videos (including Toy Machine's "Jump off a Building" during Chris Senn's part[3]).

http://www.last.fm/music/7SECONDS wrote:7Seconds is a classic hardcore punk band from Reno, Nevada. Formed in 1980 by brothers Kevin Seconds and Steve Youth and playing their first show on March 2, 1980. 7Seconds is well known for bringing positive ideals into hardcore punk. They helped form the straight edge youth crew movement in the ’80s hardcore scene. They have released numerous albums since 1981, including Skins, Brains, and Guts; The Crew; Old School; Walk Together, Rock Together; New Wind; Good To Go; and the recently released Take It Back, Take It On, Take It Over!. In the late 1980’s, the band began to grow musically as they explored other sounds. Critics of this switch to more complex and slower music often compared the band to U2. Albums from this period include the Praise EP, Ourselves, and Soulforce Revolution. However, the band has since returned to their hardcore punk roots where they can claim more of a following. They also appeared on the 1985 hardcore compilation Cleanse the Bacteria.