riot grrrl

With their sophomore album, Back Home, Big Joanie are honoring the deep roots of their ancestors. In this interview, the punk trio detail its creation.

Punk, in all mediums, is armor for change. Women dressed in chains, leather and fishnets, as well as shaved heads, transformed into people who demanded to be heard.

This is Tour Guide, a weekly recap of the concert news fans don’t want to miss. From Paramore to Bikini Kill, check out who’s coming to a city near you.

In 1991, Anita Hill testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about being the target of sexual harassment from African-American judge Clarence Thomas at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. The hearings were televised, and Hill’s lurid testimony sent bolts of shock and disgust across an America yet to become completely tabloidized. When this all-white, all-male committee […]

WARGASM are taking a break from recording one of 2022’s most eagerly anticipated debut albums. When Alternative Press checks in with them, they’re at Chapel Studios in Lincoln, in the east of their native England — or, more specifically, sat on the sofa, where Sam Matlock is eating toast, and Milkie Way, fittingly given her […]

Misfits are the very model of an influential punk band. Which was most likely not Glenn Danzig’s goal when he formed them in 1977 in his native Lodi, New Jersey, naming them for Marilyn Monroe’s final film from 1961. After initially being driven by Danzig’s distorted electric piano, Misfits became known for sludgy power chords […]

You could argue that blink-182 are one of the major reasons why pop punk exploded into the mainstream in the 2000s. Following Green Day’s release of Dookie in ‘94 and Weezer’s nerd-positive brand of rock, blink were the reason a lot of kids wanted to pick up guitars. It was through TRL hits such as […]

Every month, Alternative Press is sharing some of our favorite new releases. From rap to riot grrrl, this month’s AP&R list spans across different genres, bringing you a unique list of rising artists. Check out these budding artists who will soon become your new favorite below. Read more: AP&R: BLACKSTARKIDS and other rising artists to check […]

As long as there’s been a punk scene, its denizens have argued as to which city invented it — New York or London? Truth be told, it was neither because history’s first proper punk band was the Stooges from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Which would make Detroit punk’s proper birthplace. But if much of the sound […]

The ‘90s was the moment when the experiments wrestled control of the laboratory away from the scientists. Suddenly, punk rock — the ragged step-sibling of rock and pop — was squarely in the mainstream of culture, after years of ruling the underground. It spawned alternative music and the latter’s most successful subthread, grunge. Grunge was […]

One of punk rock’s original goals was “the destruction of rock ‘n’ roll.” While that didn’t happen, most early punk musicians were rock fans, in spite of their espoused rhetoric. Hence why most early pogo soundtracks were basically Chuck Berry with a Marshall amp. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But this is hardly […]

At this point, you could practically write a textbook on the art of creating a pop-punk song. Ever since people discovered Green Day’s Dookie and the masses fell in love with “All The Small Things” on MTV, the genre has blossomed. Pop punk’s big break didn’t mean the genre got locked into a formula, either. […]

There are a lot of people out there who know what punk rock is but have no idea how to explain it to a novice or an outsider. It would seem simple enough to define it as “three-chord teenage rebel music,” but what about all those songs that have four or more chords? Or all […]

Riot grrrl band the Linda Lindas have shared a new single inspired by vocalist/guitarist Bela’s cat, Nino. Featured on their 2020 debut EP was a track about Bela’s siamese cat Monica, and the group say Nino got jealous and wanted his own song. Read more: “Redefining Feminism in Punk: Los Angeles” celebrates women in music […]

Top 15 punk albums of 1998? You’d be forgiven for thinking that there weren’t any in the year the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated the news. A quick perusal of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles of the year sees domination by several R&B (Destiny’s Child, Janet Jackson, Usher, Mariah Carey) or hip-hop (Puff Daddy, Master P, […]

Welcome to Alternative Press’ 10 best punk vocalists of the ‘00s. When we counted down that decade’s finest punk guitarists, we noted that the beginning of the new century was a turning point. The ‘90s began with Nirvana breaking down the door for punk-influenced alternative acts to become the mainstream music of the decade, peaked […]

It’s time for another AltPress Weekly. Each week, we highlight the things we want you to check out. We keep you in the loop about everything going on over at Alternative Press, along with all the music news that has us captivated. Of course, we also shout out the freshest music finds, from rarities and […]

1997: All media is declaring the alternative–rock explosion—for which Nirvana lit the fuse—over. This means the commercial pop-punk wave Green Day touched off was over in their eyes, too. That selfsame media could not have been more wrong. Green Day had just issued their fifth album, Nimrod. The Offspring, the band who made the catchphrase […]

Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn are the yin and yang to one another—and it has absolutely nothing to do with their coincidentally dark and light hair colors. The twins credit a creative “synergy” while working in tandem and have forged their own musical journey reminiscent of their influences, but with a more confident and optimistic perspective […]

The ‘90s: the decade punk went mainstream. First, SoundScan made radio safe for Nirvana and the grunge-ified hordes. Then Green Day and other pop-punk acts moved in and squatted at the top of the Billboard charts. True, it seemed to be finished two years later, only to be reinvigorated at the turn of the century. […]